Flow With the Go

Warm Up/Cardio Drills

2009-11-17T13:36:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted...I blame that on brooke, hee hee hee. But I finally got a little video together of some of the warm up drills that we do. Dennis taught us these drills and when done correctly are a great warm up and can be very cardio intensive. After all, they did come from Dennis a.k.a. Dennis "the man that doesn't get tired because he may not be human" Asche.

The first two drills we would do for three minutes and then switch. On the foot pummels make sure that you bring the pummeling knee high to your chest before replacing it on the hip. The rest of the drills we did 40 repetitions. Of course you could always do more or longer intervals.

I want to give a quick thanks to Dennis for letting me post these. Enjoy and train hard!

Brazilian Bacteria, My Favorite

2009-11-07T17:28:00.000-05:00

So I've been trying to do two classes a day for the past weeks, five weeks that is, and I have started to have an issue with some elite strain of brazilian bacteria. If this bacteria did jiujitsu it would be Rickson Gracie. I have Rickson Gracie bacteria on my leg, this stuff doesn't tap. It started out as a few bug bites which I think that I scratched in the night while I slept and opened them up. Now its not contagious and Dennis said that he deals with the same thing. I guess it's an on going battle for Gringos.

I think part of the problem is that I have harry legs and you are basically soaked in sweat within five minutes of training here due to the heat and humidity. Those conditions combined with the gi pants makes my leg hair easily pulled on when people try and get their grips. I think that a lot of it has to do with my hair folliciles getting infected. It's not all open wounds, some of it is just red marks, which I would get back home after training sessions, however here some of them actually open and that gets a bit distrubing. But I felt better when Dennis showed me his leg and said that it is common for people who did not grow up in Brazil to be very suseptable to this kind of bacteria.

No worries though,

I got a bottle of Iodine and have been taking care of business. I use that and anti bacterial soap along with a clean gi everytime I train, which if you plan on doing two a days everyday you need like five gis, and things seem to be under control. It definitely has been a pain in the butt though. I think as soon as I get home Im going to go to a dermatoligist and get something for the next time we come down here.

On a different note, Brooke and our house cat Pimenta have become best friends. This is very funny because both wine till you feed them and want a lot of attention...j/k brooke.

I left for training on Thursday morning and Brooke stayed in and when I got back Pimenta had taken my side of the bed. Brooke's even allergic to cats. I can't believe this.

Private w/Gordo #2

2009-10-21T17:43:00.001-04:00

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.

In the first private I worked how to compose a solid halfguard and learned the difference between a defensive halfguard compared to an offensive one. Today we continued to look at an offensive halfguard looking to sweep or take the back when appropriate. As I said before, Gordo's go to move from the halfguard is taking the back, if you are trying this you will either succeed or it will open up a sweep. Today I worked with Jeremy who is a bit heavier than I am (he's about 200lbs and I weighed 171lbs before I got sick) so it was a good opportunity to work the concepts with someone putting more pressure down on me. I am feeling more confident getting to my hip and working the pummel, but still get lazy about protecting from the crossface but it's getting better. We worked a few different sweeps from the halfguard and different ways out to the back. It's just a back and fourth game...i'd have the pummel and try to to go the back-jeremy overhooks-i try to sweep-jeremy removes the overhook to base-i go to the back-jeremy overhooks. Each time though I am working deeper and deeper.

Lastly I worked posture and escapes from side control bottom, worst case senario. This was cool because Gordo had me use slightly different postures than what I am used to. We worked from being crossfaced. His first concern is to protect from chokes so both hands are near the lapels. From here we worked going both ways turning in and out as well as recomposing guard or coming to the knees. I was worried about coming to my knees and giving my back, but Jeremy made a point that as you progress in belt rank there is a big difference between giving your back and having you back taken. After some practice on the few different techniques he had Greg (Dirty White Gi) come over and had him put me in side control. Greg is much smaller and lighter than I am and Gordo wanted me to work the techniques without using strength. This was good because I really starteed to get the feel for what Gordo wanted. Create just enough space to move a little bit, always working to get from flat on your back to your side. If you are being crossfaced why try to turn into the person? Turn away. Simple concepts but it's hard to get your body to want to do that naturally. Another great private lesson in the books.

