by Dev Kostal

I’ve come to find out that outside Brazil, a lot of the emphasis in Latin America – at least as far as competitions go – is on no-gi jiu jitsu, or “submission.” I stumbled on a competition during my time in Chile where all the guys at the gym seemed to know about it, but I couldn’t find any information online.

The Chilean National Submission League was formed, as I was told, to provide a place where the inordinately large number of amateur wrestling students could meet and compete with the thriving Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community, with a mixed set of rules. So at the inception, they assumed some slightly different standards than the IBJJF-approved no-gi rules. One of the main differences, aside from time of rounds (3 minutes for novice, 5 for advanced) was that they allowed wrestling shoes. Although my fear of seeing (or getting) a toe mangled was heightened, it didn’t end up being an issue. This particular competition was held at the University Of Santiago, in a multistory sports complex.

My main problem with the tournament was finding ANY information at all online. Google just isn’t helpful when the majority of the advertising is being done word-of-mouth and through restricted-access Facebook pages. The league just is not set up for wandering visitors, such as myself, to happen upon. That said, when you travel, if you link up with a good school, they tend to let you know.
If you can move past the advertising snafus and the slightly different rules – and there’s no reason you shouldn’t – it becomes, as their motto indicates, a place where “the sport is central.” Everyone was there to have a good day of rolling, plain and simple.

As was the case with other small competitions, signups were done the morning of, and then we waited for the organizers to arrange the brackets. Because there were only about 40 guys there, it didn’t take too long. Weight divisions were in 10kg increments, which I personally thought might have been a bit much, but with the number of people it gave everyone a good fight and still had a couple brackets with 3 fights.

Experience levels were either novice or advanced. I don’t know what the cutoff was between the two, but as a sub-2 year blue belt (normally intermediate), I was shuffled into the advanced division (appropriately, I think, given the level of the majority of the competitors, who were novice and competing for the first time). There were three guys in my category (<85kg, advanced): me, a purple belt, and a brown belt.

Brackets were done by drawing numbers, which I thought was fantastically objective. On the other hand, it did lead to a couple guys from the same school on the same side of the bracket, which is always unfortunate.

Prior to starting, the organizers sat all the competitors down and conducted a thorough rules briefing, which in my opinion really set this competition apart. Because most of the novice fighters were competing for the first time, this allowed them to ask questions and see demonstrations of what was allowed and what wasn’t. I was impressed at the detail they used in this briefing, and impressed that they did it – this is far from the standard, and a welcome addition to any tournament, as far as I’m concerned.

There was one competition mat and some small gymnastic pads pushed together to create a warmup area. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was enough, and the fights went quickly enough that the one mat was sufficient – the waits weren’t long at all, as the refs kept the matches moving along with short breaks in between.

The brackets were run bottom-to-top, with all the first round fights going before the second round. This allowed the first round winners plenty of time to recuperate, something I always pay attention to.
The reffing was solid and attentive, as was the timekeeping. There weren’t huge LED scoreboards or anything, but they had a nice big manual scoreboard on the table by the mat, one official timekeeper, and a scorekeeper. Additionally, the mat was set up with a barrier around it, and coaches’ chairs in the corner, another nice touch.

The level of fighting was impressive, although unobjectively I’m happy to say that the BJJ practitioners generally trounced the pure wrestlers. Lots of excellent takedowns, reversals, mental toughness, and general strategery were on display throughout the day.

This wasn’t a gigantic IBJJF event, but it wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t perfect – the locker rooms/bathrooms were 4 floors down from the mats, and it seemed to take a little while to get going despite the proclaimed 1 PM start time (which was actually the “show up and get your name on the list” time), but aside from some small quibbles, I have to say that this was exactly the type of small tournament that I think is vital to progressing and encouraging BJJ around the world. It brought together a group of people for the sole purpose of experience and camaraderie. It was professionally organized and run, and I was truly impressed with the organizers’ efforts to keep everyone informed throughout the day.

Thanks to Sensei Victor Vásquez at Real Fighting Club (http://chilejiujitsu.cl) in Santiago for the invitation, and thanks to the Liga Nacional De Submission for a quality event.

