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.

My game for eating right and earning it

How are you sure that you deserve anything as far as competition is concerned? One way of thinking I totally agree with, is Tom Brands way of thinking, who is currently the head wrestling coach for  Iowa Hawkeyes, one of the greatest teams ever, period. He goes to say, “You dont deserve anything, you only deserve what you earn!”

These words have had a profound effect in how I approach a lot of things, and truthfully I wish I had this kind of approach on my University studies, haha, but that is another post. So how do you know you deserve a victory or a gold medal at a tournament? Is there anyway to know? Of course, training hard, putting in effort, time, and energy. But every I feel as though everyone trains hard, rolls hard, does their sprints, so how do you know? More importantly how do I know? The honest answer is to live everyday like a champion. How do I know how a champion lives? I read, and read more, not about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters, because BJJ fighters just aren’t that chronicled, I have somewhat of an idea how my favorite fighters Terere, and Jacare have trained, but I don’t know their habits, what they do on a daily basis, and how they approach important things like drilling, strength and conditioning, mental preparation as it relates to getting ready for huge events. So I instead read about, NCAA wrestling champions, Olympic gold medalist in any sport such as Judo, and whomever else has to go through hell fire and brimstone to prepare for huge events, huge tournaments. And what I have found, and what I like best is Cael Sanderson’s suggestion of “living every single day like a champion”. When I read that, I knew at the time I was not doing the best I could and a lot of the details he was speaking about, which a lot was about my attitude towards preparing and just doing everything in our power to ensure we get the results we want. Since reading about Cael, I know that I have to prepare more, and do more, and after that do a little bit more. And what I have found is this game I made up out of no where for myself…

Everyday that I practice, I do a mini circuit after training, regardless of how I feel, and if I have done conditioning and strength that day. The circuits must include at least 3 of the following.If you want to play along, you can have your own exercises, these are some of Cael’s favorites and mine, and are the best for a grappler.

1. Sprints
2. Rope climbs
3. Pull-ups
4. Wall-sits
5. Push-ups
6. Planks or get on the roller thing

This part of the game is the MORE aspect of my training, just a little more of this, and I always feel like I could of done more, and when I do this after a training, I feel like I have done really well.

The other thing I am doing is 50 pullups after every practice, regardless of anything I have done previously, I will try and do the pullups in the circuit or if not (my gym does not have a pull-up station at the moment) I will do them at home on my doorway pull-up thingy.

The other game I am playing is that I DO NOT GET TO EAT UNTIL I HAVE COMPLETED THESE “MORE” CIRCUITS! This builds upon my discpline, to finish any and all tasks, and to make sure I am doing right by me, and not cheating myself, I am sooooo sure that Every champion I admire has not cut any corners, and neither will I. Dan Gable said it best, “if you don’t train, you don’t eat”. A little extreme for most people, but I have to maintain a certain weight, and Gable said this to his athletes on the off-season when they werent training and wrestling like they were during the on-season.

This is how I will earn GOLD at the 2011 BJJ World Championships, everyday I will earn gold, not 8 weeks out not 12 weeks out, but every second of everyday I will try my heart out to get .01 percent better.I am not in a big BJJ scene in Rhode Island, but who cares, I am going to work…

In closing, it is my belief that if you aren’t doing it everyday and your opponent has done more days more hours, minutes seconds then you, then you do not deserve that victory. This is about accountability and discipline Do you think you deserve and why?

I will continue to try and pay the price everyday…The idea is to never get tired.

**In other news**

Today I weighed 200lbs, already on weight for my division lol, and my roommate told me my abs are beginning to show after I did my pullups, this made me glimmer. Looking at this weight makes me think about fighting at 194lbs for CBJJ events. Hard work is visibly paying off, now its time to make my technique show when it counts. Also this game helps to improve your work ethic.

Amazing August!

It has been such an amazing experience at my school the last month or two. Besides learning the awesome lessons in Chicago and in Boston recently in my competition tour my coach and mentor Tim Burrill has been promoting a lot of people. Honestly I see the blue being awarded more then anything.

