San Diego Camp w/ Free Rollers

Greetings from San Diego USA! (9-21 Oct 2017)

I’m detouring from detailing my adventures traveling and training around the world to bring you a special article about my time on a training camp in San Diego with a bunch of crazy Australians. I last left off leaving Russia for Ukraine, and I will get to that shortly, but this camp I went on was a special time and I need to cover before it becomes too late, which is already is.

Open Guard and the Free Rollers

Let’s begin with explaining who set up the camp and how I got involved. Open Guard is a website with the focus on bringing together the BJJ scene in Australia, with a number of writers posting articles on the events taking place there. They feature different competitors and gyms and review BJJ gear from time to time and have some good articles about all sorts of BJJ related topics. Part of Open Guard is the Free Rollers community, the people and gyms who just like to roll with whoever, whenever, without any club drama. The idea is similar to the BJJ Globetrotters community, but centered on the Australian BJJ scene. Open Guard and Free Rollers have been around for a few years now and I’ve had the pleasure of watching them grow from reading the first few articles and seeing the pictures from the very first Free Rollers Outdoor Open Mat. Being a part of the first Free Rollers camp was an honour and a lot of fun, but how did I manage to get involved with them?

Luke Docherty

I first met Luke over 3 years ago when I first started posting to the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group about my eventual plans to travel and train around the world for a year. Luke was one of the first guys to reply to me and invite me out to his place and we’ve been good friends ever since. You may recognize the name if you keep up with the Jiu-Jitsu Times articles as Luke is a usual contributor, including this awesome interview on my milestones we did. Luke and I have a lot in common, Serving in the Navy, being obsessed with BJJ and a healthy sense of inappropriate humour, we have often made jokes about being long lost brothers. He’s also part of the driving force behind Open Guard and was the one who put together the Free Rollers camp. Luke bounced some ideas off me about the camp and would keep me updated on it. I was always planning on making it to Australia to meet Luke and travel around and see the mystical Land Down Under that I’ve only ever learned about from shows like Crocodile Dundee and The Crocodile Hunter (Or Luke’s favourite: Precilla Queen of the Desert). Meeting the guys and hanging out together in San Diego just seemed like a great idea, both as an awesome setting for us to meet before heading back to Australia and an awesome way for me to visit San Diego on this journey. Although adding the Free Rollers camp to the Odyssey timeline meant adding a lot of traveling, and extra expenses, it was also an adventure I didn’t want to miss.

Luke and I were happy to be on a ship again.

Free Rollers San Diego Camp

Now that I’ve filled you in on the back stories to everyone let’s get to the actual camp! Everyone but me was from the same club back in Perth Australia so I was the outsider at first. Having Jiu-Jitsu traveling and an odd sense of humour (and me enjoying their ability to call everyone ‘Kent’) we all quickly warmed up and become one close group training twice a day, exploring San Diego and generally getting up to no good. From the start I could see guys had a lot of steam to blow off and were really excited about the trip, there may have been a tiny bit more partying than I first expected, but that’s the difference between saving to go on a training vacation and backpacking around the world for a year. All my steam was gone, I am just going with the flow and trying to balance training with exploring so I don’t do too much at once and end up burnt out or injured. These guys could go hard, both on and off the mats, and just rest once they got back to Australia. I had my hands full these 10 days we hung out and trained and partied together. While the nights usually ended with the guys having a few cold ones and getting a little wild (there was a night of midnight ‘No-Gi’ wrestling in their underwear that took place in the front room. Where I sleep. While trying to sleep) we all put in quite a bit of training throughout this camp. As the saying goes, work hard, play hard, or in Australia they say “We’re not here to fuck spiders!” that actually became the camp motto, I’m still waiting for the shirt.

Andy, on the right, ended up with cauliflower ear the size of Zack's (center) little fist. I was the only one with experience draining them.

Luke, as the spearhead of Free Rollers, had everything set up for this trip. He found an affordable Airbnb near the gyms, set up all the day and evening’s activities, like going to a college football game or to the USS Midway, and got us a group deal to train the whole time at the University of Jiu-Jitsu with none other than Xande Ribeiro (Saulo was back seeing family in Brazil). I has happy to have a destination that literally all I had to worry about was just getting the ticket there, I didn’t have to worry about sending e-mails or contacting the gyms on Facebook, or finding a place to stay, I just showed up and followed along with the guys. The day we all showed up to San Diego I got in a bit later than they did. They all arrived in LA and drove down while I took the long way with many connections and after a delay managed to visit Kurt Osiander’s gym for my 100th club visit before arriving in San Diego. Once I got into town and we were all settled in we stopped by Uni-JJ to say hi and set up our week long training passes. That’s when we met Gustavo Dias, a Brazilian tank of a black belt and one of the instructors for the day classes at the gym, as well as one of the nicest guys I’ve met. Throughout our stay Gustavo gave us so many tips on places to eat at and sights to see. Basically he gave us the necessary tools for the perfect camp: Jiu-Jitsu, beach and food.

My 100th club, with Kurt Osiander.

We went out for supper that night at a near by ‘Buffalo Wild Wings’, we would become regulars there during this trip as most our suppers were held there while breakfast was had at the all-day breakfast place just a block away. We were creatures of habit but when you know what you like, why bother spending time looking for new places everyday when we’re on a tight schedule. Quite often we would make plans for the next day’s classes and activities while eating baskets of chicken wings and watching the sports highlights on the TV’s. There was always an over zealous “I’m hitting all the class tomorrow!” usually by Luke, that never panned out, and a comment about checking out other clubs since there are so many high caliber gyms to choose from in San Diego. Although we mostly trained at University of Jiu-Jitsu we did venture out to other clubs during our stay and one day the boys managed to hit up the Atos BJJ HQ for a weekend open mat without me.

Buffalo Wild Wings had a hot wings challenge that Charlie valiantly attempted.

Lunch at the Guahan Grill, tasty Chamorro food! That reminds me, awesome food and awesome Jiu-Jitsu, I must make it to Guam!

The ocean Cafe, amazing Acai bowls, sandwiches and protein shakes. Also the usual hang out spot for a lot of the Ribeiro guys.

During the day in between classes, or when we took some rest and only attended the evening class, we would pile into the SUV and drive around, hitting up a beach or pier to walk along and enjoy the sights.

One day a few of us made it down the Mall of Americas (or ‘Las Americas‘) at the US/Mexico boarder where we spent a bit more money than we all planned, especially at the Under Armor outlet which had pretty much everything at 50% off. I also ended up getting a custom Panda’s Odyssey ball cap while everyone else bought new Vans with the ‘buy one, get 50% off a second pair’ sale (Note to self: Next time buy new Vans!)

The new Panda hat!

Trump's wall, making America 'great' again...

Spent too much money, celebrating by eating too much food.

