There is no winning in training!

Today I want to talk a little bit about what kind of mindset you should have with your training. The main idea that I want to stress is "There is no winning or losing in training." Too many times I see people hold themselves back technically, because of their inability to let go of the idea that they have to tap their training partner out every time they train. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to catch your partner in a submission, that is the essence of jiu-jitsu, what I'm saying is, don't make that all that you are trying to accomplish. If that is the only thing on your mind when you are training, then you are probably not trying new things or opening your game up with certain people, because you don't want to give them the opportunity to do well with you. That sort of mindset could even cause you not to train with some people to begin with because you are too concerned with whether or not you will be able to tap them or you don't want to get tapped out by them.

Forget about all of those things and remember the mat is your laboratory and your training partners are your biggest assets. Remember that tapping is a part of learning and even the best black belts in the world were white belts once. Learn to appreciate having training partners that can tap you out and help make you better. Ask questions and try to understand what they are catching you with or what areas you need to improve on. There is probably someone at your school that is around the same rank, that you go back and forth with and have really good battles with. Never run away from this person or get frustrated when it is their day and not yours. That person in some ways is the most valuable person you have, because they provide the mental challenge you need in your training.

Another point I would like to make is to be sure you are opening your game up and working on different aspects. I'm not really talking about changing your game, I'm not asking you to play spider guard even though you are a half guard person. What I mean is to play different with different people. For instance, if you have a very good guard and you can sweep everybody and transition straight into a pass, then there are some things you might not be developing. Start inside of someone else's guard and work your passing more. Go outside of your comfort zone sometimes and play into other people's strengths or focus on your weak areas. If you are training with a really good closed guard person, let them close the guard on you sometimes, or if someone has really good passing, try to play open guard on them, etc... This is particularly important whenever you are one of the highest ranking people on the mat. In those scenarios it is pretty easy to hold yourself back and you have to be extra sure you are training properly to insure improvement.

There are many more things I could add when it comes to getting the most out of your training. I have lived in Oklahoma since I started training jiu-jitsu and I never had a resident black belt here to teach me and make sure I was training properly, so I feel that I have a lot of knowledge on this subject. In the future I plan on talking more about this and sharing with you other training strategies that can help tremendously with competition and improving your game.

My Work-Out Routine

I'm starting to get back into my routine of conditioning, weights, and hard training and I've had a lot of people ask me about my work-out routines, so I wanted to share with everyone what my week has been like so far. First thing I want to mention, is that my work outs and routines can change week by week depending on my schedule, how my body feels, or what sounds fun. I love to mix up my work outs a lot to keep my body guessing and to get bigger gains. As you all know I compete in BJJ & Submission Wrestling, and I will be making my MMA debut later this year. There are a lot of elements within these sports to train, so that is why my training can vary week by week.

Generally, Monday - Thursday I train very hard, usually getting two work-outs in per day. Friday is a light day focusing on technique, Saturday is very hard, and Sunday is an off-day. This past Monday, I did conditioning in the afternoon and trained BJJ at night. My conditioning routine consisted of 10 stations with 50 seconds at each station. I did two rounds with a two minute rest in between. The stations were rope flutter, medicine ball throw, gi pull-ups, jump rope, bur pees with 45 lb plate, heavy bag tosses, kettle bell swings, penetration shots, sprawls, and crunches. So I did about 20 minutes of work and then I finished off with about 5-10 minutes of core work.

Tuesday, I lifted weights in the afternoon and trained BJJ at night. I don't really have a specific weight lifting routine. I like to work total body and I don't lift more than twice in one week. My favorite exercises are cleans, squats, flat bench with dumbbells, upright bench with dumbbells, weighted pull-ups, and rows. I will never go to the gym and not do these exercises. Usually I will do one light set as a warm up and then 4 hard sets in a pyramid form (increasing weight and decreasing reps.) I will do other things at the gym too, like shoulders, forearms, and abs, but I work those areas more on a supplemental basis.

Wednesday was pretty much exactly like Monday. I did conditioning in the afternoon and trained BJJ at night. My BJJ training will consist of a lot of rounds of sparring, drilling techniques and takedowns, specific training, and grip fighting. It can be hard for me to get rounds of training with high level BJJ competitors here in Oklahoma, but I do have a lot of very tough students, and the nice thing is, I get to customize my training and use them however I like. I take full advantage of this.

