(Post 1/2)
Another week has slipped by and I am sure that everyone has been wondering about the update.
I wish I had some great training sessions to report about but unfortunately last week I broke my ribs. This is a recurring injury (the third time it's happened) and although I am not surprised it happened I am bummed out.
The worst part about breaking my ribs is it happened at another school. Mark and Paul both wanted to go train at De La Riva school and I agreed to help them out by going with them. The had never been there and having someone along that can speak Portuguese is always a plus when you don't know exactly where you are going.
The trip there went extremely smoothly and the school was not hard to find as long as you know how to read a street sign. As we entered the gym and found the matted area we were greeted at the door by De La Riva himself. He had a large smile on his face and welcomed us into the gym, told us where to change and did a great job of making us feel welcome.
As we turned to get changed I was approached by two guys who shook my hand and told me they read my blog and how much they enjoyed it. This was the second time in my life I've been recognized and it was still a shock to realize that real people actually read this stuff that I write. It motivates me to continue writing even wen I would rather be doing something else.
After changing we went back into the matted area and did a light warm up which seems to be typical of most gyms in Brazil. Both cardio and technique refinement seem to be obtained through roll time or grappling time. Then we worked two sweeps from open guard, one being a variation of De La Riva (seems kinda cool to work it there). Then we moved into some roll time. I was pared up with a pretty good size black belt and he asked if I wanted to start in guard or with him in my guard and all I could think was "wow, I wish it was this easy all he time". Of couse I said that I wanted to start with him in my guard and we commenced to roll.
He postured up (like every purple belt or above does in Brazil) and I went to sit at an angle and when I did my ribs just popped. It took all of about 12 seconds to happen and me being the thick headed individual I am I didnt stop immediately. I opened my guard and started to shrimp out thinking maybe I had just pulled something. It kept hurting like crazy and felt like being stabbed in the ribs over and over. Long story short he very nicely passed my guard, took my back and choked me. Then we started over.
I put him in guard to start again, tried to sit up and of course got the stabbing pain, I open my legs, he very nciely and gently passed again and I bellied down and went to all fours. As he went into the top turtle position I went to roll through for a knee bar...probably not something you should do with broken ribs and as I verbally tapped half way through the roll he let the pressure off of me and allowed me to unfold.
As I tried to sit up and move to the sideline I could feel my ribs moving freely on my right side. They were grinding and popping all over the place and De La Riva himself went to get me some ice (or at least he asked someone to do it for me and then handed it to me).
The reason I'm including any story at all about how this happened is not because I want you to cringe or feel sorry for me, but I really want you to understand the classy treatment I got at De La Riva's gym. I have been a lot of places where they beat on the new guy and try to take advantage of them and this was NOT the case at all. The black belt I rolled with was skilled and very nice technically with me when it was apparent that I was injured and everyone went out of their way to make sure that I was ok and provided for to the best of their ability.
I really wish I could give some more information about the school as far as technical ability and grappling ability but anything I tell you now would be complete speculation because I cant say with any certainty what it's like off of 12 seconds of grappling. I can say that it is a clean and safe training environment with plenty of high level BJJ players and I would recommend it as a place to train to people.
Moving on to more happy topics,
When taking my mother back to the airport Monica and I decided to park the car and wait with my mother until her flight. The airport is actually set up so that you can spend more times with your loved ones before their departure which is nice. It reminded me of the pre 9/11 days when you could actually go down to the terminal and watch them take off in the plane (although you cant do that here).
After my mother got done checking in her baggage she needed to use the rest room and we started walking in that direction. I saw a guy coming towards me wearing a tapout shirt. I'm not sure how many of you do this, but when I see some asshole wearing a tapout shirt I like to scope them out, size them up and then make a mental guess as to wether they even train or not. Typically it's some musclehead fan that thinks it's cool. I used to get really jaded about people wearing MMA gear or apparel although now I just take it as a good thing and acknowledge that other people are showing interest in my sport.
Anyway as I got ready to take a look at this newest couch potato wearing a tapout shirt I realized it was.....
...that's right Big John McCarthy. I've met my fair share of famous people and I'm not typically someone that is "star struck" but I'm a big fan of Big John. While fighter come and go out of the UFC and MMA in general, Big John stays in the game. He's been one of those upstanding figures in the MMA community since LONG before it was popular...it makes me wonder what Big John thinks when he sees people like me wearing Tapout suff.
I chased him down (literally running after him) and asked him for a picture. I explained that I was a huge fan and I am very glad to report that Big John is a super nice guy. I'm not sure if he was in a hurry or not, but he stopped and talked with me for a few minutes and then went to check his luggage at the counter. Evidently the guys who owned the fight production from the night before were dropping him off so that he could go back to the states.
I stood there and talked with them for a few moments and they asked were I trained and then after a few minutes talking with them the guy offered to get me a job teaching English down here...wow....
As the conversation continued Big John came back in and started asking me about my training, how long I had been in Brazil and where I was going to train when I got home. Then he suggested some places for me to train in CA and encouraged me to keep training. The whole conversation spanned about 20 minutes and I was pretty stoked when I left he airport...a good day, meet Big John and get a job offer!
