San Diego, California – Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Thiago Gaia showcased his prowess over the weekend at the North American Grappling Association (NAGA) event. Gaia emerged victorious in both the gi and no-gi divisions, solidifying his status among the elite in his weight and age category.

Gaia’s remarkable performance earned him two championship belts, as he triumphed in five matches in the absolute gi division and two matches in his respective no-gi category. The Brazilian competitor stood out as the standout athlete of the tournament, which attracts over 700,000 participants worldwide.

The North American Grappling Association (NAGA) is a prestigious mixed grappling tournament, renowned for its fierce competition and high level of skill. Gaia’s exceptional abilities were on full display as he showcased his superior takedowns and submissions.

The accomplished fighter expressed his immense joy, particularly due to the presence of his three daughters cheering him on with chants of “Go, Daddy!” Their unwavering support served as great motivation for Gaia, propelling him to overcome the challenges within the combat arena.

Gaia extends his gratitude to his team at Gracie Humaita, The Compound academy, as well as his sponsors Kingz and Chelsea Investment. With his latest triumph, Gaia has once again demonstrated his extraordinary talents, solidifying his place among the top contenders in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

What did you learn from your recent victory at the IBJJF Phoenix Open? 

ANDRE FREIRE: The Phoenix Open has a very high competitive level, my victory in the event boosts confidence for bigger competitions, especially for the No-Gi Worlds, a competition in which I’ve been on the podium in the past, but now I want the highest place.

Who is your greatest idol in your career?
Ayrton Senna is a great idol, that reference of pursuing excellence in what he does, not giving up in the face of adversity, especially because he is not in my sport, being able to motivate those who have never even seen a racing car up close.
 
What are your goals for the future in the USA?

I have some important titles that I want to achieve, like World Masters, and also be able to teach Jiu-Jitsu as a lifestyle and the benefits of this art to as many people as I can.
 
What is the philosophy behind your school?
Promote the different aspects of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, such as martial art, sport and self-defense. My desire is to positively achieve people’s different goals, respecting each person’s adversities and limitations.

Luccas Lira, you are one of the featured from the new generation in the competitive Jiu-Jitsu either with or without the GI. What tips would you give to the GRACIEMAG readers that desire to call attention of the public in the big stages? 

I see many fighters fighting events and being champions but they don’t get recognized for it. That’s because they end up not fighting and giving priority to the right tournaments to compete. Any athlete that wants to get recognition have to search for the biggest federations of our sport. 

What were the key challenges that you had to win during your carrear in Jiu-Jitsu until today? 

Absolutely being far from family while traveling to compete and also dealing with some injuries that bothered me for a while but because of my strength condition and physiotherapy I was able to recover from it.

You enjoy more competing with or without the GI?

I prefer to compete without the GI. I feel that makes more my style of grappling. That was something very natural that I’ve always had. I always had great results at grappling and that made me enjoy more. But I love the GI as well.

Which one was your biggest win as a fighter and your toughest loss? 

Thank God I had great results during my carrear. I won IBJJF No-Gi Worlds weight and open weight, No-Gi Pans, South American. World Pro Abu Dhabi and recently a great performance at ADCC trials. All of these tournaments have a special taste for me because being an IBJJF World Champion is something for a few, winning World Pro Abu Dhabi gives you a great feeling because of the prize money and the ADCC trials will probably bring me the invitation to fight the biggest grappling event of all time in front of 13.000 people. The losses I believe all of them are inside me until today. They make me want to get better everyday so I rather not forget them.

Who’s your idol in your carrear? 

My professor and mentor Roberto Cyborg. He pushes me everyday to give my best, trusts me and know my potencial. He always helps me to take my professional decisions. I’m sure that together we will keep making a lot of success.

You will probably get the invite for the upcoming ADCC. Do you predict something special for your preparation to this event ? 

Yes. I’m living this expectation to be invited for the ADCC in September at Las Vegas. My preparation to this event in case I get the invite will be the best possible. I’ll give my best in my strength and conditioning and will train a lot with my teammates at Fight Sports Club Miami. We have great athletes that are already confirmed for ADCC and for sure it will be the best training room in the world and the result will be the best possible.

Is the fact that you are a brown belt and fight the ADCC against black belts in your favor?

In my head being a brown belt doesn’t change much. Besides my opponent I always fight moving forward and looking for the submission. If that makes a difference for my opponents I don’t know but my mind is always good and while I fight I just search my main goal that is to be victorious.

What are your goals for the future when you become a black belt?

My goals for the future are getting back to United States as a professional athlete and represent my team Fight Sports Club in the biggest Jiu-Jitsu and grappling events in the world. I aim to win Worlds weight and open weight at brown belt and win ADCC. After these events that will happen this year I want to get my black belt from my master and continue to build a great carrear being a black belt world champion and then move to MMA.

What motivational phrase do you like to repeat to yourself in difficult times?

Everything in life is phases. However they seems to take long everything passes.

We all know that nothing in life is guaranteed, but there remains one simple fact; there is a world, and we live in that world and that world runs on formulaic probability (formulas + probability).

