I woke up at 1pm today and I did not want to train. David dragged me to practice because he was eager to train after watching all of us fight on Friday and Saturday. Bitta does not teach the weekend classes, and so they are usually a bit more mellow than the classes during the week.

After we sparred for 45 minutes, Bitta came to the academy. He put on his gi, rolled with David for 15 minutes and then called me over.

Bitta and I rolled for 30 minutes straight. He caught me once. Within the first minute or so of sparring, it was clear to me that something was different today. He was playing much rougher than usual and I felt that he was testing me to see how I would react.

I responded by playing rough as well. I stubbornly ripped off his grips, I used full power on most techniques, and I did my best to turn away any advances in position. Of course he was able to pass my guard several times, move to side control, full mount, and knee on belly. I was never able to sweep Bitta or to put him in any kind of danger. If we were keeping score under the tournament rules, Bitta would have been ahead by at least 100 points. But I was able to escape most positions, regain my half guard, and fight off his submission attempts.

Each time I escaped a near sub, Bitta smiled and laughed a little. I think he was testing my limits, to see how tough I was, and to see how much fight there was inside of me. The answer is that there is much fire inside of me. But the question remains: what was he testing me for?

I had two matches today. The first was against a man in the pessado (205#)weight class. I came out aggressively, and threatened with the take down. He immediately pulled guard. I passed his guard for 3 points and began to work for the brabo choke. My opponent swept me while I was working for the choke for 2 points. The score was now 3 to 2 with one minute remaining and my opponent in my half guard.

I did not hesitate today, as I did yesterday. I immediately took my grips, secured my head position and worked for the sweep, and to ride out the clock. Final score 3-2 for me.

My second match was against a Brazilian named “Gigante” (Giant). He was easily 2 meters tall (6’6″) and weighed 130 kilos (300#). He had tapped out all of his opponents in his weight division and he had also tapped out in less than 1:00, Rogerio Maciel, the Brazilian who beat me at American Nationals and at the US Open.

To be honest, stepping on the mat with this man was very intimidating. In rewatching the video you can see me smile and then take a deep breath after we shook hands to start the match. Once I cleared my head, I went after the giant with a vengence, grabbing his gi and using all of my strength to try to snap him down to the mat. He was clearly expecting me to be intimidated and was not expecting me to attack him so soon. He stumbled forward for a second and pulled outside half guard once he recovered his balance.

I dug in my shoulder against his jaw to try to recover my position, but it was too late. He put his hooks in and swept me to my back for two points. Once on my back, he immediately attacked my neck and arm, looking for the submission. I defended well, but in the process, he passed my guard for 3 more points.

With the score now 5-0, I had to go to my favorite sweep. I recoverd my half guard and spent the next 2:30, setting up my grip and struggling to manipulate his weight to where I needed it. Once I got him where I wanted, I exploded into the sweep, lifting his entire bodyweight off of me, and the mat. But, I did not finish the sweep. The giant posted his free leg about 2 feet out of my grasp, and regained his balance.

Now, he was intent on riding out the clock. I fought hard trying to free myself from underneath such a large, stalling opponent. I never got away.

After the fight, Bitta and Gustavo were thrilled with the way I competed. Gigante went on to win the absolute division, just as he did his weight division. He tapped out all of his opponents, with one sole exception-me. And today, that small victory was enough for my redemption.

Sitting here now, driving back to Teresopolis, I wish I could explain why I lost this way. I wish I had something to blame it on, but I do not. The lesson here is that Jiujitsu works, and it works very well. I was bigger, stronger, and in better shape than my opponent today. I was prepared to compete and not overly nervous before my fight. I made a mistake, and he countered my attack with perfect technique.

But I get to fight again tomorrow. It is the absolute division. I will not make the same mistake again.

I fight again on Saturday at 1:00 pm. This is the absolute division. Rapido! Rapido!

