Scraping Off the Rust in Prague

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Rehabbing from Injuries while Traveling

8 weeks ago, I hyperextended my elbow in Serbia. 3 weeks later in Portugal, I jumped on the mat for the first time and something in my knee popped. I finally accepted that I had to stop rushing my recoveries and give my body some time to heal. Otherwise, I may not be able to train at all for the last six months of my world trip.

 

 

Pros and Cons of “Resting” While on the Road

After only one class at Gracie Barra Benfica-Lisboa, I was out of commission simply because I had bad footing and pressure was out on knee at just the wrong moment. I humbly sat on the sidelines during sparring, limped (ironically across a hospital campus) to the metro, got home and started to RICE. Now I had to figure out how I was going to rehab with my hectic schedule.
While you’re travelling, you want to see and do everything. There is no time to sit on a couch and lick your wounds. This has its benefits and curses.

When you’re at home and hurt, you have a huge chunk of your life and normal schedule thrown off when there’s no BJJ. You get restless at work and wish you could do more than patiently sit on a couch waiting for parts of your body to stop complaining about being bent the wrong way. The lack of schedule and constant new experiences associated with travelling totally negate this restlessness. I may have been slowly getting out of shape but at least I was having fun doing it.

All the fun does take a toll though. If you’ve ever been to Lisbon, you know that anywhere you want to go is at least a 20 minute walk uphill on cobblestone streets… and somehow it’s still uphill on the way back. Not an ideal situation for someone with a knee injury. Also, I couldn’t resist fulfilling a BJJ stereotype by learning to surf. (Now I get to say I learned to surf in the shadow of a castle on Portugal’s coast!) Side trips to Budapest and Vienna were also too good to turn down. The non-stop adventuring and partying definitely added some time to my recovery, but I wouldn’t do anything differently.

Teaching local Portuguese how we celebrate independence day

You can see the giant castle in the background right on the beach

Successful day surfing

Learning how Out of Shape I Got in Prague.

After 5 weeks of “taking it easy” I was finally ready to get back in the gym. Penta Gym was recommended to me by Mark Magpusao, a fellow BJJ Globetrotter I met up with in Lisbon. It’s an MMA gym, and the only place to offer the afternoon classes my work schedule demands.

The first day back was amazing. Even though I had minimal MMA training, it felt great to throw a few guillotines and practice the boxing tricks I learned in Thailand. I felt a little ashamed to call it quits when it came to sparring, but they were focusing on kicks and I didn’t need sit out another 5 weeks because I wanted to look tough.

My face after a few kicks and punches. I guess I’m more used to chokes and knee mounts.

I’ve been to a few classes since and I’m ecstatic to be back. The only bad part is I’m learning how terribly my cardio is and my striking game is basically non-existent compared to my training partners. My plan is to keep at it and build my intensity and stamina so I can dominate some rolls next month in Bulgaria!

Krakow, Poland

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I hadn’t planned to go to Poland until much later in my trip, but as is the nature of training without a plan, plans change. Initially I had wanted to travel down through Germany and Italy, training my way to Croatia. Leaving everything until the literal last minute in peak season European summer isn’t the smartest way to travel. So I improvised, and after maybe one too many beers, booked a bus ticket to Poland. Well, it wasn’t quite that easy – I actually booked a number of bus tickets after jabbing the ‘purchase’ buttons a number of times while the page lagged.

 

So, after a few phone calls, emails and profanities I was off to Poland – with just one seat reserved. I’ll gloss over the riveting details of the bus trip, but on a positive note it’s an amazing way to see the countryside. Classic little cottages lining fertile, green farming land. Deer occasionally pop their head above the crops to check out the passing trucks. Crops that backed onto big, dark forests. Some really, really bumpy highway.

 

And after only nine hours, I was in Krakow, Poland. I wandered through the town using a hastily drawn map in my notepad, passing through a shopping mall that could have been transplanted straight out of suburbia in Australia, straight into a beautiful, classic old town square. A classic contrast between historical, artistic buildings and modern utilitarian buildings. The town was similar in the way it contrasted the ways of modern life with the historical architecture and structures. It was as if any Sydney street had been transplanted straight into a street from a bygone era. Polished cobblestones, looked over by old church bell towers formed the backdrop for young adults who walked along, staring into their smartphones.

 

After settling into my hostel for the night, I set off to check out some of Krakow’s art scene with a new friend called Orson. A young artist from Sydney’s inner city, Orson had just come back from the Ukraine and had been in Poland for a couple of days. We walked through the Jewish quarter of Krakow, and stopped for a breakfast of traditional Polish pancakes called Racuchy Z Jablkami (RAH-tzook-eh ZEE ya-boo-KAH-me)

Our first stop was the Cricoteka (Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor), a gallery curated by its namesake from beyond the grave. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, Kantor formed the Independent Theatre. This theatre held secret and illegal performances during the war, which many credited for helping keep Poland’s theatre and arts thriving during an era of oppression. After the war, he became known for his avant-garde (before it’s time) stage design and performances that immersed the audience within them.

The Gallery’s exhibitions were made from old stage props, and many pieces were created by other artists after Kantor invited many of them to make a piece of art from a stage prop. Prior to his death, Kantor had left strict instructions as to how the gallery should be curated, from the placement of various artists work, down to how the light should hit each work. A truly fascinating gallery that, much like Kantor’s works, invited the viewer into the work to take their own meanings and experiences from the one they were immersed in. The gallery got me thinking about Poland’s rich, but tragic history. So often they became a pawn in the broader geopolitical games of larger neighbouring nations. In the past this had caused great suffering, loss of life and suppression of their culture, but what emerged (or remained) was an intense nationalistic pride. The Poles are so proud of their country in a really positive way, and are always keen to impart some knowledge upon you – on topics from food, to politics or philosophical musings.

From the Cricoteka, we wandered across to MONA, the Polish Modern Art Museum. For me, modern art is usually a bit hit and miss. Usually, I’ll love the concept and the execution of the idea – regardless of how esoteric or left-field it might be. But I struggle with the distinct lack of technical skill displayed in some works. Yes, we all know that it’s meant to elucidate a certain kind of thinking, but I can’t help that we’re having our legs pulled sometimes – or that they’re just displaying lazy thinking.

