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spinal tap.

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Survivor Series, one of the pinnacle events of the WWF of yesteryear. It was also the name given to a submission only 5 man grappling event held in little old Christchurch New Zealand. The brain child of the Scott Hamilton doppleganger himself, Jason Koster.

It was the first of many things. First time all the gyms came together and competed in this format. First time I had experienced a true “open mat” situation with all the grappling community (nearly) in Christchurch and even a school from Dunedin taking part. First time Paul Eathorne wore a gi to compete, and Kerry Saggers had gi pants on! First time we all came together as a community of grapplers. It was an awesome concept that really has taken off now all over the grappling world.  Looking back now at details to correctly document this historic event, Jase was a bit of a pioneer!
It was truly a monumental day. I am actually very lucky to be alive as I just realised that the event was on the day before my first wedding anniversary, grappling aside, my wife probably should have done the peoples elbow on me, even Hulk Hogan couldn’t have gotten up to shake the finger after that!

So, Jason had the dream-child, it was a 5 person team event so the first 2 would match up, if there was a winner, they would stay on like king of the mats styles and the next member of the opposing team would be up. There was a recipe for some awesome match ups here, Alison Holsts herself could not have dreamt up a better one!! I couldn’t wait. The Groundworx team was new, Hayden Wilson, Jase Ringdahl, myself and ……(another dude, blue belt, didn’t keep training with us). Only Hayden and I had been in a grappling event before, I had only been training for just on 18 months, a 2 stripe killer lol. This was early days for BJJ in the 03 though, the teams were young but very hungry and now looking back, there are some of these good people still rolling today! There are too many to name them all but I will do my best as we go through this post.

Here it was, the day was on us, it was a really sunny day, February 27, 2010. We had teams from Strikeforce Canterbury, Groundworx BJJ, Academy of Combat, MyBJJ (Dunedin BJJ then), Canterbury Judo. Some of the bigger gyms had 2 teams but I believe there were 9 teams all up. We each got 2 match ups for the teams, Groundworx first went up against the Judo team and to be fair, I was nervous about this one. The judo team was Graeme Spinks, Kerry Saggers, Andrew Butterfield, Andre Pinkert and Peter Broom. These aren’t typically names that we associated with BJJ at the time but they were all very experienced grapplers, me, the white belt 2 stripe killer weighing in at 70kgs was not such a formidable force. The first match for our team was Jason Ringdahl and Kerry Saggers. It was maybe the 2nd month of BJJ for Jase, we had already decided we weren’t going to stay standing with the judo team for fear of being thrust at a great rate of knots into the earth and Jase had pulled closed guard. Kerry did what he does very well and he put Jase out cold with an ezekiel choke. Hayden went out onto the mats to put him in the recovery position and he said something I will never forget, “Hayden, what are you doing out here?”. He had done very well to grapple against someone of that calibre and in his defense, he had never seen an ezekiel and thought he was doing well with the guard and he was! This was also the time that I really saw first hand how good at newaza the judo players are. Even without the focus being on the ground game, the control and concepts are very similar even though now I am trying to learn judo, it doesn’t seem as obvious to me but then again I am a special little boy, I did punch myself in the face the other day whilst grappling! I ground out a draw against Andre Pinkert, though in the 4 minutes I can remember defending the entire time and never really getting any chance to try and launch an effective attack! Still, I didn’t lose! Peter Broom went up against Hayden for our last match in this round and again, it was a draw. These Judo dudes weren’t going to be as easy as we all thought!
The Strikeforce team (Forrest Goodwin, Gareth Ealey, Jason Koster, Paul Eathorne and Simon (sorry can’t remember last name) was coached by Deane Brewer and led by the grappling stalwart Karl Webber and we all knew they were not going to be beaten easily! I had already trained with the Strikeforce team for a year before Groundworx opened up so I was good friends with them already and knew how good they all were! They had a very strong MMA fighter base and these guys were all great grapplers. I watched them up against the Dunedin BJJ team who, even though I had never seen them before at this point in time, were a very strong team led by Stuart Marks who is now a 1st degree black belt and an excellent coach for the MyBJJ team in New Zealand. I cannot recall who else was in their team unfortunately, hopefully we can get a recount of this from some other people who took part to fill in the gaps! In these matches, it was the Strikeforce MMA champion Gareth Ealey who was leading the charges, he had submitted some of their team and was up against Stuart Marks in the last match and being that they had team members still left, Strikeforce walked away the victors. Team Judo and Strikeforce both had a win.
I was also excited to see the Academy of Combat teams (Cam Steer, Scott Benson, Jason Branks, Slav and John Erskine) compete, I knew who they all were, everyone in Christchurch did as Geoff was the only BJJ black belt I even knew of in the area and the team were all high grades with plenty of experience!
At this point in time, John Erskine and Gareth Ealey were both at the top of their weight class in MMA and were having epic battles there, today was another treat for us all when they faced each other in the Academy vs Strikeforce semi final match. Gareth had already submitted 3 people in a row before facing John and the battle was amazing! There was no slowing down and I can vividly remember Gareth getting an omoplata only for John to roll out and it was rolling in and out of these from both of them before John escaped to launch his own attacks!! This was a draw that we all really won watching! Again, with team members still remaining, Strikeforce had the win.
With Strikeforce having secured their place in the final, they needed to have someone to face. The Judo team squared up against the Academy team now to see who it would be.
The Academy of Combat teams did not disappoint us at all again, they were in full force. Unfortunately for them, Slav was submitted by Andre and they were just edged out by the Judo team to make the epic final between Judo players Graeme Spinks, Kerry Saggers, Peter Broom, Andre Pinkert and Andrew Butterfield and the Strikeforce team of Forrest Goodwin, Gareth Ealey, Jason Koster, Paul Eathorne and Simon.
We all took our places to witness the final, you could have cut the tension in the room with a knife, or a well timed judo chop.
Kerry Saggers vs Paul Eathorne was first, Paul and I have been friends since high school and I knew he was better than the white belt he always wore! It was a great back and forth match with Paul getting good positions but Kerry always turning the tide and not allowing him to get the control he needed. First match was a draw. Next up was Simon vs Andrew Butterfield, great match between 2 very strong and skillful grapplers, It went back and forth with great technique and submission attempts from both but neither could finish in the 4 minutes that they were given to work with. Draw. This brought out probably one of the most sought out match ups – Jason Koster vs Graeme Spinks. The coach vs the pupil, it was fought on the feet for a long time as we knew it would, both judo players not allowing the other the grips they needed. Once it did hit the mats, it became a battle for the footlock from Jason but with it just not quite on, it also ended up in a draw. If you watch the video below of the final, you see Jason at 2:13 looking to set up an inside heel hook with a cross ashi garami, like I said, pioneer of the grappling! It was used to set up the straight footlock which in turn brought the draw.
Now, next up was Andre Pinkert from the Judo squad and Forrest Goodwin, the lean, mean, string bean, always clean grappling machine from Strikeforce. Forrest used his insanely long legs to play guard and then, from a back escape himself, he managed to secure Andre’s back with a body triangle lock and RNC under the chin, this caused a tap. There was also a discussion about the use of the body triangle but it is not applied as a spine lock, it is just a form of control that is very painful when used correctly. It also brought out Peter Broom for Judo to take on Forrest next. This was the last player that team Judo had and Peter did not disappoint either. Forrest played his game well but Peter blasted the go go gadget legs out of the way to advance with great control to the arm bar position, Forrest clung in there and worked his way out and, when Peter took the face down position thus exposing his back, Forrest managed to get the full back control and again apply the body triangle. Tap. Win for Strikeforce.
It was an awesome event to have been involved in, I believe it really did serve as a platform to help launch the grappling community in Christchurch, we all made new friends, saw some amazing matches and really saw that we have a common ground shared, not a club vs club rivalry. The friendships I established in this time are still strong today. There were some amazing throws going down with the judo teams doing what they do so well, Graeme Spinks sending players into orbit with well timed tomo nagae throws, a bad trap for inexperienced standing grapplers but so well played by him! I am sure that all of us who were there took away our own highlights but these were mine.

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get” – Forrest Gump

 

I have posted below two videos that the Pro Judo YouTube channel put up, good insight showing the judo teams matches on their way to the finals. I even got a short clip holding Andre Pinkert in my guard at 4:28 in the prelim video, clean shaven was my first mistake….
See how many people you can spot and name!

