This week, I was blessed to have the honor and privilege of getting to attend a seminar with grand master Reslson Gracie.
For those of you who don't know, Relson is Royce's older brother, and he was in his corner for the first few original UFCs. He took a few minutes to lecture us in broken English about the current state of mma and jiu-jitsu competition. That's because Relson's style is more suited for the street in a vale-tudo or "anything goes" kind of situation. Self defense is his primary focus. Staying safe, and disabling your opponent as quickly and effortlessly as possible is his game.
I have to say, his movements were like water. He showed us some fascinating self defense situations from bottom side control, including an arm triangle. My training partner and I were both shocked how easy it was to get the tap from the bottom. If that wasn't enough, he showed us a finish from belly down back mount. He was explaining to us that "stupid Royce" needed to do this to escape the back control of Matt Hughes who eventually beat him.
After the seminar he shook all of our hands and said something like, "Thank you bruja, God bless you!" Of course everyone lined up for pictures too. Couldn't get just one!
A couple days later on Thanksgiving morning, I also got the opportunity to give a little back. Jiu-jitsu has done a lot for me and it doesn't ask much in return. So when I heard that a gym near my parents' place was holding a canned food drive/turkey roll, I had to jump in on it. The academy only asked for 3 canned goods or at least a $5 donation. I brought 4 and $10, as did most others. I knew one person there from another gym in the area and got to meet some great people who were just as thankful for bjj as I am. Everyone was super nice and one of the girls there was an opponent of one of our girls at a tournament recently. Our girl beat her ;)
One of my favorite things about rolling at another academy is that I can pull off moves that always seem to get shut down at my school. That's why I encourage people to pack a gi when they travel and check out other local gyms too. Everyone has a different perspective of jiu-jitsu and what doesn't work at your school may work somewhere else. I seem to pull off a great sweep every time I travel but never land them at my home gym.
I was so thankful for a great week of jiu-jitsu and I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving too.
Happy rolls!
Oss!