Day 11,12, 13: Last post

I woke up Tuesday morning afte a pleasant nights sleep followed by a glorious breakfast in bed (thank you room service). Yesterday during the class, while paired up with the big injured black belt, he told me his shoulder was playing up, as it always does before it rains. Thats right, he told me his shoulder could predict the weather, and that it was going to rain, a lot. Thats right, a black belt with a physic wether predicting shoulder..... needless to say I ignored the magic shoulder. Well back to Tuesday morning and as I walked out the hotel in vest, shorts and flip flops I was reminded quickly of the shoulders premonition, and everything I thought I knew about shoulders was proved to be wrong. It was absolutely pouring down. I had four blocks to walk back to Renzos, in which time I managed to step in a half foot deep puddle and step out without my flip flop, which meant I had to spend some time fishing inside said puddle for my shoe. Anyway I got back to Renzos and found a physio I could see within the hour and headed down for the appointment.

So the prognosis is that ive pulled my hamstring and have a slight tear in my lateral meniscus. Its not bad, but apparently could get worse if I dont rest it long enough. The physio said to take 4-5 days of from anything with knee pivoting/rotating (errrrrr, have you SEEN BJJ?). Anyway I was left with the choice of either waiting here till I can train again, which would give me about two days of training before I fly back. Or coming home earlier so I could get some treatment on my leg (physio is very expensive out here) and finishing my camp back home in Mill Hill. It was a long hard decision to make but after conferring with my coaches I have decided to come back early. I will be flying back friday afternoon and back in the UK on saturday. Its a shame to leave such a high class academy, but I feel this is the best thing to do in preparation for the tournament.

This shall therefore be my final post. I understand and apologise that this is a slightly premature and anticlimactic end to this blog. However I can assure everyone that the injury has only affected training slightly and will make no difference come ADCC. I very much appreciate everyone who took the time out to read my daily (or not so daily) ramblings. And a thanks to all the people who have spoken to me and messaged me with words of advice, support and encouragement, it is very much appreciated.

I cannot wait to get on the mats in Nottingham and to see all of you there. And if you do see me, please do not hesitate to come and say hello (preferably after I fight lol). Thank you once again.

Ape Out.

Day 10&11: You don't take a day off from Jiu Jitsu

Woke up Sunday. Still very achy. Didnt have much to do today, so saw it as a day to get a nice bit of rest and recovery, maybe try and get a massage to loosen up my neck/back. Spent a few hours chilling downstairs, chatted to Mauricio for a bit, GSP came in and Roger was late once again. By the time they got on the mat I was hungry so left to get some food. Went to pick up my laundry, it was closed, they had a sign up on the door (same sign that was on there yesterday), it read: "Closed early today - 5:00pm. Closed all day Sept 5th" (tomorrow). It was 3.00....... I was starting to get pissed off with them as its a long arse walk (for a knackered body) to get to. I had gone there yesterday, today (ended up going back again later, to no avail) and they were closed the next day. And I was running out of training clothes !!!! I made a mental note to myself to find a different place to go next time. I returned to the gym and started asking around if anyone knew a sports masseuse or if the gym had a "go to" masseuse for the fighters. The general reply I got was; there are lots of massage parlours and lots of "massage" parlours.... I was intent on getting an innocent sports massage to help a bit with recovery, promise! So to make sure I didnt walk into the some dodgy place I looked online for a sports massage clinic close by. Found one and went on my way, and I managed to find the only street in Manhatten that seems abandoned and all the buildings shut down/boarded up, including where this place was meant to be, so I head back to the gym to look for another place. When I get back, with it being a Sunday, the security guard had left, meaning I couldn't get back inside the gym! I waited for about 10 mins, trying to ring some people who were still inside training to come let me in but to no avail. And it was scorching hot outside, so I went looking, knowledge free, for a massage (MASSAGE!). There was a place a few buildings down for the academy, at the end of the street. It was above a pizza place.... I ignored this and went in. When I got in I saw the name; "The Relax Center"...... ok.... Il have faith. Anyway I wait a bit and a chinese lady comes out. She doesn't speak a word of English, however I try and make very clear that I want a "S.P.O.R.T.S....M.A.S.S.A.G.E" as I wasnt aware that "sports massage" was code for "happy ending" in any country. So I laid there half worried, half trying to relax, she actually wasnt to bad. It was relaxing and think it helped to relive some soreness in my back. However there was one "WTF moment" whhere all of a sudden this 4 foot 10 little chinese lady seemed to effortlessly leap 4 feet onto the massage table to stand on my back. After the massage she asked if I wanted any extra time to which I swiftly replied "No thank you!".