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Training report: BJJ Lab Zürich (Zürich, Switzerland)

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After spending 6 months in Asia, I planned an impromptu trip to Zurich. To be honest, I barely knew anything about Switzerland before my visit. However, I quickly fell in love with the scenic Swiss Alps and its variety of cheese offerings. Over the course of my 3 separate visits, I ended up spending over a month in Switzerland. Whenever I visited the city, I was always welcomed by the BJJ Lab Zürich crew.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, is a global center for banking and finance institutions despite having a relatively small population. The city lies at the north end of Lake Zurich, and buildings reflect pre-medieval style architecture with modern influence. From Altstadt to Langstrasse, the city offers a variety of day and night activities. Also, incredible Swiss mountains and smaller cities are accessible from Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Main station) in less than an hour. It is definitely a city worth a visit, but note that it is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Overview
BJJ Lab Zurich was founded in 2013 by JB who is a black belt in Judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The gym is under the Caio Terra Association and a member of the BJJ Globetrotters. As the club is a non-profit oriented gym, the academy had an open and laid back vibe. With a big BJJ Globetrotters’ flag on the wall, the academy and instructors dedicate themselves to promoting a healthy and welcoming training environment to everyone and sharing the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu regardless of affiliation.

The academy is affiliated with the 12-time world champion Caio Terra, and the curriculum is focused on the association’s motto “Technique Conquers All”. The classes are focused on fundamentals, and the instructions are extremely detailed-oriented. Prior to every fundamental class, BJJ Lab offers an hour of an open mat to encourage students to drill and improve their technical details.

After continuing to grow as a successful Jiu-Jitsu academy in Zurich, BJJ Lab recently expanded to a new location with additional classes. If you are in Zurich either for business or leisure, I cannot recommend enough for you to visit BJJ Lab Zurich. Thank you to JB, Sevi, Joonas, Andrew, Eddy, and Laura for making my training in Zurich an unforgettable experience!

Location
The academy is located in between the Zurich Oerlikon and Zurich Seebach stations. Although it is not located in the city center, you can reach the gym easily via public transportation in less than 10 minutes from the city center. There are trains from the main station to Oerlikon every 10 minutes. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
BJJ Lab Zürich’s most recent schedule is posted below:

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Visitor Fee
BJJ Lab is one of the BJJ Globetrotters affiliated academies, and there is no charge for visitors. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym prior to your visit.

Miscellaneous
BJJ Lab has an English website that you might find helpful.

Tourist Attractions

  • Uetliberg- The mountain, located on the north border of the city of Zurich, offers a panoramic view of Lake Zurich and the entire city. As this easy hike is only about an hour, it is a quick way to get away from the city to nature.
  • Lake Zurich — Lake Zurich, a popular destination among locals and tourists alike, offers a variety of activities ranging from swimming and picnicking by the lake to sailing and a boat cruise. The lake itself is surrounded by cafes and restaurants that treat their guests to regional specialties while enjoying the beautiful view of the Lake.
  • Ebenalp (Seealpsee/Saxer Lücke) —Ebenalp is the northernmost summit of the Appenzell Alps. Hiking trails near Seealpsee and Saxer Lücke are my absolute favorites. These trails are approximately two hours away from Zurich, but it is a must visit if you have time. Make sure you go up and enjoy your beer and lunch at Berggasthaus Aescher.
  • Lindenhof — This Hill is a public square in the center of Zurich’s old town. Lindenhof is a popular viewpoint looking over the city of Zurich and the Limmat river.
  • Bahnhofstrasse — The famous shopping boulevard stretches about 1.5km from the Zurich Main Station. The street is filled with luxury boutiques and department stores. It is a popular destination for both locals and tourists.

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website

Source
– Zurich Map
– Bahnhofstrasse

Thanks to everyone from BJJ Lab Zurich!

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The first ever wedding at a BJJ Globetrotters camp

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The BJJ Globetrotters camps have over the years become a vehicle for turning countless interesting ideas of all sizes into reality. When ever something fun pops up, we will often deploy staff from around the world on a very short notice to help execute the project. 

This one was a little different.

When long-time camp participants Alexander and Katya announced their engagement online, I commented on their post (as a joke) that I could become a ordained online and marry them at a camp. Their immediate reply was “sounds awesome, let’s do it” and from there on, the snowball was rolling with no way of stopping it.

A group of wedding planners was quickly formed and we worked very hard for little under two weeks to set up a full scale outdoor wedding at the Fall Camp in Germany last week. I quickly became ordained through a few online churches, we had flowers, bridesmaids, best man w/ epic speech, home made wedding cake, posters, champagne, pizza, DJ (had to do that myself as the real one cancelled), 5-star hotel room and everything else you can imagine for what turned out to be a quite special day in the history of BJJ Globetrotters camps. The wedding party itself was a 4 hour long open mat with more than 200 people on the mats then followed by an all-nighter at the bar with other interesting events from our book of ideas, such as the inauguration of the Globetrotters Classic, an all-natural bodybuilding competition that involves a generous amount of Long Island Ice Teas.

And just like in IBJJF, in order to get their new rank as husband and wife officially recognized, they have to go make friends with someone else to get their forms signed.

A big congratulations to Alex and Katya!

(Thanks to Astrid Nörenberg and Martin Sittko for the wonderful photos)

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Fortitude Martial Arts and Fitness (Singapore)

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Singapore— After relishing scenic views of islands and volcanoes in Indonesia, my friend and I arrived in Singapore. Among backpackers, Singapore is commonly referred as “two-day stopover country.” Most backpackers stay in Singapore to take a breather from the natural wonders of Southeast Asia and enjoy the westernized city. Since I was visiting Derek who currently resides in Singapore, my exposure to the country was slightly different with local neighborhood and restaurants apart from high-end shopping malls and crowded tourist attractions. There I had an opportunity to train at Fortitude Martial Arts and Fitness. 

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Singapore is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. Despite being one of the smallest countries in Asia, Singapore has the 3rd highest GDP per capita, and it is a major center for business and finance in Asia. The unique and affluent city combines the skyscrapers with a medley of Chinese, Malay and Indian culture. In Southeast Asia, Singapore remains not only a transport hub for travelers but also a luxurious tourist destination with copious shopping malls and vibrant night-life scene.

Overview
Fortitude BJJ Academy is led by Vinc Tan who is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Luis Carlos “Manimal”. Despite being a late joiner in the BJJ world, he traveled to Brazil and the United States to find top academies to dedicate himself to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. With his devotion to BJJ, he received his black belt within 5 years of training. Since establishing Fortitude Academy in 2014, Vinc has brought his training experiences from all around the globe as a previous BJJ Globetrotter to Singapore. 

As Singapore is home to many expats from all around the world, Fortitude academy was Globetrotters friendly. As soon as I walked into the academy, several students welcomed me and asked about my travels and training around the world. They are open to sharing not only Jiu-Jitsu techniques but also their experiences in Singapore. Everyone trains BJJ abroad for various reasons, but this is why I choose to train Jiu-Jitsu while on the road. 

Recently, Fortitude BJJ relocated its facility to a new location near the City Square Mall with its increasing popularity. The new academy is 2.5 times bigger than the previous location, and I am hoping to visit Fortitude’s new facility in the near future! Fortitude BJJ offers various classes ranging from fundamental to sparring intensive classes. As classes are offered 3–4 times in the evening, there should be no excuse to skip your training in Singapore. Whether you are in Singapore for business or leisure, you should drop by Fortitude BJJ Academy for its high-quality training sessions.

Location
The public transportation in Singapore is well established, and the gym can be easily accessed via subway. The academy is an only 5-minute walk from the Farrer Park station on the North East line and less than a minute walk from the City Square Mall. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is S$40 (~$29 USD) per class. 
<<Exchange Rate: S$10 =~$7 USD as of August 15th, 2018>>

Miscellaneous
Fortitude Martial Arts has an English website that you might find helpful.

Tourist Attractions

  • Marina Bay — Marina Bay is the most iconic district in Singapore with its hotels, skyscrapers, and tourist attractions. Overlapping the Financial District and Clarke Quay, this district displays how Singapore has become one of the most luxurious travel destinations in the world. 
  • Clarke Quay —Located at the fringe of Singapore’s Central Business District, Clarke Quay is a historical landmark along the Singapore River. At present, the district has been refurbished into floating pubs and restaurants. River cruises and taxis can be also accessed from Clarke Quay.
  • Fort Canning Hill — Formerly Bukit Larangan (Forbidden Hill in Malay), the park allows you to escape the busy city with its various walking trails and exotic plants. Fort Canning Hill has a long history intertwined with Singapore due to its strategic location, and it is now a popular venue for music concerts. 

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website

Source
– Singapore Map
– Facility

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BJJ in Moldova

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My Moldovan adventures have now come and gone, and I’m gearing up to take off back to the States, my home and my team. Greg and I wound up hitching a ride from Galati, Romania to Giurgiulesti, Moldova with some older dude with one of the most awesome cars I’ve ever ridden in. Greg was really set on having a sign written on cardboard, and low-and-behold it wound up working. We got to Giurgiulesti no problem, got ourselves on a bus with wifi, and got to Cahul with about an hour to spare before my first seminar.

