Training with Marcelino Freitas

It's not everyday that you get to train with one of your favorite Jiu-Jitsu players, but this happened to be the case for me right before the 2010 World Championships, one of the perks of training at the head of Nova Uniao in the U.S. A few weeks before the tournament, Marcelino Freitas stopped by to finish up his preparations with our team and boy was it a great experience! Just to be on the mat with someone of such caliber is a pleasure, but actually rolling with him was insane (I mean I've rolled with Robson Moura plenty of times, but that dude sucks 0_o)! Seriously though, it was great to roll with him because his body type and game are so similar to mine. I learned so much just from the few weeks that he was there; his top game is tight, his bottom is fluid, and is an all around animal. I think one of the best thing you can do, training wise, is to get a chance to roll with the top guys in your division that play similar to you. If you ever have a chance to train with him or do a seminar, jump on it!! He is one of the most underated players today, I mean he has beat Bruno Frazzato 3 or 4 times. . . Just saying. Check out his highlight below.

To Drill or Not to Drill. . .

It had been sitting in front of my face for quite sometime. What makes these guys so good? I knew what it was all along, but I was too stupid to take advantage of it. “Oh, that won’t make a difference,” I told myself. Finally, I cracked. It was time to drill, but not just normal drill, I mean get out there and practice moves untill perfection. No more lazy, drill a couple of times and go on under the false pretense that I had the technique mastered. All the athletes bursting onto the seen as of late do it, why not me? Maybe I was too stubborn or I saw some guys get good results with little drilling, I don’t know, but it was dumb. This epiphany hit me last week. I had seen the interviews before, but for some reason, it really hit me this time. I rewatched the Shoyoroll interview with American phenom, JT Torres (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0j8w0ylEos) and realized something: Team Lloyd Irvin takes their drilling seriously! I mean not just ‘When you drill in class, drill well’, but WHOLE classes dedicated to drilling. And I mean, with the results they’re putting on the table, how can you argue?

Once this hit me, I called up my main training partner, John Cordera, and he was feeling the same way at the time. We made the plans and went in Saturday for our first “real” drilling session: One move for five minutes straight of non-stop drilling, then we would trade off. We did this for a little over an hour untill it was time to go. By the time the five minutes was up for the move, and I mean maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I honestly felt like the technique was tighter, faster, smoother, and all around better than it was at the beginning. John and I made plans to continue this every Saturday from now on in an experiment that I’m sure will yield great results. One thing is for sure though, from now on I’m going to take the drilling part of class more seriously and I will take every extra chance I get to get on the mat and drill more. Let me know what your drilling habits are like, I would love to hear all about them.