Hi Pablo, can you please introduce yourself to the BJJ community of Eastern Europe?

My name is Pablo Cabo, I´m 29 years old and I´m a black belt under Roger Gracie. I have been training and competing since 2004. I´m from Malaga, Spain where I moved back from London, where I´ve been living, training and working at the Roger Gracie Academy the past few years.

2.How did you start training Jiu-Jitsu and why did you often travel to London to train with Mauricio Gomes and Roger Gracie?

I started training Jiu jitsu in 2004, in my home town, Málaga. I decided to move to London because my firts bjj instructor Edson Sururu ( Vinicius Draculino Black Belt) moved to Brazil as he had some visa problems, so I decided to move to London to learn from Roger Gracie and his father Mauricio Gomes. I try to travel now as much as posible, right now I´m coming back from the Gracie Camp in Mexico. Is always good to be close to my master and people like Renzo, Rillion…

3. Please tell us more about your academy in Malaga. What made you decide to open your own place? What do you do differently than other BJJ academies?

The academy is at the Costa del Sol Fight & Fitness Gym in Malaga. Is 10 minutes from the center of the city and 1 minute from the beach. I had to decide between staying in the US, where i received and offer to teach at one of the Gracie Barra academies in California, but finally decided to keep my dream of set up a new place in Málaga and teach jiu jitsu. So I decided to move back to Spain. It´s has been our first year this 1st October, and we all are very happy with the academy. It´s just the beginning.

4.Please tell us about your best students like that we should look out for at international competitions.

Well, I´m starting a new work, with new people and even with blue and purple belt students who came to train with us. So I think it will take some time, but for sure we´ll work to keep a high level in our competitors. I have been competing all my life, and want to keep doing it even as masters at the major tournaments.

5.What are other BJJ players that you admire, and why?

There are a lot of them, from Roger who is pure jiu jitsu to Mendes Broders, Braulio, Caio Terra, Marcelo Garcia and many others.

6. How do you view the progress of BJJ in the Spain? How popular do you see the sport getting there?

Brazilian jiu jitsu has been growing for the last years, but the economy recession in my opinion, affects the development of the sport, with the creation of more tournaments etc… So the past 2 or 3 years it has grow but not as much as it should have.

7. How much importance do you attribute to drilling techniques over and over?

Yes, I think is really important to repeat the techniques. You really have to do it. When you drill, you repeat the techniques and at the same time you improve the speed of the movement. So its good to make it a very important part of the training. For me the perfect training is ( Warm up, drills, specific training and sparring).

8. What are your favorite guard passes?

It´s hard to say, there are a lot. If you want I can show some of them. Hahaha. But my idea or way of passing the guard, what i try to do is avoid the danger of people using too much legs and arms at the same time. So I feel way more safe when I kill the opponent’s legs and grips while I´m looking for the pass.

9.What is next for you and your team in 2012/2013

First at all I would like to congratulate all the guys from the main academy, and the students from Sevilla, Ciudad Real and Torre del Mar. This year we received the second place by teams at Copa Granada, one of the best tournaments in the south of Spain. So this year i plan to make the Roger Gracie España team a better and stronger!

10.If you want to thank somebody please feel free.

I would like to thank all my training partners, my students and Roger and Mauricio for the help and support from all those years. Also to Lucio Rodrigues, Gustavo Siri, Alex Farias and Nick Gregoriades as they are part of my bjj improvement. Also to Edson Sururu, Marcelo Azevedo and Draculino for the knowledge they taught me.
Thanks to Gile for the interview.
See you guys on the mat!