Dusseldorf Germany

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Hello From Dusseldorf Germany! (20-25 June 2017)

I last left you with me having an amazing time in Heidelberg with the Jiu-Jitsu groups there, that I would visit again during the BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp, while staying at a not so amazing motel. After a quick train ride up to Dusseldorf I was ready for a change in pace. The ride was uneventful but I did pass through Cologne and got to see a small piece of the beauty of that town. I would like to visit Cologne some day and see more of the sights there, it really was quite the tease to only pass through it on a train.   

My First (Only) Hostel in Germany

The Globetrotter I would be visiting was unfortunately busy with work so I ended up staying at a hostel, the only hostel in town as it happens, it was right in the middle of town and about a 15 minute walk from the city’s main train station. At first during the week the hostel was quite quiet and I met a few people from all over, a young Australian waiting for papers to meet her family vacationing in London, an older Asian who kept to himself but was there on business and apparently had done quite a bit of traveling himself (he had a very detailed journal/scrapbook I saw him show some other guests), and a street performer, Ruben The One Man Band from Sweden who always had his GoPro filming his adventures. Then the weekend came..

On my way to the hostel I passed this intersection, it made me think of Mario Kart, I was on the look out for turtle shells whizzing by, luckily there were none.

Friday brought a completely different group of people, one group of very condescending Americans who kept referring me to being from ‘Canada: Our northern state’ and not one, not two, but three groups of bachelor parties, one in particular who figured the entire block should be listening to them blaring a song they would be yelling and singing over and over the entire time. To say the least my stay at this hostel went from pleasant to WTF very quickly on Friday. I left Sunday morning for the train off to my next destination and saw the most puzzling thing. A concert band marched up to the front of the hostel, complete with tubas and accordions, and with the band leader announcing something in German about the hostel (I made out the name of the hostel being called but that’s it) they played some Bavarian sounding tunes for a few minutes then after another announcement then marched away to their next destination. I have no clue what that was about but I did have a good laugh at the thought of the hungover bachelor parties waking to someone else’s music, having a taste of their own medicine, as I left the hostel.

Hostel humour. I may get one for my place once I’m done traveling and actually get a place, whenever that will be.

The Sights of Dusseldorf Old Town

I had quite a bit of time to myself during this visit so I decided to go out and explore and see some of the Old Town area that both Daniel and the hostel staff had told me about. I loved seeing the old buildings in that area of town, you really got the feeling of the town being around a lot longer than the impression that the rest of the city’s modern concrete skyscrapers gave. For my Canadian friends or those who have been to Quebec City and Montreal and walked around the Old Towns there this is same feeling, like walking back in time when you see some of the streets. Unfortunately my photos don’t do it justice.

I don’t know what this building is, or where I ran into it but I thought it looked pretty cool.

Some of the statues around the Old Town area.

An art installation outside the art museum, it’s a wall made of protest signs.

Training with JF73D

Daniel trains at a few clubs but mostly is at Judo Freunde 73 Düsseldorf, or JF73D which has both BJJ and Judo. For BJJ they’re under Prof. Youness of Team Youness Bjj Düsseldorf who I did not get a chance to meet, I believe he was away when I visited. The club rents a big mat space in a school, if I’m correct it’s actually the school’s Judo club room, in any case it was a nice big space with change rooms and showers but it was all inside a school with no signs so without Daniel bringing me out to the gym I would have never found it on my own.

The club itself was small, only 5 or 6 people made it out for the class I trained at, with the instructor a purple belt. Everyone seemed a bit shy, maybe because of language barriers, but still welcoming enough to a new face passing through. We went through a thorough warm up and some great techniques, the instructor’s own experience in both Judo and traditional Jiu-Jitsu was evident in the warm up routines and the details he focused on while demonstrating the techniques. It was a good class working on sweeps and I was looking forward to rolling with everyone there but I ended up having to sit out after while with a pulled muscle, the hardships of always traveling taking their toll on me at the least opportune time.

The club, thanks for a good training guys!

A few of us went out for food after class and I had a blast listening to their stories of how they got into Jiu-Jitsu and their adventures in training so far, if it were in better conditions, and if I had my camera with me, this would have been an awesome interview to have, just random conversation about our Jiu-Jitsu experiences while eating at a local restaurant. Video or not it was a great way to end the night after some good training. 

Daniel Meertz

Daniel was my contact for Dusseldorf, a fellow Globetrotter who has done some traveling himself and even been to some of the spots that I have visited with other Globetrotters hosting me. Whenever he wasn’t working Daniel took me out to see the city, like to a water park to enjoy a refreshing a dip in a pool in the summer heat. He also brought me out to eat the local cuisine in Old Town, where I tried a ‘pork knuckle’ which wasn’t much my thing but I’m happy to have tried it and know many who love them. Even when Daniel was busy at work as a firefighter he was more than happy to respond to any of my texts and tell me of places to go eat at or sights to see.

The pork knuckle, or Pig’s knuckle, literally just a cooked knuckle, or hoof.

Thanks for everything Daniel!

Finally one day we set up my camera at his place and did an interview on his experiences as a traveled blue belt who’s passion for Jiu-Jitsu is so strong even an injury sidelining him for a year wasn’t enough to make him quit. Thank you Daniel for all that you helped me out with for this visit, I hope we meet again someday!

To watch the video, or if you want to watch my previous interviews and travel videos, head over to Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel. While you’re there show some love, like, comment, share, maybe even subscribe if you haven’t already. Thanks!

After a short stay in Dusseldorf it was time to venture off to Hamburg, where I would meet Ana and her club Nexus Fighter, then be kidnapped by her daughters, but you’ll have to wait for that adventure.

Off to Hamburg, with no place to sit on the train.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

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Orlando – Great training and People

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Leaving Miami, we headed up the centre of Florida to Orlando, we opted to take the smaller back roads up around Lake Okeechobee to see more of the Florida countryside. We had only planned to visit Orlando for about 4 days to visit some friends and get a little bit of training in.

Upon arriving in the afternoon, we dropped our gear of at our Airbnb and headed to Disney Springs to meet up with the Elam family. They had just moved back to the USA from living in Australia for a number of years most recently in Newman where their children had trained Jiu-Jitsu with us. It was great to see familiar faces and the kids were so happy to see each other, telling stories and running around the different shops.

Checking out Disney Springs

Sitting on Captain America

The next day we headed to Gatorland, a park filled with Alligators and other wildlife. We ended up spending a full day here as it was so much fun, you can get a bag full of hotdogs that you can feed to the Alligators. We all tried our hands at Alligator wrestling which was a lot easier that some of the rolls I’ve had on this trip, they pretty much just lay there and let you sit on them.

Kobe Gator Wrestling

Lilly Gator Wrestling

The following day we decided to get some training in, we headed to Orlando Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This is where 9x World champion Bruno Malfacine trains and teaches. We all took classes and had an absolute blast, both Dee and I felt though we had learnt so much in just one class. Bruno has a very simple strategic way of teaching complex concepts. We were also both lucky enough to roll with Bruno, that in itself was an experience, we rolled for 10min and I think I only saw him twice. The rest of the time I just saw flashes of his Gi as he moved around me. That night we went home and decided we needed to extend our time here and we also wanted to catch up more with the Elam Family.

Rolling with Bruno

We spent the rest of the week training with the Alliance team at Orlando Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Both Lilly and Kobe loved it there, they were always playing around with Bruno and the guys. It was also great to see someone of Bruno’s calibre spending time teaching the kids classes. Jonathan Satava was also visiting from Marcelo’s in New York. Bruno had Jonathan teach one of the NoGi classes and he taught some north south choke gold! Some great details that I will be defiantly taking away from his class and adding into my game.

Lilly and Kobe with Bruno

Awesome class

Me and Jonathan Satava

Saturday had come around and after training we were contemplating what to do on Sunday. At around midnight we made the decision that we would go to Universal world. We had already done Disney and as we only had a day Universal seemed the better option. The kids were already asleep so we set the alarms to wake us up in 5 hours. Now waking them in the morning felt like Christmas they had no idea beforehand that we were going to go, they were absolutely ecstatic.

Jaws!

We ended up spending 12hrs there between the two parks, we all had a great time walking around and riding all the rides. We managed to avoid all the big roller coasters as Lilly and Kobe were not that excited about them, pretty sure they were still having flashbacks from the Guardians of the Galaxy ride in Disney California. Overall we were very impressed with the parks. Kobe absolutely loved Jurassic park and Lilly the Harry Potter rides and areas. At about 4pm the Florida weather kicked in and the rain started bucketing down, this unfortunately closed a few of the rides but we continued to walk around and ride what we could. At the end of the day we were very wet and exhausted! we had walked a little over 20km, seen and done so much. It was a great day and the kids won’t stop talking about it.

Jurassic Park

Transformers

As Monday rolled in we headed back to training, Lilly had also been doing the kids striking classes while we were there. Lilly can’t seem to get enough of training, I swear she would roll all day if we would let her. Kobe is also super keen to train all the time but when his class is over he is happy just to kick back and play on the side of the mat. The team at Orlando BJJ was great we had some of the best training there so far on the trip and were welcomed where we felt part of the team. After our last session at Orlando BJJ we headed off to Wekiwa Springs a natural spring one of the guys at the club had recommended. It was so good after training as the water was freezing as it bubbled out of the large crack in the spring.

