Part 4 - BJJ clubs in Rio

Rio Open Jiu Jitsu competition at Tijuca Tennis Club
 - many great fighters have fought here

A long time overdue, I finally got down to penning this piece I promised myself about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu clubs in Rio de Janiero.

Before I begin some general advice regarding Kimonoes (Gis, th eclothes you wear in Jiu Jitsu)- take at least two with you. I'd advise not to have any patching or club affiliations. The first advice doesn't really need an explanation (unless you don't mind having a foul smelling kimono most of the time, a good tactic to disorientating your opponent!) whereas the no-patches and club affiliations advice needs a quick word. From my 5+ years in the sport I've come to know that many of the senior level practitioners, black belts etc, are very tribal and club loyal. From the various schools that have branched out from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, many of them will first ask you what club you train with and your background. So from from what I observed, you're seen as a target. "Get this guy and let him know that our club is better", "he's wearing a so so Kimono, why is he coming here" etc. Next time I'll avoid have any patches on my gi, and if anyone asks, I'll say "I've trained in Cuku land". Its a place where the patches are non-existent (and many other things are non-existent aswell :)) 

Fabricio Mauricio's academy

In any case, I hopped around and tried to check out as many BJJ clubs as I could. The closest one to me was Oswaldo Alves gym on Av. Copacabana a block away from the beach. It was a tiny and run down gym. The people weren't very friendly and I didn't really get a good vibe so I promptly left. The gym next in line was Fabricio Jiu Jitsu. It was located on top of a local convenience store a bit further down on the same street. With the bustling street, there's no indication there's a gym located directly above but there's a noticeable yellow sign which is hard to miss indicating a gym up above. The guys in the academy here were the most friendly and welcoming. I was approached and given a breakdown of the prices and times. I liked the mat space and the level of students. I didn't commit to a monthly plan as I still had a few gyms to hop around and check out but in the end it was the gym I frequented most often. My Kimono of course drew attention and a few students wanted to test me out. Coming back from a shoulder injury and still feeling slightly weak in certain movements, I was a bit hesitant doing some of the exercises but I continued nevertheless. I met Fabricio Mauricio, the head instructor, red and black (coral) belt 7th degree master. He was an amazing guy and he gave me a lot of focus. There were many older fighters there and some of them were amazing for their age!

BJJ lineage of Fabricio Mauricio

I went to two other well known gyms, Brazilan Top Team in Leblon and the legendary Carlson Gracie academy in Copacabana. I had to pay homage to both of these historically significant places as they have churned out some amazing fighters.Carlson Gracie is probably one of the oldest academies to date. I only went once to each place but had a good roll at both. There were a few foreigners at both places. 

One thing I did notice about all the gyms, is that they were all very run down and simple. There was no luxury to it. You could see that a lot of blood sweat and tears were expended in all the places.

In the end, it was an amazing experience and if you are a lover of Jiu Jitsu and have the money then its well worth a visit. I have to give a massive thankyou and heap of gratitude to http://trainbjjinrio.com as they were invaluable in presenting info and pinpointing the locations of the academies!


Part 1 - Carioca for a Month
Part 2 - Hoped for an Interview, Only Got a Picture!
Part 3 - Amazonas

Identity

An interesting comment on an article in the Guardian. It just a one of a plethora of debates which have sprung up after the revelation of 'Jihadi John'. Well worth a read. Although the title is a bit misleading, it addresses some pertinent points which young Western Muslims face. 

What do we ask young people to accept when we ask them to accept the norms of our society? We ask them to accept a society in which self-seeking pays. Failed bankers get big bonuses. The very rich continue to get richer at the expense of everyone else. Leading politicians like Straw and Rifkind are clearly on the make. Most Westminster politicians haven't got two political ideas of their own to rub together. Sexuality, especially in its feminine form, is constantly exploited for commercial gain. Politics is more and more vacuous.

That's our world.

Young people, other than the most docile and passive, will have a sense that this can't be all there is (before life has knocked out of them any hope that there can be a better world).

As Kenan Malik says none of this justifies the choice of joining with a group of killers who make a virtue out of their brutality. But it helps us to understand why some young people are looking for something different and why they may have learned to distrust what almost everyone from parents to politicians says to them. In those circumstances even the idiotic claims of a bunch of political thugs can come to seem like an alternative.

The real basis of radicalisation is the death of meaningful politics in our society. Who believes that any result of the election in 2015 will lead to fundamental change? A few tribal party loyalists maybe, but hardly anyone else.

Maskarova

They buzz in the UK skies constantly. Putin says it will continue throughout 2015. Who knows when this buzzing will turn into a sting. The bombers from Russia are being escorted out of UK airspace more frequently. The Russians are known for their deception tactics and silent invasion. Ukraine is a case in point, the method they entered so stealthy without any soldiers and insignia was masterful. They were simply known as the 'green men'.  No time was given to prepare as there was no troop movement or heavy artillery detected. But now its a full blown invasion.They seem to be mastering this art and its certainly working well in Ukraine. Maskarova as its known in Russian is deception at its finest....

Media Spin

"Those who can make us believe absurdities, can also cause us to commit atrocities"

- Voltaire

Make of it as you will.

Clear as Mud

 “Are you confused by what is going on in the Middle-East? Let me explain. We support the Iraqi government in its fight against Islamic State (IS/ISIL/ISIS). We don’t like IS but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia whom we do like. We don’t like President Assad in Syria. We support the fight against him, but not IS, which is also fighting against him.

“We don’t like Iran, but the Iranian government supports the Iraqi gov’t against IS. So, some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies are our friends, and some of our enemies are fighting our other enemies, whom we don’t want to lose, but we don’t fight our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.

“If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less. And, all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren’t actually there until we went in to drive them out – do you understand now?”

- A Contributor to the Daily Mail - Aubrey Bailey

Developments

Been a while.

Traveling, work and whole host of adrenaline pumping events has made me a bit slack on the blogosphere. I'm sure that you must be really missing my posts people (seriously).

Anyway a lot of developments and changes on the face of this earth - no not climate change, I mean people and Politics. Problems in Ukraine seem to be boiling over. Sanctions from the west and import bans
from Russia. The big bear sabre rattling and flexing its muscles once again. The Middle East - gosh, where to start. One common theme is there seems to be a lot of hidden hands at play. Gaza war, so called Islamic State, Muslims fighting Muslims, Sisi takeover, Libya rising again all seem to be making the region more and more unstable. I think there's something serious brewing in the region, lets hope the lives of people are spared and I mean the lives of hundreds not just one person. Over to the other side of the globe, the shooting of the unarmed teenager Micheal Brown seems to have reignited an age old issue of racism and discrimination within the US police force.

There's a lot more that can be said but lets take it easy after such a long break! In the mean time, check out the Youtube channel of VICE news. Seems like they have a good pool of unfiltered news. Directly from the eye of the storm on occasions! Well worth a browse.

The Past

"We can only judge the future from what we have suffered in the past"

Heard this from a movie little while back. I guess you can put this into perspective with life as well not just the subject of history. You can only learn and move forward in life if you learn from your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes but the key thing is to think of them in hurdles. That way there will be nothing that can halt your progress in life! Improving and advancing. The past is the past!