Brazil Experience

Stuck in the Vegas airport.  3hr delay to comfort me after a disappointing performance at the Las Vegas Open.   I'll write about that experience later, but this post is about Brazil.

I went to Brazil with few expectations.  I had been training very well leading up to the trip, but scared my body wouldn't be able to handle the 10 day camp.  I'd been training very hard and started having some warning signs of another neck setback.  Tingly fingers.  Dull ache at the base of the neck.  Tense traps.  I continued strength and conditioning, but stayed off the mats for almost two weeks prior to departure.  Turned out to be a good call.

The flight was fantastic.  Got upgraded to first class both legs of the flight.  United Gold: definitely one of the perks of traveling a lot for work.  I'd never travelled first class internationally.  Great experience.  Large 14" TV.  Seats laid back flat.  Watched the Hunger Games and slept like a baby.  Still can't imagine paying more than $8k for the ticket (yeah...that's how much they usually cost).

Professors Rodrigo and Renato picked me up.  I had no idea what they looked like or how they'd find me.  But there they were.  Rodrigo was wearing an RJJA sweater and Renato has the RJJA logo tattooed on his calf.  I spotted them before they spotted me.  Easy enough.

The drive across the bay to Niteroi was pleasant.  Eyes wide open the entire way trying to take in the scenery.  Made it across the bridge and was surprised to see how much further we had to travel.  The camp was at Rodrigo's house in the Charles Darwin State Park, adjacent to Itacoatiara, far from downtown Niteroi.  Washed out dirt roads shared by walkers, bikers, and horses.  Beautiful location.  Peaceful.

Professor Rodrigo began building the dojo adjacent to his house a few years ago.  I was the first camp participant to arrive and the work wasn't finished so I grabbed a paint roller and helped Renato paint a few walls while a couple brothers (turns out ... two of Saulo's first black belts) installed some lighting.

Camp was a bit of a blur.  We trained two sessions most days.  Morning sessions were about 2-3hrs.  Started with yoga, gynastica natural, drills, and then lots of training.  Usually 6min rounds, but a couple days we tackled 10min rounds.  Evening sessions were more like standard classes back home.  Warm-up, drills, technique, and training.  Professor Rodrigo taught the technical portion.

After 9 sessions in 4.5 days (and after 5 days of rain) we finally had an afternoon off at the beach (Itacoatiara).  Couple hours swimming and body surfing capped off with a nice long hike up Mt. Itacoatiara.  The views were amazing and quite the reward for a good hike.  After the beach we went to a local night club.  Good times and a nice break for the team.  Hit the mats hard again Saturday.  Took Sunday off.  Didn't do a darned thing.  Beyond exhausted.

The second week was a bit easier.  Started tapering for the competition.  By Day 8 I was done.  More than done.  Or I should have been done but I trained on Day 9 even though my body and mind was screaming NO!!!!  I felt miserable and tweaked my shoulder.  I thought I was going to be out for the tourney.  Sat out the training portion of Day 10 and rested on Thursday, first day of the tourney.

Friday was my day.  I ached all over and my hands hurt like crazy but I was ready.  My first opponent was intimidating.  He was taller than me and looked very athletic.  I pulled guard and swept within 15-20 secs, just like I had envisioned.  I executed the game plan perfectly and was so stoked that when the ref reset us in the middle of the mat after the sweep I looked at Master Saulo (who was my corner) and screamed.  Wild.  I was in his guard for a while.  Taking my time.  He tried all sorts of sweeps but I maintained a solid base.  Almost passed his guard a couple times.  I actually thought I had passed a couple times but apparently I wasn't completely in control so I didn't get the points.  I recall being in his half guard and blanking on what to do.  He went deep half and swept me.  Sheesh.  Fortunately he swept me into a good open guard position.  I set up my game and shot a triangle.  It wasn't very tight but it made him posture hard and give me his right arm.  I underwrapped his elbow with my left arm and extended my hip.  It was tight, but apparently not tight enough.  I could see pain in his eyes.  Lots of pain but he kept posturing and pulling his arm out.  I thought about cranking his arm but at that point I was in the air and my head was 6inches off the mat.  I was really concerned he would slam me and my neck would be gone.  I also didn't want to break the guy's arm.  So I switched to omoplata.  Unfortunately he hopped over me before I could establish the position and finish.