‘Formulaic probability’ is the simple notion I use to describe how everything in this world is controlled by some kind of mathematical formula, with the ‘formula’ being a combination of inputs that result in a single ‘output’ or ‘result’. That ‘output’ can be something predetermined by you, meaning that used correctly what you will have is a formula for success, or gold medals. Let me explain.

Jiu-Jitsu is an excellent example of this on multiple levels. We have all heard the likes of Mr Danaher, Firas Zahabi and other coaching greats describe Jiu-Jitsu’s true beauty as the ability to ‘solve problems in real time’. Much like a computer program uses algorithms to cycle through possible data combinations (inputs) to find a specific outcome (output). In Jiu-Jitsu we do the very same thing. For example, you want to force your opponent to the ground. If it was a computer program it might look something like this:

Input 1 – ‘shoot for a takedown’ = opponent sprawls = output ‘fail’

Input 2 – ‘ankle pick’ = opponent steps one leg back = output ‘fail’

Input 3 – ‘single leg’ = opponent defends unsuccessfully = output ‘undetermined’

Input 4 –  ‘run the pipe’ = takedown is successful = output ‘success’.

So as you can see above, although there are infinite input/output combinations, ultimately you can identify your target output and find the right combination for the right scenario (an opponent in this case). You can then work to maximize your chances of Jiu-Jitsu success beyond the average age group Jiu-Jitsu competitor by testing input/output combinations, finding the ones that deliver the highest success and incorporating them into your game.

Now, why am I talking about this mathematical, algorithmic mumbo jumbo and how does that relate to what we were supposed to be talking about which was; ‘How does one win a boat load of Jiu-Jitsu medals?!’

In order for me to fully explain the method, we need to first understand that ‘input = output’ or ‘you reap what you sow’ therefore, the ability to train full time is a crucial part of taking to your Jiu-Jitsu game to a level where you could indeed confidently step on to an IBJFF Championship Mat to compete in Worlds, Euros, Pans, Brazilian Nationals and crush your way through the qualifiers, quarter finals, semi-finals and finals until you are stood atop the section of the podium that says ‘Number 1’ and are blessed with that lovely piece of IBJJF blue ribbon adorned shiny gold neck hardware.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. How can I train Jiu-Jitsu full time with no money and a full time job? This is something I will touch in more detail in a later article, so don’t worry… all will be revealed.

One of the most interesting examples of an athlete solving the above problem is a Jiu-Jitsu athlete called Aaron Siwoku, who I would constantly encounter at IBJJF competitions around the world in places such as Tokyo, Japan winning Gold at the IBJJF Asian Championships, to Lisbon Portugal at the IBJJF European Championships winning gold there also, It seems he was constantly winning gold medal after gold medal in his division each time I would see him in various cities across the world always on the podium. I wondered how it was possible that a) he could afford to travel around the world to literally every competition and b) how his competition results were so consistent. So one day I decided to ask him, and it came down to 2 things:

1) He was able to pretty much train full time as he had basically become his own sponsored athlete by creating an online plant based protein and nutrition brand called ‘Honest Earth’ (which is awesome by the way!). He told me he is able to run this business from his laptop anywhere in the world and completely control his own schedule as well as have an income.

2) He also understood the very topic I am writing about in this article which is ‘limit the input possibilities’ to maximize the ‘output = success’.  The combination of these 2 things is very powerful because Aaron now had the ability to train full time and subsequently spend a lot of time figuring out what the ‘high probability inputs’ were in a Jiu-Jitsu match that would maximize his chance of success in competition.

Our conversation then took a fascinating turn, we started discussing whether or not some people were more gifted than others or was this just a fairytale, we decided on the spot that sure it might be true that until we are 10 years old natural ability can shine, but past that point it seems that only one thing takes precedence and that’s hard work. Not just any kind of hard work, but structured, well thought through good old fashioned hard work.

In the IBJJF European Championships I watched Aaron beat 5 opponents to IBJJF Gold without having a single point scored against him. After watching this It became clear to me that this was somebody who understood the concept I’m so passionate about which is If you can spend time identifying your target output e.g ‘take my opponent down’ then from there you can figure out how to reduce the ‘input’ combinations from infinite to not so infinite.

For example, in Jiu-Jitsu there is an unlimited number of ‘actions’ your opponent could opt to make, but if you ‘go first’ and pressure your opponent with your own actions (attacking) then you immediately limit your opponent to ‘reactions’ to defense only. When you do this, you are immediately limiting the number of ‘possibilities’ your opponent has thus shifting him into a disadvantage because before he can start to attack you again he must prevent your attack. By limiting your opponent’s offensive ‘output’ you also reduce the number of offense ‘input possibilities’ that you must cycle through to find a winning combination that delivers your ‘target output’ which in this case is ‘take my opponent down’.

For example:

Input 1 – Reach for opponents gi lapel = opponent defends by extending his right arm…

Input 2 – Attempt arm drag = opponent defends by stepping his right leg back…

Input 3 – Single leg takedown (left leg) = opponent fails to defend = ‘Success Outcome’

So, what you will find, is that if you have the time to test and build enough ‘input combinations’ like the simplified example above and then store those input combinations on your hard drive (brain) you will realize that an opponent’s Jiu-Jitsu is only infinite if you allow it to be, and your success is also only infinite if you allow it to be.