Of course we also spent an afternoon touring the USS Midway, and old Aircraft carrier that is now a museum and has all sorts of cool military paraphernalia at their souvenir shop, as well as both the flight deck and hanger bay full of old fighter jets you can climb in and take pics of in and flight sims you can try and fly.

The football game was an adventure I think anyone visiting USA should go on. The sports culture around American football is unique, with the tailgate parties and BBQ’s throughout the parking lot. The game itself, with all the cheer leading squads all around the field and the marching create a whole show to watch rather than just a sporting match. It’s quite surreal watching everything going on.

University of Jiu-Jitsu

Our first class at University of Jiu-Jitsu was the morning class at 7am, I believe that was the only morning class I made it out to. I don’t remember which class he taught but that day we met Victor Barreto, another tank of a Brazilian, like Gustavo, with the added  feature of towering over everyone. If you’ve watched the ‘BJJ Library Challenge‘ Victor was the winner of that challenge so it was pretty cool to watch that series then actually see him teaching our class. The whole week went on like this, showing up to class and meeting someone we’ve seen before online, or would be seeing a lot more of, like Casey Hellenberg who just competed in the EBI 14 ‘The Absolutes’. For the morning class there were only maybe 3 other people showed up for it and I could see the guys were all pretty nervous about their first time training in Uni-JJ. I guess maybe since I have traveled all this past year and walked onto so many mats it wasn’t as big a deal for me, I was more excited then nervous. Or maybe since the morning class was smaller they were all worried about being in the spotlight under Gustavo and Victor as the new guys, which in that case I was also a bit worried. Our fears were smashed away once we were done the warm up and drilling techniques, all that mattered was training the details. That’s one thing that is consistent through all of the Ribeiro instructors, the attention to detail and the emphasis on control. As in intimidating as Gustavo and Victor were they were great at teaching those points and seeing any adjustments we needed to make throughout our class with them.

Group photo with Victor, towering over us.

Finally got a picture with Gustavo on the last day.

The Wednesday night ‘Library’ class is where they film the class to use for instructionals on the BJJ Library, it was taught by Xande Ribeiro who was just coming back from his impressive run at the ADCC Worlds. This class was packed, the evening classes are always busy, with the count somewhere in the 30’s or 40’s, but Wednesday was especially busy and with the camera man there it there was an electric energy in the gym. Xande showed us basic moves all night, nothing special to the unknowing viewer, just basic armbar set ups from the closed guard. The very same moves and details he used to tap out world class competitors at the ADCC’s. Not so basic after all. The details he gave us were stellar, with a big emphasis on control and contact throughout all movement, once you had that arm it was your the entire time. Making the basic technique we all learn in our first days of starting BJJ into a world class, black belt level, competition winning technique. It was amazing being in Xande’s class, it’s like his presence just adds more energy to everyone training. Even during the week in classes he wasn’t teaching, if Xande was in the gym everyone stepped it up a notch. Xande himself was a great guy to talk to, welcoming us into the gym at the start of class and telling everyone to look after us. He was intimidating be around at first though, with his stance of constantly rolled back shoulders and open arms, like he’s ready to shoot for a double leg take down at any second. It made you hesitate walking up and saying hello, but he was always friendly and chill with everyone. Training there all week was absolute blast. While there’s tons of gyms to choose from in San Diego you really must drop by for at least one class.

the Free Rollers and Xande.

10th Planet San Diego

One night I got a few of the guys to come along with me to another gym to get a completely different style of rolling in and see grappling from an all new perspective. We piled into the SUV and drove across the city, which in itself is an adventure if you’ve never driven in San Diego before, and ended up at 10th Planet San DiegoRichie ‘Boogeyman’ Martinez runs the classes there and man does he spread the love at that gym, such a warm welcoming place! From mis-reading the schedule we got there just as class was ending and had an hour to wait before the next class started. We sat and watched people train, like Liz Carmouche (the very first female fighter to walk into the UFC cage and Ronda Rousey’s first opponent) hit the pads. As people starting showing up for the next class they would come introduce themselves to us one by one, everyone was really friendly and we felt very welcomed, making this introduction to 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu a lot easier for the guys. Once class started and we got into drilling techniques Richie walked us down a rabbit hole of Rubber Guard set ups and chained it into the ‘Gogo-Clinch’ a move from rubber guard that incorporates the leg over the shoulder and under chin of the Gogoplata with the C-clamped scissoring arms of a No-Gi baseball bat choke to make the most hellish choke I’ve seen and experienced. At first we were all watching and thinking ‘Smoke another one bro, there’s no way I’m getting the rubber guard let alone finishing this technique’ but by the end of the class, with Boogey’s awesome guidance we were all able to drill this technique with only minor difficulties.

Just so happened to have UFC fighter Jesse Taylor in class with us as well.

The rolling at the end of class was by the far the best part, I had my experience rolling with 10th Planet guys already and knew of the black magic to expect, but the other guys were going in practically blind. After the first roll I remember walking up to them and seeing their eyes the widest they had been this whole trip, just about popping out of their heads “Man, that was amazing! I didn’t know what was going on, I got wrapped all up and twisted and tapped but he didn’t muscle me!” 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu is indeed a different way of moving and manipulating the body, and being at the home of one of the foremost innovators to 10th Planet you can rested assured we were shown some really different shit during those rolls. After class we were all sitting in the SUV in the parking lot trying to figure out how to get back to the house and where to grab food when Richie pulls next to us “Hey guys, you want somewhere good to eat?” he asked, and then proceeded to tell us where to find the coolest Mexican food place in San Diego. “I’d love to come with you guys but I got to cut weight for EBI next week” he adds like it’s just another day at the job. We made our way to the restaurant and we were not let down. They whole place is done up as a tacky flamingo bar inspired Lucha Libre shrine with signed photos of great Lucha wrestlers all over the walls and masks encased in the seats. They even had a ring at the back that was set up with a table for private parties. It was a perfect place to end off our awesome night. We’ll have to go back with everyone next time, and hopefully Boogey can join us this time!

Richie is the niceist guy, totally not the scary Boogeyman we all watched on EBI.

Lucha Libre Taco shop, I would try to come here at once a month if I lived in San Diego. And I know a few people who would love to have a birthday party there.

Victory MMA

Another gym we ended up dropping by for a class was Victory MMA. It wasn’t in the plans at first as it seemed a lot of the head instructors were away, and the guys just wanted to train at Uni JJ, but then we dropped by a cryotherapy place that was just across the street from the gym. As it happens the guys running it, Keeling and Bryan, were both black belts from Victory. We would drop by Chill’N Out quite often, at least one person would be going for cryo each day, and during our time hanging out there they would always mention how they would love to have us over for a class. Finally, after feeling guilty of these guys treating us so well and us not dropping by, we decided to go train with them on the weekend. We were not disappointed. They were just as fun to train with as they were to hang out with while we froze our balls off in their cryo chamber. Bryan ran the class that day and started with working functional movements as as warm up. One person sitting in open guard as you worked your footwork around his legs, triangle footwork drills, zig-zags in and out, hopping over, all sorts of movement. Let me say that Bryan is a spider monkey and makes the movement look way too easy, I was out of breath just watching him demonstrate.