Devlin Kostal is a blue belt under Daniel Thomas at Zeus BJJ (http://montereyjiujitsu.com) in Monterey, California, who is currently traveling through Latin America. Thus far, he’s trained in Lima, Peru; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; and Santiago, Chile. His blog, Fueled By Fear, can be found at http://devbjj.blogspot.com.

- Caleb

He’s back! Dave Camarillo of Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu fame has returned to the audio home of Brazilian jiu-jitsu this week. Camarillo started his career as a judoka, training under his father in the judo-rich area of northern California. Later Camarillo started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Ralph Gracie alongside other jiu-jitsu names like BJ Penn and Gumby & Scotty from OnTheMat.com. As his career progressed, his significant judo experience and aggressive offense made for some wild highlight reels.

Today Dave Camarillo is a coach to UFC fighters and runs his own Brazilian jiu-jitsu school. In today’s conversation with Chris Simamora we learn about the difference between grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, what being a martial artist means, and much more.

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I was thinking the other day about how a certain percentage of BJJ practitioners end up changing schools. There are a handful of reasons why that happens. It’s not an everyday occurence though.

We’ve touched on how many people have changed their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in older BJJ Polls, but today’s poll is a little different twist. For many of us where we started our BJJ journey is a bit like being born – you look back and you have the parents you do because you have the parents you have! Many of us did not do a ton of research before beginning BJJ. We just walked in to the nearest (or only) school and got hooked. And so there we are.

But at some point in our BJJ careers, we have the chance and information to reflect and see that there might be more BJJ around than we knew about, and opportunities for different or better training environments. As such, what about you? If you could turn back time and start training jiu-jitsu somewhere else, would you change things?

Back in February we reported that Atos Jiu-Jitsu was going to open a new school in San Diego. It appears lots are folks are wondering when or if Andre Galvao will be leading the school.

The answer is: yes.

We spoke with Brian Perry of Atos San Diego today, who confirmed that Galvao will be coming to lead the school shortly after his MMA fight on August 21st. Galvao will be leading classes and offering privates and seminars. Anyone who would like more information can contact Brian at atosbjj@yahoo.com.

Ramon Lemos, another leader of Atos Jiu-Jitsu, has been in Los Angeles helping prepare Anderson Silva for his recent victory against Chael Sonnen. Lemos will be returning to Brazil soon.

Big show this week on the audio home of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, The FightWorks Podcast. Today we of course begin the show with a discussion of the most recent BJJ poll results, and from there we move on to this week’s feature interview with American Top Team’s Ricardo Liborio. Liborio is a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under the late Carlson Gracie, and a leader of ATT, located down in Florida. Cohost Dan will bring us an in depth conversation about jiu-jitsu today, and in yesteryear when he was coming up in the ranks alongside peers like Amauri Bitetti, Wallid Ismail, Murilo Bustamante, and others.

We also spend some time with Stephen Hall, aka Pesadelo Triangulo of Alliance. Hall just attended the Rio Open BJJ Tournament and the International Masters and Seniors in Brazil. As always, we benefit from his great stories and helps us feel like we were right there with him at the Tijuca Tenis Clube, the home of so many important matches in BJJ history.

Finally, Cohost Dan and I will answer some listener email and even a voicemail to wind down today’s show.

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Blas wrote in to us here at The FightWorks Podcast, saying:

I asked a question to my former Jiu Jitsu Coach in Texas if he considered himself a Martial Artist.  Much to my surprise he said no…he said that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the Anti-Martial Art and thus doesn’t consider himself to be a Martial Artist.  This is coming from a black belt.  So I pose a question for a toll possibly.  How many of you BJJ players out there consider yourself to be a Martial Artist?  I’d be curious to see the answer. 
 
Regards,
 
Blas

So what about you? You train Brazilian jiu-jitsu right? And do you think of yourself as a martial artist? Let us know by voting in the poll above and feel free to leave us a comment as well.

This week’s poll came to us from Jason (if anyone’s suggested it in the past and it slipped my mind, I apologize). This is a very interesting poll idea and gets to the heart of many debates in our jiu-jitsu community. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a constantly evolving set of techniques and as time goes on, there are more techniques and things to focus on when we train jiu-jitsu but the same number of hours in a day. So some things will likely be set aside along the way.