I went back to the gym to see if I could sneak in as someone left and luckily after a few mins I managed to do just that. Set up camp for the night, had some protein bars for dinner (as I couldn't go out for food), watched some Dragon Ball and went to bed.

Monday I woke up later as had been told that only Johns 1 oclock nogi class would be on today (it was a bank holiday here). When out for a really breakfast(!) and got back in time to train. I had a bad pain in the side/back of my knee that had been bothering me since saturday morning so was intending to use this session to gauge the severity. Big class again about 35-40 people (massive considering its a holiday) a included not only a host of black belts, but George St Pierre and Frankie Edgar, thats TWO UFC champions on the mat. John began again with standing techniques; a single leg entry, the guy steps back to protect the leg so you switch to the other leg, and take him down. The second technique the opponent is controlling both wrists, you do a nice maneuver to strip a grip and shoot on the leg, when the opponent defends you switch to a hip throw. Next its onto the ground, and a we doing passing the butterfly guard. John shows a very nice technique to pass called "the elbow slip" which kills the a knee without endangering an arm. Its a extremely tight pass, and doesn't allow for any space from underneath. Next is another pass from butterfly using double under-hooks, this is so tight it makes the last technique look as loose as an essex girls underwear. And can be combined with the elbow slip for people with short arms or weaker wrists. Next is a open guard pass from standing, it uses the angles to get into the guard at an angle and kill the hips, the guy underneath then has the choice to turn in, securing himself underside control, or turn away, which the person passing would then use to sink a hook on the back. From there if the guy defending does nothing the attacker secures the second hook and attacks the neck, if he defends traditionally by trying to get his back on the ground he falls into a twister (spine lock).

Next it was sparring. I went with the guy I was training techniques with, a purple belt around my weight. I had to go extremely light to not put my knee into positions where it would hurt/ be injured more. After the roll it felt tender so I decided to sit and watch for the rest of the session. After the sparring, normall the class would end, but John let everyone know that as many people decided not to show up today because it was a holiday; the rest of us would suffer. So we did 3 min rounds of drilling. I paired up with a big black belt who was also injured. The drills were designed to help movement and coordination and included (the ones I can remember): double shins under thighs to heel hook position to x guard, to sweep. Then guillotine defense from guard, and butterfly guard. And then turtle to crucifix position. At the end of the class John congratulates everyone for coming on whats meant to be a day off. He says that you will walk out here today knowing more than you did when you walked in, and this is the aim. And for fighter, that you were getting stronger and better while your opponents were getting weaker. He said "You don't take a day off from breathing. You don't take a day off from eating. You don't take a day off from Jiu Jitsu."

After the class I went for some food and returned, finding out I would once again be locked in from around 4 or 5 (as it was a holiday). Upon hearing this my parents very kindly found a nice hotel with massively reduced rates; about 4 times cheaper (YES FOUR TIMES!!), and paid for me to stay there for the night. I cannot explain how nice it was to sit on a real bed, with air con and a tv. I had a very pleasant evening in and went to sleep in my nice COOL room.

Ape out.