Getting our freeze on at Chill'N Out.

 

I was teamed with a giant of a white belt and neither of us were in the mood to try and simulate Bryan’s Jack Russel-like movement but we did get along drilling quite well. Keeling and Bryan made sure to split us Free Rollers up so that we were training with guys from the gym so we got meet the club. Even in rolling we weren’t allowed to roll with each other, which was good since we didn’t travel half way around the world just to roll with the same teammates and by this point I had rolled with them all anyways. It was a lot of fun, which Bryan always made a point of telling us is his main goal for each class, training and rolling with the crew there in a relaxed setting. Everyone was pretty laid back and welcoming of visitors and I’m sure the guys each had a few questions asked about their travels and visiting San Diego during class like I did. I’m glad we finally made it over to see the Victory guys before the end of out trip. 

Fun class, Thanks Bryan and Keeling and the rest of the Victory MMA guys!

By the end of the 10 days we were tired, bodies beaten and heads full of all sorts of new techniques, and ready to head (back) to Australia. I’ve got to say thank you to Luke for setting this camp up and of course thanks to all the clubs and people who welcomed us during this adventure. It was one of those experiences legends are made of, and I’m pretty sure by the end of the trip we were all legends for one thing or another, weather we want the world to know what that is is another story all together. When it was time to leave we split up on our ways back to Perth Australia. I had a flight out of San Diego and 30+ hours of connections and flights while the guys headed to LA for one last night, where they decided to finally track down Zack’s man-crush he had been Instagram stalking all week, ADCC champ Gordan Ryan. I’m sorry I missed that event and can’t elaborate on it but I heard it ended hilariously. Anyways, I highly recommend joining Luke and guys on the next Free Rollers Camp, which I hear is already being planned and has a lot of interest, both from Australia and the US so keep watch on Open Guard for updates. I know I’ll be watching and hoping to meet with them again, in the meantime my next article will pick up where I last left off on the Odyssey: Kiev Ukraine!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Episode 4: The BJJ Globetrotter of the year, Robert Barker

In this episode I talk with Robert Barker who has visited 100 academies around the world this year and won the “BJJ Globetrotter of the year” award.

Hawaii – Maui, Oahu and Jiu-Jitsu

So, the time had come for the last stage of the trip, we had planned from the start that we were going to do a stop in Hawaii on the way back to relax…. and train?. Leaving the mainland, I was a little disappointed that we were on the last leg of the trip but also a little relieved as living and training as a family for almost 6 months out of suitcases was starting to get a bit tiring.

Sea Cave

Both Lilly and Kobe couldn’t stop asking questions about what we were going to do, can we go to the beach? can we go to a volcano? will we see a dolphin?? It was driving us nuts the whole way over on the plane. We had planned to spend a few days on Maui before heading over to Oahu, when we finally landed we took a quick tour of the car park as I had managed to get us all on the wrong bus for our car hire. Finally, on the right bus and our car picked up we headed south to Kihei where we were staying for this stop over. We dropped of our stuff and headed straight to the beach to watch the sunset, it was spectacular!

Sunset over Pipeline

Haleakala Crater

As we only had a short time on Maui our first two days we spend in full tourist mode. We headed around to the Haleakalā National Park and hiked into Waimoku falls. Just the drive around to the park was an adventure on the skinny winding roads and one lane bridges. We headed up to the top of Haleakala Crater and checked out the crazy view and clouds that built up around the summit. We also hit the beach everyday in the evening where we saw a lot of turtles swimming in the shallows.

Waimoku falls

Awesome beaches

Random waterfalls

We decided to head to Maui Jiu-Jitsu for training, we arrived a little early so headed down the road to check out the big waves at Hookipa Beach Park then headed to the midday NoGi class. It was good to get back on the mats after having a couple of days off. I had some great rolls there with the guys and girls as did Dee. Straight after class we headed to the beach for a swim before the kids started at 3pm, this was the life!!! We headed back and both Lilly and Kobe jumped into the kid’s classes. They struggled a little in the warm up as it was one of the toughest they have had to completed yet and they had blown a heap of energy at the beach.

Kids training at Maui Jiu-Jitsu

Getting NoGi in on Maui

The next morning, we flew to Honolulu on Oahu, the weather forecast was looking rainy in a couple of days, so we jumped in our hire car and headed up the east coast along some of the most amazing beaches. We ended up handing out at Kailua Beach for much of the first two days. We also headed up to check out Pipeline where the Billabong pro had been delayed due to the dangerous conditions, this didn’t stop a large crowd forming to watch the massive waves.

big waves

Honolulu was definitely more touristy and packed than Maui, we for sure liked the vibe of Maui better. The next three days we planned on training everyday along with sight seeing first stop was a hike to the top of Diamond Head a extinct volcano crater near where we were staying. It was quite a good hike and the view was amazing, the place was packed though as it’s a tourist hot spot. We managed to power up and down with ease as by now we had done a shit load of hiking. A lot of people were struggling though as it can be a little deceiving just how steep it gets in some areas. After our hike we headed to Caveirinha Jiu Jitsu, we had read about this place on the globetrotter forum as a great place to train. They were right!! We had an amazing time with  Caveirinha and his team. Both Lilly and Kobe did two classes in a row and Dee and I did Advanced Gi and then straight into NoGi. The culture at that place was awesome and we highly recommend stopping in if you visit Hawaii.

Birds chasing some dude haha

Caveirinha Jiu Jitsu

The next day we headed to the Dole Plantation, and completed the maze in about 21min …. There may have been a little short cut taking but we had a super fun time. The “pineapple express” train tour was all great as it took us all around the plantation. We grabbed a pineapple soft serve ice cream which both Lilly and Kobe swear was the best Ice cream they have ever had. We then headed straight back into Honolulu to head to Gracie Technics Jiu-Jitsu. There Friday night session is basically just rounds which was great even though I was feeling a little flat. Probably because all I had for Lunch was that ice cream hahaha. Everyone there was super nice, and we had a cool time with them.

Couple of heads

Gracie Technics

For our last day we headed to Island Jiu-Jitsu who have recently become Atos Honolulu. We arrived for the kid’s class which was absolutely packed! Both Lilly and Kobe worked on their sit up sweep to triangle transition which is something that Lilly has been doing for a while on this trip, but Kobe struggled a little with the technique. They both had a blast in the rolling part of the class which they both can’t wait for every class.

Island Jiu-Jitsu / Atos Honolulu

Dee and I both did the midday class which consisted of several drills and then rounds. We both had some great rolls and felt really welcome there. This would be our last stop for training on the trip, The final total of academies across the USA we trained at was 32 we drove through 27 states during the trip. After training it was a weird feeling knowing that there wasn’t anymore training and that we would soon be back in Australia. We headed back to our Airbnb to start packing for the long trip back to Western Australia.

