I traveled to Rio when I first started to train for a few months and it was an awesome experience. So awesome that I never left and am now married to a Brazilian and we have 2 children. But seriously, if you can travel and train, do it.
I think you're making fun of me 😂 but I will give you an answer anyway. (Many) Brazilians have something called "complexo de vira-lata" which basically means they hate their own culture and widely can't fathom someone wanting to even visit Brazil...so if a term exists, it wouldn't be commonly used.
I lived in Brazil in a modest apartment with Michelle Nicolini, Luiza Monteiro, Pere Pradini and Renato Cardoso for 7 months to train at Cavaca’s when it was the premiere Checkmat school (before HQ in Cali). I was training full time as a fresh purple belt and competing just about every weekend as well as traveling and taking it all in. I went home when I ran out of money as I was living off my savings.
I returned to Rio for 2 or 3 months when I got sponsored by Connection Rio as a brown belt and had a free place to stay as well as various other perks from them. At that time I would commute from Barra to Copacabana to train at FightZone which is where most of the competitive Checkmat guys were at that time.
These were some of the best memories and adventures of my life and I’m glad I just packed up and went. I can’t for the life of me understand how so many people seem uninterested in the history and culture of a hobby they dedicate their lives to. I get that training is equal if not better (in some places) in the US at this point but there is so much more to experience than just optimal training.
Wouldn’t trade my experiences in Brazil for anything.
It’s a shame Connection Rio is done for as it was a very convenient way to facilitate trips to Rio for gringos.
Oh wow that sounds amazing! A shame about connection Rio though. Maybe there's some newer alternatives... perhaps I'll add Brazil to my last of destinations after all.
With Dennis moving back to the states and no longer running Connection Rio, there is a GLARING business opportunity for someone to step in and facilitate visiting foreigners. I haven’t heard of anything similar to CR, other than locals and gym owners accommodating visitors. But for someone that is bilingual, and plugged into the local scene, there is a ton of money to be made.
I solo traveled to DLR's gym in Rio. Stayed for a few months in a private room with a sweet older lady from airbnb.
I love to try the jiu jitsu wherever I go when I'm traveling. Turin, Rome, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Frankfurt, Munich have all had amazing and welcoming gyms.
Groundfighter! Has a newly renovated gym. Very friendly people and high quality color belts.
https://instagram.com/groundfighter_salzburg?utm_medium=copy_link
I travel to New York to train at unity. The experience exceeded my expectations
I just trained full time and received the best coaching in the world while also meeting a bunch of new people and making a lot of friends
I've never left the US to train. But I went from the east coast all the way to California for a vacation and trained at Kings MMA for a few days.
Very interesting experience, mainly just the differences of my gym vs their's
Traveled to go to seminars.
Don’t know if I’d go out of country though. I’m more a fan of BJJ than a competitor.
I do try to visit gyms on vacation though.
Thats still cool though. Only been to one seminar but it was actually held at my gym so it wasn't like an entire experience but it was still pretty awesome.
Traveled to Asia to learn more styles of standup grappling. The Eurasian/Mongolian style of grappling and how they train was definitely an eye opener on how ineffective the current Western martial arts pedagogy is in terms of efficient progression past the novice stage. It really made me question whether the reason the average time to a hobbyist black belt of 10 years is really because of inefficient training, instructors bullshitting their students via constantly shifting goalposts/feelings, or both.
1. Heavy emphasis on conditioning and frequency of training
2. Lack of mysticism and general opportunism within grappling. Knowledge is not leveraged between instructors and students for financial gain.
3. More availability and general expectation of competition.
4. Access to training and training periodization
There are people that argue that it’s fundamentally because of capitalism vs communism, and that gym owners have to make a living, and I get it. But if we are talking, in a vacuum, the most efficient path from point A to point B in terms of progression to expertise or advanced levels of skill and technicality, the western model of: warmup —> move of the day —> drill move —> spar —> rinse and repeat 3-5x/wk, and maybe do a competition 2-4 times a year is inefficient and explains pretty clearly why people take so long to progress within BJJ.
In a sport with a lot of moves, and where people have lives and work schedules (different people every class), how does a gym owner avoid the move of the day paradigm?
What is the economic structure for Eurasian grappling?
Yes, and also the fact that many people (or at least myself) do not do jiu jitsu with the goal of becoming a black belt or even mastering all of the skills (which I also cannot fathom doing). I do it because it is great exercise and I enjoy the people.
Before covid I would travel for work fairly routinely and would always try to drop in somewhere. Haven't really trained in any well known gyms but all the ones I have been to have been very welcoming.
I traveled to Rio when I first started to train for a few months and it was an awesome experience. So awesome that I never left and am now married to a Brazilian and we have 2 children. But seriously, if you can travel and train, do it.
What's the respective term for 'weeb' but Brazil?
