Pix from the Wroclaw Meeting

To see the whole gallery, go to: http://picasaweb.google.pl/wojciech.rybicki/ZawodyWrocek#

Videos from Livorno I

Recent and historical. Images from the I Rio Grappling Cup in Livorno three weeks ago, and a sequence of freestyle matches from 1979!

Watch below the final match under 66kgs between Matteo Menna and Thier Tavares; under 84kgs between myself and Tommaso Pispico, and highlights from our wrestling coach Riccardo Nicolini, fighting freestyle 30 years ago, on his way to the Olympic Games in Moscow, where he took 5th place.

Viva el Barça!

Not the biggest fan of football, I still admire the breton sport like most brazilians, specially when played with art. And this past season, El Barcelona showed skills, talent, luck and art, playing beautifully and winning all possible titles (Spanish League, Spanish Cup and the Champions League), defeating the Manchester United in Rome.

Their coach, Pep Guardiola, played a motivational video to inspire the players just before the game.

Well worth the seven minutes:

Full results I RGC Wroclaw Meeting

Sunday, 31st of May, 2009

Participants: 67

Teams: RGC Wroclaw, RGC Silesia (Gliwice, Zawiercie, Dabrowa Gornicza), Sqra Gold Team, Boi Team Wroclaw, LGT Zielona Góra, BJJ Jelenia Góra, Jungle BJJ Praga and Lutadores Opole

Blue belts:

+90kgs
1. Patryk Horbatiuk – RGC Silesia
2. Michał Łapka – SQRA Gold Team
3. Konrad Łęski – RGC Wroclaw

-90kgs
1. Łukasz Zawada – RGC Wroclaw
2. Łukasz Dźbik – RGC Wroclaw
3. Robert Małocha – LGT Zielona Góra

-81kgs
1. Andrej Galanda – Jungle BJJ Praga
2. Bartek Bibrowicz – RGC Wroclaw
3. Adam Karolczyk – RGC Silesia
3. Michał Organiściuk – SQRA Gold Team

-73kgs
1. Martin Krener – Jungle BJJ
2. Krzysztof Łaba – RGC Silesia
3. Kamil Bali – Boi Team
3. Krzysztof Flak – RGC Silesia

-66kgs
1. Artur Kuzera – RGC Wroclaw
2. Maciek Bochenek – RGC Silesia

White belts:

+90kgs
1. Paweł Kaźmierczak – LGT Zielona Góra
2. Tomasz Zackiewicz – BJJ Jelenia Góra
3. Kamil Zgondek – RGC Wroclaw

-90kg
1. Robert Balicki – Boi Team Wroclaw
2. Rafał Zawidzki – RGC Wroclaw
3. Ivor Kollar – Jungle BJJ Praga
3. Adam Maciocha – RGC Wroclaw

-81kg
1. Jakub Cerny – Jungle BJJ Praga
2. Bartosz Kocierz – RGC Silesia
3. Szymon Wolny – RGC Wroclaw
3. Paweł Tomalik – Lutadores Opole

-73kg
1. Dawid Machura – RGC Silesia
2. Sebastian Baran – RGC Silesia
3. Paweł Łabuda – RGC Wroclaw
3. Adrian Wisła – RGC Wroclaw

-66kg
1. Tomasz Środoń – SQRA Gold Team
2. Norbert Warchoł – SQRA Gold Team
3. Daniel Guszta – RGC Silesia
3. Paweł Kociubiński – RGC Wroclaw

First impressions on the I RGC Meeting

Wroclaw, the meeting place. And yesterday as time for our first meeting cup, an idea to integrate the RGC schools in the region and make a small competition, also open to invited clubs.

The tournament had 65 entries in the white and blue belts, and a superfight between purples. The clubs RGC Gliwice, Zawiercie, Dabrowa and Wroclaw were presents, as well as Lutadores Opole, BJJ Jelenia Góra, BJJ Zielona Góra, SQRA Gold Team, Boi Team Wroclaw and Jungle BJJ Praga. Jungle is the first BJJ school from Czech Republic, coached by my friend Fernando Araújo, a black belt from Rio de Janeiro living in Prague. His students won two divisions in the blue belt and one in the white, with others showing good skills and already some competition experience.