Day 9: Giants in my Garden

Saturday, so a much appreciated lie-in. I wake up around 11, a bit too late as I was actually hoping for a real breakfast this morning. But seeing at training is at 11.45 it was not to be and I had my standard breakfast of protein bar and Jack3d and headed downstairs. I had finished my first full week of hard training and I could defiantly feel it. Without my usual recovery routines at home I felt, quite honestly, battered. Today was pretty much a sparring class. So did a quick standard BJJ warm up of running around, star jumps, press up etc, you know the drill. And we begin as usual with some takedown entries, then some takedowns. An old friend from RGA was over in NY on business so we paired up and started drilling. After a while it was straight into sparring. First a round of specific sparring from the guard. Next its a partner change and into sparring from turtle. It was cooler today than usual (or im getting used to it), but still immensely humid. By the end of the second round of sparring doing anything to my opponent had become a near impossibility due to sweat. I was starting from on top turtle, and the guy I was sparring with wasn't that good, despite that I was slipping and sliding all over the place, it looked like a oil wrestling match they make half naked girls do in a nightclub to rouse the men up. At times the floor got so slippery that you would base on a foot or go to stand to move and slip and fall over, most annoying.

We took a quick break from sparring to learn a technique, we were shown a controlling grip from guard that allows a nice set up fro a bicep slicer, triangle or back take. Then back to sparring. I sparred a few more rounds and was gonna call it a day, considering how knackered I was, missing the last roll. However I was told by the instructor to have a roll with the "new guy". What this usually means is either "See if this guy has any skills" or alternatively "put his guy in his place", most of the time it means a bit of both. I accepted the responsibility and looked round to the guy he was referring to. Just my luck, there is a huge swedish dude standing infront of me. The guy is a purple belt, MMA fighter and 100kg. We have a extremely boring roll where if hes on top stands around and tries to pass my guard without engaging and when hes on top I follow suit. I think he passed my guard once and squashed me, catching me with a brabo. After class I feel even more knackered, stretch for a bit, go take a shower then go out quickly to grab some lunch.

When I get back I see that Mauricio is over. Mauricio Gomes is Roger Gracies dad, a red and black belt (hell yes!) and a good friend. Although he lives in Rio he is often over in London, and he looked after us when we were in Rio in 2008, and it was good to see him again. He was here to fly out with Roger to his MMA fight against Mohammed "King Mo" Lawal next weekend in Strikeforce (the reason Roger has been at Renzos the last few weeks, preparing). I sit and chat with Mauricio for a while until a familiar face rolls in. Its none other than dominate UFC welterweight champion George St-Pierre. He comes in, says hello and goes and shakes hands with everyone. GSP is renowned for many things; his great conditioning, his world class wrestling, being the greatest welterweight champ in UFC and arguable pound for pound the best fighting in the world at the moment. But most of all Georges is known for his humble and nice guy persona. And I can confirm this, I dont think i've ever met someone who is such a high level fighter, so famous and really, if anyone does, deserves to a bit arrogant; but be so humble. GSP, along with one of his training partners he brought over, go and get changed and jump on the mat waiting for Roger (as Mauricio say "Roger is always late. Its so embarrassing"). Finally everyone arrives and they move up to the top floor mat or "my garden" as I call it, seeing that the mat touches what could only be referred to as "my front door."

Within a few mins the numbers had picked up, probably 10 guys. Including Roger, GSP, John Danaher, David Branch and a handful of other MMA fighters. They spend 10 or 15 mins getting a sweat on, gloving up and oiling up (I frantically tried to get a pic of GSP holding a tub of Vaseline, as a harcore BJ fan, but I was too damn slow!!!!!). Finally everyone seems to be warm, and John Danaher takes to the middle of the mat. Now you would imagine that guys of the calibre of Roger and GSP (both undisputed world champions) would be in charge of their own training, but you would be wrong; John claps his hands twice, signally that everyone needs to be quite and come in (exactly how he starts everyone of his normal grappling classes). John commands the room of professionals and world beaters in the same way he would a room of blue belts. Its not in disrespect, but in a "I dont care how good you are, you are still students" way, which I found amazing. He said that since Roger was fighting in a cage next week he will be in the cage, and as there are no padded walls up here, everyone else will be below on the Muay Thai mat. John tells everyone there will be 4 5 min rounds of "shoot boxing" with a minute break in between each round. Shoot boxing is striking with takedowns, but no grappling, once your one your arse, its back to the feet and back to fisticuffs. John would later talk about this form of training as "the most exhausting style possible..... you never get a break". John was downstairs watching the others and sending up a guy every round for Roger while Me and Mauricio crawled into the corner between the ring and the cage to watch.

