BJJweekly.com posted a podcast interview with me today, check it out here :)

I have decided to take a few days off from training, just to get my mind on something else and heal my body a little bit. I have five sprained fingers from competing last weekend and they hadn’t really had any time to recover yet. Two days should do it :)

Tonight, I am going to Ecuador. I have a flight to Guayaquil, where there supposedly is lots of really high level BJJ. I might also head to the Galapagos islands to train. From there, I will go to Brazil, perhaps with a stop in Peru on the way, if I can find the right plane ticket.

I actually didn’t feel like training today. Was chilling by the pool on the rooftop as Carlos suddenly showed up and said we were training in 30 minutes. I got myself together and ended up teaching an hour long class on a sidecontrol escape I have worked on for my entire trip, then rolling to submission with basically everyone in the class.

UFC on tonight!

Location:Calle 7 35,Medellín,Colombia

So, first day in South America, I get my phone stolen by a pickpocket at the train station. There are a few things, that I knew would happen on this trip, such as food poisoning and theft, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to me. It sucks, of course, but I am sure some boy in the favela is happy with his new toy. Lost a few notes I had written, but other than that nothing more than the usual naked photos of myself. They might be available online shortly, for a small monthly subscription fee.

I went on a nice city tour today with Carlos and Gary, taking the cable car all the way up the mountain. This city is really, really beautiful. Staying in a nice hostel with rooftop pool for only $10 a night!

Setting foot in South America also marks a big day in my personal traveling career, since I have now visited six out of the seven continents. Only one left is Antarctica… Which is actually not that far away… Hmmmm….? :-P

I taught a class in Carlos gym here in Medellin last night. It was a nice little group. Carlos moved here to start BJJ up from scratch alone and he has done a really good job so far.

I had some good rolls even though I was pretty tired.

In a few hours, I am going to the airport to fly to Medellin, Colombia. I got an invitation to go train with the local Gracia Barra gym here, so I just managed to squeeze in their afternoon class in my schedule today.

I was really tired from last nights hard and sweaty training, so it took me a while to get up in gear. We did isolation drills and sparring, which suited me fine. I didn’t have much mental energy for technique training today anyways :)

Had some good rounds with solid brown and purple belts. Felt tired and my knee hurt a little bit, but managed to do all rounds but one.

That concluded four days in Panama with visits to four gyms. It has been interesting to be here, despite I have spent most of the time sleeping or being in gyms :D

Next stop Colombia and from there, I go to Ecuador on monday. I might go straight to Brazil from Ecuador, but I am also tempted to go to Cusco in Peru on the way if I can find the right flight tickets. I’ll make a decision last minute as always ;)

I managed to sleep 12 hours non stop last night. I guess my body needed it. I have felt really good today, much better than the last week and a half, which has been super hectic with non stop traveling, training and competing. Unfortunately, I slept too long for us to make it to the beach in time, but it is ok since there apparently aren’t any waves anyways.

We took a little tour today, checking out the Panama Canal, then dropping by one of Miguel’s friends BJJ school. I wish I had had time to train there, but that’s gotta be another time unfortunately.

In the evening, I taught a nogi class in Spartan. It was really nice to train in shorts and rashguard in this humidity, the gi has been killing me the last two days. I had some great rolls and felt much more energized than when I rolled there the other day.

Tomorrow is my last day in Panama, before I head to Medellin, Colombia. I have an appointment to train in the Gracie Barra school here at noon. It is going to be a light roll since I am pretty tired from todays hard training and also since I will be flying in the evening.

I found out today, that the video of me rolling with Marcelo Garcia during my visit to New York was just uploaded on MGinaction. You can watch some videos for free, then it is $25 a month. I highly recommend signing up for that site, it is the number one best source of BJJ instructional material ever made, in my opinion. Marcelo shares everything, and the site it really well organized.

Click here to see the sparring video

Location:Calle 61 Oeste,Panama,Panama

Today has been a beautiful day in Panama city. Blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, I haven’t enjoyed it much, since I really needed to just sleep and do nothing. I spent most of the day looking for plane tickets, trying to find out where to go and when. In the evening, Giovanni picked me up. He saw I was in Panama and invited me to come train in Fightshape, which is a new gym only a few months old.