The overall level of the tournament was good, notably among the blue belts, and I was happy that most students from Wroclaw, experiencing a competition for the first time, displayed heart and skills. With more training and more experience, they shall do well in future comps. The best performance from our guys came from Lukasz Zawada, Lukasz Dzybk, Artur Kuzera and Szymon Wolny. Guys from Silesia did well too, with a special mention to all the team that came from RGC Gliwice, there is a lot of potential there. Outstanding was the heart of Patrik Horbatiuk from Zawiercie, that took 2 very tight armbars, impressively escaped from both, passing the guard and controlling his experienced opponent (a judoist) to win the finals over 90kgs (he weighs 80!).

The decision to not have advantages was a good one, the matches have stalled a lot less, and twice we called overtimes to decide the winner, so in the end we always had clear decisions, without any complaints throughout the competition. Mariusz did a good job refereeing, and at 4pm we finished the meeting, giving medals, certificates and t-shirts to the winners.

I am still tired but it was worth it every minute. I will bring full results tomorrow.

Yan Cabral wins in Sweden

Our friend and BJJ black belt has just won another MMA match by submission yesterday, this time in Sweden. He won by Katagatame on the 3rd round. Soon more details and pictures here!

New header

We have just changed the header of our blog. What do you think of the new layout?

Roma BJJ Challenge 2009

My past 10 days in Italy were very productive, and besides the seminars and classes, I could follow the RGC squad in two competitions. After the great success last week in Livorno (read post below), we came down to Roma to participate in the III Roma BJJ Challenge.

A very well run tournament by Federico Tisi with help from Andrea Baggio and the Italian Connection, the cup had 150 people fighting BJJ under standard international rules, the structure was good for the numbers, the referees did very well overall, with only minor mistakes and I did not see any bias. All refs are active competitors and this can only be good for the growth of the sport in Italy.

Only to complain is the weather, it was really hot and the gymnasium felt like a greenhouse, making it difficult for the athletes to perform their best in that conditions. A place with better ventilation would do for next years, as in late May chances are that will often be hot in Italy.

Our team surely stole the show this year, taking the two most important trophies, the Open Divisions  on the purple and blue belts.

Matteo Calamandrei took gold in the Open Purple belt. Without opponents in his weight division, Matteo won two matches showing takedowns and good control of both opponents, winning the most important division at stake (there were not brown and black belt divisions on this tournament).

Ion Condei and Ricardo Bennati (Sport Goofy), training partners, took gold and silver in the blue belt Open Division, as well as under 88kgs.

Besides that we added more experience to the other fighters, setting the pace for the next season.

Our Results:

Purple Belt Open Division:
1st place – Matteo Calamandrei

Blue Belt Open Division:
1st place – Ion Condei
2nd place – Ricardo Bennati

Blue Belt under 88kgs:
1st place – Ricardo Bennati
2nd place – Ion Condei

White Belt under 100.5 kgs:
3rd place – Giacomo Pani

White Belt under 70kgs
3rd place – Fabio Tondolo

The First Rio Grappling Cup!

Livorno, where the Rio Grappling Club started in Italy 5 years ago, hosted the first Grappling Cup organised by our association yesterday, Sunday 17th of May.

Teaming up with the Italian Federation of Grappling, we offered 500 Euro in cash, divided by the 5 winners of the Class A. Official matted areas, electronic scoreboards and referees were sent by the FIGR/FIJLKAM, and we took care of setting up everything and let the fighters do the show. About 80 grapplers from all over Italy came to the comp.

We adopted the official FILA rules. Although not without flaws, those rules are a lot better than the ones used in ADCC Sub Wrestling tournaments. This, far from being only my voice, was what I heard from many competitors, including Luca Anacoreta from Rome, one of the best italian grapplers and winner yesterday (under 74kg class A).

