In competition, I’ve managed to achieve some good results, including three gold medals at the European Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships, and I think that’s a direct reflection of the quality of these instructors.

About a month ago, an opportunity presented itself to assume the leadership of our local academy — Draculino Team Marbella — here in Marbella, Spain. I was sad to see our previous instructor return to Brazil, but at the same time, excited at the chance to try out some ideas that’d been brewing in my mind for some time.

Where can we innovate?

What I’ve always found fascinating about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, is the extent to which it relies on strategy, tactic and technique. It really is like a human form of chess. There are setups, sequences, attacks, counter-attacks, and forced transitions.

So what leads to success in BJJ? In competition, factors like physical conditioning, and experience play a part. But the most important factor is technical execution — recognizing what to do when, and knowing precisely how to do it.

The key to success is knowledge retention, in which “knowledge” extends beyond simple awareness, to execution.

• Knowledge. You must first recognize what a particular situation calls for. Which technique leads to the highest probability of success? What are the risks in attempting that technique?

• Understanding. Then you must understand the technique in depth. What are the steps involved? Why is each step important? What are the mechanics? Where is the force required?

• Practice. Finally, you must have mastered the execution. You have to have developed a feeling for proper positioning, and the movements and adjustments made in response to a defending opponent.

Success in jiu-jitsu lies in knowledge retention, which comes from both instruction and practice, and this has been on my mind for several years. Are we training in a way that best leads to knowledge retention?

The traditional pattern in BJJ class structure in BJJ begins with a warmup, followed by the teacher demonstrating one or two techniques, which the students then pair off to practice, and then concludes with live sparring.

The techniques selected for teaching often come from a school-specific syllabus, and attempt to cover all the major positions during, say, the course of a year. In other schools, a written syllabus doesn’t exist, and the techniques are selected ad-hoc.

For some time, I’ve suspected there’s room for innovation in our teaching techniques, building on the success of the traditional methods. Some specific questions we can ask are:

1. How can or should we vary the class structure?

2. How should we go about selecting the specific techniques for instruction, and the sequence in which they are taught?

3. What should trigger us to move from one position or technique on to the other? A calendar?

4. How can we help students remember what they’ve been taught?

5. Are there ways we can improve the effectiveness of live sparring, in the learning process?

Experimenting

At the time I began instructing the Marbella academy, we had nine weeks of time before the 2012 European Championships. I decided this would be a good test-bed period to try out some ideas.

• Return to the fundamentals. There are five basic positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu — the guard, the mount, side control, the back, and the half guard. (There are many other positions, but these are the most common.) We mapped out a nine-week plan covering the basics for each of these positions — proper defense & positioning, a couple of attacks, defenses to the most common attacks, and a couple of transitions (sweeps).

  The objective here was that when we arrive in Lisbon, each of our students will be able to immediately articulate our preferred strategies and techniques from each of the basic positions. The hope is that in the competition, they’ll put these basics in practice instinctively. The best success we’ve had as a team at the European’s was the year in which we focused exclusively on the basics — an we hope to repeat that in January of 2012.

  At first glance, I thought nine-weeks might be too long to cover just the basics, but I was ever wrong! One realizes quickly that even the basics include a surprising number of details — each one critical. Getting to a point where the students know the techniques so well they react instinctively takes a lot of time!

• Think in terms of probabilities. Even at the level of basics, we’ve tried to give priority to those positions and techniques that our students are most likely to encounter in the competition. For example, we’ve spent a lot more time in mastering side control, the mount position, and the closed guard, than, say, stand-up or the back position. And for the back position, we’re focusing on defense, rather than offense.

  The reason is that the majority of our competitors will be white and blue belts, and we’ve got limited time available to us. I think our students will likely find themselves in the guard, and if they can get to side control and/or the mount, I’m confident they’re going to win. I believe it’s less likely they’ll find themselves offensively in the back position. Again, we’re not saying getting the back isn’t important, just that it’s a less frequent position for white and blue belts to find themselves (offensively) than other positions.

• The devil is in the details. We commonly talk about how important the details are to the proper execution of technique, yet it’s still relatively rare to see precise execution techniques. I personally believe we often lack appreciation for just how critical technique really is in BJJ.

  Perhaps one way to increase awareness is to insist on the students understanding the reason and mechanics behind the techniques. One thing is to see an attack, and another is to deeply understand why it works. And understanding why it works is a tremendous help in understanding how to defend against it!

  Consider just the side control position. We covered four basic side control variations — for each understanding whether it’s offensive or defensive, and when to transition into and away from it. Those four variations resulted in a total of about 16 important details. We insisted that each student be able to articulate the purpose of each detail — e.g. what is the purpose of keeping our hips down, or what is the purpose of a high-body position in the third variation? What do we anticipate our opponent to do in this variation? What’s the highest probability attack from here, and how to we set it up and execute it with minimum chance of getting swept?