Today is Thursday and because it is still early in the year and I'm not back in full competition shape yet, I took it easy during the day to let my body get some rest. I am about to head to the academy and do a lot of wrestling and no-gi training tonight. Tomorrow, I am going to train some Muay Thai and do some light BJJ technique training afterwards. Saturday, I will do more competition style BJJ training and hit it pretty hard.

Like I said, my work-outs can change a lot. As I get in better shape, I will keep making my work-outs a little harder. I will focus on different things at different times. For the BJJ tournaments, I might focus a lot on Judo training and strengthening my grips. For the no-gi tournaments, I will train a lot of wrestling. I might do kettle bells instead of weights one week, or do a completely different conditioning routine one week to the next, it never gets old to me. We have a row machine at my academy that I like to use a lot too. Sometimes I will use the row machine or other conditioning routines to tire me out right before I start training. Basically, I try to do whatever it takes turn myself into a machine.

Here is a little tip on recovery. Almost every night, I will spend a good 30 minutes to an hour stretching and working out sore areas. I have a foam roller that I will use for my back, hips, and legs, and a tennis ball that I will use for my hips and knots in my back and shoulders. This is a great way to wake up the next day and have a little more energy to put into your work-outs. I think flexibility is extremely important and often times overlooked. Don't skip out on stretching every night!

Competition

Competing is a great way to help speed up your BJJ learning process and also learn a lot about yourself. Some of you may be very driven competitors who have big competition goals to accomplish this year. Some of you may be BJJ hobbyist who compete for fun on occasion. Some of you may have never competed before and plan to this year or some of you may not have any plans of competing at all. I want to take this opportunity to tell you why I feel competition is important and how it can benefit you.

First, when you make the decision to compete at a tournament, this will most likely have a positive effect in your training immediately. You will probably come to class more often and train a little harder to prepare for the competition. Also, you will be forced to evaluate your game and work on fixing some holes, something that many don't do often enough. All in all, you will be much more focused and driven during your training which will definitely lead to bigger gains.

Once the competition is over, win or lose, you should have more evidence on where you can improve, whether it is technically, mentally, physically, or all three combined. The next step is to get back to training and start working on those weak areas. You should always try to ask your instructor or other higher ranking students who watched you compete "What could I have done better?" Some people who don't compete may train regularly and never really work on their weak areas, because they are better than everyone else they train with or because of an ego issue. This could mean they are the best in the academy or they have a good way about only training with lower ranking students and smashing them, either way they are holding themselves back by not identifying where they are weak and working on it.

Lastly, competition is a mental challenge. You really learn a lot about yourself when your out there and everyone is watching you. Because of the many different things that can happen during a match, you can learn how you deal with a lot of different scenarios such as:

1) How you handle pressure and nerves?

2) Can you come back from a deficit?

3) How you deal with failure?

4) Do you lose your concentration?

5) How much do you believe in yourself?

6) Can you become arrogant?

These are just a few of the things you could learn about yourself. You may not like what you find out, but you can always improve. Just like training your BJJ technique, you should be training your mind as well. Each time you compete, you should be getting mentally stronger along with improving technically. I think that the more you know about yourself, the better person you can become. Competing can help you deal with many of life's challenges with much more ease and comfort, such as a stressful job, a physical altercation, or accomplishing a life goal. I can tell you from personal experience that competing has taught me a lot about myself and I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have that deep down urge to go out there and test myself!

Check it out!

I did an interview this week with Grappling Radio about my team's success at the Grapplers Quest. Feel free to check it out here.

It's 2010!!!

Hello everybody and welcome to 2010! I want to apologize for not being active on my blog the last couple of months, of course I could say that I have been busy and this and that, but I should of made time to talk to you. I hope you all are as excited for this year as I am. 2010 not only starts a new decade, but it starts a new phase in my life as well. This year will be the first year where I am full time owner and operator of Lovato's School of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, in Oklahoma City. My father has worked extremely hard running our academy for a long time and I am happy to be able to give him some rest and help take our school to the next level. Of course this is going to give me a lot of extra responsibilities, but I have a super supportive fiance and a great group of students, so I am up for the challenge.

Speaking of great group of students, at the end of the year, I took a team of my guys out to Vegas for Grapplers Quest and I am super proud of how well they did. We had 10 guys (2 brown belts, 2 purple belts, 5 blue belts, and 1 white belt) and we won 11 golds, 2 silvers, and 2 bronzes. We won the intermediate and advanced absolute divisions and the only reason why we had 2 silver medals is because we closed out two divisions. We were on fire that day and I will never forget it. The team results are starting to come in and I am very happy to say that we were the No-Gi Adult Team Champions. I am still waiting on the Gi and Overall Team standings, but I have a good feeling about those as well. You can read more about our team victory here.

