Rickson Gracie Is Our First Guest in 2009!
December 29, 2008
Rickson Gracie teaching a seminar in Brazil.
Family, I just wanted to let you know some terrific news. A little over a week ago, I received an email with the subject line: “Merry Christmas”. It was our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro, Colin Foster, with news of a holiday gift: he let me know that he was able to sit down with Rickson Gracie to discuss jiu-jitsu! Colin’s interview with Rickson Gracie will be our main feature on Episode 148 of The FightWorks Podcast, the first episode of 2009.
I have attached a small audio file to this posting that contains a 30 second teaser of that interview.
So make sure you have subscribed to The FightWorks Podcast in iTunes, so our show will be automatically downloaded on January 11, and let your friends know the good news.
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the teaser!
Asian Jiu Jitsu Super Cup 2008 Video
December 28, 2008
Many in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world were wondering how the recent Asian Jiu Jitsu Super Cup played out in Abu Dhabi earlier this month. Courtesy of O Globo, Rio de Janeiro’s biggest newspaper, this video brings us close to the action, which registered approximately 150 competitors from 30 countries. Carlos Santos, black belt under Carlson Gracie and the organizer of the event, was able to arrange for $40,000 in prizes to be available for competitors across belt levels.
Keep an eye out for Gracie Barra’s Otavio de Souza in the world’s largest indoor artificial snow park, built so the residents of the United Arab Emirates can experience snow boarding and skiing in a desert country!
Overcoming the predictable differences between the Brazilian and Arab cultures, Carlao Santos has been very successful in introducing jiu-jitsu to the Emirates. Today twenty BJJ black belts reside in the UAE, teaching jiu-jitsu in the schools and to members of the military and police.
Details of the first-ever Professional Jiu-Jitsu World Cup, which will be run by Carlos Santos in the UAE in April 2009, should be forthcoming soon!
Israeli ADCC Trials
December 26, 2008
Two submission grapplers compete at the Israeli trials for the 2009 ADCCs.
The first-ever competition to determine Israel’s competitors for the European trials of the 2009 Abu Dhabi Submission Grappling World Championships took place on December 20. Organized by Renzo Gracie black belt Haim Gozali, six grapplers will travel to the European ADCC trials on January 3rd.
Today Israel enjoys the presence of Brazilian jiu-jitsu academies under the flags of Gracie Barra, Renzo Gracie, and Royler Gracie. Brazilian jiu-jitsu was originally introduced into Israel by Haim Gozali after training with Renzo Gracie in New York City in 1995.
For more photos of the Israeli trials for the 2009 ADCCs, click here.
The Israeli team:
- 55kg: Eimy Berenhimer
- 65.9kg: Vitally Kraversky
- 76.9kg: Mike Khardas
- 87.9kg: Kfir Eittan
- 98.9kg: Ilan Torjeman
- 99kg and over: Amit Ofir
Don’t forget to vote for the Best BJJ Blog of 2008!
Vote Here for the Best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blog of the Year!
December 21, 2008
It is that time, Mighty 600,000. The time to decide who wins the 2008 BJJ Blog of the Year is upon us. This poll will run until January 2 until January 5! Until that time, the results will be hidden.
Here are finalists that our judges returned from the list of approximately 30 nominees!
When voting, please consider: our goal is to determine the Brazilian jiu-jitsu blog that makes the biggest cultural contribution to the rest of the online BJJ community.
The biggest reward of winning this coveted award is of course, being able to say that you had the Best BJJ Blog of the Year. But there are some other sweet prizes this year:
PRIZES
First Place:
- A highly sought-after Brazilian jiu-jitsu gi from Padilla & Sons, to be shipped when they receive their new inventory in January
- An autographed copy of The Gracie Way
from Kid Peligro
- A one year subscription to Gracie Magazine
- Any photo you want of the amazing BJJ and Grappling photos at AliciaPhotos.com printed at 8 inches by 10 inches
- A copy of the newly released DVD, Renzo Gracie Legacy
Second Place:
- A copy of the newly released DVD, Renzo Gracie Legacy
- A Brazilian jiu-jitsu t-shirt from Southeast Asia courtesy of BJJ Asia
I want to thank our judges for narrowing the list down that you all nominated to give us the finalists above. They are:
- BJJ purple belt & Southern California’s busiest Brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission grappling and MMA photographer, AliciaPhotos.com‘s Alicia Anthony!
- BJJ black belt & Editor in Chief of Gracie Mag Luca Atalla!
- BJJ black belt & Senior Editor of ADCombat.com and author of over one dozen books on Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Kid Peligro!
