14.02.2008 To hunt your demonsStagnation, lack of motivation, lack of stamina? Nineteen stars reveal their secrets to exorcize any demons you may come across during your Jiu-Jitsu career 
On the first occasion the idea was suggested, at a staff meeting, it was lauded as a winner. Shortly thereafter, however, it got locked up in a drawer, where it sat until it was remembered when the first question to Leonardo Vieira was asked, for the Face to Face section of issue #119: “What was the key to your breaking through to the next level in Jiu-Jitsu?”
As unfathomable as the destinies of ideas is the haunting that can take place in a fighter’s life. A lack of stamina, lack of motivation, stagnation of progress despite training, injuries, doubts as to whether Jiu-Jitsu is really your sport. For all these afflictions, our champions found their cure. Demian Maia, for example, changed his game and broke out of the pack of promising athletes when he started teaching private lessons with his teacher Fabio Gurgel. Between then and now, he became Marcelinho Garcia’s toughest training partner during his time at Alliance, and now draws praise beyond a doubt, like that from consecrated black belts in the audience at ADCC 2007. “To me Demian is a lighter Roger [Gracie]. He goes pressuring, pressuring, until he smothers his adversary completely…” Fabio Leopoldo, of Gracie Barra, commented, from the stands in New Jersey.
So, as Mike Fowler and Rubens Cobrinha both break it down so well, the thing is to face life like Jiu-Jitsu: if a demon arises, face it like an opponent of flesh and blood, by giving it your all and submitting it.
Carlos Gracie Jr.
“The key moment for the Jiu-Jitsu practitioner is when he starts to understand the philosophy of the art and the reason for the movements. Until that point, the student is learning the techniques but only using them as though he were a robot. As the knowledge goes on accumulating to the point that the practitioner finally understands the mechanics of Jiu-Jitsu, then he comes to get the most out of his apprenticeship. And there is no way around it, each has his own moment, for some it happens earlier, others later.”
Rômulo Barral
“When I started training, I didn’t have enough stamina. I used a lot of force, got tired, stopped there and couldn’t take part in the next session. That was when Cristiano Titi, my first teacher, taught me the key to breaking through: ‘From now on, whenever you run out of steam, you go right back and roll for another ten minutes! You may tap out 20 times, but you have to do it.’ And to this day I’m still doing just that, except now there is one difference: now, when I get tired, I go three more, or in other words, thirty minutes. That helps a lot with the stamina and keeping your head straight.”
Ronaldo Jacaré
“My breakthrough was to always believe in my training partners, in my teacher and in myself. Always training a lot – and resting a lot.”
Pé de Pano
“I learned from a lot of good folks, but dedication is the key to breaking through. Every week you win and lose, and when you lose, feeling down is normal. And when you see someone with warrior spirit: that is the one that goes back and trains, always trying to improve.”
Demian Maia
“I evolved a lot when I helped Fabio Gurgel teach private lessons. He showed me the reason behind the techniques, the details. I always study Jiu-Jitsu, its movements, its mechanics and how to use leverage. All of that teaches me how to become more and more efficient.
Another breakthrough I find fundamental is to not ever give up on practicing complete Jiu-Jitsu, as created by Carlos and Helio Gracie. That means to practice self-defense, besides training in and out of the gi, without limiting yourself to sports Jiu-Jitsu training. Of course you can make a priority of the style in which you compete, but to learn Jiu-Jitsu as a whole helps you to better understand the basic movements and, as a result, makes you improve.”
Xande Ribeiro
“I always kept my mind open to the new, even if it wouldn’t work for me. I understood the position to know how to defend it. Throughout the years, my game has become more versatile, I played the closed guard, then the half-guard, omoplata guard, bull fighter, knee-crosser, and that all was very clear with each belt I went through. In general, the principle is balance.”
Vítor Shaolin
“I always valued my stamina. Even when I was technically inferior to the others, at times I was capable of surprising someone more experienced at the very end of a sparring session. With good physical fitness, you never turn down a spar and your head works a lot better during practice, and during the fight.”
Roberto Gordo
“I was always ready to learn, even when I would be resting, watching a good sparring session.”
Roberto Traven
“It was when I discovered the best way to fight from the top, when I found the best way to position myself on top, regardless of the type of guard my opponent was playing (open guard, closed, half-guard…). And that happened when I was already a black belt, since until brown I only fought from the bottom. So I adapted the positions to my body type. For example, I realized that upon passing the guard using pressure the hip had to always be low or flat, very near the ground.”
Robert Drysdale
“A series of factors influenced my evolution in the sport, like for example my coming to live in Brazil at a crucial time in my life. At the time, in 2000, there weren’t many competitions in the USA, so I knew that if I wanted to grow in the sport I would have to compete frequently. Another moment was when I decided to take Jiu-Jitsu to the next stage, dealing with physical preparation and nutrition seriously, which improved my performance. But let’s go to the breakthrough… Look, I don’t consider myself a talented guy, but a disciplined one. I can count on my fingers the number of times I don’t train in a given year. I am addicted to training, and I have a guilty conscience when I don’t train. Jiu-Jitsu to me is something fun, but at the same time I see it as an obligation. I never give myself the option of training or not. I simply go. Aside from that, I see myself as my own greatest adversary; I like to think I’m fighting myself when I compete. I also analyze the positions and my losses (essential for evolving) frequently, pondering my mistakes and how to not end up repeating them. Therefore, I spend a large chunk of the day thinking about the art. I believe that these factors, combined with the people that made and make up my life, were the ingredients in my Jiu-Jitsu.”