-Woody

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San Francisco and the Ralph Gracie Academy

We left LA and planned to head up along the coast the whole way to San Francisco over 2 days. We started the drive and headed trough Malibu only to be turned around and had to take the back roads due to an accident on the road. Once back on the Coast road again we made our way to Morro Bay, a small tourist town located next to Morro Rock. We spent the end of the afternoon with a walk around the rock while watching the sunset.

Morro Rock

Morro Rock

The next morning, we continued north and stopped in to check out the elephant seal viewing area, where large amounts of seals congregate. It was impressive to see how big they were and just how many were along this stretch of coast. Some of the coastal views as we came closer to San Francisco were amazing.

Sea Otters hanging out in the bay

Great Views

Arriving downtown, you quickly realize San Francisco isn’t the cleanest of cities, it was quite an experience dodging the human excrement along the sidewalk on some streets. We headed to the Ralph Gracie academy in the city. We had met Kurt Osiander at the Worlds Masters competition earlier in the trip where he had invited us to train with him. The gym is quite large with two mat areas and has a very old school Jiu-Jitsu feel to it, complete with club rules that includes no whining hahaha.

Golden Gate Selfie

Sunday NoGi class was super tough

As we were staying in Berkeley, Oakland we also trained at the Ralph Gracie Berkeley academy ran by Prof Eduardo “Selvagem” Fraga as it was only 5 minutes from where we were staying. Dee and I trained twice a day for the whole week, we would get up at around 5am to make sure we got across the Bay Bridge and through traffic with enough time to make it for the famous 7am class  ran by Kurt. This class has a large attendance for the time that it is ran and if full of a range of different people and ranks. We would then shower at the gym before heading out to explore the city for the day. In the evenings we would train at either the HQ or Berkley depending on where the kids classes where being ran. The one thing that everyone told us about before heading there was the full on warm ups and they were not wrong. Luckily, we were quite jiu-jitsu fit so it we were able to get through, it was definitely more intense than most of the places we had been to.

Ralph Gracie selfie!

The training was great, and we loved Kurt’s instruction, he is exactly as you would expect and even funnier in person. Both Lilly and Kobe loved his classes and his big “kid” attitude, as tough as he can come across he really is  a big softy with the kids, but don’t tell him I said that ?. I was lucky enough to get some rolls in with Ralph and Kurt during our time there which was a trip highlight. They are such nice people and have such a tough attitude when it comes to their training which I really admire.

Getting a roll in with Kurt

The training at Berkley was also great, Prof Eduardo who is the head coach welcomed and showed us around. We enjoyed training there and not having to battle the traffic trying to get in and out of the city. Lilly and Kobe made quite a few friends there and at one stage I’m sure there was a line as all the other kids took turns to ask them questions about the trip and Australia.

Kurt playing with Kobe

Lilly training at RGSF

Ralph Gracie Berkeley

In between the hard sessions we did manage to get some sightseeing in, we walked the golden gate bridge which is a must do when visiting San Francisco. We visited Alcatraz and did the audio tour which was pretty amazing, Kobe especially liked it and kept asking a heap of questions throughout the whole tour. We went and checked out the Bison in the Golden gate park and the Sutro Baths at Lands’ End, where an earthquake had collapsed the old bath house.

lands End

Alcatraz

As our time started to come to an end in San Francisco our bodies were starting to feel a little worse for wear. All the early starts and late nights with the hard training had left us feeling a little physically drained. The tape on our fingers and toes seemed to be the latest fashion accessory as there was no point taking it off between sessions and we wore it around while sightseeing, all the while getting strange looks. Dee’s nice black eye would have also contributed to the looks we were getting.

Getting in some great rolls

We spent our last day in San Francisco moving to another hotel closer to the airport, so we didn’t have to deal with the dreaded traffic before we flew out. We had some time to kill so we went to another Zoo!! I think this puts us to around 6 or 7 zoos we have visited this trip. It was a good way to spend our last few free hours before we headed off to the final leg of this adventure to Hawaii.

-Woody

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Los Angeles… Second time around

We headed back up to Los Angeles with the plans to stay around 4 days and get some more training in that we missed on our first visit. Before leaving San Diego we sent out a few messages and enquires to some places that we wanted to train at. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much of a response from them so jumped onto Reddit and asked the forums where the best training on a Sunday was. There was a general consensus that 10th Planet Costa Mesa held some of the best open mats in the LA area, so we headed off the check it out.

Training with the Monster Squad Cool open mat

It was around a 40min drive in LA traffic, when we arrived we where greeted by Ron Turner who ran us quickly through all the usual formality’s. Dee was feeling a little sore from all the training in San Diego so opted just to watch. I jumped in and had some awesome rolls with people from different clubs all over LA. It was really good to see everyone training together regardless of their affiliation with No Gi worlds only a few weeks away. After a couple of hours of rolling we headed off to the nearest beach to hopefully have a swim but after arriving at Hermosa Beach we decided against it as it was so cold down on the coast. We ended up finding a nice little Brazilian BBQ place down by the beach and had one of the best meals yet on our trip.

Great food!

The next day we planned on heading to Cobrinha’s but found out through social media that he wasn’t there so opted to head to 5 Star Martial arts just down the road which is Shawn Williams Academy (Renzo Gracie Blackbelt). We made a quick phone call to them to see if we could train and they welcomed us as their guests. Kobe and Lilly took part in the Kids and Kids Elite classes and had a blast (as they always do). Dee wasn’t feeling to well so sat out and watched as I took part in the Open mat and then the class. We did a number of take down drills and sequences which was great. As we jumped into the sparring again John Danaher walked in with Tonon, the Ryan brothers and Keenan. They were there to get ready for EBI and F2W that were on that weekend, it was good to see Nicky again who I had trained with before he headed over to the ADCC. We finished the rest of the sparring session off and I was buggered. I think that I lost at least 5kg in sweat in there as there wasn’t much airflow. 5 Star martial arts were kind enough to let us all train free and I highly recommend stopping in there if you’re in LA, the level of grappling there was great!

You know it’s a great place when these guys rock up! Kids class at 5 Star LA Great class

The following day we headed to The Gracie Academy in Torrance, I mean what Jiu-Jitsu travel trip would be complete without visiting it. We headed over to the location and found that they were in the process of moving into a bigger and better place. Right as we walked in we were met by Rorion Gracie and ended up talking with him for a while about our adventure. We then got a tour of the museum which has a lot of old newspaper articles and photos from the early days in Jiu-Jitsu. It was really great to walk around and see all the family’s history. We then got a tour of the facility which is huge and has everything you would need in an Academy, Rorion suggested we head over and check out the new place.