Cool Kids class

Us with Bruno

From the spring we headed over to the Elam’s for dinner, the kids had a great time fishing in the pond that was straight out their backdoor. After a great dinner they introduced us to the messy art of pumpkin carving. Kobe lost interest in the first 5 minutes so I  ended up finishing it for him, Lilly had a great time doing it.  We worked out Dee was the best person and scraping out the insides of the pumpkin……It was probably more the fact that no one else wanted to do it so we just kept praising her so we didn’t have to hahaha.

Messy Pumpkin carving

End result!

Orlando was super cool, one of the perks of having an open itinerary for this trip is that we could extend our stay there and not miss these opportunities.

-Woody

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Rolling and railing west

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I thought the team in Moscow was big. Turns out Serbia is the real home of Europe’s largest grapplers.

In mid-September I began a rail journey across Eastern and Central Europe, starting in Greece, then heading to Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary and Czech Republic.

Kimura Jiu Jitsu Academy in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, was my first stop. The club is located in the bottom floor of a gym with a weights room above and crossfit below. It’s a super well-equiped and maintained site with murals and plenty of staff.

Guillaume the coach is brilliant, he was very welcoming and even did the lesson in english for my benefit. The class was very thorough with detailed warm ups, followed by takedowns, drills, techniques and rolling.

The team has a lot of big guys, I was arm-rest height for most of them, but they were super technical and did not need to rely on their pressure or weight. There’s only one thing scarier than a big guy on the mat – that’s a big guy who rolls like a small one. 

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Next was Jungle BJJ in Split.

These guys are a pretty new club, very warm and welcoming. It was a team of mostly white belts but super motivated and hungry to learn. Their gym offers a number of combat sports and wrestling was happening when I arrived.

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My final stop was Hungary’s Carlson Gracie Team in Budapest.

It’s a large city, so I expected a strong team, but they surpassed my expectations. They are super professional but also really good mates.

Everyone who came through the door greeted each other with a handshake, kiss or hug. Not a small undertaking, when there are 40 or 50 people on the mats. There was a lot of smiling and joking but total focus when training began.

The gym is a large hall, white and very clean, located in the corner of a sports park. It has a vast floor covered in mats marked out for wrestling. There was a strong team of women who traded partners, guided and translated for me. The techniques we worked on where closed guard passing, very clever, slow and heavy, which is what I appreciate. 

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If you’re a travelling women wanting to roll I would highly recommend this club. I couldn’t get over the kindness they showed each other and myself, one of the girls even dropped me home afterwards.

This Tuesday I land in London for my biggest test yet – picking a team not for a casual roll – but the one to become the next full-time home for me and my pink gi. 

Miami… In the Aftermath

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We have been up to so much and having heaps of fun, I’m a little behind on the blog so there will a far bit coming soon! here is our time in Miami.

We began the journey south to Florida after leaving Charlotte. We spent most of the day driving down the east coast through North and South Carolina and stopping for the night in the small coastal city of Brunswick in Georgia. We stayed in a small Airbnb cabin for the night to break up the trip, this is where the world’s greatest game of family UNO took place. I won every game, but don’t ask Dee and the kids because I’m sure they will lie and say something different.

In the morning we continued south to Miami, upon driving through the city you could still see some of the devastation that hurricane Irma had left just 2 weeks before we arrived. Down trees, power lines and missing roofs were common sights along still flooded streets.

The next day we headed to Miami Fight Sports, this is Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu’s academy. On the way there we were introduced to Miami’s terrible traffic…. 50 min to travel 15 miles, thankfully we always leave very early to get to training. Lilly and Kobe took part in the kids NoGi class which was a little quiet with only 3 other children in the class, this didn’t stop them having a great time. Dee and I took part in the Adults class which was absolutely packed. Unfortunately, Cyborg was still in Finland following ADCC so the class was run by Denis “Deninho” Mitchel. It was a very cool class filled with half guard passing strategies.

Lilly and Kobe warming up for class

Packed Adult class

Kangaroo jumping

The following day we hit Miami Beach and ended up walking around where we found a nice little juice bar and got the best Acai bowls. It was very hot in Miami and with all the water still around the humidity was very high. We found that a lot of the attractions and parks where closed as they were still cleaning up after the hurricane, so there wasn’t a heap to do while where there. We took Lilly and Kobe to the Miami Children’s Museum, they had the best time! We all enjoyed the interactive exhibits and I’m sure both the kids learnt a lot there.

During our stay in Las Vegas we had trained with David Avellan, he had told us about his school in Miami that his brother Marcos is now running. We decided to go and check it out and headed to the Freestyle Fighting Academy, we were quite surprised to find out that it is a 24hr MMA and fitness gym that even had grappling classes at 11pm. We immediately clicked with everyone there and as David recommended we train there we warmly welcomed. We ended up spending the majority of our training time in Miami here. The kids had a great time training in the packed classes with coach Che Moreno.

With coach Che

We ended up doing a lot of NoGi which Dee and I were quite happy about seeing as Miami was so hot. Jason Soares ran all our classes while there which was fantastic as he was able to take over where I had been with David in Vegas on the Kimura trap. I got so much out of training with Jason and the guys at FFA and was very glad we followed David’s advice, as to be honest we would have never really headed there otherwise. If you are looking for some solid NoGi grappling in Miami look no further than FFA.

Dee and I with Jason

Learning the finer points

On the weekend we decided to head to the Everglades National Park, we couldn’t enter from the side that we wanted as due to Hurricane Irma the water level in the park had risen to where the water was now over the park entrance road. We opted out of driving another hour to get around the other side of the park and decided to check out the Everglades Safari Park that was still operating. Upon arrival we boarded one of the tours and got to enjoy the park tearing around on a Airboat. When the tour ended we got a quick alligator show where Kobe got one of his wishes, which was to hold real Alligator, Lilly was pretty stoked as well!

Airboat Selfie

Dee and Lilly

Holding an Alligator!!!!

We thought about cancelling the Miami trip but we’re very glad we decided to head there as we had a great time!!

-Woody

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Back to Basics in Bulgaria

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Travelling across Asia and Europe for the past seven months and constantly switching gyms has been amazing. It’s allowed me to experience tons of variations of high-level techniques, spar with amazing training partners and even pick up a few secret moves. But, it’s also destroyed my fundamentals.

I practiced acrobatic De La Riva to X-guard sweeps in Bangkok for a week, switched to drilling single leg variations in Belgrade, and then tested my rubber guard at an MMA gym in Prague. I’ve added tons of new tricks to my bag. But over the past few months, I started to notice I was having more trouble than normal in sparring. I was screwing up basic combo setups, pulling off a simple hip heist and even escaping white belts’ loose side control. All my cool new techniques are useless If I can’t get in position to use them or even keep myself from being tapped every 30 seconds.

 

Working with White Belts at Twisted Jiu Jitsu

I needed to settle down, find a good gym with dedicated training partners and work the essentials. Luckily, I found Twisted Jiu Jitsu in Sofia, Bulgaria. Their fundamentals noon class fit perfectly with my work schedule and I came in 2-3 times a week for all of September. Back home, I’d consider that slacking but it was much more regimented than my past few months of catching flights, partying and getting over injuries.

I was usually surrounded by white belts and occasionally a blue or two would show up. It was exactly what I needed.

I was also able to meet up with a fellow BJJ Globetrotter Robert Barker at Twisted Jiu Jitsu

Working with new BJJ athletes let me focus on the things like hip control, creating the space I need to move and refresh my simple sweeps and submissions. Also, as every higher belt knows, training with and teaching a less-experienced partner really helps you focus on the small things that make simple techniques effective even against experienced grapplers.

Easy taps during sparring was a confidence booster for sure, but even more helpful was identifying the mistakes they were making and realizing I was doing the same thing. These rolls really helped me tighten up my game to were it used to be before all this travel.

At the end of the month, I felt much more secure in my abilities and felt safe reverting to more basic techniques when they were needed. Sometimes you just need to stop trying to learn Youtube worthy moves and just get back to the foundation those techniques are built on top of.

 

Heidelberg & Mannheim Germany

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Greetings from Heidelberg & Mannheim Germany! (15-20 June 2017)

The train rode up to Heidelberg from Friedrichshafen was an enjoyable one, watching all the fields of hops and apples and pears pass by as we whizzed through the beautiful country side. Once I got to Heidelberg I had to take another train, only about 10-15 minutes long, to the next town over as I couldn’t find a place to stay in Heidelberg itself that was within my price range. In between Heidelberg and Mannheim there is a small town of mostly industrial areas called Friedrichsfeld, this is where i stayed in a cheap badly run motel. I had originally planned to stay in Heidelberg and had found the perfect Airbnb in town but a problem arose when I tried booking it. Apparently my account had been suspended.