  As another example, I’ve been insisting that when applying any choke, the focus word that comes to mind is lever. Nearly every choke in BJJ is based on the principle of the lever — a force applied at a distance from a fulcrum, resulting in a stronger force applied somewhere else. Often, when demonstrating chokes, we’ll stop to analyze where the fulcrum is, where the force being applied is, and where resulting choke force ends up. When seen from this view, it’s easier to understand why the work in the collar choke comes from the wrists, not the forearms, and why the elbows should go in, not out (which is the instinctive direction.)

  Only once the students began to understand the details enough to quickly articulate their purpose and function, did I begin to observe the students actually applying the positioning correctly when sparring.

• Spend time on a single position. We spent one or two entire weeks on a single position, looking at all the basic technique variations — defenses, attacks and sweeps — around it. In addition, we were willing to extend that time, as necessary until we felt the basics were sufficiently assimilated. Often, the second day after presenting a set of techniques, the students would have forgotten some details. But after three or four days of doing the same things, the knowledge began to internalize.

• Professor involvement. Generally, after a technique is demonstrated in class, the students pair off to practice. We made a slight modification to this protocol, in that before pairing off, each student applies the technique to either the professor, or one of the other high-ranking (e.g. brown belt) students. I believe this is one of the most important teaching elements we’ve introduced.

  Only a high-level practitioner can detect small problems with position, weight distribution, sequence and technique. And it’s these small details that lead to bad habits, and ultimately ineffective application of technique.

  We found this teaching modification to be tremendously beneficial! On many occasions, students had that light-bulb “Ah ha!” moment, expressing something like, “I’d never realized I was making that small weight distribution mistake.”

  Only after students had performed the techniques on the teacher (or another high-level student) were they then allowed to pair off and practice together.

• In the long run, the house always wins. With literally thousands of technique available to teach, how does a teacher select among them? Our approach has been based on probability — probability that an technique’s execution will be successful, and probably of not losing position during its application.

  For example, for the Europeans preparation, we didn’t focus at all on dropping back from the guard into a foot lock, since if unsuccessful there’s a good risk of losing position. I don’t even want our students thinking about that during a fight. We focused instead on things like double-attacks from the guard, collar chokes from north-south, and the head-arm triangle from the mount, for example — high-probability, multi-option positions, with little risk of losing position.

• Specific sparring. Although all students like the live sparring part of class, we insisted on spending more time in specific sparring. For example, during the weeks in which we focused on the mount, we spent a lot of time doing live fighting from the mount, in which the fight is over (and resets again) if a submission or sweep happens.

  This isn’t particular innovative, as specific sparring is a part of most academies. Perhaps what’s different in our recent experience is the increased focus on this aspect. (I understand that world champion Roger Gracie spends tremendous amounts of time in specific training.)

Results

So far, I’m really pleased with the results. As I walk around the mat watching the students fight, I’m seeing real, objective improvement, and made at a pace that’s very exciting. As we talk about techniques and strategies, I see students gaining a real and deep understanding of the art. And the students are recognizing in themselves real progress, and from this, their enthusiasm for continued learning grows.

Resources & inspiration

It’s always good to have mentors and inspiration, and here are a couple of mine.

• Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães. Draculino was one of the founding fathers of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, from the Gracie-Barra lineage. From Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and today from Austin, Texas, he has probably produced as many champions in BJJ, grappling and MMA as any other teacher in the sport. I’m proud to have received my black belt from his lineage, and to carry his name at the academy.

  Something I like about Draculino, is that he’s very analytical. Trained as a lawyer, he’s always taken a systematic approach to teaching and developing techniques. In this respect, people like Draculino have inspired my own way of approaching the art.

  Draculino also happens to run one of the best online academies on the web, offering both an extensive video library of techniques (each recorded from three angles) as well as a yearly curriculum for running a school. I use this resource to help structure our curriculum, and I’m constantly referring to it to clarify technical details. It’s the best $40 I could spend each month!

• Eddie Bravo. Although it will certainly be controversial to a lot of people reading this, for me, Eddie is the “Mozart” of modern Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He has systematically studied the best, from the best, and then innovated — notably including MMA’s most effective guard (the “rubber guard”), the twister, and a lockdown-based half-guard game — to develop his “10th Planet” system.

  Eddie is controversial because of his viewpoints on a number of issues both related and unrelated to jiu-jitsu (like the use of marijuana), but I believe it is precisely the frank openness to examine issues critically, that has led to the advancements he’s made in the sport.

  The more I follow Eddie, the more I’m impressed. A goal I have in 2012 is to travel to his school in California to meet and train with him.