Many have argued that self defense – the fundamental reason for Brazilian jiu-jitsu – has been abandoned in the average BJJ school in favor of techniques and moves that are only worthwhile in a BJJ tournament. Perhaps the most vocal in this belief is the crew at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California, lead by Helio Gracie’s eldest son Rorion Gracie.

Please don’t over-think this and say, “all the techniques I learn are self defense techniques because you never know, that crazy flying coconut-plata submission I just saw on YouTube could work in a street fight!” When I say “basic self-defense techniques”, you know which ones I’m speaking about.

As always, leave your comments on this below after voting!

by Dev Kostal

I competed at the Master/Senior World Championships in Rio De Janeiro, which is held concurrently with the Rio Open Championship. Both are IBJJF events.

I competed in the blue belt master division, which ran Friday morning and Friday afternoon, so this review is based on that day’s events, for the most part.

Walking into the Tijuca Tênis Clube evokes some pretty strong feelings for me. I love history, and I’m particularly enamored with the small stories, the ones that not many people get to hear.

Quite a few years ago now, Francisco Mansor was the Chief of Police in Rio. As such, he had connections all over the city. And when the first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Chapionships were held in 1996, Grand Master Mansor used his connections at the Tijuca Tênis Clube. The Mundials were held there until 2007, I believe, when they moved to Los Angeles.

Suffice to say, my apprehension upon entering the Club was significant. But it’s a pretty unassuming place. Concrete steps comprise the upper level seats, and simple plastic chairs – many of them broken or missing – are the closer ones. But it’s that simplicity that’s attractive about the place. There’s no presumption here – just amazing jiu jitsu.

You hear story after story about training and competing in Rio. Competing for the first time in Rio is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced. It’s the same as any other big tournament…except it’s not the same. You really do have to get over a mental hurdle – at least I did. Here you are, in Brazil, doing what you love, this Brazilian sport, fighting the best athletes in Brazil. It’s pretty significant. And you can feel that quiet energy when you walk in.

The tournament itself, from my perspective, was fantastic. Quite honestly, and I’ve only competed in 15 or so tournaments in my roughly 2 years in this sport, this was the most efficiently-run tournament I’ve had the pleasure to be a part of.

The brackets ran exactly on time, and once started, there was hardly any empty mat time between fights. All of the check-in details were done to IBJJF standards, with weigh-ins, gi checks, and ID checks.

Interestingly, the mat coordinators announced their divisions on the microphone individuals, which I hadn’t seen before – ordinarily there’s one or two announcers who make all the calls. For the gringo who doesn’t speak fantastic Portuguese, though, this helped me by being able to focus on one mat coordinator, so I knew roughly when I was going to get called.

.

What I found to be the best part of the tournament administration, though, was the consideration shown by the mat coordinators for the fighters’ efforts. Time in between matches didn’t seem to be too long, or too short. Most of the time I got 10-15 minutes, and I really appreciated that.

As per usual, the refereeing was excellent. Having spent most of the day there, I can’t recall seeing a single disputed decision. There may have been some, but it wasn’t nearly as prevalent as at Pans this year.

Later in the day, during the absolutes, there seemed to be a lot more injuries on the mats, so the medics were definitely earning their pay. But they were out in force, and I for one really appreciated their efforts.

I don’t have to tell you that the level of jiu jitsu being displayed (on Friday, it was blues, purples, and browns, both male and female) was unbelievable. For me, by far the best display was the women’s purple belt absolute match where (I apologize, I don’t have the names) a tiny little competitor overcame a much larger girl, who was physically throwing her around the mat, and ended up choking her out. Both competitors were phenomenal, and the entire arena was watching that fight.

All in all, my day at the Master/Senior Worlds lived up to my fairly high expectations of what my first competition in Rio would be like. The energy, the camaraderie, and the ridiculous level of jiu jitsu made for an unforgettable experience, one that I will carry with me for the rest of my BJJ career.

- Caleb

The author (second from left) with his new gold medal.

