Training and Celebrating Holidays in Brazil

This week brought the closing out of March and almost the 4th month of being here in Rio. As always the training was great and the week brought lots of fun new experiences. After spending the day on the beach thinking about the past week, I am again reminded of how blessed I am to be down here with Nicole living out our dreams. 

Some of the guys after boxing training.

Week in Training

On Monday morning we started off with wrestling. We worked takedowns off defending leg kicks from various ranges and set ups. One guy would throw a combo ending in a leg kick and the other guy would step in to close the distance and work to the takedown. We then worked re-shot, first stopping our opponents attack and then countering with our own attack. During live wrestling I felt good but I realized where I need to work. My counter offense is good but I need to work on my initial attacks and chain wrestling off of my offense.

Tuesday morning was boxing. After warming up and shadow boxing, we did various boxing style foot work drills to help us flow and create angles with our attacks. I then hit mitts with Jean Pierre, who stresses quickly stepping in, firing off your shots, getting out, and changing angles. While there is a bit of a language barrier I can understand the concepts and tips he is trying to give (it just might take him repeating a time or two). In the afternoon was luta livre training. The techniques were great as always but it was the rolling that really stands out in my mind. It was intense and fast paced, and I felt great. I was constantly on the offensive and working hard to scramble. This isn’t to say I didn’t get my ass handed to me by the Nogueira’s. It is a truly humbling feeling rolling hard and great (I really feel like I made a jump in my game) but still get it handed to you repeatedly. It can be frustrating, but I can tell I am making improvements. Instead of reacting I am forcing guys to react to me and building my game. After training I went down for the beach and took a nice long run. I am not the biggest fan of running but there is something about being able to run along the ocean, the sand under your feet, the waves crashing in right along side you that is calming even if your are running.

On Wednesday was sparring. Some of the guys with fights in the next few weeks performed hard sparring rounds, while others did a more technical sparring session, throwing combos into shots with the other guys used head movement and positioning to defend. The high caliber of fighters in this training camp created some great sparring rounds, it was like watching Bellator or UFC level action right in front of you. The techniques and fighting spirit put on display were awe inspiring.

Thursday morning's wrestling training was fast paced and drill filled. Since a lot of the fighters have a basic understanding and good technique with wrestling it allows for more intense drilling and positional work. We drilled heavily on go behinds, stand ups, and res-shooting off of escapes. We then drilled various slips and counters into attacks. The live portion of class was filled with various positional sparring as well as live goes for takedowns. As I have said all these guys have been around the fight game a long time and it has made them crafty. Multiple times they would try to hit a move, that I would rarely see outside of a good wrestling room. This is what I love because not only is it making their games better but it is forcing me to improve and have more mat awareness. It feels great being pushed and I honestly feel like I am making a jump in my game. Thursday night I threw on the gi and trained at ATT. It was the first time in about a month that I trained in the kimono, and while it felt weird at first, it also felt good and slow down the pace and work on solid technique. Reyzinho showed some nice chokes from side control, which I am excited to add to my game. Two of the guys who train at ATT are the Manager of 399 (Thiago) and manager/owner? of Alves (Ricardo). Both are great guys and when you go out for a drink or some food its great to see friends and training partners. Even if we are only walking buy both guys are quick to wave and shout out a hello.

Ricardo, Myself, Thiago, and Reyzinho in front after training in the gi.

Friday morning striking class went great. We had a group of fighters come in to train. The guys can from a striking background and their movement and positioning showed. We covered various combinations, most of the combos coming off of catching or parrying the jab. The format of positional sparring, where one guy throws a combo and the other guy is reacting does a great job at making a person get used to blocking and catching punches, without having to worry about getting your head knocked off. I feel like in the last couple of weeks of striking that I am getting back to where I was technically as a boxer and that I will only continue to progress as time goes on. The training was the last one for the weekend to allow people to spend the holiday with their families. It was nice to have a long weekend but I am looking forward to Monday when training starts up again.

Emiliano (from Uruguay) and I after a hard Luta Livre session

Holidays in Brazil 

The adjustment of moving to (or staying for an extended period of time) can, at times, be difficult. Overall getting used to Brazil and adjusting to the lifestyle has been a fairly easy transition. The times that it can be difficult is around the holidays. I come from a very large family that celebrates any (and all) holidays, so living so far away can make a person feel a bit homesick. One thing that has proven nice is every person in the CR houses is in the same boat as you. So as the holidays come, the people in the houses come together as well. Typically this happens in the form of lighting up some coals and barbequing in the CRHQ garden. On the day of a BBQ (or the day before if the store will be closed) everyone heads to the local Mundial (large grocery) and picks up supplies. Everyone chips in, so the food itself is communal, with everyone who grills cooking their ‘specialty’. Having so many people from all over the world brings great culinary diversity into the house. This weekend there was grilled flank steak, pork tenderloin, a mint basil chicken, balsamic veggie salad, thinly sliced juicy steak, and Hawaiian pineapple burgers. Add to this tons of dipping sauces, and lots of beverages and you have yourself a great holiday feast. So while I was not home with family this past Christmas, or for this weekends Easter celebrations, I was here in Brazil celebrating with a very different ‘family’, but one that still made me feel at home.