Thankfully I didn’t have any such thoughts in MONA. All the works showed an incredibly deep level of thinking, and often gave you an “ohh!” moment, through the concept, the way it was executed or both. One particularly powerful work we saw was a short film of a group of neo-nazis on a split screen. On one side, the audience saw what they were seeing – everyday scenes in a number of countries. On the other side, you watched the neo-nazis watching this film and pausing to make observations. It was shocking how nonchalantly they spilled their vitriol. The way that humans are able to dehumanize one and other on the basis of a political ideology is gut wrenching.

 

From MONA with the ideas presented in the short film fresh in our minds, we wandered across to Schindler’s Factory. This place is essentially a tour through the time leading up to and during the Nazi occupation of Poland, in particular Krawkow. Walking through the exhibition, the political climate of the time is explained and you’re given an insight into life at the time. The insight was grim. The Poles lived through terrible oppression and hardships – this museum served as yet another reminder of a dark period in human history, and as a reminder of the dangers presented by insidious, xenophobic political ideologies.

 

On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at a small craft beer café that overlooked the river in town. It’s fascinating to have a conversation about art with somebody that’s embedded in the art scene and who readily practices it. It helped me gain a different perspective on a lot of the works, as well as developing the perceptions I had about the day as a whole. This also led into a broader conversation about ideologies and the resilience of the good parts of humanity during tough times.

 

Auschwitz

I took a bus out to see Auschwitz. This is one of the most confronting places on earth, a visible scar on modern history. The scale of the place is insane and represents evil on a grand scale. The mind boggles at how many people went through the camp – it’s actually really hard to get a proper grasp of the scale of things. It was insane me not only to think about the evil that motivated all of this, but that which existed through the duration of the war. The fact that so many everyday people were complicit in this evil is almost as confronting as the effects of the genocide itself. As confronting as it is, Auschwitz is definitely worth visiting to get a grasp of this period in human history, and to learn from past generations.

 

Krakow Town

Krakow is dotted with green parks and beautiful old architecture. There was a public holiday when I got to Poland, which saw a giant catholic mass in the main square. The public holiday also meant that there was only limited classes on for a few days, giving me the chance to lace up the running shoes and see more of the city. The out suburbs of the city are fantastic, leafy green and so foreign to towns I’m used to seeing at home. I ran around the perimeter of the old town, along the old fortress walls. During my runs I managed to find an outdoor gym and running track to keep my fitness up while I wasn’t rolling, and work on some new movements and skills.

Polish Cultural Observations

The hostel staff suggested that I check out some of the local eateries. My favourite place to eat was the local Polish style ‘Milk Bar. The food was delicious and filling. Meats, vegetables, potatoes and omelettes. I also enjoyed the concept of a Polish milk bar. They have large cafeteria style tables, forcing different groups of people to sit together and enjoy their meals. Often, you’d be sitting in the midst of a big family, laughing and talking as they broke bread together. I came back to the milk bar a fair few times to eat, not only because the food was delicious but because watching people interact with each other in this environment was fascinating. Where people would usually be closed or segregated from one and other, they instead sat together and made an often private ritual a communal one.

If you haven’t heard about Piogi (Polish dumplings), you’ve been missing out. This was the second highly recommended culinary experience, and it didn’t disappoint me. At 3am after an interesting jaunt in a Polish psy-trance club I tried my first plate of Piogi. This is late night food done right. Fresh dumplings stuffed with a number of different ingredients. Much tastier and more wholesome than a greasy kebab. I navigated my way through the swathes of people riding out the rest of their alcohol high and placed my order, before sitting down at one of the tables to watch the scene unfold. I watched plate after plate of steaming dumplings walk out the door, growing hungrier and hungrier with each plate. Didn’t this bloke understand I hadn’t had any food since before I’d trained, hours before? What was this injustice?

 

It turns out old mate had forgotten my order, but eventually I got my dumplings and walked home inhaling dumplings like I hadn’t eaten for a week. Worth the wait? Reluctantly, yes. I would have preferred not to wait, though.

 

 

The Training

All this talk of art, food and beer. Surely I found some time to train? You bet. I trained at a place called Akademia Fenix, which was roughly a 7km walk from where I was staying. My first visit to the academy involved a somewhat moist trek from the hostel to the gym, arriving just in time for the nogi class. The class itself was awesome, with a big focus on wrestling from the clinch, as well as some defensive options that sequenced into offensive ones.

During the class I actually met four blokes from the U.K. It turns out they were in town for Andreas’ (the groom) wedding. It also turns out that the wedding was the next morning, and that the groom and a lot of his groomsmen were on the mat. I loved the enthusiasm, and they were a great bunch of blokes to boot. I also admire his bravery shooting takedowns and rolling hard the day before the biggest of his life. God forbid he get a black eye for the wedding photos – imagine what the Mrs. would say! A braver man than most.

The sparring rounds at the gym were bunch of fun, with a big focus on the standing grappling, as well as some exploration of leglocks. Eastern European wrestling techniques did not disappoint, the rounds we started from the feet were a grind and we explored some interesting setups, transitions and finishes. I’ve been loving how much stand up wrestling I’ve had the opportunity to do over here, and it was one of my big goals to work on wrestling and judo for BJJ while I am abroad. So far, things are going well. I’m looking forward to settling in one place for a bit longer and dedicating some time to it, and being able to implement these different techniques into my stand up game.

 

Next, it’s onto Budapest in Hungary! Stay tuned.

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Viva Colombia

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It was the first time either of us had been to South America, so we didn’t really know what to expect arriving in Colombia, the first stop on our tour of the continent. We didn’t have as long as we’d liked here, just under a month really, as we had booked a trek on the Inca Trail in advance and had to reach Peru by mid-August – so we had to rush through some places we would have loved to linger in.

BJJ isn’t that developed yet all over Colombia, except for the bigger cities like Medellin and Bogota where you can find more gyms with some great fighters. So we opted to spend half our time exploring the smaller towns in the countryside and the other half in the big cities to train.

Jack, a teammate from Roger Gracie Academy and also a fellow yoga instructor (who has also been teaching Yoga at the most recent BJJ Globetrotter camps!) spent some time in Colombia recently, training BJJ and teaching yoga at MMA Colombia (http://mmacolombia.com.co) in Medellin and gave us plenty of tips and contacts for when we arrived.

