The injury bug has me...

The injury bug has caught me lately. First I got a pretty nasty infection on my elbow which held me of the mats for two weeks. After that, I left Switzerland for a one week vacation at home in Austria. I arrived there with my girl on Saturday and on Monday I found myself in the hospital due to a imploded left lung. 

This stuff hospitalized me for almost two weeks and I am forbidden to do anything sport related for an other 4 weeks. But whats even worst, I am forbidden to fly for 8 weeks, which meant, that I had to cancel my trip to Toronto and NYC and thus my training at Marcelo Garcias Academy. But as I my dad always said, you have to get something positiv out of negative situations, I was resting in my hospital bed and came up with the idea of going to Brazil. 

After some further investigations, I am going to stay at Connection Rio for two weeks in February and most likely gonna train at Checkmat Copacabana (Fight Zone).

I am thinking about doing two to three training sessions per day, plus a one hour private with one of Ricardinho's Black Belts. I am surely pretty pumped about the whole thing and cain't wait to be back on the mats and start my preperations for Rio - Osss

Martial Arts Manga and a new BJJ Podcast

Surfing the internet, I have found a nice Martial Arts Manga which also envolves some BJJ Aspects.

You can find the manga under the following link All around Meguru Manga . I haven't had the time to start from the beginning, but hope I will find the time to do so in the near future.

Further more I have discovered a new BJJ related podcast which is called the "Just the Gi Top Podcast", they regularly interview current players and talk about their training regime. I am going to download the Gianni Grippo episode right now and I am quite curious about this podcast and what Gianni has to tell.

I personally caught up with Gianni at the CSA.dk and BJJGlobetrotter summer camp and also had the chance to roll with him for a bit. Surely I got crushed, but it was a super nice experience and I am still using one of his over under passes, which he showed in my open guard passing game. I am following Gianni since his purple belt days and hope to catch up with him again during my NYC stay and hope to get a private or two with him.

Special Offer from MGinAction

As I wrote in my last post, I will be going to New York for 7 days in October. I was thinking a lot about where I should train and If it is better to train at different academys, or just stay at one for the whole stay. 

I came up with the solution, that I will be "just" training at Marcelo Garcias Academy, which is situated at the chelsea district in Manhatten, cause I feel that this might give me better training as I would get by hopping around to different academys. Maybe they take you more seriouse if they see your not just there for one class but for some days. 

What concerns me a little bit is, that the ADCC in China will be right the weekend after my stay and alltough Marcelo is not competing, it is possible that he will join Bernardo Faria to go to China. Would be a real let down if I am there and he is not, allthough I quite confident, that his other instructors like Paul Schreiner will also provide superior training. 

Just in time, the MGinAction website is now offering the follwing:

I will get one week of training plus a one year membership for the MGinAction website for $220. Normally one week of training would be $150 dollars, so I am actually getting the membership for $70 which is pretty sweet deal which I can't resist. Also this might be good to review some of the tequniches they will show there.

I am back...

Sorry for not updating the blog lately, but I just didn't feel like doing it and didn't have to write much anyways. Never the less, I am going to change this blog a little bit and gonna write more about my training and preparation for the upcoming tournaments which will be following:

• IDM International German Championship in Neuried on the 19th of October 
• IBJJF Munich Open on the 10th of November
• IBJJF European Championship in January of next year

Currently I am recovering from an infection on my elbow and will be out of training until next wednesday, where I will do a last No-Gi sess before going on a one week vacation. After the vacation it will be full fledge training 6 times per week.

In addition to the five Gi and one No-Gi sessions per week, I will also boost my strengh and conditioning in the mornings. My conditioning programm will consist of the following: 

• swimming
• running 
• sprints/stairs
• BJJ related circuite trainig including Kettlebells, Swiss Ball (but more on that in a later post ;) 

Further more I am really looking forward to October, cause I will be in Toronto and New York for ten days and also plan to train quite a lot in those two towns. 

In Toronto I will train at Open Mat Mixed Martial Arts Academy and in New York at Marcelo Garcias Academy.

I also have to really keep a good diet after my holidays, so I can go down to feather weight as healthy as possible, with the goal of almost not having to cut any weight right before the comps. So this means I will also post a little bit about what I am eating and why. 

I hope you guys will enjoy what I am going to post and I am always happy about feedback. You can contact me on Twitter under BJJSebi... 

 

Caio Terra GI Seminar this sunday in Zürich

Hey guys, 

Caio Terra will be back for an other seminar in Zürich this time in the gi the upcoming sunday. For details check out the flyer below. 

Everybody is welcome and there will also be some Shoyoroll Gear available from our friends of BJJTeamBasel as well as some Acai bowls. 

 

Hope to see you on mats on sunday!!

Been promoted to blue belt and new goals

Hey everybody, 

It has been a long time since my last post and I am happy to tell you guys, that I have been finally promoted to blue belt after 2,5 years of sometimes less but in the last month more and consistent training. The blue belt was given to me by Christian Graugart who organized the CSA Summer Camp at his gym in Denmark. 

As I was allready registred for the IBJJF Rome Open at Adult/White/Feather, I now swichted up to Master/Blue/Light so I dont have to cut the missing 4 kg in the next two weeks ;). I see this tournament as good experience for me, to have my first IBJJF tourney in my pocket and see how things are done there. I don't expect to much success as I am pretty new at this belt level, but I am definitly looking forward to the good experience this will give me. 

Further more, I am going to change this blog a little bit and tell you guys more about my training etc. 

My next big goal will be the IBJJF European Open next year!

Doing Interviews... stepping up blogging again...

I recently also started to write for the new and upcoming website BJJ.EU which as site dedicated to European BJJ News and articles. The site also has a forum running so you might wanna check that out if you need some help or have a question. 

I focused mostly on doing interviews with European BJJ players and doing some info posts about tournaments which I participated in so far you can check out the following interviews: 

A journey to jiu-jitsu greatness with Thomas "Mastwo Oyarzun"

Living the dream with Stuart Cooper

No Ape Shit with Daniel "The Raspberry Ape" Strauss

I have ligned up and also sent out questions to the following guys:

• Luciana Machado - Owner of MKimonos
• Rob Staples - Instructor at Gracie Barra Chanel Islands
• Nic Greogoriades - founder of jiu-jitsu Brotherhood
• Oliver Geddes - guess I dont need to tell you who he is...

This is also why I slowed down my posting frequency over here, but I want to step it up again and get back to regularly posting mainly about my training. I am currently preparing for some big Tournaments over here in Europe which will be the Naga in Mai, IBJJF Rome Open in June and the Grapplers Quest Amsterdam in August. You can also expect some post from the CSA/BJJ Globetrotter summer camp in June - which is going to be a blast... 

I will also do some Gi Reviews in the near future as I bought me some new gis to satisfy my gi addiction ;)