I think this whole problem might have gone back to when my credit card had fraudulent charges on it when I was in Spain. Charges were made to Airbnb and Expedia and although those charges were ultimately reversed I think maybe Airbnb traced that card back to my account, even though it was other account the charges were made from, and suspended my account to be safe. This is all just my own personal theory as it took a week for Airbnb to get back to me and the only thing they said that it was suspended in error and I should now be able to use my account as normal. Of course by this time the perfect listing was gone and nothing showing was within my price range for the visit. This led to me looking at Mannheim for available places and given that there were other summer events going on during my visit there wasn’t much out there. That’s how I ended up in this small industrial town in a motel whose staff were only around for 4 hours a day and was full of loud party people who sat and drank and smoke directly outside my window until late every night.

To Airbnb’s credit I sent them an e-mail explaining that because of their actions, and failure to notify me of suspending my account so that this error could have been caught and fixed sooner, I now had to spend a lot more money on my visit. To which they replied with a coupon to make up for the extra spending, a small coupon at first but when I told them how much it was costing me in the end they actually went the extra mile and gave me a coupon that covers the full difference. That is far and beyond anything I would expect from any hotel or online booking company so I will gladly stay as a customer for them, thank you Airbnb for going this for me. I’ve held on the coupon and look to use it when I get to Australia or New Zealand, where the exchange rate for me is not so good and I could really use a free place to stay.  

Wandering Around the Cities

Because I was staying outside of town, stuck in middle of either, I didn’t get out and wander too much but I did manage to take a few photos of both Mannheim and Heidelberg while I was out either using the free wifi at Starbucks in Mannheim or doing laundry at the one laundromat in Heidelberg.

The Wasserturm in Mannheim. An old tower from the last 1800’s.

The park behind it.

The Neckar river that runs through Heidelberg.

A pretty cool water fountain I found In Heidelberg.

The Neckar with the Heidelberg Castle in the background.

A night time shot of the castle, I actually took this during the Globetrotters camp.

As usual I have more photos of my visit that can see on my Flickr Account.

Training in Mannheim – SDS Academy

The first gym I was able to visit was in Mannheim at the Spiros Defense System or SDS Academy which has Kickboxing and Kung Fu and other martial arts styles as well as BJJ. Spiro himself is a tall lanky guy who is really fit and runs a tough class. He was happy to have me visit and welcomed me in and showed me around the place. The building has 2 floors and a basement, I only went up to the second floor to use the toilet and don’t remember what else is up there but the main floor was all mats and bags for kickboxing and other classes. The basement was also all mats and where the Jiu-Jitsu classes were held. The other classmates were pretty quiet and I didn’t talk too much with them until end of class when one of the guys passed me on the street and gave me a ride back to where I was staying and even showed me where was good to grab some food, but in class there wasn’t too much talking, we were too busy training.

Spiros had a very active warm up and drilling class sections for class. I can’t remember when the last time I did so many crunches and sit ups in one class, I would have to go back to basic training in the military. I got through it though and my De La Riva and X-Guard sweeps are better for it. I did over work my groin and hamstrings though and I could only roll once before I had to stop and just watch. Thanks for the hard class and tight techniques Spiros, until we meet again!

Training in Heidelberg – Team Choco

One person I talked to a lot about planning my visit to Heidelberg was fellow Globetrotter Ruadhán, an Irishman living in Germany who trains everyday at both clubs in Heidelberg. To say this guy is in shape in an understatement. The main club Ruadhán trains at is Team Choco BJJ Heidelberg which is primarily a no gi club. The club trains in a downstairs room inside a community center, or I think it was a community center, maybe it was a college building. I met Ruadhán at the main station and he brought me to the club, and given traffic we were in a rush so I just followed him downstairs to the class and honestly forget where exactly I was.

The guys were all welcoming of a new visitor, and although they were all young athletic students none of them went too hard running circles around me. We trained some chain movements and worked some take downs that night. I find take downs are covered a lot more in no gi than gi and for a lot of lower belts getting into gi competition that’s where they suffer because of the lack of training in them. I myself use a lot more no gi style take downs for my game simply because I have more experience training them. During rolling some worked from standing and tried the take downs we drilled in class live. I also went a round or two with Ruadhán purely just working grips and controlling techniques which fun to do and also a lot of work, Ruadhán is a fast mover and it was all I could to do to try and keep up. There was another class starting up after we were done, I believe it was a wrestling class, but I was too tired to keep up and participate in that so I called it a day. It was great meeting the club and finally getting to train with Ruadhán, thanks for the great training guys, and thanks for all the help Ruadhán!

BJJ Heidelberg

Another club that I trained with, and actually hung out with the most, was BJJ Heidelberg. The head coach is Ben, a blue belt who’s far over due for his purple, through Ruadhán I met him as well as Mina and Jan and the rest of the club. Before ever making it out to training I spoke with Mina about meeting up in town and showing me around. As it happens, one of the many events seemingly going on at the exact time I was visiting was the big summer party at a fortress called the ‘Handschuhsheimer Kerwe’ involving food, mainly sausage, fries, salads, and lots of strawberries.There were all sorts of strawberry drinks, some alcoholic some not, and as we entered the place we were given free drinks of it and could pick up more at the night went on. I don’t what the party was in celebration of, it was mid summer so I don’t think it was for a good harvest, but no matter the reason it was a lot of fun to be a part of. There was a dance floor and music being played, once people got enough drinks into them it filled up and it was very amusing watching some people really get into the songs. I especially found the one shirtless air guitar guy who was oblivious to the girls wanting to dance with him as tried giving the most realistic air guitar performance he could a captivating show. After the first night out of meeting everyone at the party I now had new friends to look forward to training with.

At the Handschuhsheimer Kerwe with the club.

Mina and Jan also hosted a BBQ over the weekend that I went to and met more of the club like Quentin, a huge American living in Germany who may be a white belt but his knowledge and experience in sports and as a sports trainer (check out Coach Q’s page!) give him the ability to soak up and process the techniques being taught and dissect them faster than anyone else I’ve trained with. Training with the group was fun, the club held classes in a community center that had a huge wrestling  room so they had all the space they could want to train in. They were killers and I was kept on my toes playing defense with them all. The techniques we train were a fun chain, Ben was great at coaching and with Quentin as my training partner we were able to make everything work for us big, not so flexible Jiu-Jitsueros. There was a great energy with this club, both on and off the mats, that just fueled them to keep going, talking all night at the party, rolling all night at class. I had to stop at class during the rolling because I just couldn’t keep up with them. It was great training with them but they were machines and I was wore out. Maybe that was their plan all along, bring me out to a festival and over to their house and feed me full of wonderful German meats so I’m slow and unable to defend against them. That sounds like a good explanation and I’m sticking with it! Seriously thanks so much for everything guys, it’s always a pleasure training with you and I hope we see each other again soon! And thanks again for the tasty burgers Mina and Jan!

After having such a great time that while staying in a motel I really didn’t enjoy I still left wishing I could stay another week and hangout with everyone it was time to move on. At least I had the BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp to look forward to as it was held in Heidelberg and I was able to see everyone again, but you’ve already read about how awesome an experience that was (read it again here). I packed my bag, jumped on the train and headed for Dusseldorf to meet up with a fellow Globetrotter, Daniel, to train with his club, but that’s another story.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

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Lucas Lepri BJJ – Charlotte, North Carolina

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We left the Great Smoky Mountains to head east into North Carolina, we travelled the winding roads through the national park on our way to Charlotte. Upon arriving, we dropped our stuff at our Airbnb and headed straight to Lucas Lepri Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After having a few days off we were pretty
excited to hit the mats again. Lucas is a multiple time world champion and one Read more

The Great Smoky Mountains

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So, from Washington we decided to head down to the Great Smoky Mountains for a few jiu-jitsu free days. We jumped on Airbnb and managed to get a little cabin up in the mountains just out of Pigeon Forge.  The drive there took us Read more

From the Shore to DC

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So, we headed out of New York to make the trip down New Jersey to Forked River. We were heading here primarily for one reason and that was to train at Ocean County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Tom DeBlass. The drive down was rather scenic as we transitioned from the build-up cities to the countryside of New Jersey.  We arrived at our Airbnb and got settled which was between Toms River and Forked River in New Jersey, it was backed onto Cedar Creek with a Read more

Turkey and the cheapest rental car in all of Cyprus

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I’ve trained martial arts in buildings that would collapse in an earthquake. Gyms converted from industrial sites and clubs located down alleyways so ominous I half expected to find Batman hunting for villains. 

Academy Cyprus breaks the mold. The club has a number of sites in different cities around North of Cyprus; the portion of the island controlled by Turkey.

The one I visited was near Famagusta, a coastal city full of resorts, with ocean breezes and sweeping sea views. 

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The team are based at the Caesar Resort. The complex of shinning apartment blocks includes a gym overlooking the pool with the horizon of the ocean in the distance. At the back of the gym is a decent area of mats where they train.

The day I visited a line up of ten guys were working half guard drills, followed by rolling. The drill focused on securing a deep half guard then a sweep.

It’s a small group with a pioneering attitude.

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They compete under the Globetrotters banner and really embody the hashtag #bjjlifestyle. 

The club’s owner Selman Ozcan, began BJJ years ago by watching videos online. He would take notes with his wife then bring them along to a group of other white belts to try out.