Roger first sparred with David Branch. Then GSP, then GSPs training partner, a tall powerful fighter, much like Rogers build, then Back to GSP. Now, I know all that everyone is interested in is knowing is how Roger and GSP went, but im not gonna go into detail, as I know for a FACT that King Mo has a scout intently reading every one of my blog entries (of course I joke). But I will say that GSPs clean takedowns (takedowns without clinching) are just as fantastic as everyone has been lead to believe from watching his MMA career. Roger is extremely strong in the clinch, and his striking is far better than many people think. Throughout the session its relatively quiet and all you can here is Johns voice from downstairs "Very good", "Nice", "Tres Bein". And when GSP took a while getting downstairs between rounds "Georges, hurry up!", *French accent* "Sorry John".

After the class most the guys: Roger, Mauricio, GSP, John, David and Jason (Rogers Thai coach) sat around in a circle and chatted, mainly tactics. Needless to say I sat and listened. GSP did most the talking, whats going right, whats wrong, you should do this, hes gonna do this, he cant handle that etc etc. It was very interesting, as you would expect, GSP has a wealth of knowledge about the sport, the stuff he said was both intriguing and made perfect sense. He took Roger and worked on some strategy stuff for him, showed him a move and drilled it with him. They then sat down, talking again, and as it usually does in training, jokes started being cracked and soon the tension from the upcoming fight vanished and everyone was laughing and joking. GSP said that Roger hit him with one teap (front kick) that nearly had him winded, and that "it was only his pride" that kept him from going down. *French accent* "Your Dad was watching, I did not want to look like a pussy so I stayed up. I was like ewwwwwww, eeerrrrrrrr, eeeeeeee". Everyone laughs, and disperses slowly.

I go out for dinner followed by chill and bed.

Ape out.

Fisitcuffs

The secret technique!

Tactics

"ewwwwww eeeerrrrr eeeeeee"

Day 8: Week in.

Once again, I awake nice and early (or not-nice and early. It doesn't matter what country i’m in, 7 will ALWAYS be too low a number to see on my clock when I first open my eyes in the morning.) So its a protein bar and a scoop of Jack3d for breakfast again (terrible I know but if you think i’m gonna wake up EVEN EARLIER to get a meal in, you don't know me very well!!)

So in a sleepy haze, I walk down stairs onto the mat (the convenience totally outweighs the negatives!). John is taking the class again. We begin, as usual, with some stand up. A two-on-one drag down into turtle, then the nice turn over into side/arm attacks, the same one John taught the first class I was here. So we pair off, and I spot a young man looking particularly stylish; fully adorned in Scramble gear, be like water rashguard and crossed swords shorts. Of course I have no choice but to pair up with a man with such a fine taste in fighting attire. The guys name is Alex, from Blackpool, England and a blue belt under Mario Sukata. He was in New York on a family holiday and decided to get a session in at Renzos; seems he picks his gyms as well as his training clothes. Next technique is from the “four point position”, this is a failed take down or otherwise that leaves the opponent facedown, on both hands and feet with his hips in the air. We did a nice way of blocking the shoulders and hips and dropping the guy down, but into a position where he couldn't stabilize his base and therefore drops half onto his side. From there, as long as your weight is placed correctly, its extremely difficult for the guy to move and either you more round to side with an arm to attack, or he attempts to get to his knees and you move to the opposite side once again with an arm to attack.

After this we went into sparring. Once again, 4 6 min rounds. Me and Alex rolled first. Turns out he's a fan of guillotines as well, and as he attempts to submit me with my own move I must quickly return the favor ;). Anyway we have a good roll. And its nice to speak to someone from England; as although they’re meant to speak English over here, its seems that half the people don't understand a word i’m saying most of the time!?!?! After rolling with Alex I spar with a couple of other people. At the end of the class John calls everyone over and informs us that although monday is a bank holiday “holidays are for the weak”, and classes will run as usual, and anyone who misses mondays session will be “punished”.