Back at the house, this is Jeremy's last night. He will be heading home to South Carolina but plans on coming back as soon as he can raise some money and get his visa squared away. His plan is to stay down here till he receives his Blackbelt under Gordo and then return to the states to open a school. He and others think this will probably be about a year and a half to two years. Awesome. I want to do the same thing, but it might take a bit longer seeing as he is already a brownbelt :) So it's off to all you can eat sushi, which is like US$25 and awesome. I mean whatever you want, and it's really good. I'm gonna run a train on some sushi...I'm gonna be like "num num num num num". Movie quote anyone? The movie quote game is also a good way to kill time with the guys in the house between training, although Jeremy and I seem to be the only ones that know any. And Brooke thought watching all those movies was a waste of time...ha!

My JiuJitsu De-Progression

2009-10-20T17:43:00.001-04:00

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.

The one constant that keeps happening is me asking how to do a technique that you would learn in your first six months of training. I don't mean that I am asking for them to show me something new I was never taught, I mean I am asking how to make those basic techniques work against a skilled opponent and seeing that everyone I train with seems to be better than me I need all the help I can get. Instead of one step forward two steps back, it's more like ten steps back to a baby step forward. But as long as there is that baby step I try to not get to depressed. I call this my de-progression. I am glad it happening now rather than later.

I haven't seen any flashy moves since I've been here. People for the most part stick to a simple game plan. Sweep, establish a dominant top postition and submit. Watching to upper belts try this strategy gets very interesting. They are not doing far out stuff. Usually those basics we learn before we make bluebelt. It is the details and timing which makes those moves successful. I am stuggling with both down here. I am always a step behind on the timing and still don't have many of the details down to second nature. Right now it's like trying to find Jimmy Hoffa...impossible. For example one position I've been working a lot during my time here is halfguard, particularly the underhook. To my understanding thus far there are a few things which must happen to play this position correctly and dominantly. First you must be on your side, never flat on your back. Second as you fight for the pummel you can't forget about protecting from the crossface with your free hand, well it probably shouldn't be free because you are pawing and monkey hooking and the other arm. Once you establish the pummel you can move your head a bit lower to hide it from the crossface, thus freeing up your other hand allowing it to push and work your opponents knee. Then from there you need to have the sensitivity to be able to feel if a sweep is the appropriate response and when to initiate the sweep. This is just a very very basic run down of how I, at this point, understand the halfguard. Now trying to put all that together with someone who knows what is going on is extremely difficult but a skilled opponent makes all those details that much more important. .

Copa Cyclone Jiujitsu Tournament

2009-10-18T14:39:00.001-04:00

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.

First a bit about the competition.

The tournament was I believe was put on by Gordo and for being a relatively small tournament there was a large showing. The tournament spanned two days, with white-blue-purple competing saturday and brown-black on sunday. They also posted approximate starting times for each division and those times seemed to be pretty accurate. This was nice because you didn't have to sit around all day wondering when you'd be going. If you wanted to compete in the absolute for your belt it did not cost extra. Another thing I really liked was that they weigh you in right before your first match. This is really nice because it helps to keep people fighting at more of their natural weight and not cutting a whole bunch just to gain it back before their matches. You also weigh in with your kimono on. There were three mats and matches going consistently on each mat. I thought it was the most well organized tournament I have been to. Also just going to be a spectator was free. The event was held in a semi open air stadium with mat space a bit bigger than a basketball court I would say.

