The First Trial for Abu Dhabi BJJ Pro 2010 will happen in the land of Oz.
The Abu Dhabi Pro Australasia will take place on Sunday, 15 November 2009 at Endeavour Sports High.
The Abu Dhabi Pro Australia/Australasia is proudly supported by Triple Bull, Nippy’s, Boost Mobile, Aerial 7, CJ Signs, Grapplingstore.com, Rhino Mouthguards, Little Corner Shop.
Abu Dhabi Pro Australia/Australasia Media Contact
Michael Tyrpenou
Mob: 0410211087
Email: michaelt@surfingnsw.com.au
Abu Dhabi Pro Australia/Australasia Event Director
John Shimooka
Mob: 0414585845
Email: john@consolidatedsports.com.au Abu Dhabi Pro Australia
The African Continent is the most isolated when it comes to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. One can find renowned brazilian coaches of BJJ in North America, Middle East, Asia, Australasia and Europe, as well as many competitions of all sizes, but in Africa the locals must do with what they have. Not many black belt travel often there, and the distance for them to travel is huge, so very seldom African fighters have the chance to train in Brasil or North America. I met some South Africans living in England and training BJJ there, but most of them don’t return home, which would contribute more substantially to the growth of the sport in their area.
When it comes to competition, the problems are even bigger. The distances between the major cities can only be covered by plane, offering another challenge to the fighters that must struggle with money in order to compete. So even competitions have mostly hometown crews entering them, not many people can afford flying from Luanda or Johannesburg to Cape Town and vice-versa to dispute medals.
Having read that, one would think that BJJ is pretty small in Africa, and the level is not really high. Nonsense! The local fighters have a very good grappling, the clubs are booming in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Luanda, as well as in other parts. All comes down to dedication, and after 4 trips to South Africa, I can say those guys are serious about grappling and committed to overcome the barriers.
So the importance of the Abu Dhabi African Trials to Africa is huge and cannot be underestimated. For the first time, a BJJ competition will be offering the chance to local fighters to qualify and have all expenses paid to compete in the most prestigious BJJ tournament in the World. Distributing over Us$ 148,000.00 to the competitors in the next main event, the Abu Dhabi BJJ Pro World Cup offers a real chance to 5 Africans to go compete against the BJJ elite next April in the UAE. This event will be a turning point to BJJ in Africa, allowing all practitioners to fight for the chance to represent their flag in the biggest professional BJJ competition.
This opportunity is only possible due to the generosity of the National Government of the United Arab Emirates, which will pay the flights, accommodation and grant Visas to the five African qualifiers, as well as others qualified through the same process around the World. This initiative is an effort of Carlos Santos and Fernando Paradeda, sponsored by H. H. Sheik Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyam, Patron of the World Professional Jiu Jitsu Cup.
We’d like to thank them for making it possible, as well as to our local crew in South Africa that is putting the pieces together to deliver a great tournament: Nathan Raaths, Sheryl Newman, Reinhardt Fourie, Jurgen Putter, Michal Shapiro, Stuart Rider and the Rio Grappling Club South Africa Crew that are contributing to bring this project alive.
5th of December will mark this important step towards including Africa in the map of Professional Jiu Jitsu, with the Trials happening in Johannesburg, and if all goes well, the idea of the organisers is to expand the number of qualifiers in future trials, opening even more the doors of Professional Jiu Jitsu to Africans and helping promote the sport all over the continent. We hope to have the full support of all the African Grappling community, because this is a project worth being involved with, one that will bring inclusion not only to South Africans but to the whole continent.
The World Trials to Abu Dhabi BJJ Pro World Cup 2010 have defined most dates, with the first tournament happening in Australia and the last ones in Japan and Belgium. Europe, Brasil and North America will have more than one trial.
