Blogs | Page 17 of 29 | BJJ Globetrotters

Alberta, Canada

July 19, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

Calgary

Have you ever been to Calgary? It is awesome!

The people are incredibly nice the food is brilliant and the Rocky Mountains are on your doorstep.

Sarah and I are here until August 4th and have been taking in all of the sights and sounds!

We were in Calgary at the tail end of the winter and, at the time, I considered the place hell on earth. Minus 28 celsius when I arrived early in the year. Now we have been having 23-29 degree days and have definitely started to enjoy the place.

To begin with, I have found a killer BJJ gym to train at. Gigante Brazilian JiuJitsu is absolutely amazing. Professor Fernando is old school Brazilian and he makes us suffer through every class.

In my time there I have improved considerably and gotten my ass kicked by some of the nicest guys in Calgary.

So far in Alberta we have managed to visit some super touristy places.

Drumheller seems to be the home of every Dinosaur ever found. It even has the world’s largest fibreglass dinosaur that you can climb to the top of.

We were given good advice by the tourist attractions lady, learned how to properly pronounce the word “diplodocus” and managed to get at least 1 speeding ticket on the trip.

TOP TIP: Canadian Police officers are the nicest in the world when it comes to Irish people. You can go considerably faster than the speed limit and still get off with a fine that the rental company will never charge and zero points on a European licence. You just have to make sure you can offer good recommendations of where to visit when they go there next year!

We took a helicopter ride over a canyon, which was brilliant, and also learned what a Hoodoo is. (see pics for that)

Calgary is also home to the Calgary tower, which is less impressive than a lot of it’s newer and flashier cousins, but still cool in it’s own way.

Calgary has a whole heap of other fun stuff to do while visiting. A few great viewpoints, archery tag, 1000 escape rooms to name a few.

The pub scene is also pretty good with 17th ave having some genuinely good cocktail bars and some excellent American-Irish style pubs.

We have been incredibly fortunate to have some visitors here. My brother came over and was welcomed by everyone in Calgary. The guys a Gigante BJJ have accepted him as one of their own and we have been taking in the Rocky mountains as often as possible. It is trips like this that remind me how fortunate we really are. Some people wait their entire lives to get 1 glimpse of this ridiculous scenery and we have been taking day trips out every weekend!

We also had an old Alabama friend come and visit from Denver Colorado.

John O’Brien is a Black belt from Triad Martial Arts in Cullman, AL. HE popped up for the weekend to help Ger and I train. He got in Friday, we drank until 5am and managed, do NOT ask me how, to get to the 9am open mat. Albeit 28 minutes late.

John literally destroyed my hungover self and made it look like a tiger tossing around a kitten. It was bad.

The guys at the school enjoyed it and, I believe, took some lessons from John along the way.

We then headed to the best Brazilian BBQ joint that I have visited. Minas in Calgary. Go there. You know it is good when most of the clientele are actually from Brazil. The weapon that is “Gigante” even showed up for his lunch while we were there.

We headed back uphill to Banff to get some Rocky Mountain Jiujitsu classes and photo ops in with the best backdrop that you could ever think of.

Next up we have the Calgary Stampede. It is an epic festival that has all kinds of events- Both styles of music too – Country AND western!

In this week I have seen so many men, women and children wearing denim hot pants paired with cowboy hats. I wasn’t sure if I had been transported to the deep south of the USA in the 1850’s.

We managed to get some quality food – steak on a stick, see some interesting music – (Sheryl Crow who’s guitarist looks suspiciously like Christian Graugart in double denim) and learn how to line dance like the best of them!

From here we have headed north to Edmonton for a weekend where I managed to fit in a session at the Hyabusa training Centre. A great bunch of guys and girls who were happy to exchange tips on how to strangle another human.

Another academy was fit in on Sunday with the Rodrigo Resende academy. This is the largest matspace in Canada from what I understand! Ridiculously friendly and I genuinely can’t wait to get back to see them in the future.

While up here we managed to see roughly 6 million Bison, 3 Moose and a few coyotes. It definitely ticked a few names off our list of “must see” animals for Canada.

Next week we have some fun with some white water rafting, a UFC to attend and a few more mountain trips before we leave Alberta.

On our next road trip we will be attempting the drive from Calgary to Jasper, Kelowna &Vancouver before finally flying on to Australia!

I hope to keep you all posted if not eaten by the wildlife.

every person you meet is a possible friend for life.

July 19, 2018/in Blogs/by Bryan Rusell

I was listening to a Steve Maxwell Podcast recently and he talked about Dean Lister, how he’d only met him for a short time but that small meeting had a huge impact on him and the way he approached jiu jitsu. This is also said about Dean Lister by John Danaher, it is amazing how one person in the world can influence so many but only through fleeting interactions. It reminded me instantly about a trip I had made to Melbourne in September 2015 to visit my very good friend Cam who ironically was the one who had said the title line of this piece. Cam was a dude, I looked up to him so much from the day we met at High School, back in 1994, he was super cool, funny as heck and just an amazing example of what humans should be. He influenced me in a way I think will not be rivaled, everybody he met became his mate and in turn, the circle of friends for all involved overlapped and enhanced. This is what life is all about.
The downside was this trip was not a chance to hangout like we had over the last 20 odd years, but a chance to say goodbye as Cam had a brain tumour and was dying. While Cam was having treatment I caught up with another mate from back home, Ash. Whenever, I had gone to Melbourne on my previous trips I took the opportunity to train at his club – Peter De Been Academy and this was no different to him. I had not intended to train this time but Ash made a good point that it would help. All of you who train can agree that whenever you feel down or you have a million thoughts racing through your mind, getting on the mats is the best medicine as you literally can think of nothing except the roll situation in front of you. I wanted this now more than anything, I wanted my mind free if even for an hour. I met Ash down at the Academy for an 6am early morning roll with him, a couple of others and a black belt there by the name of Graham Johnstone. Ash supplied me with a gi to use and a purple belt he had spare. I was sorted.
Graham was an amazing jits player, effortlessly stopping guard passes, sweeping me and also helping me out with tips along the way. We did not go through specific techniques, more working on our games as we went, ways to improve and tweak attacks. As a purple belt at the time, I was like a sponge soaking this information up . At the end of the session, I was getting ready to go and catch the tram back to my accommodation, it was an early around 7:30am and I had to meet my friends to come back to see Cam. Graham said no way, we’re going for a coffee. We had great conversations, shared laughs and after coffee, he offered to drop me back at the accommodation. I took him up on this. We ended up detouring to pick up some supplies for his business, as I helped carry stock, we laughed a lot more, had more yarns and then after dropping all his gear off, he shared his life story with me about how he had built his business up. Graham is the owner of Kapai Puku which makes great products aimed to help people improve their health and diet, something that I have always agreed with and wanted to promote to some level.
I was in awe. I hear this man speaking with such enthusiasm, excitement and life, it brought me back as well. It reminded me about how Cam would talk and how we all should be, passionate about what we are doing. This man had a huge impact on my life, it was a 1 hour lesson in jiu jitsu with a real one on one lesson feel. It was followed by an act of compassion and selflessness in the form of coffee and transport. This made me remember I was here to celebrate Cam, no other reason. I found myself full of energy that day, we had a great day hanging out with Cam, talking about past adventures, Cam entertained us with jokes, for a short time it was like the old days.
We had another couple of days in Melbourne, we said our goodbyes and I have not forgotten any part of that trip. It was one of the best things I have ever done in the worst times. I went there to show the love and respect and thanks to a man who has impacted me my whole life and I ended up meeting another person who managed to make a big impact in a short time. We need to value the relationships we have, the time we have to make new relationships and the most of our limited time on the planet. Time is the best thing we can give to any situation.

“Every person you meet is a potential friend for life” – Cameron McLeod Ward

Training report: BJJ in Bangkok Thailand

July 13, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert Barker

Greetings From Bangkok Thailand ! (3 – 8 Oct 2017)

I left the gorgeous island of Koh Tao in another long day of traveling. I loved the island life but was also really excited to finally see Bangkok, meet Vara and visit the gyms. It was a windy day on the waters so I took some Gravol to make sure the waves didn’t bother me too much but I must have taken them too late as they didn’t kick in until after the ferry ride was over. As it happens that wasn’t much of a problem since the ferry ride wasn’t too rocky and actually quite comfortable, for this ex sailor anyways. Of course with the Gravol taking affect after the sail meant that I was now drowsy for the rest of the trip. I had to keep wandering around and not sit down for too long, scared I would fall asleep and miss the bus. It was a long bus ride to Bangkok, about 8 or 9 hours, but I was so drowsy from the Gravol I slept most of it, this time without a seat that falls apart every time I lay back.

I was refreshed and awake once we pulled into the station in Bangkok, ready to find my hostel in the busy city. The bus dropped us off in a busy area, with many Tuk-Tuk and Taxi drivers begging for your fare. I ignored them and continued walking, having looked up the city transit options and knowing my route without overpriced taxis. It was a bit of a walk to the bus stop and then I would transfer to the subway system, or BTS as it’s called, and just a few stops later I’d be at my hostel. As per Vara’s instructions I found an affordable hostel that was both close to the BTS and not too far from the gyms as Bangkok is a big and very busy city. The thing about catching the buses in Bangkok is that they are not very reliable and the traffic in the city is horrible. The alternative was walking for almost an hour to make it to the closest BTS station and I wasn’t up for that with my backpack and the sweltering humid heat of Bangkok, even in the evening. In the end it all worked out but it was an interesting experience.

I made it to the bus stop, or rather around the area for it, there were several bus stops down the street and it was hard to make out which one was for the bus I was looking to catch. I saw a few people waiting around a stop so I showed them my directions I had on my phone, pointing to the bus number, they pointed to another stop just down from them. At the proper stop I confirmed I was at the right stop by again showing the locals the directions and pointing to the bus number, they nodded. So lucky to have tun into friendly and helpful people in Thailand. Also lucky I read up on the practices of catching a bus in Bangkok while looking up the transit system routes. Having been traveling for almost a year now I was getting used to different countries and how they worked their transit. For Bangkok you can get in either through the front or back door but first have to wave the bus down, run out and jump on as they just slow down rather than actually stop for people. When the bus I was waiting for was coming down the street a few locals motioned for me to go catch it. I walked out into the street, put my hand up to motion to the bus and jumped in the back door as the bus slowed down and stopped for just long enough for me to get my big back pack through the narrow doors. The same locals who motioned for me to catch the bus used the time to run in through the front door. I felt like I they used me to catch the bus they might have missed.

While on the bus and watching it slowly creep through the busy streets as we got more into the downtown areas I was checking my route on my phone. Just then a local who spoke English asked me if I needed help getting to my destination, he also helped a few other travelers on the bus, proud to show off his English skills and happy to help. It always cool to run into nice people looking to help those around them whatever the cause but I do wonder how many visitors to North America would be helped as much or as willful as I have been on this trip. I would be OK on my own, but not everyone is as independent a traveler as me and for some people different cultures and the city life they’re visiting can be overwhelming. It was just a few stops on the BTS and a quick walk down the street and then I was finally done. I checked into the hostel, which was an icebox with the AC cranked so high (seriously it’s a big problem with visitors in Bangkok, 40C outside, 16C inside and everyone ends up with a cold by the end of the week, always) and then walked around the area to find my bearings. There was a 7-Eleven down the street and a Starbucks nearby, with all kinds of restaurants around. As it happens, I was also nearby the red light district and there were all kinds of street walkers at the corners. The amount of old white tourists walking down the street with Lady-Boys hanging off their arms was comical. Only in Bangkok.

Staph Infection!!

