So after my first week in Rio, Wil arrived to spend two weeks with me and I never thought I'd be so happy to see a familiar face, especially after only a week!
We gave Rafael and his family some space and rented a room in someone's apartment that was 5 minutes walk from the gym, even though Rafael was more than welcoming of Wil too, the move made my life so much easier being so close to training so I could go back and fourth much quicker.
Our first session together was wrestling. I was on one side of the gym with the lighter people however Wil, despite only weighing 76kg was over on the other side with the heavyweights, half way through the session I glanced over with a look of 'told you the heat and training was a killer', he gave me a nod as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
I was so happy to have someone experience the training conditions with me that we just don't get back in England as trying to explain just wasn't the same, the scorching heat, slipping over, sliding, your feet constantly coming out from under you because the mats are puddled deep with sweat and people still shooting the takedowns when they'd reached the tiled pathway along the edge of the mat! I witnessed Claudia smash her knee off the tiles a few times and just keep going, that was hardcore.
I did quite a few sessions with Poliana Botelho which was cool, she's so strong. She has quite a bond with Rafael, I could see that from when we filmed TUF, she was there and the two of them would constantly be talking about training, well I assumed this from their body language of practicing techniques mid conversation! Me and Poliana got along well despite the language barrier, I look forward to seeing her again and watching her fight.
Claudia looked out for me, she is such a nice person. After a hard weeks training she took me and Wil to a massive indoor market for food and to look around. On the drive there I introduced her to some North East rave music, she didn't mind a bit of Mc Stompin!!
Again, we hit up a load of training sessions though out the weeks, it didn't get easier, I had some good sessions, some bad but by the third week I could definitely see improvements in myself.
Wil went home and I had one week left. I felt a physical wreck but mentally brand new. I have a Mindsport coach who I mentioned previously called Rob Dawson and he worked with me everyday I was there. I set goals for each day and some more long term, one of which was to submit a blue belt female there who I had been training with from the beginning. She was like a little bull, approximately the same weight, super aggressive and I absolutely loved going with her every session. We had major tussles back and forth but neither of us managed to submit the other. I didn't achieve that particular goal but I know striving for it helped bring me along and when I came home to my training partners, they noticed the change in me which was still an achievement.
By the end of my month in Rio I was ready for home. I had a tough but amazing time, I had shared the mats with a plethora of hard working, experienced and knowledgable individuals. My last session was wrestling and I had prepared a speech in Portuguese as a thank you to everyone who I trained with. My hands were trembling as the gym went silent and I read out my speech, thankfully they understood my Portuguese then immediately after they all clapped, hugged me and one guy translated to English 'welcome to the family'.
Huge thank you to Rafael and Claudia for looking after me, especially Rafael. He is amoungst one of the kindest, honest, most caring man I have ever met I'm proud to be able to say we are now great friends.
Thanks for everyone's support and to those following my journey...lets see what happens next!
Thank you to my sponsors: Mindsport Consulting, The Upgraded Grappler, SL Sports Massage, Steffan Abel Chiropractor, Functional Self, LED Supply & Fit, My Protein.