Atos Training Days 1 & 2

“Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means ‘a whale’s vagina.’” — Ron Burgundy

Well into the last leg of my trip, after an emotion fuelled evening at the worlds, watching Buchecha squeeze past Rodolfo to claim an epic third open weight tittle, I jumped on the pacific train line and strapped in for a two hour ride down to San Diego from LA in search of more gold. This time from the star studded Atos crew. Unfortunately for me Galvao's gym isn't exactly in the heart of San Diego, It’s about a twenty minute drive from downtown, or in my case a fourth five minute to an hour bus ride along the free way and through some of the cities more suburban areas. Which definitely allows you to get off the tourist track and see some real life San Diegoians in their natural habitat. While a bit of a timely affair, totally worth it when you think about the practitioners who line the edge of this particular mat.

The gym itself is a personification of its professor and the Atos ethos. Humbly nestled in the corner between a Chinese restaurant and a FedEx, the only signage is the a small bill board on the roof which reads "Free 30 day trial, Jiu Jitsu" . You would have never even known that one of the best BJJ practitioners of all time operates out of this space. Until you set foot inside  and notice that high up on the walls, boxed and presented, ADCC, WPJJ and a host of IFBJJ and Brazilian national tittles. Most importantly or most visible are the recent team tittles, a Pan-Ams first and yesterdays second at the worlds draw your attention , and after hearing Andre speak, these two accolades in particular seem to be a his most valuable achievements. His success appears to be a secondary factor to that of the teams results, or as he calls it ‘the family’. And funnily enough, what grabs your attention most at the club is the checked mat space, perhaps a symbolic representation of the gyms mantra, i.e together our Jiu Jitsu talks loudest.

I wasn't sure how busy it would be considering the worlds finished just yesterday and whether Galvao would even be on the mat, but this guy lives for his students. Sure enough at 6.15 he and his newly appointed black belt wife strolled through the door laughing, talking and shaking hands with everyone. I need to make a point of how available he is to his students and how willing he is to teach, work and praise everyones efforts. It could be quite easy for someone of his stature and success to sit back and allow others to run the class (think Keenan, Leira, Carbullido, Samson, JT) or to rest on his laurels. But, he is on the grind working just as hard as a coach, as he does a competitor. With technique as well, always learning, and not afraid to admit where he doesn’t know something. 

So monday we begin the class with a packed group of approximately twenty. Mainly purples and browns with a few blues hanging around. Galvao, splits his classes so that the whites work together in a separate fundamentals session, until they know the procedures, (like 1-2-3 clap to commence a technique), how to do basic movements and all the basic positions. In both rooms a syllabus hangs on the wall. Galvao’s is a bit more loose, but focus’ on six week cycles, working with particular concepts, drilling the techniques that flow into these concepts and applying them in a competition format. The whites have quite a bit more structure, for example; monday week one-back takes, tuesday, review back takes, thursday back escapes etc. 

Our training is very comp focused. Even though everyone is winding down after a big few weeks preparing for the worlds, the way we train is all for sport bjj and application within the match circumstance. Starting with a quick movement specific warm up, we flow straight into a popular DLR technique and transition. Similar to Cobrinha, drilling is done to time, five minutes for my partner and then five minutes for myself and probably about two reps of this cycle. Then we spend 5 minutes hitting it at competition speed. Hitting the technique like we would in a match, with Galvao putting emphasis on speed, power and most importantly not waiting, taking the position as soon as you can, again 5 minute rounds for two-three cycles. The final exploration of the technique is done working the position, letting your partner set their grips up to hit the sweep, while the you defend and try to pass. This is very important and we spend a good three to four two minute rounds doing this, until finishing with about four, seven minute free rolls. Galvao himself is a monster. On the second day we had the chance to roll together and even though he went pretty light, (I figure on his scale of light and hard I was probably just scratching the surface!!) the tightness and transitional pressure was always there. And his knees. His knees are like concrete pillars, which he uses to control you, always changing the angle of his hips to create space, and moving, constantly until he decides its time to stop, clamping down like a vice on your hips. It was an awesome roll and I got a lot out of it, trying to pass and play guard with one of BJJ’s best competitors. 

Our second session there was taken by the big man Keenan himself. Of course we got a preview of the worm guard and the reverse and another inverted version. Heads up, this is the progression. If you are not working it out start playing with it because if you thought the berimbolo was it, well, wait until you feel the control of this. We drilled it in a similar fashion to the last class, which meant Galvao showed some of his counters, but if you are not sold on it, watch how Keenan controlled Buchescha at the WPJJ, or how he destroyed leandro in the open at the worlds this year. It will be another standard positional technique in the next 12 months because of how effective it is, so get BJJ Scouting to understand the position, or check out his website because he has some cool breakdowns on it!

I travel back to LA today and fly out tomorrow. I am weighing up weather to go out to Kron’s but am carrying a few niggles which might deter me. So perhaps this might be my last training camp post and if it is, reflecting back I think the truest statement about the difference between our gym and any of the gyms I have trained at is; (and this is something Coach Jeroen has said often) the training partners. We have great facilities, excellent technicians and coaches who help develop our games. Take solace in knowing that everything we are doing at home stacks up overseas. Our BJJ is totally relevant and applicable on an international level (in my humble opinion). From smash and stack passing to inverted DLR and berimbolos. The only major difference I have found is that at any one time, in these gyms, you can have multiple world champions, pan am champions, seasoned competitors or BJJ pioneers which pushes the training intensity. No resting in the roll, limited resting in-between, no fans means you end up defending in odd positions, getting creative and pushing yourself to find new techniques to combat problems you repeatedly come up against! 

Good training partners make the difference. Not that we don't have that in Melbourne. We have a host of international talent and high-level competition, but if we are to make any head way soon, that all needs to come together under one roof every so often, so as to push the Australian competition team further and further up the podium. However, I digress. The point I wanted to make is that we at Mornington have done ourselves proud and produced an incredible style, which is balanced, on the precipice of technical brilliance, creative and dynamic. Thank-you team for helping me get out here and fly the flag, without you I could have never of got nearly as close as I did. As a parting thought, this was my first worlds, but next year will be my second and I hope to have a team of guys around me, coming out and representing Novia Uniao Australia and Mornington Extreme. As Galvao said, "together, we are stronger as a team!".

Ous.           

The Cauliflower is up!