The head coach at MMA Colombia, Daniel Nogeuira, a Brazilian from GFT, was very welcoming. He teaches the classes in Portuguese which the Colombians seemed to have no trouble understanding, but I had to rely on my eyes and Alessia to translate what bits she could for me. The techniques were of a good level and some which I hadn’t seen before. I had some great rolls with the guys at MMA Colombia during the times we trained there, especially with Professor Daniel and also Felipe, a blue belt with some absolutely killer skills. Everyone was incredibly friendly and quite a few people could speak English and went out of their way to help us, give us advice and just generally have a chat.

While Medellin is only at 1,500m above sea level, Alessia and I really felt the altitude (combined with the heat) affect our cardio and energy the first couple days training – finding ourselves more lethargic and having a harder time getting enough oxygen into our blood. It was definitely good acclimatization for us though, as we’re going to progressively be traveling and training in higher altitude cities like Cusco in Peru.

On the second day, I got a bout of food poisoning from a street vendor serving delicious fried cheese, which lasted the rest of my time in Medellin (and got quite bad with fever at one point), but I still forced myself to train and see the city each day. I think that continuing to train prolonged the misery, but that’s what I was there for so I had to power through.

Jack also put us in touch with another friend of his, Wilbur Molina, who teaches at several different gyms around the city. We went to one of his classes at a small but friendly gym called Submission Clan (https://www.facebook.com/submission.clan.medellin/). It turned out to be a very intense conditioning class which I was really not prepared for, especially as I was still recovering! Afterwards though, we worked on back-step saddle entries to heel-hooks and kneebars, followed by a few fun rounds of sparring.

Medellin is a lovely city, nestled in a green valley. When we weren’t training we explored downtown with a free walking tour ran by Real City Tours (http://www.realcitytours.com) which was fantastic and gives you a great insight into the culture and history of the city and the people. We also explored Comuna 13, once known as the most dangerous area in Medellin, with Casa Kolacha (http://www.medellingraffititour.com) a community-based hip-hop group seeking to raise awareness and bring opportunities for the Comuna.

Lucky for us, we also happened to be in town for the Féria De Los Flores – the biggest festival of the year. It started over 60 years ago when villagers from Santa Elena would bring flowers to town to sell their flowers, now it is the biggest festival of the year with loads of concerts and events around the city. We were invited to an open mat and MMA exhibition happening as part of the festival – we arrived early, helped set up some of the mats and had a lot of fun rolling outside (luckily it was under some cover!), afterwards we watched some of the MMA exhibition and then went to enjoy the rest of the day listening to live music and tasting the food on offer (me very carefully).

Beyond Medellin, we spent a few days exploring the pretty coastal colonial city of Cartagena. It’s a beautiful city full of colour and music, but also quite touristy in the Old Town area and the beach is pretty grim. We were staying in Getsemani just outside which has a much nicer vibe, with amazing restaurants like Cafe Lunatico where we had the best seafood paella, and every night in the Plaza Trinidad there would be locals dancing, eating and drinking. The heat and humidity was intense though, and the Airbnb in which we were staying happened to have no air conditioning and no windows – it was essentially a sweat box which was often hotter inside than out, and was unbearable to sleep in.

After a few days in Cartagena we left for the beach for some fresh air in Playa Blanca. Playa Blanca is known to travelers as an incredibility beautiful beach with crystal clear waters, that unfortunately has been ruined by tourism and development. It’s often crazily crowded, noisy and often dirty because of the hordes of day-trippers and party-goers from Cartagena, but after they leave it becomes a very peaceful, quiet place in the evening and early morning. We stayed in a cabana right on the beach and enjoyed an incredible sunset.

We also visited Santa Marta and Minca in the North. Santa Marta is a small city which is very popular with a Colombian tourists and also a staging point for backpackers wanting to head to Tayrona National Park. We’d heard that Tayrona was crowded, dirty and a bit of a pain in the ass to get to, so we opted to head into the serene mountains of nearby Minca instead. Minca was only recently opened for tourism, as it was previously too dangerous to go there because of the guerilla groups active in the area. Now it is starting to prosper with a budding tourism industry, with a few small hostels opening up, but it still feels very raw and natural in most places. We stayed at Casas Viejas (https://www.facebook.com/casasviejasminca/), an isolated hostel higher up in the mountains which was quite difficult to get to but with a view that couldn’t be beat. We spent the rest of the time there hiking, swimming in waterfalls and just taking in the quiet.

Seeking a bit more of the outdoors, we spent a few days in San Gil in the East, which is making a name for itself as the adventure sport capital of Colombia. It’s a pretty little town that does not feel overly touched by tourism yet, surrounded by the incredible countryside of the Corcora Valley. We walked the El Camino Real, a 200 year old trail that connects the lovely towns of Barichara and Guane. Afterwards we went rafting in the Rio Suarez on class 5 rapids, where Alessia almost died after our raft capsized on a particular nasty section and she and another girl had to be rescued by the safety kayak a few hundred meters downriver. We also went canyoning, 6 hours of rappelling, jumping off cliffs and navigating rivers in the jungle, all accompanied by the world’s coolest dog Cain who was with us every step of the way.

On Jack’s recommendation we also spent a few days in Guatape, a small lake region with stunning natural beauty just 2 hours from Medellin. The centre point is La Piedra (the rock), an epic stone formation that juts up from the land and has amazing views from the top. The locals in Guatape and nearby El Peñol have historically argued over ownership of the rock, with some locals from Guatape even trying to paint their name in giant letters on the side of the rock to stake their claim (luckily this was halted before they got too far, but there is now a giant ‘GI’ visible on one side!). We went kayaking, climbed the rock and just enjoyed the stillness of the area.

We only got to spend one full day in Bogota before we flew out to Peru. We tried to go training at the Alliance gym there, but luck wasn’t with us – as we left the hostel to take the bus to the gym on the North side of town we saw that all the roads in the area were closed off for Ciclivia Nocturna – a special night where the main streets in La Candelaria are closed to vehicles and everyone cycles. It was also the start of the LitFest (light festival) so we spent the night walking around and enjoying the events and exhibitions instead.