Training With Brazil's National Freestyle Wrestling Team, New MMA Camp, and Exploring Santa Teresa

Looking out over Rio from the top of the Parque Das Ruinas.

The week has flown by. As I sit here typing, I am amazed at all the opportunities that come up here in Rio. My knee is finally back to 100% so I was able to dive head first into hard training. I also was able see some parts of Rio that I hadn’t seen yet.

Training

After Saturday Morning Sparring Session.

This week marked the start of a new MMA training camp. While the last camp had a lot of younger fighters prepping, this one is full of seasoned, battle tested veterans of MMA and BJJ. From the end of April to early May several fighters including Pequeno Nogueira, his brother Leozada, Edson Diniz, and Reyzihno Duarte have fights lined up throughout Brazil and South America. Needless to say, training will be intense in the coming weeks. The location of the training camp has also changed. The camp is being run at the newly formed American Top Team Barra Da Tijuca, run by Reyzihno. It is located about 30 seconds away from the CR flat. The training area is great; plenty of mat space and the whole area is surrounded by a cage. In addition to the members of the training camp, a lot of guys from ATT who recently moved back to Brazil are coming in to train during sparring and no-gi classes at night.

Monday morning was wrestling where we ran through some snap down attacks from the clinch as well as punch combinations to leg attacks. On Monday afternoon I went down to the beach to do a workout consisting of pushups, pull ups, and plyometrics. I happened to have my phone on me and about 5 minutes into the workout I get at call from Antoine Jaoude. Antoine is very good wrestler, having represented Brazil in the Olympics and other distinguished tournaments such as the Pan Ams. I had met Antoine through Dennis, and we have been communicating back and forth for some time. Anyways, Antoine called to say he was on his way to the new FILA training center and wondered if I wanted to come along to train with him and his friend. Of course I jumped at the chance, I quickly ran back to the apartment, grabbed my wrestling gear, and got picked up by Antoine. Since Rio is hosting the 2016 Summer Games, they have performed an overhaul on their Olympic training. One of the major changes in the training platform is a working relationship with the Brazilian Military. Olympic hopefuls as well as national team members in varying sports can now receive a military commission and train for large international events nearly full time. The addition of these international competitors to the Military force also raises the level of sports training within all the branches of the armed services. This has led to the creation of the Military Olympics here in Brazil which helps build a following for the Olympic sports. Actions such as these help to build sports, athletes, and the military simultaneously. The FILA wrestling center is located on a large naval base near GIG Airport. The base also houses other Olympic sports athletic teams such as boxing and weightlifting. Only an hour before I was on the beach working out, and then there I was heading into a Brazilian military base getting ready to workout with the national team as they begin their training for the Pan Ams.  CRAZY. We made our way into the gymnasium; the newly donated mats by FILA which were designed to look like the Brazilian flag, where filled with members of both the men’s and women’s national freestyle teams. Overseeing the training were former coaches of Bulgarian and Cuban National teams, as well as renowned Brazilian wrestler Daniel “Pirata” (whom is Jose Aldo’s wrestling coach). The Team was already fast at work and we quickly changed and got warmed up. The Bulgarian Coach was a small in stature but  was incredible on the mat. He was a former Olympic and World champion and has coached the Bulgarian National Team as well as the French Olympic Team. He worked closely with four of us, going over the intricate details of throws, counters and set-ups to attacks. One of the set-ups was a counter off of an elbow post (one of the most used set-ups in college wrestling); it was a simple technique but one I had never seen before. I mean it was something so simple that I couldn’t believe I had never seen it, my mind was blown. The whole training experience was great, but it was that one move that I am still sitting here, six days later, happy that I learned.

Tuesday morning was striking class with boxing coach Jean Pierre Abreu. To start Benkei ran everyone through footwork drills and core work. Then Jean Pierre held mitts and had us work combos against each other. Jean Pierre has more a Cuban Style of boxing. Instead of a lot of lateral movement, the Cuban style seems to be a quick dart in then jump back out. It’s a different style then I am used to, but it brings good elements to add to my game. The biggest thing I have to work on with my striking is using/gauging my distance and remembering to stay relaxed. On Wednesday I got some great cardio and footwork drills in. Thursday was wrestling where we again used various striking and slips into takedown. This time we added more chain movement into finishing the takedown. We then did situation wrestling from various positions such as slipping the jab to work for takedowns. On Friday’s striking class I felt a bit better with my movement and distance, feeling a lot lighter on my feet. Friday afternoon was a great Luta Livre session. We drilled several foot-lock escapes, which are always good to know. BJJ isn’t huge into the leg lock game but in L.L. and MMA its far more common, at first foot locks were really foreign to me but the more I drill them, the more I am getting comfortable with hitting them and working hard for escapes. Just another tool for the toolbox. When it came to the live rolling I felt good and was actively going for new attacks that I had recently learned. It’s sometimes hard to be able to internalize moves when over the course of  hard training because you are simply exposed to so many techniques, so it was great to feel the positions, realize the attacks, and go for them.

