Attacking the Turtle by Alexandre Penao

Alexandre Penao is a 6th degree Black Belt from Carlson Gracie and one of the most respected BJJ instructors in Brazil. He is currently teaching at Fitplus (Halifax) and doing seminars in Canada (yes, Canada!). I love when they come to Canada instead of the USA :)

*if anyone know his seminar schedule, let us know.

He is putting online a sequence videos showing attacks from the turtle position. You can check them at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/theferguson

Or at:

Turtle Attacks at bjjwiki

BJJ Community site

I have been very quiet lately, but not because I don't like you guys. With a few training partners, we decided to create a community site (wiki), where everyone can post information, links, videos, etc.

The goal is the have a free resource for every BJJ practitioner to contribute and learn from it.

For more information, visit: http://www.bjjwiki.org

Hope to see you there!

Minotauro rolling

Good video of Minotauro rolling no-gi with a student.

Renzo Gracie Legacy documentary

Simply amazing this guy history. Enjoy!

2008 Nova Scotia Open BJJ Championship

The maritimes is on fire! Just on the last two months they had 3/4 BJJ tourneys. The next one is the 2008 Nova Scotia Open Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Championship to be held in Truro, NS by Jake Mackenzie.

2008 Nova Scotia Open Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Championship, being held Sunday, November 16th, at MarMac Athletics on Inglis Street, Truro, Nova Scotia. The Cost of registration will be 40 dollars to compete in one division, or 50 to compete in both. There will be beginner, intermediate and advanced divisions, for gi and no gi. If you plan on coming please message me and tell me, what divisions you will be fighting in, we will be taking registration at the door. The weight classes are as follows:

featherweight - 149 and under
lightweight - 150-167.5
middleweight - 167.5-181
middle/heavy - 181-194
heavyweight - 195 and up

For more information, contact Jake ( jake_mackenzie_@hotmail.com )

JJ Machado - 5 favorite submissions

JJ Machado 5 favorite submissions:

BJJ inspirational picture

That's halloween for the guy on the bottom.



Do I need to say anything else?

Rickson gracie quotes

Rickson Gracie gave an interview to Sultatame (Brazilian magazine) after a seminar and these are some of the more remarkable quotes from it:

About the current BJJ in the world:

"As a teacher I always like to give a full view of jiu jitsu to all my students. From self defense, to competition and no-gi techniques. If you get too focused on a helicopter sweep or on the x-guard and spend years training only that, you will find a lot of trouble without the gi or in an mma fight."

About food:

"Nutrition is the beginning of our health. We are what we eat."

About the use of BJJ in MMA:

"Jiu jitsu is MMA. Since the beginning our main concern was always to put jiu jitsu to the test and that's where mma came from. We were always open to challenge matches, since the time of the capoeira fighters, to boxers, street fighters and now with the MMA/UFC."

Final message to the readers:

"It is only with a lot of training and dedication that we can achieve something. A brave man, a real fighter is not measured by how many times he fall, but how many times he stand up. Always be ready to fight, to win and to forgive when necessary. Good luck and train hard!"

BJJ in the big (and small) screen

It is almost Friday, so nothing like some entertainment. First, Chuck Norris and the Machado brothers:



And some RedBelt (movie) Behind the scenes:



Yes, yes.. Nothing much to do over here :)

Jacare x Marcelo Garcia - Sticking to the basics

I just finished watching the 2005 ADCC fight between Jacare and Marcelo Garcia. The interesting thing is how this all went. Jacare pulled guard, worked to break Marcelo's posture and finished with a Kimura from guard... Nothing like sticking to the basics..

BJJ half guard drills by Rigan Machado

As a complement to my last post, BJJ drills by Rigan Machado, I am adding some half guard specific drills by Rigan Machado from the same DVD Secrets of the Half Guard.




*Btw, if you like what you see, make sure to purchase his DVD set. It is the most complete and detailed half guard DVD ever!

BJJ drills by Rigan Machado

I am a big fan of Rigan Machado and I love his style of teaching (funny and very detailed). On his Secrets of the Half Guard DVD, he shows some good drills that I've been using for a while during my warm ups. Hope you enjoy it.




