CSA BJJ and MMA Camp report

Almost three weeks ago me and a buddy of mine attended the CSA.dk BJJ and MMA Camp in Copenhagen for 5 days. We also met there with two friends of mine from Finland and I want to thank them for the nice time we spend there.

The main trainer was Christian Graugart also well known in the BJJ Community as the BJJ Globetrotter who also recently published his book in a Kindle and Print version. I allready bought myself the Kindle version and read through the first 100 pages. What I can say so far is, that it is well worth the read and a must for every BJJ and Grappling enthusiast. From my point of view there are not enough books like that, that not only focus on techniques but also display a little bit the lifestyle of BJJ and Grappling. One other which comes into mind, in this segment is the "Cauliflower Chronicles" of which I wrote in previous posts on this blog.

So back to the camp itself, me an my buddy arrived on Wednesday in the morning right before the training started of. On Wednesday the training was done by Robson Barbossa a Black Belt from Checkmate who lives in Sweden, who is also the one who gave Christian his black belt. On this day there were four 1,5 hour sessions on the plan with Robson, I ended up doing three of them as I was a bit tired in the afternoon due to the fact that I had to get up at four in the morning. Further more, the training was pretty brutal and consisted almost only of sparring in various forms. We did a lot of guard passes and what was funny, that Robson represented exactly the checkmate mind set, which is, never pull guard or even go to full guard yourself…

On the next day, we started out with a de la riva sweep session which was one of the topics that I asked for, so I was pretty pumped. Christian showed us the basic application of the De la riva Guard and some sweeps that work for him. After midday, we did the Stiff arm escape, which is a pretty nice move to get some off you when get your guard passed and your opponent lands in side control. It looks pretty simple but is damn effective. The nice thing is, that yesterday, I was able to apply the stiff arm escape as well as a de la riva sweep in no-gi sparring at my home Dojo which is the Enomoto Dojo of Yasubey and Felipe Enomoto. The third session of the day was the guard passing session, we drilled basically two open guard passes when you are standing yourself. I have to admit, that the trainings were a little bit easier than the ones from Robson and I was quite happy about that fact as otherwise my body wouldnt been able to coop with the massive amount of training. I also decided not to attend the sparring sessions and only go for the open mat on Friday as I wanted to safe my energy for the actual trainings. In the evening there was one more class, which was the no-gi guillotine held by Kari Gunnarsson a brown belt of Christian. I only set on the side and watched this class…

On Friday we started out with a spider guard class, also a topic which was on my wish list. Christian also showed us there the basic applications and little hints on how apply your foods properly, than we were going over some basic sweeps and a transition to the omoplata. After this session there was only one more which was the Open Mat. Due to the fact, that the Swedish Open were just around the corner the mat was packed with students from various academies which led to a proper sparring session.

On Saturday there was a little competition to be held for the guys from CSA and the participants of the camp. As soon as the brackets were released I knew how this was going to play out as I was matched up with some tough tough white belts from Moldavia. I was pretty certain, that this two guys were going to get there blue belts on this day and as I sparred with them before I knew my chances were slim to none to submit these guys. I didn't know the fourth guy in my bracket and I set my goal to win against this dude and make the third place an gather my first medal. As you can see in the picture below it worked out as planned and I submitted the buy via Kimura from guard…

In the afternoon Christian took us out to visit Copenhagen and showed us around town. Although the weather was a little depressing as most of the time over there I found Copenhagen to be a nice little town ;)

In the evening we met up to go for a all you can eat Spareribs session which ended in having some drinks in various bars around town. I don't know why, but I think my last beer was old or something as I had severe headache in the morning, but I was sure it didn't came from to much drinking…

On Sunday there was only one more session which was called "Fancy shit" and Christian showed us some nice little moves and so the camp ended and me and Lukas went back home to Switzerland. All in all the camp was pretty great and Christian is a real good teacher, he told me one interesting thing about my game after we rolled with each other. He told me, that I need to relax a little more and don't be to serious and always think about that I want to win and nothing else. Certainly he was right, as I was not gonna win against him, so the best thing to do would be just to have fun and think move per move…

Thirsty for Jiu Jitsu Podcasts

As my interest in Jiu-Jitsu grew, I started to stumble upon some podcasts related to Jiu Jitsu. If I remember right, the first podcast I discovered was the one from Stephan Kesting at grapplearts.com – at that time he updated his podcasts on a regular basis, which is not the case anymore. I haven't heard of new podcast from him since a long time. So than I though okay, there must be more out there to allay my bloodthirst for more Jiu-Jitsu information and to pass my time during the long rides back and forth to Frankfurt.

