Training with Terere

Training with Terere

Terere with Connection Rio Sponsored athlete and bad ass

 purple belt Abdallah Nabas

Terere is a cool person to train with because he is fun and always joking around during training. He is great at making everyone in the academy feel like family, whether they are students from the social project or tourists that will only be training a couple of weeks. Nabas scheduled his private lesson on Thursday, the day before Terere was leaving for the Europeans. I was actually surprised that he had time at all before flying out. Again that just goes to show you that he genuinely invests in his students.

Gringo Squad at Terere's Birthday Party

I met Nabas at the elevator that takes you up to the Cantagalo community so I could show him where the house was (and translate during the session). Terere was stuck in traffic so he ended up arriving about 20 minutes late. When we walked up the stairs that lead to his house his dad and mom who were waiting for us outside. His dad took us into the house and showed us up to the last two floors. The second to last floor is home to the new mats that were recently installed (and of course a nice stereo because, seriously, who trains without music?).The last floor is the roof of the house with the famed glass. 

Note: you can see Terere’s house from almost anywhere on my side of the community, his house is at the top of Cantagalo and it’s the only house with a glass railing at the top. In front of the glass on the roof is also the spot where most of his guest pose for pictures when they are invited to over for a BBQ.

The famed glass pictures:

The famed glass with a view of the Morro Pavao~Pavaozinho 

to the left and Copa below on the right. 

Terere's Dad and a student from Switerzland 

who has been staying at Terere's house

Terere and brown belt world champion Vlademir Alves

A lot of people wonder why Terere never moved out of the Favela after becoming so famous, these people have never seen the view from his roof. In front of you, ocean stretches out as far as you can see with cargo ships and cruise liners sailing in the distance. To the right is the Morro of Pavao-Pavaozinho where I live. At night the houses lights up the side mountain and you can always here Brazilian music coming from some distant bar.

From my roof you can see a little piece of the ocean, a basketball court, and a building that is under construction. From Terere’s roof you can see Copacobana, Ipanema, Pedra da Gavea, and Christ the Redeemer in the distance (you can also see my house). Nabas and I pulled up a couple chairs to enjoy the nice view while waiting for Terere. On the surrounding roofs people from the community where flying kites (this answered my question of how the hell they get those kites up so high).

This is somewhere in the CantaGalo community

Picture stolen from Mos (thanks!)

 As soon as he walked in he said hi, turned on the rap music, and started talking about Nabas’s game. Like I said before Terere is really fun to train with because he has such a laid back attitude and he is always laughing, smiling, and joking around, but the Terere that walked in that day was completely different. He spoke fast and formally, stopping frequently to allow me to translate. As he was turning on the (rap) music he started analyzing what Nabas was good at and how he would like to see his Jiu Jitsu evolve. Sometimes when you do private lessons the instructor will ask you what they want to work on, or they will teach positions that they are particularly good at although they may be unrelated to your own style. Terere had a different approach. He analyzed Nabas’s style while watching him roll at the academy and had thought about specific things he wanted to work on with him. (Note: like I said before this was an unscheduled private lesson, Terere could tell you about any of his students, whether they are there for a week or 5 months. He watches and analyzes everyone and always gives great feedback, even when you’re not expecting it or think you’re not being watched). He’s lesson was really competition oriented and he really focused on the mental aspect of rolling, explaining not just the positions, but the different concepts behind them as well.

At the end of the private class it started to pour down rain. Terere made us a protein shake and told us to hang out while he did another private lesson with a friend of his (black belt friend to be specific). It was still raining after that, so we hung out a little longer. Nabas got to roll with the black belt, and since I didn’t have a kimono with me, I sat and played with Terere’s Ipad. Afterwards when the rain let up we all drove down to the academy so he could say goodbye to all his students.

All in all it was a great private lesson, but it also made me realize how much I’m going to miss him the two months while he is gone…

Last training with Terere Before Christmas

Useful Information: 

Academia Fernando Terere

Contact:

Address:Rua Alberto Campos 12, Ipanema RJ, Brazil 

Phone: 3217-4194

Email: FTJiujitsu@hotmail.com

5 BJJ practicioners you should know as a white belt: Fernando Terere 

Terere Highlights

Projeto Arte e Libertade: Choking Out Children

Entrance to the social project. 

