Samir Chantre is another black belt ready for the 2014 World Championship. Going for the featherweight gold medal this weekend, Samir is a Caio Terra Association black belt who has much competition experience.

Graciemag spoke with the black belt on his training, Caio Terra’s status and the submission-only formats for tournaments:

GRACIEMAG: How is your training going for this years worlds? Are you doing anything different this year to prepare than in previous years?

SAMIR CHANTRE: Training has been amazing. It’s been a very busy season for me with a lot of tournaments lined up so I’ve been training a lot non stop. For Worlds, like we always do prior to the major tournaments, we are having our camp at the Institute of Martial Arts with a lot of good guys to train and led by Caio.
One thing I’m doing different is conditioning training that I never did before. Alan Moraes, my first instructor back in Brazil, is the one that is taking care of my conditioning training, sending me my training all the way from Brazil. It has been amazing and I’m feeling great and most importantly, I’m injure-free even with all this hard training.

You recently fought in Metamoris. How was that experience and do you prefer that style of matches vs IBJJF?

It was a really good experience. I felt a lot of pressure and to be honest that was my biggest challenge on that night. Afterwards I felt I could have done much better… It wasn’t myself up there..
Comparing both styles, Metamoris and IBJJF, I like submission-only a lot but we can’t have tournaments for everyone in this style. Imagine a 3000-competitor tournament with sub-only? So I think one compliments the other.

A lot of people are talking about Caio as he did not defend his Pan title and isn’t defending his Worlds title this year. How is his health and do you think he will compete again?

I’m sure he will compete again and that’s what I pray for! But I think right now is not the best time. We spoke a lot last week because he was struggling himself to train so he could fight, but he is not well… A couple of days he had to stop training because he was feeling really bad, the other day he couldn’t even finish teaching a class..
Right now is time for him to recover, start thinking about his future. Better to see him out this year but healthier and stronger for the next season.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I want to thank my sponsor CTRL Industries for all the support for all these years. Also I would like to say that CTA will go very strong for this year’s Worlds. Caio may be out from fighting but he will be there to coach us and we will do our best to make him win as a coach instead! He deserves it! We will be fighting not only for ourselves but for him too!

Edwin trains at his academy, GB Northridge. Photo: Erin Herle

One of the many competitors entered into the 2014 World Championship is purple belt Edwin Najmi of GMA Gracie Barra Northridge. A student under multiple-time world champion Romulo Barral, the drive for success has clearly been passed down.

While he’s already won the Pan title four times and he’s accomplished the Abu Dhabi WPJJC gold medal as of last month, it’s the world title that he has yet to claim. He’s made it to the podium, but he’s hoping this year he’ll stand at the top spot.

I talked with Edwin about his tournament season so far and what differentiates him from the rest of the hungry competitors out there. See what he had to say:

GRACIEMAG: How have you done throughout your tournaments so far this year?

EDWIN NAJMI: So far in 2014 I’ve won gold at the FIVE Grappling California, Pans, Abu Dhabi WPJJC, IBJJF San Francisco Open and Las Vegas Spring Open. Also, I won triple gold at the IBJJF Chicago Spring Open. It feels great to accomplish all of that so far and win all those tournaments. But I want the Worlds gold medal really bad. None of the other accomplishments combined mean the same to me as a IBJJF World Championship gold medal.

Describe a typical busy day for you.

Typical training day: I train two times a day for about 2-3 hours each session. That includes drills, specific training and a lot of sparring. Between those sessions I balance my time between managing websites and social media accounts, taking online college classes, and writing articles when I have time. Also, I do strength training 2-3 times a week depending on how close the tournament is. I don’t like to do any conditioning, I just train more Jiu-Jitsu.

What is your approach to training when rolling with the lower belts or non-competitive training partners?

When I’m training with the higher belts and my toughest training partners, everyone is trying to kill each other every day. But when training with the lower belts or someone that’s not a competitor I always have a plan of what I’m going to do. There’s no point when training with them to submit them a bunch of times using your A-game. I choose a specific game and keep on doing it over and over again, and improve those positions I’m not good at. Essentially, you’re making the sparring session into a specific training without the sparring partner knowing. I honestly do this sometimes without even realizing I’m doing it.

What do you think is your strongest quality in Jiu-Jitsu and competition?

I truly believe that the reason I have had a lot of success in tournaments recently is because I’m stronger mentally. I believe in myself way more now and I’m doing everything with passion. If you don’t do something with your heart and passion, you can’t expect to be successful in it. Whether it’s training or competing, you have to have the will to be the best. I learned this from my professor, Romulo Barral.

Every Jiu-Jitsu competitor all around the world is training hard for the worlds, that’s no secret. You have to have the desire and attitude to win more than anyone else. You have to be different from the rest.

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Don’t forget to register for the 2014 World Championship before the deadline of May 19!

You can register at www.ibjjf.org