During my stay in Koh Tao I ended up with a staph infection, not from training but rather from my hike up Viewpoint Hill. If you read my last article you’ll remember my trip up the hill for the awesome pictures. During that trek I got bitten by bugs and ended up in the torrential downpour on the way back, with the dirty street water splashing all over my legs. That’s how I figure I got it anyways. It all happened at the end of my stay and it wasn’t until the morning of my travel to Bangkok that I knew it was a serious problem that required some antibiotics. It was too early for a pharmacy in Koh Tao and it was too late when I got to Bangkok, there was nothing I could until next morning. During the whole day traveling to Bangkok, for the time I was awake anyways, my leg throbbed and was hot like I had a giant muscle cramp in my calve and a sunburn at the same time. First thing the next morning I headed to the pharmacy around the corner from the hostel and showed them my leg. “I think I may have a Staph infection” I told them “Probably, here take this” the pharmacist said nonchalantly while handing me some cream. I couldn’t believe how everyday circumstance he seemed, like Staph is the common cold in Thailand.

Throughout the Odyssey and my Jiu-Jiu life I’ve been very fortunate to make many good friends that are also educated in medicine, either from their own experiences or that work in the medical field. Only getting an antibiotic cream didn’t sit well with me so I took a picture of what it was and posted it on Facebook with the full story. It wasn’t long before my inbox was full with comments from friends telling me to go back and ask for the pills just to be safe. I finished my Starbucks Matcha latte and croissant (don’t judge me!) and went back to the pharmacy, where now a young woman and an older one were behind the desk. I assumed they were the previous Pharmacist’s family. I told the younger woman my story of coming in earlier and asked for antibiotic pills to be safe and she didn’t hesitate to pull a couple boxes out saying “The cream should be good enough but sure, do you one 1 weeks worth or 2?” And like that I was set to fend off this infection easy and cheap, I even went back again and picked up an extra box of pills for later as a just in case. It’s easier to get antibiotics in Thailand than it is to get cheeseburgers in America.

Remembering the King

The King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, had passed away a year ago, almost to the day of me visiting Bangkok. As the custom in Thailand for remembering royalty, a year later the month of his passing is a commemorative time. Lot of forms of entertainment were put on hold for the month (Actually, it’s gambling that was banned for the month but it’s easier to stop events than hold them and stop gambling) as well as the major temples like the Grand Palace itself, Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Wat Pho, were closed to foreigners, like myself. Because of this my plans for checking out the temples and going out to watch a kickboxing event were cut short. I headed out one night to walk around the temple area to see the crowds of locals dressed in black to pay their respects. I tried to dress appropriately and put on my black pants even though it was way too hot for it but didn’t have a decent black shirt so wore the closest thing, which was my gray BJJ Globetrotters shirt. No one seemed too concerned with my clothes and I wasn’t stopped but I didn’t press my luck or try to get into the temples, instead I just walked around the area to watch the masses pay respect. I’ve never seen any leader in North America shown so much respect by so many of their people, it was like the entire country had made it way to Bangkok to pay their respects. I had been told as much from locals that many families from the far rural areas closed their farms to make the trek. That is a lot of respect. Many of the locals didn’t show up to pray, or rather that wasn’t the only reason, most were there to take pictures of themselves in black with portraits of the late King. My feed on Facebook was full of these pictures by the local newsfeed and friends in the area. The cities throughout Thailand also had big decorated portraits of the late King posted all over like the picture below.

The Sights

I did manage to get out a little bit and see some places, mostly just the market areas That I found or that Vara brought me too. There were some smaller temples that tourists were allowed to enter, that I took pictures of but arrived too late to see inside. Here’s a collection of random tings I saw and took pictures of while wandering around Bangkok.

As I was around the Grand Palace area I was thinking of heading over to see Wat Arun, a famous temple and popular tourist spot, since it’s near by but timing never worked out. I did find the precarious little wharf to carry the small ferry boat over to the other side of the river where Wat Arun is though.

Meeting Vara

While in Bangkok I finally met Vara, the one behind all the helpful information you see when people post on the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group asking about Thailand and the one making sure all of the Globetrotter’s business is running smoothly as Christian’s only full time employee. She’s basically a magical being of organization and information. Vara helped me greatly with planning out my trip to Thailand for both Phuket and Bangkok and I can’t thank her enough for that. The first night we met Vara took me to the night market which is a big area of many tiny booths of all sort of things, food in one area, clothes in another, even some electronics, pretty much everything. Not only did I get to see this cool market but Vara also brought me to the place where the famous picture of the place was taken. The place where all the pro’s go that Vara found is in a multi-level parking lot a few levels up where you can look over the whole market. It’s a cool spot just to lookout and watch the nightlife.

I also took my first Tuk-Tuk ride with Vara and friend who meet with us. It was beneficial having someone who spoke the local language to barter and good price for us as I would have paid a price several times over what Vara managed. They brought me to a great restaurant that was also really cheap that I have no idea where it was but it was an great time. Way better then the various bugs and things on sticks that was at the night market. That’s not my thing to eat. Anyways, we had some great conversations about traveling and training at different places while eating some great food that we all shared. Thanks again Vara for the fun night showing me some of Bangkok I would have otherwise missed.

Bangkok Fight Lab

With the Staph infection there was no possible way I was training BJJ in Bangkok. I was sadly left on the sidelines for the week with my leg bandaged up, but I did come out to meet the gym Vara trains at, Bangkok Fight Lab. I looked up the gym on Facebook and sent a message about coming to visit and saved the address on Google Maps, along with Vara’s directions I found the place no problem. As Vara was running late and I showed up early I was alone in my introduction. I walked through the front doors to the front counter area and watched everyone training Muay Thai on the mat space. I was greeted by people quite quickly, some students, the kickboxing coach and then Morgan the head coach. Everyone was very friendly and happy to have me come visit, and of course saddened to hear I was out of commission and unable to train. It sucked to sit on the sidelines and just watch the whole time but at the same time it was fun to watch a gym I’m not familiar with and see what they were working on and the different details Morgan focused on in his teaching.

Meeting and talking with Morgan was a big surprise and another example of how small the world and the Jiu-Jitsu community really is. During class I noticed that the Bangkok Fight Club banner said they were a Pedro Sauer Associate so I asked Morgan if he got his black belt from Master Pedro himself or one of his students. Morgan confirmed that he indeed received his black belt Master Sauer and inquired why I had asked so I told him of my lineage. His eyes just about popped out of his head when I told Morgan I came from a Pedro Sauer line as well with Kieth Owen as our head black belt. “You train with Kieth?! I know him well, we trained together ever since our blue belts!” Proving that even across the world I will run into close members to my Jiu-Jitsu family, no matter where I am. Probably also why I noticed all his details were very similar to Mr. Keith’s since they’re both students of Master Sauer.

I wish I could have trained with everyone instead of sitting on the sidelines with my leg bandaged up but as I had learned by now you can’t always get want you want, and sometimes just being a spectator for the show is good enough. Morgan was teaching some great techniques that reminded me of some smaller points I had been skipping over as of late, watching him was like going over study notes, getting stronger before a test. The rolls were really energetic, not stiff or rough but also not slow or lazy. I don’t know haw they had the energy for it in the the heat, especially while wearing gis the entire time. I’m sure I would have been dead had I trained with these guys. Despite the set backs for training and sight seeing I had a great time in Bangkok and because of the set backs I now have a good reason to come back and do it all over again. The visiting for sight seeing and training part, not the Staph infection part. Thanks for all the help and good times showing around Vara and thanks for such a warm welcome to your gym Morgan, until we meet again!

After resting and healing for a week I was ready to take off to my next stop, flying half way around the world to meet the Free Rollers and my Australian brother from another mother Luke for a week long training session in San Diego, the Disney World of Jiu-Jitsu! I wrote about my Adventures in San Diego and the 100th Gym Milestone (training with Kurt Osiander) already so my next stop in this blog is the home of those crazy Australians from Free Rollers, Perth Australia!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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melbourne straya.

July 12, 2018/in Blogs/by Bryan Rusell

In 2015, I went over to Melbourne on a couple of occasions and had the joy of catching up with my old friend Ashley Taylor. I have known Ash for quite a while now, we did karate together and he was one of the first people to show me any form of vale tudo/ground game techniques! Like I stated in one of my first blogs, I did not see the jiu jitsu light back then but now, we are rolling around on the tatami’s whenever we get a chance.
The first time I went over was in January, I was over for a concert and to visit a good friend with my wife, plus it was Superbowl Weekend! I actually have friends outside of BJJ believe it or not so my friend Bez was heading to watch the Superbowl just near Barkley Street where the Peter DeBeen HQ academy is based. Perfect, we both kicked goals!
Quick background on the gym, the head coach is Peter DeBeen who is a 5th degree black belt, no easy feat to be had by anyone and especially as he is living in Australia! From what I could find in his bio on the gym’s homepage (debeenjiujitsu.com/history/) and Bjjee.com, Pete is recognised as the first non Brazilians outside of Brazil to get graded to black belt directly by the Gracie family (Carlos Gracie Jr)! He was promoted not long after the original dirty dozen and this is an amazing achievement! His teachings and skills are very well renowned throughout the world and Ash had told me how good it was and I NEEDED to experience this for myself.
I had been to Melbourne for the Pan Pacific champs BJJ competition in 2012 (another post for another day!!) and had met Pete there and found him to be a top quality dude and that is how I measure how “cool” people are. I mean he runs one of the biggest schools in Oz, Koral Australia and he runs the Pan Pacs tournament and I was working as one of the officials there, doing scoring on the mats (best view in the house) and he came over and sat with me just yarning about NZ in general, life and whatever. Down to earth and very easy to get along with. Top bloke.
Anyways, back to my story, you can read about the Pan Pacs another day when I post that! I went along to meet Ash, I left my mate Bez at a bar so he could watch the NFL and my wife and I walked in to the gym. Wow. It was recently upgraded and it was amazing. I had been once before and it was a cool gym then and now it was all brand new Zebra mats, full showered changing rooms, reception, store, the works! Awesome set up and Ash was there waiting for me. We got into it straight away, Pete took the class and it was uber hot, like I was sweating bullets. I was there doing a sober trip so I wasn’t hungover or anything and I am really glad, that would have probably topped me off! I am not sure why or how but I am blessed with a gift of being able to recall almost every lesson I have taken in BJJ, regardless of the time, date, location etc. I may not remember every specific detail but I can almost bring up everything i have been taught and what I cant remember, I have written most of my lessons down so I can review! It is a gift but oddly enough it is only in BJJ this applies. I cannot remember what my wife told me 2 seconds ago but I am writing this post now off the top of my head and can literally picture the whole class and details! We warmed up with specific positional sparring (guard passing) before the technique was covered. Now this was different to any other training I had done as we only covered one technique, it was closed guard and an arm bar from a lapel grip which got their arm isolated between our legs and the lapel grip and using the hip clamp pressure, the same side foot would go on the hip and bringing the knees together, it put a lot of pressure on the elbow. It was class. I use it to this day and it either brings a sub or creates good angles to move to a sweep, use the loop choke and so many other transitions. How cool is jiu jitsu!!!!
I rolled so many people that day after the class, Chris Burns was there (Bones who draws all the Tatami images) and Ash and Bones are good mates, they were both brown belts at the time who both are now black belts and holy moly, I have never rolled a person like Bones. He was so relaxed, it was honestly like we had already rolled and gone back in time so he could do it again but knew everything I was going to do well before I did! Amazing technical knowledge and no energy, it was the jits I needed to learn! He showed me some good half guard stuff after he wiped the floor with me and after about 2 hours or so of training, I was super drained of sweat and energy!
I could actually write another huge and hilarious piece about how I found Berry after the Superbowl and the state he was in but cannot due to various legal reasons lol!

It was such a cool experience, I have been back since and trained with Ash and the Peter DeBeen team and highly recommend that everyone goes there to train. The team has such a high calibre of talent, they win so many competitions but they were all awesome to train with, no egos and the class was great. Learnt a lot from that 1 technique and Pete rolls around with everyone, I missed out but I am going to return to get a roll with him!
Long story short, check out the gym, look up videos on the team and really, you need to head over to Melbourne and train there. The BJJ scene in Melbourne is awesome and this gym was the most awesome-est!