But for the first time in my journey in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I was on hand to see him award the black belt to my homie Chris Yonkers last month! Super tough guy, and one of Tims earliest students!

My freaking homies! I was so excited when Tim Promoted my toughest training partners and bjj nemesis’ Dustin Rhodes and Jimmy Connor to brown belt! Another first for me! I was so excited for these guys especially because I train with these guys everyday! Everyday we kill each other and push each other to our limits, I think thats why it was so special for me to be there and witness their promotion! I was excited the next day waking up, like man my homies are brown belts!

And last but not least Joe Almeida was just promoted to brown belt!

I just love to see my friends do great and achieve their goals and dreams! It inspires me to do great!

My Training has been great! I have been trying extra hard to exhaust my self in training and pushing myself to become stronger at Next Level Fitness to ensure I do not repeat the ridiculous feelings I felt in Chicago and in Boston. 

I have been having 3 day splits. Day 1 usually Monday is lower body, and I have the olympic lifts on that day. Day 2 usually Wednesday is upper body. I am becnhing again, doing curls, presses, rowing, just doing the good ol’ basics on this day, along with some isometric stuff to mimic the jiu-jitsu positions where we are squeezing our opponents, and honestly those are the worst LOL! Day 3 is my all body session. We are hitting everything with circuits, I am trying to make it feel like a competition when I am in there on day 3. Last week I had 2 circuits, circuit 1 was for 8 sets, circuit 2 was for 6 sets.

Circuit 1: 3 Tire flips, sled pull (grips), 10x wall ball pass, 10x wall ball shot. My best time was 54 seconds!

Circuit 2: 265lbs sled push (not pull, big diff between pushing and pulling) for 20 yards sprint 20 yards back, then push a 45lbs plate 20 yards, with 2 360 spins before you finish, to make you dizzy! lol The Last circuit really mimics how guard passing feels after a while. We didnt record a time.

I felt great after the work I put in, my personal trainer who worksout with me, didnt feel so hot! I went and did bjj two more times that day, which means my recovering is superb!

This Friday, at the end we are going to add more, to be truly miserable after the the first two circuits! The goal is to be prepared to compete in anything! I want to be in tremendous shape at all times!

Next for me is the Nogi Pan ams, and the Miami Open for sure, these tournaments will go down, I will do everything in my power to attend them, and possible a local tournament. Havent decided yet!

Getting better faster: Coming full circle?

In jiu-jitsu in my opinion to be great or one of the best in the world, and you can check out any past world champion and look at them and see that they are a well rounded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter. I am sure you can find one or two who exclusively played guard, one being Pe de Pano who he himself said all he did was pull guard and win championships like that, but thats another post. What I am getting at is, the more i train the more I realize that you have to come full circle as soon as possible. I dont mean in the sense that you have to be great fast but that you have to have an idea from everywhere I believe. Meaning that, if you are under 3 years of bjj experience, then you should try and be good on top, good on bottom, and just basically have a good understanding of everything. A lot of times people just want to be on top or on bottom. 

Look at the greats! They had top games and bottom games. Ryan Hall said something to this effect in an interview in the past, where he was discussing how he was just a bottom guy in the beginning when he was triangling everyone it seemed, and how that completely messed up his ascension to the top of the mountain in jiu-jitsu. 

Me personally I believe I have taking gigantic strides in this aspect, where the first 12-15 months I was predominantly a bottom guy. During the last 7 months or so, I have become pretty good at passing. Honestly I pass pretty well, but I know i have a tremendous ways to go in improving my passing ability. I pass so well in fact that coupled with my improved conditioning, I feel more comfortable on top these days.

My school is predominantly top driven, so I have been getting remarkable help and instruction from Tim Burrill, he is the master of passing. I will be great at it as well!

Brand New Highlight video from me @ the New York Open

Thanks to my training partner Vinny Canabarro for making this!
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