Check all the dates below:
Australia – 15th of November, 2009
New Zealand – 21th of November, 2009
South Africa – 5th of December, 2009
England – 12th of December, 2009
Brasil Rio – 17th of January, 2010 (TBC)
USA East – 31st of January, 2010
USA West – 13th of February, 2010 (TBC)
Canada – 06th of March, 2010
Brasil South – 14th of March, 2010 (TBC)
Belgium – 20th of March, 2010
Japan – 20th of March, 2010
Finals in Abu Dhabi – 15th, 16th and 17th of April, 2010
Jacare means Gator in portuguese, and like the reptile, Ronaldo always go for the kill when fighting. Here he shows us a nice choke from the back using his own lapel. Simple and effective!
Facebook has been growing stronger than Myspace and others, due to a better and simpler interface, and a few months ago we decided to join it and start a group to share information, pictures, videos and discuss things important matters to us. Now we are adding videos of techniques, and invite our readers to join it and participate.
One must first join Facebook and add our group.
Here at the RGC we are very fond of drills. we believe that they play a very important part of our sport, developing the fundamental moves and educating the body to fight on the ground. We found this Youtube video extracted from the Arte Suave DVD, where Andre Galvao shows exercises and drills especific for BJJ done at his club.
Andre is one of the best fighters on the scene now and after claiming the World’s title again, he got an amazing third place at the open weight division, fighting guys a lot heavier than himself. He surely knows what he is talking about and we hope that this video can help you train better too!
Mariusz Koziej received in Wroclaw last monday his black belt in our opening class. He was the fourth polish to reach the ranks and the first in our association. I had a very busy week and haven’t had the time to write a report yet.
Those are the pictures, soon I will write the whole story…
This is my last week coaching in Livorno before I fly to Wroclaw in Poland, and we are having great sessions with our local students as well as many visitors.
Wednesday was not different and we had Matteo and Gambe driving from Ferrara, and the brazilian black belt Thier Tavares, who came with his student Davide all the way from Arezzo.
I am pleased to introduce Thier to our guys in Tuscany, as he moved from Brasil 8 months ago and is still adjusting to life in Europe. He is a very humble and down to earth person and very technical, and trained in Rio de Janeiro, the craddle of BJJ.
Tonight is our last class until summer and we expect some of our friends from Firenze to come down, as well as our students from Ferrara.
Next week I will start the classes in Wroclaw and I am really amped because we will introduce No GI and Beginner classes and start weekly focused programs elaborated by myself that will speed up the learning proccess.
This is not a marketing hype, is a new concept on BJJ classes that I developed that can only work inside a group with advanced students and must be carried on for 6 months in order to be really effective. After 15 years of teaching experience, I feel very confortable to say that this will really work.
I do not want to explain too much or else people will be copying that elsewhere. One must come and train with us for a few weeks at least to really grasp what is going on. Anyways, since I have not arrived in Wroclaw yet, I am posting group pictures from my last visit in 2007.
One of the most talented fighters to appear in the late 90’s was Margarida. His real name being Fernando Pontes, he was given this funny nickname that means “Daisy” in english due to coloured braces he had on his teeth when started BJJ. His skills as a fighter made him feared by his opponents for his explosive game, relentless attacks and an appetite for submissions.
The funny nickname stuck but did not prevent him from being one of the best fighters of his generation, winning the most important BJJ tournaments and submitting big names like Fabio Gurgel and Saulo Ribeiro with chokes.
I have posted this video in our blog before, but it was not working from YouTube anymore, so I deleted the post. Today I found the same video on Daily Motion and now I hope it is not taken out again. Watch it before it is too late!
This rare vintage video features Carlos and Helio Gracie demonstrating BJJ in the 50’s, the originals were filmed in 16mm and it is indeed very interesting to watch.
Thanks to our friends at the forums of the Choke Academy in Denmark, I got the link to this real nice video of Grand Master Helio Gracie showing the basics of self defence in the Daily Motion.