He is now a purple belt and splits teaching duty with the club’s other coloured belts. There’s a real feeling of sharing and working as a collective.

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Everyone is a friend. Selman went out of his way to ensure I found the right place, then dropped me back to my bus stop afterwards and insisted on messages when I arrived safely in Turkey.

Cyprus is divided with the Turkish territory in the north and Greek in the south. Those who lived on the island before its partition, plus some tourists, can cross at selected check points. Otherwise the green line remains a military patrolled buffer zone which runs through the centre like a zip. 

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While visiting the south side I rented the island’s cheapest rental car for about $60 Euro for four days which is the way to go if you’re planning a visit. The little red Chevrolet thing had three doors, a dozen dents and the world’s most temperamental gear box. He earned the name Kevin. We even drove up Mount Olympus. Poor Kevin was barely moving at one point and I was worried he might roll back down the hill.

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This warm hospitality offered by Selman is a real Turkish thing and a kindness I felt in every public space.

People saw me looking like a confused owl behind my thick rimmed glasses and offered to let me jump lines, women shared toiletries in bathrooms, others let me doze when I fell asleep on their shoulders. Where ever I went I was greeted with smiles and pats on the arm; a country of micro pep talks.

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I flew in and out of Istanbul. I did not get a response from any clubs I contacted so didn’t have a chance to train. Instead I will introduce Halis Bekrizade Efendi, probably the best Turkish delight store in all the world. It is a white marble store with pyramids of sweets stacked on every surface. My box of the handmade goodies cost about $3.50 NZD. It was staffed by an older man who didn’t speak a word of English, but feed me from a bottomless plate of samples and smiled like I was his favourite grandchild.

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Turkey has always been at the fore in my household for most of my life. My mother visited when she was backpacking in her 20’s and brought back a large rug which still lines the floor of her bedroom. Finally seeing the place for myself did not disappoint.

Training behind the iron curtain

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I was warned about training in Russia.

Rumours trickled down to me about how rough the teams would be and how I was safer just watching.

But the opposite was true.

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For a city with a lot of square, uniformed buildings, Moscow is a lot harder to navigate than it sounds.

Before my first session with Team Strela in Moscow I arrived 20 minutes early and waited patiently outside a large block of apartments.

After a few minutes three nearby teenage boys began sniggering at me and I realised there was no club behind the locked door. 

Once I realised I was lost someone from the club called me numerous times to give directions and even walked around the neighbourhood looking for me. 

Eventually I was within a block but still couldn’t quite find the door. I turned to see a shop with Venum shorts and a blue gi on display. 

I walked in as a man was switching off the lights. He didn’t speak a work of English, not even hello, and I only spoke hello in Russian.

I brought up the team’s logo on my phone and he pointed me towards the door.

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Inside was a converted basketball hall with padded wrestling mats on the floors and lower walls.

It was a huge open space with pair drilling spider guide guard in every gap.

There must have been over 45 people there – the only time I’ve been part of a crew that size was the New Zealand women’s camp last year. 

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This was also the first time I had been part of a lesson in another language.

At home I’m a notorious mat chatter. But I also laugh, cheer, daydream, ask questions and crack jokes. 

Being in a class where I couldn’t understand verbal instructions meant I had to really focus and watch carefully to understand the movement.

A few people offered to translate during the demonstration and helped me later on, but just watching meant I learnt more than normal.

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Classes began with a warm up, running then rolling and hip work. An hour of drilling, based around the spider guard, then shark tank type rolling the first night and open mat on the second.

The gym had a similar feel to my own back home, pretty informal, plenty of laughs and a place people really enjoyed being.  

When it came to rolling, everyone was firm but fair, a rare find as a woman on the mat. 

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They also have a team in Saint Petersburg which I dropped in on the following week.

This crew was set up very similar to my first club, East Coast BJJ in New Zealand, with a caged mat area in a larger crossfit complex.

It was smaller with 12 to 15 people at the class. I had the best time here. The techniques taught during this class really challenged me – it used the de la Riva guard for different sweeps.

I had the most patient partner who talked me through each piece and the small crew worked together to correct and support each other. 

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I talked to one guy after class in Moscow and asked about his BJJ journey.

He said “I’ve been doing it for five years … and I’ll probably keep doing it forever.” 

“Forever” – that has got to be one of the best endorsements a club can receive. 

Interrailing – Prague

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We arrived in Prague after three nights in Budapest. We decided to stay three nights there as we were all exhausted from the amount of moving around we were doing and needed some rest. We were fresh faced and ready to train again but we arrived fairly late and so dinner and a few drinks were the only things on the agenda. Our hostel was a bit outside of the city centre and so the next day we decided to grab a taxi in. The city is stunning. Full of old architecture and small cobblestone alleyways. We made a trip to Charles bridge which is also beautiful. If you can see it that is. We attempted to walk across it bit didn’t even make it halfway before turning back as the amount of tourists and tour groups makes it pretty impossible to focus on anything else other than squeezing through the crowds. We enjoyed it from a distance instead.

The main reason we came to Prague was to train in our gym’s HQ with our head coach Fernando Araujo. Our third day in the city was the day we finally got to. It was a very busy Monday night class. There was between 40 – 50 people on the mats. We started with a simple but long warm up of arm bars from closed guard, but without using our hands. Usually such a warm up wouldn’t be so difficult for us but we were definatley feeling the affects of doing little amounts of training and eating lots of food. After warm up we started on techniques. We learned an awesome back take, a strong bow and arrow adjustment and nice choke from the back. Because we were such a large group that night, not everyone could roll at the same time and so we only got 2/3 rolls in. As always though, everyone we interacted with was welcoming and friendly, and their level of jiu jitsu was awesome to watch and experience. It was great getting to meet Fernando again and be taught by someone with such a high level of jiu jitsu. After class we had to run to the train station to catch an overnight train to Krakow!

Unfortunately, this would be our last training session on the trip as we only had short stays planned in the last two cities. Travelling and training is something we definatley want to continue doing. Next time we will know to stay longer in places we visit so that we can train more, and we will 100% be investing in some light weight travel gis to bring with us!

A Hop, A Skip, and A Jump Up the PCH!

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It’s been six weeks since my last post on BJJ Globetrotters. This post is LONG overdue, but I finally have a second to sit down and write it. In the past six weeks, I returned home, started a new job, and started training at my new home for what will be a long while until my next foray into the Globetrotting lifestyle. That said, I couldn’t just ignore this blog and NOT finish what I started. I wrote the following while sitting in a Walmart parking lot a few weeks ago, recapping the prior week:

California is unimaginably large. After leaving Yosemite, I began what I assumed would be a quick hop, skip, and jump over to San Francisco. As I drove through the California countryside, speeding past the golden hillsides and amber sunsets, I truly felt like present. I’ve been feeling that a lot on this journey: like everything is falling into place as it should.

I decided that, despite the large BJJ presence in San Fran, I’d skip over the city itself. Nothing against San Francisco, but after a five days roughing it sans shower in Yosemite, I needed to get to my next stop as soon as possible. I needed a bed, some food, a shower, and just time to RELAX. I knew I couldn’t drive through SF without seeing Big Red (the Golden Gate Bridge), so I plugged her into my GPS and off we went!

Driving through the city, with “Full House’ flashbacks from my childhood replaying in my head, I realized that this was a setting I knew well. Coming from the East Coast, New York City is somewhere I’ve been dozens of times in my life. Well, though I’d have previously thought different, it was proven: when you’ve seen one city, you’ve really seen them all. Sure, they’ve all got their own quirks, unique qualities, and hidden mysteries; but every city feels the same. Tall buildings and a maze of streets that hide their secrets like a child hides their favorite toys, only revealing them to those who deserve them.

As my Jeep marched on through the rush hour Golden Gate Bridge traffic, I looked off to the east to see Alcatraz Island in the distance; an abandoned prison settled in the middle of the bay. I felt a twinge of poeticism flow through my mind. The world we all become accustomed to, the 9-5, the bills, the routine; it all becomes a prison in its own way. I’m no longer imprisoned on this trip. I can decide to up and go anywhere at the drop of a hat. I can do what I love in any city my jeep can reach, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m not obligated to train, I’m not obligated to travel, and I’m not obligated to be anywhere. I can just BE.

After a quick exit and five minute drive, I reached the picturesque scenery I’d been looking for. Atop a massive hill just west of the GGB, I was treated to a sight of the behemoth structure. Red, rusted, and rustic in a way, the bridge towered over the bay, and the Pacific mist fell on my cheeks. I breathed in the cool air, hopped in my truck, and onwards I went.

 

Worth every second on the road!

 

Dancing with the Pacific Coast Highway for almost 400 miles, I drove through dozens upon dozens of small, coastal Pacific towns. Seafood shacks, Gas Stations, and kind faces passed my window and through my rear view: I was ready to rest.

 

People often ask “Where do you sleep???” Well, in this case, I pulled my car over in a rural section of the PCH and crashed for the night. When I awoke, I was greeted by a scene right out of Silent Hill!

Honestly expected disfigured humanoids to appear from within the mist. No Shame.

