My Experience Training in Abu Dhabi, and How They Can Improve BJJ There

Training with the black belts in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi

If you read my last post, then you probably know that I’m back in NYC. After spending 5 months in Abu Dhabi, having a great time, meeting some cool people (like Lucio Linhares), and having some awesome training, it was time to come home. I’m really grateful for all of the jiu-jitsu practitioners who welcomed me with open arms (and armbars, triangles, and rear-naked chokes), and to the black belts who taught me so much. My jiu-jitsu has improved greatly because of their willingness to take the time and help me out during our rolls. I had a great experience in my training, which was both enlightening, and humbling.

That being said, I do have this to say about jiu-jitsu in Abu Dhabi – it’s focused too much on competition. I commend what the sheikhs are trying to do there, and understand that they’re trying to spread jiu-jitsu to that part of the world – and quite frankly, I think it’s awesome that the princes and rulers like jiu-jitsu – but building all of the jiu-jitsu around competition is too extreme. While I was there, I had white belts and blue belts training with me like their life depended on it. Forget about rolling as if they were in a competition match, some of them were training as if they were in a UFC fight.

The learning focus is also on competition, meaning lower belts learn moves they think will help them win competitions, and they still don’t know the basics, and have trouble executing things like the knee-elbow escape in a live training round. These are some of the dangers of having the entire focus of jiu-jitsu on competition. Don’t even get me started about the obsession with points.

What the Emirates need now to continue to grow jiu-jitsu are actual jiu-jitsu schools. For example, the place that I trained wasn’t exactly a jiu-jitsu school. The black belts who are in the country have a space inside of a sports center, where they put down mats and they train every night. Then they set up classes for the lower belts, and two black belts volunteered to teach the class. They weren’t even getting paid. I can’t thank them enough for teaching us just for the sake of teaching us. The sharing of knowledge is a fundamental principle of any martial art.

Several formal schools and dojos have started popping up, such as the Nogueira school in Dubai, and are beginning to teach self-defense jiu-jitsu, and more traditional Gracie jiu-jitsu, and I think as more of these dojos open, the jiu-jitsu of the Emirates will start to shift out of the extreme, and won’t be focused entirely on competition jiu-jitsu.

There is nothing wrong with jiu-jitsu competitions in and of themselves – I’ve done a few myself, and I’m not saying don’t compete (I’m merely echoing the calls of Helio Gracie), but as we see, competition jiu-jitsu is separating from traditional jiu-jitsu. It’s becoming something else – it is becoming a sport. And what that means, is that it’s slowly becoming less and less of a martial art. You have short, timed rounds, which means competitors increasingly have to rely on strength and speed to win, and you have a points system that gives merit to positions considered lower on the spectrum in traditional jiu-jitsu. None of these principles align with the principles jiu-jitsu that was created with. As far as competitions go, they should be to have fun, to have the opportunity to roll with jiu-jitsu practitioners from around the world, and to bring the people of the gentle art closer together.

Oss! See you on the mat.

Helio Gracie on Competition Jiu-Jitsu

I Turned My Living Room, Into A Dojo (Updated Photos)

For a while now, I’ve been thinking about converting my living room into a place where some of my friends and I could roll. Now don’t worry, I’m not giving up my living room. In Abu Dhabi, most of the houses are built in a certain style, where the houses have two living rooms – a large one to show off to your guests, and then one that you actually use. I turned the large one into a mat space, so now guests can come over and roll!

It took me a few weeks to even find places that sell any type of grappling mats here. After scouring the depths of Google, I finally found two stores, one in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai. One said they could ship the mats from Brazil, which probably would have been ridiculously expensive, and the other was charging outrageous prices. A friend told me about a place where they sold cheaper puzzle mats and I went with those.

The fun actually started after we bought the mats. We went to the store, and I picked out 28 mats, 8 red and 20 grey. I’d originally wanted black instead of grey, but

27 1mx1m mats in the back of a very small car

they didn’t have enough. Turns out, they didn’t have enough grey either (I’m still missing one grey tile. I have to go back to the store for it). The guy loaded them up onto a large cart and followed us outside to our car…. our very small car. Since we’ve only been here a few months, we still have a rental car, and as you can see, it’s itty bitty. I don’t even think the back area is one meter wide. We had to fold the mats a little to slide them in. The guy from the store and I walked out, looked at the car, looked back at the mats, and then looked at each other. Then he goes ‘don’t worry, it’ll fit.’ I said ‘let’s do it!’ With my mom in the driver’s seat, and my little brother in the passenger’s seat, I folded the backseats down forward as much as they would go, and the store man and I proceeded to stuff 27 1mx1m mats into the back of the car. Turns out, they actually did fit, although they reached the top of the car. I had to squish into the passenger’s seat with my brother, and my mom couldn’t use her rear-view mirror, but it all worked out in the end.