I have set many goals for myself this year. Along with continuing to improve our academy and level of our students, I am very determined to win my 2nd black belt world title this year. Also, after the Mundials, I am planning on making my MMA competition debut sometime in the fall! On top of all that, I am getting married this year! Needless to say, this is going to be a HUGE year for me. I think it is very important to set goals and live day by day trying to reach those goals. Remember that "What the mind can conceive, it can achieve" so aim high and believe in yourself. Visualize yourself accomplishing those goals and think about how good it will feel once you do. If it is something you truly desire, then this will have a powerful effect over you, almost giving you goosebumps. Identify what you will need to do to be able to accomplish this goal and then go after it, don't wait. Have faith in yourself and be persistent, many times your greatest accomplishments are one step away from your greatest failures, so never give up! I highly recommend the book, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, to help you accomplish your goals. It is a very powerful book.

Here is a new technique that I shot on New Years Eve. Hope you guys like it.

Competing at No-Gi Worlds!

Hey everyone. I will be competing at the No-Gi Worlds this weekend. I had to take some time off for my foot to heal, but it healed very fast and I am very happy to have another opportunity to step back on the mat so soon. I haven't been able to prepare for this event they way I usually do, but I still plan on putting on a great performance. Hope to see you there.

Here is an interview I did with Gracie Magazine about my expectations for this weekend.

My ADCC Experience Pt. 2

My next match was against Bruno Bastos. I have been very familiar with Bruno for a long time and I knew a lot about his game. We are the same size and we both compete a lot, so I knew it would be a matter of time before I would eventually face him. Xande won his next match and Saulo came back just in time to coach me. I felt really good going into my second match and I was very excited to get the win and make it to the semi-finals in ADCC for the first time. Bruno and I started off looking for angles on the feet. He attempted one of his famous flying arm locks, which I anticipated, and I was in his guard for just a minute before he stood back up. We were back on the feet and then I pulled guard. For most of the regulation period I attacked from my guard. I was attempting many omo-platas and sweeps, but I was unable to score on him. He did a very good job of being safe without getting called for stalling, I was doing everything I could to try to make him receive a negative point. With about a minute left in regulation, I stood back up with him and went into wrestling mode exactly the way we trained in our camp. Bruno attempted a shot which I defended using the whizzer and we went out of bounds. Back to the middle and Bruno shot in again. This time I was able to pummel in an under hook and I made it behind him with the body lock. I just started to get hungry to try and take his back, but he was very smart and he dropped completely to his knees to defend. He balled up well and right when I was getting set to look for hooks, regulation was up, time for my first OT at ADCC. I was so calm going into the OT. We trained so many OT rounds in our camp that it was just routine to go an extra five minutes. I wanted to start off aggressive, so I immediately started looking for take-downs. We eventually ended up in a pummeling position and I was able to hit a lateral drop. That was a take-down that I was using a lot in the training and I knew it would be a good take-down to use for ADCC, because it lands in a position where you can keep the guy from turning to his knees to avoid points. I got my two points and I felt a rush of excitement, I had this match as long as I kept my pressure on and played smart. Bruno began using his very smooth half guard to look for ways to sweep me. I was staying out of danger, but I was trying to keep a decent amount of pressure on him as well to not allow him to gain momentum. In the course of him trying to get underneath me, I was able to gain a front head lock control which I used to set up the Darce/Brabo choke. I was able to get it locked up and with less than a minute left, I got the submission. Immediately I had a rush of emotions, I was pumped! The first day was done for me, I made it to the final four! I was very excited, but I didn't think about it too much yet, because we still had teammates who had matches.

As I was walking back to the warm up area, I caught the end of the Kron vs Marcelo match. I saw the end of the regulation when Kron almost got to Marcelo's back and I got very excited for Kron. I was getting filled in on how the match was going up to that point and everyone was telling me that it was very even. In overtime Marcelo was able to get the upper-hand on Kron, but I was still very impressed with Kron's performance. That was only Kron's 2nd no-gi event ever and he was able to do very well with the much more experienced Marcelo. I went back out to coach Rader against Mendes. They had competed against each other before at the 2008 No-Gi Worlds and we knew that it was a matter of time before they would meet again. Rader did very well with Rafael the first time they met, staying ahead of Rafael on points most of the match until Rafael was able to take his back and get the submission. Unfortunately for Rader, Rafael was dead on that weekend and he was able to get a step ahead of Rader right away and lock up a choke. Lastly, Rani defeated Glover by points and our day was done. Saulo, Xande, Rani, Penny, and I all made it to the final four and Kron and Rader put on impressive performances for the first time at ADCC.

