Many thanks go out to the guys and gals over at Harrisburg Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy for hosting a seminar with Rosendo Diaz this past weekend. A great showing of HBJJ students eager to learn the mechanics of Jiu-Jitsu.
Congratulations go out to so many of the HBJJ members that were promoted.
Brown Belt
Cameron Mitchell
Purple Belt
Scott Cook
Darnel Ginger
Robert Landry
Eric Deangelis
Monica Broga
Dave Brogan Blue Belt
Colby Zell
Gibran Jones
Ronald Chunn Yellow Belt
Christopher Rosa
Congratulations go out to our 3rd Generation Jiu Jitsu Team members that competed in this weekend’s Internation Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation’s New York Open.
Aaron Morris, head instructor at World Class Martial Arts in Delaware County was forced to compete 2 weight classes up in the Master’s light weight brown belt division. Even against the heavier opponents, Aaron was able to secure a 3rd place finish.
Shaun Raber of Harrisburg Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy competed in the purple belt Master’s feather division and in short order defeated his opponents securing his 1st place finish.
2010 has been the year for newly promoted 3rd Generation Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Fadi Khouri. With some outstanding showings at both local and national tournaments culminating to his 1st place, no points scored against him, finish at the US Open in October. We caught up with Fadi to get his take on training and his future plans.
You have a background in both Judo and BJJ. How do you feel the two arts complement each other? This is an interesting question and the generic answer would be, Judo is the missing piece of the puzzle since it’s the “Throwing” part of the game……While that is true, the actual take downs under a BJJ setting can get a bit hairy if you rely purely on Judo. In a Jiu Jitsu tournament if you go in for a big throw and Miss, you can easily get penalized for missing (I have missed a few throws and my opponent was awarded the take down for doing nothing except falling on me). I rely heavily on foot sweeps to avoid exposing myself…..
From my point of view, the true value of Judo comes in from the balance and aggressive grip fighting that you learn from playing Judo! I hear it all the time “I competed against a wrestler and he had great BASE”. The same theory applies to Judoka’s, they have great base that will help tremendously when they are playing on top, the trick is to mold it with the BJJ style so they flow together well.
Do you view BJJ more as a sport or as a form of self-defense? My main focus right now is Sport Jiu Jitsu, but it’s impossible to separate the sports aspect of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the self defense aspect! I would say that 60% of the sport Jiu Jitsu techniques would not be ideal in a self defense setting, but at the same time sport jiu jitsu has a built in safety mechanism to prepare one to defend himself when needed. I would attribute three important factors developed from Sports Jiu Jitsu that will be valuble in a self defense setting.
a. Basic Tech.
b. Instinct
c. Cardio
Who have been some of the biggest influences on your game?
This is a more complicated question than it appears . The first response is always my instructor, I started my training at Modern Combat Academy in PA (Which since then has developed into its own association 3rd Generation Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) under the tutelage of Rosendo Diaz. His style of BJJ is a very technical one and even though I was a big guy I learned to focus on the technical part of BJJ vs. becoming a power player. The second response to this question is my training partners…..a player is only as good as his training partners decide to push him! I was fortunate enough to have very motivated training partners in the gym with me pushing me over the years and I would say that it’s a huge factor in influencing the way your BJJ is developed (I’d like to mention William Alford, David Harris, Alex Gotay, Evert Guetterez and Jeff Messina ).
You’ve competed in both small local tournaments and large scale such as the Pan Ams and the Worlds. Can you tell us the differences in how you prepare for these types of events? For small tournaments I don’t really prepare, I just enter them as they come along for experience. Big tournaments are totally different though, there are a lot of factors that come into play when I start my preparation. I train 2 x a day , 5 x a week for 8 to 10 weeks prior to the tournament date. Here is a sample of my training schedule for the US Open (which is the same for all other major tournaments)
i. Sat: BJJ in the AM and Conditioning in the PM
ii. Sun: BJJ in the AM and Conditions in the PM
iii. Mon: Rest
iv. Tues: Weight training in the AM and Judo in the PM
v. Wed: Conditioning in the AM and BJJ in the PM
vi. Thur: Weight training in the AM Judo in the PM.