One thing I noticed while half a sleep warming up this morning was the number of Renzo Gracie logo tattoos on the students. With my tired eyes I spotted at least 3 or 4 Renzo Gracie “Lion logo” tattoos on peoples inner biceps, and there weren't that many people wearing short sleeved T shirts or rashguards. I’ve seen at least 3 or 4 others with the logo on their chest as well. I find it fascinating, the loyally and dedication that is shown when you put your teams logo on you forever, it seems like, as many will find in Jiu Jitsu, that the team is less like a team, and almost like a religion. That there is something that binds its students together far more than simply: “I live closest to here so I train here”, this either means that the academy is run as such a tight nit, family unit or that Renzo is great at brain washing people..... I suspect it’s the former.

After the class I take my collected bag of dirty training clothes to the cleaners to get washed and go get some breakfast. I have the afternoon to kill until training with Roger et al at 5.30. I do my now routine “bottle-of-water-buy” at Starbucks to use their wifi for a few hours. I’ve been wanting to get the internet in my room (just to pimp it out that much further) so I went to get a 3G “dongle” you plug into you laptop. Now correct me if im wrong, but in the UK a 3G dongle is about 20-30 quid max, and buying download memory isnt to much more, RIGHT?!? Well over here, you’re looking at $150 for the dongle and $50 to start you off with some memory!!! BEFORE TAX!!!! Needless to say, I spat out my metaphorical coffee and left the store. But not easily defeated, it was not long until the Raspberry Ape had formulated a plan and even shorter before putting said plan into action. I went into T mobile and purchased a sim card for my Ipad. It cost me $50 and allowed me to access the internet through 3G on my Ipad. Having previously jail broken my Ipad; unlocking its FULL POWER MUHAHAHAHAHA (except less dramatic). I then download a program that would allow me to use my Ipad to create a wireless hotspot that my laptop, as well as my phone, could access. And VOLA internet on my laptop, Iphone and Ipad anywhere in the United States. And only about $150 dollars less. I love it when a plan comes together (and possible advice for anyone considering buying a dongle in America (or anywhere). I will add that Iphones can also be jail broken and used to create a wifi hotspot for a computer).

Anyway, after all that excitement it was time for training. I get changed and jump on the mat. And not the most welcoming of sites; it seems like the group is once again 4 of us: Me, Roger Gracie (about 100kgs and oh, only the best BJJ fighter ever to live), David Branch (UFC and Bellator fighter, BJJ black belt and around 90kgs) and “Jerry” Rinaldi (2 time NCAA all american wrestling champ, BJJ black belt, silver medalist at ADCC and only about 100kgs). Its was a long tough session. We did about 5 rounds of closed guard sparring and 4 or 5 rounds of free sparring. I didn’t sit out a round and felt a lot better than when I rolled with these guys the first day I got here, maybe getting used to the heat a bit more everyday. Although it would be a bit nicer, if while Roger is throwing you all over the place, he at least ACTED like he was putting in ANY effort. A good session. I visit my now “go-to” Japanese restaurant for dinner, before chilling a bit and then going to sleep.

Ape out.

Day 7: Photo tour !!

Being Thursday there was no nogi classes. So I did a bit of weights around midday. Walk around NY and spent a while in starbucks on the internet.

I also, as promised, I took some pictures of Renzos gym. This blog has been very void of anything but letters, so I thought id take one giant photo dump on all of you. Hold your breath and enjoy.

The lobby/team trophy room.

The main mat area !!! It is very big (this pic only shows half of it!!)

Side mat area. Other classes go on here during main classes.

First floor. Muay Thai mat with full length cage wall. Nearly never without someone hitting someone or something. (Photos were taken at night when locked in. Like a ninja.)

Second floor. Another big matted area, normally MMA or something going on here. Backs onto my room.

Ring at the back of the matted area.

Full cage behind the ring. I normally wake up to Roger kneeing people in here.

Now the crazy stuff! The mens changing room is a standard changing room you'd find in any gym. However I managed to stumble across the womens changing room (innocently). And it is INSANE. Without a doubt the nicest changing room ive ever seen in a gym ANYWHERE (BJJ, MMA or even a commercial gym)

Showers and toilets with Renzo Gracie logo etched on!

Check that shit out !!!!

Finally, my room, REVISED. Now with entertainment centre (laptop), luxury blow up bed and air conditioning (fan, stolen overnight from the male changing rooms. Also it sounds like a turbo jet taking off, but worth it for the coolness).

