Moving to Brazil Part II

Its because of the 1000 posts per thread rule. Something about clogging up the server.
 
Yes. All sections of the forum get the same rule. There would be one in the sports bar with over 200,000 now. But have to lock it after 1000 each time.
 
(For those of you who missed my last blog post I will repost it here, consider this me "making the new thread official")

Hello from Rio. We have had a solid week of the best weather anyone could ask for. The temperature has been that perfect balance where it's hot enough to go to the beach but not so hot that it makes training difficult. In fact, the weather was so perfect that even my instructor commented on how lucky I was to have such beautiful weather in what should be a time of intense heat.

Training continues as usual. This week has held some good classes but with no major breakthroughs or setbacks. I'm still struggling to fight off the injuries while dealing with a body that hates me more and more every day. When I wake up in the morning, I play a game. In this game I lay very still and try to guess what is going to hurt on my first attempt to get out of bed. I've gotten pretty good at this game and it provides a tiny bit of comic relief in a situation where I would otherwise be upset.

My ankle is feeling almost 100%. I don't have any more pain but I'm skeptical if it's ready to have the pressure of shooting wrestling take downs. My knee is feeling much better, I can almost contract my knee fully, but I'm still having a hard time touching my heel to my butt or allowing someone to compress it fully in butterfly guard. The real problem is my back, which is a constant source of problems.

Throughout the day my back nags me with inconvenient pain and at times my back “goes out”. In addition to random intense bouts of pain where my legs want to stop working, my arm has been going numb when I sit at my computer desk (one of the reasons that the blog is a couple of days late). The really annoying part is when I train, and I'm warmed up, my back has almost no pain at all. So I have to try and guess what is going to make my back feel better or worse when it's not giving me any feedback at all. I get to play a totally different type of pain guessing game at night when I lay down and let my body cool down.

Even with all the injuries I must admit that the overall situation is a good one. I can still train and I'm making progress, and it's noticeable. I think the weather has a lot to do with everyone's high spirits. When you can get out of the house and enjoy the culture of Rio, life just seems better.

Speaking of culture, the Broadway show Cats has come to Rio for a little over a month. When I saw the commercial for it as a movie theater preview I knew instantly I wanted to go. I remember 15 years ago when my parents went to see the play. They took this great picture in front of the theater. It was before their hair started to go gray or their skin started to wrinkle. They both looked so happy and it is this picture that I think of when I think of what my parents looked like when I was a child. I'm not sure if that plays a role in my desire to see the play, but I was probably more excited to go see it than a 29 year old man should be.

I talked Kathy and her daughter into going with me to see the play (ok, it helps that she had a car and knew where to buy the tickets). It was over an hour car drive but we got there within plenty of time so we took the opportunity to shop at the tiny merchandise stand. I was slightly disappointed by the selection of T-shirts but against odds I found one that I really liked and happily purchased it. To celebrate the occasion (the play and the shirt purchase) I took my picture with one of the Cats signs.

SAM_1963.jpg


We then proceeded to our seats and waited for the play to begin. As we sat down I looked around and realized how great our seats were. We purchased one of the tables around the front of the stage. When I turned around and saw how many seats there were behind us I started to get excited, obviously I had been more eager to see the play than some of the other guests because we had gotten the better seats!

The lights dimmed and I was so excited that I could barely contain myself. I wanted to see men and women dressed in cat suits, dancing, singing and entertaining me stat! The whole theater hushed as cats tumbled and cartwheeled across the stage and then it happened, I was metaphorically slapped in the face.

The only sounds in the auditorium were the singing, dancing, and the whooshing wind sound created by my jaw hanging open. Much to my disbelief, they were singing in Portuguese...F M L. I tried to calm myself by thinking “ok, ok,...ok, I've got this, I practice every day. I can do this”. I then spent a solid 30 seconds trying to understand what was being said, but I have problems understanding people speaking slowly, and directly to me, never mind singing. I resigned myself to enjoying the dancing and aesthetic pleasures of the show.

I do not know why I thought the show would be in English. Maybe it was because a lot of their music is in English and they show contains a lot of music, or maybe it was the fact that I go to the movies every week and I see those in English. Regardless of my reasoning please, keep in mind, when seeing a theater production in Rio it is more than likely in Portuguese.

Changing subjects

As usual the house got together and went to watch the fights at Bar Oswaldo. For the last fights we got there about half an hour before the fights started but there was a group of people sitting directly in front of the TV, who upon seeing that the fights were playing, decided not to move. So this time we decided to show up two hours early, eat some food, and watch the prefight show.

The fights were really good and the food was decent. But watching the fights as a group is one of those rare occasions where the outcome is greater than the sum of it's parts. At home getting together with my friends, watching the fights while laughing and joking is always a good time. Here in Rio it is exactly the same. The best part is everyone who comes to watch the fights knows how to grapple and has various levels of fighting experience. It makes for some great arguments, intense gambling (about R$1 a fight or .50 U.S. Cents) that is immediately settled by the results of the fight.

The spirits were high so I had this picture taken of some of us while we were waiting for the fights to start.

SAM_1947.jpg


I haven't had a chance to tape any new techniques in a few weeks so I decided to dig into the archives and bring out this Half Guard to Back transition. While this position is not fancy or flashy, it is a staple part, or at least should be, of anyone's half guard game. There are plenty of different ways to get to the back from this position but having this lapel grip almost insures that you're going to get a positive result.