The place was very nice, looked good and clean. Everything was new and shiny. I made the mistake of eating too much fruit and nuts right before training, so my stomach didn’t feel too good when I started to move around on the mat. The humidity was crazy, it reminded me of one of the gyms in Manila, although not as bad.

The training was good, I got to roll with the instructor Paulo, a giant black belt. One of those technical guys, who are also so big and strong, that it is impossible to move them. It was good fun though and I got to practice my best tapping out techniques.

In the evening, I went out to eat a little bit with Miguel and his girlfriend, and now it is time to sleep even more. Tomorrow, if the weather is good, we will go to the beach and check out the surf.

So once again, I sit here for hours, looking at Google Maps and flight ticket sites. A few weeks back, I didn’t really have any contacts or ideas of where to go in South America besides of course Brazil. Now, I have too many places to chose from and too little time to go there.

The flights within South America seem pretty expensive, so I can’t go crazy jumping around like I have done before. Also, some places In the south looks like they are pretty cold now, and I prefer sunshine and nice weather :D

Right now I am trying to pick between invitations from Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina and Paraguay, before I head to Brazil. In some way it will mostly be decided by ticket prices and flight routes.

Thursday, I go to Medellin in Colombia for a few days, before checking out Bogota. From there, anything can happen, but I will try and get some tickets today.

On my way home from Brazil, it seems like flying to Madrid is the easiest and cheapest option, before making my way to Estonia for the summer camp. So if some of you know someone in Madrid I could stay with for a day or so (and maybe train with depending on my jet lag), then please email me on graugart@gmail.com :)

Location:Calle 61 Oeste,Panama,Panama

I took a flight from Los Angeles at 2 in the morning, arriving five hours later in Panama City. I managed to sleep in the plane, but it was only about four hours total, so when I got here, I took a nice afternoon nap. I am staying with Miguel, who emailed me because he saw on my blog, that I planned to visit Panama.

Miguel is one of the owners of Spartan Jiu Jitsu, where we trained tonight. He is recovering from a knee surgery, so I offered to teach the class. There was a lot of people and the humidity was really high. I was really tired from flying and also from all the training and the competition last week, so I decided to go really easy. I had some nice and easy rounds with some very good guys. One of them had some friends on Equador and Venezuela, so maybe I’ll go there and train a bit if I can find a cheap flight ticket.

I have a few other gyms to visit here in Panama before I leave for Colombia on Thursday, but now I need to sleep as much as I can. My body is screaming for rest and I’ll listen to it for once I think. I’ll see if I can squeeze in one training a day and some surfing Wednesday too, depending on how I feel.

It has been a hectic week here in California, visiting three cities and competing at the Worlds. It was a week of seeing old friends, Søren in San Francisco, Martin in Las Vegas and Chris here in Los Angeles. I also got a short visit from my old friend Adam Blake, who was the first guy I stayed with on one of my first BJJ globetrotting trips to New York back in 2004.

I was really glad I came back to the US for a week, even though it was quite a detour from Costa Rica. Tonight, I am flying to Panama, where I will be staying until thursday, then head to Medellin in Colombia.

Vamos!

Location:Avenue C,Redondo Beach,United States

Before I started rolling with this burger, I could tell, that it was something unique. It’s charisma, posture and aura was different from any other burger I have trained with around the world. We slapped hands and as soon as it grabbed my wrist, I could tell, that this was a very, very skilled burger. I tried for 15 minutes, but I simply couldn’t break it’s grip. I was amazed.

It’s base consisted of a unique one-pound bison meat foundation. Every single technique it possessed in it’s arsenal was solid, fundamental and drilled to death for years and years. It was a world class competitor who made the audience cheer at it’s entrance to the mat. I worked hard to submit it, but with it’s very experienced Parmesan fries coach on the sideline gave it great instructions and made it very difficult for me to even just score an advantage.

I have kept my belt standards high, maybe too high some would say, but I have all the time known that I would recognize a black belt the day I saw it. And here it was. The first black belt burger on the trip.