The training studio in Cahul was constructed in something of an L shape which was a little awkward to work with, but I rolled with it. There were maybe 15 people all together for the seminar, around ⅓ of them being kids. I taught an evolving series, starting out with some very basic, self-defense-specific techniques that I don’t think anyone had really seen before. Then I showed how these self-defense positions evolved into some of the more sporty guards we see in BJJ competitions today. I had to make some modifications for the kids who weren’t quite able to invert in lasso guard.

At the end of the session, Sandu handed out some promotions. He’s officially a black belt now, which of course means that he can finally promote his own students. He first handed out some stripes, then a couple of his kids received their yellow belts. Finally, he was able to award his first blue belts to some of his sandbaggers. I had a tough time with his future blue belts during our rolls after class, so it was pretty obvious that the blue belt was very well-deserved for all of them.

That evening, we went back to Burlacu for the night. Deep down, this was the leg of the trip that I was looking forward to the most. Burlacu is the village where I lived for a little over two years as a Peace Corps volunteer over ten years ago, and I started the first BJJ in Moldova. Sandu was just some little annoying punk kid at the time, so it’s pretty obvious as to the progress he’s made over the years. But I was also pleasantly surprised to see that there had also been a number of positive developments in the village and in the lives of people I had known years ago. Of course there were some sad things that had happened as well, but I’m going to spare everyone these stories as they’re honestly probably not that interesting to the average BJJ fighter.

I will say though, that it was a little disappointing to see that there was no more BJJ in Burlacu. The original mats I had gotten as one of my Peace Corps projects were long gone, and there was unfortunately not much desire on anyone’s part to train jiu-jitsu. I suppose this is only natural though. A friend of mine and former PC volunteer estimated that maybe 1 in 100 programs in Moldova actually reach any level of sustainability, and this is probably fairly accurate. I suppose that I can consider myself pretty lucky to have had the success that I did have. Furthermore, it helped to solidify and reinforce my path as an instructor, and I’m very thankful for my time spent in Burlacu.

After one full day of “doing the village thing”, we got the early-morning public transport to Chisinau. It was standing room only for about a solid hour before enough people got off and we got our own seats. We met up with Sandu at the bus station, and spent the day walking around the city. Not much had changed since I last visited Chisinau over 4 years ago, and this was comforting for me somehow.

My next seminar was set to be held at Sandu’s new gym location in the Botanica section of Chisinau. This team consisted mostly of unsmiling, Moldovan MMA mutant fighters with shaved heads. I’m pretty sure that if you calculated the collective total mass of their cauliflower ears it would be equal to about half of my body weight. I had planned to show a series from the cross sleeve grip from half guard, but I was lucky if half of the guys at the gym had gis on. This factor along with the Eastern European tendency to want to see only the most awesome moves at an unorganized, rapid-fire pace, didn’t make for a satisfying teaching session. Hopefully they were able to get something out of it, but in the end I felt a little discouraged overall.

We got some rolls in afterwards, and again there were promotions. Most of the guys had strong wrestling and/or sambo backgrounds, so on top of being physical specimens all around, these guys were very tough to roll with. I don’t remember being able to tap anybody on the mats that night. Of course I rolled with Sandu and of course he made sure to kick my ass nice and good. Can’t let some punk brown belt beat the black belt instructor, you know.

Overall, the pace of sparring/rolling in every country and gym I’ve been to out here has been very intense. Probably the least-intense gym I rolled at was the Chisinau gym. At the camp in Bulgaria pretty much every single person I rolled with was absolutely trying to murder me; leg locks, cranks, even smother submissions were all good and all applied as if my opponents were in the finals of the IBJJF Mundials. This definitely isn’t the type of pace I try to keep at my gym, but I have no judgements against others who want to train this way. In my opinion, you become far more adept at developing technique and finding creative solutions to bad spots if you just try and change directions when you reach roadblocks instead of blasting through them. But, hey, that’s just my opinion I suppose.

We did some no-gi training the next day, and thankfully I wasn’t the guy in charge. We went over some super fancy ashi garami leg lock transitions, and I got some good, fast-paced rolls in with everyone. We did some dynamic stretching and went over to one of the guy’s house and had a barbecue… if that’s what you want to call it. In reality it was just a fire made with wood from some old furniture with a grill grate set up on some rebar set on some concrete rubble. Easily one of the more bootleg grilling experiences I’ve ever had, which is saying a lot.

We did some weight training the next morning and then we set out to the train station for our 5pm train to Bucharest. We rode all night in our mobile sauna and got into Bucharest at 6 in the morning. It was a little sad to see the train in such a bad state; despite the fact that it was the weekend, probably less than half the cabins even had people in them, and one car was void of people altogether, and unlike the little village buses there was no wifi at all. The train trip over the border is easily one of my fondest memories of traveling back and forth from Romania to Moldova, but I’m not sure how much longer that rickety thing is going to be around.

Our whirlwind trip is almost over. We’ve got to get Greg to the airport tonight, and then I leave out at about 8pm tomorrow night. It’s been really great to be out here again and this is an experience I’ll never forget. I’ll write more on how things turned out later, but the feeling for me now is that this trip is definitely winding down.

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Synergy Hardianism (Jakarta, Indonesia)

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Jakarta, Indonesia — It might sound pretentious, but I may have gotten sick of white sand beaches and islands after spending a month in Bali and Lombok. To change things up, I relocated to another island in Indonesia, Java. There I had an opportunity to climb two active volcanoes. I arrived at Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, before flying to Singapore. In Jakarta, I reconnected with Jerome Paye, a current MMA fighter with Synergy Academy, who I met during the training in Bali. He invited me to train with him in Jakarta at another Synergy’s affiliated academy, Synergy Hardianism.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

Region
Java, located in between Bali and Sumatra, is an island in Indonesia that is home to more than half of the country’s population of 130 million people, which makes Java the most populated island in the world. While Java has populated and modernized cities like Jakarta and Surabaya, the island also houses natural wonders such as Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park as well as the cultural city of Yogyakarta adjacent to a magnificent temple of Borobudur.

Overview
As mentioned in the previous post about Synergy Academy, the original Synergy Academy was founded by Niko Han, a Rickson Gracie black belt. Synergy Hardianism is one of the 35 Synergy affiliates in Indonesia, and the academy is led by Professor Hardian Kristiady, a black belt under Niko Han.

Following Professor Han’s teaching philosophy, Synergy Hardianism was focused on all types of submission, especially specializing in leg locks. Personally not being familiar with leg attacks, training at Synergy academy has been an overwhelming influx of new techniques and movements. Further, training with active MMA fighters with elevated sparring intensity has provided me with a different perspective on my Jiu-Jitsu game.

Classes at Synergy Hardianism were taught in English, and it was not challenging to communicate with fellow students. Although I had a hard time locating the facility in WTC Mangga Dua, as soon as I walked into the door, everyone at the academy welcomed me into their Jakarta’s BJJ community and were open to sharing their knowledge and experience. The welcoming environment was quite memorable at Synergy Hardianism in Jakarta.

If you are traveling in South East Asia, there is a high probability that you will land in Jakarta as various flights will pass through the city. After climbing volcanoes and enjoying Indonesia’s Nasi Goreng, why not drop by another Synergy Academy and get heel hooked before you move to your next destination?

Location
Synergy Hardianism is taught in two separate locations depending on the day. Classes will be held at WTC Mangga Dua on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Impact MMA on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WTC Mangga Dua facility is rather difficult to locate as it is within the sports complex on top of the shopping mall. Both locations are in the heart of Jakarta. (Google Map: WTC Mangga Dua & Impact MMA)

Schedule
The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

  • Tuesday / Thursday (WTC Mangga Dua) — 19:30–21:00
  • Monday/Wednesday/Friday (Impact MMA) — 19:00- 20:30

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is Rp 250,000 (~$17 USD) per class. 
<<Exchange Rate: Rp 100,000 =~$6.8 USD as of August 14th, 2018>>

Miscellaneous
Synergy Academy has an English website that you might find helpful.

Tourist Attractions

  • Jakarta — Indonesia’s capital is a melting pot of Javanese, European, Malay, Chinese, and Indian culture. Jakarta also is known for its modern buildings and shopping areas, which could provide comfort after spending time in the nature in Indonesia.
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  • Kawah Ijen — Located in East Java, Kawah Ijen is known for its blue flames due to volcano’s heavy sulfur deposits. Also, its crater lake is green because of the hydrochloric acid in the water. In order to see the sunrise and the blue flames of the volcano, you will need to start hiking around midnight, but the view from the top was one of the most memorable images during my trip.
  • Gunung Bromo — This active volcano is one of the most iconic and hiked mountains in Indonesia. The mountain itself is surrounded by a vast plain called “Laut Pasir (Sea of Sand)” of volcanic sand, and walking up to the crater itself was an unforgettable experience.
  • Yogyakarta — The city is commonly referred as Jogja. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to visit the city, but it was highly recommended to me for the city’s rich Javanese culture and heritage.