We will do what we can to bring on the winner to the 2008 BJJ Blog of the Year Contest on our next episode of The FightWorks Podcast. (Reminder: that will be on January 11th! It’s the holidays!)
Please remind your Brazilian jiu-jitsu friends about this so we can get as many people’s opinion on this as possible! Feel free to leave comments below as well.
Abu Dhabi Trials for North America Postponed Until May
December 20, 2008
Abu Dhabi Combat Club female absolute division winners from 2007.
Many in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, and submission grappling community have been eagerly anticipating 2009, as it brings another installment of the ADCC Submission Grappling Championship. The ADCCs have been the birthplace of many legendary grappling encounters.
Competitors and fans alike have been awaiting the details of the North American Trials that were previously announced to be scheduled for January. However, Kid Peligro writes today on adcombat.com that:
Due to a series of venue booking conflicts, the local organizers of the 2009 ADCC North American Trials announced that the trials are officially postponed until May 2009. The trials were originally scheduled for the month of January 2009. Organizers regret the inconvenience this may have caused competitors and fans alike.
The article continues and states that there will still be an east coast trials and a west coast trials. Female competitors must attend the west coast event.
It will be a busy time of the year in 2009! From June 4-7, the BJJ World Championships will take place in Los Angeles!
BJJ Poll: What Is Your New Year's Resolution?
December 20, 2008
Tournament Review Tuesday: AGC Invitational
December 16, 2008
From Dan “Micro” Faggella.
I arrived at the December 13th 2008 Association of Grappling Competitors (AGC) tounament a little bit past noon time with a few of my students from Omoplata BJJ. This is pretty late for a grappling tournament, and that means sleep for me. Hurray. The competitors were all hanging out and weighing in as we showed up, the Ryan Hall seminar was about to start in twenty minutes. I went over to Ryan and Seph Smith (another talented fighter under Lloyd Irvin) to catch up and introduce my students.
The Ryan Hall seminar was cool and casual. He asked when we wanted to learn, in addition to some of the stuff he had planned on working on. We worked on some pass prevention techniques and principals, and then went into a bit of inverted guard for a triangle setup.
The tournament was in a small venue, and the number of competitors was fitting. The divisions included 170 and under intermediate no gi, 205 and under intermediate no gi, 170 and under blue belt gi, and 205 and under blue belt gi.
The rest of the tournament included super-fights, including fighters like Danny Lauzon, Renan Borges, and Sean Eager, as well as a 155 and under no gi pro devision, which I was lucky enough to compete in.
170 and under intermediate no gi first, followed be 205 no gi. There were about 2 or 3 matches going on at the same time in this small venue, but everything seemed to go right about on time. The pro devision started and I was the first match. I won my first and second match and lost in the semifinals to Ken Stone who went on to the finals to face Renan (BTT Boston black belt and no-gi pan-am champion). After rolling for while a white with no clear winner and advantages on both sides, Renan ended up winning in the ending seconds with an X-guard sweep. I tied for third place with Paul Gorman (brown belt under Jay Jack out of Maine) because there was no third and forth place match.
After the pro devision, the other no-gi devisions continued swiftly and went right into gi. It was interesting watching guys from such different skill levels and sizes compete. In the 170 and under weight there were guys weighing 140 grappling guys sucking down from 180. There were about half white belts in the blue belt devision.
After tying his super-fight with Renan of BTT, I caught up with the master of funny accents and eater of spicey food, Seph Smith. I asked how he was doing with training and work, since apparently he no longer has a vehicle – some drunk hit his pickup recently. “I’ve been doing well, training in Arlington all the time with Ryan” he stated. I talked to him about his website, and if that meant more seminars or lessons in his future. “No, I really just want to make a living. Someone actually made the website for me which I really appreciate (www.SephSmith.com), but I’m not necessarily getting more involved business-wise.” I went on to talk about what his main goals were. “I wanna go to the Abu Dhabis and win that thing.” I went on to ask him about his super-fight with Renan, and what he thought about him. “I think he is very good, he has all the little details down. Like, he’s very aware of everything going on – he’ll do little things like put his big toe on your leg so he knows where it is.” I talked to him about how close he was to tapping Renan; “Yeah I knew I was close there but he was able to turn in. I was also unaware that our match wouldn’t have three 5 minute rounds like the other super fights.”
I also stopped by to talk with Mr. Ryan Hall himself. A few months back he was injured pretty badly while training, and has had a few surgeries on the effected area near his wrist. I asked him when he planned to be back fully with live training. “For the Abu Dhabi” he said without a millisecond of hesitation. “So you plan on being fully healed by the time the Abu Dhabi competition comes around?” I asked. “I don’t want to hurt myself before then. I hoping to be invited, winning the Abu Dhabi is my biggest goal right now.” Ryan went into a bit of detail in terms of how he plans to face his competition (haha); “I plan to win the majority of my matches with grappling moves.”