Meeting Rorion

We headed over and almost drove past it as we couldn’t believe it was such a big place. The mat area is so large you could have over a hundred-people training there at once. We checked the schedule and unfortunately, they didn’t have any classes that afternoon that would suit us. As we would have loved to of jumped in and experienced at least one session there. We then planned to head back to 5 star but with LA traffic we wouldn’t make it on time for classes so we opted to head to Santa Monica to watch the sun set and walk around on the Pier. While we were walking around we had a message from Chris Haueter who we had reached out to earlier in the week. He invited us to come and train with him, we were super bummed as we had already booked the next stage of the trip and were leaving LA in the morning for San Francisco, so wouldn’t be able to make it ☹….

Giant mat space at the new Gracie Academy

Getting around LA is a pain and it seems to take forever to get anywhere so if something doesn’t quite go to plan it’s hard follow it up with something else. We had headed to LA this second time with plans on the places we wanted to train. We didn’t end up training at any one of those on the initial list, but we did have some great moments at the ones we did make it to.

 

-Woody

jitzwithwoodys.com/blog     Youtube   Facebook   Instagram-Woody Instagram-Dee      BJJ Globetrotters

Episode 3: Caribbean Island Camp

First attempt at a podcast episode from one of our camps. I brought my little microphone around me during the Caribbean Island Camp and tried to capture the atmosphere, behind the scenes stuff and a few chats with people. Feedback and suggestions are welcome on [email protected].

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NR Jiu-Jitsu (Nara, Japan)

Nara, Japan – While staying in Osaka, my friends and I decided to take a day trip to Nara. The city is located about 20 miles (30km) east of Osaka. You could easily access to Nara via train approximately in an hour (Train ticket = ~$7 USD one-way). Given that it is a small city, there are not many options when it comes to a BJJ academy. NR Jiu-Jitsu is basically the only option for training. In addition, I would like to emphasize that Nara remains my favorite city in Japan

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City

Nara is a city located in the east of Osaka. The city is known for its historical sites including Tōdai-ji and Kasuga Shrine and its lovely free-roaming deer (Deer are literally everywhere in Nara). Most of tourist attractions are concentrated which is convenient for sightseeing.

Overview
Given that Nara is a small city, it was challenging to get to NR Jiu-jitsu. However, the BJJ class offered by NR Jiu-jitsu was worth the distance. The number of students was low, but the skill level of students was notable. There were 4 students in the initial regular technique class I attended. However, once the sparring class started, additional 10 students appeared. The black belt instructor, Koichi Uhara, did not speak English fluently, but his demonstrations were clear for me to understand. Some students spoke English which helped.

The regular class started with warm-ups and covered 4–5 techniques. Given that the class’s duration was one hour, there was no sparring during the class. The sparring session was immediately followed by the regular class. While I was training at NR Jiu-Jitsu, we focused on different sweeps and submissions from Lasso guard.

As previously mentioned, NR Jiu-Jitsu was worth visiting. The head instructor and students were highly skilled considering that it is a small town in Japan. After one of the noteworthy sight-seeing trip in Nara, you should definitely drop by NR Jiu-jitsu to train to complete your day.

On the side note, at the local BJJ competition I attended, I ran into the instructors from NR Jiu-Jitsu and Tri-Force Osaka who welcomed me to the local competition. The BJJ community in Japan was smaller and well-connected than I initially imagined.

<<With the head instructor, Koichi Uhara>>

Location
NR Jiu-Jitsu is located about 1 mile (1.4km) west from the Nara station in which you can take train from/to Osaka. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation to the gym so I had to walk. The gym was located on the third floor of the brown building that is shown in the picture below. Please be sure to go up past the second floor which was under construction. The second floor looked like a former fitness club so I initially thought that NR Jiu-Jitsu closed, but it is still open! (Google Map: Link)

Facility
NR Jiu-jitsu’s facility was basic. The gym was small but was equipped with a clean mat. Unfortunately, it did not have a shower which makes it difficult if you are not staying in Nara for the night. 

Schedule
NR Jiu-Jitsu has a schedule on the website, but as it is in Japanese, I translated the schedule for your convenience below:

Visitor Fee
FREE — NR Jiu-jitsu does not charge visitors


Things to Do around the Gym

  • Tōdai-ji Temple — One of the most famous and historically significant temples in Japan which houses the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha.
  • Nara Park — Nara’s public park filled with friendly deer who are crazy about rice crackers you can purchase around the park.
  • Kasuga-Taisha Shinto Shrine — A Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the Fujiwara clan who was the most powerful family during the Nara and Heian periods. It is famous for its bronze lanterns.

Hyperlinks
Google Maps
Website (Japanese)

Source
– Nara Map
– Facility

Moscow, Russia

Greeting from Moscow! (15-20 July 2017)

The train down from Saint Petersburg was quick and easy, and Moscow has a simple enough city train system to navigate through, although one does has to pay attention as the twists and turns to find the right platform can be tricky (I had downloaded the Russian alphabet on my phone when in Saint Petersburg to help translate, it helped immensely in the Moscow train system where everything was in Russian while Google Maps translated it to English). One thing I found peculiar was the main train station in Saint Petersburg, it was busy with people traveling all over and filled with shops of all sorts. In the middle were kiosk, one in particular sold weapons, knives and guns to be exact. I could easily have picked up a handgun for quite cheap as a souvenir of my visit. I passed on that idea but instead spent my time on the train wondering how many other travelers were armed that day.

The hostel I stayed at apparently is quite the hotspot for travelers as when I was at the Visa Services Canada in Ottawa they remarked how every traveler they help get a Russian Visa have Godzilla’s Hostel down as the place they were staying at. In my opinion there was nothing outstanding about it, it was a nice place, central to the city and very cheap, which makes it a prime place to stay at, but it was no Castle Rock Hostel in Edinburgh with their own movie room and pool tables. I lost a shirt while staying at Godzilla’s, my brother’s band ‘Phantom’ shirt I got from him a while back (I use their music for my videos). It was one of my favourites. I guess the guy who bunked beneath me left in a hurry in the morning and figured the black shirt hung on the side of the bed was his. He left his plain, size small, black shirt behind. I was very disappointed as I had lost my ‘Phantom’ hat back in Barcelona and I had enjoyed taking pictures of me wearing my brother’s band clothes around the world and sending him the photos. That was no longer possible now. I hope the guy enjoyed that shirt, even if it was too big for him.

The busy 'Moscow Station' the gun kiosk was in the middle somewhere. I had a picture but it didn't turn out so well with the reflections off the glass.

The Sights

In this short 5 day visit I was only able to make it out to train just one day, given their schedule and how far away from them I was staying. I was much closer to the popular sights of Moscow and made sure to get out and see places like the Kremlin, the Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral, although the line ups were so long I would have to get there by sunrise and spend the entire day in order to see inside. I passed on that idea.

The entrance to the Kremlin.

The Entrance to the Kremlin, and an impossibly long line up. About the same kind of line of that I saw at the Vatican.