As part of my visit to RGC Italia, this weekend I went to Firenze and Ferrara to teach seminars, and as usual, the classes covered specific topics. Saturday was time for the Firenze BJJ’ers to get more familiar with guard passes. I started defining important concepts on posture and fundamentals of opening the guard, and afterwards we worked on stand-up passes, from the most basic to more advanced ones. We had 22 people coming from Firenze, Bologna, Perugia, Cesena and La Spezia. In the end everyone sparred working on guard passes and defense.
On Sunday in Ferrara, the topic was sweeps when our opponent stands up. We worked closed and open guard sweeps, and in the end I trained with all of our students before grading some of them.
Matteo Tugnolli received his blue belt after his stunning performance in Modena (see post Montana International JJ Cup) and Matteo Mena got his second stripe on the blue belt. Stripes on the white belt were awarded to Ion Condei, Cristian Gessi, Simoni, Vlad and Enrico, signaling to them they are too very close to change belts.
Check this quick video showing Daniel Niemeyer receiving his black belt from his teacher Robinson Machado at our club in Cabo Frio, RJ, two weeks ago. Congratulations Dan, and keep it up!
Two weeks ago, in Barcelona, my friend Rafael Haubert, with great support from his partner Jordi Fite and all the crew at BTT Barcelona, put up a great show. The first Catalunya Vulkan had good prizes (400 euros for the black belt winner, and Vulkan GIs for every champion), great fights and a superb organization. The white and blue belt divisions were run on the Saturday, and the purple, brown and black belts fought on the Sunday.
I was reffing throughout the comp, so I was in a privileged position to watch many memorable fights. In the blue belt, Alberto Gonzales from Sevilla looked very sharp, submitting his 2 opponents with chokes from his guard, always in the first minute. Among the purples, huge props to Pablo Cabo, from Malaga. This kid fights like a professional, he knows when to attack and when to rest, and knows how to use the rules to secure great wins against good opponents in one of the busiest divisions. I won’t surprised if he carries on and win big tournaments in Brasil in the near future.
In the brown and black belts, it was the brazilians that scored big time, with Mathias Ribeiro (Fabricio Werdun Madrid) taking the brown belt open division. Yan Cabral and Paulo Sergio shared the money prize in the black belt open after defeating no less than 4 guys from Gracie Barra in order to take home the 400 euros.
Yan Cabral and Paulo Sergio are living in France where they have clubs in Montpelier and Toulouse, and came well trained to score big time victories that left no doubt they were the names of the event. The structure of the event was better than the one I found at the European last January, with electronic scoreboards, a great venue and the crew worked well to deliver the comp without compromising the schedule at any time. All the brown belt and black belt fights had 3 refs instead of one, avoiding mistakes and making clear that it can be done everywhere if there is a will to make things right.
Some results:
Brown belt open
1. Mathias Ribeiro – Fabricio Werdun Madrid
2. Rogent Lloret – Gracie Barcelona
3. Rodrigo Rosario – BTT
3. Waldinei de Almeida – BTT
Gianluca Boni (RGC Italy, Bologna and Ferrara) has sent me results from the latest grappling comp in Italy, the V INTERNATIONAL OLIMPIC SUBMISSION WRESTLING TOURNAMENT. Two of our students got silver medals on this No Gi tournament held on the 25th of November in the city of Modena.
Names and divisions are listed below:
Pier Andrea Petazzi RGC Bologna -78Kg C Class
Ion Condei RGC Bologna -88Kg C Class
Pedro Soriano sent us results of his students in the latest BJJ competition in the West Coast.
On Nov. 3rd and 4th, they competed in the California Classic of BJJ & No Gi.
Team:
Gabriel Amezcua – blue belt, light heavy weight;
John Dillon – white belt, light heavy weight;
Mychal Clark – white belt, super heavy.
Results:
Sat 3rd BJJ:
Johnny Dillon – 2nd, 4 matches, 2 submissions.
Mychal Clark, – 1st, 6 matches (all by submission).
