My ADCC Experience Pt. 1

Well, it's been a month since ADCC. I apologize for not posting this sooner, but ever since I have been back in town I have been very busy with my academy and life in general. Fortunately, my experience is still very fresh in my mind and I took some notes to help me remember some key points. Here is my story:

I arrived in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon. After I got checked in to the hotel, I took about a five hour nap. I was really tired from my flight. I'm a very light sleeper and my size and length make it impossible for me to get comfortable enough to sleep on an airplane. After the long nap, Rader and I went across the street to eat and we met up with Saulo, Xande, and Kron. I was right on weight so I had some Salmon and a protein bar and shake for dinner. The mood was great, we were so happy to be in Barcelona knowing that we were going to get to put our training to use very soon. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and we were excited to see that the brackets had been made. I had Tom Lawlor first round and the winner of Jorge Santiago and Bruno Bastos second round. Besides for them, Braulio was on my side and the other side was put together very well. I was very happy with the bracket and I was excited to go against some people I had never gone against before. After checking out the brackets, I got in the sauna at the hotel for a little bit and I stretched a lot. I wanted to sweat off the jet lag and loosen my body up. The fitness center & sauna was packed full of competitors. I was in the sauna with Tarsis, Jorge Santiago, and Bruno Bastos who were all in my division. We all talked a little bit. I hung out in the fitness center for a while and caught up with a lot of other competitors that I see all the time and others I hadn't seen a long time. There were so many guys in there cutting weight that the fitness center was literally, flooded with sweat, it was pretty funny.

Later that night, Kron and Saulo stopped by the room. Kron wasn't too familiar with his first round opponent, Enrico Cocco, so Rader filled him in. Rader was at the East Coast trials, so he knew a little bit about Enrico. I had Internet in my room too, so Kron got on YouTube. Saulo talked with us a little bit about our strategies and then he left. Kron hung out a while longer and he talked about how excited he was to possibly have a match against Marcelo. We pulled up Marcelo's highlight and joked about how we would find a weakness. We talked strategy a little more and then called it a night.

I didn't sleep that good Thursday night, but it wasn't too bad. First thing I did Friday morning was check my weight. I was happy to see that I was a little under. I had a protein bar and went to weigh ins. I got to weigh ins about 10 minutes early and there was already a long line. I met up with Jeff Glover & Kron and we waited in line together for about 45 minutes. We joked around a lot so the wait wasn't bad. I weighed in at 88.2 kilos, then it was time to eat. I didn't really have to starve myself or anything to make weight, but I did have an extremely clean & light diet and I was dying to eat with no worries about how much am I going to weigh after I eat. Rader & I went to eat and Glover and Ryan Hall joined us. I had some pasta for the first time in over a month, I was very happy. We invited Rafael Mendes to sit down with us, he was by himself waiting for his teammates. So I was sitting with all lightweights, who coincidentally all ended up going against each other that weekend (Rader vs Mendes & Glover vs Hall). We had some fun using our broken Portuguese to talk with Mendes. In my opinion one of the coolest parts of a professional tournament like ADCC is how all the competitors interact with each other and since it was held in another country, it almost forces everyone together. After lunch I went to the store to stock up. I pretty much ate non stop the rest of that day. One of my students who is also a good friend flew to Barcelona to support Rader and I. We met up with him at the hotel and just hung out all day. My mind was so relaxed and confident the whole day, I went to bed feeling like it was going to be a great tournament for me.

