Rodrigo Cavaca is one of the best BJJ athletes to have ever step foot on the mats. He’s won the IBJJF World Championship title (2010), the IBJJF European Championship title (in 2009 and 2010), and has been the CBJJ Brazilian National Champion (in 2008 and 2010).
Today, Rodrigo is a well-known coach who leads the Zenith Jiu Jitsu team, alonside with Robert Drysdale.
How did coach Cavaca become so successful? He shared a winning habit, an analytical one, that he’s been using since blue belt days. Here’s what he told the IBJJF:
I’ve always really enjoyed studying Jiu-Jitsu. I’ve always known all the characteristics of my opponents and all the opponents of my students.
Here’s an example of what I’ve been doing since I was a blue belt. I arrived at Tijuca Tenis Clube to fight as a blue belt and I fought on the first day and returned to the gym on the other days to watch all the fights of the other categories and belts.
I only returned home after the absolute black belt fight that ended the event.
He continued on with this habit well into his black belt days… And it helped him in creating competition strategies:
When I was already a black belt, I kept arriving at the gym on the first day, when the blue belts fought and I kept watching all the belts and categories to see what they were doing again, until the last day of me fighting. I fought and then I kept watching all the black belts and only then returned home.
It was a habit I created and it helped me a lot to create fight strategies for many of my victories as an athlete and also for my athletes. Jiu-Jitsu for me is a game, just like life.
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