Sun 4th NoGi:
Mychal Clark – 2nd, five matches, 3 subs.
Cyprus is a beautiful country in the Mediterranean Sea. This island has historically been controleed by Greece or Turkey in the past, but now is an independent country and part of the European Union. A great place to spend vacations due to its mild climate and beautiful landscapes, it is also developing its BJJ.
I was contacted a few months ago by Andreas Perentos and Panicos Aravis, coaches in Limassol, but my hectic schedule didn’t allow me to visit them, so I asked my student Igor Rodrigues if he was willing to leave Brasil for 2 months and stay there coaching them. Igor is an excellent competitor, he has won twice the World and Brazilian championships and has a great personality, so I reckoned he was the perfect guy for this job. He has arrived on the 1st of November, and as soon as he started teaching, I received an email from Andreas telling me they were very glad with his classes and a detailed report on his second class there. Read below:
“Our second training session took place on Friday 2nd of November at 9 pm. Friday night classes are more quiet-private with approximatly 8 people participating the training. After the warmup we drilled lots the basic armbar from guard and we then moved into omoplata attacks. We drilled the sleeves grips control and then the setup to the omoplata attack (not the actual finishing). From that position he taught us two ”sick” sweeps, one of which I hadn’t seen before. The next technique was the triangle arising from the same sleeves control. Honestly, I have never received before such a thorough demonstration and detailed instruction of the triangle choke! The final technique was a counter to the triangle, basically a way to keep good posture and set-up the stack with a very simple grip. We then sparred for about 15 minutes and then wrapped up the class.” - Andreas Perentos
This last 3 weeks have been busier than ever. Our roosterweight champion Igor Rodrigues has arrived in Cyprus and will stay 2 months teaching there. We spoke after his arrival and he is very optimistic with the growing of the sport in that beautiful island. As for myself, I left Poland after visiting our clubs, going to Lublin, Bydgoszcz, Raciborz, Zawiercie and Gliwice before facing a marathon of flights. I flew to Malmo, Sweden and catched a train to Denmark on the 5th of November.
My friend JP, head coach of the Choke Academy, invited me for a weekend and we did a workshop together. Class was nicely packed and some of his students came from all corners of that country. The next Monday was time to catch another flight to Athens, where I gave BJJ and No Gi classes for the whole week. Kristos and Aris, students of Vinicius Draculino, have a new gym with a huge matted area and a nicely built cage.
It was my 4th time in Greece and although the weather wasn’t that good, I had great time and noticed that the commitment of the Athenians is bearing fruits, their students have improved a lot. Purple belt Dimitris, that was with me in Brasil a year ago, is competing everywhere and recently won weight and open divisions in a London comp, submitting his opponents in 5 of his 6 matches. He is going to the Hungarian Open and I won’t be surprised if he does it again.
While I was in Greece, I received great news from California and Italy, where our guys competed again and brought some medals. I will write another post with all the results later today.
My last weekend was hectic with 4 flights and many connections, from Athens I flew to Spain, going through Milano, Barcelona and Malaga before arriving in Sevilla on Saturday. No time to rest there, I had a seminar Sunday to my friends Andre and Alberto and their students. BJJ is still little in this part of Spain but this little group is so enthusiastic that this is going to change very soon. On the same day, I took a train to Madrid and flew out of Europa to arrive in South Africa the next morning, very tired but relieved that the marathon was over and everything went well.
I will stay in South Africa for 3 weeks more and soon will post here sharing my experience in this amazing country. Stay tuned!
We had 52 competitors in ten divisions, most winners had to fight 3 times to get the gold, the atmosphere was cordial and inviting, there were absolute no injuries, no complains about results, and the comp run ahead of schedule. At 3:20 pm we did the medal ceremony ending the tournament.
I’m very happy with the outcome of this competition and looking forward to the next one.
Cheers to everyone that helped doing this a brilliant day.