The tournament was the Buckeye Border International Grappling Championship and it took place Saturday, July 24th in Toledo, Ohio at St. Francis High School. There were over 300 competitors of all ages, sexes and skillsets who competed in both the gi and no-gi competition. Competition began at 10:30 am and ran for just over 6 hours.

The tournament was smoothly run, with 6 different stations on both sides of the large wrestling mat. There was very little delay between each match. The refereeing was top notch, I didn’t see any complaints from any of the competitors and they all displayed good sportsmanship after the bouts.

The highlight of the tournament were two superfights between high level blackbelts. The first was a match between Sean Bansfield (Pan Am gold medalist) and Don Richard (multiple Arnold Gracie champion). The match was very much a stalemate for the first 6 minutes, but all the excitement happened at the end. Down 3 points, Bansfield swept Richard into mount with 5 seconds left in the fight to neck out a dramatic victory.

The other superfight was a match between Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros (7x world champ) and Tyrone Gooden (Pan Am medalist). Comprido was the much bigger man but Gooden started strong by shooting in for a takedown to gain an early 2-0 lead. Comprido eventually swept him, but Gooden had excellent defense and never allowed Comprido to submit him, although Comprido did win a decision by a large margin.

BJ Nelson from Relson Gracie jiu jitsu in Columbus, Ohio won the Absolute Gi tournament which earned him a plasma screen TV for his efforts.

- Caleb

Our feature interview this week on The FightWorks Podcast is with Carlos Machado, a returning guest to our show. What? You don’t remember our other conversation with Carlos? Well our last chat was in 2006, so I guess we can’t be too upset. We introduced that show by saying, “if there’s another surname that’s synonymous with jiu-jitsu along with Gracie, it’s ‘Machado’”, which is of course as true today as it was then.

Carlos is the oldest of the Machado brothers, cousins to the Gracie family who grew up alongside the Gracies on the mats, streets, and beaches of Rio de Janeiro as well as in the mountain town of Teresopolis where the Gracie estate was located. Carlos brings us back to those early days in the late seventies and early eighties when today’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu leadership were coming of age. We will hear rare details about Gracie family patriarch Carlos Gracie as well as Rolls Gracie, the son of Carlos Gracie who spent so much of his childhood with his uncle Helio that he referred to Helio as “father” also. A victim of a tragic early death caused by a hang gliding accident, Rolls is still considered one of jiu-jitsu’s most important innovators and remains beloved by all those who remember him.

From there Carlos Machado will bring us along to learn about the Machado brothers’ arrival in the United States around 1990 and their close relationship with martial arts celebrity Chuck Norris. So please join us for this visit to some very important moments in Brazilian jiu-jitsu history.

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You know that one of our favorite sources of poll questions are you, The Mighty 600,000. We recently received a voicemail from a listener to the show who said:

Hi, this is Josh from Pasadena and I’ve got a poll suggestion. It goes, “How much sportive aspects of jiu-jitsu cross over into street self-defense situations percentage-wise?” …It’s a very interesting question. It’s a very big debate and I think a lot of people would like to vote on something like that.

Cohost Dan and I agree that this is indeed a very important question. It cuts to the heart of what Brazilian jiu-jitsu is, right? We tweaked the wording of the suggestion just a little bit and came up with “What Percentage of Sport Jiu-Jitsu Techniques Are Street or Self Defense Applicable?” Even if the poll isn’t perfectly crafted it’s a starting point for conversation on this important topic.

So please vote in the poll by letting us know which option most closely reflects how much you think sport jiu-jitsu will work in a self defense situation. And feel free to leave a comment too to explain how you made your choice!

Rio De Janeiro, 21 July 2010

I’m going to start this review by prefacing everything I say with this: I am a blue belt. I have just enough experience to know that I don’t have nearly enough experience to have gotten everything I could have out of this incredible seminar. So for everything I missed, or didn’t understand… I apologize.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

Master Rickson Gracie’s seminars on “Invisible Jiu Jitsu” have become the stuff of legend. Pirated bootlegs of older seminars have made their way through the underground market to our clamoring hands, because it always seems as though we just can’t find anything. Is he a ninja? Is he a ghost? Shrouded in mystery, it seems as though no one has ever actually attended one of these mythical seminars… maybe The Man himself doesn’t even exist? Except that he does. And he’ll be the first to tell you: There is no secret. Just technique.

