Vinicius Marinho, in blue, putting his guard to work at 2011 South American Championship / Photo: GRACIEMAG archives
South American Championship-winning black belt Vinicius Marinho (GFTeam) is one of the aces who will be sticking his neck out at the IBJJF Pan-American Championship, which kicks off this Thursday and ends on Sunday, April 1, in Irvine, California.
At GRACIEMAG.com’s request, Marinho revealed the training method he’s using to show up at the Pan in tip-top form.
“I’m in really great shape. I expect to be at my best and come up with a good result. Training has been going strong; I’ve been training every day with the guys at GFTeam at CTMMA in Connecticut, along with Ricardo Evangelista and Rafael Formiga, who were a great help to us,” said Rodolfo Vieira’s teammate.
It’s only the second time that Marinho competes at a Pan, but he’s not too nervous about it. The reason: he’s been preparing hard for any situation.
SEPARATE TIME FOR JIU-JITSU REPETITIONS
“I like training all types of positions and every kind of situation, both on top and on bottom. We do one day training only on top, another only on bottom,” he explains. “We train three times a day, each session lasting two hours. We dedicate one session just to repeating positions, which helps us fix up the details of the position. One day we work on passing half-guard, passing hook guard, passing spider-guard. The next, we do sweeps from closed guard, open guard and spider guard.”
TRICK TO FINAL STRETCH AND ADJUSTING GRIP
As the competition approaches, Marinho recounts the trick to getting the positions tight: “The trick is to always adjust your best grip, to make it harder for your opponent to work their grips and positions.”
Now watch a complete half-guard pass lesson from Vinicius Marinho at the 2011 South American Championship, and stay tuned to GRACIEMAG.com for the fines coverage of the 2012 Pan-American Championship.