The route — which is spectacularly beautiful (and, really, what isn’t around Andalucia?) — leaves Yunquera, almost at the altitude of the Puerto de las Abejas (820m), and then dives right down to the town of El Burgo.

From there, it’s a wonderful, curvy, long mountain climb towards the Puerto del Viento (1190m). The climb passes initially through forests, with a stunning view on the left down to the Fuensanta trail and steep river valley, after which it breaks open into the rocky (and still steep) terrain leading up to the Puerto del Viento.

From the (very windy!) Puerto del Viento, the freshly paved open road winds down into Ronda. It’s a surprising drop in altitude from the Puerto to Ronda, so take time for a coffee and rest before turning around to head back! All in all, it was a super route — about 70km in total.

Following are some additional photos from the ride:

And below is the trip map (and downloadable GPS track) from Garmin Connect:

(Para una versión de esta crónica en Español, pica aqui.)

The event was the Carrera por Montaña Sierra Elvira — the first in a series of four Spanish Cup mountain trail running events, in which elite teams from all over Spain compete to become the Spanish Champions. As a sponsor of the team from Andalucia, the Makalu/RaceSplitter group was given special access to the course for the purpose of providing a backup timing service, using RaceSplitter.

RaceSplitter is an application for the iPhone (or iPad, or iPod Touch), that costs $24.99 in the Apple App Store, and can be used to time any race in which time recording through manual entry of bib numbers is feasible. While you wouldn’t want to time a 100 meter sprint with it, RaceSplitter is perfect for most endurance events where racers pass one by one, or in small groups.

The Setup

A couple days before the event, the race organizer emailed us the start list in an Excel file — containing racer names, bib numbers, and categories. We uploaded this information to RaceSplitter.com, to create a new race. The RaceSplitter website then emailed a copy of the race to all three of our team members planning to time the race.

Each of us then loaded the race into RaceSplitter — I used my iPhone, my wife (Pino) used her iPad, and Alex used his iPhone. (We could have created the race in RaceSplitter on our iPhones. But with 300+ racers, and since three of us would be timing the same race, it was much easier to uploading a file to RaceSplitter.com, and then all share the same race.)

Arriving in Atarfe, Spain, the night before the event, the race organizer gave us a list of some final modifications to the start list (including a couple new racers, and a few category reassignments). I logged into RaceSplitter.com, and made the changes, after which the website emailed fresh copies to everyone who’d previously downloaded the race — myself, Pino, and Alex. We all updated RaceSplitter on the iPhones/iPads, by importing the new race file — and with that, we were ready to go.

Race Day

On the morning of the race, we positioned ourselves at various points on the course. I hiked up to the remote mountain top of “El Morón”, where I would record the times of racers coming up the peak, and then a second timing when they passed by again, having descended the back side of the mountain and returned.

Pino took up her position at the water station in “Pinos de la Moleona,” while Alex was stationed at the start/finish line, where he would record final racer finish times. Together, we would be recording three intermediate times, in addition to the finish times.

Timing the Race

On Alex’s signal, all three of us started our individual races in RaceSplitter. (RaceSplitter allows for synchronized starts, although it’s not necessary; as the RaceSplitter website will automatically adjust the splits for any race that was started later.)

About an hour and forty-five minutes into the race, the first runner passed my position at the ridge below the Morón Peak, and I began recording times. As each racer passed, I would type their bib numbers into RaceSplitter, and hit “Record”.

Since RaceSplitter knows the names of the racers, and continually displays current race standings, one of the race judges on the course stood next to me, to confirm that his paper entries were being properly made. His job is not to be concerned with times, but to ensure correct recording of the position of the top male and female racers on the course.

Even the race judge wants a copy of RaceSplitter! His comment was,

“RaceSplitter is amazing! What am I doing with this paper? Your app is just as useful to race judges to confirm positions on the course, as it is to those timing the race!”

About thirty minutes later, I found myself both timing racers who were ascending the mountain and those who had descended the other side, and were returning for the last leg back down to the finish line. I was turning left and right, typing bib numbers in as fast as I could, and managed not to miss anyone! I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could successfully time even groups of four or five racers.

Meanwhile, Pino was recording times of the racers as they passed the water station, and Alex was capturing their times at the finish line.

(And what better end to a perfect day, than to see Makalu/RaceSplitter-sponsored runner, Ivan Ortíz, take first place, hopefully earning him a spot on the Spanish national team!)

Although it’s not quite a fair comparison, looking at the official timing team — with their mounds of computers and cameras and cables — compared to one guy holding an iPhone, you really got the sense that RaceSplitter represents a major positive step in the evolution of race timing!

