Rômulo Barral and his daughters, Pan Kids champions: “Pressure is a privilege”
The IBJJF Hall of Famer tells VF Comunica what it is like to coach his own daughters and why he doesn’t believe in competing without expectations
Being a champion’s kid is heavy. Rômulo Barral, an IBJJF Hall of Famer, knows that and doesn’t pretend otherwise when it comes to his two daughters, whom he coaches himself. At the 2026 Pan Kids, where the girls reached the top of the podium, he told VF Comunica how he sees expectations at home.
“I don’t really believe there’s no pressure. Pressure is a privilege,” he said.
If you feel pressure, you have something to deliver
The line, which Barral credited to basketball player LeBron James and which became famous through tennis player Billie Jean King, sums up how he thinks about competition. “If there’s pressure, it’s because the person has something to deliver. Usually, someone who doesn’t feel much pressure isn’t at the point of delivering yet,” he said.
He admits that his presence in the gym already changes the room. People close to him, he said, joke that all he has to do is show up for everybody to feel the pressure. But Barral draws a line between demanding and ordering. “It’s not a pressure of ‘you have to do this, you have to do that.’ It’s teaching, showing the way, and them making the right choices,” he said.
“The identity of excellence”
Barral credits his daughters’ progress to the environment they grew up in. “It’s the training mindset that was built inside our home, the identity of excellence in everything we do,” he said.
One daughter’s story shows the path wasn’t forced. She started training only to help her sister, as a drilling partner. She came to enjoy it, got better, and one day her father suggested she go to the academy and test herself. “She went, she crushed it and said, ‘Now I want to do this too,’” he said.
“I’m just a tool”
For the coach, nothing he demands would work without desire on the other side. “There’s no way I could do what I do, the training, the dedication, without them truly loving it,” he said. About one of his daughters, he added: “She loves this, it’s part of her life. And I’m just a tool to help her get what she wants.”
He also doesn’t hide that the last name comes at a cost, and says the reason goes beyond the titles he won. “There is pressure in being a student, being a child of Rômulo Barral,” he said.
Full video on YouTube
The conversation with Rômulo Barral at Pan Kids is on the VF Comunica YouTube channel (in Portuguese).
Should a champion’s kid be pushed like an athlete or treated like a kid? Leave your opinion in the comments.
