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Brazil Trip 2009
Christian Montes – Brazil Training Trip 2009
For an all too short 10 days, I had the pleasure of visiting the motherland of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to train with not one, but two multiple-time BB World Champions in BJJ, Demian Maia and Felipe Costa, in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janiero respectively, both of the BRASA BJJ team.
I spent the majority of my time in Sao Paulo (about a week total) where I stayed at a guest house owned by one of Demian’s friend/student, Adriano, who offers it to out-of-town visitors interested in visiting and training at Demian’s Academy. Both the house and Academy are located in the Alto de Pinheiros region of Sao Paulo and are only about 10 minute walking distance. The training itself was great. I was very impressed with not only the technical level of the coaches and students, but by the overall work ethic and love for good, hard training sessions that everyone seemed to enjoy. As with most good gyms/academies, the environment and culture of the group was extremely warm, friendly, and welcoming. I was made to feel at home from the very beginning and after a couple of days of two training sessions per day (late-morning and early evening) I felt like part of the crew. Most of the classes i took were conducted by Demian’s main staff instructors, Marcelo Manga or Rafian, and were excellent in both pace, intensity, as well as technical content. Its not often, being a coach and having my own gym myself that i get to enjoy simply being a student, so i really relished the opportunity and was also thankful that i had made this trip while i was in relatively good shape (because i needed every ounce of cardio for it :) Demian is scheduled to fight Chael Sonnen in his next UFC fight in England toward mid February, so he was busy training and along with his other personal/professional obligations, which also includes training MMA with Eduardo Telles & Andre Galvao @ their gym in Paulista on Tuesdays and Thursdays (which i’m kicking myself for missing out on) but there were a couple of occasions where, while we were in class, we caught Demian doing his thing in preparation for his fight, either working boxing, light MMA sparring, or Iron-Man positional sparring. I would like to be sure to give a special thank you my house-mates, Adriano, Rafian, Ville, and Johnny … all for looking out for me and making me feel at home in Sao Paulo.
Sao Paulo itself is a huge city, a metropolis, and coming from New York i could appreciate the feel and groove of the city, but Felipe really insisted that I should visit Rio de Janiero while I was in Brazil. He said Rio is the quintessential Brazil experience. So for a long weekend, which included a 5-hour bus ride between the two cities, I made the journey out to Rio de Janiero … and I really don’t think that I’ll ever be the same :)
Rio is truly amazing. There is a natural beauty found here that is unique and breath-taking, and its something that you can feel resonating in the lifestyle and personality of its people. First and foremost, I need to thank Felipe Costa (and family) for not only letting me stay with them, but also showing me around all of Rio, and making me feel like part of the family, they were a big part of my Rio experience and only added to the fantastic time I had while i was there. I will always be eternally grateful for all their gracious hospitality. Since it was the weekend, and I basically took all of Friday for traveling between the two cities, Felipe and I only got to train twice, once on Saturday, and once on Monday (even a 2x World Champ needs to rest on Sundays :)
Saturday afternoon we trained with the Brasa group in Galvea. Since it was the weekend, there was only open rolling, and the group was led by Muxio. the group (just as in Sao Paulo, included more brown and black belts, than white, blue, or purple … which was awesome) in attendance were Michelle Matta (who I recognized from Felipe’s DVD) and Igor Silva.
Monday afternoon we trained with the Nova Geracio team in Leblon. Our hosts here were Tanquino (undefeated MMA fighter) and I also had the chance to roll with Leandro “Tatu” Escobar (who i recognized as having fought in some local shows in the US)
Felipe is not a member of this team, but he (and almost everyone i met and trained with this trip) didn’t not let politics and such limit their training opportunities. Its also a testament to Felipe, how as an athlete and a genuinely good person, no gym or academy in their right mind would ever see him as anything but an asset to have on their mat … and he goes well into proving his worth, as today’s session was once again Open mat, but since the majority were preparing for the upcoming ADCC, 10-minute rounds were the order of the day, and I saw Felipe do 6 straight rounds of this training, only stopping because he had to run across town to Botafogo for his strength and conditioning training at another gym (his S&C coach is actually one of the heavyweight Black Belts we trained with in Galvea on Saturday)
If Felipe ever decided to give up BJJ, he could always start his own tourism/sight-seeing business in Rio. I can’t believe how much we packed into two days … the beaches of LeBlon, Ipanema, and Copacabana, the Sugar Loaf, the Christ statue in Cordova, National Parks & Museums, etc … the pictures do it more justice than I can.