I slept good that night but I woke up a little early. I stayed in bed as long as I could and then I got up and had breakfast. I had a huge breakfast. I had gained about 6 or 7 pounds going into the tournament. Saturday was so awesome and turned out to be one of my favorite single days of competition I've ever had. They set up a warm up room for us. Saulo, Xande, Rani, Kron, Rader, Penny, & I were all warming up on our mat. I looked around and saw all the competitors warming up and stretching and I just got so excited and happy. I couldn't stop smiling for a while. I was thinking, "Okay, here they are, here we are let's do this, I'm ready." It was so awesome to have our own little team of us together. I looked at our team and thought about the ridiculous training camp we did and thought about what other groups in that room could have possibly of trained like we did. I felt so calm and having my brothers in war with me just made it incredible. It is such a good feeling to go through a perfect training camp with your team and go into the tournament, everyone together, knowing that every person on your team gave 100% and is just as ready and confident as you are. It gives you a lot of inner strength.

We were all doing our warm-ups according to the schedule. The heavyweights were starting things off, so Saulo and Xande were warming up harder than Kron and Rader. Saulo told me that he wanted me to coach him. I had yelled for Saulo at tournaments before, but this was the first time that I was in a professional event sitting in the coach's corner for Saulo. This was a great feeling for me to know that Saulo trusted in me to be his coach for such an important event. I knew that I would sit down to coach Saulo, so I got a really good sweat and stretch before I started coaching and then when I was done I would have a just enough time to break one more sweat before it was my turn. They started calling names, it was time for action! Saulo's first match was against a Japanese opponent. The guy was very big and looked like he probably had a judo background. Saulo played smart and pulled guard. He used the same half-guard position that he trained with us during our camp and got the sweep and the pass. Saulo won on points. This kicked off the routine. We went back to the warm-up area, Saulo got to rest and then be the coach for Xande, while I began to get ready for my match. I broke another sweat, while Xande won his first match. Saulo came back to the warm up area and then he went out with me for my first match.

I knew Tom Lawlor had wrestled, so I stood with him for a minute and then I pulled guard. They said in the rules meeting that they wanted all the competitors to stay aggressive and that they would be giving warnings for stalling right away, so my plan was to get aggressive. I was attacking a lot, but it was my first match and I wasn't accustomed to the environment yet, so I didn't want to rush anything. I missed a few positions where I thought I could have made some offense, but since I was attacking so much, he was starting to get negatives. He ended up getting 3 negative points, but I didn't want to just keep him in my guard and win that way. I wanted to get my rhythm going, so I kept attacking and ended up sweeping him using a leg lock position and I passed. I started to look for some chokes with the front headlock position and then time was up, I won 4-0.

I went back to the warm up area and Saulo went to coach Kron. Rader was getting ready to go soon, so I had enough time to rest a minute and then I went out to coach Rader. Kron beat Enrico and then it was Rader's turn. Rader had Baret Yoshida first round and he stuck to the game plan beautifully. Rader beat Baret 7-0 and we headed back to our warm up mat. At this point we had all won our first round matches and we were feeling great. I looked at Rader at one point and we knew exactly what each of us were thinking, "The training camp was perfect." We could feel that we were totally ready for what we were getting into that day. Next was Penny, she only had to do one match that day and she won too. Then it was back to Saulo and the routine continued. Saulo had Romulo next. Romulo pulled guard and he was being very aggressive. About half way through the match, Saulo received a negative point. I was trying to be calm while I was coaching and not get too excited and waste energy before I had my match, but I couldn't help it with this match. I started to get really loud and anxious, because it was looking like Saulo might lose. I was telling Saulo to try to force a scramble to get it to the feet and then Romulo would be forced to wrestle with Saulo. It wasn't happening, Romulo kept attacking and Saulo received another negative point, with about two minutes left. Now, I started to go crazy and tell Saulo that he had to pass or it was over. Saulo started to really turn it on and he managed to get around Romulo's guard for the pass, but it wasn't held long enough. I started to think that that was it, he wasn't going to get another chance, he was going to lose. Saulo kept going and going and I kept yelling and yelling and then out of nowhere he just kind of landed in side control out of nowhere, I was yelling "Hold it, hold it!" He got it! He got the pass in the last minute and won! I let out a huge sigh of relief and then I started thinking about how I had one more match.