Where to Train in Brazil?

[ZyklonB]

Hey guys, I'm planning on taking a BJJ pilgrimage to Brazil this summer for a few weeks by myself.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to what gym I should train at? Preferably one where they can speak English? Also could you guys recommend some place to stay?

I tried Connection Rio but it looks like the BJJ hostel has shut down.

Any recommendations would be great! I am in the early stages of planning so I'm pretty flexible

Thanks in advance

 

[ZyklonB]

Ok well i booked a 2 week trip this summer and i still have nothing planned. Any recommendations? Fuck i wish ConnectionRio was still around...

 

[Tesseract]

Wait what? Connection Rio is closed? What happened???

 

[Byrd]

Do a search on Connection Rio and you will find the gyms he was working with and contact them directly.

Or

You could contact Jeremy at greatgrappling.com and ask him for suggestions. His thread about living down there for 6 months is awesome.

 

[frango]

im not from Rio but...what do you need? you need help finding a good gym to train? hell, Rio is where most important master are. De la Riva (i think), Gracie Humaita (rolker gracie) and Nova União would be where i would want to visit.

Well, if you need help, just message me. I can do a quick research on anything you need.

 

[Stoic1]

Sylvio Behring's school. He speaks good english.

 

[jag6984]

Really it depends on which cities you go and where you are staying. No point going to Rio to stay in Barra de Tijuca and travel to Copacabana every day, you'll spend the whole trip on a bus.

I trained at Nova Uniao in Flamengo for 7 months as a fresh white belt. English was very limited there, but the people and facilities were awesome. I had a friend train at De La Riva's who enjoyed it a lot. Fightzone (i.e Checkmat) was full of really nice top level people, but their schedule didn't work for me and I was a little suspect of their mat cleaning after a few sessions.

 

[Kenny from MD]

You want to stay in Rio? Look for a place in the south zone (Zona Sul) to cut your commutes down. It sucks traveling from Barra everyday (where Connection Rio was). FightZone is good but Ricardinho moved. Gabi runs it now and speaks perfect English. Lots of good guys still there and probably some English speaking visitors. DLR is in Copa and Terere is in Ipanema. Felipe Costa is in Ipanema. He speaks perfect English.

 

[Kenny from MD]

Also, what do you want to do there? Just train? If so, you may be better off somewhere like Alliance SP. Vacation? Copacabana probably. More off-the-beaten-path vacay? Floripa, or Recife or something. Also, consider who you WANT to train with, what you want to learn, etc. Like if you are a dedicated spider guard guy, Langhi is in Sao Paulo for example.

 

[willm]

If you want to stay in Barra near where connection rio was stay at Hostel da Barra. Everyone speaks English there and its about a 10-15 min walk from Gordo's.

 

[ZyklonB]

Holy shit thanks guys! I've been busy and didn't get a chance to check up on this thread.

I have been debating between an 8 day camp in Floripa, or Matheus Carnonas camp in Barra de Tijuca. I'm glad you guys mentioned commute time because I wasn't considering that at all.

I will look into Gordos, Fightzone and De La Rivas.

My main thing is that I want to meet other English speaking grapplers. That'd be cool to meet people from all over the world. This is why a camp seems so appealing to me. But I have heard that Gordos is a popular spot for foreigners.

Thanks again for your advice guys, it helps alot!

 

[ngarauru]

California