Alessio de Liberti wins in NY and Hamburg

Our grappler Alessio de Liberti left Livorno, Italy to venture alone in the No Gi Pan-Ams last week in New York. His effort was not in vain, as he brought home the gold medal in the blue belt master division under 67kg.

No Gi Pan-Am Results (blue belt master feather)

1st: Alessio de Liberti – Rio Grappling Club
2nd: Alberto Robles – Renzo Gracie
3rd: Kevin Saboe – Kioto
3rd: Scott Vieira – Renzo Gracie

Not a person to sit down in the sofa after a win, Alessio went this weekend to Hamburg, Germany, fighting in a submission tournament with rules without points or time limit. He submitted 6 opponents to become the winner there, a great achievement only a week after the comp in NY.

We hope his feat inspires all our grapplers. Alessio always competes, in big and small tournaments, and his dedication is being paid with fantastic results.

ADCC 2009 Barcelona – Open Weight

The most important division was the last one to be held yesterday in Barcelona, confronting some of the best grapplers in the World for a prize of Us$ 40,000.00.

After winning their respective weights, Braulio Estima and Xande Ribeiro advanced to the finals, beating difficult opponents. Braulio defeated Marcelo Garcia and Vinicius Magalhaes, while Xande won Andre Galvao and Gunnar Nelson. The final match promised to be a battle to the end, but a shoulder injury forced Xande to give up.

Braulio Estima is the Absolute Champion of ADCC Barcelona 2009, a just reward for a fighting career that took him from Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil, to Birmingham, England, where he lives and teaches. This blog congratulates him and hopes that Braulio keeps fighting BJJ and Grappling, without leaving for MMA and its big money.

Absolute Results:
1. Braulio Estima – BRASIL
2. Xande Ribeiro – BRASIL
3. Vinicius Magalhaes – BRASIL
4. Gunnar Nelson – ICELAND

ADCC 2009 Barcelona – results

The most prestigious Grappling Tournament in the World, the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships is still happening in Barcelona, with the Male and Female Open Divisions scheduled to start soon. Here the results of the weight divisions:

-66kgs:

1. Rafael Mendes
2. Rubens Cobrinha
3. Ryan Hall

-77kgs:

1. Pablo Popovitch
2. Marcelo Garcia
3. Gregor Gracie

-88kgs:

1. Braulio Estima
2. Andre Galvao
3. David Avellan

-99kgs:

1. Xande Ribeiro
2. Gerard Rinaldi
3. Vinicius Magalhaes

+99kgs:

1. Fabricio Werdum
2. Roberto Cyborg
3. Jeff Monson

Superfight:
Jacare won against Robert Drysdale

Women’s -60kgs:

1. Luanna Alzuguir
2. Sayaka Shioda
3. Hillary Williams

Women’s +60kgs:

1. Hannette Staak
2. Penny Thomas
3. Cris Cyborg

Once again brazilian grapplers dominated the event, winning all weight divisions and the superfight. As soon as the Open Weight divisions end, we will publish their results.

Wishes for the New Year

As 2008 approaches its end, people around the World make their wishes for the starting year, and we are not exception. First we thank all our students all over the World for the great support in 2008, and congratulate them for the growth and excellent results in competitions, and praise our italian team.
Under the leadership of Bernardo Serrini and a strong group mentality, Italy has performed way above average, and they developed simple things we hope to see in all our clubs worldwide for 2009, like monthly meetings and a strong commitment to bring people together.
Enough said, lets make the Rio Grappling Club wishlist (the order is aleatory)!

1. To grow organically next year, with more students joining each one of our clubs and increase the size of our family;

2. To inprove our participation in BJJ and Grappling events worldwide, with even better results than in 2008;

3. To expand our presence in South Africa, and bring together to train with us, there and everywhere, people from different cultures, races and creeds, promoting integration, peace and understanding;

4. To see all our students sharing more information over the internet, and even travelling to other countries to train together;

5. To keep the mission of taking BJJ to the four corners of the World, travelling also to the Middle East, Eastern Europe and different parts of Asia;

6. To keep working hard at our HQ in Wroclaw, Poland, receiving World Class teachers for seminars and our students to train with us, bring up the technical level and unite the students socially as a group;

7. To improve communications between all our schools and clubs, promote our Facebook group and make better use of our blog;

8. To help organise the sport in Europe, supporting tournaments like The Catalunya Cup and do our owns in Poland and Italy with high standards and money prizes;

9. To promote Grappling as a way to achieve better health, and integration between body, mind and soul;

10. Above all, to see a World with less suffering, less inequality, less exploitation, less wars and financial greed, and more dialogue and understanding between people and nations (we do not breath only martial arts, after all)

Last but not least, we wish that everyone in 2009 become a better person than in 2008, using the martial arts as a way to achieve self control, self understanding and a better comprehension of the nature, trying to avoid conflicts and destructive attitudes.

We are facing a huge financial crisis, and in fact is a great opportunity for us all to understand that the most important aspects of our life are not related to money or material comfort. After all, we are only tourists in this beautiful blue planet, and our goals are not to hoard cash, but to live, to love, to learn and to leave a good legacy. Lets not forget that, and try to find happiness in ourselves, in our family, in our friends and in the things that money cannot buy.

A Healthy 2009 for us all!

South Africa – Cape of Storm Nationals results

This tournament happened on 2nd and 3rd of August in Cape Town, but only now we have full results from our team.

Marina Veronese – 2 golds (both the women’s Gi division -72kg and open weight);
Louise Leech – gold in the No Gi women’s division -72kg, silver in the No Gi open weight and bronze in the Gi -72kg;
Dennis Ovcina – 2 Golds (Gi and No Gi -75kg advanced), and 2 Bronzes (Gi and No Gi open weight);
Brandon Leech – 2 silvers (Gi and No Gi -68kg advanced);
Liam Cleland – gold (No Gi -100kg advanced);
Bradley Cossey – silver medalist (No Gi -75kg advanced).

Fantastic performance from our athletes, that more and more prove to be among the best grapplers in South Africa, where the sport is developing at a huge pace.

 Marina and Louise receiving gold and silver

Impressions from my 3 visits to South Africa

One year ago I packed my GI and took a plane from England to South Africa, without a hint of what was waiting for me there. Would there be any grappling at all? If so, what would be the level? Were those guys training like in Europe or North America? I did not know, but adventure is my middle name, so I decided to take a risk and went there for a month. If worse came to worst, at least I would surf Jeffreys Bay, one of my dreams since I started surfing, so I was amped anyway.