Which Indianapolis BJJ Black Belt Should You Train With?

By Ryan Berry

Choosing the right instructor is an important decision in your pursuit of jiu jitsu acumen.  You want to make sure that they are a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, of course, but there are several other things that you would want to consider to ensure that they are a good fit for you.  All black belts have many things that they can teach you, but some may accelerate your game more quickly and thoroughly than others.  A lot of it has to do with their style of teaching as well as your style of learning, and finding a good match for that.

You can learn much about an instructor from their biography, which is generally on a website this day in age.  What is their experience level in the sport?  How long have they been training, as well as how long have they been teaching?  Who did they get their BJJ Blue, Purple, Brown and Black Belt from, and what is the background on that individual?  Longevity in this sport can be very important, as can be lineage of instructors, so it is something to be mindful of when selecting the instructor for you. You want to know how your BJJ instructor learned and got his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt. 

Take some time to meet the instructor, get to know them and their personality a little bit.  Is his demeanor relaxed and inviting?  Do you get the impression that this is someone you could dedicate hours of your life, learning from?  Are they empathizing with your concerns and answering your questions to your satisfaction?  Watch a class, and watch the level of formality in the class.  Is everyone treated with respect, especially the instructor?  If you are coming to class to learn and focus on respect and self-discipline, than you will want to go with the more formal, “old school” style of teaching and learning.  How well does the potential instructor know the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and what curriculum or graduation system does he use to guide the students and their advancement?  

Finally, what level of success has the instructor had in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions, and is that even important to you.  Keep in mind, often times when an instructor opens up his own gym and focuses on teaching they often don’t compete in tournaments any more.  Find out what past and current successes (if any) the instructor has had in competition as well (and possibly more importantly) what level of success his students are achieving.  Has the instructor trained champions, at the state and national level? 

What are the instructor’s goals for his Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu students?    What are your goals that you want to achieve by joining a BJJ gym?  Are they in line with the instructors’?  By taking some time to get to know the instructor, his background, style, and goals before you commit to joining the team, you increase your likelihood of success and enjoyment within the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. 

By Holly Miller,
Indianapolis, IN                                                                                                         A little about my Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Instructor: Marcello C. Monteiro

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or BJJ, means gentle art in Japanese. Marcello C. Monteiro has been working with this gentle art from a young age. He didn’t always know that this was what he wanted to do with his life but he eventually realized that teaching BJJ was what he wanted to do.

Marcello started BJJ at the age of six in Rio de Janeiro, where he was born. He didn’t pay much attention to it since he was so young. At the age of ten, Marcello stopped doing BJJ and starting doing karate. He did this for about two years until he realized that he needed to go back to Jiu Jitsu. He was playing around with his friend when he knew that he needed to go back to BJJ. Marcello was able to punch and kick but his friend could control him because he knew Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. BJJ made him always think a few steps ahead. He was always thinking about his future and what he wanted to do with his life.

When Marcello was 14, he started to attract bullies with his long surfer hair. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu allowed him to defend himself and keep the bullies away. Jiu Jitsu also raised his confidence. When Marcello was 18, he wanted to work at a surf store but he knew he had no experience. To get the job, he dropped off tons of his resumes to 40 of the same stores in different locations. He eventually got the job but he was always thinking a few steps ahead. In that same year, he went to university to learn business and worked at a bank. Marcello did this for three years but didn’t finish Business College. He then went on to learn about physical education at college but he never stopped doing BJJ.

His friends always asked him for help in BJJ. One day a friend told him he could make a living through BJJ. Before he could make a living, Marcello knew that he had to be one of the best. He opened his first academy in the mountains of Rio. He would start out the day at 7 a.m. and teach a BJJ class until 8 a.m. then he would go to law school until 4 p.m. Marcello would go back to his academy and teach classes from four  to six, six to seven thirty, and eight thirty to nine thirty. He did this for five years.

One day, his friend sent him to America to work at Disneyworld. This was Marcello’s first experience in America. For two and a half years he would go to Disneyworld every four months, work for four to five weeks and go back to Brazil. Soon, he got invitations to travel to America to do competitions and teach seminars. He was always thinking a few steps ahead and he could see how Jiu Jitsu was growing in America. At this point, Marcello knew that he wanted to teach for the rest of his life. He was invited to go to Michigan to teach in a new academy for $5,000 a month but the academy never opened.     

He did tournaments while he was there and caught the eye of many Americans. At that time an American  from Indianapolis (that found Marcello online) paid for Jiu Jitsu private lessons from Marcello and brought him to Indianapolis, Indiana. He organized seminars and showed everyone Marcello’s skills. Everywhere he went, Marcello was invited to go back.