So the dark Jiu-Jitsu shadows were gracious to me and I found the Fightworks podcast. Damn I though and had to rub my eyes, have I finally discovered the whole grail of Jiu-Jitsu podcastisem? Jup it seemed like I did… With more than 250 podcast up an ready for grabs, I started downloading and burning Cd's like a mad man.  But as time passed by the Fightworks podcast didn't upload the weekly dose of Jiu-Jitsu goodness and I had to move on look for other sources…

And I got quite lucky again and as Jiu-Jitsu was booming like never before, some new podcast germinated on the net. The first one I found was the InsideBJJ podcast and I was a listener from almost day one. If i am right, the first episode I listened to was Episode 3 with Crosley Gracie and I was immediately hooked to InsideBJJ. This podcast was a little different than to what I was used to, drawn to the fact, that they weren't just interviewing the respective persons but also were going back an forth on each other before and after the the actual interview. I have to admit, that pretty funny stuff was and is being said during this banter sessions. Never the less the actual interviews were top notch and the persons appearing on their podcast have been the creme de la creme of the BJJ and MMA Scene.

But as m thirst couldn't be sated by just one podcast, I searched a little more and found the OpenMatRadio Podcast, which seem to appear almost at the same time as the InsideBJJ Podcast. This also is a great source for well structured interviews with top players out of the BJJ scene and as with the InsideBJJ Podcast, I was hooked from day one. They are more on the serious side of things and so their podcasts aren't as long as the one from InsideBJJ, but with this two my thirst was almost sated.

After some weeks and month, I found a third podcast, which is part of the Fight Fans Radio and is called BJJ Addict Radio. They didn't seem to have like the top notch guest in the past, but are also catching up with  Gianni Grippo and Victor Estima being their last guest. I really enjoy listening to their podcast and I am curious to see what they will provide in the future…

So my ranking for audio podcasts at the moment is the following:

1. InsideBJJ
2. OpenMatRadio.com
3. FightFansRadio
4. TheFightworksPodcast
5. GrappleArts

Within of my next posts, I will go over some of the video Podcasts out there... Have a good time until than and train, train, train

 

CSA BJJ and Grappling Camp

This Wednesday a good friend and I will take off to Copenhagen to join the BJJ and Grappling Camp of BJJ Globetrotter Christian Graugart at his CSA Gym. I have to say, that I am really really pumped for this camp and from what I can say now, the organization was pretty top notch. We got a detailed description of everything in relation to the camp two weeks ago and yesterday they released the actual training plan. We were asked in the mail about the topics we want to train during the camp and I was more than happy to see that both topics which i wanted (Spider & De la riva Guard) have been chosen.  Further more we will go over some guard passing stuff, stiffarm escape, guillotine and some other stuff. Further more there will be seminar day on Wednesday with Robson Barbosa and a BJJ competition on Saturday.

The Camp is not only for BJJ and Grappling but also Muay Thai, MMA and Crossfit courses which be held. So maybe I am gonna drop into some MMA beginners class or something like that. But I guess this will all depend on how my body will react to 17 hours of BJJ and Grappling training and 6 hours of sparring in five days. Also a good friend from Finland which is a purple belt and his girlfriend will join the camp which is pretty nice and will lead to ongoing BJJ and Grappling related talks outside of the actual trainings...

