Igor Rodrigues in Cyprus

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

Latest news from Europa

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!