Lineu Vilanova - Great friend, teacher & Head coach of Atos Townsville
Q. Can you tell us about your background and how you got started in Jiujitsu?
A. I grew up in Salvador, on the northeast coast of Brazil. Salvador is more known for being the birthplace of Capoeira than a Jiu Jitsu spot. However, in the late 90’s, Jiu Jitsu was slowly growing in popularity back home.
I was first introduced to jiu jitsu in 2000, by a friend who had just started training. I recall being fascinated by him describing how the coach could fairly easily handle bigger and heavier opponents. That idea was quite appealing to me, since I’d always felt like I was ill equipped for physical confrontations, especially with kids stronger than me. And fights were too regular for me to ignore the fact that I couldn’t defend myself very well. Jiu jitsu seemed like a natural solution for my fear of getting beat up. Coincidently both, the coach Daniel and my friend Fabio, later moved to Australia.
It wasn’t long after that I found a gym close by and started training pretty consistently. The coach, Rafael, was a purple belt. He was a feather weight with great technical prowess. He had a massive influence on my initial contact with jiu jitsu.
Q. What advice would you give to your younger self starting your jiu jitsu journey? What advice should they ignore?
A. I had a massive hiatus from jiu jitsu at blue belt that I believe wasn’t necessary, so I would tell my younger self to keep training. Ignore the fear of not being academically successful and find time to train at least a few times a week.
Q. In your experience, what Intensity of training is best for learning? And how is this achieved? I.e. what proportion is drilling, sparring "light", And intense sparring across a session /week
A. The intensity will vary according to the goal of the session. If you are trying to learn a new skill, it’s probably in your interest to slow things down and allow for time to react to the positions. On the other hand, if you are trying to develop your ability to perform certain techniques under pressure, you should probably ramp things up to mimic a competition scenario.
At Atos Townsville, in a regular intermediate level session, most students are hobbyists who want to learn jiu jitsu but don’t necessarily have the ambition to become highly competitive. They are mostly there to learn new skills, do a workout and have fun. They can’t afford to get hurt, so generally the intensity is kept at a reasonable level.
At the moment, we start off with a 10 minute warm up where we do specific training for a certain situation with minimal resistance. After that, I suggest a couple of drills of possible sequences involving that situation and we drill them in a more structured way for around 15 minutes. The next 10 minutes are of specific training with full resistance followed by four 6 minute rounds of sparring.
Q. How often are you experimenting with new moves and positions vs working on existing and established techniques within your arsenal?
A. That’s a hard question to answer. I’m constantly learning at least one new position/situation a week/fortnight. There's always a topic on the back of my mind that I’m trying to explore as often as possible. But when it comes to live sparring, I’m mostly going through sequences I’m acquainted with a few tweaks here and there.
Q. Do you have any advice on recovery/preservation for BJJ, or any practices you wish you implemented earlier?
A. I believe every jiu jitsu practitioner should do at least a couple strength and conditioning sessions a week and also mobility routines, preferably everyday. That will help prevent injuries and prolong the lifetime of your jiu jitsu journey.
Q. Do you use strategies or game plans for upcoming matches or competitions? If so can you provide an example
A. In the training room, I try to focus on skill acquisition and the development of an all around game. My goal with jiu jitsu has always been to become fluent in as many positions as possible, even if that meant risking losing more competitions matches in the short term. That being said, I do implement strategies based on my opponent’s games, especially in bigger competitions, when winning is more important.
Q. Pre competition nerves are a thing a lot of people deal with. Do you have any advice/tips on how to deal with this that you or your students implement?
A. I think the best advice for someone who wants to reduce pre competition anxiety is to compete often. I’ve always had issues with nerves before competition and still do. I think all athletes have it and there is no way around it. Being nervous is not necessarily bad. It’s when the nerves affect your performance that the issue arises. Compete often and try to not worry about the results. We can only control the amount of effort we put into preparation. Focus on that!
Q. Strength and conditioning can be the deciding factor in a match with opponents of equal technical skill, do you do any Strength & conditioning? Can you give any insight as to what that looks like?
A. I do two strength focused sessions and two cardio sessions a week spread out evenly. The strength sessions are composed of the main compound lifts, such as squats and deadlifts with few reps at 70-80% of my max, some more specific bodybuilding exercises and basic calistenics. The cardio sessions are usually HIIT sessions of 4-6 minute rounds. These could be on the airbike, rower, hill sprints or the battle rope. On the cardio days, I also do a few Knee Over Toes exercises such as backward sled walk, back extensions, hip flexor curls etc, to maintain my joints in a healthy condition and to be pain free
Q. When preparing for a match/competition what does your training look like? (Eg 8 weeks out, training twice a day etc)
A. My training regimen is usually consistent, irrespective of the competition schedule . I train twice a day, one jiu jitsu session and another strength or cardiovascula. The first in the morning and the other in the evening. I sometimes teach morning classes, and often I’ll jump in the specific training rounds and if the student numbers are odd, I’ll pair up with someone for three sparring rounds. These are usually light rolls where I try to experiment as much as possible. Before major competitions, I’ll also add extra focused sessions of 45 minutes such as drilling a few sequences or specific training of situations I think I need to work on.
Q. What’s something you now know, that you wish you knew earlier in your Jiujitsu journey? (techniques, training methods, business advice)
A. Being a full time jiu jitsu coach now, I believe if I knew jiu jitsu would grow so much I would have dedicated myself entirely to the sport without worrying too much about my finances and career as a school teacher.
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