Once we got home, I had to pry all the mats out and carry them upstairs, and then the next day I got to work. I had to clean both rooms, sweep and mop that sort of thing. I had to move the dining table in the smaller room, then drag in the sofa and television from the bigger room, and figure out how to arrange them. Then I started laying out all the mats, and putting them together. All together, I think it came out nicely. Now I can do drills at home, as well as other calisthenic workouts we do in jiu-jitsu, and get in some extra training on the weekends when I invite some of the guys over. What do you think?

Oss! See you on the mat.

The Before & After

The Transformation

 

The mat’s reaching up to the ceiling, packed over the backseats.

The Journey To Black Belt: Who Have You Lost Along The Way?

Next time you finish your jiu-jitsu class, and you and your fellow classmates are lined up before your professors, just take a second to look around. If you’re a white belt, I want you to remember all of the faces in the room. Will they be there six months from now? Six years? Will you? If you’re a blue belt or higher, are they the same faces from the first day you started training? Of course, there will be new faces, new white belts training,  but are your partners still on the journey with you? The ones there since the beginning. Who have you lost along the way? Who have you let down?

There are many reasons the faces on the mat change, and if you’ve been training long enough, you can probably think of many people you’ve trained with who are no longer at the dojo. Some may have moved, yes, and some may be struggling financially. Others become seriously injured. Life can get in the way of a person’s training, but what about the ones who stopped training for no real reason. We’ve all been there, those lows in our training, where we just don’t feel like getting on the mat. It happens, and that too is a part of training, a part of pushing through the challenges. The question is, were you there to help your comrades push? We do it on the mat – we roll hard, teach each other and help each other, and push each other when we’re struggling to finish that last set of pushups. That’s what a good training partner does. Are you a good training partner off the mat?

Do you help out your friends if they’re struggling financially? Do you get them into class and help them train around their injury? Do you call them if you haven’t seen them training for a few weeks, to help them get back on the mat? Do you help your partners train through adversity? That’s part of being a good classmate. How many of us would appreciate a friendly call to put us back on track after not training in a while? I’m sure we’d all appreciate it if we had a training buddy that would help us keep training while we’re injured. A black belt is someone who gives without seeking anything in return. You may not have a black belt tied around your waste, but you can still do everything in your power to act like one, to build the character of a black belt. Black belts help others no matter what, plain and simple. Wouldn’t you like the same people who started jiu-jitsu with you, who began the journey with you, to be with you when you earn your black belt? I want the same guys I started the journey of white belt with, to start the journey of black belt with me as well. Don’t let your friends fall off the wagon, or you’re doing yourself a disservice. Hold on to the people you’ve trained with, because you’ve trained together, sweat together, laughed and cried together, bled together, won and lost together, succeeded and failed together, but most importantly, you’ve learned and grown together. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your training partners even closer.

 

Oss! See you on the mat.

What You Learn From Rolling With Black Belts

So last night was my first open mat. I got there early, and 20 minutes later some people started to show up. We waited around on the mats, stretching and doing light individual warm ups until some other people showed up. Someone set the clock to 7 minute rounds, with maybe a minute and a half of rest. Then we got to work. I was kind of unsure of what to do as this was my first time, but then a black belt around my size noticed my distress. He just called me over all casual like, said oss, and we started. I decided to follow his pace. I wasn’t going to be that guy – the guy who rolls as if his life depended on it, when his partner is taking it easy. Sure enough, we had a slow, very technical roll just to get the blood pumping. I played open guard, and I really liked that sometimes, he let me just sit there figuring out what I wanted to do next. My next roll was with a white belt who wanted some help, so I did a couple of rounds with him. After that, I rolled with another black belt who was a bit heavier than me, and this roll was a little more fast paced, and he applied a lot of pressure but he wasn’t trying to kill me. I played open guard, but I wasn’t going for sweeps, just practicing grips, posting, hooking, and switching between all the different types of guards. I even went inverted a few times, something I don’t do often – mostly because it’s a hard thing to try out when your partner goes hard. He played with me there for a little while, then tried to pass and get to sidemount, which he did. My next roll was with an older black belt, which I really enjoyed. We had a great pace, transitioned through a lot of movements, and he pointed out that I could go to omoplota which I never would have seen if he hadn’t shown me. He even put me in a submission or two and let me work out of them.

