The Rio Grappling Club welcomes the new affiliated schools in the Tuscan region, Italy. Now you can also train with us in Viareggio and Pistoia. RGC Viareggio is captained by Alberto Remedi under supervision of Bernardo Serrini (RGC Livorno and Italian Head Coach), while RGC Pistoia is leaded by Alberto Tesi, under the eyes of Matteo Calamandrei (RGC Firenze).
We also congratulate the coaches Bernardo Serrini, Matteo Calamandrei, Gianluca Boni and Matteo Menna that were granted black belts in Grappling by the Italian federation FIGMA, responsible for all Grappling tournaments in Italy.
We held in Livorno last sunday, the 23rd of may the second edition of the Rio Grappling cup, an international nogi competition under FILA grappling rules.
It was an amazing tournament, the organization from Bernardo Serrini and Alessio Di Liberti was perfect, also helped by FIGR vice president Vito Paolillo and our 2 new referees Fabrizio “kung fu panda” Culotta and Marco Longo
We, as a team, took many medals, both in the advanced and the beginners division, here’s a brief summary:
Simone Baldi took gold in the -60Kg unified division in a 4 men round robin, since he had no opponents in the advanced division, fought and won 3 matches hands down, winning on points only on his teammate Federico Tosi
Valerio Mori Ubaldini and Alessio Rimella took first and second place in the -65Kg division,
Mattia “Mutley” Macchelli took gold in the 70Kg unified division fighting some very good fights
I, Pierandrea Petazzi in the -75Kg first division took second place in a 5 men round robin winning 3 fights, one of which by submission, unfortunately injuring my friend Manuel, and losing for the third time in less then a year against Paolo Strazzullo
Stefano Raspadori our wrestling coach from bologna won the -80Kg unified division, getting for the first time on the highest step of the podium in a grappling competition, winning 3 fights on 4 in a five men round robin, 2 of which by guillotine choke, Emanuele Valenza from Sestri levante took the second place
Federico Dentone From Sestri Levante and Alessandro Zappalà the other great wrestler in our team took respectively gold and silver in the -90Kg second division.
Federico Nibbi from RGC Firenze took bronze in the -110Kg second division.
Too bad Erik Tornaboni from La Spezia, the only grappler from our team competing in the -90Kg first division, didn’t make it past the first turn, the category gave us an amazing final between the brazilian Nova Uniao Blackbelt Fabricio Nascimento, who couldn’t make weight for the -80Kg, and the Italian judo former olympian and grappling national Lamberto Raffi
needless to say, there was an unnatural silence during this fight, the only noise coming from the other mat. As far as italian grappling goes, this was history being made.
This is my last week coaching in Livorno before I fly to Wroclaw in Poland, and we are having great sessions with our local students as well as many visitors.
Wednesday was not different and we had Matteo and Gambe driving from Ferrara, and the brazilian black belt Thier Tavares, who came with his student Davide all the way from Arezzo.
I am pleased to introduce Thier to our guys in Tuscany, as he moved from Brasil 8 months ago and is still adjusting to life in Europe. He is a very humble and down to earth person and very technical, and trained in Rio de Janeiro, the craddle of BJJ.
Tonight is our last class until summer and we expect some of our friends from Firenze to come down, as well as our students from Ferrara.
Next week I will start the classes in Wroclaw and I am really amped because we will introduce No GI and Beginner classes and start weekly focused programs elaborated by myself that will speed up the learning proccess.
This is not a marketing hype, is a new concept on BJJ classes that I developed that can only work inside a group with advanced students and must be carried on for 6 months in order to be really effective. After 15 years of teaching experience, I feel very confortable to say that this will really work.
I do not want to explain too much or else people will be copying that elsewhere. One must come and train with us for a few weeks at least to really grasp what is going on. Anyways, since I have not arrived in Wroclaw yet, I am posting group pictures from my last visit in 2007.
Check this quick video showing Daniel Niemeyer receiving his black belt from his teacher Robinson Machado at our club in Cabo Frio, RJ, two weeks ago. Congratulations Dan, and keep it up!
Xmas is coming and so is 2008. A new year arrives and is time to reflect on the past year, check our goals, fix the route if needed and keep forward. Is also time for gradings in Brasil, and this year we have a new black belt in our ranks. Congratulations to Daniel Niemeyer, from Cabo Frio. He received his belt from Robinson Machado, in the first ceremony to be held in our new gym (same location, new dojo).
Marco Chuck (RGC Buzios) will be holding his own ceremony this friday and I was hinted that Luiz Eduardo Rosa Junior will receive the brown belt. Luiz, aka Dentinho, won recently two medals on the purple belt in Teresopolis, a gold in the light open and a bronze in the middle weight, at the Pan American (CBJJE). This month he travelled to Sta. Catarina and took the silver medal in the South American (CBJJ), this time in the light weight. Watch one of his fights below.