Saturday morning brought sparring. We each had three five minute rounds of sparring. In some cases grappling and ground and pound were allowed but what Benkei really wanted us to work on was working angles and transitioning from strikes to takedowns. Sparring was intense, but not ill willed. While hard shots were thrown nobody was trying to knock the other guys block off. Sparring this way allows for people to get better and not just get shell shocked from having bombs thrown on them. Overall, I felt I sparred well but the good thing was that it allowed Benkei and I to see areas where I need to focus and hone in on.

Santa Teresa

Nicole and I at the Selaron Steps.

Saturday afternoon Nicole and I headed into Santa Teresa, a small part of Rio known for being more ‘Bohemian’. The trip there was relatively quick and easy, taking a bus and the metro to get close. Santa Teresa is located high up on a hill overlooking the Bay and most all of Rio. To get up to it we walked up the Selaron Steps in Lapa. The steps are a giant display of art work made from tiling from all corners of the world (we even found a tile from a local place back home). The steps were amazing to see, the colors and designs jump out at you in comparison to the buildings close by. In S.T. we checked out the Parque Das Ruinas a old derelict colonial mansion that has been preserved for people to walk through.  Santa Teresa is filled with small art shops where you can watch artists paint, and lots of small restaurants and botequims (small little bars with plenty of cheap snacks). We made out way to Bar Do Gomez, one of the oldest botequims in the area and had some of there famous snacks including Bolinhos de Bacalhau (salted cod fish balls). They were delicious. The area of Santa Teresa has a very relaxed atmosphere, which felt very much like back home. We had an awesome time and we plan on making fairly regular trips back into the area to enjoy what it has to offer.

Intense Training at Renovação Fight Team

The CR Crew with the RFT Team in Botafogo. Photo by bjjpix.com

Rio de Janeiro is a place of great beauty, wonder, and excitement. On a personal level Nicole and I have been planning and making excursions around Barra and throughout Rio. Last Sunday we went down to a small private beach not far from the CR houses called Joatinga. The beach is surrounded by cliffs and as the tide comes in the sandy beach is virtually engulfed by the ocean. Nicole and I went in the late afternoon and took some small snack items and watched the the large waves thunder against the cliff side as the sunset. It’s the small moments like these that really makes us realize that Rio is a paradise.  This weekend we are headed into the more Bohemian part of town, Santa Teresa, and we are looking forward to seeing what this little piece of Rio has to offer.


Week in Training

Photo by bjjpix.com

The pace of training for me was a bit slower than normal this week, my knee was still bothering me so my primary focus was on technique work. This week marketed the end of the six week MMA camp for the Brazilian Fighters, who’s overall games have jump up considerably. It will be interesting to see where some of these guys end up in the future, there is some real talent in that group. On Mondays wrestling session we covered  leg attacks off of offensive strikes, as well as attacking for the takedown as a counter to an opponents strikes.The primary focus on using punches and slips to close the distance and create an angle of attack. I did wrestle one round live with Pequeno and then decided against any further live goes. On Tuesdays Luta Livre session Pequeno went over back attacks to the arm triangle. The one I really took away from the class was a roll off of the claw ride when your opponent is turtled up. In recent years the claw ride has been extremely popular in American Folkstyle Wrestling. The position is really familiar and comfortable for me so to learn a great choke from it was awesome. I again opted to err on the side of caution with my knee and didn’t live roll. I knew I was going to need my knee feeling good for the next day.

Working for the takedown against Bellator Fighter Sergio Junior. Photo by bjjpix.com