Big Oss to my friend, Ash “Head Dragon” Taylor.

“I wasn’t a good student, even now I never say that I am better than anybody. But I know I love jiu jitsu more than anybody. I love the energy and that it gets deeper the more you study.” – Marcelo Garcia

The Open Source Project

July 12, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert

In Moldova I did all of my work as a volunteer, which means I didn’t get paid by my students at all. The Peace Corps gave me a stipend which was based on the average teacher’s salary in the country, and I was otherwise free to try and keep myself occupied through service. Our approach to the creation of our business and teaching models here at Open Source Jiu-Jitsu (OSBJJ) here in Asheville, NC, USA, has been significantly shaped and molded by my experience with the years I put into the Moldova project. In many ways, OSBJJ is just an overall extension of the Moldova project.

The term “open source”, for those of you who don’t know, is a computer term “denoting software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified”… at least according to one open-source online dictionary.

We take this initial software idea and extend it further, modifying, or, if you’d prefer, “open sourcing” it to be in line with our values as responsible business owners and members of the community. Most of our classes offer a “pay-what-you-want” model, which means that we suggest a range of prices, and the student pays that price or maybe nothing at all. This way, we can reach as many people as possible who are interested in jiu-jitsu, regardless of their income, and it forces myself or other instructors to provide the best possible experience for our students. We’ve officially been open for a full year now and this payment model has been working out amazingly well so far.

While we’re a completely unaffiliated jiu-jitsu school, our core values conspicuously resemble those of the BJJ Globetrotters community. Furthermore, we believe that the skill, or even art of teaching, is a different skill than that of BJJ ability/knowledge. Therefore, it’s important that we make a concerted effort to try and teach only what we know really well, and that the people teaching what they know really well are able to do this as effectively as possible, regardless of their belt level or affiliation. For example, if I want to show O Soto Gari as part of our takedown module and I happen to have a judo-based fighter on hand who can create a coherent lesson plan, why wouldn’t we want to tap into that as students/consumers?

The great part about this business model is that it forces us to keep it real; we can’t just phone it in, because otherwise people see right through it and we don’t get paid. Also, since people pay per class, we can’t just decide to cancel classes for the day. In the end, the positive side of this model is that I feel like we get more students on the mat, and it’s great for the consumer. The downside is that we don’t get paid as much per student as some other gyms do. But for real, if we’re really all about “BJJ for everybody”, this is the realest way to actually make it happen!

Well, that’s enough propaganda from me for today. I’m only 3 weeks out from my departure date, so I guess I’d better get posting! It still feels like a distant trip to me; I’m so focused on all the projects we have going on here that I haven’t really been able to contemplate long and hard about this trip.

All right… stay tuned! More posts coming soon!

Napoli – Benevento – Salerno

July 11, 2018/in Blogs/by Christian De Pierro

Hello Globetrotters

After Pescara I took a 4 hours ride to Napoli, that was stretched to a 6 hours ride with a stop at a local restaurant in the mountains and a little stop at a petrol station due to the heat this day. At the petrol station I recognized immediately that I arrived to the south. The guy from the petrol station went out, I looked tired at him and said: “Just making a stop, it’s too hot”. And he said: “Yeah of course, give me your backpack.” He helped me taking me off my backpack and took a chair outside for me to sit on and offered me some water. Guys, this is where I’m from, hospitality and a big heart everywhere. BUT: like the people here have a big heart for good things, they have it also for bad things. I stayed two days in Napoli and I think I could write a book just about this short time.

Let’s keep the stories short. First of all, I was hosted by a german girl living in Napoli. The house was a shared flat by 5 or 6 people and there were always some 2-5 people there that didn’t live there. Imagine you go to the kitchen, there stands a girl that I never saw before, she said “Hi”, I said “Hi” and then she asked: “Do you live here?”, I replied: “No, and you?”, “Me neither”. Yeah situations like this happened in this house. And the called themselves all Sowjet’s (I didn’t get why, because I didn’t have the opportunity to spend much time with them).

After my long trip to Napoli I went to train, where I met some awesome guy’s. I told to a guy: “I’m bad at takedowns, I usually pull guard” he then asked “Oh, does your boyfriend know that?” He immediately became my friend and the next day he invited me to his home and we stayed out till 5 o’clock in the morning.

Oh and that’s how I look like in the meantime, cause always training in a different gym as a lightweight you always face sneaky techniques that you didn’t expect or didn’t know they even existed.

After Napoli I went to Benevento, where my grandparents live. I ate a lot of good stuff from the garden and I helped my grandmother doing the hard work that they can’t do because of their age.

Why is the food so much better at my grandparents home than in other restaurant’s? Not because of her special recipes, but because they work hard day for day in the garden, to make their own stuff rather than chilling in front of the TV and buy the stuff at the supermarket (for anyone who asks himself, how he could become a great cook like my southitalian grandmother ;))

Regarding bjj, I needed to drive for 1:10h to the gym in Salento. I met there Giulio, one of the first Blackbelts in Italy. He explained me, how BJJ evolved in Italy, who the first person were and how they did progress. Giulio had his academy and taught there in his school, for now nearly 15 years. It was a pleasure to meet an italian BJJ-Legend

And that’s how it looks like, where my father comes from. These are my ROOTS

Next Stop is Bari & Lecce. Hopefully my vespa doesn’t get stolen (South of Italy is beautiful and not so dangerous, but they steal car’s and bicycle’s).

Kind regards

Chrisian

Pescara

July 11, 2018/in Blogs/by Christian De Pierro

Hey guys

I took some vacation from my travel, meaning that I went to visit my Uncle and my Aunt in Chieti and just hanging at the beach all day. It’s not the most beautiful beach, especially the last 10-20 year’s the beach changed in a bad way. I remember when I was 8 years old and staying 4-5 Weeks on my summer vacation in the clear water.

Even though I’m on my holiday’s I can’t miss BJJ. I went to train in Chieti, where the Instructor Marco welcomed me very warmly. Eventhough he was a purple belt, I felt like he was teaching on a high level: stretching, warm up and techniques were showed in a proper manner and the guy’s were some strong sparring partner’s. After chilling the whole day at the beach, the first day all my cardio stayed at the beach and I felt like suffocating. Slowly my body took got used to the hard-chilling at the beach and I found my old me 2 days later. On the last day of training we went to a restaurant and spent a fun night together till 1 o’clock in the morning ending it with a stop at a local gelateria.

I took another trip to Pescara, which was like 30 minute’s with my vespa away from my uncle’s home. The instructor was Pino, a blackbelt which just recently won the absolute category in blackbelt (master 3 or 4) in the big tournament which took place one week ago in Florence. He couldn’t roll anymore, because he’s back was destroyed after the tournament. Good recovery Professor Pino!

The training was good and the gym location was beautiful, had also some good sparing partner’s & Pino was happy to have me there, letting me roll with his 17 year old son, a 4-Stripe white Belt. I think, that’s one that every BJJ Practicioner dreams of: getting his son involved into BJJ and seeing him breaking through the limit’s that oneself couldn’t break through. How to manage that? One mystery of life that I will hopefully resolve once!

Now let’s have another look on a speciality of the Abbruzze: Arrosticini. spit-roasted sheep, a local speciality. For every Person, that goes in this region, this is a must do!! My girlfriend tried them the first time two years ago, and she’s going crazy about this stuff.

Well and that was it more or less from this week, what should I speak more about? The sounds of the waves were really relaxing when I was taking a nap under the sunshade :D

Sunny regards

Christian

Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu (Sinchon, Seoul, Korea)

July 11, 2018/in Blogs/by J.W. Seo

Seoul, Korea — Before starting a new adventure, I briefly returned to Seoul. In Seoul, I had an opportunity to reconnect and return a favor to my globetrotter friend, Evan, who I met at Blows MMA in Osaka, Japan. As we were both staying near the Hongdae / Sinchon district in Seoul, we decided to visit Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu.

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

City
Seoul is the capital city of the Republic of Korea. The city is a modernized metropolis where high-tech modern skyscrapers meet K-pop culture and historical tourist attractions. It is also home to about half of the country’s population. You will never find it monotonous to be in Seoul as the city is full of various tourist attractions.

Overview
Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu is one of the John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu affiliates in Seoul. John Frankl, a professor at Korea’s Yonsei University, was one of the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu professors who initially introduced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to South Korea, and there are numerous John Frankl affiliated gyms all around South Korea. The instructor at Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu, Chang-Kuk Jung, is a black belt under John Frankl.

Classes were led by Professor Jung. Although he seems like a silent type, he was humorous and engaging during the class. On the weekends, the classes were packed with 30–40 students, but the gym is spacious enough to host all of the students. As the gym is in the heart of Seoul, it is common to meet expats and BJJ Globetrotters visiting Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu. The gym is extremely traveler-friendly with its convenient late night and weekend classes.

Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu is located near the Hongdae / Sinchon district, which is filled with popular restaurants and clubs. In addition, various tourist attractions in Seoul can be found in the surrounding area. I would recommend staying around these districts rather than Gangnam in Seoul. Then, with its late evening classes and weekend classes, there is no excuse not to visit Sinchon John Frankle Jiu-Jitsu while traveling South Korea.

Location
Sinchon Jiu-Jitsu is located in Sinchon, Seoul. As Seoul is a massive city, it could be a rather long trip to the gym depending on your location. Luckily, the public transportation in Seoul is well-established, and you can easily access the gym via subway. The closest station to the gym is Sinchon Station on line 2. The gym is located above Paris Baguette bakery about a 5-minute walking distance from Sinchon Station’s exit 1. There is a staircase next to Paris Baguette, and the gym is located on the 3rd floor. (Google Map: Link)

Facility
Sinchon Jiu-Jitsu has a sizable mat space with men’s and women’s locker rooms. The gym does not have any other fitness amenities since it is a traditional Jiu-Jitsu gym.

Schedule
Sinchon John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Morning Classes: Monday — Friday 10:30–12:00
Evening Classes: Monday — Friday 17:30–19:00 / 19:30–21:00
Night Classes: Tuesday & Thursday 21:30–23:00
Open Mat: Friday 21:00–24:00
Weekend Classes: Saturday & Sunday 13:00–15:00

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is ₩30,000 (~$27 USD) per class.
<<Exchange Rate: 10,000 won =~$8.9 USD as of July 5th, 2018>>

Tourist Attractions

Gyeongbokgung Palace — The palace built in 1395 served as the home for Kings of the Joseon Dynasty. It is one of my favorite tourist attractions to visit in Seoul for its beautiful scenery. You can rent traditional Korean attires (Hanbok) around the surrounding area which will waive your entrance fee.

N Seoul Tower — Located on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, the tower itself marks the second highest point in Seoul. You can either ride a cable car or hike up the mountain. The view looking down Seoul from the tower is simply remarkable.

Myeong-dong — The district is famous for its shopping and eating packed with high-end brands and department stores. Also, you could easily locate various restaurants that suit your taste ranging from Korean dishes to international cuisines.

Lotte World — Located in the heart of Seoul, Lotte World is a large indoor and outdoor amusement park. The theme park is filled with exciting rides, an ice rink, and parades. Foreigners can get special discount tickets for the amusement park.

Banpo Bridge — The bridge is located on Han River, and every evening the bridge creates a spectacular show with water, music, and light. Grab yourself Korean fried chicken and beer and go near the bridge to enjoy the night in Seoul.

Nightlife — Hongdae / Itaewon — Both areas are packed with clubs and venues that are open all night. Brace yourselves before going out in these areas!

