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Moving to Brazil Part II
- Thread starter Bullitt68
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Anyone know whether theres any connecting flights to rio from LA?
is it expensive taking a flight from LA compared to other states? As i might be going LA for a holiday and plan to squeeze 1-3 months in between to brazil for training. Any advice?
is it expensive taking a flight from LA compared to other states? As i might be going LA for a holiday and plan to squeeze 1-3 months in between to brazil for training. Any advice?
ProdigyOfZen
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hahahaha this is funny! After going to Rio four times and watching people dance and then comparing it to the way americans dance at most clubs this guys last statement makes so much sense.
In rio and i presume most of brasil people do not dance "on each other" for the most part. Unless it is Funky but even then it is mostly danced apart. You don't see a lot of the grinding and hip hop dancing you see in the states. People do dance Forro but that is more like latin dancing (merengue/salsa).
What you will see in the clubs in brasil is TONS of making out. In fact when i went out with my brasilian friends they would all bet on how many girls they could make out with during the night.
Basically 1) US = lots of grinding and booty shaking 2) Brasil = lots of staring to make eye contact and lots of making out. more than average. Then maybe after a few hours or less you make your way to the Motel
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dude ABSOLUTELY. i was expecting clubs to be so freaky here, and clubs in america (especially hood clubs, which is what i grew up being at, not like... techno shit..) and they do not even compare. everyone makes out, but in dc, clubs and parties are literally dry hate fucking, and here dancing looks like people are stepping on bugs, or being ironic.
ProdigyOfZen
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hahahha Kenny, I am actually from the DC area, the same as you! I was really trying to avoid offending any brasilians but yeah they really cant dance, at least not to "hipy hopy" as they like to call it.
Which always conjures up Peter Rabbit for more when i hear them say "Hipy Hopy" and then I think, you know they actually do kinda look like awkward rabbits sometimes when dancing hip hop.
My ex gf was Brasilian (like 75% black 25% indian) and she would always remark "we do not dance that way here in brazil" then get really embarressed and giggle like a school girl when i tried to dance on her oh so heavenly large round bundon! (bunda)
ProdigyOfZen
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man i am at work why did you make me think about "the" brasilian ex! jesus christo!
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To be fair I did say "life in Rio is an anomaly" not "life in Brazil is an anomaly".
Also
"How Brazilians celebrate, how they eat, how they view time and enjoy life is easily enough content for a book, hell probably a full college course, but it asks as many questions as it answers"
I believe this to be an accurate statement also.
But let me also be clear that my blog reflects my personal experiences in Rio and is a mix of observation, fact, and most importantly, opinion. As everyone that has read my blog before has seen, I have been wrong (think about the pineapples) and my opinions regularly differ from both local Brazilians and other gringos who visit...perception is great isnt it
D
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Thanks Jeremy. Seems like it would a great experience for the guys in the house to get out more with the locals. They would probably meet a lot of local girls that way too.
D
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I was in Spain when I was 19 and asked a Japanese girls to dance....needless to say my style of dance was not what she was expeting lol. In Spain everyone dances by themselves but in a big group. So they are dancing with lots of people, but it is like in a big circle and no one is dancing 1 on 1.
I had my Irish buddy come back after a night of partying and said "Yeah those guys we hung out with the other day. I danced with them like all night."
I refrained from making any rude jokes lol.
I love ur posts Gerbil, its so interesting to see how a foreign see my country and etc... I was just trying to make an opposite point of view, sometimes I think in creating a thread about how Brazilians see Brazil.
What does this means?
I really don't know how to dance Hip Hop and never thinked about the right way to do it, any videos? In Brazil parties are made so ppl can meet each other and have fun/kiss etc... Americans to me look too exuberant, I always say to my foreign friends that a European/American girl doing topless on the beach draws less attention than a Brazilian girl using a bikini, ppl are just different.
What does this means?
I really don't know how to dance Hip Hop and never thinked about the right way to do it, any videos? In Brazil parties are made so ppl can meet each other and have fun/kiss etc... Americans to me look too exuberant, I always say to my foreign friends that a European/American girl doing topless on the beach draws less attention than a Brazilian girl using a bikini, ppl are just different.
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(Post 1/2)
The weather is beautiful and the sun is hot. Some days I think I'm going to melt it's so hot, other days I feel like I'm going spontaneously combust because you can literally feel the sun weighing you down. It is an odd combination of feelings, to feel like like a puddle and a bonfire at the same time. I literally sit in a pool of my own sweat sometimes wondering why my teammate would turn off the fan.
