While packing and planning for any trip can be a feat, accurately preparing for a trip that involves training or competing may differ your plans.

For those who are embarking on journeys, make sure you follow all of these tips from Oliver Geddes, a black belt under Roger Gracie and traveling connoisseur.

No stranger to traveling for Jiu-Jitsu related endeavors, Oliver rounded out a 60 day trip in the summer of 2012 where he went from his hometown of London, England to Toronto, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, Los Angeles, Atlanta and finally, New York. He trained at academies, competed at competitions and garnered good ol’ Jiu-Jitsu hospitality allowing him to better budget his adventure.

Whether you are competing, visiting many academies or just managing a get-away from the family to train once during your vacation, you can learn from these tips and perhaps they will inspire you to plan a thorough training tour of your own:

Packing. You don’t need to bring as many clothes as you think you do. Since you’re going to be washing gis everywhere you go, don’t pack heavy. Your back will thank you for it.

Abraham Marte at the Master Worlds. Photo: Ivan Trindade

It may surprise you that ultra-heavyweight black belt Abraham Marte lives in a country that doesn’t have a well-developed BJJ scene. Despite being at most major tournaments and event opportunities, the man lives far from where any of them take place. From October to December of last year, Abraham traveled to three countries, competed in four events, missed out on an opportunity due to visa issues and welcomed the birth of his baby daughter.

I asked Abraham to describe his crazy travels during that time to see what each trip entails. The Dominican relies on many people wherever he goes, even to train and prepare for matches:

“Okay. So I traveled to New York and fought at the NY Pro [on October 25]. After that I stayed a week training at Marcelo Garcia’s, which is always awesome. Leandro Lo and Felipe Preguica happened to be in town so it was extra awesome. Then I flew to California for Masters Worlds, and did that tournament for the first time. (I’m actually turning 35 this year). I was able to pull off a double gold and got to fight one of my idols, Comprido in the division final.

After that I headed to Japan, where I trained a bit, taught class at a couple of spots and fought the Asian Open. After the tournament I stayed in Tokyo for like 3 weeks, and got to work with some of the best MMA fighters in Japan, as i was teaching at Yamamoto Sports Academy. Another awesome thing in Japan, other than the food, was that i met another one of my heroes, Master Yuki Nakai.

After Japan I went back home to Santo Domingo. The day I arrived I got a phone call from Costa Rica inviting me to an 8-man invitational no-gi tournament so two days later I went to Costa Rica and fought at the Shidokan event. I stayed a week training with Fernando Moya to start getting ready for my fight with Keenan at Polaris. Somewhere during this time I got staph, which kept getting worse. Moya traveled back to Dominican Republic with me to keep training. We trained for a couple of days until I had to stop because of the staph. I took care of it and took a two week break. Then on Christmas Eve two friends of mine came up from Brazil to help me train for Polaris. So Diogo Moreno and Gutenberg Pereira got here and spent the end of the year here helping me get ready for Polaris, and kicking my ass twice a day every day until January 8.

Unfortunately for reasons out of my control (my theory is the Charlie Hedbo massacre) my visa and passport did not get mailed back to me in time. Although my visa was issued on the 6, it didn’t arrive in time for me to be able to fly to the UK for the match with Keenan.  I am now very sad but understand that everything happens for a reason, and I tried my hardest to make it. But I am also blessed to be able to spend time with my newborn daughter Cristina, whom was born on the 6 of January. So now im just soaking it all in. I decided not to do Europeans (I’ve never been able to do that one) and stay home with my family, and heal my body and get strong for Pans.”

Darragh in the brown belt GP at the 2013 World Jiu-Jitsu Expo. Photo: Erin Herle

Darragh O’Conaill is a brown belt under Saulo Ribeiro from Dublin, Ireland who has made his name in various international tournaments. Having medaled at the Pan Championship as well as the Europeans, he’s looking to make his move at the World Championship next week in Long Beach, CA to earn the world title.

I caught up with Darragh as he made his way to San Diego for the final preparations and learned how he got started in Jiu-Jitsu, what his days are like, how he feels about traveling to compete and what he believes is necessary for winning the big tournaments. Read on:

GRACIEMAG: How did you find Jiu-Jitsu and get into the tournament scene as well as start teaching?

DARRAGH O’CONAILL: I was first introduced to Jiu-Jitsu by my PE teacher in high school when I was around 16. He was a blue belt and taught some classes in the school I attended. At the time, rugby was my passion having played since I was eight years old. I played full time for my final two years in high school and did no Jiu-Jitsu but when I went to college to play rugby I got burnt out and stopped enjoying it. Wanting to keep fit and involved in a sport I got in contact with my old PE teacher and attended the Jiu-Jitsu classes he was teaching at a local gym. That was roughly 2007.

I was naturally competitive having played rugby for so long and entering tournaments was an obvious route for me. From my first time competing I was hooked but the scene in Ireland was so small it meant I had to travel to England and around Europe alone to gain experience.

By 2010 the academy had grown to have about 25/30 members, but my instructor had a lot of injuries and found it frustrating to keep teaching without being able to train so he offered me the chance to take over the academy for him. I had fallen in love with everything to do with Jiu-Jitsu at this point: teaching, training, competing, and couldn’t say no to the offer. I had a great job at the time working afternoons that allowed me to teach and train both in the morning and night until the academy was big enough to quit and teach/train full time. Four years on I now have my own full time academy in a new location with roughly 100 students!