Valeo
Abraco

Elbow is sore and swollen today. My knee is stiff but it is getting better. I spent some time updating my blog this morning. Heezia at SNC was busy with customers today, so I practiced speaking portuguese with Maria and Grazie, the Pousada attendants.

5:00 PM Training: Warm up with stretch on my own, 500 situps with class. Bitta taught technique to attack the turtle.

1. Modified Judo Choke (Loop Choke)

From Double lapel control, or near lapel far hip. Free opponent´s lapel from his belt. Wrap it over the top of his shoulder with my same side hand while my far side hand maintains hip control. Use lapel as a fulcrum to create space between opponent´s elbow and his ribs. Put my knee into that space and roll to take his back. Once on his back, switch lapel grip, forcing it in front of opp´s throat. Finish choke like loop choke or sliding loop choke.

2. Rolling Arm Bar: From same set up as above, rather than take his back, force his face to the side and hook my leg over his head. Roll for arm bar. Retain lapel grip to stay tight while rolling.

Sparring: 8 x 3:00 rounds with Blacks, Browns, and Purples. I kicked muito bunda, hojie a noite. The shorter rounds were great because they forced rapid progressions. I tapped out 5 of my 8 opponents. I swept all of them.

After training my elbow and knee were very sore. I skipped the 7:30 practice to heal. Vagao was dead tonight, so I spoke with the Pousada attendants some more.

I had lunch at the Bistro self service again. I have been eating there nearly every day, and today the owner gave me his e-mail address. His restaurant has the best meat selection and is the cheapest of all the self serve restaurants I have found here in Teresopolis. It is also open the longest and has a large crowd, keeping the food fresh. I first went in because it met my golden rule of good lunch places: whenever there are police, firemen, and guys who look like criminals eating in the same restaurant, it has to be good.

I usually eat lunch here and then take a large doggie bag for dinner. I end up getting two large protein based-meals here for less than $10 per day. I then snack on power bars, Acai, or small salgados (Portuguese sandwiches) if I am hungry throughout the day. Despite eating out for each meal, I spend less than $20 per day on food, including buying bottled water per Marco’s suggestion.

A while ago Roman requested pictures of the food, and I have taken some, but it seems that I cannot upload pictures to Blogger very well either. If I can figure out how to compress them on my netbook, I may attempt to post them later.

I was ale to practice my Portuguese with Eduardo and Heezia again today, but their store became too busy after 30 minutes or so. I am going to have to find more “targets” to practice my broken Portuguese on.

Although there was the chance of training at gracie barra today, it did not materialize. I may have to drop by when I am in Rio for the Tournament.

5:30PM Training: No gi training tonight. Sit ups to warm up and then Bitta technique. Unfortunately, tonight he decided to continue with the leg locks, and I got partnered up with the new white white belt. Forgive me if the rest of this post is a bit cranky, I am now on my soapbox. I hate heel hooks and other knee attacks, particularly when the guy applying them is all aggression, has no finesse, and has no clue what he is doing. The reason I hate these so much is that they can and do cause a lot of damage that can be difficult to prevent. In BJJ our knees get enough abuse from regular training where our legs routinely get entangled with our opponents, or even the mat. This is what happened to my knee earlier this week. It is no one’s fault and it really can’t be prevented.

Once heel hooks and other twisting foot locks are added to the mix, we are purposefully targeting the knee. From a BJJ perspective, one of the deficiencies of the knee joint is that the temporal space between pain and severe injury is much smaller than it is for other joints we regularly attack like the elbow, wrist, shoulder, ankle, and neck. When knee attacks are not taught with an emphasis on control, guys end up with spiral tibial fractures and torn acl/mcl/pcl. These require long rehab.

1. Heel Hook from closed guard: standard set up, but I like J’s better. I am bad at foot locks and even I could see a clear inside heel hook counter to the way the regular heel hook was being applied.

2. Straight ankle lock from closed guard: standard set up, but I prefer to go bellow down to finish and to prevent the easy counter attack.