Hyperlinks
– Google Map: WTC Mangga Dua & Impact MMA
– Website (English)

Source
– Indonesian Map
– Yogyakarta
– Jakarta

1st Moldovan BB_white and black belt

Moldova’s First Resident Black Belt

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It’s really been quite a whirlwind over the past couple days, replete with sleep deprivation, missed connections and uncomfortable car rides. My travel buddy has been holding up remarkably well, and I’m glad to have him along for this trip. I suppose he’s the one who asked for an adventure, and that’s pretty much what he’s been getting thus far. I’ll come back to some more of this here shortly while I still have a little time to write, but let me first highlight a fairly significant milestone in our trip thus far.

Robert Drysdale recently wrote an article about how coaching BJJ actually really sucks. His reasoning is that you pour your heart and soul into your students but in the end you don’t get much back from it. While I appreciate his candor and I do empathize with him on many points he made in his article, in the end, I feel that coaching BJJ really isn’t for everyone. Sure, I’m no Robert Drysdale and there’s a good chance that neither any of my students nor I will ever achieve the competition accolades of Team Drysdale, but I think that if that is your only criteria for success in Jiu-Jitsu as a sport, art, discipline or even lifestyle, then your coaching experience very much might suck in the end.

Not many admittedly amateur-level BJJ coaches are lucky enough to have the opportunity to see their students all the way to black belt. There are still fewer, if any, who happen to be lower in rank than their students when they receive their black belts in one of the most difficult, yet efficient, martial arts in the world.

Two days ago I was able to be present as one of my first students in BJJ reached the black belt level, and I can’t put into words what an incredibly rewarding and non-sucky experience it was. Perhaps it is because I’m actually not a world champion and a BJJ nobody that I felt this way, but regardless, it helped to renew my drive to want to see more of my students doing positive things with their lives, and the lives of others through jiu-jitsu, regardless of whether or not they ever make it to the black belt level.

Bobby and Sandu on the day that Sandu got his black belt

I think what makes this story even better is that Sandu doesn’t want to leave his home country. Who knows how many Moldovan BJJ black belts there are out there in the world? Sandu and I tried to name the ones we knew about, but it’s probably only a small fraction. As I explained in a previous post, Moldovans are absolutely almost everywhere, and many of them excel in their new communities across the globe. What’s so great about Sandu’s situation is that he’s chosen to stay at home and develop BJJ in his own country, in his own community. Luckily, he’s not alone though. There are now probably at least 200 Moldovan BJJ fighters who continue to train and be a part of the development of BJJ in Moldova.

At the Bugaria BJJ Camp on the day that Sandu got his black belt

So, back to one of my other students: I really can’t say enough about how flexible and easy-going my travel buddy, Greg, has been this whole trip. He’s really turned out to be a valuable asset and not just a tag-along partner on our Eastern European adventure. He’s done everything from being smashed into a back seat in a vehicle for hours at a time, to haggling unsuccessfully with surly train ticket people, to getting almost eaten by Romanian street dogs and everything in between. I knew very little about Greg before we set out on this adventure, but I’m glad that he’s the one who’s with me (although I do miss my wife of course ;)).

All right. I’d love to expound on some of the adventures we’ve been having, but we’re going to need to be setting off on yet another exciting Eastern European past time: international hitch hiking. Greg has been fairly insistent on his desire to hitch a ride with random people, so today we’re setting out to snag a ride over the Romanian-Moldovan border. We’ve made it to the border town of Galati, Romania which is where I’m writing from right now. We have a loose plan of wandering down the road with our hand extended (and not the thumb, as is the custom here) flagging cars down and crossing our fingers we can get to Cahul in time for my seminar tonight.

Team Burlacu with their newly minted logo and tshirts. This is the team that Sandu coaches.

I’ll be conducting two seminars in Moldova, one in Cahul and one in Chisinau, and this will be my first-ever paid gig. Sandu’s charging roughly $3 per person, so I guess you could say that stuff’s getting pretty serious for me now. But, this is all contingent on us getting through the border, presumably not hitching a ride with some sort of high-level smuggler or something. So this has to be it for me for now. Stay tuned!

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Goodbye Canada and Hello Australia!

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So the final days in Canada were everything we could have hoped for! 

We arrived in Vancouver and I was still on crutches. Our friends Jacques and Paula took us out for an amazing boat ride on one of BC’s beautiful lakes and we spent the last days trying to fit all of our worldly possessions into four 23kg suitcases.  It didn’t work! we managed three 23kg cases and one 33 kg case. 

Since starting the plan to move to Australia there has been so much getting in the way of me moving there. First off it was delays in submitting a visa through work. Then there was visa delays and now I have actually resigned from work so am here on a 5 week holiday instead of actually working down here. 

Regardless of all these issues, we hit the 16.5 hour flight to Melbourne with gusto. The idea was to just get on the plane, fall asleep and hope that there aren’t any other random obstacles in the way. 

Luckily we slept most of the flight and woke up somewhere near Sydney with an hour to go. 

We are now here in Melbourne and have been loving life!

I met up with two old training partners from Wimbledon BJJ in the UK. The have been training at Absolute MMA and I have signed up for classes. Such a great place. Upwards of 30 people every lunch hour for BJJ and there are a slew of other classes to do also. When the ankles are better I will be starting some Boxing and Muay Thai training. 

A lot of people have told me that Melbourne is not a very good tourist city and that sort of thing then you should go to Sydney. It didn’t make sense until I got here though. There isn’t a lot of overly touristy things to do but, if you live here, there is more than enough restaurants, bars, wineries, BJJ schools and activities to keep you going. 

The city has a great vibe and I have been having a great time exploring. I hope to fit in a couple more BJJ schools in the coming weeks before I head to Bali and then the UK for a stint. 

Please have a look at some native Aussie animals that I met along the way. 

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Benevento – Pescara – Lucca – Turin – Switzerland

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Hey Globetrotters

 

On my way back I stopped at Benevento for a weekend to enjoy the nice food of my grandmother. Then on Monday I drove 4 hours to my aunt in Pescara and enjoyed a nice day at the beach. On the way to Pescara I stopped at a Caseificio to get fresh buffalo mozzarella.

 

 

Unfortunately there was no BJJ, not in Salerno nor in Pescara. There is one thing you need to know about Italy: IN AUGUST EVERYONE IS IN HOLIDAY!

 

On Tuesday I had a 7 hours trip to Lucca, the longest ride I’ve had on my whole trip. I started at 7 o’clock in the morning and arrived at 16:00 o’clock in the afternoon at Ivan’s place. With him I spent the evening walking around Lucca and eating some good Granitas.

 

On Wednesday I went from Lucca to Torino, my last stop in Italy. Fortunately, there was training with 3 guys from the Officine BJJ. Unfortunately, I had an accident on my way back from training, 100 meters before I arrived at home. Nothing happened to me luckily, but the damage on both vehicles was decent, so I let everything do the insurances.

 

The next day I had a 5 hours ride to Switzerland and the whole way to Switzerland was full with cars cause the summer vacations were about to end this weekend. But with my vespa I just went between the queues and tricked my way to Switzerland. Arrived there I organized a training session with a good friend of mine and we talked and trained for hours.

 

On the evening my girlfriend awaited me and we went out to a restaurant with my father and enjoyed a beautiful dinner with my beloved ones. On the weekend we organized a little family party and yeah, that’s it.

 

 

My trip end’s here and my blog as well. I gained much experience about Italy and my trip had everything: breakdown’s, accident’s and beautiful moment’s as well. I learned much about myself while I was concentrating to do just BJJ on my trip.

 

With all this new energy gathered on my trip I will continue to train BJJ in Switzerland and try to give my best in every sparring session with my friends. I want to thank BJJ Globetrotters for the sponsoring package which helped me a lot and for the opportunity to have a blog on this beautiful page.

 

On my next trip I try to visit on of the BJJ Globetrotters Camp, so I can meet some of you guys in person.

 

Till then, keep on training guys!!

 

Oss

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Marsala – Palermo – Salerno – Benevento

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Hey Globetrotters

 

I’m feeling a bit better, but I won’t do the whole Sicily trip again (since that’s what I wanted to do at the beginning). With my back I’m not able to ride 4-6 hours a day. The coach from Palermo, Ruben, offered me to stay at his place. I’m getting along so well with him and Hygor and I just couldn’t say no :)

 

So my trip went along to Marsala, but on the way to Marsala I stopped at the “Scala dei Turchi”. That was beautiful to see and I chilled on the beach for the rest of the day.

 

 

In Marsala I was because there was a gym, but with my back I skipped training for that day. And I even skipped the other day in Palermo. But on Wednesday, after just 4 days without training (regarding on how much pain I felt, I thought I won’t be able to do BJJ for the month) I trained. Still having a bit of pain but all in the Jiu-Jiutsable zone. And well, training, eating, sleeping. That was it till Friday.