When did you hook up with Rafael Lovato Jr. and his team in terms of mentorship and affiliation?

My school is a Ribeiro Team affiliate and I was introduced to Lovato by my teammate and friend from Germany, Johannes Wieth. I met Johannes in 2010 training at the University of Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego. Johannes had been to Oklahoma City to train [with Lovato] and strongly recommended I make the trip and check it out. In 2012 I travelled there for a couple months for Worlds training and loved everything about it. Since then, Rafael has been to my academy in Ireland four times and i’ve been to Oklahoma City three times. He has helped me so much not only with my skills on the mat but with my mental game and academy, too. I am beyond grateful for all the help and support he’s given me, as well as all Saulo has done for me.

Let me know what it’s like to have to travel everywhere to compete and how you adjust to that.

Having to travel everywhere to compete is not an issue for me at all really. It’s all I’ve ever known so I have nothing else to compare it to. I love travelling and have gotten to see so many amazing places because of Jiu-Jitsu. While the journeys may be long and sometimes tiring, it gives me a lot of time to think and of course I’m so grateful to have the chance to do what I love for a living so I can’t really complain!

Describe your busiest day for training, teaching and any another priorities.

A typical day for me would be to wake up around 8:30 a.m., do some yoga and eat. Head to the academy for 11 a.m. to drill, teach class and train from 12-2 p.m. Every second day we have competition team training from 4-6 p.m. Then I teach class and train again from 7 to roughly 10 p.m. Within those times, depending on the day, I also find time to cook/eat, drill with my girlfriend and take care of business at the academy.

What is the most valuable aspect of training necessary to do well in competition?

I think there are a lot of aspects necessary to do well in competition, but one of the most important for me is developing an extremely strong mental game. Everybody trains hard, does drills, lots of rounds, shark tanks, whatever. The people who make the podium are not necessarily the ones who train the hardest or with the most skill, because I believe everybody at the biggest tournaments train hard and are skilled. The ones who medal are those with the greatest will to win, the most self-belief. They have the strongest and calmest minds under pressure. In my opinion, the development of your mind and self-belief is the most important aspect of your training.

Training with Lovato. Photo: Personal archive

Be sure to watch the 2014 World Championship from May 28 to June 1 at the Long Beach Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. Check out the livestream here: www.ibjjftv.com

Oliver Geddes in Kuwait. Photo: Personal Archive

Oliver Geddes is a black belt under Roger Gracie from England most known for his ability to get around and compete. A numbers guy, he keeps track of all his wins and losses, amount of matches he’s ever competed in and most importantly his budget. Living at the London Roger Gracie Academy at one point, he values experiences over things and manages to gain enough money and network among the Jiu-Jitsu community to take trips around the world for Jiu-Jitsu purposes.

There are huge lessons learned that came with Oli’s journeys and lucky for you he can spare you the money, time and efforts (most), maybe awkward moments as well, so that you have a guide to traveling for competitions.

Here is how the traveling nomad plans and executes his trips, near and far:

The competition is the priority. “The number one mistake people make when traveling to competitions is treating it like a holiday. If that’s what you want, fine. But a lot of people complain about the cost of competitions when they are traveling with family or partners, staying in proper hotels, traveling at convenient times, and so on and so forth. The first thing to take into account when traveling for a competition is that the competition is the priority. Comfort and sightseeing has to take a back seat if you want to do this on the cheap.”

Be conscious of how you spend your money. “Don’t stay in hotels, stay in hostels. Fly at awkward hours. Take coaches or buses, not trains. Research the route beforehand, because making spur of the moment decisions is nearly always more expensive. If you can referee, and are qualified, then take that into account. For a multiple day competition, that can really mess with your performance, but for a one day event, it really shouldn’t impede you too much. This applies mostly when you’re traveling solo, but if you can find a like-minded travel partner, this can sometimes shave a little bit more money off. Just know your travel partner well enough so that you’re sure they will make the trip cheaper rather than more expensive. It only takes one night out to turn a very cheap trip into a moderately expensive one.”

Consider sightseeing for free. “As the downside of all of this – no, you’re probably not going to see much of the countries you are visiting. And this is a shame. But with enough planning and research, you should be able to find a number of things to see and do that are free and where you can take some pictures and at least feel you saw another country, rather than the inside of another gymnasium.”

Plan as to stay within your budget. “If you’re really hurting for cash and it’s a short trip, buy your food beforehand and bring it with you. You can spend a lot of money waiting at airports on things that you can get for a quarter the price in a supermarket. Equally, if traveling to a country with a different currency, be aware of exchange rates. Not really knowing how much you’re paying for something (and hence whether something is actually cheap or expensive) can hurt a lot over the course of several days.”

With IBJJF tournaments surfacing all over the world, don’t let the fear of spending too much money get in the way of earning a gold medal and testing yourself. Traveling for a competition doesn’t always have to mean top hotels, car rentals and nights out on the town so long as you have a budget and keep your eyes on the competition itself.

For upcoming tournaments, you can see the IBJJF calendar by clicking here.