My Match

I had no idea the weight divisions and deciding to compete last minute really gave me no chance but to fight at the weight I am at right now. Oh and one more thing, you tell them what weight you are going to compete at when you turn in your registration and if you don't make it you don't compete, period. My weight division was 76-82kilos (167.2-180.4lbs), middleweight. I weighed in at 78.1kilos (171.8lbs) and my opponent weighed in at 81.6kilos (179.5lbs) so I was at the bottom of the division and he was at the top. No big deal though, next time I should easily make the next weight division down with a few weeks to get ready. The fight started and we got our grips for take downs. He really wasn't trying anthing and I felt like he was waiting for me to try a throw so he could reverse it. I decided to try and get the fight to the ground so I put my foot on his hip and looked for a sort of butterfly sweep but wound up in halfguard. I have been working my halfguard and in doing so have completely forgot to attemp other moves. He never tried much, just lay on top of me while I tried to escape. He had really good pressure on me and a solid crossface, yep I got crossfaced again...go figure. I was trying to work out to my hip and get the pummel but he was locked in pretty tight. He eventually passed scoring two points. Once he got to side control again he did not attack, just lay there very heavily. I bridged and managed to get my knee in an throw up an armbar. It was really a reactive move and I didn't even realize I was doing it till he was starting to posture up and away. He pulled his arm out and then hopped away from me. I got back to my feet and went to engage again, he seemed content with his two points and was trying to waste more time. I got ahold of him again and the whistle blew. That was it.

I was glad to hear afterward that Dennis was in my corner yelling at the ref for letting the guy stall on top of me like he was. At the time it didn't even dawn on me till Dennis told me he was upset with the ref with not making my opponent transition or attack.

One thing this really reinforced is my need to work my side control escapes. Also if I am going to start competing regularly like I want to I really need to start working competition jiujitsu, which IS different than what I have been doing. Not the moves per say, but the style and mindset. It was a good experience and I hope I can do another before I leave.

Private w/Gordo #1

2009-10-14T17:02:00.001-04:00

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.

The whole private I worked from the bottom and Dennis sat in to be a third person so Gordo could show technique on him and then watch as I try to do the same to him. It was awesome to have a private with two blackbelts, Gordo showing technique and both Dennis and Gordo able to give me feedback as we worked. We started with some basic concepts, which is good for me because I learn much better if I can understand why I am doing something. Gordo broke the halfguard down to two basic postures for me to start with, a defensive posture and an attacking posture. The two are very similar with the main difference being in the defensive posture you are protecting from the crossface and being flattened and in the attacking posture you are looking to sweep or take the back. I think already this simple knowledge will help me tremendously. Then we went into when to sweep and when to take the back...Gordo's major point on this was always always always look to take the back. He showed me how to change angles and take the sweeps even if the person on top seems to be basing with his hips low to the mat and weight back. Simple things, but I had never seen them before. From there we went to kinda worse case halfguard, being you are crossfaced and the top player has the underhook. For a while we worked clearing the head from the crossface, or even sweeping if the opportunity presents itself. I just hope I can remember everything that we went over, because it was all really good stuff. The hip movement from the bottom is key to everything, and something for me to continue to work on. Below is Dennis, me and Gordo after my private. Agian, thanks for sitting in Dennis it really helped having you there.

Gordo's Academy

2009-10-13T18:11:00.001-04:00

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.

This is the bottom floor. It may be hard to tell the size but four groups rolling is just about maxing it out, especially the way they roll here. They are all over the place, and barely reset if they roll into another pair training. The addition will bring a good amount of needed space.

The upstairs is a little smaller than the first floor, and is where the stand up and nogi classes are held. There are a few bags and a quarter cage in the back right of the room. I took this picture in an afternoon training session with the guys from the house led by Dennis.

Speaking of the nogi classes, I have not done these yet, but from what I heard they are relatively small compared to the gi classes but full of blackbelts. Jeremy said in his time here he would say that there are two levels of the nogi class...advanced and professional. Although anyone is welcome to train nogi, and a few guys from the house go consistently, today must have been one of those pro days Jeremy was talking about. Ze Mario Sperry and Vitor Belfort were both in training this morning. I didn't stay for class, I'm having enough trouble with the gi so I'm not ready to feed myself to the lions yet, but a few of the guys from the house went and rolled with both Sperry and Belfort and were amazed. It's awesome here because at any point you could be paired to roll with a world champion or legend.