Consolidating the results

After the race was over, each of us — myself, Pino and Alex — each uploaded with a single tap of a button our captured data to RaceSplitter.com, where I (as the race creator), clicked a link to incorporate them all into a single, unified set of browseable race results.

If we had been the official race timing service, we would have immediately broadcast the link to these results, so that everyone at the race would browse them at their leisure on their smart phones. (And, of course, we would have printed the results out, as traditionally done at races like these.)

Concluding remarks

We were extremely happy with how our RaceSplitter product performed, and there was a lot of excitement among the race organizers, and heads of the various federations from around Spain. Even the company doing the official timing were interested to learn more about RaceSplitter!

Today, RaceSplitter represents a flexible, simple, economical yet powerful solution for timing those races in which manual data entry is feasible. The cost of a professional timing service can reach into the thousands of dollars, with additional fees in the hundreds of dollars for each additional intermediate point timed on the course. With RaceSplitter, race organizers can place as many timers on the course as they like, each with a one-time cost of $25.

And tomorrow? Well, let’s just say that we’ve got some amazing, innovative, and exciting features planned. Stay tuned!

For more information, see the RaceSplitter website at:

http://racesplitter.com

We’ll leave you with a couple photos from the race, particularly including members of the Makalu/RaceSplitter team from Andalucia — all taken by Alex’s wife (and great photographer!), Carlotta. (There’s also a complete Flickr photo set here).

El evento fue la Carrera Por Montaña Sierra Elvira – la primera de una serie de cuatro que componen la Copa de España de carreras de montana, en los que los corredores de los equipos de élite de toda España compiten para convertirse en el campeón español. Como patrocinador del equipo de Andalucía, el grupo de Makalu/RaceSplitter tuvo acceso especial en la carrera con el fin de proporcionar un servicio de cronometraje paralelo al oficial, utilizando RaceSplitter.

RaceSplitter es una aplicación para el iPhone (o el iPad, o iPod Touch), que cuesta $ 24.99, en la App Store de Apple, y puede ser usado en cualquier carrera en la que el tiempo de grabación a través de la introducción manual de los números de dorsal es factible. Mientras que la applicación no se usaría en un sprint de 100 metros, RaceSplitter es perfecto para eventos de resistencia en los que los corredores pasan de uno en uno, o en pequeños grupos.

La preparación

Un par de días antes del evento, el organizador de la carrera nos envió por correo electrónico la lista de salida en un archivo de Excel – que contenía los nombres de participantes, los números de dorsal, y las categorías. Hemos subido esta información a RaceSplitter.com, para crear una nueva carrera. El sitio web RaceSplitter ha enviado por correo electrónico una copia de la carrera a los tres miembros de nuestro equipo encargados de cronometrar la carrera.

Cada uno de nosotros subió la carrera en RaceSplitter – Yo usé mi iPhone, mi esposa (Pino) ​​utilizó su iPad, y Alex utilizó su iPhone. (Podríamos haber creado la carrera en RaceSplitter en nuestros iPhones. Pero con más de 300 corredores, y ya que éramos tres de nosotros cronometrando, era mucho más fácil subir un archivo a RaceSplitter.com, y luego compartir la misma carrera.)

Al llegar a Atarfe, la noche antes del evento, el organizador de la carrera nos dió una lista con algunas modificaciones finales en la lista de salida (incluyendo un par de corredores nuevos, y una reasignación de categoría de algunos). Me registré en RaceSplitter.com, e hice los cambios, después el sitio web por correo electrónico envió copias nuevas a todos los que habían descargado previamente la carrera – a mí mismo, Pino, y Alex. Todos actualizamos RaceSplitter en el iPhone / iPads, importando el archivo de la nueva carrera – y con eso, estábamos listos para ir.

Día de la Carrera

Subí a la cima de una montaña, “El Morrón”, donde se registrarían los tiempos de los corredores llegando a la cima, y luego un segundo momento cuando volvían a pasar, después de haber descendido la parte de atrás de la montaña.

Pino asumió su cargo en la estación de agua en “Pinos de la Moleona”, mientras que Alex estaba estacionado en la línea de salida / llegada, donde se tomaron los tiempos finales de la carrera. Juntos, íbamos registrando tres tiempos intermedios, además de los tiempos finales.

El cronometraje de la carrera

Cuando Alex nos dió la señal, comenzamos nuestras carreras individuales en RaceSplitter. (RaceSplitter permite comienzar sincronizado, aunque no es necesario, ya que el sitio web RaceSplitter ajustará automáticamente los tiempos intermedios para cualquier carrera que se inició más tarde.)

Alrededor de una hora y cuarenta y cinco minutos de carrera, el primer corredor pasa por mi posición en la cresta por debajo del pico de Morrón, y comienzo a grabar el tiempo. A medida que cada corredor iba pasando, iba escribiendo su número de dorsal en RaceSplitter, y grabándolo pulsando el botón “Grabar”.