One of the major benefits about living in Connection Rio is that there are always people to drill with. Unfortunately, no one likes to drill with a white belt… except maybe my friend Moz. Well, I doubt he likes it, but he deals with me. My other good friend, he isn’t having any of this white belt drilling business! The feeling is mutual though, no one likes to train with white belts and I hate drilling with the higher belts because… well, because I don’t like to look like a twat in front of everyone (Twat: that’s the queen’s English for stupid apparently)!

Ferry ride over to the island

Well I’ve finally found the solution to my drilling fears: experimenting with small children. For the last three months I’ve been going to the social project Arte e Libertade and choking out 12 year olds. Now that might sound messed up, but I don’t feel bad because:

1.     .I just started being able to choke them out
   
   
2.  I said I was choking out 12 year old because the 14 and 15 year olds are choking ME out (in my defense, they’re big 15 year olds)!

So my new form of drilling positions is choking out children.

Beside the readily available supply of children to choke, the project has had an amazing impact on my life and the life of the students that attend classes there.

This would be one of the kids that I am NOT choking out.

Insert spiel about social project:

I started going to the social project in late October after being invited by Perninha, a brown belt that trains at Gordo BJJ (he is the one that is teaching me all these chokes to use on children). I guess after watching me get smashed by all of the bigger people at the academy, he took pity on me and brought me to the island so I would have smaller training partners. The social project has two different children’s classes depending on age, a small Muay Thai class, and then adults Jiu Jitsu. Apart from Perninha the only other person working on at the project is Eduardo Dias, or Tico as we all call him. He is the one that founded the project and it is actually located in his grandmother’s house.

Eduardo Dias AKA Tico

Founder of Projeto Arte e Libertade

When I lived in Barra da Tijuca, the social project Arte e Libertade (art and freedom) wasn’t that far away. Now that I live in Ipanema getting to Gigoia island requires me to take a bus over a mountain, walk down to the Passerala of Barra, and then take a short ferry ride (honestly why there isn’t a bridge to the island is beyond me). When I originally moved to Ipanema, I thought it would be a pain in the ass to come back to Barra two days a week. It turns out, going to the project has been one of the most stable things in my life since I’ve been in Brasil and it’s totally worth the effort it takes to get there.

Perninha's son in competition

What do I mean by stable? Living in the Connection Rio house was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t change for anything, but no matter how great it is, it’s still a hostel. That means that people are coming and going. You meet great friends that are here for a couple of weeks… some of them like Martin from Ireland you can convince to change their flights and stay with you longer, but sooner or later everyone you meet will go home to their respective countries halfway around the world. There are only four people who I’ve met in the Connection Rio house that are actually LIVING in Brasil. These people are the only other consistent thing in my life along with the social project.

Mateo leading the warm up

The project is also one of the only stable things in the lives of many of the children there. I realized this the other day when Perninha, for the first time EVER, arrived 15 minutes late. There were four kids there and complete chaos. Instead of acting like their normal sweet and disciplined selves, they were running around everywhere practicing some twisted mix of Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, and what should have been their warm up, while I sat and watched. It definitely occurred to me that I should make them do their normal warm ups, but trying to reign in the level of chaos that I was witnessing with my limited Portuguese was not an appealing idea. I mean, the word for warm up itself is hard to say (I have since been told that I need to learn to run the warm up).

At the mere sight of Perninha arriving (via Jet Ski I believe), they attempted to get in formation. Perninha is very strict. Some BJJ schools are less formal, Gordo BJJ is not one of them. Students line up at the beginning of class according to belt level in rows of three with the center student standing on the line that runs down the mats. Anyone that comes late forms at the end of the line regardless of their belt level. When entering the project, students are expected to bow onto the mats and greet the instructors and their peers in order of belt level. During class students are expected to pay attention and not have side conversations, that goes for the kids that come to watch class as well.