     Marcello’s biggest problem then was speaking English so he went back to Brazil and taught Jiu Jitsu in exchange for English lessons. He continued to get invitations to go to America to teach and, when he went, he began to learn more about the internet. Marcello was always thinking about his future and he knew that it would be hard to have an academy in Brazil for the rest of his life because everything in Brazil is not as organized as it is in the United States. He started to organize his future along with his first website. People were impressed so he continued to look for internet cafes and plan his website. He built his website in Portuguese and eventually translated his website to English. He then moved his business to the United States and set up his Brazilian Jiu Jiu academy in Indianapolis. He knew that Indianapolis was right in the middle of everything and he wanted it to be his base.

Marcello now has multiple academies and he hopes one day to have many of his students graduate to black belts and higher ranks. He also hopes that high schools will start teaching BJJ along with wrestling as a sport. He knows that the sport still has a lot of growing to do to get to the point that he wants but Marcello hopes that BJJ will be a very popular sport for all ages and genders.

Marcello’s BJJ Coach Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Academy is located on 4967 S. Emerson Ave, on the south side of Indianapolis, just one block of I-465.

 The academy website is http://www.indianapolisbjjcoach.com

The association website is http://www.bjjcoach.com

The Negotiation

By Ryan Berry

You walk into the boardroom and immediately see that you are outnumbered.  You have been preparing for this meeting for weeks and the final decision will be made today.  If they award you the business, the rest of the year looks like a cake-walk for you.  If they decide to go with another firm then all the hours of work you have put into this potential deal has been all for not.  It is a stressful situation for you (to put it mildly) but you have a service that they need and you are super prepared for the final sales call.  Knowing that keeping your composure could be the key to everything, you revert back to your instincts that have been sharpened by Marcello Monteiro at the Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Coach, BJJ Academy…

The meeting kicks off and you bow to your opponent with some brief rapport.  Not a lot of pleasantries exchanged, however, as you are immediately taken down and pull them into your closed guard.  You can tell that you have some enemies in the room at this point, and that they have some concerns.  The way that you address those concerns will determine the future of the relationship, the future of the business.  They waste no time in going for the submission, bringing up competitors of yours, their pricing and locality and value provided.  You know they have put the business out for bid, who in their right mind wouldn’t?  You also know that your organization and theirs is a great fit, that you can add value to the bottom line of their business, and that these concerns would be coming.  You just had no idea that they would come so quickly and so harshly.

You keep your composure at all times, and defend.  After all, you are prepared for this.  Countless hours of preparation have been invested in this.  You field their concerns accurately, adequately, and concisely, and you don’t say anything more than you have to at this point.  You are regulating your energy.  The onslaught of attacks keeps coming, and you defend…defend…keep your arms in close, play tight, allow no gaps, protect your neck and protect your back.  You know that eventually they will have to gas out, hopefully by that time you will still have something left in the tank.  Mentally you are in a better place while all of this is occurring, far away from the mats under this mahogany table…   

Finally, their attacks subside.  You reverse the position by emphasizing what makes your firm unique.  You accent the value proposition that you bring to the table that your competitors don’t.  You see in their faces the realization that they have made a costly mistake, one that could cost them the entire match.  They talked the whole time, today and throughout this entire process, while all you did was listen.  They finally realize that you wouldn’t have even shown up to this tournament had you not been prepared and fully expecting your hand to be raised in the end.  Silently, politely, and with a sincere smile of appreciation on your face, you reach your hand across and get a deep grip on their cross-collar and pull, they tap out almost immediately, unable to breathe with their energy completely exhausted.  You won the business, and got it at the pricing and profit margin you needed to make this partnership a win-win scenario for both companies, yours as well. 

There’s still three hours left in the business day.  Plenty of time to replace this win with four more potential prospects and hopefully start training for an eventual fight with one or more of them.  After work and a quick meal you’ll head to see Marcello and your teammates at the Indianapolis  BJJ Coach Academy on South Emerson in Indianapolis for a few hours where you will fight again, this time for fun, however.  There won’t be nearly as much on the line, there.  That activity is just for recreation, yet the way it enhances your thinking and way of life makes it so much more…

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BJJ Changes Your Body in the First 60 Days
By Ryan Berry

People come into the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy in Indianapolis, IN for the first time with goals of improving their physical fitness level.  Whatever other reason(s) that make the sport of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu appealing to them, it is pretty much a given that they expect to improve their health and physique.  They are correct in that assumption and the changes that they were hoping for begin to take effect almost immediately.

 It matters little if you are, for instance, a high school aged Indianapolis wrestler who is already in competition level shape or if you are in your mid-forties and your primary exercise for the past few years has been walking briskly.  Practicing jiu jitsu will improve on the shape that you are already in when you first arrive.