I had the extraordinary opportunity today to attend a seminar given by Master Rickson Gracie. The seminar was the first time Master Rickson has presented in English in Brazil, and the intent was to appeal to the visiting international competitors who are here for this weekend’s Rio Open and Master/Senior Mundials.

Apparently the seminar was put together only 9 days ago, and I’m not entirely sure the word got out enough. That said, Master Rickson will be conducting another seminar this coming Monday, 26 July 2010. I’m hoping this review will help get the word out, and I know they’re going to announce it heavily during the tournament.

A who’s who of black belts was in attendance, not least of which were Kron and Kyra. I’m guessing about 100 total people were in attendance, and there was a film crew there, apparently recording it for a future documentary. Choke II, anyone?

We started off with a series of drills revolving around the concept of “connection.” In every movement in jiu jitsu, be it sweep, escape, submission, there is a fulcrum point (my word, not his) around which your body must move to be successful. We all know “hips, hips, hips,” but in many cases, the hip movement is enabled by the connection of another point of your body on your opponent’s. A shoulder, or a hand, etc.

Beginning from standing, he demonstrated these concepts through application in basic escapes or control positions, then we worked in pairs to drill them. Collar control, defending a rear choke, and a few others.

Everything after this revolved around that same idea of connection, and focused on the tiny details in basic movements.

We then went to the ground. We began with the simplest movement, the upa, and its use in the escape from mount. Master Rickson showed how just the smallest adjustment of head position can make this movement that much easier for the person trying to escape.

Much of the time was spent in side control, and we worked details and connection points for escapes from head-control kesa gatame with arm control and without, kesa gatame with far-side underhook with near-side arm control and without, and several other types of top side control. Master Rickson demonstrated how a connected shoulder or hand can control the position enough to get your hips out, or under, your opponent, depending on the situation. We also worked several techniques from bottom guard.

Since this is my review, I’m going to tell you what I took from the seminar. As a blue belt, I grasped this (new-to-me) concept of connection, and the idea of solving the problems from each position by enabling your hip movement with those points. As a concept-oriented person, this really took on the life of Master Rickson’s “invisible jiu jitsu.”

Additionally, one practical thing he highlighted really struck home with me, and that’s shoulder movement. I know it probably seems elementary, but the amount of difference in some of these escapes and movements that is created with larger shoulder movement was astonishing to me.

At the end, Master Rickson sat down and provided several thoughts on his BJJ philosophy: the larger concept of using jiu jitsu for self-defense – which is his entire focus as espoused, of course, by his father Master Hélio. And he discussed jiu jitsu as a metaphor for life, the idea that while these techniques benefit us for self-defense and tournaments, the larger picture is that we can use them to build confidence in ourselves and in our children, our friends, our coworkers.

So… the mysticism? Secret ninja techniques? Nope. What we got was even more valuable: a way to think about each movement, a way to connect our bodies to our opponents’, and enable our own techniques to work better. A way to think about jiu jitsu. A way to carry ourselves. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m pulling back the Wizard’s curtain. What Master Rickson showed us today is there is no curtain to pull back.

I feel privileged and honored to have attended this seminar and shared the mat with 100 of the most professional jiu jitsu practicioners out there. Many, many thanks to Master Rickson for his time and patience, and for providing us the opportunity to attend.

PS I apologize for the pictures, too. In my own defense, I was more worried about training than filming, so I only got the camera out during breaks. And my obligatory picture with Rickson didn’t come out, darn it all. Sorry.

Devlin Kostal is a blue belt under Daniel “Ventania” Thomas at Zeus BJJ in Monterey, CA. He has been traveling through South America, and has been fortunate to train in Lima, Peru, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. His blog, Fueled By Fear, can be found at http://devbjj.blogspot.com.

Dev Kostal and Kron Gracie. Dev: “Why yes, that IS a ‘Fueled By Fear’ patch on the front of my jacket. Thanks for asking!”