Renovação Fight Team

Wednesday morning was the weekly CR academy visit. This weeks visit was at famed Luta Livre school Renovação Fight Team (RFT) in Botafogo. Over the years RFT has turned out many great grapplers and MMA fighters. The building has that old school gym feeling where you just know hard work is being put in. The training area is all business with hard matting and heavy bags lined up against the wall. Soon the mat was filled with people doing there own pre-training warm ups, rolls, stretches, light bag work, etc. The official warm up consisted of jogging, and various movement (high knees, skips, etc) one of the warm up exercises was sprawls down the length of the mat. On the second round sprawling down the mats Mike, the new CR sponsored athlete sprawled just as I was and I caught his heel right under my eye splitting me open. While not deep it immediately swelled and started pouring out blood. When I went to get it cleaned up the head instructor gave me a look of ‘seriously? During the warm up?’. I put Vaseline on it and went back to training. The warm up ended with several rounds of one guy shooting a double, and the other catching, sprawling and hitting a choke. The technique that where shown was an ankle lock off of a guard pass, and an arm lock from bottom. The biggest thing that jumped out at me was just how long the moves where drilled. Each guy spent at least 10 minutes hitting the technique over and over before switching positions for the other guy to work. During the entire technique period several coaches were walking around making little adjustments to ensure the technique was being hit properly. The high reps plus the close eye of coaches is what brings RFT fighters levels to such a high game. After the technique we got to the sparring portion of class. The instructor explained there would be eight, six minute rounds, and because of the high number of people in class people would have to rotate in. I start to roll, one of the first things I notice is that these guys are good at hand fighting. Sometimes with guys they are more relaxed and have a tendency to ‘hang’ on their ties, but not at RFT. Movements were quick and explosive, openings hard to come by. I hit a slide by on the guy and he quickly readjusted but when he did he his weight was forward and I was able to hit in a front headlock. I quickly extended him locked up a grip that Pequeno had shown and  rolled into a choke. I wasn’t able to finish a scramble happened and he managed to work his way behind me, instead of sitting in turtle I exploded up hit a switch and took him down. Time ran out. Then I noticed something, A LOT of the guys sitting the round out were watching me, I had a couple of guys approach me to roll but then a guy stepped in and said he was with me. I hit a knee tap from the knees putting him on his ass, where he pulled guard and slammed a triangle and got the sub. I wasn’t the happiest. The rest of the roll was intense with me threatening with several arm locks and him countering a leg lock of mine with a knee slicer (on my bad knee..OUCH). I rotated out for a round and then I rolled against a big welterweight who fights in Bellator. It was a fast paced roll, starting with him trying to arm drag and me re-dragging him and getting one hook in, then he escaped and it was on. For the rest of the day people where asking me how my neck felt from all the cranks he hit, and he was cranking them. They didn't really choke me just twisted my head in various ways it was not meant to go. For all this though I kept trying to gain the offensive going for arm locks, chokes and even a flying triangle.  Towards the end I also started to get a feel for when he was going for the cranks to I was either able to escape them or avoid getting caught in them. In the end he was baiting his leg for me to attack so he could attack my neck again. He was stepping in heavy and offering up his lead leg. I decided that if he was going to give it to me I was going to take is and put him on his ass or back. I powered through on a Barza-Gar double (which kept my head on the inside to avoid his neck cranks and took him down flat on his back. I was working to pass his half guard when time ran out.  The last guy I rolled with was more my size, but was an animal. He was hitting techniques to set up submissions on me that I had never even ran into before. Being that he was a smaller guy it was a rapid fast paced roll with one of us working for a move and the other rapidly working the counter. Turns out that the guy also fights in Bellator and has a great MMA record. When it was all said and done the mats were covered in sweat and we jogged for a cool down. I felt right at home at RFT, the people were nice, the technique and rolls were great, and the overall class warm up to cool down had a very strong wrestling practice feel to it. I can’t wait to make it back there!

Working for the finish. Photo by bjjpix.com

The rest of the week I again focused mainly on technique and decided to take the weekend off to let my knee heel up. It is feeling great now and I am exciting to get back into intense workouts and hard training!

Weekly Review: Crazy chokes, bum knee, and a Big Foot Sighting

Group shot with Antonio "Big Foot" Silva after a training session with ATT Barra Da Tijuca.

As I am sitting here reflecting on another great week of training, it’s hard to believe that in just two days (March 12th) will mark three months here in Rio. It’s insane that for such a relaxed culture time can go by so fast. Our time here to date has been amazing and it shows no signs of that changing, If anything as Nicole and I become more settled and living the Brazilian lifestyle new and more exciting opportunities seem to pop up. Like I said these last three months have flown by in a whirlwind of new and exciting experiences, and we are looking forward to the many months (and hopefully years ahead).