Hope this brings some insight into one of the biggest (maybe the biggest) BJJ gym in the world.

Ape out.

Day 5 & 6

If you didn’t realise (cos your probably not paying that much attention), I didnt post yesterday. This is primary because nothing of much interest happened; I had a bad nights sleep monday night due to a combination of the unreal heat in my room and the mat I was using as a bed (its not one of those nice soft mats you get from thousands of hours of being walked over, thrown onto and rolled on top of. It was one of those brand new mats, that are so dense it leads you to question whether you've stepped off the concrete floor onto the tatami yet) This left me to wake up yesterday morning with not only a extremely sore neck, but tired and in a pretty bad mood. Theres no nogi sessions on a tuesday (or thursday) so I was left not really knowing what to do with the day. I go downstairs and Rogers there. He tells me that were doing wrestling at 5 so be there, cool. Anyway I have a large portion of the day to kill, so I go for a walk. I walk up to times square (about 15 min walk from the academy) to look around. Its a crazy place. Huge sky scrapers everywhere, massive billboards and tonnes of people. The area in and around times square reminds me a lot of central London, on steroids (as most things in the states seem to be). I get back and Roger has to take Renzo back to the airport but the others would be here apparently. I wait around a bit and no one shows, oh well. I go to grab some food and when I come back do a bit of weights but its hard to motivate myself to lift in such heat and with no one to lift with (Im used to training in Mill Hill with a group of guys, listening to 80’s power ballads running around, shouting and lifting shit. Hard to stand in a gym by yourself and move iron once your used to that). Anyway I have a very short work out, buy a blow up bed, steal the fan from the changing rooms and get to bed. Another early start tomorrow.

I wake up at 7, class starts at 7.30/8. One big plus about living in the gym is all I have to do is walk downstairs and im at training. I have some nuts and Jack3d again for breakfast (need to sort that shit out) and head downstairs. Bigger turnout than monday morning. Probably 30 guys on the mat. Mr Danaher was taking the class again. We started standing, with a front headlock to ankle grab and then snap down from single arm thai clinch to ankle grab. Nice takedowns. We move onto what to do when the opponents stands in guard; One from if he stands in a narrow base (lock around the knees and sweep to the side) and one from a wide base (ankle grab and take him backward, simple stuff but with some nice details). He then taught a very nice open guard movement drill, De La Riva guard to heel hook position/guard (don't know the name) to both shins on the thighs and ready to double ankle sweep. Nice drill. We then do sparring. 4 6 min rounds, I roll with a couple of very tough guys, both brown belts. one was around my weight, about 5 foot and a solid ball of muscle. The other guy was huge, probably 95kg. Hard rolls, I feel a lot more tired than I usually do. Think its to do with the god damn heat (maybe lack of food). I must note one interesting thing about John. He calls all the moves by their original (japanese) name. Including stuff like arm bars, I found this very interesting, it also meant I didnt know what he was talking about half the time hahaha.

I have until 7.30 for the next nogi class (about 10 hours) so I decided to go for a walk back down and around times square. I spend most the day in cafes and restaurants stealing their wifi. Pretty much how I made my way from the academy to times square; get a ice tea in pret a manger, spend and hour or so on the net there. Walk a few blocks. Get a smoothie in Starbucks, hour there. Lunch in a sushi place, hour there. I got up to times square and decided to find a place I could both cool off (very hot here) and kill some time; cinema, perfect. So I find a cinema in times square, and ive never seen anything like it. From the outside (and even the lobby) it seems like a normal, standard sized cinema. Except it had 5 floors!!! And not 5 stories, 5 FLOORS each floor was about 2-3 stories from floor to ceiling. The place was huge. The screen was also probably the largest movie screen ive ever seen (see what I said about yanks and stuff on steroids). Anyway, needless to say I went to watch (make that re-watch) The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (awesome film!!!). Also it inspires me, in the same way a lot of people find Rocky inspiring.

