my Arte Suave

Jacare won all those titles with no gameplan…

My BJJ idol Jacare, talks about, how he doesnt prepare a game plan for his opponents (watch the video below).

I believe the same thing, although I do have an idea of whether or not I will be using some sort of take down or pulling guard. But this is dope!! I wonder what Roger thinks..I bet he thinks..”Im Roger Gracie, do these fools know who I am? Im gonna sweep, pass, mount and choke everybody!” 

My coach, Tim Burrill, always told me about that, because you limit yourself. And I posted a Roger Gracie post a while ago ( Click here for that post and full quote) , where he says “I don’t have a preferred style of guard, I think if you limit yourself to one style your adversaries will quickly find a way to dominate you…”

My favorite guys, Tim, Jacare, and Roger, talking about no gameplans..This is something that definitely needs delving into.

Gameplan or no Gameplan..they both have their limitations..what do you think? Do you game plan?

I certainly don’t believe in watching a million videos on someone I may or may not fight. Especially since I am at purple belt, I  know the guys who are dangerous or good, but anything other then seeing one or two videos is insane for me. I worry about me and preparing to fight perfect beautiful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and being the best me, because a prepared, and very best me, does not lose.

Abu Dhabi Trials New Jersey journal

What great weekend it was for me. Not only because of my obvious results. But because I got hang out with and meet family I have never had spent so much time with. 

The tournament organizers Emilio Novoa and Riccardo Ammendolia were on top of everything. I got lost in Jersey, called Emilio and he gave me great directions to get to weigh ins. It was a mess for me traveling to weigh in, and was actually the last person of the tournament to weigh in. I was also the first to register for the event according to Emilio, lol. 

As far as fights, I had 6 total. 3 at weight and 3 in the absolute.

My weight matches were all pretty good fights. I was able to implement my game very well, was not once tired, a testament to my strength and conditioning. I was doing a bunch of hills and a lot of high rep bar complex stuff, I felt excellent! The first match pretty set the tone for the way the weight matches would go. I was able to pass, sweep, and just do my thing. I was up big on points, was looking for the finish in mount, I ended up losing the position, was on bottom, hit an awesome sweep, transitioned to the back, and finished with a bow n arrow choke.

The second match went pretty fast, I messed up on a takedown and instead got taken down myself, injured myself in the scrammble I later found out, I swept, got on top half guard, and I ended up finishing the fight there with a cross choke.

The third match, I still had the stupid injury after trying to ice it all day, i waited like 2 hours to fight, and the ice did nothing, and I could not find anyone who had ibuprofen. This match I kind of just ran up the score to 8-0. The guy had a pretty tight defense to one of my passes, and I am already on it drilling the counter, mind you I could not pass or put weight on my right leg because of the pain, it was weird, but the guy ended up DQ’n himself with a minute left for reaping my leg.

In the absolute, I had 3 fights.

Once again the story of all my absolute fights were that I really could not use my right leg because of the pain I had in it. The only thing I could do was sweep stay on top and act like I was trying to pass.

In my first fight, I fought a pretty big kid and the champion i think from +92kg division. I swept him and just scrapped with him. He ended up rippng my pants in one instance, then I had to find someone nice enough to let me use their gi, which I did find some, and in another instance this kid picked me up out of bounds and dropped me out of bound on the injured leg! I really thought I was not going to be able to continue. Doc taped my leg up and I continued to scrap with the kid. I won 4-0.

My second fight, I fought the other big kid and the runner up from the +92kg division. Same story, I swept the kid, and stayed on top until the end. I could not use my leg to push off of. It was ridiculous, I ended up squeezing out a 2-0 victory.

My final fight of the day, This kid really made me earn it man. The story was the same with the leg and passing. I got a sweep, stayed on top, caught the kids back in a scrammble but fell off. The rest of the match I defended his passes, left and right, he had a weird pass for deep half guard LOL, I kept telling myself “I WANT THIS MORE!”, while he was passing I’d tell myself this among other things. I ended up pulling out a 2-0 victory. Got up and yelllled soo loud in that Gymnasium! Everything I worked for since June 2010, I let out that roar.

It was a good day in terms of results, but the performances could have been much better.

It felt really great to get my first OBJECTIVE of the year out of the way.

Next up in the Pan Ams in California, then World Pro in Dubai, then hopefully Brazilian Nationals, then WORLDS!

Toughen up folks

Blah I came away from the Abu Dhabi Trials with a really stupid injury, and it really limits what I do, and really who I am when I do bjj. I don’t believe in taking time off for silly, nagging injuries..I tend to deal, unless I can’t breath or my neck doesnt move, lol.

Someone, yesterday, said to me, “Jr you should take a week off”

My response: “HAHAHAHAHA”

It’s ok, obviously this person cares for my well being. But this is already my week off..No running no lifting just BJJ everyday..is a week off for me. People should read the book ‘Wrestling Tough’ by Mike Champman..See what kind of injuries those wrestlers have to fight through at all levels, like the Olympics, National title matches, with things like bloody matches, broken arms, severed ligaments, these guys wrestled through that. The adversity they have to overcome. It’s nuts, but its the society we live in.

Somehow someway, we should always strive to build our character in this sense. One of Dan Gable students (I will return with the full info), was a phenom his freshman and sophmore year, winning National Titles. His Junior year he ran into a guy named, Mike Mann (I will come back and fix the names, but his last name was Mann) from Iowa State, beat the kid from Iowa in the regular season and for the National Title. They thought this kid was done and that the kid from Iowa State had the kids number.

The Kid asked Gable what do I have to do to be a National champ. Gables response was simple, add an extra practice. Mind you, they were already training 2 times a day, GRUELING PRACRTICES at 7AM and again at 12PM and the afternoon was for resting. So naturally the kid said, ok, what time. Gable had this kid in at 5 in the morning to work. The point of this practice, was not only to drill the move that would eventually win him a national title, but to build character, a toughness.

How can I cry about a nagging injury, stay out of practice? When I want to be the very best, and from what I read out at Iowa, the best train in the most adverse conditions.

Moral of the story, I look to improve on my character when I train.

Been training with these guys on Sundays, and its been really great. Today I took this picture, and in this particular practice session, we did King of the Guard for 40 minutes straight. After that, I got pitted, all of these guys mounted me, and I had to escape back to guard or reverse the position. It was really tough, like reaaaallly tough. Actually, all these guys except the last 5 guys; the last 5 guys had my back and I had to escape. But the cardio felt fantastic. Oh yeah the room was 85 degrees, and very humid. The story this photo can’t tell, is how hard it was for me to hold my hand up like that for the picture, I WAS SPENT! I love this game.