When Ricardo first came to Siege I didn't think he liked me. I had some different theories: maybe there wasn't any girls at his gym in Brazil, maybe he thought I was too "girlie" or too old, maybe he didn't like tattoos or maybe he was just afraid I would get hurt.
I felt like he wouldn't match me up with anyone but the other girls and smaller new guys at first. I was preparing for a tournament and was worried I wasn't getting enough of a challenge. Then....I'm not still not sure what changed but, all of the sudden I was being matched up with the biggest, strongest guys in class. So then my thoughts went to "now he's trying to kill me" lol.
I'm not sure what his thought process actually was but, he seemed to have had a plan...and it worked for me. My performance anxiety was going away from rolling tournament style with the newest white belt to the toughest brown belt on a daily basis (something I struggled with) my cardio was improving from rolling with him before class for a 1/2 hour or more straight (he likes these looong rolls) on a regular basis.
Although I'm not so sure how Ricardo felt about me when he arrived, I'm pretty sure he likes me now :)
I want to thank Ricardo for all of his help and for pushing me on several occasions when I didn't feel up to training at all. He is a big believer in training to forget about your troubles. And this really does work!
One thing I won't forget anytime soon is the extreme pressure (like I can't even describe) that Ricardo gives when you roll with him, tapping me out on several occasions by pressure alone, once only using his head lol! Anyone who has rolled with him knows what I mean ;)
Also some of the funny and memorable things he says:
Position before submission!
It's easy?
It';s good?
You feel better!
For sure
Train man!
Jiu Jitsu is like life problem. Don';t turn your back on it. Face it head on!
And one of the first things he said to me "you are just one blue belch, you know nothing"
Thanks for everything Ricardo! You will be missed!!
