We are travelling in Northeast of Brazil right now and are getting ready to go Carnaval tomorrow in Olinda.
So if I don’t respond quickly to any emails, I might be dancing my wonky Samba in street, instead of sweating and cursing in an un-airconditioned Internet cafe.
(And the only training I am doing is running around on the beach.)
There are really severe ups and downs in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Some days you can do almost anything you try, other days, you can’t do anything.
I have a theory about this. One that has kept me going in the times when you want to pack it in and go home.
So here it is:
Whenever you feel like you are having a great day, your opponent is having a crappy day, and vice versa.
For me, lately, it has been pretty close to 50/50. Good day, crap day. Of course that could be a self-fulfilling prophesy, but to demand good days just doesn’t work.
At the very least, this lets you go easier on people who are having a bad day when you in top form. And this, along with the fact that I live incredibly close to the gym, keeps me going when I’m in a funk.
I am certainly no zen master (for example: I really wanted to throw my malfunctioning alarm clock out the 10th story window today) so I’m not going to start selling self-help books. But I think we’ve all felt the roller-coaster of emotions of training, and it is far too easy to quit.
We returned from Rio today.
It was a lot of fun, and no crime to report. The only thing that was remotely dodgy was the fireworks on Copacabana. There was a small explosion on one of the barges offshore from which they launch the fireworks and then the fireworks started to shoot into the crowd.
It was chaos. It felt like a war zone, large colorful explosions, lots of smoke, screams, and stampeding. Susi, completely unperturbed by the whistles and booms was packing her bags. She obviously couldn’t hear me as I tried to yell over the screams, “Just leave it!”
We met up with a number of different friends from London and spent a lot of time on the beach. I also went with Roger to train at Gracie Barra, which was great, but a bit humbling. There were more black belts than any other belt and they were all really friendly and helpful, as they smashed you. (Roger’s Mom wrote a book about Carlos Gracie, to be released in March, which I am looking forward to reading. In Portuguese, gulp…)
Rio is a great city. I think by far it is the most beautiful in the world. The natural landscape is breathtaking and the people are really nice. I’m sure that we will go back to visit again soon.
I’ll put up some pictures soon.