You teach in Houston at Bam Bam’s Martial Arts, tell us a little bit about the academy. BamBam is a great training facility located in the West U area inside the loop in Houston. It’s a full training facility that provides its students with a full BJJ, MT, Boxing and MMA program. (the BJJ program has 3 black belts from 3 different lineages so come in and pick your style ) we are located at 4007 Bellaire blvd. Houston TX.
Any future plans for opening your own academy?
Not sure yet …..I think I have a few things to learn first before I can venture into that world LOL! But everything is possible, I am just happy that I can contribute back to the sport now, and would love to have an academy one day, when though I am not sure.
Tell us what your plans are for the upcoming competition season in 2011.
In 2011 I am hoping to do 4 to 5 big tournaments, my plan is to start in the Masters division first and test the waters! Gaining some experience as a black belt will be crucial for me, as it is shark infested waters…..I will probably start at the Pan American games in March and hope to compete at the Nationals, US OPEN and hopefully the Rio Masters tournament in Brazil.
For more information about Fadi and training in the Houston area please visit www.bambammartialarts.com or contact Fadi directly for information on private lessons and seminars fadihkhouri@gmail.com
Congratulations to Fadi Khouri who took first place with no points scored against him in the medium heavy division, brown belt at this weekend’s US Open XV Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament held in Santa Cruz, California.
Fadi also entered the brown belt open division and brought home 3rd place.
William Alford also competed at this tournament in the purple belt division, taking home first in the super heavy weight division with no points scored against him and 3rd place in the purple belt open division.
Congratulations to both, they are top competitors!
Two tournaments were held this past weekend, the Philadelphia Jiu-Jitsu Cup held in Bryn Athyn, PA and the No-Gi Pan Ams Championships held in New York.
Two members of Berks County BJJ competed at the no-gi pan ams, first off was Erik Faust who brought home a silver medal in his masters division. Ricky Pena faced a tough division of 44 competitors, Ricky was able to defeat his first three but was stopped at his fourth match.
Several members of the 3rd Generation Jiu-Jitsu Team competed at the Philadelphia Jiu-Jitsu Cup. Starting off with the team brought in by the Aaron Morris Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy, Chris Kline took home gold white belt, middle weight division and Phil Gathany brought home two medals; gold in his white belt, welter weight division and silver in the beginner welter weight no-gi division.
Fred Koslowski from the Rosendo Diaz Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Team brought home the silver medal in his white belt masters division.
ThePhilly Jiu Jitsu Cupwill be held on Saturday, October 2, 2010 at the Academy of the New Church, Asplundh Fieldhouse, 2775 Buck Road, Bryn Athyn, PA. This tournament is held in cooperation with the long time running Philadelphia Judo Cup. Divisions for both gi and submission grappling using the CBJJ rules.
It was a great turnout for Saturday’s Rupture North East Jiu-Jitsu Championships. The event had over 150 competitors and some 250+ spectators. Special thanks to our superfighters: Jared Weiner, Tony Passos, Rick McCauley, Rustum Chsiev, Sheri Hockman, Maggie Bertonazzi, Chris Wing and Jon Debrugge. All of them fought their hearts out and gave some really impressive performances.
The event brought out competitors from over 30 teams located in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and New York. All the competitors fought not only well, but also battled some seriously oppressive heat.
The 3rd Generation Jiu-Jitsu Team was comprised of members from the Rosendo Diaz Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy, Berks County BJJ, Lancaster BJJ, Aaron Morris Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy and Harrisburg BJJ. We earned a total of 306 points carrying us to the 2nd place overall team running some tight numbers against a combined team from The Lloyd Irvin Team.
Thanks to everyone that came out to help:
Ray Liberto, Samuel Braga, Brett Hoover, Jim Little, Shane Mock, Dee Terrell, Eamon Knittel, Fred Braunsberg, Matt Miller, Mark Dengler, Dan Spangler, Dan Yun, the Chef, Gavin Enck, Mike Omensetter, Abhay Kunwar, Joseph Cunliffe, Fadi Khouri, Rami Khouri and Sheri Hockman. If I’ve forgotten anyone, sorry, as I think of the names I missed, I will add them.