On a side not I have my first of four private lessons with Gordo tomorrow and am very excited to get some one on one time with him. I sat in and watched a private Jeremy had with Gordo today and he is an exceptional teacher. Jeremy is a brownbelt and does a lot of nogi and has had some trouble crossing his game back over to gi. Gordo watches and dissects moves like a scientist, and even some of the moves Jeremy showed Gordo, which he had not seen before, he thought about and pointed out good and bad things and ways to make them better.

MMA Submissions

2009-10-10T08:30:00.000-04:00

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

Gettin Around

2009-10-10T08:02:00.003-04:00

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.

So I went to a mall called Barra Shopping, which is the largest mall in South America. It’s serious business…I don’t think you could walk through it in one day, at least you couldn’t go into every store in one day. Things down here which are imported are very expensive…

Yep, that’s a pair of pumas for R$699, 90 or a cool 5 payments of R$139,98. They actually make monthly payments on shoes down here, those things would cost maybe US$80-$90 back home. If you do the conversion for the Brazilian price you would be paying about US$392. It’s crazy. I was told that when Brazilians visit the states they come back with bags of shoes for their friends.

Being at Barra Shopping made me with I was a kid again…

That’s the kid play place, it’s like wires and stuff to climb and walk across. Kind of like Zip Lining, but for kids and in the mall. That would never fly in the US. Its been fun so far and its nice getting out and about.

Anyway, just a little daily life for you all from down here.

Connection Rio

2009-10-08T11:34:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-07T14:39:00.004-04:00

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.

I usually get up and make it to training at 8:00am and train till 9:30. This is a class for all levels and it is taught by Gordo. There are usually a few black belts on the mat, a few brown belts, four to seven purple belts and a handful of blue and white belts. This is usually the hardest training in the day for me. The black and brown belts definitely don't take it easy, but they let you work a little and then lay the smack down. The purple belts are terrors. It is ridiculous the level these guys are at. The purple belts are the most difficult people to roll with and give you nothing, it is just straight up competition style as soon as you slap hands and they put a hurt on. I'm pretty sure that my belt belongs here...

That's a trash can if you didn't get it. Basically I just try to survive until they are done raping me. It has been a frustrating first week of training, and extremely eye opening.

After class I go back to the house, thirty seconds walk away, shower and try to not move until we train again. This is usually at about 1:00pm and will last until we want to leave. This is usually just the guys from the house and a few other guys that are staying in the area but are from elsewhere in the world. Dennis (connectionrio.com) will lead this workout, and that's what it is. Let me start by saying that I am 99% sure that Dennis is not human. The man does not get tired. We'll start with drills to get our movements down and then go into positional sparring. We usually do that for about and half and hour and then train. This is a good time because I get to work things I need to work on. Now I say Dennis isn't human because by this point we are all beat tired dragging ourselves across the mat and he is spry and fresh. Then after rolling we I go back to the house shower again and try not to move until we go get some dinner. Dennis will stay at the club and roll with some higher belts for a while longer...disgusting.

There are two night classes starting at 6:30pm and 8:00pm. Ive gone to the 6:30 a few times, but I only go if I missed the 8:00am class. There is no way I could do three trainings in one day and be able to move the next. Or the rest of the week for that matter.

There are two main instructors at the academy and they are co-owners, Gordo and Rommel (pronounced Homeo). They have completely opposite personalities but are both very nice and welcoming. Gordo has won just about every competition Jiujitsu has to offer and told me that his first instructor was Carlos Machado at Gracie Barra. Now I don't know the whole story and don't claim this as fact but I heard that he split from Gracie Barra because he was basically teaching all the classes for Carlos Gracie Jr. but wasn't getting paid as head instructor which is what he was. I am not sure the relationship he has with Gracie Barra now, but when he left a lot of top level students came with him. Gordo is a fourth degree blackbelt. Rommel is very out going and funny and is a total badass as well. He has a neat view on jiujitsu. He says that everyone is born with jiujitsu. Boxing, kickboxing, karate are all learned and practiced, but jiujitsu he says is innate and he wants to help everyone find their jiujitsu. Pretty cool I think. Rommel is a third degree blackbelt.