After that, I rolled with one of the brown belts that had stopped by earlier in the week. We had a good roll. I tried to play open guard, but he wasn’t going for that. He put on a lot of pressure, and took side control. I appreciated it, because bottom sidecontrol is probably where I struggle the most. He set up a choke a few times, and I defended for a while, but after he had it set up real good, I just tapped. No point in just sitting there and wasting our time. We went again, and this time I tried to play top game, but I had trouble passing his guard. I got swept, but towards the end I started to gain a little control from the bottom.

My favorite roll was with a black belt who was really helpful. He gave me some pointers when I was passing the guard, and showed me a nice choke from sidemount, when you roll your opponent onto his side, with his back facing you. After I applied the choke and we reset, the bell rang, signaling only thirty seconds left in the round. He looked at me and said, “you have 30 seconds to redo what we just did.” That was just awesome. So we started from the knees, and I had to get back to the same position, and do the choke he just taught me. I really enjoyed that.

There was another white belt, and some more black belts that I rolled with, but honestly, I don’t remember them that well. I was there training for two hours, rolling for most of it, but let me tell you, seven minute rounds were never more fun. Black belts have a way of rolling that’s just so light and carefree. They have no problem going slow, something I try to get the white belts and even some blue belts to do when I do the normal training classes. Quite frankly, they roll too hard. Not just using strength, which is normal for almost any white belt, but rolling too fast, and being explosive. When you train like that, you don’t actually learn anything. You’re going too fast to observe and absorb anything! You don’t have time to set anything up, you can’t see how your partner counters, or what you can do from each position. You’re just reacting constantly, and that’s great, but it’s not the greatest way to learn. If a black belt can roll slow, then you can roll even slower. I think this is a problem with the white belts here especially, because the environment in Abu Dhabi is so heavily focused on competition. The country holds one of the biggest competitions – the Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championships – every year, as well as smaller ones throughout the year. Because of this, they roll every round as if it’s a competition. They have to get the tap out. If there’s anything you can learn from the black belts, it’s this: ‘it’s not always about tapping somebody out’. I only tapped out maybe two or three times in two hours of training, and that was with people who could have arguably tapped me out at any given moment.

The lesson learned? Tapping someone out is great, but it doesn’t always lead to the most growth in jiu-jitsu. As my professor used to say, “If you tap someone out, then what? You’ve got to stop, get back to the knees, and reset. You have to start all over again. You’re stopping the learning process.”

 

Oss! See you on the mat.

Black Belt Open Mat

Really excited about today (Thursday). Earlier in the week, I got invited to the  black belt open mat class. What’s that? Well, there are so many black belts here, they just train everyday together. They don’t really have “classes” per say. Two or three of them teach the classes to us, the students, Sunday-Wednesday. There used to be a Thursday class, but we recently moved to a new location. So on Thursdays, a few of us have been invited to the open mat to train, and I’ve got to say, I can’t wait. On average, there are 30 black belts on the mat, plus whatever friends they bring. My friend Ahmad was also invited, so I’m looking forward to rolling with him. I’m also looking forward to rolling with the black belts, although I know I’m going to get tapped again and again. I think it’ll be fun, and that’s my attitude going into this whole thing – just having fun. I have no aversion to tapping out.

In the words of Ryron Gracie – “Keep it Playful”

P.S. – Posted this on twitter, but also wanted to share here. I saw a guy after class this week, take two scoops of protein powder, and just dump them into his mouth. It looked like he just chucked it (dry powder) down his throat, then drank some water. I’ve never seen anything like it. Has anyone else seen something like that? Interesting way to get your protein.

 

Oss! See you on the mat.

Welcome

I started Jiu-Jitsu a few years ago at the age of 16 and haven’t looked back since. My love for the sport started at a much younger age, around seven or so, when my father would take me to the dojo with him as he trained.  I’m a blue belt now, and had the opportunity to move halfway across the world, to Abu Dhabi. That’s in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for those that don’t know. One of the reasons I moved here for a year, is because there are so many black belts here. People say there are more black belts here than in Brazil (you can see 150 black belts training together in Abu Dhabi below). I now have some great training partners from all over the world. I hope to travel and train the world over, meeting incredible training partners wherever I go. This is my Jiu-Jitsu Journey. See you on the mat.

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