The truth of the matter is, most of the Brazilians don't think it's hot and even when I'm melting away, they don't see the vital connection between my life and that little bit of breeze the fan creates. Sometimes when we move into the later rounds of training I position myself so that I can benefit the most from the fan. Hell, it's so bad that sometimes I'll pass my opponents guard in the direction of the fan so that after I've stabilized I can feel the artificial breeze. Nothing is more motivation to avoid being swept than realizing your opponent will be between you and the fan...I've literally done some Olympic level gymnastics to avoid that...seriously.
I try not to complain, because honestly, deep down inside, I know that I wont die. I know that it gets hotter here in Rio and if I can't handle it now, I'm in some deep trouble when the real heat hits, but apparently I look like I'm in rough shape sometimes. A couple weeks ago I was laying against the wall and Gordo was sitting on the exercise ball next to me. He looked down at me and with genuine concern on his face said
The weather is beautiful and the sun is hot. Some days I think I'm going to melt it's so hot, other days I feel like I'm going spontaneously combust because you can literally feel the sun weighing you down. It is an odd combination of feelings, to feel like like a puddle and a bonfire at the same time. I literally sit in a pool of my own sweat sometimes wondering why my teammate would turn off the fan.
The truth of the matter is, most of the Brazilians don't think it's hot and even when I'm melting away, they don't see the vital connection between my life and that little bit of breeze the fan creates. Sometimes when we move into the later rounds of training I position myself so that I can benefit the most from the fan. Hell, it's so bad that sometimes I'll pass my opponents guard in the direction of the fan so that after I've stabilized I can feel the artificial breeze. Nothing is more motivation to avoid being swept than realizing your opponent will be between you and the fan...I've literally done some Olympic level gymnastics to avoid that...seriously.
I try not to complain, because honestly, deep down inside, I know that I wont die. I know that it gets hotter here in Rio and if I can't handle it now, I'm in some deep trouble when the real heat hits, but apparently I look like I'm in rough shape sometimes. A couple weeks ago I was laying against the wall and Gordo was sitting on the exercise ball next to me. He looked down at me and with genuine concern on his face said
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(post 2/2)
Brazilian jiujitsu, and fighting in general, draws an interesting crowd of guys. I know I've talked about how the house is always changing, but some things between guests are always the same. Everyone that has trained long enough has had some type of injury. The severity of the injuries can differ, anything from a broken finger to a blown out knee, but when you live in a house this size just about every injury you can think of has been experienced. There are ups and downs to this. The down side is that sometimes the house can smell like a retirement home, a mix of Icy Hot and green soap. The up side is that regardless of what is happening to you, there is someone in the house that can give you advice because they have had it happen to them.
Last night we all decided to go out for dinner together. I was waiting in the living room for some of the other guys to finish getting ready. After standing there for 5 minutes I went to see what was taking them so long and this is what I walked into see.
If a normal person walked into a room and saw one man sitting with his pants around his ankles, another man taking off his belt and third man in the background with his shirt off, you might ask yourself what the hell is going on in here. But this didn’t even occur to me, I knew what was happening. The topic of conversation had turned to knee injuries and the guys were showing off some of their scars (and trying to explain to Igor what the meniscus looks like). This is just one more example of how a fighters behavior differs from a “normal” persons. I wish I could say that this demonstration would have gone differently in public, but I'm fairly confident that it would have looked quite the same (although that guy in the back would probably have a shirt on).
Speaking of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, I witnessed one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen this past week. Some times when it gets really hot people will clear the sweat off of their forehead with their kimono sleeve. When you're sweating so hard and the whole kimono is soaked anyway, it doesn’t really matter (at least in my opinion). This typically buys you about 5 solid seconds of a semi dry face. Typically your opponent appreciates it because you're not dripping all over them (which can be pretty disgusting in it's own right). Sweat is about the only thing that I'll wipe up with my kimono but I guess one guy in the academy does not share my views on kimono sanitation.
I was training with a particularly good black belt last week and when we ran into the wall we stopped and started to move back to the center of the mat to start again. I reached the middle first and sat down to take the same position that we had near the wall. As I looked up he lifted his kimono and blew his nose on the inside of it. Let me be VERY clear when I say he blew his nose. This was not him clearing the sweat (nor the snot) from his face, he actually held his kimono lapel to his face like a Kleenex and blew his nose....umm who does that? Well, this guy does.
I had never seen this before, nor have I heard anyone bring this up. I've given opinions on walking barefoot to the water cooler, not wearing shoes in the bathroom, and a host of other disgusting things associated with grappling and/or training in the martial arts, but to see this I was absolutely shocked. Now the real question is, what do I say? Well, I said what any hard training brown belt would have said... nothing. A mental note for everyone that is reading this. If I come to your academy, and I see you blow your nose in your kimono, I'm not rolling with you and I'm probably going to make fun of you. Please go to the restroom and blow your nose, and please wear your shoes when you go to do it.