Ryan Hall’s been in the spotlight of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world for several years now. After parting ways with Lloyd Irvin at the beginning of 2009, Hall has been working on the transition from standout competitor to jiu-jitsu school owner and learning how to balance the needs of being a high end competitor with the needs of his students and his business. All this while becoming promoted to black belt by Felipe Costa! This week on the show we hear about what that’s like from the highly analytical mind of Hall (as well as from cohost Dan!).

Next we will jump on the phone with Bray Devours, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu student from Georgia who is one of several who are attempting to organize a no time limits, submission only Brazilian jiu-jitsu match between 2010 BJJ featherweight world champion Rafael Mendes (Atos Jiu-Jitsu) and 2009 BJJ featherweight world champion Rubens Charles Maciel (Alliance Jiu-Jitsu), aka Cobrinha. Bray represents a group of diehard BJJ fans who have offered $10,000 to the winner of that match. As of the time of this writing, Cobrinha has agreed to the terms but Rafael Mendes has stated he would need more money to make it worthwhile. Devours gives us all the details on how the idea came about and where it may lead in the future.

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Rafael Mendes awaits to be called to the mats at the 2010 BJJ World Championship. Photo courtesy cohost Dan.

Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles awaits to be called to the mats at the 2010 BJJ World Championship. Photo courtesy cohost Dan.

This Brazilian jiu-jitsu poll came to us courtesy of one of the listeners to our BJJ radio show Aaron! Aaron contacted us and said:

Like most of the Mighty 600K I’m addicted to BJJ and try to get to as many classes as possible. However, family commitments (wife and two young kids) and night BJJ classes often create a logistical nightmare for me. Thankfully, I still manage to get to a few classes a week, but classes before work or even at lunch would allow me to get in much more training. I was wondering how common this is with other clubs…

He went on to suggest we explore what most jiu-jitsu school’s schedules look like using the above options. Thank you for the poll idea Aaron!

Among all the amazing action at the 2010 BJJ World Championship finals, Gracie Barra’s Romulo Barral had his trajectory cut short. In a contest against Alliance’s Tarsis Humphreys in the middle heavyweight finals, Barral’s knee was badly injured and he could not continue. Humphreys went on to claim the gold medal, and Barral was also forced to cede the gold to Roger Gracie in the black belt absolute finals.

We caught up with Romulo this afternoon on the phone to learn how his recovery was going. He had his surgery yesterday morning and received a cadaver ligament to replace a severed ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).

Romulo has began to recuperate from the surgery already. “Yesterday I did 30 minutes pedaling very light, you know, just to keep the leg moving and to keep the swelling down. The doctor told me I was cleared to do that.” And today he had done another 20 minutes of pedaling!

As someone who has had their own battle with knee surgery, I asked him to repeat what I thought he said. When he repeated the same story I could not resist saying, “Romulo, you know that sounds crazy right?” I know I was so looped out on painkillers I didn’t know what planet I was on for several days.

“Yes,” he laughed. “I know it does.”

While his MCL (medial collateral ligament) was also injured in the finals against Tarsis, it turns out the ACL damage was already present prior to the BJJ World Championship. The ACL then was the doctor’s priority. “I was training and it was giving me a lot of problems. It was popping out a lot. Every week I had a problem with my knee before the Worlds. So I guess there was a tear before,” Romulo explained. “My MCL has already healed up [from the damage sustained in the finals].”

“I’m always very confident in every thing I do. I’m not going to try to rush things and try to step on the mat. I’m going to wait until I’m 100% because I don’t want to have a problem again after two or three months. My jiu-jitsu’s on my mind you know; I’m not going to forget anything! I’m eating healthy and will hit the gym in a few days to lift weights and try to do the bicycle to keep in shape as much as possible. I hope by the end of the year I can train again… By April I hope to go to the World Cup Pro and do my best there.”

Australia has reached a milestone in its development of top Brazilian jiu-jitsu talent this month, as Sophia McDermott became the first Australian woman to receive her black belt. McDermott’s road to become an elite BJJ practitioner began in 2002 in Melbourne at Dominance MMA, a Machado affiliate. Today McDermott trains in Las Vegas, where she was awarded her black belt by Robert Drysdale.

In competition McDermott has some noteworthy accomplishments in both gi and no-gi, winning her weight division at the 2009 no-gi worlds as a brown belt, and medaling twice at the Pan-Ams as a brown belt among competitors like Alliance’s Luanna Alzuguir and Gracie Elite’s Kyra Gracie.

