Italo Ferreira's class.

Throughout 2010 I was training every Thursday at Sweat FA under Ian. It was great and I was really building my my skillset up and developing my love for the art of Bjj. At the end of every lesson Ian always said the same thing, "any one who fancies going to an additional (and slightly more advanced) class, can go along with him on a Tuesday up to Bristol and train under the Black Belt instructor at Trojan Freefighters, Italo Ferreira". I had wanted to increase my mat time for a while by this point and this seemed like a great opportunity so towards the end of 2010 I took him up on his offer and started going along.

The classes up at Carrefour in Bristol were a bit different to Ian's lessons. Italo basically walked into the class, told you to do a load of push ups, sit ups and stretches and then we were into techniques. Italo would show a technique twice and then send you off to drill it. The techniques were more advanced than the stuff I'd previously learned, spider guard sweeps, half guard passes and sweeps and some butterfly guard stuff. Another big difference was that Italo always made reference to points when gaining certain positions which was something I was not familiar with. I asked Ian about the whole competition thing and what scores points etc. after class to which he gave me a rough outline and directed me to the IBJJF website to read the competition rule set for myself. This was my first thought of BJJ competition.

Italo's class.

Another thing that I found different (and a little hard to get used too) was when rolling at the end of Italo's lessons, you were not allowed to use knee bars, toe holds and leg locks (except for achilles). I later found this was to reflect competition rules for purple belt and below. This change in game definitely seemed weird to me, particularly because I was going through a cool period in rolling where I was tapping everyone out with toe holds. Down at Ian's class in Weston (and previously in Burnham) the only restriction on submissions was NO HEEL HOOKS. I emphasize that as it was always emphasized to me. A heel hook is an exceptionally dangerous move (as highlighted with the controversy at the ADCC this year) and should not be used lightly. So anyway, at Italo's class I was no longer allowed to use my go to move of the toe hold, it was after this point that I basically revised my entire game and totally stopped using leg locks (except for achilles) and really developed my top game.

I was finding results with a good smash pass game using my weight advantage (funny term that for a fat git) and gaining side control or mount and tapping people using an ezekial choke or an arm bar. The other technique I developed a major love for was the Bow and Arrow choke. I really love the move and nowadays find it my go to finish from the back, particularly as if you don't quite get it in it's real easy to transition to an arm bar. I was also finding that I was having a lot of success in rolling up at Italo's, something I didn't think would happen as the class was considered to be a bit more advanced than the one I usually attended. But it was giving me a lot of experience rolling against guys that were coming at me using techniques I had rarely seen before. The main reason why I was having good fortune against Italo's guys was due to Ian's thoroughness in teaching his guys the basics first as mentioned in my post Learning basics and moving class.

A random pic of me rolling at Italo's and actually looking like I was doing something right.

(I'm the guy in blue).

I was really loving the new class and different approach and gained a host of new Bjj friends. Sadly though, Italo did not hang around for long after I started that class. The spawny git had managed to get a new job in Abu Dhabi, as a part of the Sheiks program to make Bjj part of their children's national curriculum. 100 (roughly) black belts were being employed to teach children for a few hours a day and then they got to train with each other for the rest of the day or do as they pleased. For this they were given a house, a car, flight expenses and the equivalent of £30,000 a year. Lucky B*****d. So it was an emotional (for him) day in January 2011 when Italo said his goodbyes and left.

I have continued going up to the Bristol class on Tuesdays on a semi regular basis. Ian took over the teaching of the class until Italo's full time replacement, Chico Mendes of Checkmat, arrived in April 2011. It was during that time between January and February that I decided to take the leap and go in for a competition.

More on that next time \m/