WEEK IN REVIEW

As always the training this week was top-notch and intense. Unfortunately as I am writing this I have an icepack on my knee (nothing serious), but more on that in a minute. Monday morning brought on wrestling class. We covered some counter offense work dealing with shot-re-shot. The basic principle of shot- re-shot is after stopping an opponents leg attack, you quickly work to counter with a leg attack of your own. The idea behind this is in the moment when an opponent is stalled out they are most open to attack. This principal applies to all grappling disciplines where takedowns are involved. On Tuesday we had Luta Livre class out in the front yard of CR HQ. Pequeno went over several armbar escapes, a couple of which I had never seen. We then covered several reversals to leg locks. We then got to rolling live. I primarily sparred against the guys from France, it is a lot of fun rolling against them, because they bring different styles and techniques to the mat. I had the opportunity to roll with the Professor of the French team from NRFight. Nicolas Renier. Like I have said before Nicolas is a Luta Livre black belt who has been coming to Brazil to train for the last 10 years. He also has competed in the Abu Dhabi’s, the premiere tournament in submission grappling. He has great flow and feeling for pressures. There were several times when I was in a position I normally pass from and when I went to pass I found myself flying through the air caught in a sweep. The roll was fast paced and scramble filled. Having trained with Pequeno and Leozada Nogueira so much he is well versed in guillotine chokes. He runs his in a different way; when he hit’s a choke it is not tight or cutting off blood, in fact it feels like you can pull out of it. The thing is when you try to escape this his fingers get positioned under the chin in a way that closes off your nasal cavity and throat. You feel perfectly fine and then you go to take a breath and all you can do is wheeze. No pain, not really even much of a choking sensation, it is simply impossible to take a breath. I got schooled with this choke several times, each time I would feel perfectly fine until all of the sudden I simply could not take a breath and was forced to tap. Unfortunately during this roll in one of the scrambles my knee got caught in a gap between the mats and hit the hard ground and twisted a bit. Though I was aware of it I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I finished up the sparring with a great roll, hitting several new techniques and working to be more offensive with my submissions. On the run back to the flat, my knee tightened up and had shooting pains going through it. I tried to carry on but eventually I had to slow to a walk to continue on. I used the RICE method (rest, ice, compress, and elevate) that night and throughout the next day (took the day off of training). On Thursday my knee was tight but it felt good. My plan was to just help show technique, but when live wrestling started Pequeno needed a partner, and when a multi-time world champ want to roll you don’t say no. I felt that day I wrestled better than I have in a very long time. I was creating angles, defending, scrambling, noticing my opponents patterns, and feeling better leverage and control. As I jogged home, thinking about training I think the knee actually helped me. Because I am confident in my abilities sometimes I can get a little “looser” with my techniques and positioning, its not that I am doing things wrong just a little sloppy. But with the knee bothering me everything I did I had to keep better positioning and be more cerebral to help protect my leg and aid my attacks. I learned a valuable lessen and even as my knee gets better I need to keep applying this to my wrestling and grappling game in general. On Friday, I got a light morning workout in with Nicole on the beach and then worked checking several items off my to do list throughout the day. I thought I had missed my chance to train for the day, but then the French guys came back to the flat saying that they were going to check out a newly opened American Top Team academy, and asked if I wanted to come train. To my surprise the gym is maybe 300 yards (at most) from the CR flat. I was amazed. The gym is on the top floor of a small apartment building and is still in the process of being finished, they are currently working on getting the  whole mat area cage walled off. The class was taught by Reyzinho Duarte and Edson Diniz (who also comes to CR to teach NOGI every month). We worked on several good techniques and then rolled. My first few rolls I didn’t roll great by any means. I was not rolling bad, but I was just lethargic and leaving my neck open to attack. Then after sitting a round out and regrouping I rolled great, I mean the best I have rolled. Things clicked and I synced my wrestling with my submission game, was flowing from aggressive takedowns and wrestling to submission attempts. Nicolas said afterward, that I have to keep this highly aggressive style up, because that’s when I thrive, and when I take on a more relaxed slower pace is when I get into trouble. This is advice I have gotten from multiple grapplers down here. I am working on making this a constant and I am hitting this aggressive method of attack more often. At the end of class we were treated to a surprised UFC Heavy Weight and now #1 Contender for the title, Antonio “Big Foot” Silva stopped by. He was an incredibly nice guy and took them time to shake all of our hand, talk and take photos with us. Only in Rio can you think you missed your chance to train and then end up at an ATT camp and meet the Number 1 Contender of the World. Craziness.

As I said in the beginning of this post this trip has been filled with tons of new experiences, both on and off the mat, and I am looking forward to building off of my training experiences thus far and diving deeper into the world of martial arts here in Rio!

New Faces, Nova Uniao, and The Carioca Lifestyle

Rolling at Nova Uniao. Photo by BJJpix.com

This week has been an exciting week down here in Rio. We had our first guest arrive down here at CR Baixo Barra. There is a couple from England, Liam and Roseanna; and there is a group of French luta livre and mma fighters down staying here for the month. The head of the team Nicholas Reiner has been coming to Rio multiple times a year for the past 10yrs and training with “Pequeno” and Leozada Nogueira. Most of the guys (there are 5 total) have also been to Rio at least once. The guys are solid….very solid. I had a great time training with them on Fridays luta livre session and they are a great addition to have down here at the MMA camp.