Perninha and his son Diego

In addition to following the rules of the gym, Tico and Perninha are always reinforcing the fact that they need to listen to their parents, wash and take care of their own uniforms, do well in school, and stay away from dangerous places or situations around Rio (i.e. a skate park by the beach where a lot of girls were being assaulted). In short, they are providing a lot of structure and values to children who aren’t always getting it at home (as well as teaching them cool ways to choke people).

The results have been amazing. The social project has one an amazing competition team and one of the largest amount of female fighters that I’ve ever seen at one gym. Not only do the kids go to competitions to support each other but their family members and other people from the community are also making a point to go out and support the team.

Girls @ competition showing off their nails that are painted

red and black for Gordo BJJ

Carioca Christmas

Me: Whats the baby oil for?

Answer: YOU CAN'T GRAPPLE ME IF I'M COVERED IN OIL

#TRUTH

One of the things that I was looking forward to the most when moving to Brazil was the complete and utter lack of Christmas. Yeah I’m not going to lie, I HATE Christmas! Most people think I’m weird for this, but while you’re sitting with your family nice and cozy in front of a fire place opening presents, I’m driving all over the place in the snow (or worse just cold, slushy weather), visiting one family member after another. So needless to say I was elated about hiding out in the Connection Rio house and avoiding Christmas in its entirety last year.

                                                                                              

Somehow my plans went horribly awry and here I sit, next to a shiny Christmas tree, writing my Christmas blog.

The first problem with my master plan to avoid Santa Clause was that I moved in with a Peruvian family two weeks before the dreaded Dooms days. As a matter of fact, the day I came to see the house here in Cantagalo (Ipanema), my new 7yr old little brother was clinging to his moms leg begging to set up the tree.

The second problem with my plan to avoid Christmas festivities was el Super Pollo. Super Pollo (and about 50 other places all with the “pollo” in the name) are Peruvian chicken restaurants that are scattered all throughout the DC metro area. You can generally smell the tantalizing aroma of rotisserie chicken and yuca from about 3 miles away… The stuff is AMAZINGLY delicious and is always served with the white and green Peruvian mystery sauces that NO ONE can explain.

Where am I going with this? Well, Peruvian chicken is amazing, Peruvian cooking is delicious, and there was no way in hell that I was going to miss a Christmas dinner of Peruvian turkey (complete with a yellow mystery sauce that apparently they don’t even know what it is, it’s some Incan pepper!).In South America, or at least in the Spanish speaking countries, not sure about here in Brazil, Christmas is usually celebrated on the night of the 24^th. That night we ate turkey, salad, and panettone, a popular cake served around Christmas time here.

I think the best part of Christmas was that Thiago, the smallest of my new siblings, was begging for a Chess board from Santa Claus. Why a Chess board? Well I came to Brazil to train Jiu Jitsu, however, the majority of my time off the mats I spend playing chess with Connection Rio Sponsored athlete and good friend Nabas. We spend about two hours a day playing a minimum of 3 games of chess (the majority of which I lose). Now that I’ve moved out of the Connection Rio house my chess games are what I miss the most. Yesterday we played two games on the beach and two games up on the mountain Pedra da Gavea. Well, Thiago saw us playing one day and asked that we teach him. He’s only 7 yrs old and he wanted to play chess so bad that he begged for a chess board for Christmas!

So I spent the 24^th in the house with the family but on the 25^th I ventured out to Barra da Tijuca to visit the Connection Rio house and my fellow Gringos. Before leaving Ipanema I met up with an X guest from the house in a swag little apartment that he was renting from someone he trains with at De La Riva. We went to the beach enjoyed the sun (and a little Jiu Jitsu) and then I headed out to Barra. I was supposed to be there at 6 P.M. to meet Nabas. I got there at 7 P.M. and he got there around 8 P.M. That’s how Brazilian time works.

A little Jiu Jitsu @ Ipanema beach

I rang the bell, walked in the door, and froze halfway down the path. I’ve never been to a frat party, but I’m sure they result in the kind of devastation that I saw in the Connection Rio front yard. About 20 mats were stacked up at the corner of the pool right next to a table full of empty beer, liquor bottles, baby oil (yeah that’s right, baby oil). The house was empty except for the person that opened the door. The unusual silence created quite an appropriate post-apocalypse vibe. Apparently what started off as a wholesome breakfast of maple syrup, good old American pancakes, and mimosas warped into baby oil. Wrestling singlets, and two or three things that are inappropriate to put online. The debauchery was then taken to the beach, which explained the nearly empty house.

