Kron Gracie vs. Marcelo Garcia at the 2011 ADCC

[First published in 2014. To help us keep putting out great content in English, support us here.]

Kron Gracie paid a visit to GRACIEMAG’s HQ in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of 2014.

He talked to our news team for hours and reflected on his career up to that point.

Here are some of the highlights of that talk.

“Everything I learned on the mat was from my dad, Rickson, until I was 18. After that I braved my own path and developed my own style.”

“At 12 I realized I wanted Jiu-Jitsu for my life so I decided I was going to channel my energy into it. Around 15, I noticed I had a knack for it so I began to dedicate myself, making sacrifices.”

“At 23 I started investing even more energy in my training, I improved my respiratory capacity and I gave myself physically more, but the crux was something else: I stopped making excuses.”

“After that match against Marcelinho at the 2011 ADCC, I started believing that I could not only beat a champion like him, but my Jiu-Jitsu could also submit even someone as tough as he is.”

“I won everything at brown belt because I had more mat time and competition experience than my rivals. At black belt, it’s a different story altogether.”

“The root of my Jiu-Jitsu is essentially based on where I place my weight; how I spread it; and how I use levers. I try not to root my Jiu-Jitsu on grips on cloth, because if you don’t have the gi, the grips lose importance.””

After the talk, Kron stepped on the mat area in the office and taught 3 breathing exercises he uses to improve his respiratory capacity. It took Kron years to master these techniques and he trusts them fully. He explained: “Notice that all animals breath properly, except for humans. With these techniques. I can better oxygenate every part of my body.”

Exercise 1 – Lying down

Lie on the ground and put one hand on the chest and the other on the belly. As you breathe, the chest hand should be completely immobile, or as much as possible. Your back also should not inflate. What moves is the hand on top of your belly, thanks to the use of the diaphragm, the muscle responsible for abdominal breathing.

Exercise 2  – Sitting down

You can exercise your diaphragm sitting down as well. Lift one arm and lower it slowly until it reaches the mat, while you exhale all the air from your body. As you raise the arm, inhale, gradually increasing the amount of time spent on exhaling and inhaling.

Exercise 3 – Warm up

Kron practices his breathing exercises while warming up as well. Repeat this and other natural moves using during a Jiu-Jitsu match while inhaling and exhaling by using the abdominal muscle.

Alvaro Romano teaching Ginástica Natural in New York / Photo: Cristian Buitron

A physical conditioning coach to the MMA stars, Jiu-Jitsu black belt and Ginástica Natural expert,  Alvaro Romano has dropped out of Vitor Belfort’s team and will not be training him for his showdown with Wanderlei Silva next June at UFC Brazil.

“I won’t be coaching Vitor anymore. I’m off his team, after having worked with him for his last two fights, two victories. Now I have some offers to work on producing new athletes,” Romano told GRACIEMAG.com. “My idea is to set up and execute a plan alongside professionals from all the areas of training. That’s the right way to do things. That’s how I always did it, and the results have been 100% victorious in the UFC  so far. I want to spearhead the evolution of conditioning for MMA.”

“I LEAVE THE TEAM WITH HIM VICTORIOUS”

A GRACIEMAG columnist, Romano denies any falling out with Belfort, but he does say he is open to work with other MMA stars.

“I want to deal more with the planning, while my son Raphael would work more directly with the UFC and MMA stars in their training camps,” he elucidates.

The Rolls Gracie student remembers how he took up Belfort’s training at a difficult moment, when the two first struck up their partnership.

“Fifteen years ago, I started training him after he lost to Randy Couture at UFC 15, in 1997. After another unfortunate incident, his loss to Anderson Silva in 2011, we started working together again. Now I leave the team with him victorious and at a good point in his career. I have other offers, and I want to devote myself to new plans for Ginástica Natural and training athletes,” Alvaro added.

Check out a bit of what Ginástica Natural is all about, in the following video produced by Alvaro and his son Raphael.