 

Winding roads and coastal air slowly transitioned into the shaded, wooded forests of the Pacific Northwest. I felt the encroachment of nature replace the crowded streets, and all was calm. Gigantic Redwoods towered above, and roaring rivers meandered across the landscape. All too perfect for a photo-op such as this:

 

 

I rolled into Portland around 5pm on a Friday, greeted by the excitement of my high school buddy, Mitch. On my way into the city, something super important happened. Karen, my trusty steed of 5,000 miles, rolled over her 200,000 mile mark. An emotional moment, indeed, and one that was surely celebrated!  After arriving, Mitch, a New York to Portland transplant, promised me a weekend of adventure in the land of redwoods, legal marijuana, and millennial delight. I was MORE than excited. But first… a nap.

 

ROLLOVER

 

After a night exploring the streets of Portland, I awoke the next morning to go catch a noon class at 10th Planet Portland; my first foray onto the 10th Planet landscape… I arrived at the gym ten minutes before class to sign waivers, get changed, etc. I was greeted by Phil Shwartz, one of the coaches at the gym. Phil, a brown belt under Eddie Bravo himself, was incredible welcoming and interested in my Globetrotting travels. As the few stragglers drifted into the gym, class begun with a short warmup.

 

The training grounds: a super clean, very organized facility!

 

I’ll admit, and I’m not proud of this, that I’d always been a little apprehensive of the 10th Planet system. The interesting names and the nogi oriented system gave my gi-oriented self a headache at times. Well, after training with the guys at 10th Planet Portland for two hours, I can say that I have adopted an entirely new respect for the system. Phil instructed the class on a few sweeps from lockdown, a position I always struggled passing. What I began realizing, very quickly, was how well-developed and intricate the system is. I’ve always been a conceptual learner; if I know WHY a move works the way it does, I’ll be able to apply it better than just learning HOW the move works. The small shift of the hips, the squeezing of the legs, the one inch between a submission and their escape; this is the stuff I cherish. Phil was chock-full of these little details. He spoke about how, when passing a position (in this case lockdown), the easiest way to pass is to reverse engineer the position itself. It made PERFECT sense. They need the hook on your leg to secure the lockdown, so the first step in passing is to nullify the hook. It changed the way I look at passing.

As drilling winded down, it was time to roll. I was excited to test myself, a spider guard/lapel grabbing fiend, against the NoGi warriors here. I rolled six rounds straights, one with Phil, two purple belts, two blue belts, and one of the female blue belts. I try to get a roll in with at least one of the women in class whenever I drop in; coming from a gym that has a strong female presence, I feel like I get an unadulterated sense of how the instruction at the gym is. Phil kept it really playful, trading positions, feeling out my game, and then, ultimately, dispatching me in a typical brown belt/blue belt fashion. He complimented me on my aggressive passing style, and I applauded his students, his system, and his technique overall. I had a blast rolling with the blues and purples. As I move on in my BJJ journey, I find myself having an easier time rolling with purples and browns than I do with blues. I’m noticing that blue belts in general, and this has really improved the way that I roll and train, almost try and prove themselves against other blue belts, especially visiting blue belts.

Overall, my experience at 10th Planet Portland was one I would gladly repeat. The instruction was top notch, the students incredibly welcoming, and the system is on point. Side note: I’m noticing something about a lot of 10th Planet instructors: they mimic Eddie Bravo in an almost eerie way. Had I closed my eyes, I’d have sworn that Eddie himself was teaching class, as Phil was like Eddie almost down to the mannerisms.

 

Thanks for training, fellas!

 

The rest of my time in Portland was quite an experience. Viewing Mt. Hood and Mt. Saint Helens off in the distance, Mitch and I decided no Portland adventure would be complete without a quick hiking trip. A quick google search of “Portland Hiking” delivered a familiar name: Oneonta Gorge. I went to college in Upstate New York at the State University of New York at, you guessed it, Oneonta. SUNY Oneonta to Oneonta Gorge, Oregon. It seemed right that the last place I go before turning home share a namesake with the place this journey really started.

Mitch and I drove to the gorge to find that, and I’m quoting the online train summary, “the creek is the trail.” A mile hike into the gorge in knee-waist deep water on a hot summer day was the perfect outlet. As I reached the 100-ft Oneonta Gorge falls, I felt a growing power in my gut. I felt a scream growing. As I trudged through the cold mountain water, and the waterfall crashed at my feet, I let it go. Tearing my hands through the water, throwing it into the air around me, I screamed at the falls. I yelled, cursed, and cried. I did it. I F***ing did it. I drove my car 5,000 miles to get to the other side of this country I’ve always wanted to see. And I did it, in part, because of the opportunities and confidence I found from the sport that I love. With the roar of the water crashing around me, I was in a moment of tranquility and beauty. I was calm. Jiu Jitsu has taught me, above anything, that being calm in the face of roaring thunder and discomfort is the difference between winning and losing, between panic and relaxation, and between joy and misery. In the age old words of Bruce Lee:

 

“Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

 

A magical moment. Plain and Simple.

 

Can’t wait to finish off my journey with you guys. I’ll have my next post about my trip to Salt Lake City up in the next few days! OSS!

Friedrichshafen Germany

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Greetings from Friedrichshafen Germany!

It was a smooth bus ride into Friedrichshafen, my first stop for my month tour through Germany. This visit I would be staying with Ben, a fellow BJJ Globetrotter who had a Matsurfing ad. I messaged Ben and we talked briefly, he was more than happy to have me at his place and show me around his home town. Ben met me at the bus station, drove me back to his place while giving me a quick history of the town, and set me up his spare room and let me settle in. Ben had a lot of plans for training and showing around Friedrichshafen and the surrounding area during my visit, we set out bike around town and meet up with some old friends of his soon after dropping my gear off. There was no wasted time during this visit.

Home of The Zepplin!

Friedrichshafen is the quintessential small German country town. It’s set among beautiful orchids of mostly pears and hops, which the area is quite known for along with the wines and beers made from them. The area itself is also known for the The Three Points as the three countries of Switzerland, Austria and Germany come together and meet at Lake Constance, which Friedrichshafen is placed right in the middle of. The Friedrichshafen area is where the Zeppelin was invented and they’re still very proud of the invention. There’s a museum on the history of it’s creation and statues throughout the area and even a several daily Zeppelin rides to tour the area and see The Three Points from above. During the day when Ben was working I borrowed his bike to spin around town and take pics of the scenery, here’s some of the my best photos from the visit.

A water fountain made of old engine parts and statues.

They even have a Zeppelin playground.

This church was one of the few things that survived being bombed in WWII, the steeple is the only original part to it, the rest was re-built.

There’s a lookout tower to see the three points from, or look over the town.

One evening we took the ferry over to Konstanz to eat and show me around their neighboring city, which has some awesome old buildings and is actually where Ferdinand von Zeppelin (creator of the Zeppelin) lived.

The tavern where apparently the Council of Constance between the Pope and the mayor took place many years ago.

A statue in memory of Ferdinand von Zeppelin…or Konstanz just really loves the FFVII lore.

There was a council with the mayor and pope in Konstanz once, this statue of Imperia is to commemorate it. or satire it, depending who you talk to.

Bed picture but it’s the town square water fountain with different fairy tale animals around it.

Staying with Ben

Ben was a great host, he has a nice place with a fully furnished spare room and huge living room with more than enough space for me to put out my yoga mat and foam roller and stretch out. It was very comfortable staying at his place. Friedrichshafen is a small town so it only took 10-15 minutes on bike to get anywhere so during the stay I most just biked around using one of Ben’s bicycles. During our adventures out Ben would fill me in on the history of the area, both before and after the war, as most of the area was blown up during WWII and re-built afterwards. Most of our bike rides were broken up with Ben stopped to say hi to people he knew, which seemed to be most of the town. You quickly got the impression of a safe and friendly small town and I had no problem getting around during day without Ben. Thank you for inviting me into your home and showing me around your beautiful town Ben, you’re a great host! I highly recommend people go visit Ben and the club if you’re doing a visit of Germany!

Training in Austria

One evening Ben brought me out to an open mat session in Dornbirn Austria, which is about an hour away. It was a fun ride through the winding roads and mountain tunnels to this small Austrian town where we met with a few members of the Dornbirn BJJ Carlson Gracie Austria club. The club is in a community center on the top floor in with a Kung Fu club. The club is divided into two sections with a cage wall down the middle of the long room, one side a work out area with weights and machines, and the other a matted floor for martial arts training. The guys were all happy to have us drop by for a few rolls and although my hand was still hurting, I taped it up to try and minimize the problem and roll with some of this beasts. They were all game and very talented, I probably spent more time trying to survive than anything but it was all in good fun, no one going too hard anyone although they did roll with a good amount of speed aggression. By the end of the time we were all beaten, sweaty and tired. Happy to have a good session and hungry to go get some food!