When they did finally get back we proceeded to celebrate Christmas like we celebrate everything else at Connection Rio: with a BBQ (and um yeah there was more cachaça… and chess). Compared to the afternoon, the events of the evening were a lot calmer, however, the singlet did come back out again. I tried to get a picture when my chess game was interrupted by an inebriated wrestler but he declined (which was a smart move because the picture would definitely be posted below if I had one).

A PICTURES OF THE SINGLETS WAS  GIVEN TO ME TO POST!

BIG THANKS TO JOHN LAMB!

This is me, trying to write my blog... but I'm not 

while on the way to see the doctor... which I didn't

Instead drinking a Capivodka

What happens off the mats...

Praia Brava

Nicole: can you drink and drive in this country

Me: it’s Brazil… (Therefore, a stupid question)

As a 26 year old, aspiring athlete I strive to act as professional as I can both in person and on social media networks. Ok more on social media networks than in person, but I do try. I’ve spent the last three months training 2-4 times a day, EVERYDAY with breaks on Sunday and the occasional Saturday off. I don’t have a job, but I still wake up at 6:30 AM every morning, drag myself out of bed and head off to the gym to train, whether I want to or not. The past couple of weeks getting to the gym has involved an hour to two hour long bus journey over a mountain. While I have never been confident in my ability to fly, the bus drivers here in Brazil seem to be functioning off the belief that if they accelerate and take a corners and speed bumps at neck breaking speeds they may be able to fly through the air like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. While I have yet to see a bus flying through the air, I have, on multiple occasions, thought we would go flying of the mountain and plummet into the ocean below. (Note: if you'd like to hear more about the dangers of Brazilian transportation check out my friend's blog Tales from Deep Half) 

After three months of this and three competitions, I felt the need for a little break.

Lies. I was supposed to compete this weekend in Arraial do Cabo (3 hours north of the city), but the tournament was canceled so I ended up on a forced vacation instead.

No matter what the reason was, this past weekend I was in Buzio, Brazil with Nicole, the only other female in the house. Three months in Brazil, and this was my first time out (I means seriously I don’t even go out around the house except to get Acai). 

The first thing we did when we got to Buzio on Saturday was get coffee (I had been up for the past 24 hours, but that tale goes in the untold stories of Brazil). Immediately after that we walked down to Centro. Centro was a lot bigger than I expected with a ton of hostels, places to eat and more Argentinians than Brazilians. We got some cold beers and sat on the beach for a while before watching some break dancers in the Plaza. I don’t even think we had dinner, we should have had dinner because there was definitely several Caiprinha’s consumed that night.

Note: Caipirinha's are a popular Brazilian drink that has Cachaça, lime, and sugar. Basically, it’s a glass of hard liquor with a ridiculous amount of sugar.

Me in my burge

On Sunday, we rented a Burge (small car or big go-kart, however you want to look at it). For R80  (about 40 bucks) they came and picked us up from the hotel and we were able to keep the burge for 24 hours. What they didn’t explain to us before paying was that it was a 4 gear stick shift. Thankfully, my first two cars were both standard so I was able to pull away without completely embarrassing myself (in front of the cute guy that was showing me how to use the thing). After mastering the burge (because the clutch was crap, emphasis on the clutch being crap and not my skills as a female driver) we hit the main road (the only paved road) in the burge with a couple of beers and headed out to the beach. It was my first time driving out of the country and I have to say I’m pretty sure I was the only female in Buzio that was behind the wheel! We made our way to Praia Bravia a beautiful secluded beach with pink sand and…. More caiprinha’s. Perfect place to relax and enjoy a book. So being me I went three hours away to a town with beautiful beaches only to refuse to get into the water! According to Nicole the water sparkled and it looked like you were swimming in gold. That in combination with the pink sand made it a pretty awesome beach to visit.

However, while leaving the beach we discovered:

1. We were lost

2. We needed gas

Which leads us to exhibit A: 

Exhibit A: policia federal (not MY policia but policia all the same)

Exhibit B: answer to the question "can you drink and drive in this country"

Let this not be confused with the act of drinking. stoping. getting in a car. and driving. 

