About SkinnyD

Rigan Machado with the Utah black belts under his lineage. Left to right: Dave Johnson, Gerald Harris, Rigan Machado, Jeff Kunze, Brandon Ruiz

Arcanum

You have had a chance to compete at a high level and also teach a lot of great athletes. So what do you like about competing and then what do you like about teaching?

Rigan Machado

Competition is part of a big motivation for me to train, to go to the highest level because the competition always pushing for me to go to the next step. I think the competition help you to get the top shape. Competition help you to get ready to make your techniques the best, you know what I mean? I recommend to everybody.

Arcanum

You are doing a lot of teaching now. What do you like about that?

Rigan Machado

I remember one time I talked to Helio Gracie, and he said the key to the success in the jiu-jitsu for me, for my family is you have to love what you do. I love to teach, I love to get somebody who know nothing and make him a very good player, he can do the right chess game, he will learn how to set up the submission, and he will learn how to set up the sweeps. That’s what I love; I love to see people grow from level one, all the way to the black belt, that’s amazing.

Arcanum

So that leads me to my next question: what makes a good jiu-jitsu coach?

Rigan Machado

As a jiu-jitsu coach I remember one time I have a lesson from Rolls Gracie with Carlos Gracie. I was an assistant coach like in the process of learning how to teach and he got for me to teach a guy who I believe was the worse student. I see some of the other trainers got students who is already great athletes, who learn it real fast and I was a kind of upset. I come to my coaches to ask, why you gave me the worse student for me to try and make this guy a champion? The answer was the answer I use in my philosophy today. He came to me and said there is no such thing as a bad student, just a bad coach. The reason I gave you this student because it’s a bigger challenge for you. You are going to have to think, you have to figure out ways to make this guy better than the other guys who are already better athletes. That’s why I put the worse student in your hands; because that’s going to challenge you to develop your abilities to become a better coach to everybody else.

Arcanum

How do you make the mental transition and physical transition from training in class to gearing up for a competition?

Rigan Machado

The competition is…when you train in the academy you don’t have no adrenaline, you don’t have no pressure. You don’t have the responsibility. I think the moment you have responsibility you have pressure, have people watch you. All these elements change a lot. You combine with that adrenaline, the time factor, the points. I think with competition the more you do, the better you get in control your adrenaline, the better you get at feeling comfortable and the better you play the chess game. I remember one time I talked to my coach Rolls. He said two things make a good act: hours on the mat and hours in competition. I follow the same philosophy. The more you compete, the better you’re going to be.

Arcanum

I remember finding a website – I think it was an older website for the Machados – that talked about how you guys steered away from the violent, vale-tudo kind of competition. Can you talk about that?

Rigan Machado

I love mixed martial arts, you know what I mean? But I was more in love with jiu-jitsu. The love I have for this sport is so big in my heart. At the time we did a choice what we loved the most and my brothers decided we loved the martial arts; we loved the philosophy, we loved the history, we loved everything, so let’s focus a hundred percent in the sport. And that basically at the time was the decision. I don’t if know that was a mistake, because the mixed martial arts grow real big. But we didn’t know it was going to get that big.

Another way I think we think we couldn’t know and choose to go to the mixed martial arts is because the true mixed martial of today is a fantastic chess game, it’s a fantastic game. You have the throws, you have the boxing, you have the – things like I love. But I am happy because today I train a lot of fighters and I have experience to put together some real good fighters. For me it was at the time a decision for the love for this sport.

Arcanum

So do you and your brothers get together often quite a bit still?

Rigan Machado

We use to be often together all the time but the problem is we are getting so busy doing seminars, movies, all kinds of different things it is sometimes not easy like it used to be. I tried to do my best to see my brothers but everybody is so busy. But we try to keep together.

Arcanum

What are some misconceptions about Brazilian jiu-jitsu that are still out there that you would like to change?

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This post is for you BJJ enthusiasts all over the world: if you had the chance to ask a question of Rigan Machado, one of the greatest Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competitors of all time, what would it be? Rigan is pretty much the other Rickson as far as his record goes (read the Wikipedia article for a quick overview if you’re not up on your BJJ history).

Leave your questions in the comments, and I’ll work them into my interview with Rigan this April! I’ve been told I’ll have the opportunity for an interview sometime during his visit, and I figured you all might have some great question ideas.

P.S. For you locals, I promised more information on the upcoming seminar for Rigan. The good news is, you can register for the seminar at this link. The seminar will be at Lehi Judo. It’s a fairly small club, so it might be crowded, and I’ve been told if a lot of people register they may hold a second seminar to catch the overflow. I’ll keep you posted on details as I hear them.

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