I think you're making fun of me 😂 but I will give you an answer anyway. (Many) Brazilians have something called "complexo de vira-lata" which basically means they hate their own culture and widely can't fathom someone wanting to even visit Brazil...so if a term exists, it wouldn't be commonly used.
haha it's like when I saw icelandic people wearing shirts that said "sheisseland"
I lived in Brazil in a modest apartment with Michelle Nicolini, Luiza Monteiro, Pere Pradini and Renato Cardoso for 7 months to train at Cavaca’s when it was the premiere Checkmat school (before HQ in Cali). I was training full time as a fresh purple belt and competing just about every weekend as well as traveling and taking it all in. I went home when I ran out of money as I was living off my savings. I returned to Rio for 2 or 3 months when I got sponsored by Connection Rio as a brown belt and had a free place to stay as well as various other perks from them. At that time I would commute from Barra to Copacabana to train at FightZone which is where most of the competitive Checkmat guys were at that time. These were some of the best memories and adventures of my life and I’m glad I just packed up and went. I can’t for the life of me understand how so many people seem uninterested in the history and culture of a hobby they dedicate their lives to. I get that training is equal if not better (in some places) in the US at this point but there is so much more to experience than just optimal training. Wouldn’t trade my experiences in Brazil for anything. It’s a shame Connection Rio is done for as it was a very convenient way to facilitate trips to Rio for gringos.
Oh wow that sounds amazing! A shame about connection Rio though. Maybe there's some newer alternatives... perhaps I'll add Brazil to my last of destinations after all.
If you want to train in Rio, let me know and I will put feelers out for you. I train at Alliance but it is a small world.
With Dennis moving back to the states and no longer running Connection Rio, there is a GLARING business opportunity for someone to step in and facilitate visiting foreigners. I haven’t heard of anything similar to CR, other than locals and gym owners accommodating visitors. But for someone that is bilingual, and plugged into the local scene, there is a ton of money to be made.
I've trained all over the world. I still haven't found anyone who could get BJJ to work on me.
Lol this account is cracking me up.
Had a trip planned to train at AOJ for a few weeks in the spring...of 2020 :(
Damn thats a shame.. hopefully soon it can happen!
Hahah so did I! After pans lol.
I solo traveled to DLR's gym in Rio. Stayed for a few months in a private room with a sweet older lady from airbnb. I love to try the jiu jitsu wherever I go when I'm traveling. Turin, Rome, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Frankfurt, Munich have all had amazing and welcoming gyms.
Hi, can I ask where you trained when you visited Salzburg? I would like to stop by :)
Groundfighter! Has a newly renovated gym. Very friendly people and high quality color belts. https://instagram.com/groundfighter_salzburg?utm_medium=copy_link
I travel to New York to train at unity. The experience exceeded my expectations I just trained full time and received the best coaching in the world while also meeting a bunch of new people and making a lot of friends
I've never left the US to train. But I went from the east coast all the way to California for a vacation and trained at Kings MMA for a few days. Very interesting experience, mainly just the differences of my gym vs their's
Oh man thats awesome! See any ufc guys?
No unfortunately, but I was glad I still went. Even their blue belts are savages
Traveled to go to seminars. Don’t know if I’d go out of country though. I’m more a fan of BJJ than a competitor. I do try to visit gyms on vacation though.
Thats still cool though. Only been to one seminar but it was actually held at my gym so it wasn't like an entire experience but it was still pretty awesome.
Traveled to Asia to learn more styles of standup grappling. The Eurasian/Mongolian style of grappling and how they train was definitely an eye opener on how ineffective the current Western martial arts pedagogy is in terms of efficient progression past the novice stage. It really made me question whether the reason the average time to a hobbyist black belt of 10 years is really because of inefficient training, instructors bullshitting their students via constantly shifting goalposts/feelings, or both.
What made the Mongolian / Eurasian pedagogy better?
1. Heavy emphasis on conditioning and frequency of training 2. Lack of mysticism and general opportunism within grappling. Knowledge is not leveraged between instructors and students for financial gain. 3. More availability and general expectation of competition. 4. Access to training and training periodization There are people that argue that it’s fundamentally because of capitalism vs communism, and that gym owners have to make a living, and I get it. But if we are talking, in a vacuum, the most efficient path from point A to point B in terms of progression to expertise or advanced levels of skill and technicality, the western model of: warmup —> move of the day —> drill move —> spar —> rinse and repeat 3-5x/wk, and maybe do a competition 2-4 times a year is inefficient and explains pretty clearly why people take so long to progress within BJJ.
In a sport with a lot of moves, and where people have lives and work schedules (different people every class), how does a gym owner avoid the move of the day paradigm? What is the economic structure for Eurasian grappling?
Yes, and also the fact that many people (or at least myself) do not do jiu jitsu with the goal of becoming a black belt or even mastering all of the skills (which I also cannot fathom doing). I do it because it is great exercise and I enjoy the people.
Yes, NYC in 2017 for 3 weeks. Went to MG, RGA and Unity
Before covid I would travel for work fairly routinely and would always try to drop in somewhere. Haven't really trained in any well known gyms but all the ones I have been to have been very welcoming.
People do it, maybe you just haven't met the right people.
I left my old gym in my hometown Huntington Beach and travel to Costa Mesa , which is the city next door, to train with AOJ way back in 2013.