Emmanuela Oliveira 
Maintaining a trajectory of good results in recent seasons, Gabriel Silva, Vicente Júnior’s orange-belt, will test himself in grappling this weekend, a sport in an advanced stage of growth in the world and extremely popular in the United States, Gabriel’s homeland. Influenced mainly by his training colleagues at the same age, grappling competitors, the multi-time gi champion identified the ADCC Open, in Atlantic City, as a good opportunity.
“I’m doing my first tournament in no-gi this weekend; ADCC Open in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had the interest to compete so I could test out how I do, get out of my comfort zone, and possibly qualify to go to the Youth Championships in August. Also, some of the other kid competitors from the team had been competing nogi and I thought, why not give it a shot? Depending on how I perform here I may consider doing more grappling.”, he explains, suggesting the possibility of discovering another skill, in addition to the aptitude for fighting in the gi.
Since gi Jiu-Jitsu and grappling are two sides of the same coin, Gabriel Silva made a brief analysis of the reach of grappling in his home country in an interview with VF Comunica. For the athlete, the growth of the modality is directly related to the wide range of Wrestling in the country, a sport encouraged in North American schools.
“I feel that the growth of grappling in the USA has a big part of the country’s wrestling. It’s a big thing here. Lots of schools offer it, it offers good chances for scholarship opportunities, and it’s in the Olympics which increases its boost in popularity. Transitioning from a no gi sport to a sport in a gi is harder than changing from gi to no gi. Grappling catches the eye of lots of wrestlers, and if you look to the ADCC tournaments, lots of those competitors have that to their game. Specifically for people my age, however, they have a better awareness of the big names in the grappling sport, such as Gordon Ryan. Also with the new ADCC Youth Championships coming up this summer, it increases the drive for people to be the best in grappling.”, analyzes the orange-belt, aware of the power of this scenario.
Work routine off the mats is a learning experience for Gabriel Silva
Always determined to maintain the lifestyle of a Jiu-Jitsu athlete, with the dream of remaining a successful black-belt in adulthood, Gabriel began working on the weekends with the aim of learning more about life, more of what Jiu-Jitsu can teach.
“Working has been a new experience, but still a fun one. I’ve enjoyed it since starting. I’m using this to not only learn about work but to learn about life, stuff that I’ll need to do when I grow up. I’m looking to learn more about life’s responsibilities. Jiu-jitsu helps but some things, the sport can’t teach. But work has helped with more things. I highly recommend this to people that are my age because it’ll help you later on.”, he concludes, demonstrating that he has found a good balance in his behavior on and off the mats.