Puesto que RaceSplitter conoce los nombres de los corredores, y muestra continuamente la clasificación actual de la carrera, uno de los jueces de carrera se quedó donde yo me encontraba, para confirmar estaba realizando sus entradas de papel correctamente. Su trabajo no es preocuparse por los tiempos, sino garantizar la correcta inscripción de la posición de los mejores corredores masculinos y femeninos en la carrera.

Incluso el juez de la carrera quiere una copia de RaceSplitter! Su comentario fue,

“RaceSplitter es increíble! ¿Qué estoy haciendo con este papel? La aplicación es tan útil para los jueces de carrera para confirmar las posiciones en la carrera, como lo es para el cronometraje!”

Unos treinta minutos más tarde, me encontré tomando tiempos de los corredores que subían la montaña y los que había descendido el otro lado, y regresaban en la última etapa a la línea de meta. Yo estaba girando a la izquierda y la derecha, escribía el número de dorsal tan rápido como podía, y conseguí que no me faltara nadie! Me sorprendió gratamente que podía cronometrar, incluso grupos de cuatro o cinco corredores.

Mientras tanto, Pino estaba grabando los tiempos de los corredores al pasar por el avituallamiento, y Alex capturó los tiempos en la línea de meta.

¿Y qué mejor final para un día perfecto, que ver al corredor Makalu/RaceSplitter-patrocinado, Iván Ortiz, ocupando el primer lugar.

Aunque no es del todo una comparación justa, mirando el equipo de cronometraje oficial – con sus montones de ordenadores y cámaras y cables – en comparación con un individuo que sostiene un iPhone, se da uno cuenta que RaceSplitter representa un paso positivo importante en la evolución del cronometraje de carreras!

La consolidación de los resultados

Después de la carrera, cada uno de nosotros – yo, Pino y Alex – cada uno subió con un solo toque de un botón los datos capturados para RaceSplitter.com, donde yo (como creador de la carrera), con un clic, incorporé todos en uno, para poder ver los resultados.

Si hubiéramos sido el cronometrador oficial de la carrera, hubiésemos transmitido el enlace con estos resultados, por lo que todo el mundo en la carrera podría navegar y verlos a traves de sus teléfonos. (Y, por supuesto, tendríamos tambien los resultados impresos, como tradicionalmente se hace en las carreras como estas.)

Observaciones finales

Estábamos muy contentos con el funcionamiento de nuestro producto RaceSplitter, y había mucho entusiasmo entre los organizadores de la carrera, y los responsables de las distintas federaciones de toda España. Incluso en la empresa que realiza el cronometraje oficial estaban interesados ​​en saber más acerca de RaceSplitter!

Hoy en día, RaceSplitter representa una solución flexible, simple, económica y potente para el cronometraje de carreras en las que la entrada manual de datos es factible. El coste de un servicio profesional de cronometraje puede llegar a los miles de dólares, con cargo adicional en los cientos de dólares por cada punto adicional intermedio cronometrado en la carrera. Con RaceSplitter, los organizadores de la carrera puede colocar tantas personas cronometrando como quieran, cada uno con un importe de $ 25, una sola vez.

¿Y mañana? Bueno, vamos a decir que tenemos algunas características sorprendentes, innovadoras y emocionantes planeadas. ¡Estad pendientes!

Para obtener más información, consulte el sitio web RaceSplitter en:

http://racesplitter.com

Os dejamos con un par de fotos de la carrera, particularmente los miembros del Makalu / equipo RaceSplitter de Andalucía – (¡y gran fotógrafo), todas tomadas por la esposa de Alex, Carlotta. (También hay un completo set de fotos de Flickr aquí ).

Draculino Team from Barray Audiovisuals on Vimeo.

Sunday, January 30, I competed for the first time as a black belt in the 2011 European Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship, in Lisbon, Portugal. My category was light weight (under 76kg), Senior 2 division. The good news is that I received third place (bronze medal), as you can see from the podium picture above. The bad news is that I got beaten by both those other guys. Adimilson Brites (nickname ‘Juquinha’), from Gracie Humaitá Brazil won gold, and François Deniau (Team Megaton Lyon, France) won silver.

Following are some thoughts after the event:

• The black belt division is a whole new world. When fighting in white, blue, purple or brown, you generally fight people with a similar amount of experience. The black belt gold medal winner in my division (Adimilson) has had his black belt for 18 years! (I’ve had mine for three weeks). Being able to win gold at this level is going to require a lot more thought, training and strategic planning than I’ve done in the past.

• Both of these guys work full-time running BJJ academies (in France and Brazil). I’m going to have to up my three-night per week training schedule if I want to beat people like this.

