At his home Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu academy, the BJJ Coach Marcello Monteiro refers to “training” as the period of time after warm-ups, instruction, and practice drills where participants line up against the wall and are paired off for a little friendly sparring. Often times, Professor Marcello walks around and observes during this period, keeping time and giving pointers while focusing on everyone’s safety and correct execution of techniques. Sometimes, especially during the training session of the second (or more advanced) class, Marcello will do a little training himself with higher ranked belts.
At his home Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu academy, the BJJ Coach Marcello Monteiro refers to “training” as the period of time after warm-ups, instruction, and practice drills where participants line up against the wall and are paired off for a little friendly sparring. Often times, Professor Marcello walks around and observes during this period, keeping time and giving pointers while focusing on everyone’s safety and correct execution of techniques. Sometimes, especially during the training session of the second (or more advanced) class, Marcello will do a little training himself with higher ranked belts.
It is always a sight to observe, as the moves between combatants are so controlled, so technical and meticulous, that we beginners and intermediates always get good take-aways from observing the matches. I have done drills with Marcello and he has given me instruction, but I had never rolled with him before last night. It was an experience.
I was excited to stop back to see the Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Coach. Toward the end of the second class, rather than pairing us all up for another sparring session he took the six white belts that were there and a couple of blue belts and tapped us out, one right after the other, until we all went through about four or five rounds with him. Obviously to all, he is very skilled and inevitably will win, but we made a game out of who could hang in the longest with him and who could go the longest without making a mistake. He was narrating the matches as he went, pointing out what we were doing wrong and why he attacked certain moves, etc. As soon as one guy would be defeated by submission, the next one of us would run right in, get into his guard, slap high five’s with him (signifying both were ready to go), and then it was our turn to show what we had been learning and hang in as long as possible. As you can expect, he was doing some pretty cool moves to us that we had never really seen and definitely never done to each other. The way he used his weight and leverage to apply pressure to us with minimal effort exerted on his part was a real experience. We would leave the mat, gassed and gasping for breath, and he would be on to the next opponent with no break. Within five minutes or so (if we were lucky) we would be up again for another hard lesson.
About halfway through the training session, he instructed us to take our gi tops off. This made it harder for him to get grips on us and control us, while he left his top on, giving us an advantage. Of course, it didn’t matter. If anything it made things easier on him because he was using some moves and grips we were unfamiliar with. I found that part to be very interesting as well. Marcello did not do this exercise to prove to anyone how advanced he is. The Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Professor doesn’t ever have to prove how tough he is. He did it to help us, by rolling with us he was able to get closer view of our bad habits and correct us on them, the hard way. I, for one, learned several lessons about protecting my arms and neck, and being aware of everything going on around me. At one point, he set me up by letting me pass his guard and leaving the mount open. I bit. What was I thinking? Of course it couldn’t be that easy to mount Professor Marcello. In an instant, he used my momentum to pass me all the way over the top of him to his opposite side and choked me from my back. Always be aware of everything. As rough as it sounds, it was a really fun night of training for all, and I believe that all of us lower belts learned some things.
I truly value the training I get with the world-famous Indianapolis BJJ Coach and 4th-Degree BJJ Black Belt, Marcello Monteiro. I hope you stop into our Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu academy tonight to train with some good people!