After the session Ben and I and a few from the club went out for kebap. We walked around the city center, showing me some of the downtown beauty of the Dornbirn. We talked about all sorts of things as we hung out, Jiu-Jitsu philosophy, my trip of course and club social events like grabbing food after training or going to the bar together. During our many conversations came up the fact that you can make friends instantly in pretty much any setting by asking “Anyone want to grab some kebap?” as everyone seems to love kebap, even vegetarians will go for falalfel. That brought up the importance of knowing what kebap was, and what it’s called in other languages. I know it as it’s widely called in North America and the middle east, Shawarma, although in my experience in Europe it’s mostly called Kebap or Donner. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but knowing this fact will give you the ability to find food and make friends pretty much anywhere and at anytime as kebap places are usually the latest stores open, if they close at all. So we hung out eating and having a great time socializing after a good session on the mats, making friends and memories all in one night. This is one of the many many awesome experiences on this Odyssey that I set out for, thanks for having me guys!

Rolling with Patrick

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend any training sessions with Ben’s club, bad timing, but I was able to meet up and train with Patrick, purple belt and coach of the club. One day he picked me up and brought me to where the club trains, at the local gym in a gymnastics room that has the entire floor covered in puzzle mats that are designed to look like a wood floor. Patrick is a very gifted, technical and knowledgeable student and while we rolled he was very calculated, picking part my game and mostly toying with me. We would dissect what I got caught on and drill it a bit before continuing rolling some more until I got caught again with something else. We went on like that for an hour or so and if I was in better shape we could have easily spent another hour rolling, drilling and philosophizing. It was a fun session and a great opportunity to learn my weaknesses and get a different perspective on rolling. I was told Patrick drills and trains a lot and has a pretty nice set up at his home too. I would have liked training with Patrick more and attending a class with the club, to see how he runs training, but sadly this was the only time we would train together. I will have to return some day to train with everyone more and get to meet the full club. Thanks for the great one on one session Patrick!  

After a fun and educational visit to Ben’s place in Friedrichshafen my first stop in Germany was over, setting the bar high for what to expect for the rest of the trip. I would not be disappointed. Ben dropped me off to catch my train to the next stop: Heidelberg!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Mingalabar! Teaching BJJ in (remote) Myanmar – Part 1.

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Sadly, our BJJ journey through Myanmar is over but we finally have the time to write about it in our downtime in Vietnam. 18 days in Myanmar saw us well and truly exhausted by the end – we crammed a lot in during that time! Sight-seeing many beautiful places, navigating dusty streets, attempting to communicate with the locals, making several wonderful friends, and teaching BJJ was the best way to experience Myanmar in such a short time. Our trip was only made possible by Tammi Willis, founder of BJJ Myanmar. A friend of Rion’s from their rolling together in Bangkok, he contacted Tammi to let her know we were going to Myanmar and she began planning the ultimate trip for us, asking Rion if he would like to teach at remote garage/start-up gyms around country. Of course, he accepted, and our journey became something worth writing about. Thank you, Tammi, for creating this opportunity for us. We couldn’t have asked for a better trip.

Our first destination was Mandalay, a region with 12 million-ish people situated in central Myanmar, and with a relatively hot climate compared to the other places we visited. Whoever told me that Mandalay has nothing to offer tourists and is supposedly boring, you need to wash your mouth out with soap or something. It was one of the best parts of our trip!

Exploring the ancient city of Inwa in Mandalay.

Exploring the ancient city of Inwa in Mandalay.

Sai, AKA Tootti/Henry, is the owner of BJJ Mandalay (name of the gym to be confirmed). Sai is a white belt who has had four BJJ coaches come through his place and he’s trained a little in Yangon with BJJ Myanmar. He’s currently converting two floors in his home into what he hopes will be Mandalay’s first MMA gym. When we arrived, he had just purchased new mats and an air cooler, and was overflowing with motivation to create something beneficial for the community. A youth leader in the making, Sai hopes to keep people away from drugs and improve the quality of their lives and dreams of doing this through fitness and martial arts. We can attest for Sai’s quality of character. He has a big heart, was extremely generous, a great sense of humour, and felt like a long lost friend. Sai was the guy to know for everything; he’s the ultimate translator, the finder of mangoes out of mango season, the man who knows everyone from Myanmar’s most popular actress to the guy with the best durian… The list of Sai’s knowledge and connections is seemingly endless. Without him we would have struggled to maintain a vegan diet in Myanmar and our experience in the country would have been far inferior to the phenomenal time we did have. We owe a huge thanks to Sai and we are hoping to see our self-described “Asian Elephant” friend again soon. He’s very keen to host more BJJ Globetrotters so please get in contact with him if you are heading to Myanmar (his name is “Tootti Henry” on Facebook).

Sai and Rion.

Our first BJJ class kicked off shortly after our flight landed and we were initially blown away by the numbers of people who showed up – and they were mostly women! My heart was singing as recruiting women into BJJ and keeping them there is something I’m emotionally invested in. As everyone was either a newbie or had little BJJ experience, Rion began by teaching basic distance management (ie. If you’re flat on your back and your opponent is standing, how to avoid strikes to the head by controlling the distance with your feet) and elementary self defence. The usual giggling from all the new girls was loud, even when I put a lot of pressure on them during side control – just to show them how strong they can be, I swear! Unfortunately many of them were sore the next day and didn’t attend the class, but I attribute that to a smaller frame, lack of BJJ body conditioning, and perhaps being unfamiliar to the pace of martial arts training, rather than my mediocre white belt side control pressure. That night we went out for a meal with some of the guys from the gym who were initially quiet but over our time in Mandalay, opened up to us. We were all paralysed with laughter in many occasions – several jokes are funny no matter what language you speak.

Rion, Eileen, Mon, Kyaw Gyi, Myo, Sai, and Ma Thet after our first class.

During our downtime between classes, Sai had (of course) organised activities for us to do, such as: exploring the palace; walking the famous teak bridge, visiting the ancient city of Inwa, seeing the beauty of an old teak monastery, and many more activities. Our favourite by far was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I couldn’t talk about Mandalay without writing about it. We drove up Mandalay Hill at night with a few of our friends from the gym and due to the time of year there were monks praying over loud speakers in the pagoda near the summit. To describe this in words and do it justice is impossible, but we had the twinkling lights of Mandalay city all around us, a warm late-night breeze, the serenity caused the prayers, the quiet laughter between all of us, walking in the glittering golden pagoda lit up at night, and the best part – it was all completely empty of tourists and vendors. Rion and I both think that that was a highlight of our entire trip and that we were incredibly lucky to have that opportunity. If there was a particular moment during our holiday that was a spiritual reawakening, that was most definitely it.

Our classes over the next few days are a bit of a blur. Sai had organised split classes due to the numbers of people interested. He certainly can fill his mat space! Rion taught more basics but possibly more exciting techniques for newbies: how to regain posture in, and pass, the closed guard; maintaining side control, and; chokes – the standard RNC and a variant of the same, a triangle from closed guard, and the arm triangle from mount. During this time we were also honoured by the presence of a national judo champion, Selwee. It’s important to note that she was very small, around the 40-45kg mark. After me absolutely dying for a few minutes in her side control, we realised that many of the techniques we were going to teach her, she already had a great amount of knowledge. There was a significant language barrier here, but I found communicating with her non-verbally very easy. Selwee was interested in leg entanglements and submissions, even though she said she could not apply them in competition in judo (I confess I don’t know many rules of judo!). Rion taught her an inside sankaku entry from top mount and top side control, an inside and outside heel hook, and a calf crush counter to the heel hook defence. In return, she taught me a couple of takedowns, which was greatly appreciated. After class, we stayed behind with a few of the lads to answer questions about training and techniques, and then went out together to get the “best [insert food here] in Myanmar” for dinner.

Mandalay was a great welcome to Myanmar and there are several people there who we look forward to seeing again soon. To Sai, Eileen, Selwee, Myo, Kyaw Gyi, Ma Thet, and the other wonderful people we met there – thank you all so much for the experience and good times. We miss you all already and will be back, hopefully soon! Our next gym was in Myitkyina with Da Rock, another youth leader and Kyokushin karate black belt. Keep an eye out for our next post!

 

Zurich Switzerland

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Greetings From Zurich Switzerland!

After a smooth uneventful flight up from Rome I met my host for the visit, Hristo, at the airport. Hristo is a friend of fellow Globetrotter I was talking to, Martina, but I’ll cover that later. While we made our way back to his place he told me about the trains and streetcars (or trams) and how to get around and see the city. We stopped off to show me the club he trains at, 360 Martial Arts, so I would know how to get here as Hristo would be busy working the next few days. Even though classes were done for the night we were in luck and caught up with the BJJ coach, Ivan Musardo, who is a very accomplished MMA fighter. Together we caught the train across town and talked about traveling and training, and all the places Ivan had fought at before. Talking to him Ivan was really quiet and relaxed, definitely not the ‘Ivan the Terrible’ ring-name you would picture. As it happens I was never able to attend one of his classes, which was disappointing, I would have liked seeing how his classes were run. We parted ways and we got to his neighborhood Hristo pointed out the necessary stores, like the local market and where was good to eat. I settled in as we talked about all sorts of things, like Hristo’s training and martial arts background and my traveling adventures, until we finally called it a night, the next day Hristo would be up and gone really early and I would have the day to explore the city.