Changing subjects
This weeks move is a very important transition, Half Guard to Full Guard. As many of you know I'm a Closed Guard player and having the ability to move between the variations of guard is very important. I really like this transition because it provides a lot of resistance on your opponent's hip using that leg that normally holds Half Guard. This move works great against people who like to base off of their feet and drive forward with their weight. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming having someone large and/or strong bearing down on you, and this move is a life saver.
Also keep in mind that you do not need the underhook for this move. Although I start off the video using the underhook, one of the great things about this move is that you don't have to have it and getting back into Closed Guard really eliminates the effectiveness of your opponent having the underhook.
Keep a close eye on how my body is angled and how that allows me to bend my knee and create space to get my leg back in. Try and rep it out a few times before you use it in rolling...and please remember to switch your hook in the back or you'll be cussing me out telling me how terrible of a transition this is.
The last topic of the day is about intensity. Different games (strategical planning) call for different levels of intensity, speed and pressure. I understand this, fully, and sometimes I have to remind myself that Brazilian Jiujitsu is an evolutionary process. You view grappling in one way when you're a beginner a totally different way as an intermediate and of course differently when you're advanced. There is no doubt in my mind that as I become better and more experienced my views will change again.
Sometimes I look at how people train and all I can think is “how is that helping you”. As an advanced belt I try to give advice, not just on technique but on concepts and grappling philosophy. The purple belts get it, they really do. I can sit a purple belt down, explain something to him/her and off they go putting it in their game (again strategical planning) and incorporate it into their training. Now the white belts, and even more so, the blue belts, are going to give me an ulcer.
Typically when I speak to a white belt they realize they know nothing and listen intently. Then when they understand it, they struggle to implement it. Almost like a child that see's people running. They understand that it happens by putting one foot in front of the other but all of that stuff that happens below the surface, the proprioception, that screws them.
The blue belts have another problem all together. They have enough of an understanding of how grappling works to be dangerous, but the truth is, most blue belts are their own worst enemy (myself included when I was a blue belt). This week I have been told on two different occasions to “not go easy” while rolling. I know I have talked about this in the past, but this time I took a different approach. Instead of getting irritated and explaining to them that it doesn’t help either of us to do that, I just gave them what they asked for. Although it can be an enjoyable experience to totally destroy someone and submit them 10 times in 6 minutes, I really thought that the blue belts might realize that maybe there is a better way to train.
I was horrified when these training partners thanked me and went on about their way. I really, really...really don't get it. I understand every once in awhile, but these guys want it like this all the time. How are they ever going to learn to underhook, move the hips, practice submission defense (every submission I want I took) and progress as a grappler?
So here is my advice to you lower ranking guys. When you get the opportunity to roll with an advanced belt, how about you let that person decide what intensity they want to go at? Maybe I'm just to much of a traditional martial artist, but I find it mildly disrespectful and insulting for to tell me to submit you. I'm fairly confident that I'll do the best thing for your (and my) training.
That brings this week blog to a close, thank you for reading and I always appreciate your comments.
The Gerbil
P.S. If you were a novice in boxing would you ask this guy to try and knock you out?
Brazilian jiujitsu, and fighting in general, draws an interesting crowd of guys. I know I've talked about how the house is always changing, but some things between guests are always the same. Everyone that has trained long enough has had some type of injury. The severity of the injuries can differ, anything from a broken finger to a blown out knee, but when you live in a house this size just about every injury you can think of has been experienced. There are ups and downs to this. The down side is that sometimes the house can smell like a retirement home, a mix of Icy Hot and green soap. The up side is that regardless of what is happening to you, there is someone in the house that can give you advice because they have had it happen to them.
Last night we all decided to go out for dinner together. I was waiting in the living room for some of the other guys to finish getting ready. After standing there for 5 minutes I went to see what was taking them so long and this is what I walked into see.
If a normal person walked into a room and saw one man sitting with his pants around his ankles, another man taking off his belt and third man in the background with his shirt off, you might ask yourself what the hell is going on in here. But this didn’t even occur to me, I knew what was happening. The topic of conversation had turned to knee injuries and the guys were showing off some of their scars (and trying to explain to Igor what the meniscus looks like). This is just one more example of how a fighters behavior differs from a “normal” persons. I wish I could say that this demonstration would have gone differently in public, but I'm fairly confident that it would have looked quite the same (although that guy in the back would probably have a shirt on).