I had so much fun that day. Five out of seven of us made it to the final four. We were all very relaxed and we were enjoying ourselves even in the heat of battle. Pretty much everything had gone as planned, and we could all feel how well prepared we were. The rest of that evening I ate and relaxed and I had a positive vibe for the next day. I had Braulio in the semifinals. This would mark the fourth time I have faced Braulio. Braulio beat me in our previous meetings and I was anxious to have another chance at him.

Sunday morning came and all I could think about was "This is my day." I had a nice breakfast and I even had a special visitor at my table for breakfast. Braulio stopped by my table and we wished each other our best and we began to talk a little bit. He ended up sitting down at my table for a little while and we talked about our matches from Saturday. After talking for a few minutes, we wished each other good luck and he went back to his table. I have known Braulio for a long time, in fact we used to train together some back when we were brown belts. He is a very nice guy and very professional, so it isn't weird for us to talk and be friends when we are not on the mat against each other. I got back to the event and went back to our warm-up mat from yesterday and we proceeded to do our routine once again. I was going out to coach Saulo against Werdum, so I got nice and loose before Saulo needed me. Saulo had a tough match against Werdum, that went to two overtimes. Werdum won the decision, which I thought he deserved, but it was very close. I immediately returned my focus to my match with Braulio. I got another little warm-up as I peaked occasionally to watch Xande vs Pezao. Xande beat Pezao on my points and then it was my turn.

I didn't have to much of a strategy for Braulio. I know his game very well and I know how he likes to move. I just wanted to try and get my game going right away and let him know that I was prepared for a war, and I expected to have one. The match starts out with both of us feeling each other out on the feet. He eventually jumped guard, looking to close it right away. As I defended against the closed guard, he was able to lock his guard around my legs and go for a sweep. I didn't mind getting swept since there were no points yet, so I took the sweep to look for his leg. He came up and defended against the leg lock attempt. He is back in my guard starting his knee in the middle passing game. He came in with his knee hard and I spun underneath him to look for his back or a sweep (similar to Cyborg). He then went for my leg to defend against that position. I defended my leg and he is back in my guard. Everything was very fast paced and aggressive, which is exactly how I like to play. I was feeling great and things were going exactly how I had imagined it, then everything changed in an instant. Braulio is still in my guard working his passing. I knew that he likes the straight ankle lock, him and his brother both go for them a lot. His final with Xande from 2007, had a lot of ankle lock attempts, so I was prepared for him to go for my foot, but nothing like what happened. Braulio locked his arms similar to an RNC around my ankle, but my foot was not in his arm-pit it was against his ribs. I didn't feel any danger and as he proceeded to sit back, I thought no way is he going to get my leg like that. A second later, my foot snapped three times. My foot was stuck against his ribs and he twisted to his side and applied pressure in a way that I had never felt before. I didn't feel any pain before he locked it, it just snapped in an instant, and I verbally tapped. My ankle immediately started to swell up and it felt like it was on fire. Braulio did his celebration, but when he realized I was hurt badly he checked on me and apologized. I had to have Saulo help carry me back to the warm up area. I started icing it right away and I started to think about how I lost. It was easy & hard to deal with all at the same time. I was upset that I got caught and didn't even see it coming, but I was also content because I didn't feel like I made a big mistake or anything. He just got it in a way that had never been done to me before. A few minutes after I made it back to the warm-up area, Rani came back holding his arm, showing signs of pain. Cobrinha came rushing back to him, offering him help and apologizing for hurting his arm. I didn't know what had happened until Rader told me, I couldn't believe that we had both just gotten hurt. At least we were injured by classy competitors, like Braulio and Cobrinha. I spoke to Braulio back in the warm up area. He was very nice, I told him not to feel bad, it is all apart of the game. I wished him luck for the final and I asked him what he did to me. He said that it wasn't how he planned it either, but he felt my leg was caught against his body and he just went with it. Now I had to figure out what I was going to do about my third place match.