Micro: “How else will you go about winning, Ryan?”
“With Jedi mind tricks, or when all else fails, bribery” he said while holding a straight face.
I asked what else was on his plate besides psychic skills. “I want to win the Mundial at brown belt.”
“What about the no-gi Mundials?”
“The Abu Dhabi trumps all that.”
True. We chatted Bit longer about the state of BJJ as a sport, and I bumped into some other grapplers.
I caught up with Sean Eager, on of Jay Jack’s fighters from Maine. I asked him about his super-fight. “I faced some Team Link purple belt who was pretty good. I ended up getting him with a heel hook.” I asked Eager what he thought of the tournament. He said some of his guys back in Maine were disappointed that there wasn’t a heavier weight class (about 205).
Overall the tournament seemed to go well, with notably less drama than the average tournament – most of which might have been due to the small venue and smaller number of competitors. The super-fights were very exiting, especially Danny Lauzon‘s match, which lasted nearly 15 minutes until Dan finished with an armbar. I’d love to see more of these at other tournaments. I left about 6:25pm, and said goodbye to all the guys hanging out on the mats.
This is the fourth in our new column, Tournament Review Tuesdays, where FightWorks Podcast listeners submit reports about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and grappling competitions that happened the weekend prior. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of The FightWorks Podcast. – Caleb
#147 Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Iraq; The Journey of Ox Jennings
December 14, 2008
Ryron Gracie and fellow jiu-jitsu black belt Gui Valente in Iraq.
Fresh off our coverage of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Asia, The FightWorks Podcast now brings you the story of jiu-jitsu in one of the toughest environments in the world today: Baghdad, Iraq. At the invitation of a United States Army general, Ryron Gracie, Rorion Gracie’s son, headed to Iraq to instruct soldiers at Fort Victory this month, along with Gui Valente of Gracie Miami. Ryron will not only tell us about his trip and the conditions there, but will stress the importance of returning jiu-jitsu to its original focus on self-defense. The strongly-held view of the Gracie Academy in Torrance is that Brazilian jiu-jitsu today has become geared to competition in sport rather than self-defense.
Ryron Gracie instructs jiu-jitsu to US Army soldiers in Iraq.
Our second conversation in the show this week comes from Greg “Ox” Jennings, whose story appeared in an article in the December 2008 issue of GracieMag (an excellent resource on Brazilian jiu-jitsu). Ox spent more than seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and took a vow of silence to protest his situation. Upon release from prison he found his way to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu academy of Rodrigo Medeiros in the beach community of Pacific Beach, San Diego. Still not talking, Ox began and became enthralled with BJJ. Years later, Ox is a purple belt and now speaks of his experience freely. Ox brings us his story this week, and what he has learned from it.
“Ox” and his dog Butter.
Don’t forget that you can contact us to get your questions answered here on The FightWorks Podcast: BJJ Radio too! Just call (877) 247-4662!
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show
Poll: What Was the Best BJJ Team of 2008?
December 13, 2008
#146 IBJJF's Asian Open Report; Rib Injuries in BJJ with Doc
December 7, 2008
Team winners from the 2008 Asian Open of Jiu-Jitsu. Gold: Paraestra, Silver: Gracie Barra, Bronze: Team Purebred / Lloyd Irvin.
On Tuesday we presented a write-up of the 2008 Asian Open of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Steve Roberto (Purebred / Lloyd Irvin) as a part of our Tournament Review Tuesday series here on TheFightWorksPodcast.com. In this week’s episode of Brazilian jiu-jitsu radio, The FightWorks Podcast speaks with the black belt absolute division winner of the 2008 Asian Open, Mike Fowler and his teammate from Purebred / Lloyd Irvin in Guam, Stephen Roberto. I did not plan it this way but what better way to wind down the last three weeks’ emphasis on jiu-jitsu in Asia?
In our second piece in the show this week, we will hear from The FightWorks Podcast’s medical resident expert (and purple belt in BJJ!) Doctor Aaron Schneir, who is an emergency medicine doctor here in San Diego. We are going to learn about rib injuries in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, from how they happen, how long you should stop training, and other details to keep you healthy training BJJ!
Finally, we will have another of our conversations with Andrew Correa, who as served as a referee for ADCC and the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, about awarding points in a specific scenario in jiu-jitsu competition.
Don’t forget that you can contact us to get your questions answered here on The FightWorks Podcast: BJJ Radio too! Just call (877) 247-4662!