Speaking of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, I witnessed one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen this past week. Some times when it gets really hot people will clear the sweat off of their forehead with their kimono sleeve. When you're sweating so hard and the whole kimono is soaked anyway, it doesn’t really matter (at least in my opinion). This typically buys you about 5 solid seconds of a semi dry face. Typically your opponent appreciates it because you're not dripping all over them (which can be pretty disgusting in it's own right). Sweat is about the only thing that I'll wipe up with my kimono but I guess one guy in the academy does not share my views on kimono sanitation.
I was training with a particularly good black belt last week and when we ran into the wall we stopped and started to move back to the center of the mat to start again. I reached the middle first and sat down to take the same position that we had near the wall. As I looked up he lifted his kimono and blew his nose on the inside of it. Let me be VERY clear when I say he blew his nose. This was not him clearing the sweat (nor the snot) from his face, he actually held his kimono lapel to his face like a Kleenex and blew his nose....umm who does that? Well, this guy does.
I had never seen this before, nor have I heard anyone bring this up. I've given opinions on walking barefoot to the water cooler, not wearing shoes in the bathroom, and a host of other disgusting things associated with grappling and/or training in the martial arts, but to see this I was absolutely shocked. Now the real question is, what do I say? Well, I said what any hard training brown belt would have said... nothing. A mental note for everyone that is reading this. If I come to your academy, and I see you blow your nose in your kimono, I'm not rolling with you and I'm probably going to make fun of you. Please go to the restroom and blow your nose, and please wear your shoes when you go to do it.
Changing subjects
This weeks move is a very important transition, Half Guard to Full Guard. As many of you know I'm a Closed Guard player and having the ability to move between the variations of guard is very important. I really like this transition because it provides a lot of resistance on your opponent's hip using that leg that normally holds Half Guard. This move works great against people who like to base off of their feet and drive forward with their weight. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming having someone large and/or strong bearing down on you, and this move is a life saver.
Also keep in mind that you do not need the underhook for this move. Although I start off the video using the underhook, one of the great things about this move is that you don't have to have it and getting back into Closed Guard really eliminates the effectiveness of your opponent having the underhook.
Keep a close eye on how my body is angled and how that allows me to bend my knee and create space to get my leg back in. Try and rep it out a few times before you use it in rolling...and please remember to switch your hook in the back or you'll be cussing me out telling me how terrible of a transition this is.
The last topic of the day is about intensity. Different games (strategical planning) call for different levels of intensity, speed and pressure. I understand this, fully, and sometimes I have to remind myself that Brazilian Jiujitsu is an evolutionary process. You view grappling in one way when you're a beginner a totally different way as an intermediate and of course differently when you're advanced. There is no doubt in my mind that as I become better and more experienced my views will change again.
Sometimes I look at how people train and all I can think is “how is that helping you”. As an advanced belt I try to give advice, not just on technique but on concepts and grappling philosophy. The purple belts get it, they really do. I can sit a purple belt down, explain something to him/her and off they go putting it in their game (again strategical planning) and incorporate it into their training. Now the white belts, and even more so, the blue belts, are going to give me an ulcer.
Typically when I speak to a white belt they realize they know nothing and listen intently. Then when they understand it, they struggle to implement it. Almost like a child that see's people running. They understand that it happens by putting one foot in front of the other but all of that stuff that happens below the surface, the proprioception, that screws them.
The blue belts have another problem all together. They have enough of an understanding of how grappling works to be dangerous, but the truth is, most blue belts are their own worst enemy (myself included when I was a blue belt). This week I have been told on two different occasions to “not go easy” while rolling. I know I have talked about this in the past, but this time I took a different approach. Instead of getting irritated and explaining to them that it doesn’t help either of us to do that, I just gave them what they asked for. Although it can be an enjoyable experience to totally destroy someone and submit them 10 times in 6 minutes, I really thought that the blue belts might realize that maybe there is a better way to train.
I was horrified when these training partners thanked me and went on about their way. I really, really...really don't get it. I understand every once in awhile, but these guys want it like this all the time. How are they ever going to learn to underhook, move the hips, practice submission defense (every submission I want I took) and progress as a grappler?
So here is my advice to you lower ranking guys. When you get the opportunity to roll with an advanced belt, how about you let that person decide what intensity they want to go at? Maybe I'm just to much of a traditional martial artist, but I find it mildly disrespectful and insulting for to tell me to submit you. I'm fairly confident that I'll do the best thing for your (and my) training.
That brings this week blog to a close, thank you for reading and I always appreciate your comments.
The Gerbil
P.S. If you were a novice in boxing would you ask this guy to try and knock you out?