*Btw, if you like what you see, make sure to purchase his DVD set. It is the most complete and detailed half guard DVD ever!

1st annual BJJ championship with Shane Rice

Steven Williams from Team Saigo and Shane Rice (Rickson Gracie BB), will be hosting a submission-only gi/no-gi tournament on Oct 26th (Sunday) in Moncton, NB. Information below:

Sunday Oct 26th , 1642 Mountain rd, Moncton, NB .
Reg: 8am-9am
weigh ins: -9am-10am
10am - Gi tournament starts followed by no gi in the afternoon.
cost is $40 in advance $50 at the door
Novice -limited experience-Under one year
Intermediate-2-3 years
Advance-Experienced

weights:
150lbs and under
151lbs-165lbs
166lbs to 180lbs
181lbs -195 lbs
196lbs -220lbs
221lbs plus

The absolute finals are 170lbs and under and 171 and over.

Contact Phone: 15068607204 or Email: stopu@rogers.com

History of martial arts

A 10 minute video showing the history of martial arts by the History Channel. They explain how BJJ came to Brazil, how the UFC started, etc. Old, but good stuff ..

Results from the Abhaya BJJ Championship

The results are in for the Abhaya Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championship, held on Oct 11, 2008 (NS, Canada):

Beginner Lightweight
1st Mooky Khalil (Fitplus)
2nd John Barr (Fitplus)
3rd Christopher Howse (Marmac Athletics)

Beginner Middleweight
1st Steven Jellicoe (Fitplus)
2nd Chuck Mitchell (BTT)
3rd Ryan Connor (Fitplus)

Beginner Heavyweight
1st Mark MacDonald (Titans)
2nd Shanam Bean (Infinity Fighting Systems)
3rd Rob Wainwright (Functional MMA)

Beginner Super-Heavyweight
1st Matthew McKeen (Truro Gracie Barra)

Intermediate Lightweight
1st Josh Presley (Titans)
2nd Tanner Abbott (Truro Gracie Barra)
3rd Mark Brace (Titans)

Intermediate Middleweight
1st Steven Grant (Fitplus)
2nd Daniel Vanderlans (Truro Gracie Barra)
3rd Denny O'Brien (Abhaya)

Intermediate Heavyweight
1st Nathan Smith (Titans)
2nd Jon McWaid (Abhaya)
3rd Scott Nauss (Marmac Athletics)

Advanced Lightweight
1st Josh Wincey (Titans)
2nd Joe Dugas (Titans)
3rd Oden Robicheau (Titans)

Advanced Middleweight
1st Josh Albright (Bushido-Kai)
2nd Demetry Furman (Positive Impact)
3rd Scott Rose (Titans)

Advanced Heavyweight
1st Mike Kitson (Titans)
2nd Jason Stuart (Abhaya)
3rd Craig Ferguson (Fitplus)

Absolute Division:
Josh Presley and Mike Kitson closed out the division (both from Titans)


More information: http://www.abhayaapparel.com/news.html

Butterfly guard sweep with over hook

Variation of the butterfly guard sweep with the over hook (by Eddie Bravo).

Helio Gracie 95th birthday

Helio Gracie and his 95th birthday by Tatame TV (in Portuguese). Both Rickson and Helio speak about Jiu jitsu and how much they like it :) Good video.

BJJ internet growth from 2001 to 2008

If you wonder how much bjj has grown from 2001 up until today, just take a look at the google results from 2001:

http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=bjj returns Results 1 - 10 of about 11,300 for bjj. (0.01 seconds)


Compared to now (Oct 2008):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bjj which returns Results 1 - 10 of about 3,010,000 for bjj. (0.23 seconds)


That's 11,300 results in 2001 compared to 3,010,000 on 2008. wow!


*btw, if you wonder how we were able to search based on the results from 2001, google just released a 2001 search as part of their 10th aniversary celebration.

Canada Nov, 2008 tournaments

November 9th. 2008 - Toronto, ON: Canada Joslin's Canadian Open Grappling Championships. More details at www.joslinsmartialarts.com.

Pendulum (flower) sweep

The guys from the Maine BJJ academy, just posted a very detailed video about the Pendulum (flower) sweep. As always, excellent material from them to improve your game.