Week in Training
This weeks training was great and I got a lot of time on the mat. Monday morning’s wrestling class involved a lot of pummeling and reversing your positions against the cage and then attacking the takedown. We finished session doing king of the mat with takedowns and there were some awesome scrambles, it’s amazing how far some of these guys’ wrestling has progressed in a relatively short amount of time. On Tuesdays luta livre session we covered attacking from the turtle position, first breaking down your opponent and then attacking for the choke. It’s really interesting how a lot of the techniques are just slightly different from those in collegiate wrestling. For instance one of the break downs came off of a cross wrist ride and near ankle, and was executed almost exactly like a far arm near ankle. The main difference is instead of going for the pin, I am now going for the choke.

On Wednesday morning my friend Dawud from over at CR HQ made the short walk to the flat and we got a drill session in. We both just focused on one standing pass and broke it down and drilled 100 solid, technical reps. While it might not sound like much, hitting 100 PERFECT reps is hard work; both mentally and physically.

The CR crew and member of team Nova Uniao. Photo by BJJpix.com

Wednesday evening a large group of us went on the weekly academy visit, this week we headed to Nova Uniao. While most people know Nova Uniao for their top notch MMA fighters like Jose Aldo and Renan Barao, they are known in the BJJ world for having top notch grapplers, especially in the lighter weights. It was really interesting because so many of the guys were MMA fighters and don’t training in the kimono as much, you will have blue and purple belts that have just tattered belts and roll well above the “common” belt level. After an extensive warm up, which included jogging, cals, tumbling, and 30 sec positional sparring with the higher belts, Master Andre Pederneiras (whose black belt is so worn it actually looks white) taught technique. Unlike a lot of gyms where you will learn multiple techniques, we only covered one technique. The technique was a standing pass from when your opponent sits up into a single leg. It wasn't a complicated or flashy pass, but it applied simple positional changes, in a way I wouldn't ever think of, to very easily pass your opponent. The moved was drilled extensively for 15-20 minutes and then came the live rolling. Because a lot (not all but most) of the guys are around my size, they have aggressive fast paced attacks, which made for some fun sparring. The 100 reps I drilled earlier helped a lot for my passes, while I didn't hit the exact pass I had worked on earlier that day my positioning felt a lot better and I was able to work off of it to other passes. The class was huge (at least 30+ people) which gave us all opportunities to work against many different styles of BJJ. The team at Nova Uniao was super friendly and I hope I can make it back there to train in the future.

Thursdays wrestling class covered mainly the crack down position and chain wrestling off the high crotch. Towards the end of class we briefly covered what to do off of a stalled out shot. We finished with short 30 second goes of positional wrestling. In Fridays luta livre class Pequeno built off of the wrestling techniques we showed from a stalled shot and went through some luta livre techniques for both the guy sprawling and the person trapped underneath. It was great work that helped combine the different disciplines to create a fluid system for MMA. The rolling was intense and fun. The first roll I sparred against Leozado, Pequenos brother. That family is crazy talented in luta livre. I got my ass handed to me. It wasn’t that I didn’t roll well, I was on the offense and was working solid technique, its just he was that much better then me. At one point from a couple tight chokes I began to get a little dizzy, but I carried on, forcing myself to battle through and trying to mount an offense. It was a fast paced battle, and I have to say overall it was one of my favorite rolls so far down here in Brazil. It’s hard training like that that will my game to the next level.

Working a standing guard pass. Photo by BJJpix.com

Embracing The Carioca lifestyle

Carioca- A Portuguese adjective used to describe a person from Rio De Janeiro

With all the hard work I’m sure some of my family back home wonder if I have time to relax. I admit sometimes its easy to get caught up training and thinking of what needs to get done and forget to slow down and enjoy the ride. That’s what makes the weekends in Rio so nice. Typically on the weekends I get one training session in and the rest of the time is spent relaxing and doing something fun. I’ll give you a quick run down on this past weekend to give you some idea what the Carioca life is like down here.

Saturday was an atypical day with rain and over cast skies, but right before sunset the sun came out, giving Nicole and I all the incentive we needed to head outside. We walked down to the beach at the end of the street (took all of about 3 minutes), stopping at one of the many little beach bars here in Rio. We ordered a couple of caiprinhas ( a delicious Brazilian cocktail made from cachaca, limes and sugar) and watched the waves crash onto the beach as the sunset. We then headed back to the flat and made dinner, then got dressed and headed to Bar Do Oswaldos, a local bar owned by Rommel an excellent BJJ black belt and instructor at Gordos. Here we met up with people from all of the CR houses and watched the UFC fights. After the fights we headed home, while some went out and enjoyed some nearby clubs.