 

On Friday I took the boat from Palermo to Salerno. A 10 hours ride from Sicily to nearly Napoli. So on the ticket was written: “The LAST (!) possible check in is 2 hours before departure”. Well fuck you. 1 hour is more than enough. Even 30 Minutes. I was a bit pissed because of that, since my alarm started at 6:30 because of that :D

 

 

While waiting in the queue, a elder guy walked up to me asking in swiss german: “Did you drive all the way down from Switzerland to Sicliy?”. Yes, indeed! The next 6 hours on the boat I spent with him chatting about life and Italy (He was an Italian that also lives in Switzerland). And I got a bit seasick. Still better than driving 7 hours back from Sicily to my grandparent’s place. After arriving on 20:30 in Salerno I had another hour to drive, where my lovely grandmother was already waiting with a plate of homemade pasta.

 

The rest of the weekend I spent at my grandparent’s place, eating, sleeping, organizing my University stuff and getting ready for the drive back to Switzerland.

 

The last week of my Italy travel. Can’t wait to finish traveling and arrive at my house, hugging my girlfriend. Hugging… ;)

 

See you next week

Oss

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Catania – Palermo – Agrigento

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Hello Globetrotters

 

I’m still cruising around in Sicily. On my way to Catania I saw the how some landscapes were burning and I always thought, how beautiful it looks. And I also thought that this Island is some pre stadium of hell. After arriving in my beautiful Airbnb room, I did a nap, some stretching and watched some BJJ videos, before going to BJJ training. In Catania is an American military base, so I trained with many guys from USA and got even saluted at saying goodbye (what an honour!).

 

On the next morning I had a cute little Training session with another guy I met in Mesina, before climbing up Etna. They gave me recommendations where to eat and what I can’t miss. So I went to an all you can eat Sushi/Italian Restaurant and just ate for 3 hours, unfortunately alone. A little company would have been really appreciated.

I climbed up Etna for like 2 hours and then walked down slowly another hour, listening to music and gazing at the stunning view of Sea, City & Nature mixed. I didn’t went to the top, cause I would have spent another two hours and I was so exhausted from doing much BJJ and this night I didn’t sleep well, because the room where I slept had no shutters (so at 6 am I gtt the sun straight in my face).

 

 

After Catania I went to Palermo, where Ruben Stabile, another BJJ Globetrotter and Matsurfer was waiting for me. They did wrestling on 2:30 and because of my injured foot I’m not able to do standup. So, after the wrestling training some guys put the gi on and trained with me and a guy from Stockholm, till 6 pm. And at 20:00 I went to the evening training, where another one hour sparring session awaited me. As well a Brazilian guy called Hygor from Cicero Costha Sao Paolo was staying at Rubens place for 3 months, so the school could develop. Hygor even won the biggest Italian Tournament in Florence, so I was asking questions where I could to improve my BJJ.

 

On Friday then I got injured really bad on my neck. I was stuck with my head on the floor while my sparring partner was putting pression on my hips, blocking me from moving but at the same time nearly breaking my neck. Unfortunately, he didn’t hear it at first (because obviously it was no position to tap) and he raised the pressure, where I screamed to stop. At the beginning I was good, but after 4 hours my spine started to hurt and I couldn’t get any sleep on that night, because every movement was hurting my spine so bad. After a sleepless night I called an Osteopath to cure my backache and after having called 20, one agreed to give me a treatment.

 

On Saturday morning then, he massaged me for one hour. After that he told me to cough and swallow and walk around. In my head I was thinking: “It still hurt’s like hell, my money is wasted and I’m not able to keep on traveling like that” and after 3 minutes I started crying like a baby! Suddenly the tension in my back was relieved and I could move significantly better than before crying. He told me, that my body just experienced a trauma and that with letting my emotion out, my cell started to heal. Luckily there was no damage on my spin and just my muscles are so stiff, that the pull on my nerves and that’s where the pain comes from.

 

So after being half healed, I went on to Agrigento. And it was a hell of a 2 hours ride with my back! Arrived at the hostel all people that saw me offered to help me wherever they could (cause they saw that I was walking like an 80 years old guy). I slept really good the whole night and on the next morning I went to the “Valle dei Templi”, a valley full with temple of the Greek culture.

 

 

The rest of the weekend I spent being on diet, relaxing and hoping that my back heals fast.

 

See you next week

Oss

Sozopol

Sozopol, Bulgaria

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Finally, this is officially a travel blog. It only took roughly 44 hours to get from my home in Asheville, to our first BJJ travel destination in Bulgaria. All of my flight connections happened remarkably as-planned, as did our bus connection in Bucharest to get down to the Black Sea coast here in Bulgaria. My sketchy-looking passport got me through all the borders with flying colors, so I’ve naturally grown a little more confident in its powers. My trusty travel buddy had one hic-up, but luckily he wasn’t delayed too long and he’s here with me.

Black Sea coastal town of Sozopol, Bulgaria

We arrived just in time for the no-gi class this morning, fresh off an overnight 9-hour maxi-taxi ride down the Bulgarian coast. Unfortunately we weren’t able to make it for the camp headliner yesterday evening. Now it’s solely up to the Romanians to help us take our BJJ games to the next level. I had fun drilling and rolling with some new people, but honestly the jetlag and overall lack of a good night’s sleep is dragging me down, man. I can’t wait to sleep in a real bed tonight; I’m having a difficult time keeping my eyes open while writing this blog despite doing all I can to get my circadian rhythms in check, like drinking plenty of water and getting some sun exposure.

The beach in Sozopol, Bulgaria

My former student, Sandu, brought 4 of his students down from Moldova with him. I’ve had the opportunity to roll with one so far and he’s really good. It’s been over 4 years since I’ve rolled with Sandu, and he’s a lot better now too; lots of new, good stuff he’s added to his game. I’m looking forward to gi training tonight as my no-gi skills are admittedly sub-par.

Our hotel with the Bulgarian and European Union flags flying high

Our accommodations are fairly basic yet comfortable. The view out our hotel room window leaves a bit to be desired, but at least we’re only a 10-minute walk from the beach. I’ll be doing some hard-core hand washing of all my training clothes for the next week and a half. I’ll consider myself fortunate that I at least have a shower and lukewarm water to work with. I’m not sure I’ll be so lucky in Moldova, but we’ll see. More on that later. Time to put my gi on!

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Last days in Canada Part1

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So the time has come for us to depart the sunny shores of Canada!

The last few weeks have seen us fit in so much but I will try to cover it all here.

We managed to get some rafting in Calgary. A great little day trip that sees you throw a rented inflatable boat in the river and just go all the way until you either get tired and get out of the water or continue a couple of weeks until you get to Saskatechewan. We chose the former and got out somewhere downtown. 

We had a visit from one of the instructors from the 2018 Globetrotter USA Camp. Devin Powell was up in Calgary with his lovely wife Carol-Lynn. 

He was fighting on the card for UFC in Calgary. To say that I was nervous while watching it is a massive understatement. It was like watching Ireland V England in the Six Nations and the result was similar! Devin managed to dispatch his opponent with a devastating combo of liver kicks. You could literally see the poor fella’s soul exiting his body. 

What made this whole experience better was that I managed to score some decent tickets for Prof. Gigante and I. So we went and grabbed some Brazilian BBQ (I mentioned the place in an earlier post) and then headed to watch the show. 

To see a a team or fighter that you support win is always such a good thing. In this case it felt very different. Devin and his wife are such good, down to earth people. This win is part of one of their much larger goals and you got the feeling that so much was riding on this performance. Being a relatively stoic sports fan I don’t usually celebrate too much. In this case, having a brief glimpse of how hard Devin worked and what it meant, I was literally jumping from my seat in the crowd and went berserk when he landed the finishing blows! 

The celebratory drinks were excellent!

The next day we headed to the mountains with Devin, Carol-lynn and one of their friends, Trevor.  I managed to have a good training related chat with Trevor (who teaches at 2 different BJJ schools) over breakfast and his insight was very much appreciated!

We hiked up Johnston canyon and had a nice chilly dip in the waters of the falls. Turns out they are only 3 hours removed from a glacier and were absolutely baltic. We had a great fondue dinner at a spot in Banff and a few drinks to boot. It was genuinely one of the best weekends of our time in Canada and both Sarah and I genuinely wish the best upon the Powells and Trevor in the future! I also look forward to getting to Maine to visit Nostos MMA to get some training in at some point!

A few days after later I got a call whilst on the way to Gigantes BJJ gym. One of the blue belts wanted to make sure I was attending class that night. A bit strange, but it was one of my last nights in town so I figured there would be some photos to be had. 

Much to my genuine surprise, as the end of the class came around, Prof. Fernando pulled my up in front of everyone to say goodbye and handed me my Blue Belt! 

It was genuinely an honour that was not expected. At the end of the day, he is one of the toughest coaches I have trained with and he strives to keep the quality of his school’s jiujitsu up to a ridiculously high standard. I have seen a 15 year old green belt from Gigante BJJ take out adult blue belts in competition!