Kazan Cathedral, State Historical Museum & Nicolskaya Tower.

The Red Square, they were setting up for a huge party.

Nikolskaya and Senate towers. The wall and the towers guard the Senate Palace inside, where Lenin's body is on display. the line up was too long for me to go in without baking in the sun.

The State Historical Museum.

St. Basil's Cathedral. The building pictured in the original Tetris.

Also by the Red Square is the GUM shopping mall, a huge building that is the pinnacle of Neoclassical architecture and a famous tourist sight for it’s elegant, and some what over the top, decor.

Glass ceilings with narrow and busy hallways.

So many water fountains, at every corner, and flowers everywhere.

As you can see from the outside it runs quite long.

I have more photos of my travels and adventures over on my Flickr account, head over there if you want to see more and maybe show some love by liking or commenting on few of them, thanks!

Checkmat Moscow

Back when I was first planning out Russia and talking to Khaled he connected me to Yusup Adaev who is the head black belt of Checkmat Moscow. We talked about my visit and Yusup was happy to have me come train with them, and even made sure to set everything up with the gym, Tigerclub, Checkmat is a part of. The gym is is the VEGAS Crocus City Mall, a huge and brand newly built mall out on the western end of Moscow. The mall has several floors with everything you could want in it, movie theatres, giant food court, gyms, even a hockey rink! Up at the top floor is where the gym is and Checkmat has a big mat space in the back. This gym was like the mall, big with everything you need in it. There was a big free weights section and big machine section, a fake grass area for cross-fit and dynamic conditioning exercises and even a boxing ring before the matspace. It was quite the impressive place. With this gym and this mall I could seriously just live in the mall as my visit.

The ice rink in the mall, complete with a huge golden statue.

The night I visited Checkmat Yusup wasn’t around, I believe he was out of country at the time but still made sure I was taken care of. The front desk attendant didn’t speak much English so when I first asked about Jiu-Jitsu and the Checkmat club she was puzzled. After a confusing conversation where she told me she passed me off to a manager who exactly why I was there. We had a nice conversation as I filled out the information form and waiver and then I was set up with a temporary pass, a key to a locker and told if I need anything to come back and talk to her (probably because no one else understood me).

I got changed and wandered onto the mats to stretch out and warm up for class. Since the head coach was away a lot of the higher belts were also away, leaving the class full of white and blue belts. Although everyone was friendly enough throughout class, the start of class was a bit awkward as everyone seemed to keep clear of me, giving uneasy stares my way. At first I figured they were intimidated or weren’t fond of visitors, maybe I was just getting a cold shoulder as the new guy. As the class went on and students over heard me introducing myself to my training partners or telling them where I’m from during breaks between rounds, one by one they started to open up to me and come over to talk. As it happens everyone was just really shy, not being strong in English they weren’t comfortable talking as first. By the end of class I had made a few new friends.

The class itself was good, there was about 20 or so on the mats and they had a very fit student take us through a thorough warm up. After the warm up we went straight into a series of sweeps which I believe they had been working on for a while as everyone seemed to be very familiar with the chain. As I was training with some white belts I gave a few points of advice and it was then that they first started asking me where I was from and why I had come to visit Moscow. They must not get many visitors as practically everyone asked why I had come to visit Moscow and not another place in Europe. Once we got into rolling the guys shed their timid demeanor and gave me some tough ‘Welcome to Moscow’ rolls that really tested my defense skills. I only rolled with one guy who didn’t maul me and he was only new. I gave him some advice as we rolled, just newbie pointers but I could see given a year this guy would be a serious threat. It was a really good time training with Yusup Adaev’s club, Checkmat Moscow, and wish I was able to make it out to the west end to train with them again, but it was not in the cards during this short trip. Thanks Yusup for having me at your club and thanks guys for the fun rolls.

 

The team of killers, I highly recommend dropping by if you visit Russia.

After an all too short visit to Moscow, ending my all too short visit to Russia, I was off to a neighboring country not too happy with Russia:Ukraine, first stop Kiev! Seriously this trip was too short. I had planned this back when I planned out my trip across Canada and was going on a 5 day per stop schedule. What with travel days that only gives you a few days at each place which is just enough to get out and train at a few clubs or one club a few times but no time for sight seeing. With traveling through Europe I had since increased my time at each to give time to take it all in. With my stops being closer to a week long at each place now I was looking forward to taking in the culture and all the Ukrainian food I had come to know and love while living in Canada. Now I was about to see how the real thing compared!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

Buy Panda’s Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.

Buy a shirt at Panda’s Jiu-Jitsu Store.

Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.

Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Episode 2: Alexander Trans on fear and competition

* 34m31s: “There’s not a single thing about COMPETITION…”, I should have said, of course. I’m tired :D

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Greetings From Saint Petersburg, Russia! (10-15 July 2017)

Finally I had made it. Russia was one of the first things on the list of places I want to go to, to see the culture and old Soviet buildings (and much older architectures) and of course learn Sambo from the birthplace of the sport. Although the flight over and navigation to the hostel was simple and easy, even though the bus charged me twice the bus fare because of my backpack, and the customs checkpoint went smooth (which I had been a little anxious over given my past career in the military), the steps taken to make it to Russia were more complex. Russia requires a Visa to visit and it’s quite involved with the amount of paperwork and information they require, with a lot of pre-booking before even acquiring the Visa. This would be the first time I had ever had to apply for a Visa for visiting a country as well so I was a bit unsure of all the necessary steps, and given the personal importance of this stop in the Odyssey, I was nervous to make sure it was all done properly.

When I was first laying out the rough draft of the Odyssey itinerary I had only a few points to go by outside of Canada. I knew I would be flying to London in March, and eventually wanted to make it to Thailand and Japan, but much else between, and the order in which I would visit these spots, was yet to be determined. When I saw on the BJJ Globetrotters map that there were gyms to visit in Russia and Morocco I decided I had to add those places, but I would have to plan out my route carefully so I could get the right paperwork completed and give myself the proper time to visit all the other places in between. With the Russian Visa Canadians, and most other countries, are allowed to apply as much as six months in advance for their trip. I decided Russia would be a great next stop after my maximum time of 3 months in the European Union was up, but when that would be depended on whether or not I made a stop in Morocco, which in turn dictated when I could apply for the Visa before leaving Canada. I could of course apply later but traveling while mailing my passport home and waiting for it to be returned and hoping it doesn’t get lost in the mail was not something I wanted to deal with.

