Claudia do Val has been busy. Her trip to Europe, which lasted just over a month, sent her home with a lot of gold (and a lot of green) after an arduous round of tournaments and seminars. And when she landed in the USA, she hit the ground running once again.
Do Val has developed a bit of a reputation for cleaning up at any tournament she enters. Back in August, she won gold six times between the IBJJF Las Vegas Summer Open and Master Worlds. During her Europe circuit, the sight of a gold medal around her neck was so common that hardware of any other color would seem strange. In total, she won twenty medals between five tournaments (the London Fall Open, the Lisbon Open, the Amsterdam Open, the Florence Open, and the Geneva Open) in which she entered both her weight division and the open weight division for both gi and no-gi. All of these wins, of course, came between teaching seminars all over the continent.
It goes without saying that maintaining this schedule wasn’t easy, but do Val says that the payoff outweighed the struggle. “I think the fact that I was able to pull the whole thing off makes me quite proud,” she says. “I was in a hurry most of the days, and I barely stayed more than two days in a row at the same place, and that’s quite tiring. But extremely worth it.”
While no one would blame this gilded grappler for taking some time off upon landing in the States for her next round of work and play, that’s just not her style. She’s already been busy teaching seminars, and when no one else showed up to compete against her at the Nashville Fall Open, she spent the day reffing matches and coaching her friends. Once No-Gi Worlds concludes in December, she’ll head back home, where she hopes to own her own academy someday.
It’s only a matter of time before we see do Val once again taking her regular place at the top of the podium, and if you think her hectic lifestyle is going to wear her down anytime soon, you’re sorely mistaken. “…I absolutely love this,” she says. “I love what I do, even though it’s very tiring. I just love to teach and train and everything connected with jiu-jitsu.”
Check out do Val’s list of upcoming US seminars to see if she’ll soon be in a city near you:
Nov 29th – Seminar in Dallas/TXDec 1st- Seminar at BTT Houston Dec 2nd- ibjjf San Antonio OpenDec 3rd – Seminar at…
Posted by Cláudia do Val on Monday, May 14, 2018