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So many people i blow with blow their nose on their sleeves. Like snot rocket onto their forearms. I just chalk it up to were training and being men so fuckkkkkkk itttt
^ Interesting post Gerbil....
Being lower ranked, when I go with higher ranked belts, I never try to dictate the pace and follow the pace of the one I am rolling with who is higher ranked than me. Hell, even if they are the same rank - I try and go with their pace. I feel good going at any pace and want experience doing it all.
I do find it hard to deal with guys who are letting me do things, and leave it so open that it is obvious which has happened a few times. I understand they want me to learn and they want to practice whatever position they would end up in but it does create a bit of an awkward feel. If something is given, I have a hard time taking it (as in an obvious guard pass or they they almost completely stop the roll). I have been told by a few higher ranked belts that I am to passive and generally to "nice".. If a guy lets me take his back, I almost feel guilty working hard for the finish.
When guys stop almost completely in the roll I almost feel a need to stop or slow down to do the right technique and almost always over think what I am doing...
Ive been rolling with a higher ranked guy a lot recently, who puts a good pace but allows me to attempt techniques and get positions, but doesnt stop and actually wait for moves (unless it is a move to reverse) - Then at the end we usually go through the mistakes I made.
This is the best way IMO (what do I really know when it comes to bjj though..lol) for a higher ranked belt to roll with a lower ranked belt, because the higher ranked gets to try new techniques while at the same time allowing the lower ranked to see what does and does not work while keeping a decent pace.
That being said, the community is great and almost all the higher ranked guys are willing to help if you are willing to learn...
BTW, great videos, Ive been able to practice a few of the techniques from your videos.... Ive been trying to avoid pulling full guard from half (always used to be my go to, so Im trying to add new stuff) but as a safety and another move to add - I will be practicing that one on monday. Great videos, thanks!
Being lower ranked, when I go with higher ranked belts, I never try to dictate the pace and follow the pace of the one I am rolling with who is higher ranked than me. Hell, even if they are the same rank - I try and go with their pace. I feel good going at any pace and want experience doing it all.
I do find it hard to deal with guys who are letting me do things, and leave it so open that it is obvious which has happened a few times. I understand they want me to learn and they want to practice whatever position they would end up in but it does create a bit of an awkward feel. If something is given, I have a hard time taking it (as in an obvious guard pass or they they almost completely stop the roll). I have been told by a few higher ranked belts that I am to passive and generally to "nice".. If a guy lets me take his back, I almost feel guilty working hard for the finish.
When guys stop almost completely in the roll I almost feel a need to stop or slow down to do the right technique and almost always over think what I am doing...
Ive been rolling with a higher ranked guy a lot recently, who puts a good pace but allows me to attempt techniques and get positions, but doesnt stop and actually wait for moves (unless it is a move to reverse) - Then at the end we usually go through the mistakes I made.
This is the best way IMO (what do I really know when it comes to bjj though..lol) for a higher ranked belt to roll with a lower ranked belt, because the higher ranked gets to try new techniques while at the same time allowing the lower ranked to see what does and does not work while keeping a decent pace.
That being said, the community is great and almost all the higher ranked guys are willing to help if you are willing to learn...
BTW, great videos, Ive been able to practice a few of the techniques from your videos.... Ive been trying to avoid pulling full guard from half (always used to be my go to, so Im trying to add new stuff) but as a safety and another move to add - I will be practicing that one on monday. Great videos, thanks!
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I'm glad that you're enjoying the videos, I'll do my best to keep posting them.
ProdigyOfZen
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Gerbil not to get too off topic but the new movie for Twilight is filming in the Lapa region of Rio, you should go over there and try to get in a scene with your Gerbil JJ Gi on!
that would be priceless. Random dude standing in GI in back of fight scene between vampires
what do you think?
that would be priceless. Random dude standing in GI in back of fight scene between vampires
what do you think?
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Gerbil not to get too off topic but the new movie for Twilight is filming in the Lapa region of Rio, you should go over there and try to get in a scene with your Gerbil JJ Gi on!
that would be priceless. Random dude standing in GI in back of fight scene between vampires
what do you think?
I think this might be the best damn idea I've heard in years. When is it filming and do you have any more specifics than "lapa region"?
ProdigyOfZen
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Well I just happened upon this article: Locals protest against Twilight filming | Herald Sun
There is also this article. Looks like it was at the Intercontinental Hotel. I don't remember there being one in lapa but i know there is one in Copacabana on the beach. You could search for "34 hostages held in Rio hotel" or ask around to find out about it.
Here is the article: http://entertainment.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978469712
Hope this helps, it is hard getting the exact location here in Dallas hahaha.