Like Penny Thomas who was the first female black belt from the continent of Africa, McDermott’s early athletic years were spent as a gymnast. McDermott’s identical twin trained in gymnastics alongside her but now “we’re so alike but we’ve gone opposite [career] directions,” says Sophia.

Today Sophia dedicates her time to helping run the Drysdale academy in Las Vegas and is looking forward to the Las Vegas International Open IBJJF Championship on August 14th. Big congratulations to her for being a trailblazer for women in Australia and abroad who also aspire to such an important accomplishment.

McDermott and Robert Drysdale. Photo courtesy Sophia McDermott

Let’s start this week’s show with a couple of questions. Have you trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu for very long? Have you been on the internet while you’ve trained jiu-jitsu? If you can say yes to both of those questions, I am guessing you are familiar with Lloyd Irvin, the Maryland-based black belt who bears legitimate claim to being the founder of the highest performing group of American BJJ competitors that is also lead by an American. Consider the team results from the 2010 BJJ World Championship: of the five teams listed, Team Lloyd Irvin is the only team present of 100% American origin, capturing 1rst place in the juvenile divisions and third place in the womens divisions.

While Team Lloyd Irvin’s results in jiu-jitsu competition make them a hot topic, Lloyd Irvin has been working hard over the years to spread the word about his efforts on the internet, making him well known off the mats as well. Our show this week features a long conversation about who Lloyd Irvin is. We’ll learn how he got started in BJJ, how Team Lloyd Irvin rose to its high position in the world of competitive Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and of course, we’ll hear his thoughts on how others may perceive his marketing.

We will also hear from Brasa Jiu-Jitsu’s Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros, courtesy of FightWorks Podcast contributor and Next Edge Academy owner Bruce Hoyer. Comprido’s a former BJJ world champion and a returning guest here on our humble BJJ radio show. We thought we’d bring him back to discuss his recent work, including coaching UFC champion Brock Lesnar to a submission victory recently. (Thank you Bruce!)

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Team Lloyd Irvin purple belt Tracey Goodell on her way to becoming the women’s purple absolute division gold medalist at the 2010 BJJ World Championship.

This week’s BJJ Poll comes to us from David, one of the Mighty 600,000. He writes,

Hi Caleb,

I tore my rotator cuff last October and had subsequent surgery in December.  After a grueling rehab I am finally back on the mat. I am able to use both arms while practicing positions but I have to stuff my arm in my belt when I roll.  It’s extremely frustrating but it forced me to look at jiujitsu in another perspective and I am back on the mat. I would be interested in knowing how others have dealt with their injuries and subsequent return to the mat.

Thank you for the poll idea David!

Make sure you let us know about how you cope with a jiu-jitsu injury by voting in the poll and leaving a comment on this post!

Like other stellar objects in the stratosphere of Brazilian jiu-jitsu talent, Romulo Barral is one of the nicest, easiest-to-approach people you will find. Now located at Gracie Barra Encino, Barral began martial arts as a tae kwon do student as a kid. But when his friend showed him early UFC matches featuring names like Royce Gracie and Vitor Belfort, the self-described “hyperactive kid” began dedicating his energy towards learning the effective art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Today the Draculino student is one of the sharpest arrows in the quiver of global jiu-jitsu power Gracie Barra. Although he was severely injured while defending his medium heavyweight title at the 2010 BJJ Mundials against Tarsis Humphreys, his competition record tells the tale of his jiu-jitsu technique:

• 2010 Black belt medium heavyweight silver medalist, silver medalist in the absolute division
• 2009 Black belt medium heavyweight gold medalist, silver medalist in the absolute division
• 2008 (out due to shoulder injury)
• 2007 Black belt medium heavyweight gold medalist
• 2006 Black belt medium heavyweight bronze medalist
• 2005 Brown belt medium heavyweight gold medalist

Today on our humble Brazilian jiu-jitsu internet radio show, we will sit down and get to know Barral. We will learn more about how he became so dominant, an update on his injured knee, and tons more!

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[mp3] Download the show