Cavaca got the goild in Lisbon. Photo: Kinya Hashimoto
Jiu-Jitsu world Champion, the experienced Rodrigo Cavaca won his third European title last weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. The black belt, who plans to participate at all the calendar events this year, was happy with his first title of the year, but said he must train harder if he wants to achieve all the goals that he has outlined for 2014. Cavaca told Tatame magazine:
“Starting the year by winning the European is always good. Of course I’ll need to train a lot more to achieve good results this year, and that will be what I will do, because I’m doing what I love most in life, which is to compete. The European motivates anyone, it is one of four major world events. And I was delighted to win this title for the third time. My performance in the European was strategically good, because I was fully aware that I was not 100% physically prepared to face my opponents as I normally do. I did not train as I usually do because of the situations that I’ve been going through lately. But as things are good, it ended up helping me. I was not physically well, but I was totally fine with myself, with my psychological state and was ready to face anything. “
With the European title in his pocket, Cavaca is now making plans for the Pan, which includes a camp in Las Vegas, his partner at Zenith BJJ, Robert Drysdale is based:
“This year I will compete all the major events of the circuit. We’ll have a great camp in Las Vegas for Pan. Robert and I are finishing preparing the team so that everyone can get ready for the tournament. Then there is the World Pro, where I will defend my title, after the Brazileiros, which once again will be at home in Sao Paulo, and finally I will be once again in the Pyramid (for the Worlds) , a place that, like in Lisbon, I feel at home. “
Zenith Team
About his new team
In October of last year, Rodrigo Cavaca announced that he was leaving Checkmat to found a new team with his friend Robert Drysdale. Together they created Zenith BJJ team that participated in its second official competition at the European Jiu-Jitsu.
“The team is being launched gradually in competitions and we are already starting to appear with some good results, such as the Paulista championship of 2013, when we were only behind Alliance, and now in Europe. We entered with only 30 athletes, did not put pressure on anyone, because we are in stage adaptations and prioritizing other things at the moment, but for Pan, Brazilian and World, will get stronger, since our leading academies are located near our championships. Zenith BJJ is working from behind the scenes. The team was created with the intention of being a business and not just a Jiu-Jitsu team. Robert and I have thought facing the growth and development of our members, and this system is being created to help everyone manage their gym as a company, give all necessary support to affiliated academies, so that our instructors do not need to have a regular job and be able to live from Jiu-Jitsu.”