I speak very little Spanish, having only studied it in university 8 years ago, but with my smattering of Italian and French vocabulary I can understand about 25% if they speak slow enough. Luckily for me, Alessia has a much better grasp of the language (although she insists she is just faking it by speaking Italian with a Spanish accent and hoping they understand). I’m hoping to do an intensive Spanish course somewhere soon though to get me a bit more up to speed.

The food has been great, with delicious seafood dishes and ceviche aplenty along the coast. Although for Alessia it’s been a bit difficult in the more inland areas, as away from the coast seafood is not always readily available and culturally the Colombians don’t really understand the concept of not eating meat (fair enough I say!).

While it doesn’t have any world wonders, Colombia is a fantastic little country that has beautiful countryside, lots of history and a great budding Jiu Jitsu scene. Hopefully one day we’ll be back and be able to train more.

Next stop: Peru for some high altitude training.

Instagram: @marcust.bjj @alessiabjj

 

Interrailing

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So this Thursday 19th August we are heading off to Amsterdam to begin our interrail adventure.  There are four of us going; myself, Aaron, and two other lads (both named Cian). One of the Cians trains regularly with us and the other has trained a handful of times. While we are travelling we’re hoping to train in every city that we visit. Our travel itinerary is not exactly set in stone as we usually just like to go with the flow, but the cities that we are hitting up include Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Budapest, Prague, Krakow, Berlin, and Bremen.  We’ve done a bit of research into gyms that we would like to pop into, but any recommendations are more than welcome! One gym that we will definitely be visiting is the Jungle BJJ HQ in Prague. We can’t pass up the opportunity to train there!

Throughout our trip I’ll be posting updates on how everything is going, I’m excited to visit all these new places, make some friends along the way, and share it all with the Globetrotters community! 

Rome Italy

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Greeting From Rome Italy!

I made it to Rome on a quick bus trip from Naples, an uneventful ride but full of beautiful open country views. As busy as Rome is the transit is easy to read and the train routes, even being a simple system, hits all the necessary places. I picked up a week pass, which I highly recommend if you go to Rome, it’s quite the discount from paying single fares and comes in very handy if you want to see all the sights. I made it to hostel easy enough, settled in and was off to get a start on seeing some of the many, many sights and get my legs moving again after sitting in a bus all day.

Making Friends!

I love seeing new cities, training at new clubs and meeting new Jiu-Jitsueros as I travel the world. Each city is an opportunity for new adventures and making new friends. However I didn’t know how many new friends I would be making in Rome, not from the gyms but from staying at the hostel. Usually when I stay at a hostel everyone is busy with their own itinerary, but I had the luck of being in a hostel where everyone seemed very open to hanging out and making plans to see all the sights. With so many places to see it gets quite overwhelming making a plan to see everything on your own, so why not talk with a fellow hosteler, make a plan and go together, right? Quite a few people came and stayed for a day or two and left for another destination during the week I stayed in Rome and pretty much every day or night I would venture out to see some of the sights with someone. There are so many sights in Rome, and most you can see any time day or night, making for lots of opportunities for hostelers to make plans and explore the city. It’s great to walk around in the evening either to stretch out after training or just get in more walking around the city and tire myself out for the day. Rome has tons of places to walk around and the sights all look different in the evening with the light on them, almost like seeing all whole new city in the evening. I’ve stayed in touch with some of the friends I made in Rome and I’ve enjoyed watching their journeys as I travel on my own, hopefully our paths will cross again.

A new friend, Fen from Paris who was just finishing her trip in Italy.

Another new friend from Germany.

Diana, who’s been traveling the world seeing all sorts of sights.

The Sights, The Many, Many Sights!

There are many, many sights to see in Rome and I took many, many pictures of them all, well all the sights I got to see, which was a lot. I tried to limit the pictures I posted here and let you head over to my Flickr Account to see them all.

Piazza Barberini

Trevi Fountain

This place was always packed, the stores are were expensive too, but they had some good pizza in the area!

Piazza di Spagna: Spanish Steps & Trinita dei Monti

The stairs are always full, it’s a popular hangout and tourist spot.

The Vatican City

This was maybe 1/4 of the lineup to get into the Vatican City and museums, so glad I paid extra to skip the line.

One of the many Pope-mobiles on display.

They had many statues on display, and many, many rooms covered in paintings, but you’ll have to head over to the Flickr account to see them.

The line up for St. Peter’s Bascillica, I didn’t go in.

The Colosseum, Palatine Hill & Roman Forum

The lineup for the Colosseum, surprisingly it went fast.

I’m not too sure which was the Palatine Hill and which was the Roman Forum but it’s a great place to walk though and see some cool old structures.

Pantheon

Pyramid of Gaius Cestius

Apparently the Pyramid thing tried to catch on in Rome too.

Altare Della Patria

This building is so massive it looks like it was built for giants.

Circus Maximus

Flow Jiu-Jitsu Academy

I will admit that I did more sight seeing than training in Rome but I did manage to make it out to some gyms. The the first was Flow Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which is inside a gym with a pool and tennis court. I actually thought it may be some sort of country club and that I had gone to the wrong place, since everything was closed when I showed up and I couldn’t see any signs for the club. Luckily I met someone else who was there for Jiu-Jitsu sitting at a table enjoying the sun “You here for Jiu-Jitsu?” he asked and gestured to pull up a chair. We chatted a bit about about me visiting Rome while more people showed up and finally someone with a key arrived and let us all in. Everyone was friendly and happy to have a visitor, but there wasn’t much time for talking as everyone was quite eager to get to training. We did a warm up, which killed me way more than it should have but the heat was getting to me. After warm up we worked some techniques, the class wasn’t set up as a traditional class but instead it was more of open mat time to work on whatever technique you want. My partner asked if there was anything I wanted to go over and I realized with traveling around so much I really haven’t been focusing on anything specific. He proposed open guard, I agreed and we spent the next half hour going over some open guard passes, helping each other fine tune our techniques.