I decided the first step was contacting the BJJ scene in Morocco about visiting and training with them, to which I got a resounding welcome message from everyone I spoke to (read about my adventures in RabatCasablanca & Marrakesh). After that I then figured out what time I had left in the European Zone to determine when what dates to look into my visit to Russia. From there I then planned when I could apply for the Visa. As it happened I would be in Ottawa, by the Russian consulate and Visa Services Canada just as the 6 month mark came up so I could apply for the Visa and drop by the office and speak to someone in person rather than just mail the papers in the mail and hope everything needed is included. That was the smart plan as not only did I not notice a small but important term in my flight out of Russia (I was originally going to fly to Belarus and visit there but because of current tensions tourists coming from Russia aren’t allowed to visit.), but also I needed to drop off additional paperwork, including a signed letter informing the Russian consulate as to why I was applying for a visa so much ahead of my visiting dates, apparently “because you allow me to” isn’t a good enough reason.

I don't know if it was from the war or just being old but the building the hostel was in was literally stapled together. The hostel was nice though.

Once the Visa application was sent in I just had to wait for my passport to come back, I would pick it up at my friend’s house as my last stop in Canada. It was set, I would be flying to London and visiting the UK and Ireland in March, then make my way down to Morocco for May, and then make my way up to Russia in July. The all stops in between, all the adventures you have been reading about up til now, I had a rough idea of where and when I’d be visiting but they were all up in the air and planned on the go while I traveled, and they changed over and over. So all the paperwork was done and I had finally made my way to Russia, in Saint Petersburg, ready to get some first-hand experience of Sambo, and hope I don’t die from it.

The Many Many Sights

I knew there were a few things to check out in Saint Petersburg from doing a quick check online, and so many people telling how great the city was, but I did not expect to be so enthralled with all the old architecture throughout the city. By this point I was quite used to being around buildings that were everyday common apartment buildings or store fronts to the locals but cool looking to me and older than the formation of Canada itself. The difference with Saint Petersburg is the scale of which all these building are built. It’s like every building, no matter it’s function, was built to outdo Versailles. They were massive, several floor buildings covered with all sorts of ornate designs and pillars. Or the Orthodox church built with millions of multicolored tiles and spires and domes. There was a lot to see and take in for this city, here’s a small sample of the photos I took.

Kazan Cathedral is impressive building, that reminded me of the ship from ‘Prometheus’, with a small but busy park and water fountain in front.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood of course reminded me of Tetris, was also very busy and I didnt feel like being in the crowd pushing my through to see inside so I only walked around and admired it from the outside.

Peter & Paul Fortress is a sizable area with all sorts of different buildings and views, like the Peter and Paul churches, prison museum and the harbour dock and fortress wall and look in towards the city.

Historical Military Artillery Museum is across from the fortress and has a huge array of cannons, tanks and other artillery vehicles displayed across it’s lawns.

Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns are on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island and look in to the city and fortress view.

The Palace Square speaks for itself. 

I have more photos of my travels and adventures over on my Flickr account, head over there if you want to see more and maybe show some love by liking or commenting on few of them, thanks!

Alexey and The Saint Petersburg National Sambo Team

When looking into the idea of traveling to Russia I asked the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook page for contacts or experiences traveling there. That’s when I met Khaled, a Russian living in USA who apparently knows everyone in Russia. He set me up with Alexey, who runs AP Gym in Saint Petersburg, and also connected me with the Checkmat gym in Moscow and told me some great places to check out and had other contacts if I wanted to venture deeper into Western Russia. So I got a hold of Alexey and we began talking about me coming and visiting. Alexey was more than happy to have a visitor and was even going to set me up with a place to stay, except there was no certainty and with the language barrier I decided to go with a hostel and make sure all my paperwork was in order for the trip.

I contacted Alexey once I was settled into the hostel and we started working out when to meet up and train together. As I mentioned before he owns and runs a series of gyms around Saint Petersburg and I was looking forward to meeting his team and training with them, but then Alexey changed the plans. Apparently he had been invited out to train at the School of Higher Sportmanship, home of the Saint Petersburg National Sambo Team and decided to bring me along with him. Alexey and I met up across town at a train station and then he drove the rest of the way since the sports building was just outside of the city. I followed him through the halls and series of rooms, where I saw Judo classes beginning and ending, until we made it to the Sambo room, a big long room matted with three wrestling circles and huge portraits of Sambo legends hanging from the wall. There a number of student there ranging from big scary looking athletes that would break me without a second thought to young teenagers who could probably runs circles around me. It was an intimidating class to be a part of, but also an honour to be there.

My favourite shot of training with the Sambo team.

The class goes through a series of warm ups but mostly it’s at your own pace and once you’re done warming up the class is fully on your own with the head coach, Korshunov Alexander Igorevich (A honoured coach of Russia) helping if you had any questions. For the hour that Alexey and I trained it was just us working no-gi, we would roll for a while and Alexey would give me tips for my game and we would drill a technique or I would take a break and grab some water while I watched the rest of the class train. There were a group of men training Combat-Sambo on one mat, a younger group working their take downs with the coach on another, it was amazing to see. As we were training a huge guy walked in and got ready to go a few rounds with his training partner. Alexey saw him and told me he was Denis “The Russian Bogatyr” Goltsov a MMA fighter and heavyweight champ. I watched him and his partner fight round after round beating on each other, impressed and intimidated by his size and skill. Alexey jokingly asked if I wanted to go a round with him, I think-or hoped-he was joking, but I just settled with getting a picture with this giant instead.

I wasn't joking about 'The Russian Bogatyr' being a giant.

After training we went out for food and Alexey brought me a Chinese buffet, we talked more about Saint Petersburg and training and traveling and all sorts of things. Alexey has a few businesses other than his gym, he was a busy man doing the work of 6 men running all his entrepreneur enterprises, making him taking the the time to show me around and train with me all the more impressive. It was a fun night and I wished we were able to train more but that night was the only time I was able to make it out as I got head cold and was out of training for the rest of this visit. Thanks so much Alexey for everything, the hard fought rolls, bringing me to the Sambo training session, showing me your beautiful home town, it was an honour to meet you and hang out together. And thank you Khaled for connecting us.

Alexey and I with the head coach, Korshunov Alexander Igorevich.

After a short visit to Saint Petersburg and seeing all the awesome sights, a 5 day visit that went by way too fast, I was on a train to my other Russian stop: Moscow!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

Buy Panda’s Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.

Buy a shirt at Panda’s Jiu-Jitsu Store.

Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.

Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

What does it take to rent an entire castle for a Jiu Jitsu camp?

Today I could finally announce the first ever attempt at a Castle Camp. Organizing this one hasn’t been easy; if someone made a business analysis of this project, I’m sure they would conclude that the amount of time, risk and work put into it would in no way make sense. But I had my reasons for doing this. 

First, the BJJ Globetrotters camp locations this year have been chosen from a secret business model that I can’t yet speak about (give me a week or so as it will reveal the rest of the camps). Second, I’ve always wanted to try and live in a castle and if any one person in the world can pull off a Jiu Jitsu camp in one, it must be me. So I see it as kind of my duty to do it.