The first couple of weeks are difficult.  Everything is new.  People are friendly, but you are slightly overwhelmed by the broad range of talent and experience that the people training in the gym have.  Chances are your experience is limited and the detailed moves and techniques seem foreign to you.  You may think, “will I ever catch on to all this?”  The true test of the first couple weeks is the change that your body goes through.  You will be sore.  You will know that you are getting your money’s worth, so to speak.  Your body is not accustomed yet to that level and type of activity, to that level of health.  You are doing wonderful things for your body, and in turn your body hates you for it.  You may even find it difficult to sleep all the way through the night in those first couple weeks, due to the soreness.  When you have those untimely interruptions in your sleeping patterns, you may find yourself thinking about jiu jitsu.  If that happens, you aren’t crazy; you are on the right track!

One of the first and quickest areas that you will see improvements to your body is in your abdominal muscles.  A strong core is essential in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, for both safety and improvement. 
During warm-ups, our Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu coach will have us do between 50-100 reps of different variations of crunches.  Then the real fun begins, because when you are training, your abs get an intense workout without you even knowing it!  The good part is that the abdominal muscles recover very quickly, which is why personal trainers say it is okay to do crunches every day.  By working the abdominals hard, you will not only improve your jiu jitsu but you will also get a flatter, more defined stomach.

  Another thing that improves very quickly is your wind.  You will find each week that you are able to train for a little longer and go a little harder.  Improving your cardio is always hard-earned, but with jiu jitsu you will find it easy because you won’t be bored like you would be on a treadmill or elliptical machine.  You will be focused on the game, the sport, the match, and you will find that your endurance just gets better naturally as you participate.

Finally, you will find that your hand and wrist strength increases rapidly and greatly.  While controlling your opponent in the sport a variety of grips must be used on the body and on the gi, and this drastically improves hand strength.  You will find that as your hand strength improves it is more difficult for your opponent or training partner to break your grips which allows you to perform more advanced moves and techniques.

These are just some of the quickest, most obvious changes that your body goes through in its jiu jitsu metamorphosis.  There are many others occurring as well, as the body gets stronger and healthier every day.  Of course, the real transformation takes place in the mind…

Sparring  with Different Types of training partners…

By Ryan Berry

In a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition you are paired with opponents based on your weight, age, and rank to ensure fairness.  However, when training on an average night at Marcello Monteiro’s BJJ Academy in Indianapolis, IN, you may find yourself training with a much larger variety of people.  This could be intentional, such as training with a higher belt rank to improve your game, or it could be due to lack of compatible opponents to use as training partners at that particular time.  Training with people of a different rank, age, size, or sex than you can still improve both parties as long as safety is the primary concern.

Jiu Jitsu is a sport that can be practiced by all able-bodied people who are interested in it regardless of their demographics.  Women, especially the higher ranked ones, often find themselves training against men.  Teens can often find themselves training with adults.  Higher ranked belts are occasionally paired with white belts, and larger, stronger opponents can practice with smaller ones.  In all of these cases, adjustments must be made to ensure safety and to keep the environment conducive to learning. 

For instance, I am a 30 year old white belt that is 6’3” tall and weighs 185 lbs.  Often times there is a good match for me in class that evening that makes perfect sense, and I find myself going against those guys (of similar size and rank) very often.  We have gotten to know each other quite well.  Often partners are switched at certain points in the training, though, and I may find myself rolling with a seasoned blue belt that may be quite a bit shorter than me and 40 lbs. lighter.  In these types of situations it becomes evident that size isn’t everything and I am often quickly overwhelmed by the detail and breadth of technique.  For their benefit, they are tasked with overcoming the size disadvantage, which can sometimes be challenging despite my lack of experience.  On the other side of the coin, there are students at the Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu  Coach academy who are much larger than me, including a black belt that is at least my height and I have no clue how much he weighs, but he is huge and in good shape as well.  Though there isn’t an ideal match in there for him, nearly ever, he still trains with people.  Those people become better and tougher by training with him I am sure.  I feel for those people.

Tonight was a pretty average Friday night in class.  Marcello was gone doing a seminar in Texas and the instruction was by Jon, an associate instructor and General Manager of the Academy.  After the stretching and instruction it was time for the training.  My first training was a brand new white belt who had about an 80 lb. weight advantage on me.  It was interesting and beneficial.  He was very new so he tried to use force to compensate for lack of knowledge, I was able to weather that storm and he gassed out.  His cardio will be improving rapidly, however, as we all had that problem on our third or fourth day.  My next training partner  was a guy I often roll with who is around my same experience level, yet quite a bit shorter and smaller than me.  We had a good session.  Finally, I spent the last 7 or 8 minutes with a guy who was the most compatible to me.  We had a technical session and spent quite a bit of time breathing and thinking, especially since we were both on our third opponent in a row.  I went against three different guys that had three different styles and opportunities.  It was a pretty good night on the mats.  

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