Thanks to “From the Boot” restaurant for providing the most awesome lunch for our volunteers. Check them out they have two locations; Amber and Lafayette Hill, PA or visit their site for more information: www.fromtheboot.com
Special thanks to Mancino Mats, www.mancinomats.com for providing the mats for the event.
Everyone that voluteered that day, put in a great deal of effort to help make the event a success. Thank you, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Rupture North East Jiu-Jitsu Championships will be held in Plymouth Meeting, PA. This event will feature both gi and submission grappling divisions. Visit www.ruptureclothing.com/compete to pre-register for this event. Take advantage of their special price of $60.00 for adults which includes participation in both the gi and submission grappling events. For kids and teens, only $50.00 registers them for both events.
Also, keep checking back as we are adding some exciting super fights featuring some of today’s top competitors.
While competition is not for everyone, some really enjoy the challenge that it brings and the lessons that can be learned from them. In the following video you will see one of our students, Dylan Royce, competing at a no-gi match or more commonly referred to as a submission grappling match on April 17, 2010. Dylan is the one with short hair.
Congratulations to all the members of the RDBJJ Academy that competed this past weekend at the UGC held in Hamburg, PA.
Rick Royce took home 1st place in the advance no-gi division and 2nd place in the absolute division 200lbs. and under. Dylan Royce got 1st place in the intermediate no-gi division. Zack Hockman brought home a bunch of medals winning 1st place in kids no-gi, 1st place in kids gi and 2nd place in the teen gi division. Brian “Big Country” Hilinski took 1st in beginner no-gi division. Mike Omensetter took 3rd place in the advanced no-gi division. Matt Coletta took 3rd in the beginner no-gi division. Cory Gallagher took 2nd in the beginner no-gi division and 2nd in the gi divsion.
Big congrats go out to Zack, Cory, Brian and Matt for doing so well on their first time competing.
Good job everyone!
Shane Mock of Berks County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will be holding a competition training class at his academy on Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 1:00pm. This is a free session for all 3rd Generation Jiu-Jitsu Team members.
Topics to be covered include general rules and tournament strategy, as well, all attendants will be paired up for training in timed and scored matches.
For more information please contact Shane Mock at www.bcbjj.org
Congratulations go out to all the RGDA-PA members that competed in the Diamond State Games this past weekend.
No Gi:
Ed Sheridan (WCMA) 2nd Advanced 170-179
Gi:
Ricky Royce (RDBJJ) 2nd Purple Belt 160-179
Chaz Horner (WCMA) 2nd Blue Belt 130-139
Stephen Cunningham (Berks) 1st Masters Blue Belt 170-179,
2nd Masters Blue Belt Absolute, 3rd Blue Belt 170-179
Ryan Owles (Berks) 1st Blue Belt 205-220
Jeff Giagnacavo (Berks) 1st Blue Belt 220+
Dylan Royce (RDBJJ) 1st White Belt 140-159
Bill Mann (RDBJJ) 1st White Belt 160-179
Dave Lafferty (Berks) 1st White Belt 170-179
Erik Faust (Berks) 1st Masters White Belt 160-179, 1st Masters White Belt Absolute
Shane Mock (Berks) 3rd Brown Belt 160-179, 2nd Brown Belt Masters
With the Summer comes competition season in the sport jiu-jitsu world. This past weekend three of our members competed at the Diamond State Games in Delaware. We are proud to report that all three did very well. Congratulations to the following RDBJJ Academy students:
Rick Royce – 2nd place, purple belt
Bill Mann – 1st place, white belt
Dylan Royce – 1st place, white belt
Congratulations go out to the following RGDA-PA team members that competed this past weekend at the Ultimate Grappling Challenge held in Broadheadsville, PA. All of our competitors walked away with a first or second place finish and helped to secure us the team trophy, fnishing us out in first place.
Rick Royce – RDBJJ Academy
Jim Little – Harrisburg BJJ
Chrissie Foster – Harrisburg BJJ
Bill Mann – RDBJJ Academy
Roy Stoflet – RDBJJ Academy
Jeff Gelnett – Harrisburg BJJ
Dave Blum – RDBJJ Academy
