Hot Weather, Hard Sparing, and Rolling With Rani Yahya

A group shot of us all with Reyzinho and his Belt.

It’s been another fun and exciting week here in Rio. On Sunday we hit up the Dia da Rua in Ipanema, a music festival with various local artists who played 20-30 minute sets before the next group would start a block or two down the road. It made for a fun afternoon walking along the beach listening to Brazilian music. Also this week marked the start of Nicole’s BJJ training. She started training at Gracie Barra on Monday, and she absolutely loves it. She was nervous at first, but I am proud of here for getting out of her comfort zone and trying something new. I am happy to say that one of my friends and training partners Reyzinho Duarte fought this past weekend and won the Ring of Fire Bantamweight Title down in Sao Paulo, he faught a game opponent but Reyzinho's pressure and aggression was to much for him. Congrats! In other cool news UFC flyweight fighter Chris Cariaso is staying at CR HQ for the next 10 days to finish off his training camp for his May 18th fight in Brazil, hopefully I‘ll get the chance to get on the mat with him for some good training.The weather the past week has been simply amazing! During the day the sun is hot and it has been perfect for spending the afternoon at the beach, in the evenings the weather cools enough to make it extremely comfortable to sit out with friends spending the evening talking and laughing. Rio truly is a paradise.

Christian and I at the free "Flintstones" gym in Arpoador.

Weekly Training Review

This weeks training started off Monday morning with wrestling. We covered various defenses and counter offense options. Everyone took to the techniques well and its crazy at how fast some of the guys with little to no grappling background are picking up wrestling. Tuesday morning was striking class, after a foot work and movement circuit we broke into pairs. We would then cycle through each pair getting two  five minute rounds in with the muay thai instructor Daniel and two rounds with the boxing coach Jean Pierre. It was great because it gave each guy 20 minutes of individual time working solely on the techniques and style that works best for them. After the rounds the workout finished off with three five minute intervals of running on the beach. So after hitting away at mitts and hard running through sand I spent a few minutes sitting in the ocean letting my body recover.

Looking back across Ipanema beach from Arpoador.

Wednesday was another holiday down here in Rio (learning more and more how much Carioca’s love to find a reason to celebrate). While most gyms were closed or had open mat we were sparring hard. The first round I went up against Daniel the muay thai instructor. He is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet but he’s simply vicious when it comes to striking. I have seen him drop several people with leg kicks alone, and you can tell he doesn’t throw with full power. Needless to say I wanted no part of that and spent most of the round crowding him and working the takedown. I filled in for a half round against Leozada (after he dropped someone with a body shot) who is always game and a hard fight. The next round I sparred Pequeno Nogueira, who brought it. Being short and stocky he has some vicious power. I worked my distance while trying to create opening for takedowns. During the round I was able to score several nice takedowns,  but any time I let up seemingly little pressure I would find myself being swept. A couple times I scrambled out, but a couple of times I ate some heavy shots or got guillotined for my efforts. The round ended with me landing hard shots from bottom and him landing shots from in my guard. The last round I sparred was against Emiliano, who is a good kick boxer who also packs a strong punch (and kick). We had some great exchanges on the feet, but my main focus was turning the fight into a dirty grind with me working for takedowns and top control. The great thing about having a large group of talented fighters is afterwards I was able to identify what areas I did well and what areas I needed to work on. The rest of the day was spent like any other holiday here, a large post workout acai and then the afternoon sitting at the beach and doing a little body surfing.

One of the many talented artists playing at Dia de Rua.

Thursday morning we worked wrestling against the cage and fighting the out of the clinch. The main focus was defensive work, focusing on countering the double and single leg attacks and working on reversing position from your back on the cage to putting your opponent against the cage. Thursday evening I got in a great kettlebell workout and beach sprint workout, and Friday morning’s striking session was focused on muay thai. Some of the combos worked well for me, while some just felt foreign and I couldn’t get the combos down. While doing some light technical sparing I felt more loose and relaxed in my strikes than I had in a long time. I was able to land, slip and block a lot and felt good doing it. In the afternoons nogi/ luta livre UFC Batamweight and ADCC Champion Rani Yahya came in to roll with us. The training started with me leading the guys in some takedown work to get warmed up, we then spent about 15-20 minutes of minute goes submission grappling starting on the feet. After we went and spent the rest of the training live rolling starting from out knees. I had the opportunity to roll with Rani, the man reminds me of an anaconda. Starting from our knees I was able to counter with arm drag attempts and tried to keep him at bay with my own attack. There were several times he submitted me, each time started with what felt like a relatively weak attempt but as I moved to counter the move would get tighter. The harder I worked to escape the tighter to submissions got. One of the submissions he caught me in may have been one of the tightest triangles I have ever felt. It was interesting going from a submission artist like that to Pequeno and Leozada Nog., who snap on their submissions with lighting fast speed and a ton of power. I felt I rolled pretty well overall, I was able to get out of some bad positions and work my offense against a very high level group of grapplers. I’m still getting schooled, but at least now I am feeling like I am keeping them on there toes and they can no longer afford to get sloppy with me. After training Rani came up and said he really liked the takedown work that we did and that he was impressed by my technique…those simple little comments made my day. After training a small group of us from all of the CR houses went out and grabbed a bite to eat and spent a couple of hours discussing training, Brazil, life, and just joking around. The training is phenomenal here in Rio, but one of the things I enjoy most about the life here at CR is all the people you get to meet from all over the world, the friendships that get built and the discussions that take place. Saturdays sparring session went great, I felt relaxed and I mixed things up a bit more varying my strikes and takedown. The only down side was I was involved in two different head butts  (both totally accidental of both peoples parts) but one of which has left my jaw a bit tender. Oh well comes with the territory.

After  Nogi training with Rani Yahya.

Overall this week was just another great week of training. Being down here, training with world class athletes 6 days a week, meeting and hanging out with new friends, enjoying great conversation, and relaxing at the beach is what makes this place so great. Time can fly bye and it’s great to be able to write this blog every week, it allows me to reflect and look back week to week and see how things are progressing.