Gradings were also held in South Africa, Italy and Cyprus. Igor presented Panicos Aravis his well deserved purple belt, and I promoted Bernardo Serrini (Italy) and Chris Bright (S. Africa) to the brown belt, as well as Liam, Sergio, Bradley, Dennis and Ryan from Johannesburg to the purple belt. All those changes can be noticed on the page About Us, that keeps the records of our official gradings worldwide.
Mauro Chueng is keeping busy in Portugal. He is helping the Dynamite Team (Muay Thai) from Algarve, improving their ground game and coaching their athletes that will fight MMA. Mauro has a solid No Gi experience and trained extensively with Pequeno back in Brasil, besides being one of the most creative fighters I have ever seen in Jiu Jitsu, so I expect some of those guys to be kicking ass soon.
I acted as a referee in the I Catalunya Vulkan BJJ Cup. I noticed that our sport is growing in Spain and had the opportunity to meet good teachers from the new generation that are bringing the art to a higher level in the old continent.
Among them, Yan Cabral and Paulo Sergio in France, Leonardo Pelucio in Tarragona, Augusto Frota and Anderson Pereira in Switzerland, as well as my friends Rafael Haubert (Barcelona) and Edson Sururu (Marbella) showed through their athletes that BJJ is improving fast in Europe. So Merry Xmas and put up your resolutions for 2008, among them do not forget to train more, rest well and eat properly, to keep healthy and fit to fight!
Pedro Soriano sent us results of his students in the latest BJJ competition in the West Coast.
On Nov. 3rd and 4th, they competed in the California Classic of BJJ & No Gi.
Team:
Gabriel Amezcua – blue belt, light heavy weight;
John Dillon – white belt, light heavy weight;
Mychal Clark – white belt, super heavy.
Results:
Sat 3rd BJJ:
Johnny Dillon – 2nd, 4 matches, 2 submissions.
Mychal Clark, – 1st, 6 matches (all by submission).
Sun 4th NoGi:
Mychal Clark – 2nd, five matches, 3 subs.
This last 3 weeks have been busier than ever. Our roosterweight champion Igor Rodrigues has arrived in Cyprus and will stay 2 months teaching there. We spoke after his arrival and he is very optimistic with the growing of the sport in that beautiful island. As for myself, I left Poland after visiting our clubs, going to Lublin, Bydgoszcz, Raciborz, Zawiercie and Gliwice before facing a marathon of flights. I flew to Malmo, Sweden and catched a train to Denmark on the 5th of November.
My friend JP, head coach of the Choke Academy, invited me for a weekend and we did a workshop together. Class was nicely packed and some of his students came from all corners of that country. The next Monday was time to catch another flight to Athens, where I gave BJJ and No Gi classes for the whole week. Kristos and Aris, students of Vinicius Draculino, have a new gym with a huge matted area and a nicely built cage.
It was my 4th time in Greece and although the weather wasn’t that good, I had great time and noticed that the commitment of the Athenians is bearing fruits, their students have improved a lot. Purple belt Dimitris, that was with me in Brasil a year ago, is competing everywhere and recently won weight and open divisions in a London comp, submitting his opponents in 5 of his 6 matches. He is going to the Hungarian Open and I won’t be surprised if he does it again.
While I was in Greece, I received great news from California and Italy, where our guys competed again and brought some medals. I will write another post with all the results later today.
My last weekend was hectic with 4 flights and many connections, from Athens I flew to Spain, going through Milano, Barcelona and Malaga before arriving in Sevilla on Saturday. No time to rest there, I had a seminar Sunday to my friends Andre and Alberto and their students. BJJ is still little in this part of Spain but this little group is so enthusiastic that this is going to change very soon. On the same day, I took a train to Madrid and flew out of Europa to arrive in South Africa the next morning, very tired but relieved that the marathon was over and everything went well.
I will stay in South Africa for 3 weeks more and soon will post here sharing my experience in this amazing country. Stay tuned!
I bring today 3 videos from my italian student Bernardo Serrini fighting. We have been training together since 2004 in Italy and Brasil, and now he has a new place in Livorno where he teaches BJJ and Grappling. For more info on Bernardo you can also check his blog: www.branquino.blogspot.com
A true martial arts pioneer in South Africa, Des Westemberg shared his point of view of the sport in his country with this review I publish below his picture. His son found this historical document just after he passed away in 2004, at 78 years old and seventh Dan in Judo.
Des Westenberg: Historical Judo Review
I have been involved in the martial Arts for approximately 45 years. When I initially started training it involved mostly Ju-Jitsu. For recreation we would indulge in a form of Judo where no holds were barred. One seldom mcame off the mat without a bleeding nose or cut lips or some form of injury or other.
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