In
the Rio airport a member of the Gracie Camp staff was there to pick
me up. I found him immediately among the crowd with his Gracie Camp
T-Shirt! After one hour by car listening to some brazilian funk music
and speaking with my driver I finally came to the camp. My first impression
was great...the Gracie Camp is very beautiful, luxurious and calm.There
were only three students in the Camp: a greek guy, an american guy,
both blue belt under Renzo, and me. A typical day begins with a good
breakfast at 9.00am, then a technical training session in the dojo
of the camp with Renzo. Renzo taught us some no-gi technics and answered
all our questions. He also watched us sparring to find our weakness
and correct it. Renzo demonstrated some intermediate positions as
well as the posture and correct position of the body when applying
a technique. My skills increased a lot, good posture can definitively
change your whole game!
After lunch and before the afternoon training at the famous Gracie
Barra Academy, we all used to have a nap or watch some videos. Between
the training sessions their is always something to do in the camp,
you can play ping-pong, baby-foot, watch a video (there are a lot
of good tapes: BJJ competions, UFC, Pride...). You can also called
abroad for free, surf on the Internet or watch satellite TV. Technologicaly
speaking the Camp is well equiped. Renzo himself used to spend some
time with us in the camp. It was nice to watch with him his last
fight in Pride against Michiyoshi Ohara. Renzo commented on his
fight and also gave us his opinion on the other pride fighters.
Renzo loved playing ping-pong too and we often played hilarous matches
with him. The Camp was also a great opportunity to meet some Gracie
family members
: Ralph, Robson, Carlos Jr, Igor, Kyra, Reyson, Roger and a lot
of other Gracies. But also other great fighters like Soca.
Going to the camp I was curious to taste the famous Gracie diet and
was a little bit afraid of that. It was delicious! Claudio, the cook,
is awesome. At every meal we had an abundance of food, a lot of fruit
juice and some curious but delicious food I had never heard about!
I never felt uncomfortable or heavy after the meal and always had
the energy for good training. For sure I'll miss the food. The Gracie
Camp staff was very nice. Reinaldo was always available when needed
and you can ask him everything. With our driver Marcelo we came to
see the famous Christ of Rio, went for shopping, to several beaches...
Claudio the cook really is great and if you don't like something or
need something else he will do it for you. All these guys are also
very good in jiu-jitsu and don't hesitate to put on the gi to roll
with you and explain some position whenever you want! So in the camp
you can focus on training and not worry about anything else. At the
begining I hesitated, because I found the price expensive...but you
certainly get value for money!!
Many thanks to Alexis(debretalexis@hotmail.com) for the report and
pictures