• Both of these guys were super friendly, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them after the event. I’m always impressed with the quality of people that I meet at these competitions, expanding an ever-growing network of BJJ friends around the globe. Add Lyon, France and Brasilia, Brazil to the list.

• In both my fights, I dropped straight to half-guard after feeling a little uncomfortable that so much time had passed standing up. I have to remember to be more patient.

• In the future, I’m also going to have to research my opponents more. François Deniau is a black belt under Wellington ‘Megaton’ Diaz (one of my favorite BJJ teachers and competitors). His fighting style was (naturally) very similar to Megaton’s — i.e. solid, fundamental, tight and strong. Had I researched him a bit, I possibly could have come up with an effective game plan.

• The morning of the event, I weighed (with my gi) exactly 76.0 kg, and so I wasn’t able to have breakfast. And, warming up, it seems like I just couldn’t drop weight, and so I had to go into my first fight at 11:45 am without having eaten anything all day. I felt totally zapped after my first fight, and don’t know whether it was from the effort (the other guy was strong!) or not having eaten. In any case, lesson for the future: I’m going to be at least 1kg under weight on the morning of the event, so that I can eat a big breakfast.

• In the fight with Adimilson, I noticed that he had an extremely light-weight gi. After the event, I googled and found that some competition gis are now commercially available that weigh far less than normal training gis. The Vulkan Pro Light that I ordered this morning weighs 1.3kg, as opposed to the 2.1kg gi I wore in this event. Wow, an extra 800 grams — that’s full breakfast! Definitely a tactic I’m going to take advantage of in the future!

• Speaking of weight, I followed the Four-Hour Body slow-carb diet in preparation for this event (which is similar to the Paleo diet, but allows legumes — lentils, beans, etc.) I was extremely impressed — dropping from 80kg to 74kg over a period of a few weeks, eating pretty much as much meat, fish, chicken, veggies, and nuts as I wanted, and feeling great!

• I have got to compete more. Speaking with Adimilson, he mentioned that in 2010 he competed 90 times! No wonder he was such a cool cat before the fight!

• Final thought after the event — I’m optimistic. Even though I lost to these guys, I feel like with more training and planning, I can compete with them. So I’m looking forward to training harder, and facing off with them again next year.

Hotels in Ronda

We traveled to Ronda on Saturday afternoon, with plans of overnighting in town, to avoid an early morning drive from Marbella on the race day. Since we booked late, the only hotel we could fine with vacancy was the Hotel Colón. As the hotel sits precisely on the starting line, next to the Alameda, we thought we’d lucked out!

But then we checked in.

First bad omen was when the receptionist said that we had to be out of the hotel by noon the following day (Sunday). This is the first time we’ve ever been to an event like this, and where the local hotel didn’t allow us to return to the room late the following day to take a shower. (It’s not like they had guests arriving on Sunday night.)

So we spent the afternoon exploring Ronda, and ended the evening with a pizza. Returning to the Hotel Colón at about 9:30 PM, we hit the sack early.

Three hours later we realized we’d made a terrible mistake. Not only does the hotel’s location coincide with the race start, it also coincides with the busiest evening-time spot in all of Ronda. Loud cars, loud people, buzzing motorcycles, shouting, bottle breaking, police sirens, you name it. An orchestra of noise.

At midnight, I’d decided to simply go home. Anybody familiar with Spanish nightlife knows that kind of chaos goes on all night long, and I wasn’t about to sit there all night, and then ride 70 km the following day, having done no training at all (more about that later).

We left the hotel shortly after midnight, unsure whether we were simply going home, or to another hotel. Fortunately, we happened to ask the public parking lot attendant if he knew of a hotel outside of Ronda, and he pointed us to the Hotel Don Benito.

Wow. What a difference! Just 4km outside Ronda sits the four star Hotel Don Benito. Beautiful. Friendly staff. And quiet! We were able to have a gloriously peaceful night.

Considering the one-star Hotel Colon was 50 Euros per night, excluding breakfast, and the four-star Hotel Don Benito was 60 Euros per night, including an awesome breakfast, I’m pretty sure I know where we’ll be staying in the future.

Race Day

After a breakfast of fruits, toasted rolls with olive oil, cereals and coffee, we headed off to the Alameda for the start of the event, where we were greeted by 1,000 cyclists and 700 runners.

Not having touched a bicycle in over six months, I was more than slightly concerned about my chances of finishing the thing, and so I moved to the very back of the group. At 9:30 sharp, the gun was fired and we were off.

The race made an initial, insanely muddy loop around Ronda, and then it was off to Montejaque, where we climbed up to the famous Ermita. I’ve done this climb many times, and it’s hard. I was able to stay on the bike for most of it, but had to walk at the very top, where both the inclination and trail erosion from the recent rains made it impossible to stay on the bike.