Then its back to starbucks for a bit more wifi. Then back to the academy for 7.30 nogi class. The class was quite, between 10-15 people. It was being taken by the guy who's apartment I stole over the weekend, his name was Max. Max was a brown belt and physically a beast. Around my height, maybe a bit taller, 90kg, shredded, the look of a wrestler. He taught some nice double legs and single leg switches. One of the biggest things ive noticed here is the number of stand up grappling techniques (wrestling) taught in every class. Its without a doubt the weakest area of my game, so its nice to learn some takedowns and I hope to get into wrestling more in the future, especially as I will look to move more into MMA soon. On the ground we do a nice last ditch effort sweep from when the guy is passing the half guard and then a knee bar from on top of half guard, which is very useful as there is very little movement from the set up to the finish, making it sneaky, I like sneaky.

Then came sparring. My first roll was with Kay, a brown belt girl, very strong and extremely tough, she toughed out a lot of chokes that a lot of guys would of tapped to. I then rolled with Max. He was extremely strong and explosive and we had a very good roll. He couldn’t pass my guard and I couldn’t sweep or submitted him, but we both had a great time trying. The small class meant that it wasn’t as humid/hot/sweaty as the other classes i’ve done, which I can assure you was greatly appreciated. I then rolled with 3 or 4 more guys. Blues and purples. Maybe a bit to do with the heat (or lack of), but for the first time out here I was finally starting to roll like myself. A good session. Now to pick up some food. Steal the fan back from downstairs and sleep.

Ape Out.

The man, The Myth, The Rashguard

Before I start I would like to talk a bit about “hurricane” Irene. If you saw my post from yesterday you may of gathered that this storm of apocalyptic magnitude was in fact an apocalyptic let down. From what I could tell absolutely nothing happened apart from some mild breezes and very light rain (and im NOT under exaggerating).

So the monday morning nogi class starts at 7.30. Which meant I was up at 6.30 (thats right, 6 fucking 30 !!!! believe it or not !!!). This gave me enough time to tidy up the apartment as the owner was back today, and pack all of my stuff back into my suitcase. I managed to consume all of my dooms day supplies which left me nothing for breakfast apart from some vitamins and a scoop of Jack3d. I left my bags in the apartment and would come back to get them after the class.

So I get to the gym, get changed and get on the mat. Only a few people there. One of the guys tell me that the class doesn't really start til about 8 despite what it says on the timetable and that John doesn't do a warm up so get warm now. I stretch a bit and another guy comes up and asks if I wanna roll a bit, I agree. The guy is older, probably mid 30’s. About 5’7, 80kg and solid. I assume hes a blue or purple as hes just wearing a regular T and non branded shorts (smart eh?). Anyway I intend to roll light and just move around a bit, as im still half asleep. Of course after a few mins that goes out the window as the guy tries to pull me apart. He is extremely strong with a monster base. He doesn't do much but is hard to do anything to. But does one thing really good; horrible chin strap control, he keeps reaching around my neck, clamping onto my chin and bending me around to pass. Its very uncomfortable to say the least, this leads me to believe that he is a wrestler, god damn Americans and their wrestling. Anyway we roll for a bit, no much happens apart from my guard getting passed and then me recovering. The class is about to start so we stop, once again I feel like ive been roughed up a bit but a strong wrestler low belt and im a bit pissed. I ask him what belt he is; black.... ok makes more sense. Been training 10 years. I ask if he wrestled; yes, for 9 years before starting BJJ. Ok, makes more sense now, and once again I feel slightly better about myself. I make a mental note to not judge peoples belts on what they look like anymore.

The class has filled up a bit. Probably 15 people (apparently very quiet and theres usually 30-40 people). The instructor walks on the mat, and guess who it is in his famed attire; John Danaher and his rashguard. This is great, ive always wanted to be taught by John. For those who dont know who John Danaher is (you are fools, but I shall explain anyway). John is a legend amongst the BJJ and MMA community. Despite never fighting he is widely regarded as one of, if not THE best grappling coach in the world and some of his more famous students include the likes of George Saint Peirre, the current UFC welterweight champion. Im excited to say the least to have my first class with the legend.