More specifically about the training and style of jiujitsu down here. Gordo's academy seems to be very competition oriented. Everything that we get all touchy feely back about back home is fair game. You wanna grind your chin into someone's ribs, or put your forearm on someone's jaw line and pressure down till it feels like your face will break in two, go for it. They train to win and many of the students are champions down here. Once you slap hands there might be a second of feeling each other out, but as soon as someone establishes the first grip it is on. There is a huge difference between the blue belts and the purple belts. I haven't seen a low level purple. Also, I know back home we stress not using strength and wearing yourself out. Here, everything is strength they just have the cardio to be able to back it up. One thing that they are huge on here is the crossface. It is the worst thing ever and everyone uses it constantly. It's a very competition oriented jiujitsu. And watching the blackbelts roll together is amazing.

Let me leave you with this...insist on a move, if it is going 50/50, insist. Don't back off.

The House

2009-10-01T12:44:00.002-04:00

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

The house is situated in a little community back away from the hussle and bussle of the more commercial area of Barra Da Tijuca. From the way it is set up I think that maybe at one time two families lived here. From the street you have to enter through the front gate (which is where I was standing when I took the above picture). Which makes our yard and house very private.

Thats the gate and entryway to the court yard from the street to the house. The little garage looking structure in the bottom left corner is a clothes dryer Rio style...

Its so funny to see everyones clothes laid out like that. Luckily at the house we have a washer but no dryer. Doing laundry here is very expensive and I guess dryers are very rare. The problem with our dryer is that it was raining all day yesterday and has been cool today. The guys say on a sunny day a gi will dry but if its rainy or even overcast it can take up to three days.

Moving into the house...

This is the main room. Those sliding doors open to the courtyard. It's nice and the doors are always open. We have wifi in the house but I have noticed most people hang out here and work online. There's not much to do during the day. After training in the morning you pretty much just pass time till training in the evening. Lastly there's my room and my bathroom (more specifically my shower, pay attention because there will be a quiz after these pics).

So my room is nothing special, but it is big even though you can't tell from the picture and I have my own private bathroom. Notice anything about that shower...think about yours and then look at this one...that's right kids only one knob. One knob? WTF! A little more info for you, that knob only controls the water flow, not hot or cold. Yep, that's right. How do you get hot water? I'll let you know but I'll give you sometime to think about it. The answer is in the picture.

I'll be getting pictures of the club and town soon. For now it's time to train...

Hello Brasil!

2009-09-30T18:52:00.003-04:00

I'm here, I made it down in one piece! That was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life, but from the looks of things down here well worth it. Between the two layovers and long plane rides I spent just about a total of 15 hours on trave l down here. Brasil is what I expected it to be, as well as so much more. The people and the bit of the city that I have seen so far are very different than back home.

First Impressions

The first thing that really hit me was how nice and open the Brazilians are. The longest flight that I had was from DC to Sao Paulo. It was just over nine and a half hours of total flight time in the middle of the night. I had an isle seat which was awesome and sitting next to me was a young Brazilian couple. Those two have really set the tone for how Brazilians act and interact. Right off the bat they were extremely friendly and were having fun talking to me in english. Within the first thirty minutes they had invited me to come and stay in Sao Paulo with them at their house and they would take me out. They admitted that Sao Paulo doesn't have the beaches that Rio has to offer, but that they knew many places to dance. Like EVERYWHERE. From what I gather about Sao Paulo after talking with them is that it's just basically one big club, everyone dancing all the time...like MTV's the grind or something. As we landed and they prepared to leave they forced their telephone number onto me and insisted that I call them to go dancing.