3. Twisting foot lock: From the heel/hook or straight ankle lock set up, triangle my legs to trap opponent’s thigh. He may attempt a counter ankle lock. When he does, I can either finish the first leg or switch to the other one by pushing his foot away from me, grabbing it by the toes, making a figure four under the arch of his foot and ankle. Twist to tear the knee and ankle.

4. No-Arm Triangle Neck Crank: When opponent tries to double under hook pass, set up the triangle anyway to control his head. Use this triangle to push him away until he stands up with his near leg for base. Shove his leg across both of our bodies and grab him behind his head with both of my hands (his leg should be under both of my arms. Squeeze legs and pull head to finish the neck crank.

5. Own-Arm Triangle Choke: Standard set up. When opponent tries to double under pass, clamp down on his neck with my R leg. Grab my R shin, palm facing me, next to opp.’s neck. Close the triangle and rotate my trapped forearm to choke.

Rolling: 6×5:00 rounds 5:00 rest, 10:00 round.
I rolled 6 rounds tonight.
The first was with my newbie technique partner; the second was with the roided blue belt; the third was with a brown belt I do not see often,

The fourth was with the German girl whose name I forget. She is a veterinary student at the local college who moved to Brasil in January. Her mom is Brazilian, her dad is German. The girl speaks Portuguese, Italian, and English, other than Bitta’s black belt wife Ursula, this woman is the only female who trains BJJ in the school. She is also dating the mellow brown belt who I train with often.

The fifth round I trained with Cabecao (he has a big head). He is a very tough aggressive Black Belt who has a bit of a mean streak. I was dreading training with him, partly because this is the type of shit that gets people hurt before tournaments. As it would happen, my negative thoughts came true, but not because of anything he did. While fighting for my life against this animal, I was able to put him on his back (another low double leg off of a scramble-I sense a pattern here). Later in the round I posted my elbow on the mat just as another pair came rolling onto it. It did not hurt like it did the first time, and luckily I was taped up and wearing my brace. However, I do know that it will be sore tomorrow. I do hope that it is ready to go for the tournament.

After this mess, I was able to train with a small blue belt and then 10:00 with the mellow brown belt who is dating the German girl.

Much Ice and rest tonight. I will skip tomorrow morning to evaluate my elbow. I may end up just practicing Portuguese instead of training BJJ.

Since there was nothing much to be done about my knee, I decided to make a plan to learn more Portuguese today. Most of my Portuguese conversation has been in the gym. Secondarily, I have had to speak in stores, restaurants, and at the Pousada. But aside from the greetings and goodbyes, I can understand very little and say even less in response to regular Portuguese conversation. The conversation at the gym, like in any gym in the U.S., is “off color”. I do not know most of what is being said, but I have the good sense not to repeat it outside of the gym.

This afternoon I stopped by the SNC where I have been buying power bars. It is the Brazilian equivalent of a GNC. I have become friends with Eduardo, the owner, partly because he is studying English and whenever I stop by, we practice his English for a little while. Today I visited to ask him to practice Portuguese with me. When I got to the store, Eduardo was not there, but the morning clerk, Heezia, was. It turns out that she to has been taking English classes but is not nearly as proficient as Eduardo is. With the help of Google Translator, she and I chatted in broken Portuguese/English for a while. Actually, I take that back, she spoke in broken English and I attempted to respond in broken Portuguese. Google translator was used to clear up the many confusions that resulted. Within a half hour, Eduardo arrived and he was able to keep us going when we got stuck. It was very helpful. I think I will try this again tomorrow.

I was considering skipping practice tonight to rest my knee, but it began to feel better after ciing it again and once I put my brace on.

5:00 Training: General warm up. 100 uchi komi, Bitta technique.
1. Attacking the turtle: From both lapel control, create space for hooks by walking my hand up the mat separating opp.’s elbow from his rib cage. Put knee or foot in this newly opened space and roll to take his back. Once on opp’s back, use bow and arrow choke, Sliding Judo Choke, Arm Bar, or Reverse Triangle. Note that for the Bow and Arrow choke Bitta prefers to reguard over opponent’s free arm.
2. Lapel choke from Mount: Grab my same side lapel fairly high on lapel (not at tail) and wrap it around opp’s neck. Rotate to north/South placing my forehead on the mat to trap his hips. Straighten and rotate my forearm to tighten the choke.