He starts off with some takedowns, a very nice adjustment on the single leg position (I shall not be going into details on any of the techniques I learn out here, if you wanna know you just have to come to one of my seminars when im back ;D ). Then a counter to a defense of the single leg. We then hit the ground, we do a very slick way of taking the arm from the turtle position into a kimura, then armbar. His details on the techniques are very specific and taught brilliantly. Then its time to spar. We do four six min rounds. I spar with a whole lot of guys, mostly blue belt. One of the guy im about to start rolling with I assume is a blue belt due to his rashguard (for the most part the students wear rashguards coinciding with their belt rank). But then I remember my mental note and ask him his grade, he is a black belt hahahaha. Thats one of the weird things about training here; the sheer number of black belts on the mat, that you don't even realise they are! I guess that what happens when the sport has been around in the country for so much longer, I suspect it will be similar in the UK in 5 years or so. I have a good roll with the black belt, but he is a bit smaller than me (a rare occurrence here).

Anyway we finish training and it was a good session. Afterwards I thank John for the class and introduce myself. We start talking about how blown out of proportion this “storm” was. Some yanks come over so we start to mock them about how much the city over reacted. We end up sat around in a group chatting for about an hour. The conversation topics go something like this: You guys made such a fuss about nothing, which led to talking about the Japan earthquake and how amazing the Japanese people were. That led onto how America would of acted much worse which went into talking about “when shit hits the fan”. That turned into talking about guns, that segwayed into knives and swords. Then into killing people/animals. Then into ancient battles, into cutting peoples heads off. It was a interesting discussion to say the least. (Which also made me think I need to move to America so I could buy a load of guns).

After the morning session I went to get my bags out of the apartment. The superintendents wife buzzes me in and lets me into the apartment room. I walk in a realise that the owner has already come back, and is face down a sleep in the bed (studio apartment so nowhere to hide). I switch into ninja mode, pack up my stuff, zip my suitcase up and exit swiftly and silently (my definition of silent anyway) the guy must of been a deep sleeper because he didn't move an inch. I head back to the academy, dump my stuff off, eat, go pick up some sheets and a pillow for my mat bed and get ready for the 1oclock nogi class.

Unlike the morning class this is packed. At least 40 people on the mat maybe more. I comment on this and am told that this is still small and theres normally 10-15 people more!!! There where a tonne of black belts on the mat and MMA fighters including current UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. John is taking the class again. From standing we do stuffing the single leg attempt into a forward throw, backwards throw and stomach to stomach toss. Very nice stuff, which when demonstrated by John is made to look unbelievably elegant and effortless (not so much when I did it). On the ground he explain a principle in BJJ about how when a guy goes to attack he has to extend his limbs, this means that if the attack fails there is a small moment where the limbs are at risk and can be counter attacked. We did two techniques based off of this principle. One from a arm bar defense into a counter achilles lock and one from a triangle defense to counter heel hook. Both techniques were AWESOME. And I hadn't seen either set up from those position before. Then it was onto sparring. Sparring was good, I didn't go too hard as I had already done a full sparring this morning. I did spar with one older guy called Gene, now this guy was not only a awesome black belt but he was fricking enormous!!! 110kilos and solid as hell, just one of these simply massive people. He rolled amazingly nice, it was like a grizzly bear play fighting with one of its cubs. Its all very nice, but the whole time I had the feeling he could rip me in two if he felt like it. Very nice guy.

Anyway Class was over, I stretch for a bit, and then watched some of the other guys rolling. I find the black belt fights at the mundials unbelievably boring, you wanna watch some good jiu jitsu? Come and watch the guys rolling during and after the 1pm nogi class at Renzos. Amazing to watch. Then John Danaher started rolling with a very high level black belt. Wtf..... it was amazing, he wasn't putting in ANY effort and was just mangling this guy up repeatedly, I’ve never seen anything like it. He's so smooth, so fluid, so precise in his actions. And emotionless, the whole time he's throwing this guy around it looks like he's doing tai chi.

Anyway, time for some more food. Then its chill out for the rest of the day. Try and make my room a bit more homely/comfortable. Excuse me for the long post. Also, Renzos been in Brazil and just got back today, saw him earlier and said hello. Hope to see him on the mats soon.

Ape out