Private w/Gordo #2

I have been sick this week, but made it to training this afternoon to get my second private lesson with Gordo.  On a quick side note, when you order bottled water in another country and they bring it to your table and it's already opened don't drink it...we call that getting "gringoed".  Lesson learned.  So the private went very well.  Gordo is a very busy man teaching two classes a day five days  a week as well as doing many private lessons throughout the week.  Still though, he remembered exactly what we had worked on last week which impressed me.  In the first private we worked solely on halfguard, and continued some more today.

My JiuJitsu De-Progression

So as if it's not been blatanly obvious from my other posts, being down here has really brought into light a lot about jiujitsu for me.  I've been here for a bit over three weeks now and have learned a lot about the ideas of jiujitsu, from concepts to history, as well as different techniques both new and old school.  To be around guys that have competed at the highest level, and in many cases won, and see that they are in class training like everyone else gives me hope.  They may have opportunities to train more frequently and definitely have high quality training partners, but they're still training the same jiujitsu that I am.

Copa Cyclone Jiujitsu Tournament

Yesterday was the Copa Cyclone Jiujitsu Tournament here in Rio, about thirty minutes from the house.  I decided last minute to compete, actually I was talked into it last minute.  My wrist has still been a nagging issue and with the rate I have been getting destroyed in class I didn't feel the need to spend R$40 (which is extremely cheap compared to american tournaments, and the quality of competition is much higher at all levels) to more than likely have the same thing happen.  So I competed and lost my match on points but it was actually a good thing and I am glad now that I competed.

Private w/Gordo #1

This afternoon I had my first of four private lessons with Gordo.  It was awesome.  The man is such a wealth of knowledge, I would venture to say that he has been doing jiujitsu for as long as I've been alive.  Being down here has shown the wholes I have in my game...big gapping wholes.  The first, and one that needs the most attention, is my halfguard from the bottom.  Anything I thought I knew about halfguard, or used to do from halfguard bottom doesn't work.  In general this is not a position that I play, but here it is very difficult to recompose full guard, so I have found myself in halfguard just getting smashed.  Like I have said before they crossface like nobodies business and flatten me out.  So obviously this was my focus of the first private.

Gordo's Academy

I've finally got around to taking a few pictures of Gordo's Academy.  It's just basically a house in a neighborhood right around the corner from where I am living.  It is a has two stories and they are in the process of expanding the ground floor to what looks to be more than double the mat size.  I am hoping that they will get this done before I leave.  Right now it can get pretty crowded during class, but that can work out to be advantegous because it allows for a break between rolls.  Usually there will be four groups rolling and anywhere from four to a whole bunch of people on the sideline waiting their turn.

MMA Submissions

Hey all, I just wanted to post this sweet vid I found.  It's a compliation of MMA submissions.  Enjoy.
 

Gettin Around

So I've been down here for over a week and I am starting to get a bit of a grasp on life here.  It is so different than in the states, however the Brazilians make it an easy transition.  For the most part if  I try and speak a little Portuguese, "caveman Portuguese" as Jeremy says, the locals are very cool and find it humorous.  I’m getting to know the guys in the house pretty good now too.  They are from all over the world; the states, Australia, England, Korea, and Canada.  It's cool because they are all here train, there are no egos in the house and they all speak English.  With our powers combined we get along pretty well in the community.  Most of the guys that are here are here for at least two full months, some up to six months.  There's one guy here that hangs out with us who is phillipino I think, but grew up in Australia so in turn has an Australian accent.  It's so weird to me to see an asian guy with an Australian accent...it makes me laugh.  He's super cool and even though he isn't staying in the house he is always around.  Jeremy is a brown belt from South Carolina and for those of you that follow blogs on sherdog he posts under Gerbil Jiujitsu and has an ongoing blog that has been stickied in the grappling forum.  He has been very helpful and plays a completely different game than Jamel so it's nice to see some variation.  

Connection Rio

I know that I've written about Dennis before, but I was surfing the web today and found this video.  Enjoy.
That's Dennis.  He's the man who is Connection Rio.  I hope to get to post video of the warm up drills that he has us do soon so you all can see how intense they are.   

Training, Part I

So I wanted to get a few training sessions under my belt before I posted anything about what is going on down here.  And I don't know where to start.  I guess first off I'll tell you about day to day life down here for me.  I have been trying to make two training sessions a day, however there are far more training opportunities than just twice.  

The House

Here's my home for the next six weeks.  Take a little tour...