Our team, stronger than ever in Italy, did well winning or qualifying in most divisions, with amazing performances by Matteo Menna, Simone Baldi and Erik Tornaboni among others. I decided to compete at the last minute as there were no one from our team under 84kgs.

Even weighing around 79kgs, I took the chance of fighting without training specifically for it or preparing psichologically, and thankfully managed to overcome my 2 opponents, winning both matches by submission. After two years and a half without competing, I was pleased to return to the mats, although I felt the rust and did not perform as well as I wanted, but in the end what matters is to win without doubts. My first match was ended with a rear naked choke and the finals with an armbar. Soon I will upload videos and a slideshow of the tournament.

Class A results:

Under 66kgs
1. Matteo Menna – RGC Ferrara
2. Thier Tavares – Ass. Aranha
3. Mattia Macchelli – RGC Firenze

Under 74 kgs:
1. Luca Anacoreta – Rogerio Olegario
2. Ciro Ruotolo – Nova Invicta
3. Andrea Lavaggi – RGC Sestri Levante

Under 84kgs:
1. Roberto Atalla – RGC
2. Tommaso Pispico – GB Italy
3. Daniel Gianpaolo – GB Italy

Under 96kgs:
1. Erik Tornaboni - RGC La Spezzia
2. Gianluca Palombi – A.S Pegaso Ladispoli
3. Sela Sokol – IC Perugia

Under 120kgs:
1. Matteo Calamandrei – RGC Firenze
2. Vito Rea – Galaktik Sora

Class B results:

Under 60kgs:
1. Simone Baldi – RGC Ferrara
2. Filippo Fioretto – IC Team Centurion
3. Andrea Matzuzzi – Le Rughe Grappling Clan

Under 66kgs:
1. Michele Baldassarri – Sakura Judo
2. Omar Sterni – Yoseikan Morini

Under 74kgs:
1. Giacomo Landi – Aranha JJ
2. Johnny Cecchini – Rendoki Dojo
3. Franco Benassi IC JJ center PR

Under 84kgs:
1. Stefano Di Donna – Sakura Judo
2. Marco Longo – RGC Firenze
3. Riccardo Pelosi – Aranha JJ

Under 96kgs:
1. Alberto Prandi – Le Rughe Grappling Clan
2. Michele Bovo – Padovar JJ

Under 120kgs:
1. Luca Renga – Sakura Judo
2. Fabricio Carvalho De Souza – Nova Uniao

I World Pro BJJ Cup

The biggest event so far organised by Carlos Santos during the first weekend of May in Abu Dhabi, UAE, did not disappoint the crowd that came from all corners of the World. The organisation and logistics were great, and the matches very dynamic, showcasing the future of BJJ as a professional sport. Props to the whole staff and the great support from the sheiks, helping take our sport to a new level with this event.

The greatest name of the event was Tarsys Humphrey, who won both the Open division and u85kg, cashing the biggest paycheck. The revelation of the competition was the brown belt Rodolfo Vieira, who won the division u95kg, defeating famous names to take the gold. Another surprise was Rafael Mendes, a newcomer in the black belt that has been winning a lot but had lost previously twice to Cobrinha, the biggest name of the division. This time Rafael set the pace and won a difficult match, establishing himself as the best feather weight, at least until they face each other again.

The total cash prize of the event was Us$ 111,000.00 (one hundred and eleven thousand american dollars), only second to the tournament held in Jordan last December. The Capital Challenge gave Us$ 141,000.00 in money to the athletes.

Watch the videos from the finals:

u95kg

u85kg

u75kg

u65kg

Open Division

KL World Cup in Rimini

The Kombat League is one of the leading organisations of Kickboxing, Low Kick and Thai Boxing in Italy, with amateur, semi-pro and professional competitions.

A few years ago I was in a meeting in Modena where they decided to start doing BJJ and Grappling tournaments. They so far realised the International Montana BJJ Cup in Modena two years in a row, with good money prizes for black belts, as well as other smaller comps.

As part of a major martial arts event realised last weekend in the famous Rimini, they held also a BJJ tournament on Sunday, 3rd of May. The BJJ comp was small compared to the other martial arts traditionally promoted by the KL, but our team was represented there by 3 fighters from Bologna.