Bow to your sensei.

For some reason, I decided to roll a bit at Chris’ garage last night when we got back from the worlds. I was crazy tired, but really wanted to roll with Chris and when the music was playing, I found a little energy to go some rounds before showering and crashing in my sleeping bag in the corner of the mats.

Chris pimped my gi pants with a stencil he has designed, awesome!

I got up at about 8 am to go to Long Beach for the Worlds. I slept really well, didn’t really think much about the competition when I went to bed. Felt good in the morning, despite still being pretty tired in my body from all the traveling and overtraining lately.

My division was about an hour late, which ruined the timing of my warm up a bit, but I was ok when I was called to the mat. Absolutely no signs of nervousness or anxiety, it really just felt like walking into a new gym to roll with an unknown guy.

Since my cardio and muscle endurance sucks at this time, I knew my only chance of winning anything today, would be to play a slow, tactical chess match in the guard. I would need to relax there for eight minutes, defending the pass and taking my time working for sweeps and submissions. No way I would last a whole match, fighting high pace for takedown and top positions.

First match was against a guy from Ralph Gracie, who was very physically strong. I was seeded one round, so he had already won a match when I got him. Judging from his name, I think he was Mongolian. I really wanted to go to Mongolia on this trip to wrestle with people in the mountains, so I kind of got a taste of it today. He must have had some kind of wrestling or Judo background, because there was no way his back would ever touch the mat it seemed. I pulled guard right away and felt very comfortable in defending the pass. I have worked a lot on my guard defense on the trip, so it is a position where I often can relax for a long time without feeling really threatened. He felt really strong, but as long as my muscles were working, I felt like I could defend his pass really well with my butterfly guard. I had some attempts at sweeping him and didn’t manage to get the top position, but got the advantage points. In the very last moment, I was getting really tired and he got half a pass. I scrambled to my knees and went for a backtake roll I have been working a lot on the trip. Unfortunately, he powered his way into a kind of double leg / leg trip and took me down. I had heard that the time was running out though, so it was too late for him and I won on points. A few more seconds of that match and the result could have been different, but I guess I was the lucky one today.

I think I had less than ten minutes before the second match. I was ridiculously tired in my muscles, but was ready to try the same tactic. Unfortunately, my opponent was strong and fast and that defined his game. The only way for me to beat him would be to match his pace, which I just didn’t have the energy to do. Every muscle in my body was working at 50% and he felt really strong and fresh. His game was exactly the opposite of what I was trying to play, so I failed badly. Anyways, he ended up taking my back and tapping me out with my own favorite gi choke, so at least I know it works now LOL

Competing today was a very good experience. It was ofcourse nice to see that I could hang at the brown belt level (at least with one of the guys haha). Maybe if I cut the little weight down to -76 (I weighed in at 80.8 kilos with lots of food and no cutting) and actually did some physical preparations, I might have a chance to win some more matches. But I didn’t do that, so it really doesn’t matter, and I am just satisfied to have stepped on the mat and done my best I could on the day.

I had no nerves what so ever, before, under or after the matches, which I find kind of strange, but also pretty nice. I know it is not normal to feel like that, so in some way, I am glad. I can focus on just playing my game instead of focusing on what is going on in my head, which I guess is pretty practical.

I met quite a few people who were reading my blog and came to say hi, which I think was very cool. My friend Søren from Denmark, who lives in Oakland, came down to see me compete and we hooked up with Jonathan from Kauai Kimonos. I met tons of people, who I know from gyms I have visited on the trip. It was kind of like a social event for me actually :)

Thanks again to BJJ Legends Magazine for sponsoring my participation fee at this tournament, it was a really big help and I might not have competed today without their support.

It is 23:30 and I just rolled out my sleeping bag on the mats of Chris’ garage gym. In less than 12 hours I will be competing at the Worlds and I still haven’t really given it a thought. I think I don’t worry about it, partly because I haven’t been preparing specifically for the tournament but also because I have walked into countless of gyms and rolled with high level strangers during my trip. In my head, stepping on the mat tomorrow is not much different than going to a new gym and rolling with some brown belt I have never rolled with before.