Back to Ronda, we hit the 30 km point, where I’d planned to do a self-assessment and possibly quit. However, I felt surprisingly good, and decided to continue. The route then left Ronda for a north westerly loop of about 40 km. I started feeling better and better, and ended the race passing many people and feeling strong. I can only attribute that to the Powerbar gels which I’d decided to take religiously each 45 minutes.

My finishing time was 5h:30m, over an hour better than last year’s time. (But still, that’s relative. Spaniards love cycling; over 80% of the people in my category still beat me!)

I arrived just in time to setup the camera to capture Pino finishing the run, in fourth place overall, and second place in her category. AMAZING!

After the race, we downed our recovery drinks, had a warm sandwich and beer offered by the organization, and sat looking at the gorgeous Ronda countryside waiting for the awards ceremony. At 5:30 PM, Pino was awarded her 2nd place trophy — and there was no mention of my finishing in the bottom twenty percent. (Unfair!)

In addition to Pino’s performance, others from Marbella did well too. Our friends Aurora and Juan finished first and second in their categories, respectively (in the 23 km run option).

All in all, an absolutely fantastic day in Ronda. Looking forward to next year.

Photos

Map of the 70km bike route.

Altitude profile of the bike route.

Start of the race.

Pino running through the local towns.

Climbing up to the Montejaque Ermita.

Pino’s finishing second!.

Team Marbella did great!

It was a muddy, muddy day.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is a grappling-based martial art, originating (obviously) in Brazil, that became popular in the late 1990s, when it surprised the world, demonstrating its superiority in the early versions of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) — a no-rules fighting event that pitted experts from various arts (karate, kung-fu, boxing, etc.) against each other, in an attempt to settle the eternal question, “Which martial art is the most effective in real combat?” Without punching, kicking or drawing blood, the small Brazilians were able to subdue and control far larger opponents — and ultimately force them to “tap out.”

Ironically, the world would soon learn that the martial art that dominated those original “ultimate fighting” events turns out the be one of the most attractive martial arts in which “the rest of us,” might want to train.

Since it doesn’t contain striking and kicking, BJJ is quite safe to practice. Its objectives are to take one’s opponent to the ground, gain a superior position, and then to submit them through a choke or joint lock. As such, it’s an art that is rich in terms of strategy and tactics; in fact, many people find a BJJ match to be analogous to a physical version of chess. And, since one can train in BJJ, safely, at the same level and intensity as real competition (or a real fight), it’s both a fantastic physical exercise, and extremely effective in real world situations.

I’ve been practicing BJJ for about nine years now. Beginning with white, and progressing through blue and purple, I’ve worked my up to the brown-belt level. The next step is the dream of all BJJ practitioners — the coveted black belt, or “faixa preta,” in Portuguese. During those years, I’ve tried to compete as often as possible. Although during the nervous buildup to a competition, I usually end up thinking, “Why do I put myself through this?”, I always — win or lose — find the experience gratifying, and find my motivation to continue practicing and learning elevated.

This year represents the third time that I’ve won gold at the European championships — once at the blue-belt level, and twice at the brown-belt level. That’s not really saying as much as it seems, though, since, in my age category, there’s usually not that many competitors. If I happen to get promoted to black this year, though, I am mulling over the possibility of dropping back down to the “adult” category next year (18 to 30 years old), just for the opportunity to experience a fight against some of the famous elite competitors around today.

I’ll close this blog with a link to a video somebody recorded of my fight this year, in the finals of the brown belt, lightweight, Senior 2 division. Enjoy!

This year, my walk-around weight increased to about 81 kg, and prior to the European championships, I decided to forego trying to lose 7 kg, and just fight at middleweight, 82 kg (including gi). That turned out to be a major mistake, as the fighters in that category walk around at 84- and 85 kg, and cut down to 82 kg for the event. It felt like fighting monsters, and I didn’t win a single fight.

So, for 2010, I will, without question, try to return to the lightweight division. Losing weight, permanently, takes time, and so I decided to start the process a couple months ago. My goal is to reach 76 kg. I began at 81 kg, and after 45 days, have gotten down to 77 kg — so I’m almost there.

WEIGHTBOT FOR THE IPHONE

If you have an iPhone, there’s no better tool to track your weight than Weightbot, from the people at Tapbots.

http://tapbots.com/weightbot/ As a product developer myself, I have mad respect for the effort these capable guys have put into make the user interface beautiful, simple and efficient to use.

DIETING & WEIGHT LOSS

The reason I ended up at 81 kg is simple: I love to eat, and I love beer (in particular, Corona with lime, or the Spanish Cruz Campo).