Gianluca, Ion and Pier after the comp.

Gianluca Boni and Pierandrea Petazzi both made to the finals, losing their last challenge and taking home silver. Ion Condei, on his first year in the blue belt, is doing so well that I think it is just a matter of time to see our Romenian grappler as European BJJ Champion. He once again dominated his division and took gold, submitting his German opponent in the last seconds of the final match, escaping from an omoplata to execute a triangle choke in the same movement.

Our results:

Gianluca Boni – second place u82kg purple belt
Ion Condei – first place u88kg blue belt
Pierandrea Petazzi – second place u82kg blue belt

Watch Ion final match on the video below!

NY BJJ International Open

Our representative in Canada Gerry DiSanto and 3 of his students from St. Catharine, Ontario, went to New York City to compete in the NY BJJ International Open. All of them ranked in their divisions, with Gerry taking a bronze in the Open Weight after winning his own division.

Our results and a report sent to us by Vince Cristelli:

Matthew Rocca – silver u82kg blue belt master
Paul Federici – bronze u76kg purple belt master
Vince Cristelli – silver u89kg purple belt senior 3
Gerry DiSanto – gold u89kg and bronze in open division brown belt senior 1

“On April 18th, our group went to New York City to compete in the I NY BJJ Open. Gerry DiSanto, along with Matt Rocca, Paul Federici  and I, flew into New York for the tournament.  I actually arrived a day later then the other guys, due to my work schedule.

We were able to take in some of the sights such as Time Square, the Apollo Theatre and NBC Studios.  This was my first BJJ competition, although I have entered Judo competitions as a youngster, and Karate tournaments.  I really enjoyed the experience. The tournament was very well organized.

Making weight is always a concern for these events, so much so, that Matt purchased a bathroom scale on Friday.  Then the guys decided to find a gym at 10:00 p.m. to workout and cut weight. We all took home medals in our divisions. Gerry took a gold in his division and bronze in the Absolute, Matt and I took silver in our divisions and Paul finished third.  We also had the opportunity to meet and take a picture with Renzo Gracie during the competition.

I need to acknowledge a few people along the way that help me realize this opportunity to compete.  My instructor Gerry, all my training partners over the years, and the encouragement and seminars that Roberto Atalla and Helio Soneca provided.  What a great bunch of guys.”

Vince Cristelli

I Buffalo BJJ Cup

On 4th of April, 2009, our associated club Horizon Martial Arts, located in West Seneca, NY, lead by Tim Hartman, held a grappling tournament in gi and no gi in the city of Buffalo.

The tournament was organised with the help of Defensive Arts Training Center from St. Catharine, Canada.  The competition was well attended and gave students an opportunity to compete at a smaller venue, rather than some of the larger national tournaments.

Winning and taking home a medal at the end of the event is always nice, but not the first and foremost reason for attending these kinds of events. However, our athletes did very well taking lots of medals, as can be seen from the picture below. Eight gold medals, five silvers and three bronzes, along with two wins in the Absolute divisions, an impressive score!

Huge congratulations for the initiative and the results. 

Group picture after the comp

Rio Grappling Cup & seminars in Poland, Italy and Spain

Spring is the most beautiful season in Poland, the weather has been nice for the last 3 weeks, the sun is shining everyday and the classes are full, with returning students and new ones. Here the busiest days are the ones we train without Gi, showing the growth of Grappling in Eastern Europe. Next week I travel to Bydgoszcz for two days seminar in our affiliate club, then I go to Warsaw where I will be visiting the team MMA Warsaw.

In two weeks I will travel to Italy where Bernardo Serrini and Alessio de Liberti are organising the first Rio Grappling Cup in Livorno, on the 17th of May (for more info, go to riograpplingcup.blogspot.com). On the day before the comp, I will be conducting a No Gi seminar in Livorno, fine tuning our students for the tournament. There will be no sparring to allow the fighters to rest well before their matches. One week later I will visit our clubs in Firenze and Sestri Levante, and coach our team in a BJJ comp in Rome.

