I was really in awe in regards to training with Nelson because he exposed Roy and I to aspects of BJJ that we were not taught when training at the Gracies. Nelson spoke quite highly of himself, but he seemed always ready to back it up. He was really into conditioning and staying in shape because he said that he never knew when someone may step up and challenge him so he always had to be ready.
I really don't remember too much about training with the Machados. To be honest, at that time, I had a hard time distinguishing between the brothers. They all looked alike to me. I took a handful of private lessons, but didn't train there too often because it was a 2 hour drive one way just to get there. Like I said, they all looked the same to me, so I don't even remember which one gave me my private lessons!
The main thing I remember about the Machados and Nelson was that they were really into some hard core conditioning. Roy met and trained with these instructors before I did. I would watch Roy in their classes and he was dying when it came to the exercises they put him through. After watching Roy suffer like that, I elected just to stick with private lessons, especially if I was going to drive 2 hours just to get there.
I still remember my first class at Joe's. He taught a sequence of 20+ submissions from the modified scarf hold. I was grinning from ear to ear because, at that time, I had never seen so many techniques from a single position. When it came to the entire art of BJJ, Joe opened my eyes to things I never knew even existed. He was the most giving Brazilian instructor I had ever met. Joe was the first Brazilian black belt that would show me too much information.
Another memory that stands out was when Joe held a mock tournament during class. Joe had an upcoming competition and wanted to prepare his students. So, during a class that was before the competition, he matched people up and two people would go at it while everyone else watched. If you won, you would go on and if you lost, you were out.
So I get on the mat for my first match. We are starting from standing and jump right into the flying armbar. As soon as we hit the ground my opponent was in the lock and tapped. Then Roy comes out, has his match, and wins. Now it's time for my second match. I don't remember exactly what happens, but all I remember is that I was trying to apply the triangle choke from the guard and my opponent tried to pull away from me, so I ended up tapping him with an armbar. I was really happy because all my matches ended fast and they were with really tough guys whom I normally couldn't beat so quickly. Once again, Roy comes out, has his match, and wins. So who's in the finals? Roy and I.
I start laughing because Roy is one of my instructors and we train all the time. Roy taps me out every time in training, so the outcome of this final match up is obvious to me. So as I am having my final match with Roy, I am fighting my best, but also laughing at the same time. Joe's brother-in-law is yelling at me to stop laughing and get serious. He keeps telling me how he knows that I can beat Roy and the only reason I am unable to is because I am not taking things seriously. Within a few minutes, Roy finishes the match by tapping me out. After the match, Joe's brother-in-law is still lecturing me on how I can beat Roy and the only reason I lost was because I was mentally intimidated. I just kept thinking how funny it was that he wouldn't accept the fact that I lost because Roy was bigger and far more skilled.