After the technique drilling session it was time for rolling and these guys were more than ready to get their fix. I rolled with a few of them and I was on the defense, or just tapping, the whole time. The guys weren’t malicious in any way but their games are very aggressive and whether I was travel worn or dried up from the sun or not I was not prepared to deal with these guys. As they say some days you’re the hammer and other days you’re the nail and I was the nail that day. I sat out for a few rounds and watched the class roll, there were some guys who were on fire, one in particular was just having his way with everyone, working on takedowns and guard passing and then seeming to reset. I eventually rolled with this guy, who’s name I forget, to see how my game would be to defend his takedowns and try some of my own, it did not go so well. I remember at one point I got tripped and tried to work open guard with him and went to set up a sickle sweep, but he was so tall I couldn’t get a foot on his hip and go for the sweep, his stance was so wide I was also missing sweeping the leg by a mile. I realized this sweep was never going to happen and just started laughing. “You’re too tall, I can’t even post off your hips!” We both stopped and laughed, agreed I had lost that one and reset. I wish there was more time to hang out and get to know the club more but the head coach, who I had been talking to online, was away and I struggled to find an ice breaker with the class. It was still an enjoyable time and I would drop by again if I was in Rome in the future. Thanks for class guys!

Aeterna Jiu-Jitsu

Another gym I made my way to visit was Aeterna Jiu-Jitsu, which is in the south end of Rome and inside a sports hall on top a hill, it’s a bit of walking from the nearest train station but I found it without too much problem. Aeterna was my 75th gym visiting during this Odyssey so I was happy to hit the milestone and wish I could have set up a time to do an interview with the coach there, but they were also away when I visited. If I remember right there was a big tournament that had just happened so a lot of the black belts from the surrounding clubs were away for that. Anyways, I showed up to the front desk and asked where the Jiu-Jitsu was, after filling out a waiver the woman gave me some quick instructions I found the club and the change room. The gym hall is pretty big, with a series of rooms and hallways, I walked by the open weights area and navigated my way through the rooms as the front desk woman described and found the club. I’m not too sure what else what going on in the gym hall but it sounded like the place was busy with all kinds of tings going on. Aeterna itself is a big club, there were probably 30 people on the mats that night, and everyone seemed to be close to each other, chatting, joking, helping with techniques, like a close knit club should. I always love seeing everyone looking out for each other, it’s a sure sign of the club being a positive environment.

After a good warm up we got in to drill techniques, which was more open guard just as I had been working on at Flow but now adding attacking some submissions as well. A few students asked about my BJJ Globetrotters gi and what I was doing in Rome but it was a pretty quiet class, there wasn’t much chatting going with the new guy. When it came to rolling I started to not feel so well after the first roll so I took some time to rest and use the bathroom. My stomach apparently was deciding that this day would not be a good day to roll. I spent the rest of time just sitting on the sidelines watching everyone spar, feeling dejected that I’m spending my milestone 75th visited club on the bench. I felt like this visit was a dud, no good rolling, no interview, no good chatting and friend making. Not that any of this had anything to do with the club, everyone that I talked to and train with was great and I would love to visit the club again, it was just a bad day training for me. As I was leaving one of the club members saw me walking and asked where I was going, being a long walk to the train station he gave me a ride and we talked about my journey on the way. We chatted about a few things like his training and experience in Jiu-Jitsu so far, he was a white belt and hoping for his blue soon. It was a good note to end on, making a connection with a member of the club, making me feel better about the whole night being a less than desired night of training. Another club visited, another club I wished I had more time for and hope to visit again one day!          

After a busy week of sight seeing and experiencing Rome, and getting a little Jiu-Jitsu in, it was time to head out, I had a plane to catch to fly to the land of my ancestors, Switzerland!

The hostel, Roma Tempus, has everyone who stays leave a message on the walls, of course I left my mark.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Meet the 2017 BJJ Globetrotters sponsored travelers!

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Earlier this year, BJJ Globetrotters received a crazy amount of applications for sponsorship from people all over the world. Everyone had interesting stories and it was not an easy task to narrow it down. But eventually a decision was made – introducing the BJJ Globetrotters sponsored athletes!

 

Adam Miles-Woodland, Wife Dee, Daughter Lilly and Son Kobe

The Miles-Woodland family from Australia are on a pretty cool trip around the USA. Adam is a purple belt, Dee is a blue belt, Lilly a yellow belt and Kobe a grey belt. They are travelling most of the west coast before heading to Vegas at the end of August. Both parents will compete at the IBJJF Worlds Masters. Then the family will make their way to New York and road trip back to the west coast, training along the whole way over a period of 4 months. The aim is to visit all the clubs and affiliations that will let them in the door before flying to Hawaii and spending a week to 2 weeks there training before flying back to Australia.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/jitzwithwoodys/

Dirk McComas

Dirk and his wife decided that they wanted to travel instead of settling down. So they bought a camper and hit the road as full-time RVers! They travel the country, stopping in different cities, seeing the sights, visiting old friends, and always trying to train in at least one gym wherever they are. Dirk is developing a YouTube channel/podcast about his travels and the different gyms he trains at, along with discussions/interviews with the instructors and students.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/bjjdrifter/

Oli Wilson

Oli is a purple belt with the first stop on his trip being London. From there, he’ll travel to the Netherlands, then Germany (short stopover in Munich), and the Czech Republic. Italy and Croatia are next on the list. As gym in Dubrovnik has caught his attention and he’ll train there for about a week. After this, he’ll hop over to Greece and train in Athens, then go island hop around looking for places and people to train with. Next planned stop at this stage is Spain, where I’ll spend a month or more travelling up and down the country training and surfing. He also wants to visit Paris but is keen to visit some of the smaller French cities and in particular the south of France. From there, it’s back to Germany to train at a friends home academy in Hannover, and then in Munich and Cologne. After this Oli’s itinerary is a bit less certain but it’s looking like Norway and Sweden, then Iceland if money allows and Scotland and Ireland. So it’s a really busy European trip for Oli!