In June I travel to Barcelona and Sevilla, visiting my friends Yan Cabral and Andre Nunes, and teaching seminars in both places. For more info please drop an email to me.

Scheduled seminars:
7th and 8th of May – RGC Bydgoszcz
9th of May – Warsaw
16th of May – RGC Livorno
21st of May – RGC Firenze
24th of May – RGC Sestri Levante
4th of June – Barcelona
5th and 6th of June – Sevilla

Grappling Tournaments in Poland

Last weekend we had in Poland three different Grappling tournaments with athletes from our team fighting.

Saturday, the Polish ADCC Championship, where Patryk Horbatiuk took first place in the Open Division under 77kg. Sunday at the same place was the Polish Grappling Cup under FILA rules, and Michał Bańka took second place under 62kg. While a small group took part in both events without Gi, another group fought in the south of Poland a Gi Tournament called Katowice Ne-Waza Cup, with Krys Flak taking first place after submitting his four opponents under 73kg. Maciek Czernik finished third in the Juniors division under 73 kg.

Congratulations to all the athletes. In two weeks we will have the Polish BJJ Cup in Konin, and in the last day of May we will hold a small BJJ tournament in our own gym in Wroclaw. The I RGC meeting will be a great chance to our beginners to show how much they improved since they started training, and the ones showing good technique will move up to the blue belt after the comp.

BJJ traditions, smoke and mirrors

20 years ago, BJJ was a sport practiced by very small numbers outside Rio de Janeiro. I remember my first tournament, when I was a white belt and won only one fight, later closing the bracket with a guy that trained in the same gym as myself. At the time I questioned this tradition, but after years competing, it was only in the brown belt that I did it again, when I won 3 matches in the World’s tournament and did not fight the final was it would be against my friend Pedro Duarte. We prepared together for months and knew each other’s game, we actually helped each other a lot, and this would never be possible if we would have to fight each other in the competition.

Now the Gracie Magazine, official voice of the stablishment, comes up with a campaign attacking this procedure, as it says it affects the credibility of the competition and the TV transmission. I cal it BULLSHIT.

First of all, the official tournaments give no professional prize whatsoever, so how can you ask professionalism from the athletes if the federation acts as if the sport is amateur? How can you force an athlete to fight his best friend and someone he trains daily with for a medal? What will happen will be worse, people will pretend to fight each other, being it in the finals, semifinals or first match.
If successful, this measure would only create more rivalry between people training together, infecting the environment of the group.

Of course, the magazine cannot attack its owner, so they promote ideas to cover up the scandal that is the administration of BJJ internationally. Good luck with that, but people are not sleeping and they see how much profit is being kept off the sport by its unelected officials.

There are many subjects important to our sport, among them the need of have a list of all qualified instructors worldwide, but even this is going to be hard, given the number of unqualified people receiving black belts. I could go on for half an hour proposing debates on hot topics, but all those themes will never be debated by the official media, for obvious reasons. So they come up with smoke and mirrors, in a vain attempt to bring attention to whatever is done by the athletes, and whenever mentioning the federation, they do it very carefully (somehow it reminds me of the official comunist media from the defunct Soviet Union).

BJJ has a lot of unwritten rules and code of honour, and it makes perfect sense not to fight your friend in arms, after all this is not a sport you can learn by yourself, you need not only a good teacher but a great group to train with if you want to become a champion, so it is up to the team to decide if its members will fight each other or leave this decision to themselves.
Only when the federation starts giving money to the winners, they could require professionalism from them, because the fighters do not have to please any public, they are not paid to be there, they are competing for the challenge and the pleasure, so it is their decision of fighting each other or not, end of the day only one of them can grab the gold medal and the second must accept the silver, so what is the big deal? TV? They should transmit the semifinals then, or pay the athletes to fight each other.