I will keep you updated regularly on the progress of the camp…

Metamoris PRO

Yesterday the first Event of the Metamoris Pro Series was being held in San Diego, as I was stuck in traffic here in Switzerland I couldn't make it in person and had to watch the live stream they offered… So to start it off, if you haven't heard of the Metamoris Pro, I guess you are not to much in to Jiu-Jitsu as it properly was the biggest super fight event ever held on planet earth. There were six fights with the Creme de la Creme of the current BJJ scene as you can see below:

1. Jeff Glover vs. Caio Terra
2. Kayron Gracie vs. Rafael Lovato
3. Kron Gracie vs. Otavio Sousa
4. Dean "The Boogyman" Lister va. Xande Ribeiro
5. Andre Galvao vs. Ryron Gracie
6. Roger Gracie vs. Buchecha

The rules of this event were a time limit of 20 minutes for all fights and there where no points or advantages as only submissions counted. If there was no submission after 20 minutes the match was considered a draw. To start things off the event started about 1,5 hours later than it was scheduled, which was a bit shitty, as in Europe it was quite late in the night and some of us have to work in the morning just like me. Never the less the Event started off with a boom as Jeff Glover and Caio Terra showed a really really nice and smooth roll. The match was going back and forth and Glover was somewhat playing defensive all the time and Caio looked quite frustrating during the process but than finally managed to armbar Glover from a sneeky sitting triangle. The next two matches also got ended by submission and I was thinking okay this submission format definitely pays off. The next three fights although, did go for the full twenty minutes but even there was no submission the fights were really a blast with Dean Lister escaping a deep locked armbar of Xande where you saw why Dean is called the Boogyman. The match between Galvao and Ryron Gracie was the expected grind match, with Ryron mostly on his back defending the attacks of Galvao. Although it was four in the morning it definitely payed of to stay up, as the last match between Roger and Buchecha was a blast with some fantastic sweeps from Buchecha and an almost finish via armbar only seconds remaining on the clock. Roger showed big hard after close to 20 minutes by escaping this deep armbar.

The only thing I found a little disturbing was this "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" praising thing, I mean if you looked at the fight card, it was obvious that there were a lot of Gracies involved in the fights not really surprising if you know that Ralek Gracie was on of the organizers of the event. But the video at the mid time break was a little to much, I mean come on who of the viewers wants to go and learn at Gracie University. I defnitily think, that they didnt had a realy clue what the target group of this event was. In my opinion it was the hard core jiu-jitsu Fan and not a casual UFC fan or a person completely new to Jiu-Jitsu. I think this was also displayed from the people which were watching the event live. The venue was really big and set up well but I guess, that there weren't more than a fourth of the seats occupied. I have read today, that the live stream drew 8'000 viewers which is quite big I think and so I am going to stop the Gracie banter here ;)

I am definitely looking forward to further Metamoris Pro Events and they announced, that they will do two events per year and I am quite curiouse who will be the next competitors and if there will be a lot of Gracies on the card again…

Leo Nogueira Seminar at Alliance Frankfurt

I havent been writing since I came back from Portugal as not to much has been happing lately but never the less, the last weekend was quite fun in terms of BJJ. As I am now in Frankfurt often for working purposes and as my fiance is living there, I contacted Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Frankfurt to evaluate the possibility to drop in there when I am in Frankfurt. I have to say, that I got welcomed pretty nice and to start off I joined a Seminar week with Leo Nogueira from Alliance. If you dont know who Leo is, check out the link below - this guy is a real beast. 


LEO NOGUEIRA

So I joined the two days weekend seminar on Saturday and Sunday, each lasting for three hours. What was really nice, that we did a lot of Open Guard stuff during this two days, which is what I am working on at the moment anyways. In addition to that, we did some set ups from guard for back takes and sweeps from the armbar out of full guard. I found the teaching style of Leo a little different than what I have experienced during other seminars. On the first day we did a lot of techniques, and when I say a lot I mean a lot ;). He is also not the guy to repeat the moves over and over, mostly he showed the move two times and than it was our time to try it out. Don't get me wrong his explanations were clear like crystal water and I found him to be a really good teacher. But without my new app I would not been able to remember all the techniques and especially the details that he showed. So speaking of the app I am currently using the following: 


JIU JITSU LOG

The guy who programmed the app, put it out for free so it was a no brainer to me, that I am going to try it out and I have to say, for a bascial notebook it is really okay as you can organize your notes in folders and you don't have to carry around a heavy notebook. So never the less at each break I set down and wrote down all what I could remember and as I said, it was a lot of techniques as you can see below:

• Back Take from full guard
• Three sweep variations from armbar out of the guard
• X-Guard entry from open guard on standing opponent
• Sweep from open guard on standing opponent
• Omoplata set up from open guard on standing opponent
• Three variations from the Omoplata set up to sweep the opponent
• Open guard to sit up guard
• Sweep from sit up guard
• Open guard pass
• Take the back from turtle guard
• Open guard to back take