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/oliwilson/

 

Mike Barr

Mike will be hitting the road in his 97 Jeep Cherokee on an extended USA Road Trip. The plan is to start in New York, travel south towards Maryland, then across to Dallas for a quick stop to train with his older brother at BTT North Dallas. This will mark the farthest west he’s been in the US. So it’s the best time to make the most of it and explore! The options are to cut north to see a friend in Portland,  keep going west through New Mexico, Arizona, or head straight to California and see the Pacific.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/mikebarr/

 

Jamie Lang and Katherine

Jamie and Katherine are both white belts from New Zealand who have booked a one way ticket to Europe. They will spend the majority of their time in Europe, Asia and hopefully make it to Canada and the States.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/jamieandkathenz/

Robert Coaker

Robert is an Australian white belt who is heading on a trip that starts in Montreal. While in Canada, he’ll also explore Vancouver and Seattle. After Canada, it’s off to stay in Japan for two months where he will train at Carpe Diem BJJ and Kodokan Judo. Robert will then spend a month doing BJJ at 10th Planet in Seoul and move on to Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket before one month in Goa. Kathmandu and Moscow are then next on the list before Europe, South Africa and Brazil for three months. Robert will then make as many small trips as possible to other South American countries. After South America, he’ll then make his way to Atlanta before ending back in Montreal where this adventure began!

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/robc/

Nick Lanspa

Nick is a purple belt from the USA who plans to spend one month in twelve different countries. The trip begins in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before travelling to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to train for the next month. Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand are next on the list. The rest of Nick’s year of travel consists of a month in Serbia, Lisbon, Portugal, Prague, Bulgaria, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. While in each destination he will explore surrounding areas as much as possible within the month long stay.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/nick_lanspa/

 

Marcus and Alessia

This couple begin travelling and training in USA, with their main destinations being New York and San Diego. They will then move to South America, spending most of their time in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. The last leg of the trip will be in Asia with the itinerary currently consisting of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Japan and China.

Blog: https://bjjglobetrotters.com/author/marcuspt8/

 

Alex Cox

Alex has a great plan – travelling in a van, training Jiu Jitsu and adventuring! The van awaits his arrival back in England (he currently resides in Northern Ireland). The journey starts training between North Shore Jiu Jitsu in Newquay Cornwall, places in Plymouth, Gracie-Barra Taunton and gyms in Bristol. Then it’s off to mainland Europe to explore any and all gyms that will have him and his friends along with the cultures and cities that accompany them! Then it’s off to South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, California, Central America and South America. It’s sounds like a crazy trip around the globe!

Amanda & James Averis

James and Amanda are an Australian couple planning a European trip. They will start in Amsterdam and stay there for 3 or so days. Then the plan is to visit a friend in Dendermonde, travel around Belgium for a few days and Paris for a night or two before flying to Lisbon. Once arriving in Portugal, they have a little over a month to make their way from Lisbon to Split, Croatia and everywhere in between. The planned route  plan goes through Spain, the south of France and through Italy before arriving in Split where there is a flight to London waiting. After spending a couple of days in London, they will fly to Dublin and start to travel around Ireland for 10 days (Amanda’s home country), before making the long journey back to Sydney!

San Diego Week 2 ……..The RETURN!

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So today we are having an afternoon off…….it has been a BIG week…..and a bit!

We started off the week with doing the school work ritual with the kids. We have managed to get into a good rhythm now with this and are enjoying watching the kids develop with their learning. I still don’t think that Lilly and Kobe are completely sold on having Mum and Dad teach them but it’s working! We kicked off the week’s training with the Kids and Dee taking some more classes at South Bay Jiu-Jitsu. That place has been so welcoming you could Read more

BJJ in (remote) Myanmar

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Hi there! 

I’m Mon, a white belt from Allegiance BJJ Academy in New Zealand, and my boyfriend is Rion, a recently promoted brown belt from the same academy. We’re currently touristing around Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam for around seven weeks and have taken our Gis along for the journey.

We have had our holiday willingly “hijacked” by Tammi from BJJ Myanmar and are now teaching BJJ all around Myanmar – and relaxing and being tourists somewhere in between. Please read up on our experiences in Myanmar, especially where we describe what it’s like teaching in remote places with language barriers and in garage gyms; we hope that it’s interesting enough to attract other Globetrotters to the area to keep building on the knowledge we leave behind.

You can also follow our trip on our Instagram accounts – @m.timminsbaker and @whereisthefruitbro – but you will get more of an idea of our BJJ experiences on our blog here. Please message us on Instagram if you would like us to teach at your club! We’re open to anywhere but especially looking to train in Vietnam.

Happy reading,

Mon and Rion.

Me and Rion after a BJJ competition in New Zealand.

West Coast, Best Coast part 3: Caio Terra Academy and the Bay Area

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I was particularly excited to head to SF next for two reasons: it was an opportunity for me to reunite with some friends from my Yoga Teacher Training and I was looking forward to training at Caio Terra’s Gym in San Jose. Caio was one of the first fighters I watched videos of when I just started BJJ; Marcus used to show me his videos all the time, using him as an example of how techniques can win over size and strength – as a feather-weight female I used to have to fight against bigger and stronger opponents all the time and I would often get frustrated.

Caio Terra’s Gym: Technique Conquers All

We were lucky that one of my friends, Mina, had a spare room for us in her beautiful villa in Pleasanton, an easy 45 mins drive to SF. On our first night there, Mina planned a reunion with other friends from the Yoga Teacher Training Course, who were also based in the Bay Area. It was incredible to be able to gather all over again in such a different context. Mina cooked an amazing Indian meal and we spent the evening bringing to memory funny, embarrassing and emotional moments we had shared in Rishikesh and chanting Sanskrit Mantras – think we lost Marcus somewhere between a Shanti and a Om.

Yoga reunion

The next day we visited Caio’s Gym. We decided to buy a one week pass which cost us only $75 dollars each after speaking to Nick, the Manager. Caio was in Russia for a seminar that day so class was taught by another world champion, Yuri Simoes. He went through a rolling omoplata from lasso half – a technique I had studied before but that I always had trouble using during sparring. He gave me some tips on getting my ear closer to my opponent’s knee to make that granby roll happen which helped a lot.

With Yuri Simoes after a hard training session

We spent the rest of the weekend doing some sightseeing; we visited Mount Diablo, which at 3,849 feet (1,173 m) provides amazing views of SF, Central Valley and Sierra Nevada. We also hiked in Park Reyes and enjoyed some really fresh oysters out there.

