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.

Updates

2009 has barely started but our team is keeping busy training and competing. In Poland we sent 5 students to a small tournament on the 10th of January, and came back with one gold and one bronze. Bernardo Serrini and Matteo Calamandrei are leading our italian squad in the Europeans this weekend. Our group will have between 10 and 15 athletes, and by next week we will report on their results.

We added two new links to our blogroll. RGC Bologna has been part of our network since Gianluca visited us in Brasil a few years ago, and RGC Sestri Levante joined us last year and is taking part in the monthly meetings conducted in Firenze (Florence). This training meetings were held once a week in January in order to raise up the level of our competitors in Lisbon, and we are planning to organise them in Poland as well.

Unfortunately we lost the precious contribution to the group of our student Steve Haydock in Surrey, England. Feeling isolated as the only club in England to be part of our network, he decided to join the Carlson Gracie Revolution team which is growing steadily in England and Ireland. Since Rodrigo Medeiros is a great friend of ours and his students in London are committed to the roots of BJJ and to the Carlson Gracie philosophy, we are confident that this will be a good union for them all. We wish the best luck to their plans and we are looking forward to joint-ventures and increased collaborations between our clubs. Steve did a great job while part of our association, and surely he will not be missed as we will keep collaborating with each other whenever it is practical.

And last but not least, lets not forget that in March 7th and 8th in Spain the European trials of the I BJJ World Professional Cup will be held, with the winners getting all expenses paid to fight in Abu Dhabi for the biggest cash prize in BJJ History.

Firenze and Ferrara

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.

RGC Livorno

Since I arrived in Livorno last week, I am taking the classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Yesterday the class was busier than usual, with 4 of our guys from Ferrara and Bologna, and the visit of 3 friends from Massa Carrara. Carrara is famous worldwide for its marble, but BJJ is picking up there too. In the class I taught 2 sweeps and later we drilled guard passing and defending.

Our club in Livorno is located inside the Popeye Club, owned by Riccardo Niccolini, a great freestyle wrestling coach that was placed 5th at the Olympic Games in Moscow 1980, before having a car accident that tore his leg muscles and prevented him from competing.

His passion for the sport, however, never faded, soon he started doing arm wrestling and won many titles including the World Championships. Later he was in the famous movie “Over the Top”, starred by Sylvester Stallone. Now he coaches one of the best freestyle wrestling teams in Italy and owns the Popeye Club. At his gym one can train Freestyle Wrestling, Boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Arm Wrestling and Olympic Weight Lifting.

Gianluca Boni drilling sweeps with Matteo Mena

 
Group picture from yesterday

 
Riccardo Niccolini in Moscow 80

Montana International Jiu Jitsu Cup

Modena, Italy. This Sunday, 30th of March, had one of the first BJJ tournaments in Europe organised with the help of the CBJJE. This new federation has demonstrated to be a partner of the athletes, rewarding their hard effort with money prizes and well structured competitions. This tournament was not different, and had the participation of Wendell Alexander, head coach of Nova Uniao and one of the responsibles for the CBJJE. Each of the 5 black belt divisions gave 500 euros to its winner. The fee was only 30 euros, compare it to the European Championships, that charges 80 euros and gives nothing but medals and t-shirts!

Our team had 13 people coming from La Spezia, Livorno, Ferrara and Bologna. It was my first time watching them fight, and everyone did so well, even the ones losing displayed good technique, fighting spirit, tenacity and respect for their opponents, making me very proud of them.

We made 3 champions and 2 third places, in a competition with over 160 people from many clubs from Italy, France, Switzerland and Poland. A special mention goes to my friend Yan Cabral, that won his fight scoring 20 points on his opponent, at the black belt class under 80 kgs.

Our results:

Matteo Tugnolli – Gold, white belt, -65 kgs
Ion Condei – Gold, white belt, -88kgs
Wolodymyr Katerynchyk – Gold, white belt, +88kgs
Cristian Gessi – 3rd place, white belt, -88kgs
Gianluca Boni – 3rd place, blue belt, -80kgs

Me, Wendell Alexander and Yan Cabral

Young Matteo Tugnolli passing guard

RGC Italia

RGC Italia

This week I arrived in Livorno, Italy, where my friend Bernardo Serrini lives and teaches. It is my seventh visit to this beautiful country, and there are lots of things to cheer about, like the growing number of participants in Livorno, Ferrara, La Spezia and Bologna, the seamless integration of all our students and their excellent results in competitions all over the country, as well as my better understanding of the language, which helps my classes and make me feel like home.

Tomorrow is Sunday and there will be a big tournament in Modena. It will be the first time I will coach them during a competition and a great opportunity to see them performing under pressure. Monday I will post full results and pictures of our team, but the year has started and our guys have done well so far in other comps. Results are posted below:

Naples BJJ Tournament – 9th of March

Ion Condei (white belt/RGC Bologna) 1st place at both open class and -88.3 kgs

ADCC Italy – 23rd of February

Matteo Menna (RGC Ferrara) – 2nd place, B Class, -67 kgs
Matteo Tugnoli (RGC Bologna) – 3rd place, B Class, -67 kgs

ADCC Italy – 13th of January

Bernardo Serrini (RGC Livorno) – 1st place, A Class, – 88kgs

Group picture in Livorno yesterday