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website (Korean)

Source
– Seoul Map

The Trip

July 4, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert

All right… since this is a travel blog after all, I should probably talk a little bit about my itinerary and my expectations. Let’s do that now…

I’ll be flying out of the Greenville, SC airport in the morning of August 8th. I’ll have a ~10-hour layover in Washington, DC, and I plan on spending time with an old friend (who, coincidentally, served with me in Peace Corps). It would be really nice to drop in to a gym out in DC, but in the end, friends and family will inevitably always take precedence over pajama wrasslin’. It will be nice to see him again before gearing up for my trans-continental flight to Germany.

My next stop will be a 2-hour layover in Munich. I will, predictably, be completely wiped out by the time I get to the Munich airport since I really can’t sleep on airplanes or any form of transportation. I’ve always envied people who can just turn themselves off like a light switch and go to sleep almost anywhere, but this is unfortunately not in my nature. The upside to this is I’m really great to have around for late night road trips.

Finally, I’m planning on getting into the Bucharest airport in the afternoon of the 9th. The BJJ camp in Bulgaria will have already begun by this point in time, and at the time of writing I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to get from Bucharest to Sozopol. I will most likely continue to have no concrete plan for travel from here on out: in my experience, travel planning for Eastern Europe is notoriously difficult to do. Nobody else really plans for anything, so I guess when in Rome… right?

The Bulgaria BJJ camp ends on the 12th, and from there I’m guessing that Sandu and I will be making a b-line for Moldova, but I’m totally at the mercy of Eastern Europeans so really anything could happen. Sandu says he wants to put on a couple seminars while I’m there, but other than that, I’ll just be trying to absorb some of the culture, seeing old friends and old places and otherwise doing the tourist thing in Moldova for maybe a week or so. After that, it’s back to Bucharest, where I’ll presumably have a couple days to see what’s new in the city and to see friends.

Since I’m a US citizen, I won’t need a visa for any of the 3 countries I’ll be visiting. This isn’t to say that I’m expecting everything to be smooth sailing. While my passport is still valid, it is almost 10 years old and therefore about to expire. I was a good deal heavier than I am now when I took my passport picture, and I’m one of those people who looks like a completely different person depending on how much I weigh. On top of all this, I have a million stamps from Romania and Moldova (I had to get new pages added to my passport at one point) and just to make my success rate at crossing borders that much more interesting, I’d spent 2 years as an illegal immigrant in Romania already so I’m crossing my fingers that doesn’t raise any red flags.

In the end, I’ll have no less than 10 border agents to convince that I am who I say I am, that I’m there legally, and for them to let me into their country (including my own).

I’ll be posting more on my trip as we get further along in this blog. I’m going to post a packing list which may be helpful for future travelers to this part of the world. I’ll most likely have to make some posters for my seminars in Moldova so I’ll be sure to post those as well. I’ll definitely have some more information as it gets closer and closer to being time for me to leave, but for now though, you will need some more background stories.

Blog 2 — Injury Verdict & Baby Donkey

July 3, 2018/in Blogs/by Derrick Kersey

When most people hear “RV”, I think they tend imagine a giant bus, or an old dirty trailer. We have neither of those. We travel around and live in our Roadtrek 190 “Class B” RV. Imagine a very large, high quality camper van. It had only a single previous owner before us who kept it in immaculate condition (It’s a 1993 and had traveled only 60,000 km when we purchased). We have a solar system, stove, refrigerator, shower, toilet, and a house air conditioner as well as a furnace. Our goal is to be as self contained and sufficient as possible so that we’re free to travel to wherever we choose without any restriction. Finding places for my dirty Gis during heavy training periods has been an interesting challenge. I’ll usually hang all of my wet stuff off one of the bikes on the back of the RV for it to dry, then fold it tight and pack it into the laundry basket until the next coin laundry visit.

Here’s our RV parked at Sarah’s sisters’ farm.

My temporary drying rack for my Gi’s. I plan on building an exterior compartment for them.

We’ve been bouncing between staying at family members’ places, our rental properties and various locations that would have a nice view to wake up to. I usually train at my home gym Gracie Barra twice a day. Once in the morning teaching a private and once at night for class.

I had just finished a private lesson one morning when we received a phone call from Sarah’s sister. She happens to live on a beautiful farm, about 30 minutes outside of the city. She was wondering if we would like to come visit our niece and nephew as well as the new baby donkey that she had just taken possession of for the weekend. Sarah cried out in joy. The donkey’s owner was heading out of town for the weekend and needed someone to look after her. So of course we went. We helped with a bit of the care taking. It needed to be fed every four hours. We covered the midnight feeding and my brother in law was getting up at 4 AM for his feeding shift. Apparently even for being just one week old, donkeys are quite smart and very able bodied. It was sprinting all over the property and was even responding to commands.

After a couple days at the farm we then traveled about 2 hours North to visit my parents in Kitchener. We park at their condo and I use one of our two bikes that’s mounted to the back of our RV to get to and from training. The bikes come in handy to get somewhere quickly for when we’d like to keep the RV stationary. However, we usually find ourselves so far out from civilization that exchanging both bikes for a mounted motorcycle may be in the plans for the near future. Still working out some of the details for that.

View from the condo. A lot of green and a lot of construction. That’s Kitchener in a nutshell.

When in Kitchener I split my training up between a couple of places. One is with a handful of guys (most from different affiliations) in a finished basement gym location and the other is at Guardhouse BJJ. On this recent trip visiting my parents I did some training at Guardhouse BJJ. They are noticeably welcoming and run great classes. There seemed to be belts of all colors and about 20+ students in the classes. We did some conditioning to warm up, discussed and drilled techniques and got a few sparring rounds in. I had a good time here and will definitely return.

After a class at Guardhouse BJJ. Owner Mike Diggins front and center.

After spending a few days in Kitchener we returned South back to London. There’s actually a heat wave all over southern Ontario right now with temperatures in the mid 30’s, feeling like the mid 40’s with humidity. This means we will remain fairly stationary for the time being in a single location so that we can plug in to grid power and use our in-house air conditioner throughout the day. Our solar system powers basically everything we need without having to worry about running low, except for the air conditioner. This requires more power than the solar could keep up with, so using some power from the grid is necessary on these super hot days.

This last weekend was Canada Day, a federal statutory holiday, Canada Day is the anniversary of the forming of the country’s independence through the uniting of the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada. We knew that with the combination of the heat wave going on and the long weekend coming, meant that all of the beaches around were going to be insanely busy. We decided to join in but instead, head to one of the less popular beaches, located within Port Bruce Provincial Park. This is a very small beach that still ended up being very busy.

I received some good news at this time. When I first crossed over into the US nine months ago, I sustained an injury during training. It seemed to be an innocent, accidental knee to the groin. No big deal. I thought nothing of it and continued training. It was a couple days later however, when I was still feeling some pain that I decided this probably isn’t normal and I should maybe get checked out by a doctor (thank you travelers insurance). Sure enough, both the US doctor and now my family doctor confirmed — bilateral inguinal hernia. So good news? Kind of. I’m in very little, to no pain and after some back and forth with the Doctor and a specialist clinic, I’m scheduled for surgery on August 7. I’ve been informed it is a very routine surgery and a quick recovery time, about 3 to 4 weeks until you’re back to full ability. I consider myself fairly lucky that I’ve been able to train at almost 100% until this point. I feel excited knowing I will be able to have surgery and recover before heading out on the road again come the fall. Sustaining such an injury only weeks into our first loop of North America was disappointing to say the least. Especially when considering that if I needed any kind of surgery, I was going to be spending a lot of money to have it done in the US. Luckily, I was able to train for the next few months without a problem so long as I was mindful of the injury. Now that we have a timeline of surgery and know that it will happen this year, we are planning our next route around the continent while considering the places we’d like to visit, tournaments I’d like to compete at, people we want to spend time with and gyms I’d like to train at. It is a very unique balance that we are still working on.

Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World (Jeju Island, Korea)

June 29, 2018/in Blogs/by J.W. Seo

Jeju Island, Korea — After returning from Gyeongju, I decided to travel to Jeju Island, which I personally believe is one of the most underrated tourist destinations in Korea. Thanks to low-fare airlines, I was able to book my one-way flight for ₩20,000 (~$18 USD) from Seoul, and the duration of the flight was just under an hour. I cannot recommend visiting Jeju Island highly enough if you’re planning to visit Korea. In Jeju Island, I had an opportunity to train at Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World.

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

City
Jeju Island is the largest island in Korea located 450km south of Seoul. Jeju is one of the most popular domestic holiday destinations thanks to its white beaches and subtropical climate. It’s also a volcanic island with the highest mountain in Korea, Hallasan. The whole island is filled with nature wonders including lava caves and waterfalls. Jeju Island is a must visit in Korea.

Overview
Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World is the first John Frankl Jiu-Jitsu affiliate in Jeju Island. John Frankl, a professor at Korea’s Yonsei university, was one of the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu professors who initially introduced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to South Korea, and there are numerous John Frankl team affiliated gyms all around South Korea. The instructor at Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World, Yoonsang Jang, is a purple belt under John Frankl.

Given that Jeju island is a popular holiday destination, it is common for Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World to frequently host BJJ Globetrotters. In addition, with various John Frankl team affiliates around Korea, Jiu-Jitsu World became a famous spot for affiliated team members to visit after enjoying their vacation in Jeju. As a result, the gym has a welcoming atmosphere to visitors.

Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World mainly focuses on Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but occasionally offers no-gi classes for the hot and humid summer in Jeju. Although Jiu-Jitsu World is a relatively new Jiu-Jitsu gym in the area, the number of students is increasing, and it recently opened the second facility in Jeju. With its late evening classes, Jiu-Jitsu World is a fantastic way to end a long day of sightseeing in Jeju by sneaking away from your family or friends.

Location
Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World is in Jeju-si, Jeju in the northern part of the island. The city itself is located only 5km east of the Jeju International airport. Although public transportation exists on the island, in order to reach major tourist attractions and natural landscapes, renting a car remains the best option for traveling Jeju island. It is still possible to travel Jeju with public transportation, but it is not worth waiting for buses due to their long intervals. (Google Map: Link)

Facility
Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World has a spacious and spotless mat with men’s and women’s locker rooms and showers. The gym also includes basic weight training equipment including bench press and dumbbells for the strength training.

Schedule
Jeju Jiu-Jitsu World’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Morning classes: Monday & Wednesday & Thursday 11:00–12:10
Evening classes: Monday — Friday 19:30–20:40 / 21:20–22:30

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is ₩20,000 (~$18 USD) per class.
<<Exchange Rate: 10,000 won =~$9.1 USD as of June 17th, 2018>>

Tourist Attractions

Hallasan — Hallasan is a massive shield volcano that rises in the center of Jeju island. It remains the highest mountain in South Korea topping at 1950m. The steep hike to the top, which takes approximately 6 hours, is quite challenging, but it will reward you with a unique view of Jeju Island. If you are planning a trip to Jeju, you should put Hallasan first on your list.

Seongsan Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak) — The volcanic crater was formed by hydro-volcanic eruptions. It is commonly referred as a sunrise peak in Korea due to its magnificent view during the sunrise. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative when I visited, but you should try your luck when you visit Jeju.

Manjanggul — The lava tube is a UNESCO World Heritage formed by volcanic lava. The cave holds a variety of interesting structures created by lava.

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall — Its name literally means “where sky connects land.” The waterfall is surrounded by a beautiful park.

Hallim Park / Hyeopjae Beach — The area is where the beautiful white color of the sands meets cute local cafes and restaurants.

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website (Korean)

Source
– Jeju Map
– Hallim Park / Hyeopjae Beach

London/Dublin/Toronto

June 27, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

So another week of random travels passed and some more random adventure. This time a drunken conversation led me to book some last minute flights from Calgary to London and back to Toronto.

A quick overnight flight and straight into things in London, UK.

If you haven’t been to London then you need to get there. It was my home for several years so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do; Train and eat Vietnamese food.

