Jorge had a practice of matching people in class to train, a practice that I continue today at my academy. It was meant to keep everyone involved in training so that the more dominant and experience students did not monopolize the training space. But the real intent was to challenge us by exposing us to training partners with different styles, body composition, and experience level. Training relationships between the same partners can become stale and complacent and in order to develop you have to expose yourself to as many scenarios as possible. Recall the "well-worn path" philosophy.
An additional training tactic that Jorge did with me was to occassionally give me assignments. For example, later in my training, he told me that I was not allowed to close my guard. My legs were to remain open, regardless of the circumstances. This lasted for six months.
It was in 2001, as we were preparing for the Pan Ji Jitsu tournament, that I was assigned a task. The Wednesday before the event, Jorge put me in the center of the mat and paired me with another athletic, powerful, blue belt. Jorge told me that all I was permitted to do was to put my partner in a straight arm bar from my guard. He expected us to perform at full speed. Since my partner knew what I was attempting, he became very successful at defending. With each failed attempt, Jorge made me repeat it. Over and over again. Soon, other students stopped what they were doing and began to watch because it was brutal. Jorge did not spare me from any criticism, nor did he hide his displeasure with my performance. Mercifully, it came to an end and I left that evening having experienced the worst training session of my career.
But in his own way, Jorge stoked a little fire in me that day and I went on to win the silver medal at the 2001 Pan:
When we returned from the Pan (Kelly won a silver medal in light heavyweight) we were awared our purple belts.
When I finally reached the level of purple belt, I had essentially developed my style of jiu jitsu. So, I began to focus more on efficiency and making small adjustments to my style. It was my time to "sharpen the blade." I also was able to intesify my training for competition. What was instrumental in our training and competition experience was our merger with American Top Team.
Ricardo Liborio, a founding member of the Brazilian Top Team, was one of Pablo's coaches when he was still living in Brazil. Ricardo moved to the United States and co-founded ATT. Pablo needed more training partners that would help him compete in the ADCC championships, the "Superbowl" of submission wrestling. ATT was able to provide that need. Ricardo invited him to join and we became an ATT affiliate.
Merging with ATT also had two benefits for us: Exposure to cross training and tournament sponsorship. When we joined forces, we had joint training exercises on Saturdays. It was pure insanity. 30-40 guys would jam into our little 1200 sq ft academy and go at it for 2 hours. It was here that I got to train with the likes of Dustin "Clean" Denes, Wade Rome, Jorge Santiago, and Jeff Monson.
But the really cool part of being a part of ATT was that when we fought at tournaments, they paid the entry fees. I took advantage of this and competed as much as I could.
In 2003, Pablo's dream came true and he received his invitation to the ADCC Championships. While he lost in the quarters of the -77kg division, he proved that he was ready to be champion.
Next up: Private Time