Dennis from Connection Rio set me up with a ride from the airport in Rio to where I am staying in Barra da Tijuca (pronounced Ba-ha da Ti-ju-ka). It wound up being two of the guys from the academy in this little geo metro style car (i'll get to the cars and such in a bit). They wouldn't let me carry my bags and worked diligently to pronounce my name for the duration of the ride. The older one, nicknamed "peach" I think...I couldn't really understand him, is in his late forties and started training when Renzo was a purple belt. Peach is like the second in command at Gordo's academy and I was really surprised that he would spend his time to come and get me. He has trained with pretty much the who's who of JiuJitsu and has to be the most mellow person I have ever met. The other one who came to get me was named Ebu, again there's a good possiblity that I am way off here, and he works at the academy cleaning and the such and in return he gets to train there. JiuJitsu is a way out of the wrong kind of life down here and it's really humbling to see someone in that position so happy. Ebu looks like a little monster, a few inches shorter than me, gnarly cauliflower ears and built like a bull. He barely spoke any english but liked pointing out all the favelas and saying "like slums in english" the best he could. I imagine if it wasn't for JiuJitsu that is were he would be.

To fully understand the academy and house where I am staying you will need to see pictures so I will get on that. It's funny though, as we were pulling up to the house the guys that are staying here were all walking down the street to the academy in there kimonos. It was a really funny site to see but awesome that we just throw our stuff on and in less than a minute are at the academy training. Im not sure the training schedule yet but it seems that there are classes all day starting early in the morning. Tomorrow I plan on hitting up my first class...Ive already heard so much.

The Word

The word on training down here, so far as I will confirm this shortly, is that the purple belts are like brown belts back home. Not that that matters to me as Ive never trained with either back home. The guys were rattling of names of who they train with regularly, Pe De Pano, Rafeal Dos Santos, and Antonio Braga Neto to name a few. AWESOME! Those are all big boys. Everyone keeps telling me not to get frustrated basically because I probably suck compared to everyone else...oh goodie

My little slice of JiuJitsu History

2009-09-25T09:27:00.008-04:00

I probably should have made this my first post, but I just got a little ahead of myself explaining how I am going to Rio. Anyhow, as it currently stands I am ranked as a third strip blue belt at Jamel McCurry's academy in Detroit, MI.

How This Addiction Began

I graduated high school as a small little surfer kid from Southern Cali, I was 5'9" and weighed a hefty 140lbs. Not very intimidating, but of course I thought I was. Once I started college I got really into weight lifting. Sick of being a little guy, and convinced that my size determined how much of a bad ass I was (I know I know but I was like 18/19 then) I started eating everything I could taking supplements and lifting like a madman. Over the next few years I my weight went up to a pretty solid 175lbs and I was feeling much better about myself.

Going into my third year of college at SDSU my bestfriend Ves and I decided that we needed to learn how to throw a real punch. Ves is Cambodian and his father fought real Thai Boxing back in Cambodia, so he convinced me to check out a Thai Boxing school near the college. We went, signed up, and started training three times a week. It was awesome, this wasn't cardio kickboxing but real Thai Boxing. Because we could train during the day, being students and all, we often got one on one instruction from Chris the head instructor (I think the name of the school was Black Tiger, or something like that...it's been a while). This went on for a year or so and then one day a Brazilian guy came into the school and talked with Chris.

Jumpin Ship

After leaving Chris was like in awe of this guy, Odie Neto, how Ves and I had never heard of. Keep in mind that this would have been back when Ken Shamrock was a big name and the Lions Den was a major MMA school. From what I can remember Odie was supposed to fight for the Lions Den in the UFC and was going to Chris to learn Thai Boxing. Odie was a blackbelt in BJJ and operated his own academy (still does, netoacademy.com). He started training with Ves and I for a few months. It was cool because he wanted to always go a little harder than we were supposed to. After a while he invited us down to check out his academy and this style known as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Open minded we did, and after the first class we were both hooked. About a month later we cancelled at the Thai school and were doing BJJ whenever we could.

