Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Barely into the week (two days, to be precise) and I already have bruises and mat-burns. And my body aches all over. I ask Dr. Valdez if younger students have an advantage over me by virtue of their youth. His reply: "Younger individuals are at an advantage when they take up a sport as their bodies in general are more receptive to instruction, both physically and mentally.But he adds that the physical limitation among middle-aged guys could be overcome by dedication. "It really doesn't matter much how young or old you start with your training. I've seen guys start at 40 and become champions at 42. Or sometimes kids will start really young then eventually become champions at 18. What you do need is heart and dedication," confirms Alvin Aguilar, founder of DEFTAC and URCC, a man who seems to have had more thanhis fair share of scrapes. I ask Alvin why he is so controversial. "I have been in about 100-plus fights. But only about two of those are mine; most of them are about helping my friends out. I never back out of...fights," he reasons. "If someone challenges me, I beat them silly." These days, Aguilar claims he is on the straight and narrow. "I created the URCC precisely because I want a venue wherein a boxer, for example, can test his mettle against a karate guy. There wasn't anything like that before so there was a lot of street-fighting," he adds. "With URCC, we took all that off the street and put them in an arena sanctioned by GAB (Games and Amusement Board)."
Alright then. I join the lads at the Red Corner in Makati. As with the wrestling session we start with warm-ups. Man, oh man. One exercise requires me to hook my legs around the waist of my training partner, cross my arms and tuck it in my chest, and as I dangle, the guy walks around the length of the dojo. I fall off a couple of times. "Hook your legs! Hook them around!" the trainers yell at me. I am trying my best! Then it's my turn to carry my training partner around. Sigh. "Maybe we could move on to the next exercise?" I tell myself. The next drill requires us to crawl on the mat as a spider would while carrying our partner hooked at the back. Ugh…next, please. Then, one of us has to squat, arms spread at the side, while the other starts off clinging at the front then works his way around the body (side, back, other side, then back at front) without falling off. Whew. Maybe we should spar now?
The way they spar in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is this: You try to take down your opponent and pin him. It is extremely difficult for a beginner if your opponent knows how to block your every move. Great. The students here are young and have been practicing BJJ for months. As I see all these juveniles here, I wonder if all the discipline and principles of martial arts are now lost in the current wave of aggression, bloodlust and eagerness of youth. Aguilar doesn't think so. "It's always been like that. First, you wanted to fight so you study martial arts. It got really violent before, especially in the early '90s. Back then you got all these underground fights. I was hotheaded and violent before and I fought in those underground fights," he recounts. "But now, when I see kids that are out of control, we try and guide them. If we can't guide them, then we have to kick them out because that's bad karma for the instructors."
Now I come in, hoping these people would see me as naturally gifted. I do know how to take a fall. That should count for something. "This is the way it usually is; the really talented ones are the really lazy students," says Aguilar. "And the ones who don't have the talent are those who strive really hard and are passionate and dedicated."
I don't stick around long enough to find out in which group I belong.
» Fitness archive
Men's Health Philippines - September 2005 Issue
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Fritz Rodriguez is a big and scary dude. Here, he shows us that even if you successfully pin him down, he can still pull the triangular arm lock maneuver on you. Try this the next time your overeager buddies straddle you on the next drinking binge.
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