Interview with Mauricio "Tinguinha" Mariano

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age: 27 years old
status:black belt-2nd degree under carlos gracie jr
career information:has been training for 15 years and teaching for 9 years

MOST IMPORTANT TITLES:

2 times brazilian champion
4 times rio de janeiro state champion
champion of the sao paulo state champion
champion of the virginia beach federation no gi super fight
2nd place in the first wold championship
2nd place in the florida-panamerican championship
3rd place in the third world championship

How long have you been living in the us?

I've been living in california for 2 years. I live in fullerton-orange county where I have my school, gracie barra-orange county.

How long have you had your school?and how is it doing?

I`ve been living here for 2 years but just now I have my school,by my own.the school has 4 moths and is doing really well. I have great guys over there not only as fighters but as people too. I am building a really strong competition team over gracie barra-oc. In this short amount of time the team has been having great performances at the competitions here in California. we got 2nd place at the California state championship this is one of the biggest competition in California and 1st place at the so cal summer open bjj championship,in this tournament we had 32 students competing and we got 22 medals. I also had 3 students going to brazil to compete this year, one getting 3rd place at the world championship and another getting 1st place at his division as well as the open class division at the international master championship. So I am really happy with the way things are going with the school.

What does jiu-jitsu mean in your life?and what`s like teaching jiu-jitsu for you?

I have jiu jitsu as my life philosophy,everything I have I owe to jiu jitsu. It brought balance to my life, made me be a better person. The fact that I`m able to teach jiu- jitsu made me even more complete, today training and teaching jiu jitsu are part of my life. If I was just training I wouldn`t be totally happy nor if I just taught.

what you think is necessary to be a good teacher?

First thing I thing you have to really like what you are doing. I don`t think anything will be done well without putting your heart to it. In second place I think what differs an instructor to a good one is the sensibility to feel and get the best in each student because the jiu jitsu moves and positions will be the same but the capacity of each student is different and you have to use different ways to get the best of each student.

You are known by your famous spider guard.talk a little about it?

In fact it is the part of my game where I feel most confortable. The spider guard opposite of what people say is no just to control, when you know how to use this kind of guard,you`ll have an attack arsenal and unlimited sweeps. From there you can go for to footlocks, kneeloks, all kind of choices, triangles, omoplatas all different sweeps. That is one of the reasons why I really like to play the spider guard.

You are part of one of the best jiu jitsu schools out there.tell us a little about the experience of being part of this team.

I feel very lucky for being a part of this team. It`s amazing to train in a place with so many great fighters, I have a lot of confidence in myself now for training all this years at a place where you have hard training everyday. That`s what makes you improve your game faster.

What`s the secret for having so many great fighters from a same school?

Tow things. First of all Carlos Gracie Jr. is an amazing coach. Second, the team. After Renzo, Ralph and Jean Jaques Machado left to the us the only high belts guys were gordo and sonequinha-brow belts and we started to be a real team, for the first time everybody helped. There are no egos at gracie barra everybody is the same from white to black belt. We knew after loosing so many good instructors and fighters the team would have to be united as ever.

Do you train other kind of martial arts besides jiu jitsu and why?

Now I`ve been training kickboxing and in brazil I trained judo and boxing and when I can I always train wrestling. I believe everything that comes to add will be good for you. Always good to have extra information to apply to your game.

Do you think about fighting a no hold bar?

Oh yeah definitely. I am looking forward to this. I have been working my stand up game with Travis my kickboxing coach. Also my condition with Lou at Lou`s training center. I am just waiting to get a good invitation to make my start at vale tudo. I am trying to get in touch with some fight promoters from Japan. I really would like to fight there because of the professionalism with the fighters and the quantity of fighters they have in my category.

If you are interested in having Mauricio "Tinguinha" give a seminar near you area contact tinguinha@yahoo.com or call at 714.423.6274 for more info about tinguinha go to www.tinguinha.com

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