I will definitely do my utmost to make sure I keep my end of the bargain and to represent Gigante BJJ’s standards as a blue belt on my future travels!

Moving forward, we started packing for our 1700 KM drive from Calgary to Jasper, Jasper to Kelowna and then Kelowna to Vancouver for the Holiday weekend in August. 

Everything was going to plan until I got a massive smack of Sinus Tarsi Syndrome. Completely took my right foot out of action for a week and then the left foot start acting up aswell! You have not lived until you have seen an otherwise fit and healthy Irishman trying to use crutches without a single working leg. The surprisingly large amounts of pain aside, it has been a very humbling and educational experience. Sarah has been doing everything for me. All the driving, cooking, packing.. you name it. She is genuinely a saint of a woman!

The pain will subside but the memories of this amazing road trip across Canada will remain!

This week we are staying with some friends in Vancouver. I am hoping to get back on my feet and to get out to visit a couple of gyms. The lovely folks at Alliance and Checkmat have invited me along for a session, so hopefully later in the week I can go see how large the target on my back has become!

I will close out the Canada adventures later this week when I jump the plane to Australia!

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Blog 3 — Beaches and Boondocking

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Recently we visited a town named Kingsville for my cousins wedding, an Italian wedding. This meant we were able to indulge in filet mignon, stuffed chicken, pizza, wine, and even a bit of soccer. Located on the property of a winery, it was a beautiful location and a fantastic night with friends and family. There was about 400 people in attendance. So after almost defying physics with the amount of food and wine I was able to consume, we then drove about 10 hours north to spend time with some of Sarah’s family at a cottage located on St. Joseph Island.

Mastronardi Winery. They allowed us to stay overnight right here!

On the ferry to Manitoulin Island which is on the way to St. Joseph Island

 

This was my first time visiting St Joseph Island. I discovered that aside from spending time with friends and family and of course having fun with the standard cottage activities — drinking, fishing, beach, stand up paddle board — there really is not anything else to do here. Really. There’s nothing lol. There are essentially no coffee shops, no grocery stores, no gas stations, nothing. Now of course that didn’t deter me from hopelessly searching google, more than a few times, for a BJJ gym in the area. Big surprise, I could find none.

The cut-off jean shorts are basically a prerequisite to slacklining
Great location to wake up in

 

Luckily, there was a Gracie Jiu Jitsu about 40 minutes north, located in Sault Ste. Marie. Great. After about one week of the cottage life we headed to the Sault to explore and get me some training. Gracie Jiu Jitsu SSM was very welcoming. There was a handful of guys out each time and I was able to get some good rounds in. The purple belt instructor here, Chris Giallonardo, was a great guy who kindly opened his doors to me. We had some good training and good conversation. Thanks Chris. 

Walk around the Sault Ste. Marie Harbour

 

After a few days in the Sault we then made our way to Toronto so I could spend some time training at Action Reaction MMA/Gringo Jiu Jitsu. On our way there however, we happened to come across one of the nicest beaches we’ve seen in Ontario. It was very private and very clean. Crystal clear water and a monster sand bar. I’m reluctant to even mention the name so as not to popularize the location and inevitably have ignorant visitors disrespect these types of gems but it is called “Fourth Sand Beach”. It was so nice we had to stay a couple nights. (as if we haven’t had enough beach time).

Worked for a couple hours here one morning
No litter at all :)

 

Onto Toronto and Gringo Jiu Jitsu. This is one of the best gyms in Canada and still one of my favorite places to have ever trained. I used to drive approx. 6 hours per day (3 hours each way) to train here regularly. That amount of driving eventually became unsustainable as I needed that 6 hours to be productive in other areas of my life but I am grateful for their head instructor Fernando. He’s a fantastic instructor and runs a great program. Always top notch training here. We also found a fantastic parking lot to stay at right beside the gym which only cost us $6 per 24 hours! This is unheard of for Toronto parking, especially in one of the nicer areas. So we were able to stay here for a week and I could stroll in and out of training everyday with a 30 second commute lol.

Professor Fernando Zulick “Gringo” 

 

After about one week here we returned to London so I could continue to train with my team at Gracie Barra, and help some of our guys prepare for the upcoming Worlds Masters tournament. I wish I could be competing as well however I’m preparing for my admission into bi-lateral hernia surgery next week (sounds so serious lol). I’ll be having it done at the best location in the country, Shouldice Center, who specialize in hernia surgeries. It’s located on what used to be a golf course and apparently might as well be a resort. Say what you will about Canadian health care, I’m glad I have it right now. This should keep me off my feet for a couple days, and off the mats for a few weeks. I’m thinking one month and I’ll be back to 100%. Fingers crossed. Hopefully my next blog entry will not be about surgery complications lol. 

Robert and wrestler

BJJ and Sustainability: Sandu’s Story

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I think that when people hear the word “sustainability,” it typically conjures up images of dreadlocked, stinky white folk putting in a marginal level of labor on a half-hearted “urban farm” that everyone forgets about when June hits. Or, perhaps you might be thinking of a good farm-to-table restaurant in town that serves organic food? Sustainability, bro! And while I’m certainly not knocking sustainable initiatives in any form, I think that people aren’t aware that the idea of sustainability can be applicable to a plethora of aspects in our global society.

In Moldova, EVERYBODY is a farmer. Whether you’re a mechanic, veterinarian, teacher or even a hair stylist, I can almost guarantee that you probably have your own small organic farm in your backyard. The wages in Moldova are so ridiculously low, and the land is so ridiculously rich, that this kind of lifestyle is an absolute must for everybody living outside of a large city. But what happens when everybody is trying to sell carrots to people who are currently growing way too many carrots? Enter a remittance economy.

The central market in the capital of Moldova, Chisinau

I have never met anybody in Moldova who doesn’t have at least one person in their extended family who works abroad. Moldovans work abroad in almost any country imaginable, both legally and illegally. While the EU (especially Italy), Russia and Canada are popular places for young, working-age Moldovans to try and make a living, I would bet my left body part that there is a Moldovan on every continent in the world. That Eastern European guy doing repair work on heavy machinery? Probably Moldovan. The young woman who comes by to take care of your grandma while you’re at your office job? Solid 50% chance that she’s Moldovan.

So, how do you create a way for good, hard-working people to keep doing good, hard work in the place where they grew up? Well, jiu-jitsu of course.

The abandoned Soviet gym in the village of Burlacu, Moldova (Sandu's hometown and Robert's home for 2 years during the Peace Corps)

Alexandru “Sandu” Birlea was born in the Soviet Union in 1990. These were increasingly uncertain times for people all around the USSR, but especially in the Moldavian Soviet. The state was no longer able to provide for the people in a multitude of different ways. Winters in Moldova were (and still are) brutally cold – you literally don’t see your toes for at least 2 months of the year. A crumbling infrastructure brought months of mud to the previously-paved streets, paths and trails in the villages. Absolutely nobody was looking out for you. Many people fled this type of lifestyle. Some were able to capitalize on the situation thanks to years of gradual, rampant corruption, yet there were those who stuck around.

Sandu's father, the gym teacher

Sandu’s father is the gym teacher in the village of Burlacu. He’s kind of an intense, yet well-meaning dude, but he always seemed very territorial about his work and “his” gym, so we unfortunately never collaborated during my two years (‘05-’07) in the village. Sandu, on the other hand, was very willing to participate in pretty much anything I had going on at any given time. Baseball? Sure! Basketball? He was there. Fortunately, he didn’t have to rely on my basketball coaching skills to find a path for himself in life, and he was there for practically every jiu-jitsu class I had scheduled.

Sandu and Robert

I came to Burlacu as a former wrestler who had been fortunate enough to have been training with some of the best grapplers in the world: Saulo and Xande Ribeiro. Even though I was a white belt at the time, my grappling skills were far beyond anything the village had ever seen, so I was the de facto BJJ instructor. By the end of my 2-year stint as a volunteer in Burlacu, Sandu, a 16-year-old boy, was giving me a run for my money and had even submitted me a couple times. He had gone from being a hard-working student to a respectable training partner in about a year and a half.

When I eventually ended my stint as a volunteer, everybody in the village informed me that my newly-minted BJJ team would fail for sure. Moldovans are very forward, honest and predictably pessimistic people, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge that they might be right.

The first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team in Moldova - Team Burlacu

After spending 2 years in the US, I ventured back to Burlacu to see what was going on with the mats I had finagled for the village. Much to my surprise, the kids were still getting on the mats from time to time, and Sandu had taken up judo in the nearby town. Eventually, I introduced him to Tudor Mihaita, a BJJ coach in Bucharest, Romania. Sandu had been accepted to the military academy in Romania and continued to train BJJ in his off time with Tudor at Absoluto BJJ. At this point I officially handed the baton to Tudor, and the rest is history (more on this later).