This would be drinking WHILE driving

It was at this point when we were somewhat tipsy and lost that I pulled over a cop car to ask for directions. Not only did I get a personal escort to the gas stations (again managing to NOT embarrass myself behind the wheel), but I also got a phone number, and a “date” if you will for when Mr. Policia Federal got off work later at 11 p.m. (note exhibit B).

After this experience I kind of understand guy’s fascination with nice cars… that definitely wouldn’t have happened had we been walking around with no need for gas or directions!!

Further exploits from Sunday night will be censored due to the fact that, “I’m a 26 year old, aspiring athlete that strives to act as professional as I can both in person and on social media networks”. Let’s just say the night involved several more police officers a trip to two private beaches outside of Buzio and a return escort back to our hotel at an ungodly hour of the night! Oh yeah there was 5 Argentinians in there somewhere as well...

Monday was a day for recovery we got up, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to Tortuga beach before returning the burge. Tortuga was another quiet beach located next to some very posh hotels and restaurants. We had a cup of coffee at a nice table the over looked the water (which was filled with people snorkeling). Afterwards we had to return the burge and return to our mundane lives as pedestrians! The fact that we were actually able to drive around definitely made the trip a lot more fun since were weren’t confined to any one particular beach/area.

Sunset from one of several overlooks 

Another random beautiful spot were these guys were fishing 

(never seen a spear gun before)

All in all it was an amazing trip and a much needed break from living in a house with 20 guys all of them time. Well actually, I don’t live in a house with 20 guys anymore, I live in Ipanema but that is a story for another blog post! 

Praia Brava (with the pink sand and golden water

Cem Kilos: Size matters!

If one more person tells me to shrimp out from under someone that has an extra 20 kilos on me I’m going to snap. After getting a taste of what it is like to fight with someone my own size I’m so over laying on my back and getting crushed from cem kilos. Jiu Jitsu is definitely a sport were small people can dominate someone larger than themselves, but seriously, technique can only get you so far before your being crushed. It’s impossible to shrimp out if you have 100 kilos bearing down on your measly 60 and an arm the size of your legs blocking your hips. “Try to shrimp”, they always yell at me. “I’M TRYING TO BREATH”, I want to scream back.

After three months of repeating this process every day I’ve come to the realization that trying to shrimp out is impossible. The only way to get out is to patiently wait for them to leave and opening (and stop yelling at me to “shrimp out”) and capitalize on it. All over possibilities lead to a waste of energy that eventually will result in me getting arm barred. Recently, I spent a whole seven minutes getting laid on, trying to catch my breath, and then defending the arm bar. When he couldn’t get the arm bar he switched sides and repeated the same process. For seven minutes I just laid there on my back. Complete waste of time.

The first time I rolled with people my own size it was like discovering a completely different sport. Jiu Jitsu is completely different when you don’t just lay on your back apparently. The techniques that they show you in the beginning of class aren’t just to tease you with stuff you will never get to do because you’re well… laying on your back. When you roll with people your own size they actually have to use Jiu Jitsu against you. They can’t just pick you up and well… lay you down on your back. They can’t just do a sit up when you’re in cem kilos and… you guessed it, lay you down on your back. Those techniques that they show you in the beginning of class, you can actually try them and see if you they work or not.  Amazing.

To make a long story short: size matters. 

Copa AlphaBarra

First time on the podium with Connection Rio athletes, 

Abdhallah Nabas and Andrew Morris

I've been in Brazil for two months and I'm now he proud owner of two shinny medals. 

The first medal I got last weekend after... well basically after doing nothing. Lost my first and only fight to a girl from GFTeam and won a silver medal.I was competing at the weight class above my normal weight (Not going to lie I was eating cake the day before the tournament) and I managed to not embarass myself so all in all it was a victory for me. Especially after everyone in the house had me stressed out about take downs (which I suck at) and pulling guard (which I have never, ever done in my life).

