First off I want to say thank you to Dennis Asche and Connection Rio. Seriously I cannot stress how helpful they are to making this life changing journey a possibility. If you have any questions or interest in training in Rio please contact the great people at Connection Rio.
Now to the part people want to hear about....the training! These past couple of weeks have been a bit atypical due to the holidays, but great none the less. It was a short week of training at Gordo's due to the new year, but training picked back up on Wednesday. When I arrived in class, the first thing I noticed was the extremely large class size. Now that people are getting back from vacations everyone is ready to train. I would estimate the number the black belts around 12, probably 5-7 browns, and an even sprinkling of purple, blue, and white belts (between 4-6 each). Gordo showed a really slick little sweep from butterfly guard, which we drilled intensely. While butterfly isn't a position I tend to operate from I still made still made sure to get as many quality reps in as possible. The reason you ask? While coaching wrestling we (being my good friend Coach Lovendusky and I) like to refer to a persons cache of moves as your "toolbox", and you always want your tool box full of useful items because you never know when you are going to need to pull it out to "fix" something. The drilling ended and we went into king of the mat style sparring. This consists of a group of higher rank belts starting in the guard and then people filling in on top. Bottom man's objective is to sweep or submit, top man's is to pass the guard and whomever wins stays in. This style of grappling is a great way to see many different styles in a relatively short amount of time. To start out I wasn't grappling well, not bad, but still not where I wanted to be; grips were not coming, I was slow to react, and the overall flow was just not there. This then carried over to free training (both guys starting on the knees for 5-7 minute rolls). Again it was frustrating....very frustrating. But as with everything when things get tough or doesn't go your way you have two options....1. Get down on yourself and get the "I suck, I can't do this" mentality....Or 2. Suck it the F*ck up, bear down and realize that everyday is a learning experience and continue trying to improve. I am not one to go with the first option, you have to be MENTALLY stronger than that. Well I went on to finish the night with one of the best rolls I have ever had. It was against a guy a higher rank then me (no need for belt details) he was around my size and quick. We both started slow getting a feel and working for our grips from our knees. Soon he pulled me into his guard and we worked for position. As I tried to pass he quickly locked in a deep gi choke, the kind that not only chokes but just hurts like hell as well. The lock was tight, my head felt ready to burst, but I managed little by little to sneak a hand in and start to defend. I felt like I fought it off for a couple of minutes but in reality it was only probably about 20-30 secs of me slowly defending and improving, and him improving and working for the tap. I finally managed to escape and we were back on our knees again. I began to realize that as I reached in for his lapel with my left he would very lazily reach his right arm outside and to my lapel, so I baited him. I faked reaching for the lapel and when he reached I arm dragged and bootscooted around to his back. This erupted a furious flurry of scrambling across the mat, me trying to dig the hooks and ride and him trying to defend and reguard. He worked to half guard and went for a choke, I had it deep but he defended well and escaped. Another scrambling, he begins to escape out to his knees, I hit a single and switch to the double, to which he replied with a deep guillotine. As I am defending he is cranking, and then I smile. I realize he is straining to try and finish, there is no longer the methodical tempered JiuJitsu but rather muscling cranking and trying to force the finish. To me, knowing that I had taken him out of his comfort so far that he felt he HAD to finish, was to me, empowering. I escaped the choke, passed, and he got back into side, another scramble. I take his back and go for a choke, he defends and begins to escape. I try to bait into another choke I recently learned from Dennis and time runs out with him on the defensive. I'm not telling this in detail because I want to seem like a badass (trust me I tap way more down here than I tap people) I am telling this because just because something doesn't go your way doesn't mean you toss in the towel it means its time to bear down get to work and above all HAVE FUN!
Thursday was Dennis's class specifically for the CR house guests. It's a great class with tons of quality drilling and technique, and again lots of hard sparring. The great thing is everyone here is here for the same overall reason, to get better at BJJ. It really creates an ego free training environment where everyone is willing to share ideas, tips, and techniques.
Yesterdays training was very sparring oriented. Right after drilling warm ups we into king of the mat sparring, then free sparring, equaling in total a little over an hour of live rolls. Very intense and very fun. The evening was again filled with good rolls with intensity, and no matter what improving and having fun. On a quick note, that sweep I learned on Wednesday; the one that didn't really fit in my game, I used to sweep somebody in an intense roll...that's why you want to drill and work on things, you never know what tool your going to have to pull out of your toolbox.
These last couple of weeks I have had the great privilege to train on the same mat as multiple time world champion Antonio BragaNeto as he trains for the upcoming Copa Podio Tournament. It is amazing to be able to sit back and watch such a great practitioner of the Arte Suave. Its not that his game is super advanced (I'm sure he has things I have never seen or thought of) but it's the little things- placement of the arm here to keep it from being blocked, pressure here to keep your opponent flat. It's amazing Even watching film you will never get the insight you gain from watching it in person.
Now onto the title of this entry "Don't be afraid to swim in deep waters". When in the ocean you often hear people who are afraid of the water remark "stay out of the deep waters, you'll either drown or get eaten by a shark" This is the thought process of many either new to any combat sport or just plain tired. They look at someone and say "these guys are to good for me to try to compete with" or "I'm just too tired to keep up." What people need to realize is this is exactly what you want, especially here in Brazil. You don't come down to train with white and blue belts, you come down to learn great technique and roll with the huge selections of browns and blacks (not taking away from the lower belts because these guys are good too). You want to get in there and swim with the sharks and take everything they have to offer. The reason is if you can defend yourself and survive against the biggest, fastest, or smartest sharks, the smaller sharks don't seem too bad at all. As far as being too tired to go into the deep- as a wrestler, conditioning is key. Conditioning is the one variable that you yourself can control. Pushing your physical and mental limits is what you want. Last night I rolled against a Brazilian my same belt level, whom I will freely admit has a greater technical game than I do. I watch him hit some pretty slick stuff and we had a very fast and intense sparring round. The key was I kept pressure on him, not just weight wise but always working, always advancing, and soon he began to wilt. First he looked tired in the face, then his body, and then after I got a tap, he was done for the rest of the round. This is a guy whom is very technically sound and very fast, but I took him out into deep waters, and when he began to struggle, instead of trying to swim he let himself drown. I mean no disrespect for him like I said he is an incredible grappler and has put it to me more than once. In combat sports, and in life, we must be prepared to go into these deep waters, knowing that while we may struggle when we get back to shore we will be tougher ment.ally and physically
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