The Beauty of Switzerland!

The view flying into Zurich.

I spent a lot of my time wondering around Zurich, especially down by the lake, and took a lot of pictures of the beauty of the city. There are all kinds of old buildings around the city and some great view points. The lake is so beautiful and walking around it, you see the still water surrounded by the city and parks on a hot sunny day, all set with the snow topped mountains in the background. truly amazing to see. Here are some of my pictures from my exploring.

The main train station.

I also happened to find an old vintage toy museum that was full of cool old toys like train sets and tin soldiers and of course lots of creepy dolls.

While on my way to Switzerland I got several requests for chocolate mailed to them. I sent a box of chocolates to my mom, keep a few chocolate bars for Ana in Hamburg as that would be my payment for staying there and also stocked up on chocolate for myself. Sadly, I have no pictures of all the chocolate I bought, I must have destroyed the evidence while feeling guilty, but believe there was a lot of chocolate bought.

Of course you can see more pictures of my adventures in Zurich over on my Flickr Account, especially the panoramic pictures of the lake and town that I can’t post here.

Staying with a Friend of a Friend

I only met Hristo online a few weeks before showing up. He’s a friend of another Globetrotter I had been talking to for a while, Martina. It was understood that Martina might be busy dealing with her family when I visited so staying at her place wasn’t a guarantee, and as it happened she ended up really busy with her children that week. I was almost about the resort to booking an expensive hotel room downtown (Zurich is very expensive as it is and there wasn’t any options for hostels or cheap Airbnb for my visit) when she told me she had a friend who was up for hosting me. Martina connected Hristo and I on Facebook and at first he was shy to talk, as his English isn’t very strong, but opened up once we met at the airport. In fact Once we met Hristo loved talking, asking me all sorts of things to do with Jiu-Jitsu.

Without knowing me Hristo opened up his place to me and although he didn’t have a spare room or couch he did find a spare fold up cot for me to sleep on, which was fine. I was very grateful for him to let me stay at his place and set me up to train at his gym, it saved me a lot money and I made more friends this way. This is the generosity of the community that I love, that I’ve set out to meet and that I will forever be paying back fro the rest of my life. Thank you Hristo for all your help hosting me and a big thank you to Martina for connecting us and helping me with all my questions about Zurich.

360 Martial Arts

I first made it out to the club that Hristo trains at, although he was away working and unable to join me. 360 Martial Arts seems to be more MMA oriented but has a lot of Jiu-Jitsu classes as well. The gym is in a business building and has a lot of space, all matted in blue and white. The class I made it to I thought was a open mat but ended up being more a individual drilling class. The members were all nice and welcoming, I spoke with a few briefly of my visit to Zurich but there wasn’t much time spent chatting. The drilling class was run by a purple belt and broke into segments. First we had some partnered warm up exercises we did then we had 5 minute rounds of one person drilling a technique they wanted to work on over and over until the buzzer and then switch.

I can’t quite remember what my partner worked on but I do remember we worked some guard passes and I also worked on the kimura sweep from bottom side. My partner was a white belt but a very knowledgeable and good to drill with, we would play with different resistances to see how the techniques would work. It was a good drilling class and I felt like I solved a few issues but it would have been nice to switch around with other teammates, I only worked with the one guy and never got to meet the others, other than in the change room for a few minutes. I would have liked to meet more of the club as there were only a few out for this class, but I ended up injured during this visit and this would be my only class. Oh well, I guess I have a reason come back and train and visit again. Thanks for the fun class guys!

BJJ Lab

The second gym I visited is where Martina trains, although she couldn’t make it out for class, and it was actually closer to Hristo’s than the club he goes to. BJJ Lab is in an old warehouse that is split into a multitude of small business shops. It was actually hard to find as there wasn’t a sign for which door to enter or where to go. The club is on the top floor in the back, shared with a Karate club and is actually a nice spot. During warm up the club was talking about moving to a more easily found spot and nicer area, I’m looking forward to seeing what their new club looks like. After circling the building looking for the gym I met another student who brought me up to the proper area where I met more of the class. I showed up for a no-gi night and the head coach, JB, was happy to have me and introduced me to the group. Martina had let JB know of me coming to visit so I didn’t have to explain too much, and JB is a really chill guy, he just seemed happy to have a visitor. The club in general was very relaxed and friendly, I felt very comfortable training and chatting with the guys there, it was a good club atmosphere.

After a good warm up we got into drilling the techniques for the evening and then into rolling. I had a lot of fun drilling and rolling and chatting with everyone, JB and other senior students were very helpful if I had a question and rolling with everyone was relaxed and fun, I even able to try new things without getting crushed too badly. I wish I could have returned, preferably to a class with Martina so I could finally meet her, but I would be out of rolling or training for almost week after that class. Thanks again Martina for connecting with your awesome club and thanks JB and the club for having me and making me feel welcome! Until next time guys!

That night I woke up in the middle of the night with my left hand throbbing in pain. I was unable to close my hand and make a fist for a few days, the pain was so bad, but there was no swelling or visible bruising. I don’t know what happened, some days I felt like I may have broke or cracked a bone, others it felt like a pitched nerve, either way it was a pain and a problem that put me on the sidelines for the next few days, and sometimes it still comes back a little bit here and there, so all I could do was sight see and relax.

This has nothing to do with my hand for the blog but Switzerland has cannabis iced tea, it’s quite tasty!

After a short visit Hristo brought me to the bus station to catch my bus to Germany and we said our good-byes, I wish I could have stayed longer and got some more training in and met more people but at the same time I was excited to start my month long visit across Germany. With one last overly expensive latte from Starbucks I was off, first stop Friedrichshafen!

Starbucks, getting your name wrong all over the world..

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Grand Canyon and New York!

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So, after the BIG weekend of the World Masters we packed up our stuff and headed south east to Arizona. We planned on visiting the Grand Canyon and staying out that way for a night before Jetting off to New York.

The drive to the south rim of the canyon took us around 4hrs from Las Vegas, through a few interesting little towns. When we finally arrived around midday, it was easy to see why so many people say you can’t miss going to the Grand Canyon, the size of it is unbelievable and the views are amazing! We spend a good few hours walking the rim and checking out all the viewpoints. It’s a little scary how sheer the drops are just off the walkway, it kept Dee and I on edge Read more

Attending Seminars and Camps!

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Hitting up Seminars and Camps Everywhere!

I know I’m way behind on my blog keeping you updated on my adventures and travels through Europe (Rome was my last post and that was from end of May) but I Just got back from my first BJJ Globetrotters camp and decided I have to cover it now. I’ve also added the seminars I’ve attended recently since there’s a few of those too. I have a pretty big and awesome camp coming up in a month that has me traveling to San Diego and meeting my friend (and maybe long lost brother) Luke and a few members from his club from Perth Australia. I want to write about the whole adventure, and the shenanigans we’ll be sure to get into, separately so it’s no better time to cover the other seminars and camp than now!

Keith Owen Seminar In London UK (2 June ’17)

This is the first seminar I made it to while on this Odyssey. I changed my plans to make sure I could make it and even tried to show up as a surprise (I think it worked too!). Prof. Keith Owen, or Mr. Keith as we all call him, is our head black belt. He’s a 3 degree black belt under Master Pedro Sauer, he’s the coach of my coach Ari and I earned my blue belt from him so there’s a lot respect I pay to him. I always love attending his seminars as there’s always something I learn that I take with me, not just a technique but lessons in life. Mr Keith is always dropping knowledge bombs and helping you be a better person both on and off the mats.

The seminar was put on by Team Pedro Sauer UK and was held in a gymnasium in a small town about an hour east of London. I had been in talks with Robin, the coach of the club that lead putting together the seminar, about trying to show up undetected by Mr Keith and all the schematics about how to get to and from the seminar itself. I was looking forward to meeting Robin and the club, being fellow affiliates of the same Jiu-Jitsu lineage it’s almost like you’re meeting relatives for the first time. I was not disappointed. When I showed up Robin and his group, and of course Mr Keith, were all happy to welcome me and within minutes it was like I was always a part of the club.

During the seminar Mr Keith went over a few techniques from favourite positions of mine, side control and ‘S’/modified mount. There was no fancy techniques or ‘new moves’ that Mr. Keith was teaching but the small details he showed for securing the position and locking in the arm bars were the key. I always say you could watch 100 people do an arm bar and learn something from each one and in this case you could learn a lot, with all the little details. There all kinds of little things that I have since written down in my head and keep bringing up when rolling.

It was a great seminar and also a great excuse to fly back to London, see Mr Keith (we’ve met in 3 countries now) and make new friends like Halldór, a fellow Keith Owen fan who came from Iceland. I also got to hangout with friends I made from my first time visiting London as I was staying at Ellie’s (also maybe a long lost relative) and it was her birthday so she threw a huge party with a lot of the guys I had met from Wave BJJ attending. It was a quick but awesome 2 day trip and well worth it for the knowledge gained. I left back for Hamburg to finish my visit with Ana and Nexus Fighter Academy feeling motivated to continue to evolve my game, exhausted from the lack of sleep over the weekend but motivated all the same.            