Of course, my physical training for this tournament has not really been optimal. I have rolled and surfed a lot, but that’s basically it. On the other hand, not many moves or games can surprise me much, since I have pretty much seen it all over the last 102 days on the road.

I don’t know how many guys are in my division and I don’t know anything about my opponent. I don’t need to know either, I will just get in there and do my best to execute my game no matter who stands in front of me.

I guess my opponent is probably googling me and very likely finding this blog, looking at the pictures of me partying in the Caribbean and surfing in Costa Rica. To whoever you are, “THAT IS ALL AN ILLUSION TO HIDE THE FACT THAT I HAVE BEEN IN A HARDCORE TRAINING CAMP IN BRAZIL MUHAHAHAHAHAAAA SEE YOU TOMORROW GRINGO!!”

Around 1999-2000, I bought my first ever Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructional tapes. They were a bunch of big, bulky VHS tapes, that I clearly remember came with the mail one afternoon when I got home from school. I was extremely excited to watch the tapes and see what this BJJ was all the about, so I could go to my Jeet Kune Do gym and practice it.

Chris Haueter was the guy teaching on the tapes, and I swallowed every bit of information on them. Today, more than ten years later, I am staying in his house for a round the world BJJ trip. I some way, I have come full circle. It is fun to think about how I ordered those tapes and that decision somehow shaped my life into what I am doing today and how I ended up sitting in his house right now.

Being a true BJJ Globetrotter, I have actually been a little disappointed, that I haven’t slept in a gym yet. So sleeping in Chris’ garage gym is really cool and very, very authentic. Chris has a very different and interesting approach to Jiu Jitsu than most others, and it shows in this garage. Tomorrow, I will be competing at the worlds and after that I will roll here with Chris and maybe go to Cobrinha’s school, depending on when I get a ticket to out of here.

I have spent the day relaxing. John from Kauai Kimonos and Søren, my friend from San Francisco are coming here to stay too.

The house is very close to Redondo Beach so I took a bicycle ride by the beach at a very slow pace, and I think that’s about all I want to spend my energy on today, while trying to rest my sore body before stepping on the mat tomorrow :)

Vegas was another short, but interesting destination on my trip. It was cool to stay with Martin Kampmann and his wife and get a glimpse of the life of a full time professional fighter.

I know that many people dream of standing in the cage in front of thousands of people, but not many have an idea of just how much time, work, sweat, blood, pain and dedication it takes to get there. I had one MMA fight back in 2003 and quickly admitted to myself, that I don’t have what it takes to do it. I highly respect those few who manage to keep up that lifestyle and Martin is one of them. He is in my eyes one of the most intelligent and technical fighters in the UFC at this moment. The last two fights have ended in close decision losses, leaving him with losses on the record but a lot of new fans.

Watch out for him against John Howard on June 26th!

I am sitting outside Xtreme Couture, trying to decide on where to go next week. I have been traveling at a very high pace since New York, visiting more than ten places in the last two weeks. It has been really fun and interesting, but I don’t know if I should keep going like this or slow down a little bit.

I have the option of getting a cheap ticket directly to Panama on Monday. One of my options is to spend the next month only in Panama, Colombia, Paraguay and Brazil. But I could also squeeze in a couple of more destinations, such as San Diego, Mexicali, Ciudad Obregon and Mexico city. It would take some time from my visit to Brazil and also demand a lot more from me in planning and finding the right tickets. Not to mention the extra costs of going to these many places.

Suggestions?

I felt really tired this morning, when I woke up. Have definitely been a little too hard on my body lately, but I decided to go train a little bit in Xtreme Couture nevertheless.

It was just me, Martin and Kyle and we did lots of situation sparring for a couple of hours. Rolling with guys like this who are in really good shape, I can really feel how my strength has declined on the trip, not having done any physical training for more than three months. It was really good training though and when I first got warm and up in gear, I felt pretty good.

I will rest now before the competition on Saturday. I will be interesting to see how I feel, if this is enough time to recover. I probably should have stopped training a few days ago, but I didn’t want to miss out on training with Martin in the gyms here in Vegas. A good, solid warmup and I will be fine hopefully :D