After a bit of a scramble I bailed to turtle.  Gassed.  I gave everything I had to those sub attempts.  I was so gassed it wasn't even a tight turtle.  He proceeded to sink in both hooks and I thought I was done.  Mentally I was done.  Ref called time and I looked at the score.  6-2 with one advantage each.  I lost.  Or so I thought.  But Saulo was screaming at the ref in Portuguese.  The ref conferred with the score/time keeper and the 4pts were taken off.  The finish time was 5:08.  The guy got the hooks and 4pts after the 5min mark.  Ref and time keeper agreed so they pulled it back.  Came down to ref decision.  I won.  I'm not sure how he got his advantage but apparently my submission attempts were enough to give me the win.  Whew.   No way I would have won that without Saulo in my corner.   I got quite the deserved ass chewing after that fight.  I gave up the half guard sweep when I should have known what to do.  He also chewed my ass for quitting at the end.  He was right on both accounts.  I should have dominated that fight.

My second fight was a piece of cake in comparison to my first.  The guy was about 6" shorter than me and soft.  I knew I'd won before we stepped on the mat.  When he saw he was fighting me his countenance dropped.  Obvious defeat in his eyes.  I know I could have taken him down, but decided instead to stick to the game plan.  Pull guard and sweep.  That's exactly what I did.  Swept within 15secs of so of pulling guard.  Had several opportunities to submit en route to my 14-0 victory but each time I saw the opportunity I heard Saulo yell, "Take your time."  No use risking a mistake when I had an easy route to the finals.

I have to admit.  My finals opponent intimidated me from the moment I heard our names called.  Not only was he a couple inches taller, his chest/shoulders were several inches broader and he just looked mean.  I couldn't believe we were the same weight class.  Looked bigger than all my Super Heavy opponents in comps past.  But this was Heavy!  As we were about to get on the mats I looked over to Saulo.  He saw my opponent and started tapping Xande on the shoulder while pointing.  Then he saw me looking at them and he turned his attention to me.  I heard him say "Pull guard."  That was the game plan to begin with but from his reaction I took it to mean the guy probably has a judo background.

I had some trouble getting the proper grips to pull.  I established my right grip and heard Saulo yelling "Pull! Pull! Pull!"  Figured I was going to get thrown so I grapped a haphazard left grip and threw myself into the pull as hard as I could.  Slammed my upper back into the mat as a result.  But...I got closed guard.  Whew.  My opponent began working to open my guard.  Rather than let him open on his terms I opened when I knew I could get to a good spider position.  Established my spider guard and began sweep attacks.  I almost swept him twice but his base was too solid.  Eventually resorted to inverted guard.  I should have fought harder to recover a traditional open guard from the inverted but instead I stalled there just long enough for him to pass the open guard to north/south.

The ref reset us in the middle of the mat.  Honestly?  I had given up at that point.  Not sure why, but I felt like I'd been beat.  I should have gone a 100% from the reset to escape and replace guard.  But I didn't.  I sat there and let him go to side.  Then?  I have NO explanation what happened next.  I gave him my left arm.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  He took advantage and set a kimura.  But his forearm established the fulcrum above my elbow so the pressure was intense and immediate.  POP POP.  I screamed and tapped.  Intense pain.  Never had my elbow popped before.  Scary.  A couple weeks later and it's still sore, but fortunately no permanent damage.

So...that was it.  I lost the final to a beast I would find out trained judo since his childhood.  As a judo black belt he said he started BJJ four years ago.  He's been a Blue over a year more than I've trained.  Yes, he's a better jitsuka than me.  But that's no excuse for me giving up the arm at the end.  I almost swept him twice and had I swept him I feel like I could have won.  Also, I feel like if I had fought 100% at the north-south reset I might have been able to replace guard.  May have still lost but at least I would have had a shot.  Instead I gave up the arm and suffered a popped elbow that prevented me from competing in the open class.

I met some amazing people in Brazil.  Great training and great culture.  I could live there.  Easily.   Maybe someday.  Lol.  The experience taught me a lot about myself.  First, my body can handle a lot more than I thought it could.  Second, although I'm not a fighter by nature, I can learn to be a fighter.  Third, I must "bring it" to every training session, every competition.   Can't wait to visit Brazil again.