Repping my home school Renzo Gracie

Yesterday I competed for the second time at Copa AlphaBarra. After being registered in the men's division, and then being moved to the women's blue belt division, I was finally able to get myself sorted out and on the brackets for the women's white belt division were I thought I would have one fight... guaranteed silver.

They call my division, I go down to the mats, the first two girls fight, a girl from Gracie Barra wins and thinks she's done. Nope she has to fight me still, so we wait around some and to our surprise some other random girl from Nova Uniao shows up. So, I step on the mats to fight Ms. Nova Uniao, take her down with the guard pull thingy that I drilled maybe 10 times two weeks ago, and get a nice armbar. Nothing like a victory via submission.

One of my "magical" training partners

Afterwards, I wait around to fight the winner from Gracie Barra who is chatting it up with me about social projects. Ironically, she goes to  project Drive-In, a BJJ social project that I was planning on visiting sometime this week. So we exchange information and decide to trian together.

Just when I think we are about to step on the mats, they call me over and tell me I have to fight the girl that got beat in the first match. She pulled guard, but I passed mounted, and finished her in the first minute with a mounted triangle. I don't even like the mounted triangle but... hey it was there, so I went for it.

I step off the mats and the guy asks me if I want to rest. Rest? Who needs rest? Straight to the finals!

Well maybe I should have rested a little bit.

The girl from Gracie Barra was the biggest and the strongest of the three. I took her down and won on points. I couldn't have been happier, I went from what I thought was gaurunteed silver medal to fighting 3 times for a gold. Not only did I win the gold but I had the support from Master Weber, his wife Camila, my coach Perninha, the kids from Gordo's social project, Terere, and all of my friends from the house. I can't wait to get back on the mats tonight and prepare for the next competition in two weeks!

Leaving for my first competetion last week

What NOT to do for your first competition

I'm competing in my first BJJ competition today. 

Apparently there are a few things that you should do before your first competiton. 

1. Choose a gym. 
Being the genious that I am, I started training at Terere's gym in Ipanema with some of my friends from the house this week. In a couple of months I will probably end up moving to Ipanema and training there full time. Its an amazing gym to train at with great people and more importatnly... with small people. They have a big competition team, so they were the ones that helped me register for this competition. BUT how am I supposed to explain the fact that I'm fighting for a different gym to the people from Gordo's.

Training with the girls from Gordo's social project 

2. Choose a Kimono.
Second dumb thing I did this week was put patches on my favorite kimono from Terere's. I'm pretty sure its a requirement to compete for them but and they lured me in with these pretty, pink patches that match my Kimono perfectly. Now I have a Kimono with two patches from Terere, one patch from Renzo Gracie, and NOTHING from the school I've been training in for the last two months. Needless to say, I highly regret putting ANYTHING on that kimono and I'll now be competing in a different one that I don't like as much.

Training with 5x World Champion Terere

3. Choose a strategy.
Take down or pull guard? I've always considered myself to be pretty shoddy at take downs so pulling guard seems to be the logical choice for me.... EXCEPT I don't know how to do it. Never drilled it and as a matter of fact have never really seen it until last night (the night before the competition). At the house everyone is questioning what I'm going to do. If I was at home at MiKiDo that wouldn't be an issue at all. At MiKiDo we don't entertain doubts, its just a matter of stepping on to that mats, doing what we do, and bringing home what's ours.

4. Choose your company. 
All of this stuff has been stressing me out over the last 24 hours and I highly wish that everyone would stop bringing it up and just let me keep my head clear and focused on the competition. Unfortunately, when you live with 15 people it's somewhat hard to get some peace and quiet. Last night I had to get a little reprieve, so I went over to Gordo's to talk to Master Weber (who wants to see my compete tomorrow). Everyone advised me NOT to tell him about the competition since I'll be competing under Terere, but in my opinion, when the black belt that has been going out of their way to help you for two months wants to know something, you give him a straigh answer.

Ana marias (somewhat like twinkies) = Comfort food

On the bright side, I'm 2 kilos underweight right now so I'm going to get breakfast, drink my second cup of coffee, and enjoy the fact that even if I do lose my first match, I still get a bronze medal (because apparently they give out two bronze medals). So, win or lose, I can pretend that I'm a serious badass who medaled in Brazil and no one in America has to know