I’ve spent more time planning this camp than any other of the 30 camps I’ve hosted so far. It all started almost a year ago when I hired one of my assistants to go research every possible castle she could find and figure out for each and every one of them:

  • Location
  • Contact information
  • Type of castle
  • Distance to nearest airports
  • Number and configuration of beds
  • Cost of rental with variable of guests and number of nights
  • Cost of food delivery
  • Cost of transport from airports
  • Cost of cleaning
  • Square meters of flat space for mats
  • Cost of delivery of new mats to location
  • Booking and cancellation terms

On top of this, for a castle to make the list, it had to fit certain criteria for number of rooms, flat space for mats, location etc.

After more than half a year of research, we ended up with a monster of a list with 114 castles that fit the bill. I personally think it is one of the most beautiful spreadsheets I’ve ever made :D

Once the list was compiled, I took over and started contacting them one at a time. I’ve spent months calling and emailing every one of them to dig even deeper into the details of the places to figure out which were suitable for a camp. The list was boiled down to 17 candidates of which I have been going very far in negotiations. 

Now, I’ll be honest. When I had the idea of a camp in a castle, I had imagined something very medieval. Where we could all dress up as knights and wear full body amor all day. Unfortunately, after going through what I think is every castle in existence on the planet, I must conclude that no such castle is suitable for a camp at the moment, either in terms of rooms, space, budget, quality, location etc.

But I did end up with one that I in particular liked. A more than 1000 year old castle on the most beautiful, secluded hill in Italy, just 15 minutes from an international airport. I spent three months talking and negotiating with the owner almost daily – going back and forth on all the details, budgets and possible setups that could work. We’ve been over the possibility of hosting 50+ people at the castle for a budget camp with tents and make-your-own-food to a super, luxury, VIP experience and everything in between. Also necessary has been to try and predict every single thing that can possible go wrong – big or small – and prepare for it already now. There is no room for failure once everything is launched.

I have been incredibly nervous about pushing the button on this one, but I’m confident we’ve ended up with the best castle and the best camp model. I’ve just today paid a whopping deposit to rent the entire place; my banker called to check on me. Next step is now to perform and live up to the expectations that the participants (and myself) have for this one. There’s no turning back now, at least. I have to live in a castle in May with my friends. Fuck yes.

www.BJJglobetrotters.com/castlecamp2018 

San Diego… back we go again.. Round 2

Arriving back in San Diego was almost like coming home, as we had been here almost 5 months ago. I was very excited to be back as the last time we were here I was nursing a serious rib injury that prevented me from really training the way I wanted to here. The whole focus this time was definitely the Jiu-Jitsu, we had already done all the tourist stuff the last time.

back again with this crew

We wasted no time in heading back to Gracie South Bay, this is Leticia Ribeiro’s Academy and was where Dee and the kids has spent most of their time training on our first visit. We were warmly welcomed back with hugs and questions on what has been happening while we have been travelling. We jumped straight back into training and Lilly and Kobe couldn’t have been happier! It was their favourite place so far on the trip. The kids program that Letica runs there is one of the best if not the best we have encountered on our journey. The next generation is something they put a lot of time into there and it shows with their results and the attitudes of the students.

Lilly and Kobe with Leticia

They have such a strong female presence there that Dee also loved the place and took part in the boot camps and ladies classes. I was just happy to be able to finally get on the mats and have some great rolls there. We really felt at home and could of just spent all of our time there but we wanted to check out some of the other academies that San Diego has to offer.

Kobe’s class

Lilly and her class

We headed to the University of Jiu-Jitsu, Saulo and Xande Ribeiro’s Academy. Unfortunate they were both away with Xande in Brazil and Saulo recovering from Knee surgery. We took the NoGi lunch class with Casey Hellenberg which was great as we focused a lot on the stand-up positional wrestling and transitions which both Dee and I got a lot out of. We returned later that day where the kids took part in classes and we again trained another NoGi session that night with Victor Barreto. We really enjoyed getting on the mats there and did some great training with them. It was no surprise that intensity of the NoGi was increasing with the IBJJF NoGi world only a month away. It was good to get some hard rounds in with these guys!

Us with Casey

Evening class at UOJJ

The Weekends in San Diego are packed with training options as a lot of the academies run open mats. Saturday, we headed to Gracie South Bay for their open mat and got some fun rolls in and shared some techniques back and forth. Sunday, we headed to Barum Jiu-Jitsu for open mat, we had been told by a few people and multiple places that this is the place to be on a Sunday. The mat was full of people from different academies all over San Diego, we even ran into a few of the guys from University of Jiu-Jitsu that we had trained with earlier in the week. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and we has some cool, fun rolls with everyone.

Barum – Jiu JItsu

Monday, we headed to THE ARENA, we wanted to see if we could get a class in with Baret Yoshida at lunch time. We headed over there and barely made it on the mats in time for class. Baret taught a cool arm/collar drag setup from seated guard that has some awesome little tweaks in it. Rolling with Baret was very cool experience, he is such a nice guy but moves like a monster, I found myself trapped at every turn…. In a good way of course.

Dee and I with Baret after class

We decided to make head up to Atos for the kids and Adults classes in the evening. To be honest I was a little intimidated heading in there, it’s known for being a high-level academy with a strong focus on competition. Walking in there we were greeted well and got the kids sorted for class, something to note if visiting is they have a strict dress code of white Gi’s with no affiliation patches and an all-black rash guard underneath. We managed to meet the code with the kids gear but Dee and I had to “Hire” rash guards. We didn’t really mind as we were well aware this would be the case before arriving.

Kids at Atos

Dee and I at Atos

Dee with Angelica

They had a lot of kids on the mat and the classes split into two groups with Lilly and Kobe on separate mats, Lilly’s class was run by Josh Hinger which was cool to see. Dee got a chance to have a roll with Angelica Galvao which she was pretty stoked about!

We headed back to Gracie South Bay for the next couple of days, we were able to be present of their grading which was a very cool experience seeing some of our friend’s level up in their belts! We had planned to leave on Wednesday to head to Los Angeles, but we were having such a great time in San Diego and training that we decided to stay until Saturday.

Dee with the Womens class

Taking a break between rounds

Gracie South bay Grading

Thanksgiving is something we don’t celebrate in Australia but it’s a very big and important holiday here. We spent the start of the day at an open mat at South Bay, that morning we had received a text message from Eric Bydairk inviting us around for thanksgiving. Eric is a fellow BJJ Globetrotter and was Lilly’s wrestling coach while at Letica’s at South bay. We spent the afternoon with Eric, his wife Lisa and his parents. We did a lot of eating and sharing stories, it really was an amazing experience and one of the kindest gestures from someone of our trip. He also gifted us some new flash “Takedown Nation” rash guards, which was great as all this training is starting to take its toll on our gear.

Was amazing spending thanksgiving with Eric and his family

We said our goodbyes and left San Diego for a second time headed back up to Los Angeles. San Diego is without a doubt our favourite city and we will be back again in the future for another trip. (Lilly and Kobe made us promise that we will bring them back.)

-Woody

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