Sunday morning brought the sun. Nicole and I went out for our Sunday morning breakfast at BigPolis Sucos, a restaurant almost directly across the street. Their café da manana (breakfast) has a wide variety of options and you can choose either 5, 7, or 10 item from the list for fixed prices. For about 7 USD I had a coffee, 2 scrambled eggs, fresh squeezed OJ, a piece of cooked cheese, a fresh fruit salad, yogurt, and granola. Being a big meal it normally last us most the day. We then donned our beach attire Nicole- new Brazilian cut bikini and a sun dress, Myself- a sunga board shorts, and headed to the beach where we met up with some of the people from the flat. I went for a nice run down the beach and grabbed a workout one of the stations before joining Nicole, Liam, and Roseanna for soaking up some sun and swimming. Once we got back we threw on some cloths and headed to a small sports bar, Alves (literally a minute away) to watch the CR Flamengo vs. Botofogo futbol game. While not avid fans its fun to watch the game, the crowds gathered around the T.V.’s cheering, and enjoy an appetizer. Returning home we talked with the guys from France before they headed out for a bit, and now we are just relaxing and getting things ready for the week. Not a bad life.

Enjoying a ice cold tropical energy concoction in true Carioca fashion   

Beach workouts, Ginastica Natural, Luta Livre....Living the Brazilian Dream!

Finishing up a great luta livre class with the mma guys. On the right of me is luta livre coach Pequeno Nogueira, and on the far right is coaches Andre Benkei and Mauricio  Baboo.

 
Week In Review
This week the temperature was hot, the skies bright blue and sun filled, and the training was great. With the move into the new CR house has brought a new routine. I’ve been waking up in the early morning and heading down to the beach to get a morning workout in. Training on the beach gives me several options; long runs down along the beach, sprint work through the sand, or a swim workout in the ocean. Mix in some body weight exercises at the workout stations and you have yourself a nice morning workout. The other addition I’ve made to my morning has been to add in some ginastica natural movements into my warm up. About two weeks ago Raphael Romano, a BJJ blackbelt and son of ginastica natural founder Alvaro Romano, came to CR and taught a class right in the front yard. For those who don’t know ginastica natural is a combination of yoga, body weight exercises and grappling specific movements (think of yoga movements combined with shadow wrestling). The system is designed to give you a workout both of the body and mind. I was only able to catch the last half of the class but learned some great stuff. One of the biggest things I took from the class was a breathing series, where by to promote lung/heart rate recovery you do series of short powerful breaths (essentially you hyperventilate) that way when you begin training again your heart rate actually drops. So I’ve been trying to apply this to my training. The first few times though as Raphael said you get pretty light headed, I just about dropped while resting between rounds of hard MMA sparring. The more I practice the breathing though the more I like doing it and feel the benefits.



Ginastica Natural in the Connection Rio HQ Garden.
Picture by bjjpix.com

Training with the MMA training camp went good this week. Primarily this week I trained wrestling and luta livre. For those of you who are not familiar with luta livre, it is no-gi grappling. Andre Benkei (the head coach for the camp) explains it as the forgotten submission based game of wrestling, while BJJ is an off shoot of traditional judo. Being an off shoot of wrestling it is a highly aggressive and pressing style of grappling. The classes are taught by Pequeno Nogueira who is a phenomenal luta livre fighter. His submission game is crazy! His grip strength plus his squeeze makes his chokes tighter than I’ve really ever had put on me. Needless to say being able to learn from such an esteemed submission artist is an amazing opportunity that really only comes from traveling down to Rio to train. The wrestling has been a lot of fun as well it has felt really good to get back drilling and working technique as well as teaching and helping the MMA guys improve their game. Being able to train with such high caliber fighters it feels great that I have something to contribute to help them grow as well. I tell you for not coming from a wrestling background the guys are aggressive and have a great feel for takedowns and counter attacks. Unfortunately this week I didn’t get a chance to throw on the gi and train. While I do naturally feel more comfortable in nogi, I have really grown to like training in the gi and look forward to getting some good gi training in this week.



 Where Are You At For Accomplishing Your 2013 Goals?Have you looked at the calendar lately? I mean I’m sure you know what date and what day of the week it is, (well at least you should). But what I mean is have you actually looked at the calendar and seen just how far into 2013 we already are? The start of this week is the beginning of the eighth week of 2013, by the end of next month we will be a full quarter of the way through the year already!

Remember at the beginning of the year you were all gung-ho about what you wanted to accomplish in the new year? Well where are you on accomplishing your goals? It’s easy once the holidays are over and you get back to the normal grind to forget or put off the plans/goals you set for yourself. Around this point in time it is simple to take the easy way and join so many other and say, “next year will be the year“. I know it sounds crazy, but I guarantee people are already writing this year off. My challenge to you is to not let your goals be forgotten, don’t take the easy way out.

I am not perfect and I struggle with it as well. I try to write goals for myself at the begging of each week (think I missed 1 week). These small weekly goals are meant lead me towards me larger overall goals, though sometimes that fact can get lost in translation. Yesterday I went through and looked at my goals for the 2013 and I realized I need to do so more often; while I’ve taken steps towards some goals, there are others I need to put more focus towards.