Sparring: 3 x 10:00 rounds with 10:00 rest (ran two shifts tonight)
My first round was with the very technical and flexible brown belt whose name I should know by now. He is the only guy in the gym who is mellow when he fights.
My next round was with the Roided Blue (he trains a lot-got to use the steroids properly)
My last round was with Bitta-I held him off pretty well and even got around his guard for a bit. I made a mistake in side control, and he reversed me. Bitta likes to attack me with the single leg takedown when I attempt the knee slide guard pass. He traps my hip with my same side lapel, just like I used to do in the single leg guard.
7:30 PM Training:
My knee felt fine during the 5:00 pm class, so I decided to stay for the 7:30. I am glad I stayed because I got to meet one of Marco’s old friends, Georgao Negao. (This nickname translates to Big George the Nigger-he is tall and black, and apparently the word “Nigger” does not have the same offensive connotation is has in the US). Georgao tells me to ask Machino Processo “Machino, gosta gordinhas negao, nao se?”

Tonight we did the general warm up and then 3×5:00 rounds of grip fighting. I rolled 3×10:00 with 10:00 rest in between. My first fight was with the crazy Black Belt I met the other night. The second was with Doctor, and the third was with the funny Brown Belt who wants my Koral gi before I leave.

I fought well tonight. I am pleased with my progress and ready to fight in the international. I have been able to impose my game by being more aggressive. This taps into my fitness more than patience does, but as I have learned in my time here, I am the fittest guy on the mat

Thanks to all of those “no breather” sprints I did as a young swimmer, I am comfortable with this type of work. So comfortable in fact that Bitta thought I was crazy. Although his English is strong, I do not think I effectively communicated to him why “hypoxic” training was not that difficult for me. After lifting today, Bitta gave me a sure signal that I have been doing well in training. It is not fit for blogging, but I wanted to note it here for my reference, as it may become the subject of a future post.

5:30pm No Gi Training. My fucking knee really stiffened up during the day. It only hurts when I flex it or extend it fully, consequently, walking sucks. I can feel that there is swelling where my long adductor attaches to the inside, posterior of my knee, by my gastroc. I got a neoprene brace from the store today, we will see how it goes in training.

Bitta showed several techniques tonight. Sadly for my knee, most of them were leg locks.
1. Rolling half guard pass: stand up in opponent’s half guard. If he retains the clamp over my knee, create rolling space by clearing his inside arm. Roll on my shoulder closest to opponent, throwing him over the top with my leg. Roll to his back, or trap his leg for a calf crush submission.
2. Rolling DLR Pass: Same as above, but trap opponent’s DLR hook between my hamstring and calf. This works best when opponent grabs my heel to secure his DLR hook (i.e. this works very well against my DLR guard).
3. Rolling guard pass into Figure 4 leg lock. Stand to open opp’s guard. Turn hips sideways to encourage his DLR hook. Trap front foot with my hand and rear foot with my hamstring, as I roll forward. Finish by triangling my legs to trap his free foot, and cranking his other foot with a figure 4 grip.
4. Knee bar from closed guard, or cross guard: Standard technique that I was first shown 11 years ago and that I still cannot get to work in sparring. There is a depth to BJJ that keeps me interested.