Make sure when you feed that lapel that you have the “thumb up” grip and drop your elbow into the armpit. This will lock the position and you should feel VERY secure here. Make sure to keep an eye out for an opponent who back steps and be ready to take his back if he does. As always if you have any questions about my video you can ask and I will respond as quickly as possible.



Another piece of very exciting news; I had a lot of responses to my blog concerning a logo. I am happy to report that after communicating with a couple of the people who responded we started working on producing a logo. There were was a lot of concept art and over twenty revisions but I am happy to report that I officially have a logo and I am happy with the results. Here is the official logo accompanied by a few of the colored versions.

logojpeg.jpg


color1.jpg


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I will have patches made this week and they will be put up for sale on my website. T-shirt design has already been talked about and I'm excited about some of those plans too. When those are finalized and I actually get one to take a picture of I'll be sure to post it for some feedback. I would also like to hear what you think about my logo.

For those of you who are interested in my Russian housemate, Igor, he has agreed to take a couple of MMA fights while he trains in Rio. His first fight will be November 30th and then he will fight again on the Jungle Fights Promotions in December. If he wins his first fight that night he will have to fight again. That will be the equivalent to three fights in three weeks. His focus will shift now from Brazilian Jiujitsu and his training will encompass more striking and wrestling. For those of you who don't remember he was a two time silver medalist for Muay Thai in Russia (not that I know how good the Muay Thai is in Russia).

Regardless of what happens it will be a great experience for Igor and it has the possibly of getting his name out there. I feel bad for whoever has to fight Igor because I am absolutely, 100% certain, that they do not train as hard as he does...I've never seen anyone train as hard as he does. Think of Rocky V where Stallone fights Lundgrin. Look at how hard they both trained for that fight, now take the mental intensity of those two fighters and add together their training and that would be Igor...he's a monster. I'll talk to Igor and if he's cool with it I'll post his fight videos in the blog so you guys can see what kind of destruction he can inflict.

Thanks for reading this weeks blog,

Until next week,

The Gerbil
 
I love that light blue logo, that's fucking cool! I'd love to have that on a hoodie or t-shirt!

Great blog update, I keep forgetting to check up on it so there's definitely a huge back log of reading material. So much for homework.
 
Always appreciate the instructional! I think you are a good teacher, :-].
 
Sorry to hear about Cats... I can totally feel your disappointment... After living in Thailand for about a year and hearing and speaking Thai every f'ing day I finally went to what I thought to be an English language movie only to find out that it had been dubbed in Thai... :icon_sad::icon_sad:


Gerbil: I hope you don't mind me posting this link to additional Gerbil wear... it's the same link I sent you some time ago... Just let me know if you'd like for me to remove it.
Gerbil Jiu Jitsu T-Shirts, Gerbil Jiu Jitsu Gifts, Art, Posters, and more

As for you logo, I like the top two. Have you considered putting two gerbils in a single logo??? There's a reason I ask, I've got the great story involving the inherient symbolism between two rats/gerbils... Let me find the story and I'll send it your way...

DW
 
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does...I've never seen anyone train as hard as he does. Think of Rocky V where Stallone fights Lundgrin. Look at how hard they both trained for that fight, now take the mental intensity of those two fighters and add together their training and that would be Igor...
Didn't he fight Drago in rocky 4?
 
By the way, your Cats experience is similar to my experience of watching Sony Chiba's, "The Street Fighter," (A kung classic) at CCSP.

Get there. Ask in my terrible Portuguese where to go for the film. Some nice people, who can't speak English, point me in the right direction. Hyped to watch Kung Fu movies in Brazil. . .

The film is in Japanese, of course. And, the subtitles are Portuguese, of course! Just like you, I had that, "Okay, I can practice some Portuguese, I know some of this stuff."

I definitely knew when someone was talking about You, or I.
 
By the way, your Cats experience is similar to my experience of watching Sony Chiba's, "The Street Fighter," (A kung classic) at CCSP.

Get there. Ask in my terrible Portuguese where to go for the film. Some nice people, who can't speak English, point me in the right direction. Hyped to watch Kung Fu movies in Brazil. . .

The film is in Japanese, of course. And, the subtitles are Portuguese, of course! Just like you, I had that, "Okay, I can practice some Portuguese, I know some of this stuff."

I definitely knew when someone was talking about You, or I.

Nothing beats the surprise factor of watching a bootlegged DVD from the streets of China!

Watched a HK comedy (in cantonese) and put on the English subtitles. Movie starts out with a couple at a restaurant just chatting and flirting.

Subtitles:
"Alpha team in position"
"We're moving in!"
"We're taking fire! Take cover..."

:icon_chee
 
It's because Jeremys tales and adventures are so epic it can't be contained in one thread.
 
It figures that you try and experience something cultural and relaxing and it ends up being a course finals in Portuguese 402, haha.

I'm digging the orange logo at the bottom, very nice.

Also, that transition from half to the back looks like a MUCH more solid way to get there then how I was taught. It's not even that fancy. I will admit, everytime you said to banana your body I laughed hard.
 
top left logo is cool.
your logo is missing a triangle though.
all jiu jitsu logos need a triangle, no?
 

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