FLOAERJ Wrestling Championships

Adriane Jaoude, Antoine Jaoude, an Armenian wrestler, myself, a Kazakhstani wrestler,
and Ivan the FILA Coach and Olympic Gold Medalist.

This past week has been a good one. My ankle is finally getting close to 100% and I am getting back into training hard. There was a ton of good BJJ and wrestling training, along with going out with some of the guests here at CR and watching UFC 163. On a side note, when the nations favorite fighter looses (Anderson Silva-Whom I regard as the G.O.A.T), it's a bit awkward when you jump up and cheer when the challenger knocks him out. Nothing bad happened just an awkward silence at the bar afterwords. Whoops.

FLOAERJ Championships

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go and help at the FLOAERJ (the wrestling federation of Rio de Janeiro) for the Cadet Freestyle and Greco for both male and female categories. In addition there was also a large group training for all of the youth wrestling UPP programs that operate in the favelas. In total there were approximately 530 young wrestlers at the event.

Children from the Cidade de Deus UPP Program.

The event was ran by Antoine Jaoude with help from the wrestling community. For the UPP youth training portion FILA Coaches and members of Brazil's National Team got on the mat to teach the kids and have them wrestle exhibition matches against kids from the other favelas. It was a big deal for the kids to have high level athletes there to help. I had a ton of kids ask about where I was from and why I was there. When I told them I was a wrestler from America who moved to Brazil to live and train they all would smile broadly. A few families asked to have their pictures with me, which for me seemed a bit embarrassing (I'm not anyone famous) but I was happy to do it just to have the kids smile and look back a the event with fond memories. Two of the more memorable moments from the kids was one little girl who, as she was saying good-bye, told me “you need to go to the beach and get in the sun, you are way to white for Brazil.”; and another little boy who went up to all the wrestling instructors and FILA wrestlers offered to shake their hand and proceeded to arm drag everyone of us and start an impromptu wrestling match.

For the Cadet Championships I was impressed with the level of the wrestling. Some of the kids were newer (but scrappy none the less) but overall the level of wrestling was pretty high, a few of the kids were on the same level seen in the U.S. In addition to training wrestling many of the kids also train in BJJ or Judo so it was interesting to see how the other arts transferred over to their wrestling, I saw some nice judo throws hit. I was equally impressed with the skill level of the female wrestlers. Women's wrestling is growing in popularity across the world and Brazil is no exception. In the coming years I think you will see more and more wrestlers from Brazil (both Men and Women) making an impact on the international level.

Some of the kids holding up save wrestling 2020 signs.

One thing I realized is no matter where you are in the world the wrestling community is the same. Old friends greet each other with bear hugs and lifts, and no matter how old you are you're never to old to get on the mat for a quick wrestling match with a friend.

Week in Training

I'm still dealing with my ankle injury but I am recovering more each day. My mobility and ability to role has gotten better and this week I was able to return to normal full on BJJ training. With the return to the mat comes time to prepare for the Rio Open. This week Dennis pushed us hard in his class. Mondays class he showed an awesome shoulder lock off of blocking the double unders pass, and then a back take in case the submission doesn't work. In the following weeks I will be working on my guard game (typically my weaker position) before rounding out the training camp with sharpening my top transitions and submissions. This way once the Rio Open comes I will be strong and ready in all aspects of my game.

Some action from the Rio Cadet Championships

On Wednesday Dennis went over the double unders pass along with a back take if your opponent passes. While the double unders may seem like a “basic” pass, Dennis showed some details in the technique that I had never seen (and also making it a more effective pass). I spent all of the positional sparring working off my back in either open or closed guard...as they say the key to growing is getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

On Thursday I went with Antoine to the FILA Training Center to train with members of the National Freestyle Team. The training was led by Daniel “Pirata” (an accomplished mma, luta Livre, bjj and wrestling competitor) and Ivan an Olympic Gold Medalist from Bulgaria and former coach of the French Olympic Team. My training partner was a multiple time National Team member who was getting ready for the South American games and two weeks. He was about 5-7 kilos lighter than me but incredibly quick. Most of our training was hard drilling and live goes, with situations with Ivan coming over to us to give quick positional techniques as he saw them. One of the things he work with us on was the basic collar tie. The collar tie is one of the first (and most natural) ties used in wrestling, I have been using (and showing) for the last 13 years or so. Ivan tweaked in a way that I had never see and even though he is 60 years old and only weighs 145 pounds (65 kilos) at most he drove me all over the mat and completely dominated the position with it. It is proof that there is always more to learn in every art (even things you thought you knew well).

The live wrestling was intense. We battled for positioning the entire time every time one of us scored the other answered back. It's been years since I've done freestyle mat work so my partner had the edge on me there, but as he slowed down towards the end I was able score some explosive takedowns. Soon the National team will be training for the World Championships and I think I am going to be there training more, helping both their and my own wrestling improve.

After one of Dennis's great classes.

Afterwords as we cooled down I sat and talked wrestling with several guys in training from Amazonas, between their broken English and my broken Portuguese we were actually able to have a good conversation----might not sound like a big deal but when in a different country and working on the language any success full interaction is worth mentioning.

It was a good week to begin to get back into the flow of things. Next week I am excited to get back to training hard and preparing to compete in the near future. Things are really starting to flow together and I having a feeling that big opportunities and experiences are on the horizon!