Take a look back and review your goals for this 2013. If you haven’t made any goals for the year, while the clock is ticking away, there is still time to accomplish a whole hell of a lot; you just have to decide what it is you want, write it down, and create the steps necessary to take you there. If you do already have your goals do a self assessment of where you are on the path to accomplishing them. If you are on schedule great, if not its time to buckle down regroup and refocus yourself to get where you want to be by the being of 2014. Best of luck and work hard!

New Digs, Carnival, and MMA Training

It's has been about 2 weeks since my last post and man has it been busy! Looking back on the two weeks I am not sure where to even begin, so I guess I'll just dive right into it.

New Place
First off one of the biggest changes in the last two weeks is that Nicole and I moved into the large flat that I am going to be house manager for here with Connection Rio. Our flat is off of one of the nicest streets in Barra only about a blocks away from the ocean. Nicole and I have been venturing out daily trying new places to eat, hangout, or relax. One of the cool new places we found to eat is Koni. Koni is a small Japanese chain restaurant that offers delicious sushi style meals. I had a combo of a drink, one of their Koni Rolls (a wrap made from a nori sheet, rice, sauce, various veggies, and some kind of fish), and an 8 piece sushi roll; all for about 20R (about 10 USD). Being close to the beach has made it nice to get early morning workouts, whether its running, swimming, or doing body weight exercises at the various workout stations along the beach. The flat is above the oldest bakery in Barra, and is right across from 399 one of the most popular patio bars in Barra. It's a great place to have a couple caipirinhas and watch the UFC on t.v. We all (everyone at CR) are excited to get our first guests in the new place, whom will be arriving shortly.

Carnival Happens
Last weekend brought the arrival of Carnival. I had heard before that the city shuts down, but I didn't realize that the city literally shuts down. Everything is closed or on holiday hours and the streets fill with people eating, drinking, and dancing. A large group of us went to a bloco on Ipenema Beach; while New Years in Copa was busy, this was insane. The crowd was huge and densely packed in with everyone laughing and singing away. There are hundreds off these blocos throughout the weekend and in total the CR made a pretty strong appearance at them. One of the more interesting things about Carnival is the attire at the blocos. The women dress up in various costumes, while a lot of the guys dress in womens clothing. It's an interesting sight seeing a 230lb jacked Brazilian, with cauliflower ears wearing a tu-tu. Brazilians are known for being friendly, but it amazes me just how friendly they can be. One night after a bloco on Barra Beach was dying down we met up with Matt (from Canada) and Ivan (from Sweden) and a couple girls from Sao Paulo Matt had met down here. We all went to 399 for some caipirinhas and to hang out. You would have thought that we had known these girls for years, they were super friendly and we spent the evening laughing and having a good time. That night after the bar I went down to the bakery to grab a salgado (a pastry filled with meat and cheese) for Nicole and I had another guy come up and start talking to me asking me where I was from and proceeded to talk with me for about 30-45 minutes about where I was from and about MMA and BJJ. I have to say the number one question I have been asked down here after people realize I am from the U.S. and that I train BJJ and MMA is "Do you like Chael Sonnen?" followed by the statement. "I hate Chael Sonnen." I really don't think Chael should travel to Brazil anytime soon.

Switching up Training
Perhaps one of the biggest changes in the last couple of weeks has been with my training. Andre Benkei is starting up a new MMA camp down here in Rio. Benkei has been a trainer at camps such as American Top Team and Hit Squad. He is running these camps in cycles for people to come in, have a training camp, and if desired fight at the end of the camp. He has brought in some top notch coaches, like "Baboo" Da Silva a long time K-1 Kick Boxing coach in Japan, and Luta Livre and MMA fighter Alexander "Pequeno" Nogueira. I have been helping Jeremy Denardo, a former Div. 1 and 2 wrestler, teach wrestling for the camp and have started training with them full time. Right now there is a large group of Brazilians from the North down here to training for Jungle Fight, one of Brazils largest promotions. The training is tough, but it's excellent. Every week the training has 2 classes in wrestling, 2 nogi sessions, 2 stand up sessions, and 2 sparring sessions. Benkei also is putting the Brazilians through cardio sessions, which I haven't gone to but judging by how tired the guys look after, must be tough. Combine that with throwing on the kimono, and you have one tired Gringo after all that training. The other nice part about this training camp is that all the fighters are light, feather, or bantam weight so they within 15 pounds of my weight. It gives me a great mix of shorter faster guys, and longer bigger opponents and forces me to adapt and change things up. The one lesson I have learned so far is that I need to check kicks. After the first day of sparring I had a nice little limp on my lead leg, after sparring yesterday I am not limping but I do have an assortment of bruises on my legs. Oh well, it's a learning process.

I know I am keeping it brief this week, but I wanted to get a new post up to keep everyone updated on some of the things that are going on down here. Next week I will be back to posting in my normal format with in depth training details and some thoughts on training in general.