Interview: Romero Jacare Cavalcante of Alliance

Brought to you by the Bloody Elbow Grappling team! 

Alliance achieved the Grand Slam of BJJ this year, which is absolutely ridiculous. In a world that has long been dominated by people and teams whose last name is Gracie (or whose first name has R's that are pronounced like H's), the Alliance team, headed by Romero Jacare Cavalcante and Fabio Gurgel, has hit its stride.

This year, they took the Grand Slam of BJJ. In the adult division, Alliance won the Pan American championships, the European Championships, the World Championships, and even the Brazilian Nationals. They pretty much owned the world as far as competition BJJ is concerned.

More after the jump.

Founding member Romero "Jacare" Cavalcante was gracious enough to give me a few minutes of his time.

Congratulations on another successful world championships. How are you feeling now that it is finished?

Thank you, was very nice to win gain for the 6th time. Feeling really good, mission accomplished, we won the Grand Slam for the first time ever this year.

Were there any athletes that stood out for you in particular this time?

We had a lot athletes standing out this year, Marcelo Garcia, Bruno Malfacine,Sergio Moraes, Leo Nogueira, Jordon, Macarrao, Michel, Dimi, and so many that is hard to mention everybody.

What do you think makes Alliance special and gives you so much success?

Everything makes us especial, the coaches, the students,the way we treat and work with our guys, the relationship between us, the training the hard work.

How do you encourage your athletes – what kind of atmosphere do you create in training?

The atmosphere is very good, I try to encourage them and make the training very intense and very hard everyday, training all kind of situations, always showing them why and where they need to improve to get better.

How strongly do you think the influence of Rolls Gracie is still felt today?

Rolls was very influential in my life, my students don't know much about him except for what I talk about him, my teachings has a lot of him in our style of course, I owe everything that I know to Rolls he was a great man and the best of his time.

What do you think training in the GI can offer MMA athletes?

The Gi is the base is how you can improve your game, learn the basics ad get your game tight, this only make you better, no matter what, even if you train just for mma the training with the Gi will make you better.

What one piece of advice can you give all developing BJJ athletes?

The advice I can give is to train hard, consistently with a good instructor that have roots with a good school.

What are Alliance’s plans for the rest of 2011 and next year?

The plan is the same, work hard, teach everyday, make our schools better, give support to our association, keep growing with good quality and have fun, life is short we have to enjoy it. Thanks for the opportunity and have a great rest of 2011.