Mike Fowler
“The biggest thing that changed my sight on Jiu-Jitsu is this quote. ‘When you see a problem... fix it!’ That changed a lot for me! If their grip gives you a problem... get rid of it.”
Rodrigo Comprido
“As an athlete, my breakthrough came when I started teaching, since I started to better understand Jiu-Jitsu.
“As a teacher, the breakthrough came when I started studying physical education, as I came to understand how to put together a training program, why things worked, why others didn’t, the way the techniques from other sports work, notions about diets, etc., and I adapted that to Jiu-Jitsu. There, I stopped being the guy that would just copy what others did.
“As a person it was the fight against Roleta, at the 1999 Worlds. I had lost to Paulão in the weight group by an advantage, and I bugged the guys on the team to let me fight in the absolute. I started winning my fights, I beat Zé Mario, and while folks said I would tap to Roleta, the fight went just as I planned: I knew we both would pull guard, so I planned the foot lock, and it worked. So the breakthrough was to believe in myself a lot and come out on top. I was able to motivate myself and I won, I saw the light.”
Tony de Souza
“Posture. The most important thing is posture no matter what sport you are doing, it boils down to everything in MMA, wrestling, Jiu-Jitsu, boxing. I meant it physically, but it also boils down to discipline. The more constant you are, the better you will be. It is the way you lead your life that makes you a better practitioner. And most of all a better person.”
Léo Santos
“Since I was 17, after losing my father, I saw that my only way out was to teach Jiu-Jitsu classes to help put food on the table at home. My breakthrough happened in 2002, when I had already gotten used to hearing things like: ‘You got your black belt and retired, huh?’ So, that year I competed in a championship above my weight group and lost. It was not just a loss, but I felt I had not even fought, it seemed like I was a white belt struggling just to survive. That was where I came to the conclusion I needed to choose between being a teacher and becoming a professional athlete. That was when, one day, my brother Wagnney proposed that he would take care of the bills at home, so that I could train for a year and see if I could make money fighting. So I went through a year of lots of training, physical preparation, and when I encountered opportunities, I knew how to take advantage of them all. The key was the support of my family and the courage to risk it all for my dream.”
Rubens Cobrinha Charles
“One of the things I learned in Jiu-Jitsu is to always put an end to my problems, whether they are on or off the mat. Sometimes we are doing alright technically, but out of the gym we let problems accumulate that come back to haunt us. As with Jiu-Jitsu, when you only think of scoring points, the last thing you expect is to get stung. That is why my breakthrough is the dedication to overcoming any obstacle, including normal everyday life ones.”
Hannette Quadros
“In 2005, I lost a lot of motivation to pursue the career of fighter in Brazil, making a pittance and coming up against prejudice. That was when, while stopping in at Carlson’s old gym, in Copacabana, I got a shot of good spirit from our friend Luis ‘Manimal’ Carlos. He made me see what being a black belt in an art like Jiu-Jitsu is worth, and reminded me how things happen slowly. This lifted my spirits, filled me with determination, I won the ADCC with a flying armbar and now I am in the USA, with tons of invitations to do seminars and plans to establish myself around here, after the Worlds in California.”
Wallid Ismail
“The Jiu-Jitsu fighter should have posture and lots of desire, in and out of the ring. A doctor that trains, a politician that trains, is so much more self-confident and competent. Posture was my breakthrough, out of the ring. In the ring, what changed my life was the fight against Eugênio Tadeu, in the Jiu-Jitsu vs. Luta Livre challenge broadcast on the Globo channel, provoking an explosion in Jiu-Jitsu’s popularity. Many forget, but I was the one to take a stand and make the challenge, when luta livre was threatening to take over the fight market in Rio de Janeiro.”
Cristiano Marcello
“Folks don’t even remember, but I once took second place in the Worlds before teaching here at Chute Boxe, and my aim was always to try, on bottom or on top, to have an offensive and aggressive style without forsaking technique, and to think of scoring only as a stage before finishing. I had my breakthroughs observing my teachers Royler and Rickson, and I especially tried to adopt their lifestyle. Two moments that marked me were when I saw Royler, who was my idol and measuring stick, learning a position from his brother Rickson. I was stunned, but I saw there that in Jiu-Jitsu you learn something new every day. The other episode happened in the days leading up to the Pan-American of 1995, in Santa Monica, California. In front of 50 athletes from several schools, Rickson started submitting us all one by one, and always using the same move, the crucifix. He was excited, and he started submitting everybody again, it took his wife, Kim, calling him to get him to leave. I realized at that moment that my path was to be in Jiu-Jitsu, the real Jiu-Jitsu.”
Fabio Leopoldo
“It was security. Up until purple belt, when I won I always had a bit of doubt as to whether I was really that good or if I had one because of a series of factors. At brown and black, I matured; I went in to fight without caring who was facing me. I thought like this, ‘he might even be the man, but I’m going to win.’ Now and again you lose, but by thinking the other guy has no chance of winning, you gain confidence that bubbles up inside you.”
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