Special props to James Mc Intyre, Paul Mc Veigh, Guy Ramsal, Dr. Maeve Rodgers, Doug MacMaster, Steve Mainsy, Mark Curry and Cougar for all the work!
And special thanks to our students and friends in Glasgow, Ayr, Kilmarnock and Dunfermline that came forward to compete and support us, to Ricky Young and all the guys from Edinburgh (Including Polish and Russian), both teams from Aberdeen (AMAG and SBG), Bolton lads and the Irishman. This comp would not be the same without you. So hope 2 see everyone around for the II Caledonian BJJ Open in 2008.
Full results:
U66kg White Belt Division
Winner: Colin Smyth (Glasgow)
Runner-Up: Pete Menga (Bolton)
u73kg White Belt Division
Winner: Neil Cushnie (Aberdeen)
Runner-Up: Kevin Rose (Aberdeen)
u81kg White Belt Division
Winner: Graham Cleland (Glasgow)
Runner-Up: Richard Thomson (St Andrews)
u90kg White Belt Division
Winner: Jason Evans (Glasgow)
Runner-up: Cris Gudajc (Aberdeen/Poland)
90kg+ White Belt Division
Winner: Kris Millar (Ayr)
Runner-up: Stephen “Bambam” Peebles (Glasgow)
u66kg Blue Belt Division
Winner: Omar Rashid (Edinburgh)
Runner-up: Neil Barker (Glasgow)
u73kg Blue Belt Division
Winner: Craig Ali (Edinburgh)
Runner-up: Mark Curry (Belfast)
u81kg Blue Belt Division
Winner: Marcin Korbel (Edinburgh/Poland)
Runner-up: Paul Hornsey (Edinburgh)
u90kg Blue Belt Division
Winner: Brian Thomson (Edinburgh)
Runner-up: Antoine Damore (Aberdeen/France)
90kg+ Blue Belt Division
Winner: Stephen “JewBoy” Fitzgerald (Glasgow)
Runner-up: Stuart McKay (Edinburgh)
Saturday 6th of October, 2007. It’s three in the afternoon and I leave the train that brought me from London Victoria. Those are familiar grounds to me. I started coming to Caterham in the end of 2003, just a month after arriving in England. At that time he was a very talented blue belt, that won the London Open later in 2004, and already coaching a enthusiastic group of 10 to 15 people with a core group of 5 guys closer to him, plus many kids learning grappling, striking and self defence.
The Applied Fighting Systems joined the Rio Grappling Network and while I lived in London I went there several times, coaching, joining Steve’s classes and training with the crew. After moving out of the country, I keep coming here whenever I am in London, and I can tell from my observations that the group in Surrey is constantly improving its technical quality and the group is growing, with a diversity of people from all ages. The core group now has at least ten people and the classes have sometimes 30 people without counting kids of all ages, keeping the mats full and the atmosphere is bright, everyone motivated to learn and no agressiveness is shown, there is a lot of respect and camaraderie, things I see that are very important no matter what you train or do.
As a leader of this group, Steve has commited himself for a very long time, he has been training and coaching for nine years non stop, putting a lot of time and effort in making this happen.
On a sidenote, this month is the ninth anniversary of me receiving my black belt, and now I awarded my first black belt outside Brasil, after making Steve work through all the students (22) in a progression from white to brown belts. After he was tired, I jumped in his neck
This training was not meant to be a test as I knew already that Steve Haydock was already a black belt, with skills, attributes and knowledge a genuine black belt needs. The idea was to make it a day not to be forgotten, and nothing like a hard workout to remind you how far you have come since the white belt days.
Cheers to everyone present at that day, our guests from Carlson Gracie team, Dave Lucas that came from Switzerland specially to this event and congratulations to Matt Peters, Dave Pawan and Jamil Soroudji that received their purple belts.
Posted by atalla 
Posted by atalla 
Posted by atalla 
