Caio in final at Worlds / Photo by Dan Rod
Caio Terra has been carving out a spot for himself among the best Jiu-Jitsu players around. Sharp tongued, like in the statements he’s made about doping in the gentle art, Caio’s grappling skills are even more honed. In the last four years, the black belt dominated the No-Gi World Champion. This season, his win over Laércio Fernandes in the final netted the Gracie Fighter rep his fourth title in the event, but even still, he’s less than satisfied.
Check out what he had to say to GRACIEMAG.com:
What was the hardest part about this Worlds?
I’d come off a string of serious injuries and on top of that I injured both my hands just a few days from the championship. Truth is, following the Gi Worlds in June, I competed more than I trained. I ended up winning a fourth No-Gi world title, which is quite gratifying. That was my greatest motivation, if not the only one, so even though I wasn’t in good shape I went in there to compete. Even so I was disappointed with my performance. I wanted to put on a good showing and attack, but unfortunately by body wouldn’t let me. You usually get better with each match, but this time I got frustrated, and that was the main reason I didn’t stick my neck out in the absolute.
Which do you like more, Gi or No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu?
I get the most pleasure out of training in the gi, but I’m becoming more and more convinced that you need to do both of them, to improve in the gi and out of it. I don’t lean one way or the other much when it comes to competing, but clearly it’s always best to compete doing what you practice most.
What went wrong for you at the Gi Worlds that you hope to fix?
Unfortunately, The Gi Worlds was the only championship I got to train for this year, and truth be told, I trained a lot. I got the tapout in every match until the final with Bruno Malfacine, where he beat me on advantage points. I don’t feel I fought poorly, I think Malfacine deserves credit for winning the match. I’ve watched the match a number of times and found something I can test him with the next time we meet. He’s really quick, agile, strong and a lot smaller than my other opponents. It’s not easy to train to face him, because there isn’t anyone else of his size with the technical and physical ability he has.
What’s the focus for next year?
Unfortunately, I probably won’t compete anywhere until the Gi Worlds in June. I really hope to make it back to defend my Pan-American title and try and get pack into competition rhythm, but I don’t think it’s likely, because I want to be near 100% again and put on a good show, so I’ll be training to compete well at everything starting in June. But I’ll only commit to the Worlds, which I wouldn’t miss for the world. I’m also going to launch my new DVD, which will surely be a great hit, since it’ll be much more technical than the last one. Between January and the end of the year I’ll have conducted practically 70 seminars in different academies.
I’d like to thank all my students and friends, especially Augusto Queixinho, Samir Chantre, Flavio Meier and Denny Prokopos, for having been there and helped me study and do positional repetitions, even when I was unable to train. To keep up with me better, maintain contact and find out all the news, my Facebook page is www.facebook.com/caioterrabjj.