I was met by a non BJJ friend named Terence. A loud South African who has recently gotten the gym bug. So we immediately hit the weights. Probably a bad idea after a red eye flight from Canada.

We promptly went and had a drink.

Sunday rolled around and I met my brother over at a ridiculously Globetrotter friendly academy. New Wave Academy in Croydon is one of my favourite places to visit on a lazy Sunday. They run an open mat and the guys there are welcoming to all comers. I have personally learned a lot each time I am there and their higher level guys are more than happy to show you what they just used to tie you into a taut line hitch. A few shoutouts have to go to Paul Forrest, Rob Hughes and Danny Anderson. 3 top class blokes!

I met up with some friends who flew in from Dublin to hang out for a few days and we took in some of the sights. There are a million blogs and articles that have all the cool stuff that London offers but if you have to just do a small few things I would recommend you hit up South Bank market for some food. Have a stroll down along the river and get pissed in some fancy pubs. I would recommend The American bar at the Savoy if you want to feel like a rich person (followed by feeling extreme poverty after you pay the bill!) Also, get to Flatiron Steakhouse in Covent Garden. £11 for a steak and salad. Genuinely one of the best steaks in London. .

During the trip I then decided that I cant fly half way across the world to London and not stop off in Ireland. I jumped a quick flight to Dublin, cooked some steak on a bbq for the family and got to visit the home of Conor McGregor (also home of Ireland’s first BJJ black belt, John Kavanagh),Straight Blast Gym on the Naas road the following morning for a quick session with my brother, Ger. Some of you will meet him at the Iceland camp in a few weeks. He is still new to BJJ but, so far, has definitely benefitted more from the art than almost anyone I have ever met. We had some tough rolls and both of us left SBG a sweaty mess.

Have a look at what a Summer BBQ in Ireland entails!

So after a total of 18 hours, an almost lost passport and 2 flights, I made my way back to London to get in a second session with Checkmat Wimbledon and Carl Fisher’s merry bunch of Jiujitsu-ers.

Going back to the Wimbledon club was great. An awesome welcome and a chance to roll with some of the old crew was exactly what my travel weary brain needed. It just takes so little mental effort when you get to a club where you feel at home!

So a 7 day trip to the UK&Ireland was closed out with a LOT of alcohol while meeting up with friends over the weekend. My Girlfriend Sarah made it to London with her family for a couple of days on the Friday and we got to celebrate with some good food and drink. Sarah and I jumped on the plane back to Toronto and I managed to get in a couple more sessions at Checkmat Toronto with coach Chris Greenwood.

He is a legend and his guys really looked after me.

I am now back in Calgary and will be moving on from here in around 6 weeks. I look forward to seeing what there is to see in Alberta before hitting British Columbia. We will then be hopping a flight to Australia to continue our adventures. Anybody in AB,BC or AUS please feel free to hit me us as I will be heading your way and visiting as many academies along the way!

facebook.com/mckennagraeme or graememckenna11 on IG

That is all for now. Stay tuned for the upcoming Calgary adventures!

Perugia – Spoleto

June 27, 2018/in Blogs/by Christian De Pierro

After Siena my way went on to Perugia, the capital of Udinese. The trip there was beautiful and I feel happy to drive around with my vespa. I’m not taking many photos while driving, cause I’m enjoying driving around too much and behind every hill there is another beautiful landscape, waiting to get seen from me.

The hostel I stayed was one half for visitors and the other half for refugees. I had the luck to stay in my room with a homeless guy who just recently got kicked out from his room. Please understand I have no problems toward being homeless and everyone has their struggles in life, but this guy smelled like hell and made the stay in Perugia not so comfy. I inivted him to two times to eat with me, cause apparently he was spending all his money to sleep in the hostel and he said himself: “Sometimes I don’t eat for 10 day’s, it can happen” But man, I train a lot and he ate the same portion’s like me. I wish him all the best for his future life and hopefully he will make more use of a shower…

Perugia had two trainings each day and I went to each one of them. The gym consisted of only big guy’s and with my 68 kg I had a lot to compensate technically. Most of the guys had a big heart and the professor Giordano Brozzi helped me a lot. He showed me where my BJJ showed some weaknesses and tried to work with me on them. The most I loved about this gym, that Giordano sometimes at the beginning of the training said: “Let’s just roll today” (these are my fav trainings :D)

Giordano also organized an evening to have food together with the guys from the gym that I enjoyed a lot. On this evening I had the opportunity to feel the Udinesian spirit of these guys; they literally sued about God in every second sentence (which is really bad in italian) and I laughed my ass off that evening. And I felt the first time in Italy like I’m struggling to understand every word, cause the dialect starts to differ from the normal Italian that everbody speaks in school. Now heading more and more to the south the dialects will become more complexe.

The city itself didn’t catch me that much (I didn’t put much effort in it though), cause training two times a day made me tired.

After Perugia I went on to Spoleto, where I just stayed one night. I just stayed at home, ate, slept and did nothing despite training in the evening. Giuliano got his blackbelt just one month ago from Giordano Broozi and most of the guys were skipping training cause they had a tournament on the next day in Florence, so we were just 4 guys in training but with Giuliano every third round I got tired enough (he weights some 20 kg more than me :D).

So Giu, when you’re reading this: I thank you for the sparring round’s and you’re always welcome when you want to come to Switzerland. Oss!

And now, let’s head to Pescara and get some holidays at the beach! ;)

our own backyard.

June 27, 2018/in Blogs/by Bryan Rusell

In July 2017, I was lucky enough to travel up to Wellington for work to take part in the New World Wine awards, I know it’s a tough job, but someone had to do it! With New Zealand being a small place and probably home to about 4 degrees of separation, I already had family and friends living there to catch up with and of course, one of them trains BJJ! My good friend Ben Venn moved there from Christchurch for job working with the Phoenix football team (another amazing job) so I made contact with him and arranged to train with Geoff Grant at the GSW branch in Wellington. Geoff is affiliated to the Will/Machado team and so is our head instructor in Perth, Stacey Wilson so it is nice to join up with extended BJJ family plus I had met one of Geoff’s black belts Brad Kora a few years back when Hayden Wilson had a match with him in Wellington at the Artaxias event. Another top dude and an example of the team/family that each BJJ school builds so I already knew it was going to be a great time at the gym. Actually I think you all need to check out GSW’s website and Facebook page as the team have some classic videos showcasing Geoff’s training style and use of language! Very similar to the Kurt Osiander training I experienced in San Francisco and also the same way I like to train and coach, if everyone is having fun they will continue to train with you.
Caio Terra once said something along the lines of in BJJ the coaches all teach and do the same things, it is only HOW they do them that defines them.
So, with contact made I was set! It was again a super friendly team who told me I was welcome to join in and I took the chance to hit a double class. I made it in for the 6:30pm beginner class and asked if it was cool if I did this one and the next as rolled it into the advanced class afterwards. Geoff was super cool and let me do both, he even laughed when I offered to pay a drop in fee! I was super stoked, a double class!

Great facilities in the gym, huge mat area and changing rooms etc. All set up very professionally and open. I went and got changed and thought sweet, I will warm up and my good buddy Ben will be here soon. He had been through shoulder surgery so was not able to train but was going to be there for a hi 5 and standard shaka.
I put my mouth guard down with my water and phone, glasses into the case and bowed onto the mats. Now, for those that know me, once my glasses come off I am basically blind. I have the long distance vision of Mr Magoo and I squint intensely to try and focus on what blurry shape I am looking at to gauge an idea of what it is! I could not see anything, phone was in the corner but accessing this is a no-no unless you are the coach and you are using it as a timer! I just assumed he would show up and casually watch until the end. I cannot see so would just hear him and then catch up after training. I would later find out that when I checked my texts, Ben had stood me up for the Game of Thrones episode, yes, I was played second fiddle to the Mother of Dragons. In hindsight, it was an understandable reason, but it did not stop me telling Geoff this though and pushing Ben under the bus! You’re welcome buddy!

The class kicked off, nice warm up, good drills to get hips ready and we went through far side arm bars from the side control position. Geoff took this and explained how to really cement the position and keep control before advancing to the submission. We did a number of variations through how to get the same result which is awesome, I really like the use of the concepts to learn techniques. This was a 1 hour class and was a really good one. We stayed on the mats for the advanced class. This was taken again by Geoff.
Now, I do get hit in the head and also have blood supply to my brain restricted at times but I am pretty sure we went through positional sparring for guard passing in the advanced class (?) It was quite a few rounds on this with points and advice given to each of us during the live practice, and again, the same instruction level was given by Geoff for all the students. However it was more the attention to each person as an individual as opposed to blanket teaching the technique that really hit me in the feels, as we all know, everyone is different in BJJ – body types, sizes, learning ability and confidence so it is really good to see people learning this way, makes it feel as though it is a personal lesson for us all and this is a difficult thing to achieve as a coach!

Last up, we went had rolling rounds. This are always fun and difficult to gauge as a higher grade visiting a gym. I always aim to play a good defensive BJJ game working on control and not necessarily submissions solely so I am happy to roll my normal way but it is pre-empting the way the partners will roll and how much they will attack that is the conundrum. Top players here. No stress on people looking to hurt each other, very high level of rolling and control used. I really enjoyed myself, it was 10 minute rounds so very tough time limit to work in but it’s part of the game and we all hard the same parameters! I got to roll with a great range of grades and people sizes, being 5’9″ and 73kg I am not too small but I am definitely not big either so it was great to have such a variety of training partners. I got to roll with Darren Brown who is a black belt at the school, amazing open guard and x guard player and this was great fun. Also a very funny man so it is always a better roll when we are having fun and sharing laughs – plus I had to have something I could do as his skill level was very difficult to try anything on him! I really enjoyed rolling at the gym and thoroughly recommend people making contact or just coming down to train if they are in the area, either visiting or living! Great learning environment, all good dudes and dudettes that I met, really embodied the jiu jitsu lifestyle and showed great character! I put in a photo from their Facebook page, it shows Darren Brown and Geoff that I trained with, also has Brad Kora when he got his black belt, Patrick Te Tau and Phillip Stenhouse (I forgot to get a photo when I trained!) I missed out training with Phil Stenhouse and Pat Te Tau unfortunately. I have watched Pat compete many times and met him at competitions as well, another man with crazy jiu jitsu and I would really like to get a chance to train and roll with him at some stage, another trip must be in order when I return to New Zealand! Thank you for the hospitality that Geoff and his team showed me, I hope to be back in the near future, OSS!!!

“Greatness and madness are next door neighbours and they borrow each other’s sugar.” Joe Rogan

Florence – Siena

June 27, 2018/in Blogs/by Christian De Pierro

Hey globetrotters

My travel went on from Lucca to Florence, where I gazed at the beautiful landscape of tuscany. Florence itself had it‘s beautiful spots and most italians like florence, calling it one of the most beautiful cities in Italy. Well, I wasn‘t so convinced about that. The dome had no piazza, so you could only stand some meters before the amazing building. But the river with it‘s bridges was kind of cute and the sandwiches were amazing! Oh and the statue of michel angelo with the naked man was everywhere…

Now to the important part. A hotspot for BJJ in italy is florence, and a famous gym there was Tribe Jiu Jitsu led by Luca Caracciolo, a former Judo blackbelt who got his BJJ blackbelt in something around 6.5 years. The level was high and since they were preparing for the biggest tournament in Italy, Luca focused on showing the basics and doing much sparring and he welcomed me as a host and I really wished I could soend some more time training with them!

I couldn’t find a place to stay in florence so I needed to leave after 2 days, the prices per night raised up to 150 dollars for a 10 bed room 30 km outside from the city center in the period of time I was there (ha ha ha).