During my 4 years in Romania I continued to make trips out to Moldova and to help put on seminars and co-organize tournaments with Sandu. He had his own vision for the tournaments and for how things needed to work out for him and his future, so I happily took the back seat during the last couple years I was there.

The first "Moldovan Cup" BJJ tournament in 2011, hosted in Burlacu

Thanks to years of hard work and dedication on his part, on top of making the necessary connections and networking that is part of Moldovan culture, Sandu now has 2 thriving BJJ schools in Cahul and Chisinau Moldova. Now he’s using jiu-jitsu to pay the bills and otherwise make a life for himself in his country. The likelihood of Sandu having to slave away in Moscow or work under the table in Ireland is almost non-existent. He’s using the skills imparted on him by so many people in the BJJ community to make a living for himself and to thrive in a place where others constantly want to leave. More importantly, there is a small army of Moldovan BJJ practitioners who can, in turn, use their BJJ skills to do the exact same thing that Sandu is doing.

A current picture of Sandu's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team in Moldova. Sandu is seated in the middle, 5th from the left.

This, my friends, is real sustainability, and I’m glad to have been a small part of it in Moldova. Real sustainability is more than just a gesture. It’s a lot of hard work on the part of so many different groups of people, but when it works out it’s a beautiful thing.

Sandu teaching a kids class in Moldova

It wasn’t uncommon for me to run across second-hand American clothing being sold by old ladies at the market. Sure, they were able to make some much-needed cash from selling used clothing, but what happens when they lose their source of goods? It makes much more sense, if you actually would like to help someone out, to “teach a man to fish”, and help create sustainability. It’s much more difficult to actually accomplish this, but it can be far more rewarding for everyone involved.

An image posted on Facebook, translated: This is how Team Burlacu prepares for a tournament.

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BJJ Bali training report: Synergy Academy

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BJJ Bali, Indonesia

I am certain everyone has heard of Bali as a tropical paradise. So why not go? My buddy, Sebastian, and I booked our one-way flight from Macau without any hesitation. Despite our lack of knowledge of Indonesia, we ended up spending over a month. There I found Synergy fulfilling my dream of surf & Jiu-Jitsu.

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Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

Region
Bali is an island in Indonesia with popular tourist destinations such as Ubud and Canggu. Also, it is also adjacent to Lombok Island, which includes its notorious Gili Islands. Although it is known for its beautiful beaches and mountains, certain areas (i.e. Kuta) are overly crowded with tourists. However, with relatively affordable prices and unforgettable sceneries, the island remains one of the most famous international tourist destinations in the world.

Overview
Synergy BJJ Bali was founded by a Rickson Gracie black belt, Niko Han. He previously traveled to the U.S and Brazil to dedicate himself to martial arts, and now he is spreading his knowledge to his home country, Indonesia. Currently, there are approximately 35 academies under Synergy’s banner in Indonesia with top current MMA contenders training and fighting under his guidance.

Professor Han’s teaching philosophy was to teach more practical and realistic techniques to students. He chooses to teach all types of submissions to students of all levels apart from IBJJF rules. He believes that students should not only be informed of the “forbidden” techniques but also be able to escape properly in order to protect themselves. His classes are full of intriguing techniques I’ve never encountered before including twisters and heel hooks.

The classes are all taught in English, and the gym is geared towards BJJ Globetrotters as the gym is located near the popular tourist district in Bali. While training at Synergy, I had an opportunity to meet a fellow Globetrotter who I shared our traveling and training experiences around the world (Hope you’re doing well in South America, Adam!)

After surfing in Seminyak and eating Indonesia’s famous Nasi Goreng, Synergy is a must visit. Thank you for making my dream of surf & Jiu-Jitsu a reality!

Location
Synergy Academy is located near Seminyak / Kuta, which are known for tourist hangouts. Since we are now in Southeast Asia, the easiest way to get around is to rent motorbikes (~$5 a day) or to take a motorbike taxi, which cost less than $1 from Kuta. Once you arrive at the building, Synergy Academy is located on the second floor of the building. (Google Map: Link)

Facility
Synergy BJJ Bali is equipped with everything you need for training including a spacious mat space with an MMA octagon and heavy bags. The gym also has a basic weight training equipment for the strength training.

Schedule
Synergy Academy offers no-gi classes on Monday / Wednesday / Friday evenings and gi classes on Tuesday / Thursday mornings. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is Rp 150,000 (~$10 USD) per class.
<<Exchange Rate: Rp 100,000 =~$7 USD as of July 26th, 2018>>

Miscellaneous
Synergy BJJ Bali has an English website that you might find helpful.

Tourist Attractions

  • Kuta / Seminyak —  With their luxury hotels and spas, these beach resort areas draws tourists from all over the world. Beaches in these areas are beginner surfer friendly as well. Also, don’t forget their infamous nightclubs and bars if you like to party!
  • Lombok — The Island is located 150 km east of Bali (2-hour ferry ride). Since this island is less known to tourists, beaches and mountains are basically empty. Lombok is what most people would expect Bali to be. If you are looking for a relaxing vacation in Indonesia, Lombok is what you are looking for.
  • Gili Islands — Gili Islands (Trawangan, Air, Meno) are smaller islands off of Lombok. I would highly recommend visiting these islands for their clear white sand beaches. Gili T is known for its crazy beach parties while other islands are more geared towards couples. You can also scuba dive with turtles in Gili Islands.
  • Canggu — Located in 20 min North of Kuta, this small village is a haven for surfers and foodies. Recently, the area is gaining its popularity with expats.
  • Ubud — Ubud became famous after the movie Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. Despite Ubud is filled with beautiful waterfalls, temples and rice paddies, it has become crowded with tourists due to its increased popularity.

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website (English)

Source
– Indonesian Map

Greg

My Last-Minute Travel Buddy

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Meet Greg. Greg showed up at our gym a few months back with absolutely no grappling experience whatsoever. Greg kind of wandered in and out of the gym on an irregular basis for a few weeks before he decided he would accompany me to a Clark Gracie seminar down in South Carolina. On the way down to the seminar, Greg asked me what he thought Clark Gracie would tell him he should do to get better at Jiu-Jitsu. Lol. Of course I told him that Clark would probably tell him that he needed to train way more often, keep coming back and all the standard Gracie propaganda everyone has heard ad nauseum already.

I’m not sure if Greg ever got the chance to ask Clark his question, but all I know is that Greg started showing up and training. Despite only having a few months’ experience under his belt, he’s by far one of our more seasoned white belts, and has entered at least 3 different tournaments already.

When I first bought my tickets I announced my trip to my team. Greg said that he really wanted to go and he would start looking at tickets as well. I didn’t hear anything from him for a while, but just the other day he up and actually bought round-trip tickets to Bucharest. So now I’m stuck with this crazy guy, haha. All the slots for the camp in Bulgaria were taken already, but Tudor from Absoluto found a spot for Greg after all. Nice!

Coincidentally, Greg is scheduled to leave for Madagascar in September with the Peace Corps. I think it will be really cool for him to see the evolution of the BJJ program I helped set up over 10 years ago, and hopefully he can do something similar in Madagascar. Regardless, I’m looking forward to having a travel buddy, last minute or not!

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Reggio – Mesina – Rosolini

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Hey globetrotters

 

After Matera, I had a 4 hours ride to Sporevato, where I should have been able to train on Monday. Sporevato was just a stop in the middle of Lecce and Reggio, because it would have been an 8 hours ride, which is too much for one day. I spoke with the owner from the gym 2 weeks ago and he confirmed me there was training on this day I arrived. But asking him again on that day if there was training, he declined and said, the professor was not in town and there won’t be any BJJ. Oh how I hate this irresponsible Crossfit guys for confirming me something that won’t happen!! Yeah well, I just chilled in my room, phoning with my parents and texting with my girlfriend.

 

On the next day I drove to Reggio, where a family from couchsurfing hosted me. We ate lunch together everyday and the mother, Eleonora, showed me the city on one day. Her husband was a street musician, which fascinated me a lot. He played harmonica and sometimes he tours with his son, kind of a family thing and earning in average like 100 dollars per hour!

 

 

In Reggio there was the best elected Gelateria from whole Italy, which is called Gelateria Cesare. I didn’t like it that much, cause the ice was not ice cold and more creamy and I prefer it cold as ice, but from the taste it could convince me in a positive way. The best thing about the gelateria was the service, the guy was talkative and nice, showed me which ice he preferred in which combination and even gave me a spoon of Nutella to eat my ice with. I took it the legendary way with a “brioche” (kind of sweet bread), which Italians sometimes eat even for dinner. Just Ice cream with brioche. And some Italians wonder, why they become fat, wtf…

 

 

In reggio there opened a gym 3 months ago, the first BJJ gym in Calabria and already listed on BJJ Globetrotters. The owner was a girl with his boyfriend, both really lovely and we spent so much time together outside the gym, that I was a bit unhappy to leave. I think this gym will have a bright future, since more people are going to their BJJ class than their Crossfit Class! Oss BJJ Reggio di Calabria!