Nicolas Gregoriades Seminar In Berlin Germany (8 June ’17)

The next seminar was totally unexpected and also only a week or so after Mr Keith’s. I made my way to Hilti BJJ in Berlin and met Frank, who’s an awesome guy that everyone making a Germany trip must drop by and visit, when he dropped the surprise (to me) that Nic Gregoriades from the Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood would be doing a seminar the day after next. I haven’t followed Nic very much but I had read some of his Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood posts and liked what I saw so I was really interested to meet him and see what sort of seminar he would be doing.

There was a good turnout and I met quite a few new people visiting for the seminar that I hadn’t seen in class before, I made sure to train with a few different people, like I usually do when I attend seminars. This is something I think should be pushed as to meet more people and make new friends. It’s great having your favourite training partner and going to seminars together but at the same time only sticking to each other is the Jiu-Jitsu equivalent of going to a party and only hanging out by snack table. Anyways, this seminar was a happy surprise, not only did I get to meet more of the club and Jiu-Jitsu scene in Berlin and meet Nic Gergoriades but also picked up some great mind blowing techniques. I’m not going to give away what Nic taught us but I will say he started out his seminar by saying “If everyone knew these 3 things I’m about to show you then I would be done teaching Jiu-Jitsu” and after training those 3 things I must say he is correct! The key concepts we practiced I constantly keep in my mind when rolling and it’s greatly improved my control and different positions on my opponents. Actually when paired with the concepts Mr. Keith showed us and applied to all the techniques I have learned and am learning as I travel completely changes my game and even makes learning new techniques easier.

Nicolas Gregoriades himself was a great guy to meet, really relaxed and approachable. Obviously I didn’t have a lot of time to talk with him, but we did chat a bit while getting some pictures together. I told him about the Odyssey and my plan to head down to Australia and he offered to help point me in then right direction, which would be awesome. I hope I get to meet up with him again and attend some classes. I really like the conceptual training he teaches and would love to do more classes on it and really get to learn them more thoroughly. Also, one day I would love to see Nic and Mr Keith do a seminar together. I think the two of them would make a great seminar together!  

BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp In Heidelberg Germany (21-27 August ’17)

 
Very early in the Odyssey I decided I needed to make it to a BJJ Globetrotters camp and finally meet all the awesome people I have been talking to online since the start of the this whole idea, almost 4 years ago now. The problem was finding the right one that wasn’t too much out of the way to make it to and that I could afford on my budget. Up until now the second part has been more the problem as I don’t mind flying across the world on adventures. Canada is horrible for flight prices so unless I wanted to spend three times the price of the camp itself just to get there and back I could never make it to a camp, but now that I’m in Europe it’s a different story. I picked a camp to go to, bought the ticket and made plans so that I wouldn’t be too far away before so flights would be cheap. When I left Canada it was one of the few things I knew I would be doing: visiting UK in March, Morocco in May, Russia in July and my first Globetrotters camp in August.

I was really looking forward to seeing old friends I had made on the road (especially all my friends I made in Heidelberg when I was there a month earlier) and finally meeting those I’ve only ever talked to online. One thing I haven’t really thought about was the people who came up to introduce themselves and tell me they’ve been following my blog. I mean obviously I have people reading it and wish I had more but up until I walked into the gym and had the first person come up and say “Hey, you’re Robert Barker right? You’re traveling and write the Odyssey blog right?” I was purely looking at the camp as big milestone to check off, giddy to finally attend one. I was really quite excited to walk in and see the huge Globetrotters Fall Camp banner, about 100 people on the mats and Christian Gruagart himself running things behind the desk.

The Globetrotters camp has got to be the best Jiu-Jitsu camp to go be part of, to my knowledge. Not only is it a camp so full of training that if you make it through all the classes you are such a certifiable beast there is a patch for it, but also the socializing and social activities going on make it impossible to attend everything. 10-12 hrs of classes and open mat sessions a day, sight seeing activities in the morning and partying in the evening until the wee hours of the morning. This goes on every day and every night, some people are morning people and start the day off with yoga and the morning classes, some wait until after noon to jump into classes, others are just socializing and are there for partying and the evening open mat. Basically there’s social groups for everyone there. 


I knew there would be a lot of classes and also a lot of socializing and I’d have to make sure to be a part of it as much as possible to really get the full effect out of this camp, but I would really have to pace myself. Luckily I’ve quit my partying ways or I (and my bank account) would never be able to make it out alive by the end of the week. I remember thinking ‘what am I going to do when I’m sitting out of classes? I’ll be so bored not training’ which is laughable because in actual fact is was more ‘oh it’s time for that class already? Shit I’m still really tired!’ between hanging out with all my new friends and making trips into town with people my days basically started at 8am and didn’t stop until at least 10pm. An easy relaxing night was sitting in the lobby, I was staying at the sports hall dorm with a bunch of other campers, and having all sorts of great conversations with everyone until midnight. And the camp final party, well let’s just say I didn’t sleep until I got to my hotel in Hamburg the next day. I can easily say I’ve never have so much fun doing Jiu-Jitsu and never have I made so many friends all at once.


The camp isn’t all partying, let’s not let the evening fun overshadow the daytime fun. Between the various open mat sessions and all the classes throughout the day there was more than enough time to not only learn all sorts of great techniques for your game but also practice them with willing people. I lost count of how many times people I rolled with attempting, some succeeding others not, techniques we just studied that day, or earlier that week. Also, with about 2 dozen different instructors each teaching their own styles different from each other, you could pick which classes would be better for you to attend and when would be a good time to rest. No matter what your skill level was or what your game style was there was definitely something for everyone each day. There are a few gems I took with me from the camp, and new instructors I now want to visit and learn more from. 


After the camp a lot of people posted to the Facebook group about the ‘post camp blues’ which I thought was great. It’s actually something I have a problem with a lot, accepting the good times are over (for now). I quietly left the party on the last night without any big good-byes because I really hated having to say good-bye to all the awesome people I met and admit the best camp I’ve been to was over. I had this same problem with my sails in the Navy, even if the deployment was shit it was still more fun being on ship with friends than going back to an empty apartment while everyone else got to see their families. So I know all too well about the post event blues and seeing that I was not alone in this feeling just cemented more how I’ve found my place in life and am in good company. It also shows you how deeply these camps that Christian puts on touch everyone that attends them. Of course now I’m hooked and have to figure out how I can go back to another!

Interview With Christian Gruagart! 

One of the many joys and highlights of the BJJ Globetrotter camp was getting to sit down with Chirstian Gruagart and do an interview with him. Christian has been a role model to me ever since I was referred to his book by a teammate. For those who don’t know Christian’s story (you can read his book here) he traveled around the world training Jiu-Jitsu like 10 years ago, before Facebook, Reddit or the huge awesome community that now exists or even social media. In fact the community that I mainly use to plan out the Odyssey and that hundreds of people use daily to plan out their own trips and vacations was created by Christian and the trip he did, working off of sports chat sites. From this trip he created the Globetrotters banner for people without affiliations to use to be able to compete in IBJJF competitions and of course the camps. Without giving too much more away here’s our conversation we finally had after working around the busy camp schedule to find time. 

It’s crazy to think how all this came together without any grand plan and just going with the flow, it was definitely meant to be! Christian is a great guy, I swear stress just doesn’t exist with him and talking to him and being around him and his camp you can see there’s no room for stress for any of the other campers either! 

Check out the interview on my YouTube Channel here! 

I hope my experiences at these seminars and the BJJ Globetrotter camp inspire you to make it out to more seminars or take the plunge and attend your first camp! 

I promise I’ll get back on track with my travel blog shortly, with the next article being on my visit to Switzerland. 

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

Buy Panda’s Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.

Buy a shirt at Panda’s Jiu-Jitsu Store.

Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

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Interrailing – Zagreb

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 After many train rides and a number of short, one night stays in cities, we arrived in Zagreb, Croatia where we would stay for 3 days. We were all quite tired from the amount of fast paced travelling we had been doing and so took some advice from our appropriately named hostel (“Chill Out Hostel Zagreb”), and used these days to chill out and get some energy back. We did get to see some of the city and it was beautiful. Plenty of old cobbled streets, beautiful architecture and amazing food. Dublin is an expensive city to live in, so when we arrived in Zagreb and discovered how much cheaper it is than back home, we were delighted! We even strayed from our usual tactic of walking everywhere and splashed out on some taxis. Mental. 

Even though we were getting as much rest as we could, it had felt too long since we had done any training and we were going a bit crazy.  We grabbed a taxi out to Black Dragon Academy Zagreb. It was open mat for the guys and so we spent the hour after warm ups rolling with high level guys and girls and learning loads in the meantime. As always, everyone was super nice and welcoming. If you’re in Zagreb, be sure to go train with these guys!

 

My World Masters -Dee

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When Adam and I decided to register for the World Masters, I instantly felt the usual nervous feeling I get when I am about to compete. I looked at It as it was just another competition, something I had done many times before but this time I was going to be prepping for it in America – what a great place to get ready!!

Whilst we were in San Diego I had to tighten my diet to bring my weight down to my competition weight bracket of 64kgs (whilst wearing my Gi -which Read more