Global Training Report

Global Training Report

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Ricardo de la Riva

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By Roberto Pedreira

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Ricardo de la Riva is another of Carlson's many former students, but unlike most of them, he doesn't use Carlson's name. He doesn't need to. He is famous enough on his own. De la Riva is the first man to vanquish three Gracies. He is also the only one with techniques named after him.

De la Riva was very PR savvy, as one would expect of someone who owns one academy in Rio, another in Orlando, Florida, fights in vale tudos, and has a video series out. A year ago, DelaRiva taught in the Atlantico Rio Health Club, about a ten-minute walk in the direction of  Ponta de Arpoador. De la Riva was a popular teacher and business was booming, so he established his own academy, which he shares with Yudan Judo in a new location at Av. N.S. de Copacabana, 1.141/Sobreloja. De la Riva's is a new academy, so therefs a sign in front. Foreigners passing by sometimes see the sign and go in. One who did was a Japanese guy named Atsushi, who was learning jiu-jitsu from a blue belt at the Seidokai-kan in Tokyo. Atsushi was a beginner, but big and with long thick legs, and he was making the blue and purple belts work to get through them. They always did of course, and clearly resenting the trouble he had put them to, invariably choked him out in a particularly violent way. Of course, Atsushi refused to tap, so what could they do? It no doubt demonstrated the traditional and modern Japanese virtues of  endurance (gaman, ‰ä–) and persistence (ganbari, Šæ’£‚è), but it probably wasn't  the most efficient way to learn jiu-jitsu.  

 

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I bumped into Atsushi later that evening out at a lanchonete up the street. He seemed to be an intelligent guy--off the mat at least. He had read an interview with Leka and went to Brazil to meet her. But Leka was never at the academy (Dojo Jiu-Jitsu) when he showed up so he wandered down to de la Riva's school. I didn't like to  imagine him getting Café pissed off. It was probably fortunate for him that Leka was always busy somewhere else at those times.

In every academy, there is at least one guy who has lived in the US and speaks English fluently, usually, more than one. Often the gProfessor Responsávelh (head instructor) is also fluent in English. That wasnft the case at de la Rivafs academy. Ricardo is starting to learn English but is still a white belt, linguistically speaking.

Purple belt Ronnie offered to translate. He had been born and, for a while, raised in Houston, Texas, where his father was at the University of Houston studying for a Ph.D. in food engineering. Ronnie is also studying food science, at a university in Rio. Seeing so many people sleeping in the sidewalk gets one to wondering. How many kcals does a homeless person need to survive in Rio?  Ronnie hadnft studied that yet, but informed me that "bananas are cheap"—no one is going to starve in Rio.

 Malnutrition is a possibility, but that is more the result of ignorance about the nutritional values of various readily available foods than insufficient supply. Nutritious foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, chicken, eggs) are cheap in Rio and money isnft hard to get. Brazilians who donft have money arenft reluctant to ask passers-by for some. Why should they? As they see it, they arenft begging, they are just asking. You donft have to give them anything if you donft want to. Brazilians donft believe people are defined by their jobs and that money you earn through hard labor is somehow better than money obtained in some other way. Quite the contrary. They also donft believe that everyone can succeed if they try hard enough. Far from it, most people will fail no matter what they do. Success is more a matter of Godfs Will (gse Deus quiserh), or chance, or luck, than human effort or ingenuity.

 Ronnie had studied jiu-jitsu on and off for many years. He started in order to get in shape for basketball.  Jiu-jitsu was already big in Rio before the UFC but it got bigger and spread to the rest of Brazil. That hasn't necessarily been all good, he says, agreeing with a lot of others. There are too many unqualified teachers now. They may be, or may have been, good fighters, but they arenft teaching their young students the things they most need to know, like self-control. Too many cases of kids fighting in the streets. Itfs giving jiu-jitsu a bad name.

 I asked Ronnie why he came to de la Riva when there are so many Gracies teaching. He says it's because de la Riva has excellent technique.  That was easy to believe—anyone who has beaten three Gracies would have to—and he is also a good teacher and a nice guy. Anyway, itfs the academy more than the family that matters. The Gracie family doesnft have an absolute monopoly on jiu-jitsu anymore. They wanted jiu-jitsu to become a big business and it did. It got so big that itfs too big even for a family as big as theirs to control it. The big tournaments made it happen. Everyone can see whatfs happening, whofs doing what, and there are video cameras everywhere. There are no secrets anymore. The techniques are the same in every jiu-jitsu academy. Even luta livre fighters can learn the best jiu-jitsu techniques if they want to. All they need to do is buy the videos. Maybe they already have.    

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DelaRiva demonstrating the "joehlo na barriga"

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A Arte Suave index

GTR index

More about de la Riva: Update 2006

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©2000-2007, Roberto Pedreira. All rights reserved .

Revised December 2001.

Revised January 2, 2003.

Revised December 30, 2007.

 

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