After three years, I had competed a few times and was a one stripe bluebelt. At this point I was graduating college (five year plan) and thinking about my future. So what does any kid that just graduated from college do? I joined the military, the Coast Guard more exact.

Away From the Game

Thanks to the Coast Guard I couldn't train for the first three years I was in. I was stationed on the Great Lakes and there was not much JiuJitsu at that time up there. The last year I found a school in Detroit under Jamel McCurry (a blackbelt under Carlos Machado, jamelbjjacademy.com) and restarted my training. It has been amazing training with Jamel. The kind of game that he plays is the style that I want to be able to impose. Under him I have grown to a third strip bluebelt, and feel like my game is finally starting to come together.

A Week Away

2009-09-23T08:58:00.012-04:00

Well, now I'm less than a week away from my trip to Rio de Janiero, Brazil to go train at Gordo's Jiu Jitsu Academy. I can't believe that it is right around the corner. I have started this blog to share my trip and also help answer questions if others may be wanting to do the same thing. All the planning and double checking are pretty much done and now it's just time to pack up and get ready to go.

The Process

This whole trip started as a treat for my service in the Coast Guard. I was really unsure whether or not to go for it in the first place, but Brooke was very supportive and encouraging. For me, the first step was to figure out the cost of such an endeavor so I could plan how long I could be down there. Once I started looking into it and researching rentals and hostels I was pretty overwhelmed. I was reading other blogs and lots of posts on Sherdog.com about people who want to or have gone to Brazil to train. I originally was trying to train at Demian Maia's Academy in Sao Paulo, however I found out that during the time frame I was looking to be down there he would not be. So one thing led to another and I got hooked up with Dennis from ConnectionRio.com. Form there things started going pretty smoothly. I told Dennis, via email as he lives in Rio, what I was hoping to do and he put together a whole little package for me which basically included everything but food and airfare. It is:

Suite in house with pool with small office space and private bathroom (with shower and bathtub)
4 private lessons with Roberto Correa "Gordo"
6 weeks training at Gordo Jiu-Jitsu in LB with the option of also training at his second academy included (this includes a week for your wife as well)
Transportation for you and your wife from the airport and back
2 kimonos
2 Connection Rio t-shirts
2 Gordo Jiu-Jitsu t-shirts
1 round of batidas (mixed drinks) at the famous Bar do Oswaldo in Largo da Barra

Awesome! I had the time...no more job made that easy, and would come up with the money. I went for it and put down the deposit.

Airfare

This was the easiest part. I had some reward points and after a little looking around got a good deal. I purchased the airfare in June and wouldn't be leaving till the end of September.

The Visa

This was a bit of a headache. First of all you can't apply for your visa until you have proof of travel plans to Brazil, which in my case would be a copy of my flight itinerary. No biggie, I got that. Let me tell you now, visas to Brazil are not cheap. Assuming you don't live by a Brazilian Consulate, I don't, you have to express mail your application with a prepaid express mail envelope back. The application process was pretty straight forward, however Brazil charges Americans an extra little bit that they don't charge other countries citizens. That little amount is $130 per visa and they only take USPS money order. There is no way around this. After fees it was $300 for Brooke and my visas. I did all the paperwork, got everything together and express mailed the visa applications to the Consulate in Chicago only to get them back a week later requesting more information. This was very irritating due to the fact that what they wanted now was no where to be found on the website. I had to write a letter explaining my trip and that I did not know anyone in Brazil and was going down for pleasure and not business and supply proof of a bank account with enough money to support myself for six weeks while in Brazil. Back to the post office, two more express mail envelopes and a week later I recieved our completed visas back. Aye dios mio. It may not sound like much, but I was pretty nervous that the passports would get lost in the mail, and then I had to send them twice.

With all that done it is now just a matter of packing and waiting.