After numerous experiences in high-performance Jiu-Jitsu as a competitor, until the black-belt, Bruno Frazatto now has the opportunity to introduce his daughter to this challenging universe. Manu Frazatto, a gray-belt, is a 9-year-old athlete who shows that she has acquired an aptitude for the sport through genetics. After good performances in IBJJF tournaments in the United States, where she lives with her father Bruno, the time has come for Manu to put her Jiu-Jitsu to the test at the Brasileiro Nationals, scheduled to take place in Barueri, São Paulo, next weekend.
During an interview with VF Comunica, Bruno Frazatto, a four-time Brazilian Nationals black-belt champion, spoke about the responsibilities of raising a child and an athlete. There are limits that need to be respected and Bruno is conscious when talking about this.
“I’ve competed for many years at the high level and I want her to reach the top too, I know what it takes. But at the same time I have to understand that she’s only 9 years old, she’s a child. So knowing how to divide these two parts is the most complicated thing, knowing how to differentiate between what’s on the mat and what’s at home.”.
Frazatto’s Jiu-Jitsu is like an identity
For the fights at the Brasileiros, what is expected of Manu, according to her previous performances, is a polished Jiu-Jitsu with attention to detail, gaps in the game and positions that function as comfort zones will not have a chance. After all, as Frazatto said, modern Jiu-Jitsu has allowed him, as a professor, to better work on his daughter’s weaknesses and enhance her technical qualities to make her a complete athlete.
“We live with the new generation and I think that because the information is passed on in a better way and there is now a teaching system, everything is easier for us, professors. I know all the difficulties I’ve had in my career, especially in the top game, in the standing game, and I try to work all the gaps in her game. She’s much better at passing than I was when I was a blue-belt, a purple-belt. I know what it takes for her to be complete. I lost a lot of fights because I wasn’t complete in the colored belts,” said the leader of one of the Atos’ academies in Atlanta, USA.
Establishing himself as a consistent featherweight at his peak as a black-belt competitor, Frazatto won four gold medals at the IBJJF Brasileiros. This competition is considered by many to be one of the most competitive, since there is no visa requirement to fight in Brazil, an obstacle that prevents many skilled athletes from entering the United States to compete, for example, in the World Championships in California. Of the memories he has from that time, he cites his first title as the most special, an achievement that dissolved an insecurity he felt when he graduated to black-belt in 2005.
“I think my first (Brasileiros title) as a black-belt was more special. Because when I arrived I didn’t want to be a black-belt. It was a very difficult year in my career, my grandfather passed away and he gave me all the support, it was a troubled year in my life. I didn’t feel mature enough for the black-belt, I only had seven months with the brown-belt, I wanted to fight for another year, but they promoted me. My first championship was the Brazilian Nationals and I ended up winning. I made the final with Cícero Costha, it was a very tough fight and I saw that I was ready for black belt,” recalled Frazatto.
