New promotions at RGC Polska

Our students Krystian Kwiecień (Silesia) and Jakub Kubiszewski (Wroclaw) were promoted this month. Krys became a brown belt in Raciborz two weeks ago, and since last Wednesday Kuba is the newest purple belt in Wroclaw.

With a higher belt comes always a bigger responsability, as more will expected and demanded from you. The brown belt is the last step before the black, so the expectations are even bigger.
Krystian is more than ready for it. He started BJJ in Raciborz in 2002, later moved to London and trained extensively at our club since early 2004. Back to his home country, he has graded on Sports Science, competed and won BJJ, Submission and Amateur Shooto matches, started clubs in Zawiercie, Lubliniec and Czestochowa, besides teaching sports to kids at his home town’s school and becoming a father of young Kasjan. His help was fundamental to establish our base in Silesia, not to mention that was him that first brought me to Poland to teach BJJ.

Bardzo pracowity as we say in polish language

Kuba finds time to train even though he is graduating in engineering, working as a doormen and going to London every summer to work. His responsability comes also from his surname (Juscelino Kubichek, JK, was one of the best presidents Brasil had, building Brasilia, our capital city, on the late 1950’s). Our own JK will sure help build our club stronger with his good technique and friendly manners.  

Wielkie Gratulacje (Huge Congratulations) to them both!

Soon pictures!

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!