Nathan Haddad‘s run at one of the American ADCC trials, the West Coast Trials, in April, showed why he is one of the most promising names in the sport. Champion of the under-88kg division, with seven fights and three submissions, Nathan was the most dangerous competitor in a division with intimidating potential: Jacob Couch, Andy Varela and Ryan Aitken, whom Nathan beat in the final, were some of the athletes in the tournament fighting for a spot at the ADCC World Championship.
“Trials is always a war. There are a lot of deserving athletes. Overall, I’m very happy with my performance, I feel like I unlocked a new part of myself. I think the big difference was my heart and my gas tank. I found a way to win every time and my cardio is really good, which lets me keep the pace for the whole match,” Nathan explained in an exclusive interview with The Mat Nation.
LOYAL TO THE ONE WHO TAUGHT HIM EVERYTHING: NATHAN HADDAD HAS TRAINED AT THE SAME ACADEMY SINCE 2003, WHEN HE STARTED IN THE SPORT
A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Nathan is the kind of athlete who knows how to value his roots. Since 2003, when he started Jiu-Jitsu at six years old, he has trained at Core Sports Combat, a team founded by his father, Rolando Haddad, and led technically by Helio ‘Soneca’, a Jiu-Jitsu world champion at the event’s first edition, in 1996, back in Rio de Janeiro. On that occasion, Nathan Haddad’s mentor beat Wellington Dias, the iconic ‘Megaton’, in the adult black belt light featherweight final.
“I started Jiu-Jitsu in 2003, when I was 6 years old. My coach is the legendary Helio ‘Soneca’. My dad opened our family’s academy and brought in ‘Soneca’ to teach. Since I started in the sport, I’ve trained full time with Helio. I’m lucky to have a direct lineage to a world champion like him,” he said.
STUDENT OF THE GAME: THE ADCC WORLDS QUALIFIER NOW HAS A PLATFORM WITH MORE THAN 600 INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS
Nathan was part of Mikey Musumeci’s team on UFC BJJ’s reality show, Road to the Title, but he is not as well known as he should be among Brazilian fans of the sport. Nathan Haddad is an athlete obsessed with the finer points of technique, which certainly explains the flawless run that booked his spot in the ADCC main event, held this year in Europe on September 12 and 13. While he now has access to highly qualified Jiu-Jitsu coaching, it was not always that way.
In an interview with FloGrappling after the trials, Nathan said finding a black belt in Kentucky in 2003 was practically impossible. Purple belts were the top dogs in the region back then. Since Helio ‘Soneca’ arrived at the academy, from his childhood to today, even after receiving his black belt, Nathan has kept absorbing as much knowledge as possible. Today, he expands the reach of his technical library with instructional videos, a method that grew a lot with the internet and social media spreading informative content. Through CorePro, Nathan breaks down No Gi techniques with special attention to detail.
“CorePro is one of the most fun things I’ve ever created. I tried to put my whole brain inside the site. Today it has more than 600 technique videos and instructional content. I use it every day to study. My hope is to help people build a solid foundation in Jiu-Jitsu and not just learn flashy moves. I believe that if you have a good foundation in the sport, you can do anything,” he said.
NATHAN HADDAD IS ON THE SIDE THAT DEFENDS GI TRAINING TO BUILD A GOOD GRAPPLING GAME
No-gi Jiu-Jitsu training is extremely popular in the United States. Nathan’s athletic routine, for example, is that of a professional preparing to compete only without the gi. Even so, he explains that he does not dismiss gi training at all. According to the black belt, setting aside the right space for the gi in his schedule complements his growth in grappling.
“I love gi Jiu-Jitsu! Actually, I train 50% gi and 50% no-gi. Right now I only compete No Gi, but I really like training in the gi. I think it forces you to play the game in a different way, which helps my No Gi a lot,” he said.
This article was originally published in Portuguese: read the original version.