What was also pretty new to me, were the sparring sessions after the technical training. We did ten minute rounds, yes TEN MINUTE rounds of sparring, which I had never done before. This showed me clearly, that I definitly have to work on my cardio what so ever. I was pretty worked after three rounds... and so was the guy in the photo below

 
On Tuesday I than attended the "normal" training led by Leo, which was supposed to be a 1,5 hours and what I found really nice, that Leo actually did 1,5 hours of technique and afterwards 30 to 40 minutes of specific training (from bottom --> escaping mount and from top --> submit from mount). What I also have to say, that the level of guys training at Alliance Frankfurt is amazing. There were like 5 brown belts, a huge number of purples and blues and some white belts including your humble whitebelltiness himself as you can see below

 
 So I am really looking forward to training and learning from the guys at Alliance Frankfurt...

Vacation and Training in Lisbao

So I am back from my Vacation in Portugal and I have to say, that it was a blast. I went there with my fiance mainly to visit Lisboa and go to the beach for some days. My finance was so nice to grant me two days of BJJ training during our 7 day stay. So as stated in my last post, I contacted Sergio Vita who has his Vita Team Jiu Jitsu in Cascais and he warmly welcomed me at his academy. The nice thing was, that a buddy of mine, which I first met when he attended the Ryan Hall Seminar I organized in Zürich currently lives the dream in Cascais. He is currently a purple belt training with Alliance in Finland and it was really nice to talk jits with him and get an other perspective on certain things.

One of the first things is that I am probably  gonna rethink my current training structure, but I will wright on that when the time is right to do so…

So the first training I attend was a little unusual, normally training starts at 20:30 from Monday to Friday, but this time on Wednesday Vita was showing the guys from the local rugby team some single and double leg takedowns and afterwards, some of the guys from Vitas were put on their backs and the rugby guys lined up to do some sparring. If the rugby guys passed they Vita guys had to change and if the Vita guys submitted the rugby guys have to change. It was nice to see the power of Jiu-Jitsu as not one of the Vita guys had to change during the whole session, which lasted a good twenty 20-30 minutes.

Afterwards there was no technical training but we got directly to sparring. First up I sparred with my buddy and he definitely let me work some things, as I got submitted only once ;). Next up I went against a Two Strip white belt which I handled pretty well. Next up after sitting out due to fatigue (man having 7 min rounds in this warm environment, really fucked me up) and talked a little bit with Vita and he paired me up with one blue belt and I knew that this guy was probably on the upper end of the blue belts and the look of my buddy also confirmed my impression. Never the less, I only got armbared two times and cross chocked once ;)

On Friday of that week I wanted to schedule a private with Vita, which unfortunately didn't happen due to some miscommunication, but I will be back next year and take the chance to do a private with him. But after all we had a pretty good alternative Program, we went surfing to Guincho. I have never surfed before only body boarded and it was such a perfect day and after some teaching by my buddy on the main moves, we just went into the water and as you can see below i did catch some waves on my first day. I wish I would have the chance to surf more, but around here, wake-boarding is the only thing to do in the summer…

 

Somehow Lisboa felt a lot like Brazil not only due to language but I also found a place (thanks to my buddy) which is called "Feel Rio" where you can get Acai and a lot of different shakes, so who needs Brazil when you got Lisboa ;)

Off to Portugal to do "some" training and holidays

so I just wanna give a little update, as I am heading to Portugal with my girlfriend tomorrow. Main focus for this trip is holidays but I will also train at the Vita Jiu-Jitsu Club in Cascais at least two times. I have a BJJ buddy who trains there and I allready contacted the head coach Sergio Vita who was more than nice and told me to come and train with them.

Here is the link to his homepage: Vita Team BJJ 

Here is the link to the blog of my buddy, which is pretty sweet: http://webjiujitsu.blogspot.de/

I also got myself the quotes for private sessions and they are pretty sweet in comparison to what I have to pay in Switzerland. One private hour is EUR 50 and it lasts for 1,5 hours. They also have some pretty sweet deals if you take more privates - damn pitty I won't be able to do more over there - I will let you know how the training and the private went. 

see ya...