At Mount Diablo, enjoying a beautiful sunset with friends

On Monday afternoon we went back to San Jose. As we stepped into the gym, I saw Caio at reception; he welcomed us with a big smile, asking where we were visiting from. He mentioned he wasn’t planning to teach class that evening but that he would, just for us. He taught a technique from half guard top to counter a Faria grip, and countering with a spiral armbar. Again, it was a variation on a technique I had seen before but Caio provided an incredible amount of detail to it which put it in a whole new light. He allowed the students to deduct the logical steps to the technique rather than just showing it to us and made sure to check on every pair to see that we were executing it properly. We then finished the class with technical sparring but it was split between males and females, so I didn’t get to roll with Caio but Marcus did.

So very happy to meet Caio Terra and train at his gym

Over the week we visited Caio’s gym a few more times and I really enjoyed sparring with their female black belt, Kristina Barlaan. Her bottom game is sick and she is super flexible, having a background in ballet and hip hop dancing.

On our last day we decided to venture to SF city. We followed the scenic 49 mile drive, a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco. It was stunning and we particularly enjoyed the views from Lands End and driving down Lombard Street. After a quick drink in Hayes Valley we drove back to Pleasanton to pack up and leave the States for our first stop in South America: Colombia.

View of The Golden Gate Bridge from Land’s End on the 49 mile drive

San Diego Week 1

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We arrived in San Diego a week ago today!! Driving in from LA it reminded us a lot of Perth – green lawns and more houses than apartments.

We took the afternoon to settle into our Airbnb and do some food shopping at the local market Ralphs.

The kids love our accommodation as it has stairs, this novelty wears thin with Adam and I very quickly.  I love it because it has a washer and dryer in the garage and I don’t have to pay $1.75 for every load of washing – this makes washing Gis after training much easier.

I had contacted Gracie South Bay prior to us leaving LA so I already had their class schedule and we had decided that we would attend classes the next day (Thursday).

For those of you who don’t know Gracie South Bay Jiu Jitsu is Leticia Ribeiro’s Academy. Leticia is a 4th degree black belt and a multiple time world champion please look her up and see all her accolades. If you had spoken to me about what I was most excited about for our whole trip, visiting Leticia’s academy was it, I had informed Adam and kids back in March that I didn’t want anything for my birthday as I really wanted a private lesson with Leticia when we are in San Diego – once in a lifetime opportunity when you live on the other side of the world from such an amazing Professor/ grappler/ competitor. As you can imagine I was very excited to visit an Academy that has a very strong competition team – both Adults and Juniors.

I knew that Leticia was currently away at a Sweaty Bettys Grappling Camp & Vacation in Hawaii (attending one of these camps is also on bucket list), but still excited and nervous as she is due to return during our time in San Diego.

Drilling some Single X

Kobe class was first, he enjoyed himself, but we realised that Kobe would be suited to the earlier class due to his stature ?.

Kobe having a blast during the warm ups!

Lilly couldn’t wait to be on the mats for her class. I love watching her passion and enthusiasm for Jiu Jitsu grow every class, but most of all I admire that she is never nervous stepping on the mats at a new Academy – I have a lot to learn from her.

Lilly working on some passing

The schedule read Drills at 7pm and sparring at 8pm (for some unknown reason I misinterpreted this to be Muay Thai sparring- I can honestly say I have no idea why I thought this), I thought great, I can meet some of the members and drill some techniques/ positions, slowly ease myself in.

1 hour of breaking spider guard drills with a partner resulted in my quads feeling as though they were on fire and I was drenched in sweat (please feel free to YouTube these if you don’t know what I am talking about here).

Professor showed the movement/ technique and then we would be drilling the movement for ten minutes each before you switch so your partner can drill, as there were 4 variations we did this four times. Professor say get a water and fix your Gis and I thought GREAT all done, NO, now we are now rolling/ grappling for the next hour. They were 6-minute rounds – this resulted in 10 amazing rolls with a variety of people – three of these being teenage girls whom utterly mopped the mats with me and I loved every minute of it! I couldn’t wait to return the following evening for the next class.

Getting a pretty on the mats

The training schedule at South Bay is offered in hour blocks, but gives you opportunity to be training for 2 hours, which I am whole heartedly embracing. I learnt I long time ago that for my Jiu Jitsu to improve I need to be on the mats as much as I can and South Bay is giving me this opportunity, especially as they have a waiting room that Lilly and Kobe can utilise.

The waiting room is just like a lounge room with a TV with Netflix, a PlayStation and toys.  In fact, I believe Kobe is eager for me to be going to training as our accommodation has no TV! (more time for schooling).

The grappling style I have encountered at South Bay is very different to what I am used to, which shows me the flaws in my Jiu Jitsu, but giving me so many lessons and opportunities to improve.

Every roll is hard and full of challenges, the speed and reaction time of everyone I have rolled with here is impressive.  The controls that my training partners have are incredibly effective and I hope that for our time here that I can learn this and incorporate it into my Jiu Jitsu.

I love how welcoming and passionate all my training partners have been at every class. I have been taking notes of the activities that Lilly and Kobe are loving during their classes so that on our return we can incorporate these into our children’s classes at Newman Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Saturday after open mat, Adam and I decided to take the kids to a beach as they had been asking to go swimming since LA, after the advice of Sheree from South Bay we headed off to Coronado Beach.

The drive to Coronado Beach was a little frightening. As you drive along the freeway over the bridge to Coronado Island, you feel as you are just driving upwards to the sky as the bridge has a gradual rise over the water and the barriers on the side don’t feel to be high enough to stop a car from driving off the side.

this small concrete barrier was all that’s stopping you from going over the edge

As we made our way down to the beach all we can hear is the thunderous sound of a Jet flying overhead, this is due to the beach being so close to the San Diego Navy base. The passing of jets seemed to be every 15- 20 minutes until Adam tried to get a time lapse of them. It was very refreshing to sit on the gold black sand and watch Lilly and Kobe frolic in the water – it was too cold for me personally.

Post training therapy!