Nobody thought I was going to be able to do my third place match. After icing my ankle for a while, I got back up and tested it out. It was hurt pretty bad, but I was able to put some weight on my heel and limp around a little bit. I didn't want to get that far and then have my name erased from history, which is what would have happened if I pulled out and let Bruno Bastos back in. So, I talked to David Avellan and told him I wasn't going to pull out and he said that he wouldn't destroy my leg if he managed to get it. This was the hardest part to deal with. I could deal with losing, I could deal with getting hurt, but I couldn't deal with not being able to go out there and do my best. I basically limped onto the mat, I sat to guard, moved around as much as I could and when David went for my leg, I had to give up immediately. I know that David didn't like to win that way either. We know how tough the other is, because we had an hour long match four years ago that neither one of us were going to give up on. I wish we would've had another war and maybe I could have made it to the podium or maybe not, but at least I would have had the opportunity to give it my best shot.

I spent the rest of the day at the tournament icing my foot and watching the awesome matches. I got to see Saulo officially retire from professional competition, Werdum and Cyborg do a great final, Xande play a smart game and win his second title with energy to spare, Braulio submit Andre Galvao with a crazy reverse triangle, Papovitch finally get a hard earned win over Marcelo, and I also got to watch with amazement, as Rafael Mendes and Cobrinha put themselves in the craziest positions and do a beautiful match. Then it was time for the absolute.

During our training camp, we all had our personal missions that we were working towards fulfilling. For myself, it was to get my first ADCC title. Saulo was going to win his third title against the big boys. Kron was going to be the new champion of the division. Rader & Rani were going to do an awesome final and for Xande, it was all about winning his second title and becoming absolute champion, like he has done in every other tournament. By the time the absolute had made it to the semi finals, it was clear that Xande and Braulio were going to be in the final. Braulio showed he was having one of those great days after he beat Marcelo soundly and Xande was on his path after beating Galvao. Then Xande submitted the big surprise of the absolute, Gunnar Nelson, and Braulio beat Pezao by points. The moment had arrived, Xande was there, exactly what we had trained for. Within a couple minutes of the final, Braulio had managed to find the reverse triangle again, this time on Xande. Xande had great defense and was able to get his hand in front of Braulio's leg to give him space. After a couple of minutes, Xande was able to free himself and he was back in Braulio's guard. Xande began putting pressure on Braulio and as he was pummeling inside to Braulio's half-guard, Xande grimaced and made a sound of pain. It was over! Xande got hurt too. I had no idea what happened until I was able to talk to Xande about it. I felt so bad for Xande, he was there and he wasn't able to complete the match. He was the third one of us to get injured that day and Kron hurt his knee with Marcelo the day before. After such a great start, we all ended up getting injured. Xande was upset of course, but he handled it well. It just wasn't his day and it was definitely Braulio's.

Back at the hotel I wasn't going to let my injury keep me from enjoying myself a little bit. The hotel lobby had a bar and there was a big group of competitors there unwinding from the tournament. Some of them had plans to go out, others were just going to stay at the hotel bar all night. I couldn't really get around too well, so I was hanging out at the hotel all night. I got to talk to Roberto "Cyborg" and Romulo a little bit. I have faced both of them in the past and it was nice to get to talk to them a little bit. They are both very cool and humble. I also got to talk to Saulo and Xande about the weekend. They were both in good spirits and trying to have themselves a good time. I always enjoy hanging out with my training partners and teammates after a tournament. After weeks of sweat, pain, and trying to kill each other, it is nice to be stress free and have a good time with your close friends. Braulio stopped by the bar for a little while and Xande and I gave him a hard time for injuring us. I also got to hang out with Jeff Curran and Joel Tuder for the first time, they are both very cool. Glover provided a lot of entertainment and at the end of the night, I got to hear some crazy stories from Mike Fowler about Japan, movie-like stories that you wouldn't believe. All in all it was a great night and a great experience. Sure it didn't end the way I had hoped, but I can look back at it and know that I gave everything I had in the training and in the competition. I also got to travel to Europe and have a great time with my friends, training partners, and other competitors.

I want to thank all of you that supported me during my training and sent me good luck messages. I would also like to thank my European fans who said hello and gave me compliments about my blog. Also, I want to thank Saulo, Xande, Steve Maxwell, and everyone at the University of Jiu-Jitsu for the awesome training. All my students at home for their support and patience while I was gone. My sponsors, Tapout, OTM, Lucky Gi, and Nutrient Technologies for all their help. I would also like to give a special thanks to my fiance, who was behind me every step of the way and allowed me to have 100% concentration on this event. I hope everyone has enjoyed my story. Sorry, again, for taking so long to write it.