I returned today from the 2009 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Brasileiros’ in Rio.
I wound up getting second in my division.
This made me pretty happy as it was a huge competition with a lot of talent. The first fights went very well, but in the final I ran into problems with a very strong fighter.
Other than that, it was a good trip, short, but with a lot of really good training.
(Full results of the competition are here.)
BJJ Brasileiros
What have I been doing?
I’ve not been writing on this blog, but I’ve been training a lot as well as preparing for the new arrival.
After the South American Championships, I’ve fought in two other tournaments and won my division. It makes me a bit nervous, though, since tomorrow I am going to Rio for the Campeonato Brasileiro de Jiu-Jitsu. I feel like I have been on a bit of a roll, and I don’t want it to end.
But that is what I’ve been doing, training BJJ twice a day, running about every other day, and lifting weights.
Wish me luck!
I have had a couple of emails from people who want to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Porto Alegre. If you are coming here for a short period of time or for an extended trip, and want to train BJJ, feel free to send me an email. bkoplitz@gmail.com
My instructor is happy to have people come by and train BJJ with us at the academy. Visitors are welcome and received with open arms.
I think that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu needs a shorthand notation of the movements and positions.
Too many times I’ve tried to read text-only blog entries about positions and have had them stop making sense halfway through. For example, people will start talking about an attack from side-mount and then talk about moving your hand to attack, but forget to talk about which hand they mean. The one by their opponent’s head? Or the one by their opponent’s hips?
The thing is, I know I do this, too. I take notes on classes and I know that if I passed them to someone else, they would be lost.
I was asking Susi about how ballet teachers write down their movements they make during a dance, and she told me about dance notation.
So, my proposal is, invent a BJJ shorthand notation. Anyone want to help?
This is a type of dance notation. The image is from Wikipedia.
Lately I’ve been thinking about offense and defense in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and this is what I’ve come up with: There is a definite line that divides what you are doing into either an offensive or a defensive move.
I know there is nuance in this, there are aggressive-defensive moves and defensive-aggressive moves, but at some point you have to chose to defend or attack.
The nice thing about BJJ is that when you are defending, it is really hard to attack. So if you can keep pressure on, keep blitzing your opponent the entire time. It is easier to setup other attacks.
For example, if you are going for a person’s arm and then you are having trouble getting them to stop defending it, you can apply a weak choke attack to get them to free their arm so you can revert to your first attack.
This is what I am calling Binary BJJ, if you are defending (0) then you cannot attack (1).
The pressure that attacks cause is what separates this sport from chess. It is a lot harder to relax and think about what would be the most efficient attack you could make when you have a forearm cutting off the blood to your brain. The defense is a lot more urgent, and there isn’t as much time to mull over your next move.
I just returned from Florianopolis where I was staying with Luiza and Paola. They were super-hostesses and I really enjoyed my time with them. We went to the best pizza place in the world, it is called Pizzaria Cica. If you ever go to Floripa you should go.
I went there for the 2008 South American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championships. I was a little nervous going into it, as I was recently promoted to purple, as I’ve mentioned before, but I was really pleased with my performance.
The results: I won my division, and got second in the absolute.
Here is a video of the last few seconds of the finals in my division. I’m the one applying the triangle choke. 
Also, on the road there, the road works people blew up a hill, which was really cool.
The weirdest thing just happened. Right after I wrote that post about wanting to be able to save my BJJ game: I got my purple belt! It came a huge surprise. My instructor Flavio Ferreria gave it to me after a seminar that he and De La Riva gave here in Porto Alegre. I’m super-grateful and honored.
I just had a chat with my BJJ friend Tran Nguyen from London. He just received his purple belt (Congratulations!) and he mentioned how it was nice to receive it so that he could “save his game” like a video game.
That is exactly how I feel. I don’t really want a new belt for a new belt’s sake. I’m more concerned with getting to the “purple level” in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game. That way I can save my game and if I move, or get injured, I can come back to the game and start from there, instead of spending another couple of years as a blue belt. I don’t need the strokes from the higher graded belts, but I would like the insurance policy.
In other news, I started boxing this week, which I am really enjoying. I started because I am trying to drop a couple of kilos for the South American BJJ championships next month. I think this is the magic bullet. A friend of mine, Sergio, who is an American who has been living in Porto Alegre for a long time, is helping me train, and it is incredibly hard work. My back is pretty sore, but it is really fun.
Flavio showed me a great move today. I was almost caught in it by another person training at the gym. It was the “bicep slicer”, which is a pretty ominous sounding name. Definitely one of the nastiest submissions in BJJ. I found a great page with instructions on it, specifically attacking from butterfly guard. One thing I might have added to the instructions, is to open your knee away from you when executing details missing, but the best part was that Flavio showed me how to get out of it! It involves, defending the butterfly guard attack, putting your knee on their chest and posturing up, then using your other knee to break their grip. This move is only allowed by black belts, but it is good to know.
Tomorrow I am going to go train boxing. I’m looking forward to that. There is a gym in Porto Alegre that is owned by an American.
The gauntlet has been thrown, I hereby challenge Matt Damon to a cage fight.
Matt, don’t pretend you haven’t read this, I’ll say it again, in case you don’t read so good: I challenge you to fight me.
You pick the rules. I prefer a no-holds-barred contest. You pick the location: be it a ring, cage, octagon, or shark filled waters, those are all fine with me, but I prefer something within walking distance of my home.
I eagerly await your response.
Chicken …. bawk bawk bawk.