As said earlier in this post, there are many more important things to be brought into discussion if the goal is to improve the sport. I read an open letter from Flavio Almeida, one of the head coaches of Gracie Barra, countering the proposal made by the official media. I have to say that I fully agree with Flavio’s views, his statement is very elucidating and express an opinion that I consider similar to my own. The focus should be elsewhere.

Another proposals face the absurdity. Felipe Costa suggests matches to define bronze medalists. This sounds ok at first, but then you look into Judo, Wrestling and Boxing in the Olympic Games and all of them have 2 bronze medalists, showing that his poposal is naive. In Judo there is an efficient system of repechage, making the fight for the bronze another challenge, with many athletes being given the chance to fight for the bronze and not only two. This of course could be easily implemented by the BJJ federations but I suspect that the time needed to make all this extra matches without profitting from it are not welcome by the officials. And simply putting the losers of the semifinals to fight each other for a third place instead of doing a proper olympic repechage sounds stupid and disconnected from reality.

Anyways, we should be debating more important issues but I suspect that this is exactly what the official media does not want us to do. Please take time to choose one or more options from the poll below!

Pictures from Ostia

Italian Grappling Nationals

A week ago the city of Ostia hosted the Italian Grappling Nationals, and our team once again did very well, with impressive results. The comp was done on 19th of April, Sunday, organised by the Italian Grappling Federation (FIGR) and supported by FIJLKAM (the Italian Federation of Judo, Wrestling, Karate and Martial Arts).

Our guys came from Ferrara, Bologna, Livorno, Firenze and Sestri Levante to represent the Rio Grappling Club in Ostia.

Our results!

Bernardo Serrini won 4 fights and got first place on the A Class under 84kgs, qualifying to represent Italy on the World Grappling Tournament in Fort Lauderdale, USA, next December.

Alessio de Liberti took second place in the A Class under 74 kgs, winning 3 matches and losing the final on a very disputed match.

Simone Baldi won the B Class under 60 kgs and Mattia Macchelli took the gold under 66 kgs, while Luca Perugino placed third, after losing to Mattia and winning 2 more fights in the repechage.
Check the videos to see our guys competing!

Simone Baldi, Final

Bernardo Serrini, quarter finals

Advantages – BJJ Rules part II

Not long time ago I wrote an article criticising some aspects of the rules used in BJJ. Scroll down the page, read it on and then come back here. Done? Now is time to analyse advantages. What is an advantage? The concept was created not long ago, to adress the problem of many matches ending without a clear winner. Back then it was common for the referee to decide which fighter has won when the scoreboard was equal. Given the partiality of the refs, complains were the rule. The fair solution should be an overtime, but this is asking too much from the not so clever people that manage our sport. They came up with the advantages.

Now lets think a bit, and we will see why this is so wrong. What is an advantage? Is a point scored for the fighter who almost passed the guard, or nearly swept the other, and so on. Now try to imagine this same rule in football, to see how absurd it is. A player kicks the ball to make a goal, and nearly scores it, but the goalkeeper defends it. Now think of a rule that would give the attacker team half point, and if nobody scores a goal, his team will win. Ridiculous, isn’t it? In real life, advantages could be scored too, when you almost make up with the girl of your dreams but end up alone after one hour talking to her. Should you earn points for a failure? Thats the concept behind advantages, you are awarded for things you haven’t done, you get an advantage when you almost submit your opponent, you get another when you control him in the half guard, and so on, never mind that you actually did not finish him or passed his guard, what matters is that you tried.

Does it sound fair to you? Now what about the argument that matches were too stalled and they needed more movement to make BJJ more interesting to the general public? Many fighters used to slow down the pace when they were 2 or 3 points ahead. Now, all it takes is one or two advantages and the stalling starts. People used to stall after passing the guard, now they stall inside the half guard.

Keep it real, our sport has grown a lot over the last 15 years all over the World. Thanks to Royce Gracie, the UFC and the whole MMA scene, nowadays everyone knows what is a ground fight, gyms are busy in both sides of the Atlantic and everyone is enjoying the ride, but if BJJ does not evolve, it can fade away just like Karate not long ago.