When I started to Siena I looked up to the sky seeing the grey clouds. Thinking of myself how intelligent I am, I already put on my rain protection and started my way to Siena. After 5 minutes it started raining and every rain drop had the size of one gallon. Standing on a bridge with my vespa, being unable to move in any direction, I felt like my underwear got soaked with cold water slowly but steady progressing till the coldness reached my balls. And I couldn‘t do anything about it. It rained like that for another hour of my two hours trip to Siena. Eventhough the landscape was one of the most beautiful I saw till now, I couldn‘t enjoy any of it, I just wanted to change my clothes and be in a warm bed!!

Through Airbnb I found a place where students lived from Iran and Turkey. The guys cooked for me the first night and after 5 days in Siena I left with having found some good friends!

The level of BJJ in Siena was mediocre, despite the coach most of them were white belt’s or fresh bluebelt, but their welcoming character was outstanding! The took me on saturday to an openmat in Florence and on Sunday to a Judocamp with Newaza. Despite taking me everywhere to train, they were also eager to go out to grab some food together. They are not training partners, they are a family!

Now imagine as a traveler finding a place to sleep where you have good friends and a place to train where they offer you a place in their heart how hard it was for me to leave Siena. But that’s how life is… If you get too comfortable, your personality can’t grow and in my eyes that’s one of the most essential part about traveling. Bye bye Siena ;)

Katia

June 25, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert

Katia’s story represents one of my many failures in jiu-jitsu. As the old adage goes, “you either win or you learn,” but I can’t help but feel that we actually lost something in this case, and as a result, I feel like this loss was far more profound than the lesson learned.

When I started the BJJ program in Burlacu, Moldova in 2006, the only interest we were able to garner with any reliability was from pre-teens. Initially after hearing that my Peace Corps assignment would be Moldova, I’d had dreams of training sambo in some sort of post-Soviet, long-abandoned bunker with some of the best, yet long-forgotten legendary sambo and judo fighters in a long-forgotten part of the former Soviet Union. Much to my chagrin, I was stuck, once again, working with kids.

Traditionally, curiosity and interest in BJJ and other fighting arts has always come primarily from boys and from men. It was (and is) no different in Moldova. Even after I successfully jumped over all the necessary hurdles of getting mats to the gym and getting permission to run a free BJJ program, the only people who showed up were the kids, and more specifically, the boys.

A few months in, this all changed. Some of the older girls in some of my health education classes started to express interest in training BJJ, but they were reluctant to train with the boys. This was understandable, and I wanted to foster their interest in jiu-jitsu, so I decided to create a separate training session for the girls in the village: I had 3 days a week where I trained the boys, and 3 days a week where I trained the girls.

The girls’ classes were predictably sparse compared to the boys’ classes. Many of the boys wanted to train more often, but I really wanted a girls’ program (as is the case in many countries, Moldovan women tend to get the short end of the stick in life when compared to men, and if anybody really NEEDS to be training BJJ it’s women). My daydream visions of training with Igor Vovchanchyn (look him up, kids!) in a former iron factory were soon replaced with myself, matside at the IBJJF Worlds, coaching the first Moldovan blue belt champion of any gender in the finals.

On good days, I would have up to 12 girls on the mats at one time. On bad days, nobody showed up to train at all. The training itself was a little more talkative. A little more casual. And, inevitably, a little less jiu-jitsu was happening during training. But, whatever. Whatever gets people on the mats, right? I could have cared less if girls were showing up because their friends were there, or they just wanted to create a girls-only type space, or if they just wanted to listen to the dishy American guy with his awkward accent try and explain the efficacy of distance control. I think that in the end, it was just something new and different that was available to help break up their otherwise uninteresting day in the village. But, we were getting girls on the mats!

One day, the only girl who showed up to train was Katia. Katia was my (ca. 15-year-old) next-door neighbor in the village, so we had a good number of positive, informal interactions with each other. She was always a bubbly, positive, enthusiastic person to be around, and she was a welcomed presence in my BJJ classes. At this point, I had been working with kids for about 2.5 years, and under normal (American) circumstances, I would have known better than to find myself alone somehow with an underage girl, no matter how unremarkable the situation. But, I thought, “this is not America… and it’s just Katia anyway”. It was then that I made the fateful decision to continue with our session.

I don’t remember exactly what we were working on when the school groundskeeper/security guy walked into the gym, but everyone reading this post most likely knows that BJJ looks much different than karate. He didn’t say anything and we continued with the lesson and went home as usual.

The next day, the gossip mill was churning hard. Still to this day I have no idea what this guy said to whom, but all I know is that starting that day we had no more girls’ BJJ in Burlacu. I remember confronting the security guy about the alleged incident and he swore he didn’t say anything to anybody that would have been taken scandalously. This is what he says, of course. At the time I remember feeling a little relieved, as I would no longer have to hold these seemingly trivial classes that were taking time out of my afternoons of texting my girlfriend and playing solitaire on my computer. With hindsight being 20/20 though, I feel like I lost half of a generation of people who would have otherwise gone on to shape the path of their nation’s BJJ journey.

Even though jiu-jitsu effectively ended for the foreseeable future for all girls in Burlacu on that day, Katia, luckily, has gone from being a bright, bubbly high school student to being a bright, bubbly mom and librarian in her husband’s community, not far from where she grew up. We’ve continued to correspond to some degree over the years and as most teachers can tell you, it’s a very rewarding experience to see your former students doing well in life. I’m hoping to get the chance to go visit Katia while I’m on this trip and at least catch up.

Stay tuned!

Koh Tao Thailand

June 25, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert Barker

Greetings from Koh Tao Thailand! (28 Sept – 3 Oct 2017)

My next stop in Thailand was one I added to the itinerary later on while traveling. I always intended to visit Phuket and Bangkok but knew nothing else of the country other then the party islands which I decided I would pass on, as there’s no Jiu-Jitsu there and I don’t party much. I found out about Koh Tao and Game of Rolls from Paul who I met in Paris (The Paris Post) and again in Barcelona (The Barcelona Post). Once my attention was brought to the awesomeness of Koh Tao, the home of the amazing card game ‘Game of Rolls’ I added it to my itinerary and worked out the travel plan.

The trip to Koh Tao from Phuket was an interesting one, at first I tried to call a taxi to drive me around the corner to the bus station but they wanted more than the taxi I got from the Airport. I’m not paying more for a 2 minute drive than what I paid for a 30+ minute drive, especially when it’s not that cheap. So I hiked it to the bus station. The Phuket taxi mafia can suck it as far I’m concerned, this is one foreigner they are not shaking down (before you comment they refuse to haggle a lower price). I now had just over an hour to hike almost 5 km and it was all up hill. I was walking as fast as I could with my 25 kg backpack and computer bag but the continual up hill slope was killing my legs. I had to keep the pace as according to the mapped out course on my phone I would make it just 5 minutes before the bus takes off. So many scooter taxis stopped and asked if I wanted a drive, ambitious enough for my money to try and balance the weight of me and my backpack on their little scooter that probably weighs less than me. Although it normally would have been entertaining to try this out I was on a tight schedule and low on money so I declined every one, waving them off over and over while I hurried up the street.

Covered in sweat to the point my shirt felt like I showered in it I made it to the bus stop on time. Luckily they were busy with everyone showing up last minute and were 10 minutes late before loading so I had a little time to catch my breath and cool off by a fan before getting on the bus to head towards Koh Tao. It was a long bus ride to the ferry as we were going North East and Phuket is down on the South Western part of Thailand, but there were some great views along the way and I could really use the rest after that hike. I think I slept half the way although I kept waking up as my seat kept falling apart every time I lay back. Once we got to the port we waited a short time for the ferry, people were given stickers on which island they were going to which determined which ferry they boarded. As it happens Koh Tao was the last island on the list, so I got a nice long ferry ride watching the sun set on the water. Of course that meant I also had to find my hostel in the dark. That wasn’t too hard with Google maps and also there’s not much on Koh Tao, pretty much one main road through the whole island.

Once I found the hostel and checked in I joined the other few guests on the balcony. The hostel was a big 3 floor building but only the top floor and only our room was used, the rest was empty. There were four of us, a woman from Peru, a woman from Australia, a guy from Iceland and myself. Three of us, all but the woman from Peru, decided to go for food and some drinks. First we went to a cheap restaurant that was just around the corner from the hostel. I ended up there throughout my stay quite frequently. Then we moved to a chilled out bar that was on a hill and pretty much in the trees, it had awesome smoothies and a good view. We talked about our travels, sharing experiences and adventures, tell each other how we decided to come to Koh Tao and recommend places to see. My new friends moved along on their own journeys in the next coming days and although I made new friends almost daily there I was left to roam the island alone for the remainder of my stay. It was a great first night on the island with the other travelers, I could easily see how people fell in love with this place.

The Sights

There’s not a lot of sights in Koh Tao but at the same time it’s all a sight to see in itself. There’s two small towns on either end of island and a waterfront where the bars are. Koh Tao is a major diving island with over 70 diving schools so there’s a lot of tourist life down along the shores.

I did find a wonderful surprise in town as I was walking around, a Canadian restaurant with all kinds of Western food, including the amazing Canadian french fry dish Poutine! I was overjoyed to find Moose Knuckle Koh Tao and ate there a few times.

Most of the small island shore is a series of beautiful beaches and one large hill in the center on the island, Viewpoint Hill, where as the name states you can get the best view of the small towns, beaches and surrounding ocean. One day I hiked up the hill to take some pictures and enjoy the views. There’s two ways to the top, the old path that’s been mostly washed out by storms and is quite the long steep hike, and the new road that goes almost all the way to the top. I took to old path up and the new road down. I got some great shots of the island and sunset along the ocean but paid for it in being eaten alive by the bugs up there, having to find my way down in the dark and being caught in an evening torrential down pour. Still worth the adventure to tell about and pictures to remember this visit by.

As usual you can check out more of my pictures from this and all my other adventures over on my Flickr Account. There’s some great panoramic shots I got while hiking up Viewpoint Hill.

10th Planet Koh Tao (Monsoon Gym)

I messaged 10th Planet Koh Tao early to talk about options for finding a place to stay and soon found a cheap hostel. When I first got to Koh Tao I was burnt out from the hike I had to do to catch the bus so I had to rest a few days and just enjoy the island life. Once I was ready for training I checked the schedule and headed over to the Monsoon Gym, where 10th Planet Koh Tao is located. The gym is set up just like the gyms in Phuket with the main training area with padded floor, punching bags and a ring under a roof but no walls. There’s also an air conditioned weight room off to the side and behind it all are the stairs that bring you up to the newly built Jiu-Jitsu room, a padded floored room with a huge diagram of the 10th Planet grappling system on the back wall.

I showed up early and hung out on the stairs until the room was opened up, that’s when I met Stefan an american who like everyone visiting Koh Tao fell in love so decided to stay there. He’s a brown belt with some great teaching methods. The class was small only about 5 people one day and a few more the next time with students ranging from new students trying it out to experienced 10th Planet players. non of them were locals with all seeming to be visitors to the paradise island, and of course most of them seemed to have some surfing experience with their balance. Stefan started class with some pummeling, neckties and arm drags as warm up drills. His details for the footwork, body movement and control was top notch as they would be the theme for the class for the techniques. We moved into some takedowns, lazy takedowns as Stefan called them, simple techniques like grapevining the leg after the arm drag or just hugging the arm and sitting down. Stefan’s classes were an eye opener to what’s out there and has been in front of me all this time.

Rolling with the guys there was another eye opening experience. First class I worked with a smaller younger guy who was pretty quite so I didn’t learn much about his training experience or where he was from but I did pick up he was a surfer. When we got to rolling I found out he was quite experienced in the ways of the 10th Planet and liked to do really unexpected shit. He had really good balance and I had a lot of problems getting the upperhand for a takedown. At one point I got a necktie and wrapped his arm for a snap down only to have he pop back up and do some sort of cork screw jump over me and land on my back, quickly stinking his hooks in. I sat there and looked up at the guys on the sidelines with a big “What the giant fuck?!” look on my face, they must’ve seen it as he all seemed to be enjoying the show.