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show
EXCERPT FROM RIB INJURY CONVERSATION WITH DOC
The FightWorks Podcast: Okay everybody we are here in the FightWorks Podcast Mobile Recording Studio in San Diego with Doctor Aaron Schneir, aka “Doc”, our resident medical expert on our Brazilian jiu-jitsu radio show. How are you Doc?
Doctor Aaron Schneir: Good, thanks for having me again.
The FightWorks Podcast: We’re glad you could join us. We’ve gotten a couple of inquiries about rib injuries lately and as they pertain to our lives in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Everybody at some points gets beat up jiu-jitsu, so today we’re going to utilize your vast knowledge of emergency medicine and jiu-jitsu to help our listeners, so I thought we would kick it off with a couple calls we got from listeners.
Doctor Aaron Schneir: Okay well the first question is just about floating rib injuries. I suspect that people are using that, you know, the layperson, I’m not sure they’re referring to the same thing we are. So I am just going to go over this real quickly. There are twelve ribs on either side. Two of them you could call “hanging” are actually not attached to cartilage. They’re at the bottom and are ribs number eleven and twelve. They just kind of jut out on the side on your flanks on your rib cage on either side. They do not go back around to your chest. Physicians would refer to those as floating ribs. Those could certainly be injured. I suspect those are pretty unusual to injure other than through blunt trauma, and what I mean by that is if you fall on your back in jiu-jitsu, if somebody punches you really hard in that area…
The FightWorks Podcast: Maybe [if you are hit by] a knee?
Doctor Aaron Schneir: A knee in your side could certainly do that. Those are the floating ribs. I think the terms get confused when you get a broken rib on two sides and you could refer to that piece as “floating”. So I think there are different names that are used. I think the common thing with rib injuries and broken ribs are that they suck for jiu-jitsu, because they can definitely happen doing jiu-jitsu and they are quite painful unfortunately, and they last a long time. In addition they are very difficult to train with. I think it’s one of the harder injuries to train with because no matter how tough you are laughing, coughing, moving, can all make worse the symptoms. In jiu-jitsu when you have an injury that was described by both of those [callers] you are looking at four to six weeks until you are better. The challenge is training early after that and potentially re-injuring that. So they are really challenging injuries. I think the other thing is that you have muscles between them, your intercostal muscles. When you twist really fast, certainly those could be injured as well. I think everybody has seen when at jiu-jitsu where someone makes a sudden twisting movement of their torso and then BAM suddenly has an injury to their torso. Most likely that’s not actually a broken rib though it potentially could be. But it’s probably an intercostal muscle injury, or an injury of the muscles overlying that like the obliques or an abdominal muscle. A lot of this can be difficult to sort out. But they really hurt. The person referred to where the ribs are inserting into the sternum, your breastplate right in front of your chest. That is interesting I wonder how he injured that. Certainly a good knee in the stomach could injure that.
The FightWorks Podcast: What if you are getting stacked up?
Doctor Aaron Schneir: Yeah that could as well. Anytime where you are moving one way and get jerked another way could definitely cause these type of injuries. They really hurt. I know they frustrated me. You try to come back and every movement hurts. You pretty much have to wait them out. In general you’re not going to damage yourself a lot more by having those type of injuries and coming back and training but it is going to delay the healing.
The FightWorks Podcast: It sounds like from what you are saying is that the only thing to do to make it better is to take time off.
Doctor Aaron Schneir: I would say so. You can certainly take pain medication. One thing is, unless it’s caused by quite a bit of force, in general you probably don’t necessarily need to go to the doctor. We don’t look for fractures in x-rays so much. That’s really not why we do an x-ray. It’s more to make sure you don’t have an underlying, like, partially collapsed lung. So if you were to have an injury like that, it can be very difficult to distinguish that. Certainly if you are short of breath, and you can’t catch your breath [after the injury happens] you should go seek medical attention. Or if it is just unbearable pain, pain that is just not getting better, [it is] getting worse, it is reasonable to go see [a doctor]. With major injuries you can injure your spleen or liver, things that are underlying, so you just use your common sense. But for the vast majority of the questions about [rib injuries in BJJ] they are really not like that. They’re just having a sudden injury, it is hurting them, they’re not in that much pain but they are more just pissed off that they can’t train. They come back early and hurt. I know I broke ribs snowboarding. I re-injured them doing jiu-jitsu. You can take pain medication. Things like ibuprofen, like an anti-inflammatory. You can use ice early on. But they are really challenging injuries for jiu-jitsu because you’re using your whole body.
The FightWorks Podcast: So this is one of the worst recommendations we want to hear, but you just have to stop [training jiu-jitsu].
Doctor Aaron Schneir: Yeah you can try coming back but I think your body is going to kind of limit your ability to train…
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