Since the start of the week the house has been full with BJJ enthusiasts from all over the world. Currently we have people staying here from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, France, the UK, Jordan, Germany, Netherlands and Poland. The belt levels in the house are as diverse as the people; there is a mixture of white, blue, purple, one brown and two blackbelts. With so much diversity we are constantly being exposed to new concepts and ideas involving both BJJ and life in general.
This post was written by Connection Rio team member Torryn Heffelfinger. He blogs weekly on life and training BJJ, wrestling and MMA in Rio de Janeiro. This is an excerpt from his weekly blog “Training the Dream”. Click the link to read the full post.
Because of the BJJ diversity in the house I spent a good portion of this week training with guys in the house. I got in several good drill sessions in with Mike, spending a lot of time on my guard game. Most of my game is either top or scramble oriented, so my technique from guard isn’t as strong as it could be. It’s not that I feel uncomfortable from guard its just that I tend to create scrambles to either escape to my feet or reverse, instead of using technical sweeps or working for submissions. While I have pretty good success with it, I recently realized I need to build a more technical guard game and show a little more diversity from bottom. Honestly some (and by that I mean a lot) of my technique felt loose and sloppy, which was both frustrating eye opening. That said I realize I need to work hard on it to turn the corner on my training. To make improvements you need to get out of your comfort zone, and that is what I am doing.
Photo by Vito Photography
The EPIC Connection Rio BBQ
This past Saturday CR had a huge sponsored BBQ, with many members of the BJJ and MMA community in attendance. Some of the guests included coral belt Sylvio Behring, Gordo, Terere, Liuz Dias, Cleiber Maia, Antoine Jaoude, and Claudinha Gagelha. Starting at noon we fired up the grill and continually had food cooking until after 6pm. It was great to have so many members of the community here together with the guests here at CR, talking BJJ, swimming, laughing, and eating delicious food.
Photo by Vito Photography
Also Bossa Boards founder Nicolai came over with some of his different designs and taught longboarding techniques. The road along the house was filled with gringos riding longboards with varying success. Having the different boards designs let people see just how each style handles and rides differently from the others. He even took a minute to switch out the bushings on my board and make a couple of small adjustments to make boarding better. Thanks Nicolai!
To finish the day off a group of us watched UFC 167 here at the house, while others went out to Copa to check out the nightlife. It was a great way to finish out the week, with friends, good food, and good times.
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