Boa training (good training)...

Motivation...

Today I woke up and the weather was sh*t. It was cloudy with a slight drizzle and I didn't really feel like going to training. I skipped the morning gi class (partly cause it takes ages for my gi's to dry in this weather) but I wanted to go to the No-Gi/MMA class since I didn't get to the day before.

In the end I'm glad I did because I felt I had a good roll. I'm getting more comfortable being stuck in different positions and instead of panicking I'm feeling more 'relaxed' or 'calm' and trying to quickly think up possibilities. The more classes, positional sparring and techinques I learn the more comfortable I'm getting in different positions.

I also woke to the sound of my roommate/landlord, let's call him A, talking to a lady with a gravely voice. I got a glimpse of her on my way out to training, only it wasn't really a her. It was a tranny. I thought that was pretty funny and he quickly introduced me. Later on he told me how he was in trouble with that and didn't know 'she' was a he until 'she' arrived, but he didn't want to be rude so didn't kick them out straight away. Pretty funny you can tell it's a man, a very feminine manly man, when you look except for the blonde hair (could be a wig).

Also I just want to mention that my other roommate a girl, let's call her D, is a lesbian and sometimes has her gf over. At least A told me she was a lesbian, maybe bi, but I'm pretty sure I heard some faint moaning coming from her room one quiet Sunday morning (they probably thought I wasn't home, so I kept myself quiet so not to embarrass anyone haha). Yup, I have some interesting Brasilian roommates.

Mario Sperry...

Not to mention that today I met Mario Sperry. I kind of feel bad for not recognising him at all, but he was very friendly and came in and shook everyone's hand as most people do. I kind of knew he was someone important by the way everyone was talking with him (like an old pal), but what gave it away was his shorts with "Sperry" down the side. I got to roll with him and I have to say... the dude is strong! I can only wish I'm in as good a shape and as strong as he is when I reach his age.

After class he was also showing some things to people. When I rolled with him he had my back and he was flat on his back so I to turn into him and he let me roll into that side only to fall into RNC. Hard to explain but it was pretty cool and he was showing Rafael and the other guys how to set that up after taking someone's back from the turtle position. It was all in português but you could tell he had clear, precise instructions because even I knew what was going on. I wish I had of gotten a photo with him. Hopefully he'll come by again but I'll keep bringing my camera to training just incase anyone else famous pops in.

Even cooler is that he brought a bag with him with some shirts in it that he gave out for free. I think he'd just come back from teaching/training overseas (because I got an Emirates Jiu Jitsu shirt) and brought some souveneirs for whoever was at the gym at the time and I happened to be just the lucky guy today. This is the shirt I got... for freeeEE! It's a bit too big for me and I've no idea who Emirates Jiu Jitsu are, but I ain't complaining about a free shirt courtesy of Mario Sperry :)

Arvo training...

After the No-gi training I got some açai and decided to stick around and wait till Dennis and some of the guys from the Connection Rio house showed up to do some training. It was raining so I wasn't going nowhere, plus there' s a big pile of old Gracie and Nocaute magazines which I got carried away reading.

We started with some passing guard and regaining guard drills. Some other drills I'm not sure what to call but one doing with kneebars and the other DLR guard sweeps. Then we did maybe 6x5min rounds of positional sparring from the Open Guard (the guy on bottom does 10 sprawls before the start of the round). I like positional sparring and find it helps a lot because it lets you try different things and you if you fail and get swept/tapped then you just restart again. Needless to say after it I was wrecked.

My favourite drink Açai ... and Jared sitting watching and Dennis and Steve doing some positional rolling.

Rafael dos Anjos...

I first saw Rafael in the night time gi class only a few days after his win in the UFC. I feel bad because I didn't realise it was him till later on. But he was pretty cool and swept in under 10secs. Next time I got to roll with him a little during a no-gi class where it was only me, him and another guy. He was being nice and giving me heaps of space to roll but was landing footlocks, armbars and omoplatas but letting them go and changing to other positions. Afterwards we talked a little and he asked where I'm from etc, very cool dude indeed.

Here's a pic of Rafael dos Anjos, after a training session. There was a TV crew, from a show called Combate. They were kind of doing a mini-doco on him, probably like a UFC All Access but Brasilian version I think. Also the lady was quite pretty not to mention she was wearing tight jeans and she'd pinned her shirt at the back so it was all nice and tight too [I like her style :)] too bad I didn't get a picture of her.