Budovideos Interviews Rodolfo Vieira What is your training regiment like? I train three times a day. On mondays, wednesdays and fridays I train jiu jitsu and [physical] preparation with more intensity. In the mornings, physical training, afternoons, a lot of jiu jitsu, and at night, judo. On tuesdays and thursdays, strength training in the mornings, technical training in the afternoon, and light training at night. --- How do you divide your training time? So, on mondays, wednesdays and fridays, we focus on agility and explosion training, plenty of exercising without too much weight, working on the cardio a lot. Tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays, [I focus on] strength and power, all of that during the morning. --- What is your usual gameplan when you fight each opponent? I always fight to submit. I score always thinking to submit. If you watch my matches, you'll see I'm always going head-on. If I fight with too much of a strategy, I get a bit lost... When you're always attacking, the opponent gets lost. You can't give any room for him to think about attacking you, you have to always be ahead of him, but always with plenty of care not to expose yourself too much. --- You won both your division and the absolute at the 2011 Abu Dhabi World Pro Cup which provided a generous reward. How well was this reward received? The 50 thousand dollars were very well invested ... (laughs) --- Jiu Jitsu was originally a weight loss program for you but turned into something more. Is your weight still an issue? When I started, I was a bit heavy... I weighed like 87 kg at 13 years old. I have a lot of trouble with my weight nowadays, since I was already heavy when I started training, so I've been struggling with my weight for a long time. I'm always dieting, I can only eat junk in the weekends and when no competitions are around. --- It's been made clear that your professor, Julio Cesar, has made a large impact on your jiu jitsu. What other roles does he fill for you? Julio is very important, not only to my life, but to all of his students' lives. He's one big father, he trusts me a lot, so having him in my corner is very important. He gives me a lot of trust, he knows everything I do, sometimes he'll tell me something that I don't know, then I do it and it works. I don't know how to fight without him... but with him, it gets a little harder for me to lose (laughs). --- You have fought and defeated some of the biggest names in jiu jitsu. Does this affect your strategies or mindset when competing? I fought against most of the great players, and sometimes, I can't believe I've beat them. I think all of them can be dangerous to me, each one in their own way. There are many great guys around, so I have to keep myself well-trained to fight well against them, and if possible, to keep winning... (laughs) --- How has becoming a black belt changed your view on competing? The responsibility got even bigger. When you reach the black belt, everything changes, right? It's a lot different from the other belts. You have to try to be as professional as you can be, and take things like they're your job. --- Is being undefeated a disadvantage to your learning? Is it harder to know what to work on when you never lose? It is true, I haven't lost a gi match in over a year, almost two years... I think we should always work on our shortcomings, and improve our strong spots. We can never get comfortable with ourselves. After all, if you think you're already good enough, you can quit BJJ. Why keep on training if you know everything already? So I'm always looking for new things, always learning something new. I have a very open mind, and this is helping me a lot. My game has been improving. I want to reach perfection. I know it's hard, but I'll die trying. --- What has been your favorite match so far? I've had many wonderful victories in my career, but I'll have to single out my absolute final against Bernardo Faria. Without a doubt, that was the best [match] in my life... I beat him 9 - 0. It was fantastic and unexplainable. --- What advice can you give to those looking to follow your path? The advice I give is that we must always search for our dreams, as difficult as they might be, especially because nothing comes easy in this life... It wasn't any different for me. I struggled a lot, trained a lot, abandoned many things that a boy my age likes to do... I still haven't accomplished half of the things I want. But you have to take risks. I know how hard it is, it's always frightening to think: "what if I don't succeed"? That's very true for our sport. Since I've started, I saw many guys being successful through BJJ, so I thought, "I want this for me too". I kept going and going, but I have to tell the truth: a while ago, I thought about stopping due to the lack of support... The hardest thing is to depend on a tournament win to have some money. Doing what you love and being champion of everything just doesn't matter if you're broke. It's sad, but true... I think all of the greats went through that. Thanks to the support from my family and friends, my life has changed. I always heard that, if you did what you love, you would be a successful person, in one way or the other. Do things well, with passion and love, so you can be the best in the world. The best thing in life is to be around the people you love. To me, this is the most important thing. My 2012 European Championship Experience Stepping off the plane I feel a surprising sense of security. Despite being entirely alone since I hugged my mom goodbye at LAX, I have arrived in Lisbon, Portugal in one piece. I rush to get to my next checkpoint before I forget my list of things I need to do altogether. Arrive safely to Lisbon, check. A long layover in Amsterdam with snarling and impatient locals who have surely signed me off as a foreigner is finally a thing of the past and now I can worry about putting my slight knowledge of Portuguese to use. I make my way towards the exit of the airport ignoring the signs overhead due to the herd of miscellaneous jiu jitsu hoodies in front of me who look more accustomed to the territory than I. Next on my list is to arrive at the currency desk, check. My mother handed me a wad of cash before I left so I'd have money to exchange into euros for the cab ride. It's something my mother would normally do although this time I believe she felt more inclined considering I had just totaled my car a week before-- a dispute that is still in the beginning stages with my insurance company. If it weren't for my quick craigslist find for a new ride I'd had never have made it here. I can accept a lending hand when it's warranted. After exchanging my money I get in line for a taxi, carefully looking over those outside of the airport assigned pick-up. Being kidnapped or even ripped off is not on my agenda. While on the short ride to the hotel I use the ​ driver as my first victim. "Voce fala ingles?" He knows a tiny bit of English but overshoots his judgement for my level of understanding even though I told him I only knew a little Portuguese. He speaks fast and I attempt to process his slur in my head before I resign and settle with a "hmmm sim." There's a pause and we kind of agree to just give up and before I know it I've arrived at my safe haven where I will reside for the next five days. I had two days to adjust before I competed. Female blue belt featherweight was set for Friday at 9am. I spend time with a friend exploring the city with the purpose of getting my mind off of the competition but its the night before and I can't ignore it. I am here to compete. That's the only reason. My first trip out of the country is more than I had hoped for but I must not forget my purpose. I will show off my hard work tomorrow and I will bring back the most prestigious gold I have earned yet. I will make Cobrinha proud. Now if only I could sleep. Morning of and I calm my nerves with a scrumptous yet potentially hazardous breakfast at my hotel. Everything is going as routine. I've competed enough in the past to have a routine. Walking to the venue I plan my game in my head. Pull guard and sweep or submit. Attack. Entering the venue it's a cozy yet monumental building with high ceilings and various places to sit. Copious amount of light finds its way through a variety of windows above our heads in what seemed like the perfect route for the morning sun.