I Rio Grappling Cup Italy

An initiative of Alessio de Liberti and Bernardo Serrini, this will be the first No Gi tournament promoted by our association in Italy.
The comp will happen on the 17th of May, Livorno, under FILA rules and referees certified by the FIGR (Italian Federation of Grappling), which is supporting the tournament. The class A winners will receive a money prize of 100 Euro each.

For more info go to the site of the competition: www.riograpplingcup.blogspot.com

Montana BJJ, ADCC Italy and Krakow BJJ League

Three more comps entered by our squad lately: the 10th BJJ League was held in Krakow, Poland, while in Italy our team went to 2 tournament in the same day!

10th BJJ League, Krakow, Poland:
Patryk Horbatiuk from RGC Zawiercie took silver in his first blue belt comp (he was promoted in February) under 76kg. From RGC Dabrowa Gornicza, both Kamil Ciepulis and Daniel Andrzejewski placed second, Kamil in the white belt under 64kg, and Daniel in the juniors division under 69kg.

In Italy the II Montana International BJJ Cup was held in Modena, while on the same day (Saturday 5th of April) the ADCC Italy had its first leg this year in Sesto San Giovani. We had 4 competitors in Modena representing our team, but only Simone Baldi reached the finals and won, taking the gold medal in the blue belt under 64kg. Its worth mentioning that our friend Yan Cabral won his only match in the black belt, under 73kg. Yan has moved to Barcelona and opened his school there.

Alessio de Liberti and Andrea Lavaggi were the only ones fighting in the ADCC Italy, both in the same division (Class A under 73kg). They reached the finals and fought each other, with Alessio winning by submission and bringing the gold to Livorno.

Congratulations to them all!

Forza Rio Grappling Club!

Watch Simone Baldi victory in the finals:

1st Poll

I just found out that WordPress is letting us post polls in our blogs. I always wanted this but at first no good ideas came to my mind so I am asking something simple just to test it.
Here it goes, our first poll ever! Just for the sake of it!
Vote!!!

Blog of the month

Well, we do not have a section where we spotlight the best blogs we find in the internet, and I am sure I will not start doing this regularly, least of it because most of the time I spend surfing, I read blogs about economics and stuff totally unrelated to martial arts, but I thought the title would fit nice to this thread.

One of the best pound per pound MMA fighters in Europe, Paul Mc Veigh, BJJ brown belt and as Irish as the leprechaun, Guiness and the St. Patrick’s parade, writes in his blog about fitness, conditioning and training for MMA athletes, as well as hilarious stories of drunkenness and mayhem in Glasgow, besides throwing out some nice girls pix into the mix to make it even more interesting. A must read!

www.maccavelli.wordpress.com

Torino BJJ Challenge

The Torino BJJ challenge was held last Sunday, 22nd of March and the RGC Italy was there.

Our results:

Mattia Macchelli – 1st place – white belt -70kg
Ion Condei – 1st place blue belt -88,3kg
Valerio Mori Ubaldini – 3rd place blue belt -70

Some students competed for the first time and managed to win a few matches, although they did not take medals:

Antonio Scuotto won his first match and lost his second;
Vincenzo Vittozzi won 2 fights and lost the third;
Francesco Cocchi won 2 fights and lost the third.

One day earlier, Bernardo Serrini competed and won in Arezzo the regional free style wrestling championships, winning his 3 matches.

Another mission acomplished for the RGC Italy. Next in the list is the Modena BJJ Cup, 4th of April.

Grazie, ragazzi!!!

12th Copa Pacifica

The Copa Pacifica is an annual event promoted in California by Cleber Luciano, running for its 12th year, and one of the biggest and most traditional bjj comps in California. The RGC USA, captained by Pedro Soriano, was represented this past weekend by 11 athletes in Huntington Beach, California.
The team took 4 medals this time, one gold and three silvers, but everybody did well showing lots of heart!

Here our results:

1. Eddie Parra – white belt juvenile light weight

2. Robbie Romero – orange belt 13 to 15 years old

2. Kevin Pesic – blue belt adult +214lbs

2. Kevin Velarde – purple belt adult feather weight