Caio Terra Seminar - Berimbolo Masterclass!

This seminar was meant to be held earlier in the year, but circumstances occured and the date had to be moved forward, which just happened to be on Father's Day; that said, there was still a healthy turn out, that ensured a packed mat space at the pristine Eclispe Martial Arts Centre in Walsall.

After a quick introduction from organiser Peter Adams, Caio gave the attendees six topics he was happy to cover and it was up to us to choose one topic and let the majority win; only two subjects were voted for by the students, namely the Terra Guard and Berimbolo/De La Riva and it was evens on for both topics, until a few guys were co-ereced onto the Berimbolo/ De La Riva and the topic of the day was voted in.

Caio started the seminar with entries into the De La Riva guard, with a view for following up in to the Berimbolo position; Caio's teaching was filled with concepts and really handy tips and pointers covering a huge amount of 'what if's' from the position, as well as ways of recovering the DLR from a guard pass attempt.  I have been covering the DLR in class for the last month, so to have Caio Terra share some of his knowledge made it all the more enjoyable for myself and my training partner and assistant coach Lee 'The Professor' Gilmore.

Caio would show the class a particular technique and then have us go off and drill the technique for some time, before coming back to the technique and have students come to the centre of the mat and show them what they had learned; any mistakes were quickly rectified on the spot by Caio and off we went again to drill a little more.  Once Caio was satisfied that we had understood the position as much as possible, would he then move on to the next position.

Group photo *

There is a lot more to the Berimbolo than meets the eye, especially when you have the position broken down by a four times World champion; Caio explained that the position would be challenging for everyone on the mats regardless of belt rank, but he said that you would still be able to pick up concepts from the position that you could apply to other techniques and positions that you are already skilled at.

Berimbolo is Portugese for the word 'scramble' which best describes the position and sweep and Caio gave the class a history lesson, telling the group how the position was born, during his time and guys such as the Mendes brothers' times as blue and purple belts, then as the position was further experimented with as they progressed to black belts and applying the position in comps such as the Pan Ams and Mundials.

Caio showed five techniques from the Berimbolo entry as well as a wealth of tips, pointers and 'what if's' from when a guy defends with his foot on the floor or with the butt on the ground; Caio also showed ways to get your opponent to land correctly to complete the sweep, as well as what to do when they don't land the way you want them to.

With Caio Terra

This was the most technical seminar I have attended and I am sure that even the white belts would have gone away with at least two or three nuggets of info from both positions; after the teaching part of the seminar, Caio opened the mat up to questions and a further forty minutes of world class tuition continued, as he answered questions on jiu jitsu positions in general.

If that wasn't enough, Caio finally rounded off the day with rolling and gave the students who wanted to roll with him a number to pick and a few lucky guys and gals had the pleasure of rolling with him for a few minutes.  Watching Caio roll was futher jiu jitsu gold and I am sure that Caio would have been more than happy staying on the mats until midnight sharing his knowledge with us all.

Huge thanks to Pete Adams in organising the seminar; I hope that this won't be the last we have seen of Caio on UK soil.

(* Group photo credit - Adam Webb)