Another night I rolled with Stefan and another instructor Darius where I worked mostly on leglocks, or rather leglock defenses, as well as learned Stefan’s sneaky guard retention from a pressure pass attempt. Most of my rolling with the guys I was just trying to defend or falling into traps and figure what happened. With all the cool techniques I picked up from the classes my leglock game grew exponentially, that is to say I now have a some defense from none. It was an awesome time training with everyone and learning some great techniques and details for my game. The whole vibe training and rolling with them was very chill, even when trying to escape imminent heelhook death. I shot the classes on my GoPro and put together a training montage video, check it, and all my other videos over on the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel. While there share some love, like, comment, share and subscribe!

Game of Rolls

What makes 10th Planet Koh Tao so unique, other than the awesome club itself and being on an island paradise, is the positional training card game the head coach Victor came up with, Game of Rolls. When I first was introduced to the game by Paul in Paris I was blown away by both the concept of the game and the awesome artwork on the cards. I have carried around the pack Paul gave me ever since but only a few times have I actually been able to find people to who will play it with me. It’s absolutely fun and a great way to work positional sparring, I recently brought it to me at a BJJ Globetrotters camp and had a number of rolls using the cards, everyone loved it and wanted to know the site for it. By now you must be wondering ‘What is this Game of Rolls he’s speaking of and how does it work?’ rather than write out a huge paragraph to try and explain here’s a video with Stefan, explaining how he ended up teaching and training in Koh Tao and how this awesome card game works. The video is in the the link below, remember to show some love on this and my other videos while you’re over on the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel.

After an all too short visit to Toh Kao I was off to Bangkok to finally meet Vara. The morning I headed out I noticed my left calf was starting to burn though, a serious problem was about to hit me..

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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thanks a million.

June 22, 2018/in Blogs/by Bryan Rusell

My new album, Bryan Russell Unplugged. Unplugged, packed up and moved to Ireland!

So we had finally gotten our Russell family European travel chapter underway. The big move from little old New Zealand all the way over to sunny Galway for my wife to take advantage of a 2 year working Visa and the experience of a lifetime for her nursing. We landed in Dublin via China ready to take on this challenge in front of us, well my wife still had to go through a tough 2 day exam to get her nursing qualification recognized here so she was a very busy lady hitting the books and studying up! But here we all were, December 2017, in Ireland!

The kids and I managed to get in a lot of sightseeing around Dublin city as we were located quite close and of course, I had made contact with a couple of gyms to see who had classes available. There were quite a few in Dublin but I went with Jorge Santos BJJ school. They had a 2nd degree black belt coach in Jorge and their timetable and location was grand for where I was staying. Jorge was super friendly when I made contact, I even dropped in a day or 2 before the class so I knew exactly where it was – no repeat of Thailand for me! I hadn’t trained in over 4 weeks since I had left New Zealand so I was really itching for some jitsing.

I went down nice and early for the first class, Jorge was not there yet but I signed in, had to explain my heart condition again when I signed the waiver which is standard for me now! Once this was sorted, I was ready to go. I talked to most of the people there, they were all very surprised that I was moving FROM New Zealand to Ireland as most of the Irish people are trying to move in the opposite direction! I am not one to go with the flow really so it did seem quite fitting for us! Now it was class time.
The training was amazing, the first day I trained, Jorge was injured but a very technical brown belt took the class where we drilled spider guard sweeps and attacks, omoplata being the flavour of the day! We did some positional sparring and closed off the first class with some good rounds. There was the Dublin Open in the next few days so the rolling was light but still very intense. I learnt some good stuff that day and was very keen to return. The next class was after the competition and it was with Jorge. Wow. The warm up was just as full on as what I had experienced in San Francisco with Kurt Osiander’s school so by the time that was done, I was so warmed up I was boiled over!
The techniques we learnt from Jorge were awesome, spider guard to de la riva guard to omoplata sweep with various submission options. It was well broken down from the set up right to the submissions. I was partnered up with a purple belt who was very similar in size and game plan to me so the drilling was really good. We jumped into rolling at the end, I was honored to get a roll in with Jorge right off the bat who was super technical and made the 5 minutes very long and hard for me! I expected nothing less and was not disappointed. I got to roll with all the brown belts there and to say they were good would be an understatement. I learnt very quickly that the knowledge and skill level was at a top level, their fitness was high as well. They all rolled very hard but super controlled. The only injuries I sustained were very strained lungs and a sore hand from tapping! Oh yeah, I walked home very slowly that evening! Having a 4 week break was not ideal for my fitness! On a positive note though, I was lucky enough to be there when the team was doing a group photo, I even got to jump in on the side!

I had learnt a lot in just those two classes and made some good friends, when we head back to Dublin I would very much like to return! I recommend training at this school to anyone, passing through or staying in Dublin, it is well worth a visit. Great coach, great team and they made me feel very much at home! Oss.

“Forget about winning or losing – put your focus on learning and developing. It’s a much better long term strategy, trust me” – Nicolas Gregoriades

do your homework.

June 21, 2018/in Blogs/by Bryan Rusell

Thailand. Home to Muay thai, Chang beer, Hangover 2 and numerous memes, jokes and inappropriate anecdotes. It is also a beautiful island with so much to explore, culture to experience and adventures to be had. It has so much tradition and they have bred some amazing fighters in the stand-up art of Muay Thai and now, over the last few years, it has been home for many MMA fight camps for some of the biggest names in the UFC like New Zealand’s own Dan Hooker and Mark Hunt, Georges Saint Pierre, Roger Huerta and the list goes on.
This was one some of the reasons back in 2011 that persuaded my wife and I to take a well deserved holiday in Phuket, Chiang Mai and Bangkok. I was a mere 2 stripe blue belt but I was ready to take on the world!
I had read about Tiger Muay Thai camp as it was a famous retreat style training camp for professional fighters, this originally appealed to me but then I read about Phuket Top Team. The head jiu jitsu coach then was 3rd degree black belt (now 4th degree) Olavo Abreu. This guy is very top level and I was super excited about learning from him.
I checked on the website, got the timetable sorted and we found a time that worked in well with our trip that suited us and we were off to Thailand!

Once in Phuket, we got our tourist on and did amazing things, saw elephants in their own habitat, rafted down the river, ran away from snakes, experienced a storm – just the usual Thai experiences! We got this all done before our free day, the day I had planned to train! So, we hired a scooter, got my gi, about 72 litres of water and took off. Being usual Phuket, it was hotter than a hot day in Hot Town so it was shorts and singlets. I also have the eyesight of Mr Magoo so my lovely wife drove the scooter and I sat comfortably on the back. This made all the tourists laugh at me but we quickly noticed that all of the Thai locals had their females driving and they all gave me a big thumbs up in approval. Now, on to my lesson learnt. I have the sense of direction similar to a drunk 3 legged turtle. I basically had no idea where to go and for all those people who have been to Thailand, I knew the “Soi” it was located on but had no idea that a Soi was actually a side street off the main street. I honestly couldn’t find a beer in a brewery.
After about 3 hours of driving around (we had left early to explore the surrounding area once we located the gym) we finally found it and it was actually perfectly on time for the class! I went inside and quickly found out the timetable I had read was an old one and they also had no idea I was coming along. They said I was fine to train but the class was not for another 6 hours! Well, that was not going to happen as my wife was set to kill me after leading us around on the wild goose chase in the heat, she had sunburnt legs from the drive (she had shielded me the whole time) and we had basically wasted the 3 hours we had set aside to explore and I could not even train!

Now, in hindsight, I learnt a big lesson here. When you are travelling overseas to train, you really need to make contact with the gym, let them know who you are and when you are in that area and then ask if they are fine for you to train there. You may even get an invite to be picked up! Once you have their blessing to join in, ask about class times AND GET DIRECTIONS TO THE GYM!

Once back at our accommodation, we discussed how bad my planning had been and agreed that I would try again in Bangkok. I had to make a better effort here so I was quickly online and found Bangkok BJJ (BKKBJJ). It was a Ralph Gracie gym that was run by American black belt Ben Weinstein. This time I was on the ball! I made contact, they sent me the address and now I was ready!

Once in Bangkok, the day arrived! I talked to our reception at the hotel and they called me a taxi. The driver said he knew where to go and we were off! we soon found out that he had no idea and his plan was to drive as far as he knew and then offload us onto a tuk tuk driver. We “negotiated” a fee for the tuk tuk and back on the road. We eventually found the gym and for the first time, I actually tipped the tuk tuk driver as he also did not know where it was and went well above and beyond to get us there!
Once inside I found I had missed the start of class (never a good look) but they understood after I told him about the mission to get there and to be fair, just breathing in Thailand is enough to get a sweat-up!
I jumped onto the mats and we were straight into 1/2 guard techniques. I can still remember these quite vividly as we had just finished a block section back at Groundworx in Christchurch so it was good to get a refresher and some new ideas from a different coach! After the drilling, we were into the rolling. My first roll was up against a very large, solidly built South African man. He was a white belt but he was crazy strong! I was lucky enough to get underneath him and play an X guard game with him. Next up, I was partnered with a young Thai female and I think she was very new to the sport so it was 5 minutes of going through techniques and drills with her but to be honest, any break in this heat is welcomed, especially seeing as this gym did not have air conditioning, just an old fan that blew the hot air and B.O around!
Now, this was what I was waiting for. I got to roll the instructor Ben! At the time, it was only the third black belt that I had rolled with so I was super excited! The fact that he is also about 6 foot tall and probably 95kg of athletic/muscular build, I knew I was in for a tough time!
I was a typical blue belt, ready and willing to take on the world in a rolling situation, wanting to “tap out the whole world” if you will. What happened next though, nobody was ready for!
I wanted to try and play a guard game with him as it had been working on the students but he sat up so I thought I would try and pass. Now, being as coordinated as a dizzy giaffe, I tried to do my “bestest” standing pass. I got so excited that I managed to trip myself up and ended up falling and “passing” the guard in the process. I still to this day do not know how such a catastrophic accident like tripping over my own feet could result in a guard pass but it happened! The next 10 minutes was a dose of reality where I must have tapped out about 20 times from so many positions! My trip-pass was the best thing I managed to do and it was a accident! Ben ran a clinic on me and then went through all of the things I was doing incorrect against him and that took a while! All in all, it was a great class and fantastic learning experience for me both on and off the mats!
I basically sweated out non stop for the next week after that class, well, actually more like an hour but I felt like I lost all my body weight in fluids!

This was my first real experience in training overseas. It was an adventure and a learning curve for me but it ignited a spark which has kept me training wherever we travel. Now I really make an effort to make contact with the gym and also find out how to get to the gym from wherever we are staying.
I strongly recommend training and travelling, especially in a new country! Take photos, make conversations and have as much fun as possible. You just never know that these people you are meeting and training with could end up World champions and friends of yours for a long time!

We are all on the same journey but take different paths, it is always a pleasure when my path crosses another and we can have a jiu jitsu conversation.

“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them”. Bruce Lee.

BJJ training report: Phuket Top Team Thailand

June 19, 2018/in Blogs/by Robert Barker

Greetings from Phuket Thailand (23-28 Sept 2017)!

After a great first stop in Asia I flew from Yangon Myanmar to Phuket Thailand quite uneventfully. The flight was later in the day and by the time I hailed a taxi and got to my villa it was already late and the villa owner was in bed. There wasn’t a front office to check into and if not for the taxi driver I would have been locked out and in a bad situation. Luckily I saved the contact information for the villa to my phone and the taxi driver called her. After about 10 minutes she showed up, walking down the street in her night gown, and briskly showed me to my villa and told me to settle up the next day. I apologized profusely for not informing her that I was showing up late and kicked myself for not planning ahead and assuming there was a front office open 24 hours.