Getting my weight back down to 76 kg was going to require a change of habit (or, the establishment of some habits, depending how you want to look at it.) The things I didn’t want to give up included my yummy daily lunches, and my afternoon post-workout couple of beers. The resulting strategy included:

1. Eliminate all between-meal snacking. This has been the most difficult part. I was so used to grabbing a snack frequently throughout the day.

2. Eliminate all sweets. This hasn’t been as difficult as I expected it to be.

3. Reduce consumption of breads to a minimum. No problem here. I have a piece of toast with breakfast, and maybe a small piece at lunch.

4. Cut back on sauces (ceasar salad dressing, kebab yogurt sauce, things like that). Again, no real problem here.

5. Eat well at breakfast and lunch, and eat very lightly at dinner. (Note, lunch and dinner, here in Spain, happen generally generally around 2:00 PM and 10:00 PM, respectively.)

Following this simple plan, I’ve been losing about 0.5 kg (1.1 pounds) per week, and without feeling deprived of what I really like.

Every May, thousands of people from around the world gather in Ronda, Spain, to subject themselves to the grueling endurance event known as the 101km of Ronda, hosted and organized by the Spanish professional military, La Legión. A bit lesser known, this group also organize a warm-up even in March, known as the Homenaje de los 101km de Ronda. While I’ve done the 101km three times now, this was the first year that I participated in the Homenaje.

This past Sunday, we got up early–especially early, given the switch to Daylight Savings Time–dropped the kids off at the grandparents, and headed off to Ronda. I’d planned to do the 70km mountain bike ride, while my wife planned to do the 43km running option. We got to Ronda about an hour later, parked and headed to the start area.

And we’re off!

At 9:30 am, I and 1499 other MTB’ers took off from the Alameda, in what would turn out to be one of the hardest rides I’ve ever done. A half hour later, Pino set off on what would, for her, be one of her most successful races.

The route left from Ronda, made its way down to Benaoján, up to Montejaque, up to the Ermita de Montejaque, down to the valley, up to Arriate, back up to Ronda, down the famous “Cuesta del Cachondeo”, then back up to the Ermita de Montejaque (on the other side), and then back to Ronda through the same route via Benaoján on which we started the day.

The route planners packed in just about as much climbing within the 70km, as they do within the 101km. Have a peek at the route profile:

While the course would have been hard on a good day, things got terribly complicated by the weather, which is particularly unstable this time of year around Ronda. While most of the day was cold and thickly overcast, it’d occasionally clear up, becoming beautiful, but sweltering hot.

And just by the time you’d get the jacket off, the sun would duck behind a cloud, bringing back the bone chilling cold. Eventually, it began to rain, finally turning into hail.

The wet weather led to some awfully muddy conditions, and since the course was practically all climbing or descending, there were a lot of crashes. (I crashed three times, but at least the soft muddy landing helped!) And with the constant change of cold-hot-cold temperatures, the mud sort of baked into rock-hard clumps on the bike.

The finish.

All in all, a hard, unpleasant ride, much of which was spent walking up and down muddy inclines. I finished the 70km course in seven hours; 15 minutes more than it took me to do the entire 101km course last year!

On the positive side, Pino had a great running race, finishing 30 minutes faster than her time in the Homenaje last year, and ending up fourth overall, and second in her category! Go Pino!

The raced ended just in time, as the weather turned for the worse, covering the area just outside the city in a snowstorm:

The possessed car wash.

The day wouldn’t have been complete, without a hair-raising experience at, of all places, a car wash.

Just outside Ronda, we stopped to wash my mountain bike at a “high-pressure” do-it-yourself car wash. Very tired from the race, feeling mellow from a beer, my mind was in another place when I inserted the Euro, and pressed the “Wash” button. What I heard next sounded like something between a grenade launcher and the space shuttle taking off.

The little faded pictogram on the wall showing a man holding the water pistol as “Step 1″ needs to have some supplemental text like, oh,

“WARNING: This machine is driven by a NUCLEAR pump. YOU WILL DIE! if you’re not holding on to that pistol with ALL THE MIGHT YOU CAN MUSTER when you insert that coin!”

Before I knew what was going on, the rocketfuel-propelled car wash pistol was violently shooting up and down, left and right, thrashing anything in its path. I instinctively and instantly dove in front of the Jeep, covering my head, and hoping I wouldn’t get killed. Meanwhile, I could only imagine what was getting smashed to pieces overhead.

Finally, I reached up on one pass of the enraged pistol, and managed to grab the hose. The darn thing nearly ripped my arm off, but I somehow management to wrestle it to the grown (and getting soaked in the process).

In the end, I avoided getting hit, but the Jeep suffered some major dents. :-( I sure learned my lesson.

For those interested, I’ve got more photos up on a dedicated Flickr set.