Sparring: I was able to fight 5 x 5:00 rounds with :15 rest.
My first round was with a very smooth and technical purple belt whose name I should know by now.
My next round was with the roided Blue belt (I will get a picture of him before I return so that you know what I am talking about).
My third round was with Bitta himself. I did very well with Bitta tonight, keeping him from passing my guard by aggressively fighting off his grips, driving his head to the mat, and trying to use arm drags to attack his back. He almost got the pass as time expired, but I got a laugh out of him as I was able to exchange my right side half guard for my left side half guard (he was attempting to mount from my half guard rather than passing to side control).
The fourth round was with “Nick” or “Nicu,” the brown belt who gives me the most trouble in sparring. He is a middleweight like me, and I think he is the best and most well rounded brown belt in the school. Many of the guys are super aggressive and strong, but not so technical. Nick is strong, but he balances that out with great technique and speed. I do not know how he does in competition, but he has the game to do very well. Unfortunately tonight my sore knee got twisted again in his outside half as he tried to roll for the single leg.
My Fifth round was with “Robert”. He is the current pessadissmo Brown Belt Brasilleiro champion. He is strong as an ox, 35 years old, and is the gym’s prankster. He will be competing in the international with me next week. Oddly, this is the first time I have fought him. I was able to hit the low double leg off of a scramble and then pass his guard immediately. Once he re-guarded, I stood to pass again.
I started to go one more round, but my knee would have no more. It got stuck in the tatame as I took my opponent’s back. There was no pop and I did not feel any damage to it, so I will just ice it again and evaluate it in the morning.

Since there is a tournament in 10 days, I was curious to see how Bitta trains stand up for his competitors considering the mat area is small, the ceiling is low, and classes are packed with students. The initial answer is that we did uchi komi for 40 minutes before sparring. Bitta would call out a throw and we would alternate executing the entry to the throw for the entire time period. We practiced ippon seio nage, uchi mata, an off angle single leg, off angle tomo nage, ko soto gari, o soto gari, double leg , tai o toshi.

7:30 pm training: After a short warm up we did 5, 5:00 rounds of stand up training. The first two rounds were alternating uchi komi (like at 5:30). The last 3 rounds were grip fighting. Sparring tonight was from the closed guard (5:00 trying to sweep or submit, then 5:00 trying to pass guard). I did three of these 10:00 rounds, and 10:00 rest between them to allow the second shift on the mat.

My first round was with another louco 200# black belt (Bitta must have a tree that makes these guys for him- this guy is easily the 10th 200# black belt I have trained with in 3 weeks). This guy let me work a bit. I was able to pass guard and sweep. I have been hitting the low double off of scrambles lately.

My second round was with Doctor. I was able to do much better with him once I stood up in his guard. It turns out that 115 kilos is not mobile on its back. My success could have also been because Doctor was obviously sick tonight

My last round was with a 110kilo purple belt named Celsino. He speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He also insists that my Portuguese sounds Spanish. While training with him, I was able to sweep from outside half and pass once I stood up. I did tweak my right knee at the end when my foot got trapped in his half guard. I will be icing and monitoring it for a few days.

Today was a great training day. It was smart to take the morning off because training 3x per day is too much for me to handle. I picked the 5:30 and 7:30 classes because the 5:30 class gives me the greatest chance of rolling with Bitta and the 7:30 class has the greatest variety of black and brown belts.

Riding a mountain bike 10km on the road from Teresopolis to Petropolis is less than fun. It took us 1:15 to climb the mountain. This included a 15:00 “break” to do 700 sit ups and 50 body rows an the edge of a bridge overlooking the valley. This is a picture of the bridge where we did the sit ups:

This is a picture of me after doing the sit ups, and once I realized that our climb was not done.

Here is a picture of me and Bitta once we reached the top and before we descended:

It took us less than 10:00 to descend the mountain. I have several pictures from the top to share. Overall, it was a beautiful ride. It was about 50 degrees out and very foggy. It was like we were riding through the clouds. The terrain is akin to that in Big Sur, making for a tough, steep ride.

On the way back to my hotel, Bitta mentioned that we may be training at Gracie Barra in Rio on Thursday. Gracie Barra is one of the largest and most famous schools in the world. It is located in Barra de Tijuica. This would be my first trip to the city of Rio De Janeiro.

At night I tried to find some people to converse with, but the streets were empty again. More boring book study.