To rewind this back a bit let’s start when I first began planing this visit. I had always planned on visiting Thailand from the start. The mystique of the tropical jungle setting and ruthlessness of the training in Muay Thai gyms make Thailand a very intriguing spot to see, whether it’s for training or just sightseeing. Vara is a BJJ Globetrotter and lives in Bangkok, she knows all there is to know about visiting and training BJJ in Thailand and happily helps out everyone. In fact she’s so good at this she now helps run BJJ Globetrotters for Christian and has her own #askvara Instagram account where I’m pretty sure any time of the day or night you’ll get a response within an hour. Anyways, with Vara’s help both my stops in Phuket and Bangkok were put together quite easily. For Phuket Vara practically planned the entire visit, I did initially have reservations and questions but she easily answered and shot down every one of them and I eventually went with her suggestions.

The villa I rented was a bit out of my usual price range but when looking at the price and time to travel throughout Phuket from the cheap hostels in the tourist area, and really how nice a place I was getting to relax in (I had my own place with air conditioning and the property had a pool!) I was actually saving money by taking the more expensive place that was closer. I only had to walk a few minutes to each gym and there were tons of choices for cheap, or not so cheap, restaurants nearby. As for getting around to sight see I could rent a scooter and pay for a day a fraction what each trip would cost with the taxi mafia in Phuket.

Back to getting settled in at the villa. I was let into my villa, dropped off my bags and headed to the 7-eleven just around the corner to grab some food. Once back in the villa I decided I would take advantage of the TV and check out what Thai television had to offer while I relaxed. I was not disappointed. I found a game show that had a number a people involved, all sitting or standing around blocks used as chairs. They were all talking and after someone would say something some of them would either stand up or sit down. I have no idea what the purpose or rules of the game but it was quite entertaining and made for good time wasting while relaxing and figuring out my game plan for training during the week.

I can’t add the game show video on here but you can head over to my Instagram Account @pandasodyssey and watch it there.

The Sights

I didn’t get out to see many sights in Phuket as Fight Street isn’t too close to town or the tourist attractions. I was also paranoid about being stopped by the police and made to pay a hefty ‘fine’. There are places like Monkey Hill and Rang Hill that are right in the downtown area that I figured would be a problem trying to drive to there and back. There are also several night markets around Phuket but I didn’t like the idea of driving a scooter to a heavily crowded area let alone going at night. That just means I have more reason to go back there one day.

However I did one day get out to the Big Buddha Phuket statue which is on the top of a mountain. I rented a scooter and set out, I was scared of running into a police barricade during my drive out to the statue. I did see one at right the mouth of the street to Big Buddha after the roundabout, which is a usual tourist trap I’m told. As soon as I saw them as I came up to the roundabout my heart skipped a beat and jumped into my throat. The police had already pulled over a group of tourists and were talking to them, most likely asking for them to pay a ‘fine’. As my mind raced figuring out how I would address the situation and attempt to make it out without paying too much I made sure not to be driving too fast and blend in with the flow of traffic. I also made the decision I would stare straight ahead without looking at the Police shaking down the tourists on either side of the road. I continued forward, looking forward, saying to myself ‘I don’t hear anything, don’t stop, no one is jumping out in front of me, don’t stop, just keep going!’ So I just drove right through the trap without ever stopping or looking to see if I was clear. No one chased me so I assumed I was good.

I continued down the road and up the mountain to the statue which I felt was testing the full power of the scooter, moving my 110 kgs up the steep slopes. I felt uneasy on some parts but I made it up without any accidents. There were some great views along the way and at a few spots there were elephant rings where you could feed and ride an elephant around the field or forest paths. I didn’t stop for them as I was on a mission to make it to the statue and on the way back I skipped them to save my money for gas and didn’t see any ATM’s since leaving Fight Street. I got to the top of the Big Buddha and the whole trek was instantly worth it. What a view! And what an impressive statue to be in the presence of as well! From the stairs to the Big Buddha and the railings all around it you can see down to the coastline and far into the tropical forests around us. The temple, souvenir shop and different stores around the statue sold every kind of Buddhist trinket as well as food and drink. It’s quite the trek to get up there, might as well take a rest break in the shade and re-hydrate.

All around the Big Buddha on the top of the stairs are the different gods that Buddhists pray to each day. As well as the impressive statues were other stands selling mala bracelets necklaces which were said to be blessed by the monks, all sorts of elephant and Buddha statues and carvings, and a number of other souvenirs. As the statue was still being built you could buy a brick and have your name printed on it for a price to help build it. I would love to visit the place again once it’s fully built and see all the names of who helped. Once I was done wandering the grounds, taking pictures, taking in the view and relaxing I was ready to start my trek back to the villa. As I starting walking to the scooter an all too familiar feeling came over. The wind picked up, the air had that humid dew smell and the sky became dark. The afternoon torrential downpour was about to drop on us. Every afternoon for about 30 minutes came in a storm with such power it was like a power hose sprayed on the whole city, and then it would leave and within 5 minutes you would never know it happened. People quickly found cover and waited for the storm to hit and leave. Once it passed I was on my way, now testing my luck going down the steep slopes of the mountain on the scooter while they were soaked wet and pooled with rainwater at some parts. It made for an interesting ride back but luckily no wipe outs or accidents. I decided I had used up my luck getting by the Police and making it safely up and down the mountain, trying my luck to make it into to the city to see Monkey hill was just asking for problems. I passed on pressing my luck and returned the scooter early.

As always you can see more of my pictures of this visit and from all my other adventures over on my Flickr Account.

Fight Street

As Vara laid out in her advise for my visit I found an affordable villa on Soi Ta-iad, or Fight Street as it’s affectionately nicknamed. This street is an athlete’s dream vacation. On one end is Tiger Muay Thai and on the other end is Phuket Top Team. All in between is everything you could need, restaurants that have meal plans to keep you healthy while you stay and train, massage places to roll out your arms and legs from hitting the pads all day, pharmacies in case you get sick (or more often in Thailand, get an infection) and of course equipment stores for new training gear and scooters to rent. There’s a few other Muay Thai gyms across the street as well. A complete athlete’s training camp paradise.

I wish I would have jumped in and taken some of the Muay Thai classes at the gyms there but I needed gloves and I wasn’t about to spend a bunch of money on bulky gear I can’t bring with me for one or two classes. I did however make a video of wandering the street to show you how awesome the place is to visit.

To watch this video, and all my other videos, head over to the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel. While you’re there please show some love by liking, sharing commenting and subscribing.

Tiger Muay Thai & MMA

Of all the conversations I’ve had about traveling the world and training at different gyms Tiger Muay Thai & MMA came up quite a lot, probably the most named gym in all my conversations. Once I got to the gym and walked around its property I could easily see why it is lots of people talk of visiting and why lots of MMA fighters have training camps there. The front of the compound holds the office and grill restaurant with three different rings and matted areas for kickboxing behind them. Further behind those was an area for fitness classes and off to the side was the matted for BJJ and MMA. It was an impressive place to walk around and watch all the classes being run.The whole place is open with no gates or fences to pass, one can wander the grounds and watch the classes quite openly, although you may be approached by one of the instructors to sign up for classes.

Once I had planned my schedule and picked a day to train BJJ in Phuket Tiger Muay Thai I set out to sign up for the day and get my pass. It’s quite simple to sign up for classes you just go to the front office and pay for either the class, the day or the week. You get a paper to show the instructors or staff coming to take attendance. I made my way to the back mat area where class would be, as I was a bit early so I just sat in the shade and watched the other classes going on. I was actually a bit turned around and thought the fitness mats was where the BJJ classes were held but then ran into some other people also early for class and followed them to the far back building where the mats for BJJ and MMA where. In the far end there is an MMA cage and by the entrance there was an air conditioned weight room, the rest was open mat space for classes under a roof with no walls, just posts holding it up and letting the tropic breeze in.

I introduced myself to the instructor Alex, a brown belt from USA who loves meeting all the visitors that come to Tiger Muay Thai from all over the world. He had heard a little of BJJ Globetrotters before from past visitors so when I told him of my travel plans he was interested in my adventures and learning more about the affiliation and how I used it to get around. When we added each other on social media I saw we had a bunch of friends in common, all active Globetrotters of course. It would be awesome teaching at such a place as Tiger where so many people visit to train as they’re traveling, hearing all their stories would be so inspiring. One day I hope to have a job in a place like that.

Anyways, classes are great at Tiger Muay Thai with Alex and everyone but they were also really hot. Thailand is so extremely humid and even with the fans on and hitting the morning or evening classes I was dying in the heat. On the flip side I always felt limber and loose even after classes or waking up in the morning so I guess the constant heat wasn’t all bad. The warm up drills weren’t as bad as I had feared and drilling techniques was fun with some active resistance and troubleshooting to make it your own or see where it fits in your game. Rolling with the people there widely ranged from inexperienced new guys to top performers with a lot stiff athletic matches. One match in particular during one class was with a very fit blue belt I drilled with, he was fast and aggressive and at one point almost had me in a reverse wrist lock, which mostly was just bending my fingers back way more than they could go. I later saw him online, in a poster for a Bellator pay per view. I didn’t feel so bad get my fingers bent considering what he could’ve done if it were an MMA class.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time training at Tiger Muay Thai and I will definitely return, hopefully for a longer time to really enjoy training there with everyone. Thanks Alex for the fun chats after classes and the great training.

Phuket Top Team

I messed up on scheduling and didn’t get to PTT until my last night on Fight Street. PTT is another gym I really wanted to go to, especially when I had recently learned that several MMA stars, like Chris ‘Cyborg’ Justino frequent there. The place is similar to Tiger with a front office and the outside rings under a giant roof, but with PTT the BJJ classes are inside in a matted room that is much cooler than training outside. Being able to train in a temperature controlled room was a welcomed change, even though I had an air conditioner in my villa I didn’t keep it on too much in fear of getting a sinus cold. The front office also is where all the gear they sell is and they must have gotten in a big supply as the room was full of gloves and shin pads they ere going through re-stocking. looking at the gear made me re-think about picking something up, but again I passed on it, but now I wish I picked up something from both places to have as a souvenir, perhaps next time I visit Fight street I will try the kickboxing classes and buy some gear from the gyms.

Where as I trained in both gi and no gi with Tiger MMA I only attended a gi class at Phuket Top Team, the attendance there was much bigger than the gi classes at Tiger. The class was mostly lower belts, I think I was at a beginners class, and I didn’t get to talk to many before class but there seemed to be a large portion of them being locals and not just visitors like of the Tiger Muay Thai classes. Warm up was thorough and there were a few movement drills I was completely lost at but in the cooler temperature I was able to survive it and was ready for drilling. We were working a technique from guard, with my partner working the technique, when I see a man walk into the room and make his way over to the instructor where a few black belts were sitting and talking. I knew instantly who he was but my partner saw my gaze and felt it necessary to point out who it was “You know Carlson Gracie? Well that’s his son, Carlson Gracie Jr!” Which I thought was a funny way to point him out.

There were a few rolls after class but with the size of the class only half were on the mats to roll each round. The matches were fun, although I’m sure if there were more higher belts I would have been destroyed instead of faring as well as I did. Again I was surprised how even though some matches were aggressive no one was trying to ‘test’ the new big guy like so many gyms I had been to in Europe. Maybe it’s the open welcome culture on Fight Street that changes the overall view of testing the new guys and instead just training and having fun but either way I really enjoyed myself training at Phuket Top Team. Of course after class I asked the instructor if it was OK to say hi to Carlson Gracie Jr and get a picture with him. I wish I had my patches on hand with me to give them but at least I got a picture with a BJJ icon.

After an amazing week living, training and eating on Fight Street in Phuket it was time to leave for my next stop in Thailand: the paradise island of Koh Tao. Catching the bus and ferry to get there was quite an adventure, but that’s for next time.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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