 

On Friday I went to Messina with my vespa and I’m reaching the end of my trip: Sicily. Enrico di Luise, a fellow BJJ Globetrotter and Matsurfer awaited me there for the Friday evening training. Luckily they had a seminar on that day with the graduation and a long sparring session (in total I spent 4 hours at the gym), ending it with a nice dinner with the whole team and the professors.

 

 

After Messina I went to Rosolini, all down to the south to the family of my aunt’s husband. On Sunday the usually do horse races, but exactly on this weekend there wasn’t a race. But they took me with them for the training. We woke up at 3:50 (I never woke up so early in my life before) and the whole procedure took place till 9 o’clock in the morning. We went to sleep till the afternoon and chilled the rest of the day on the beach. Note: These horses are doped and it’s illegal, but in Sicily the do it anyway. I don’t support it, but it’s their culture and it was fascinating for me to see it.

 

 

On Sunday evening I chilled with the parents of aunt’s husband’s outside and we talked for a long time about life and it’s troubles. They are both really old, but the conversation was so nice & deep and on the next day when I left, I felt like leaving my family.

 

See you next week

OSS

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Bari – Lecce – Matera

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Hey globetrotters

 

After leaving my grandparents house I headed to Bari.

 

 

It was a long 4 hours ride under the burning sun with 35 degrees. In the south in Summer it barely rains, which is beautiful when you’re chilling at the beach and can be really exhausting when you’re doing a vespa trip to the south.

 

After arriving in Bari I took a little tour through the old city, just to get to know the city a bit. Nothing especially beautiful in my opinion, since I already saw many Italian cities. On the next day I went to the beach that my host from Airbnb recommended me, it had a beautiful natural pool and the waves in Bari were pretty strong. There is to add, that Bari has really delicious Panzerottis (fried mini calzones).

 

 

On the evenings I drove to Bitonto, a place near Bari, where Roberto awaited me in his huge Crossfit Box. On the way to Bitonto there was a garbage incineration plant which made my drive there really unpleasant, my face always turned like a was biting in a lemon. The guys were really welcoming and on Tuesday night I joined them for the Teamdinner, which was a lot of fun and they gave me the feeling being part of the team. On one sparring session we listened to Italian music which I really appreciated (mostly in Europe you get to listen to Oldschool, new school or pop songs).

 

I also visited a gym in Bari itself, a tribe jiu jitsu school, led by a brownbelt.

After 3 days I drove to Lecce and well, it happened. My. Vespa. Broke. Down. In the middle of the highway. On 3 o’clock in the afternoon. No shades anywhere. At first I was like: okay, deal with it. After 2 minutes when I sat down to the ground I thougt: This trip is so damn tiring and difficult, I just join my girlfriend on her “Camino de Santiago” and fuck this shit!!

 

 

After 15 minutes I reached the first Mechanic on the phone, tellin him my situation and after 1 hour a guy came to take me with my vespa and drove me to the mechanic. Apparently, a cable landed on the exhaust and burned down, nothing fatal luckily. After 4 hours I was again on my way to Lecce.

 

 

So after the recent event’s, my motivation was really down and then I saw on facebook the words from BJJ Bitonto, saying that what I’m doing is hard, but you cannot think, that HE IS A GREAT MAN! And that I inspire them for doing my vespa trip and that “I am Jiu Jitsu”. After reading this, I was so thankful and more motivated than ever to finish my trip and take the last hop.

 

In Lecce I was being hosted from a dutch/Bulgarian couple from couchsurfing. At the beginning I didn’t know what to think about them, but after continuous talking with them for 3 days I really started to love them. We went to the beach together and on the last day they even drove me to the openmat and have a look at what this jiu jitsu thing actually is.

On my second day in Lecce I did a trip to Galipolli, Otranto & Leuca, the 3 last villages in Puglia. The vespa trip took me 4.5 hours & I ate raw seafood for the first time in my life. The fish was delicious, but I like the mussel & oysters rather cooked than raw.

 

 

I went to training in the evening and after some sparrings I felt the day I had on my shoulders and on my stomach. I was trying not to vomitate and my head felt like it was 50 degrees hot. For everyone who tries raw seafood for the first time in your life: it’s highly recommended to take it easy that day! :D

 

 

 

On Saturday there was an openmat in an outdoor sports festival at 22:00 in the night. After the openmat we went to dinner till 1:30. Somehow it happens many times, that I join the team right in the moment, where the whole team goes for dinner together. Or Italians usually go often to dinner together and I just happen to be around that time, I don’t know honestly!

 

 

After Lecce I stopped one night in Matera. Apparently, Matera is the oldest city in the world, where people still live since 9000 years (I don’t know that, I’m lying to you like they lied to me). Matera is just wonderful, for everyone who’s in the south of Italy, Mater is a must-do! It has also BJJ, but since I was on Sunday there, no training for Christian…

 

 

Oss

Christian

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galway based.

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With all the moving now done, we settled into Galway. I had already made contact with the fantastic team at Point Blank Submissions in Galway city, Christmas was just over and I joined in for some of their open mat sessions with the crew from Strange Wolves MMA and Point Blank and the level here was just as high as it has been in all the gyms I have trained in, I was stoked to find a high level gym here in my new home city!

As I stated before, I do my homework. I had already reached out to the head coach of Point Blank Tim Murphy well before I was in Galway as I had looked online and found it to be a highly respected gym and Tim is an active competitor and a world champion! This is a big tick in the box for me, especially as he is close to my size and will really help push me to get better. I have since rolled with him and found that his skill level is well above what I read and have had some great rolling sessions with him, most ending up with me tapping out multiple times but still great fun and plenty of lessons learnt for me! Tim and Kevin Moran (Strange Wolves) have been great in letting me join in on their sessions but due to a travel restriction of 1 car and me being the stay at home dad, I just couldn’t get to any weekday classes that I wanted to – correction, classes that I NEEDED to attend as my jits addiction is a pretty serious one!

Now, when I started BJJ, I never intended to do it only to get my black belt, to be honest, at the time I wasn’t even sure if I would get that far, I was more interested in training and competing and the competing part was rudely taken away when the old ticker got replaced! Anyway, now, 10 years later, I am sitting on my brown belt, 4 stripes, I had been training nearly every class and I am so close I can see it, sheeiit, I can almost taste it! I am very nervous to level up yes but I also did not want to take off 2 years from training and put myself back a couple of years. I had to find an alternate option that works with my family commitments and so when I return to New Zealand I can hopefully look to the realization that I may be in line for the elusive Faixa Preta!

I reached out to the local towns to see where else I could train. I initially hoped to find a gym that had classes during the day but the day classes I did find were too late in the day for me to get back in time to pick up the kids! Plan C, alternate training. I had always wanted to work more on my standing game and I have trained a lot with the team in Christchurch at Premiere Equip Judo, namely Jason Koster and crew so I thought that would be a good option as they also work newaza (ground fighting) into their training as well and I will still get a chance to work ground game. I found the Athenry Judo gym about 8 minute drive away from my new home and thought I could give it a whirl. I quickly found my judo is more like me waiting to be thrown! I really enjoyed the first class and after talking to the coach Ben Clayden, it was going to be a great fit for me and my situation. Ben is a great coach and the team there are super helpful, I would also say patient as I am quite the beginner! It turned out to be quite a good decision as out of it all, we ended up adding in a Saturday BJJ class to the team schedule with Ben and I and it has been great for me to get another chance to work BJJ, especially so close to my house as a couple of times I have had to bike to the training and race back before the kids finished their pottery class!
I was now able to cross train in judo and slowly (emphasis on this lol) my confidence in the standing game has improved a lot!

We had a lot of help from the BJJ community here in Galway to get the Athenry based Groundworx BJJ Ireland classes going which has been great to see the community working in well together, I still hope to get out to some Point Blank classes if I can get to them! I have managed to attend a grappling Seminar that Tim Murphy held with the judo school and another at Point Blank with 5th degree black belt Rodrigo Medeiros which to this day, is one of the best seminars I have ever been to! He taught closed guard and just small tweaks to the position and attacks that made me feel like I was learning jiu jitsu all over again, it was an amazing opportunity and hopefully there will be more like this! It’s very good when teams work in together like this, it is a small BJJ world out there and the more we help each other, the bigger we grow the community and ultimately the number of people training!

All in all, I have really enjoyed moving to train here in Galway, at first I was a bit worried that I was only going to be getting to roll at open mats but after a bit of groundwork (pun intended) I have made some great friends, I am now learning judo, teaching BJJ and getting to roll on the mats at least 3 days a week and things can only get better right!

Jitsu 1 – Hurdles 0

“Nothing good ever comes from worrying or sitting there feeling sorry for yourself… Keep positive and keep pushing on and things will turn good.” – Conor McGregor

 

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