WanderingWhy…

I imagine my old buddies back at home checking this blog and thinking: “Well you idiot, how was the training?!” Oh yeah… my whole reason for wanting to come to Brazil.

I apologize to all my Brazilian jiu jitsu friends back home for not posting about training sooner. I was so busy training I had no time to post. I’m lying of course, but the training here is just as great as you would expect. Everyone at Gordo’s academy is very good.

My time at Gordo’s has taught me that while traveling and seeing the world the last six months is great for my mind and soul, it’s been terrible for my physical conditioning and BJJ skills. Maybe I should have started the trip in Brazil while I was still fresh. I don’t mind an ass kicking (in fact I quite enjoy it), but I should have made more of an effort to stay in shape even if my BJJ continued to rust.

During the first week I was gassed after the warmup and got steam rolled by everyone. No big deal, the cardio comes back fast if you push yourself and by the end of the week I was starting to feel a bit better.

But, still being stiff and weak from six months of buses, beaches, beer, and bad food made me more vulnerable to injury and that is the part that sucked. I could tell I was courting an injury–and I got one. I hurt my shoulder, took a few days off, and returned only to finish myself off with a (probable) meniscus tear in my knee. The injuries were completely my fault due to my conditioning and extremely frustrating. Here I finally was in BJJ mecca and instead of getting to soak it all up, I had now limited myself in what I could experience. But don’t get me wrong, I still trained.

The training here is a bit different and I really enjoyed it. A lot of sparring–some days the class consisted of nothing but sparring. Matches are 10 minutes instead of the usual 6 or 7 minutes at home. The longer sparring sessions change the way people train, I never felt like anyone was trying to decapitate me or take my arm for a trophy (again, my injuries were my fault). These longer sessions force everyone to be more technical and a bit less physical.

And technique was everywhere. I’ve never seen more black belts in one place other than the Pan Ams once a year. Saturday was like “Black Belt Day” when guys from both the morning and evening weekday classes would get together to train. It was really great to see so many different styles and so much talent in one place.

I really enjoyed the 5 pm class. The instructor, Rommel, could be Eduardo’s (my teacher at home) twin brother. His teaching style and game are so like Eduardo’s it’s wild. As it turns out, Rommel was almost my instructor in the States. Rommel shared some history on the creation of my school back home. The short version is he was asked to come teach in the States but turned it down due to some family/business matters and suggested Eduardo for the job. The rest is history as they say.

The academy is in a converted house with 2 floors. There are four BJJ classes a day to choose from, plus boxing and Muay Thai classes upstairs. I was treated to a show of MMA stars my last few days here.

A few days ago, one of the black belts walked in with a stocky bald guy. I recognized him, but then thought nah–can’t be. They went into the locker room and Rommel said to me “Do you know this guy? Georges St. Pierre?”

No flippin’ way! One of my favorite fighters and the UFC welterweight champion!?!?

Yup. GSP got on the mat and took class with us. Although I didn’t get to spar with him, I did watch him roll with the black belts with huge smile on his face the entire time. His conditioning is really up there–he sparred for 30 minutes straight and was barely huffing.

Injuries or not, I would have loved to roll with the champ. Like I was telling a friend, if your leg was in a cast and someone offered you the option to drive a Ferrari on the autobahn, would you say no because your leg is in a cast or ask for the keys? I’d grab the keys.

GSP was supposed to be back at the academy on my last day but never made it. A bit of a bummer since I was hoping to get a photo and a possible chance to roll with him. Instead, Mario Sperry walked in the door! Another one of my favorite fighters–and instructors. He made one of the best BJJ instructional tapes on the market many years ago. Mario was really cool and went out of his way to talk to me. This time I had my camera:

I’m sad my time at this amazing school is over for now. All the guys there were really welcoming and just as nice as they are tough (and they are all very tough). I had a blast and hope to come back soon–and in better shape next time!

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