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.