As there is no training on Sundays, this was a perfect opportunity to take the kids to the “World Famous San Diego Zoo” according to our Garmin GPS.  The San Diego Zoo is amazing with so many animals to see such as Pandas and Polar Bears and lots of hiking. We watch a demonstration on bugs where the audience are given the opportunity to eat bugs – mealworms and crickets to be precise. Kobe was so excited at this that of course wanted to be amongst it.  We always encourage Lilly and Kobe to try new things, but this usually results in me having to try them first, I guess just like the royals use to have food tasters, my children have me!! So on Sunday 30th of July 2017 I ate my very first mealworm and cricket, I can say that I am in no rush to add them to my daily diet, but they were not the worst things I have had to try.  Ha ha

After we had seen all the animals we made our way to the San Diego Natural History Museum, which currently has a Dinosaur exhibition, just perfect for our dinosaur obsessed Kobe.

A great schooling opportunity for both Lilly and Kobe.

-Dee

jitzwithwoodys.com/blog     Youtube   Facebook   Instagram-Woody  Instagram-Dee      BJJ Globetrotters

How To Survive Beer Camp

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I’m here to tell you the legends are true. You might wonder how could it be possible for one person to train so hard, learn so many things, drink so much beer, have that much fun and live to tell the tale. Fear not my friends. With some simple guidelines you too can make it through the BJJ Globetrotters Summer Camp in Leuven, Belgium. A.K.A. Beer Camp.

Christian Graugart's

Christian Graugart’s day 1 class

The first challenge you will face is booking your ticket. Be sure to watch for the camp announcement and book early. This camp is filled with Summer camp veterans that have braved these lands before.

If possible, plan to arrive early. This will give you the advantage as you will know the layout of the land. You will also acclimate to the elevation to improve your performance on the mats and recovery after binge drinking/rolling. When your liver is prepared head to the unofficial Globetrotters bar Den Brosser and immediately  seek out anyone in BJJ/sports wear. The more Globetrotters you can meet the better. 4 livers are better than one. Wear your most recognizable BJJ attire. Possibly even your Gi. Begin posting early pics to the camp participants Facebook group to stir jealousy.

Home sweet home

Day one: remember you have a week of training and drinking ahead. Try to ease into it bit by bit. Then, you will fail miserably and end up exhausted on the mats sleeping in the corner followed later by drunkenly stumbling home while the sun comes up. It’s okay. It happens to everyone.

The next few days will be a blur as you try to soak up beautiful techniques and entertaining seminars with your new friends while avoiding the viscous sober predators that hunt the boozy Jiu Jiteiros such as yourself. Take ample amounts of pictures and videos and be sure to tag each person to increase Facebook likes. 

Laundry with Chris Haueter

Use NASA level organization skills to stuff laundry, naps, and dinner into 3 hours of free time each day. Bonus points for combining dinner with being social by signing up for the camp dinners.  

Okay! You’ve made it this far. Your body is sore all over in the best way. Your liver is screaming. Shut up liver you’re fine. You’ve got ample amounts of new techniques that you can’t wait to try on unassuming teammates in your home gym. We’re not finished yet! The camp will end with shenanigans, the largest most awesome open mat ever, and the worlds wildest Jiu Jitsu camp party that your Globetrotting mind can imagine. 

 Pro tip: book your next day flight in the evening and pack the night before. 

When all the dust settles, you will be a proud survivor of the worlds most awesome gathering of bjj people. You will have tons of new friends, you will have made your flight home, and you might be a proud owner of the legendary bar team patch.

Naples Italy: Pompeii, Jiu-Jitsu and Pizza!

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Greetings from Naples Italy!

Hello! I have made it to Naples Italy! The ferry ride over was easy enough, although I didn’t get much sleep over the night and was really tired when I showed up to the hostel. I arrived at the hostel early in the morning but I had sent a message remarking about that when I booked it, hoping it would ok and now hoping I could get in to have a rest. Apparently they don’t read those messages about booking details at this hostel, not to bad mouth them as the rest of my stay was actually quite pleasant there but this was a bit annoying. So anyways, it wasn’t even 7am yet and I had to wait until 2pm before I could check in, so I found an outlet to pug in and charge my phone and curled up on a chair to rest a bit. After a short nap I decided to explore the area and take some pictures of the city, I was still really tired so I didn’t go too far but I did want to see what was around the hostel. I found a museum and checked it out, it was a great way to use up some time waiting to be allowed to check into the hostel, I will talk more about it in the sights section. Once I returned to the hostel I still had some time to waste so I pulled out my laptop and started doing some work online. I decided I should look up the status of my luggage while I’m at it, which looked to now be Naples and should be on it’s way to hostel. I finally checked into my room to get shower and some sleep, letting the front desk know that my luggage should be on the way. Everything was coming together.

After a good sleep I woke up and checked with the front desk to see if my luggage had been dropped off yet. It was no where to be found so I looked it up again and it said that indeed it was in Naples so I called the airport. It took a while to find the right number but once I got it I asked about my bag, it was there but it wasn’t being delivered. Apparently my bag had been there since 1030am and it was now after 6pm and I hadn’t been notified. I asked “When was I going to be notified to come pick up my luggage?” and the response I got was “Look, it’s here, are you coming to pick it up or not?” So obviously I don’t have a great review for Naples International Airport lost luggage department. I took a taxi to the airport to pick up the bag and was wanting to see exactly who was giving me the attitude on the phone, as it happens he was a tiny little man who was really apologetic when facing someone from across his desk. He had to deal with 3 big, loud and very upset Americans before me, so I figured he got what he deserved already. I picked up my bag, had it quickly searched as I signed off on customs for it and was on my way. Later I realized I had lost my tripod for my video camera, which was cheap and everything else was there so all in all it wasn’t so bad. I’ll give up a cheap tripod for my training gear and all my clothes.

The view coming in to Naples.

I will say one last thing about my lost luggage debacle, trying to fill out a lost items claim report is pretty much useless. I looked it up and there are a lot of things you have to do in order to claim any expenses or lost items, making it near impossible to actually make any claims. For instance you have to make the claim within a short time frame from when it happened but it needs to sent to a specific office my mail with copies of receipts etc, but after your trip, not during. So needless to say the $40 Euros I spent in taxis and the $20 CDN it cost for my tripod I never got back. Oh well, I got bigger things to worry about, like which pizza place should I eat at first?

Finally re-united with ole Big Green!

The sights!

Naples is full of things to see around the city, unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of them especially the down town harbour area, which I wish I had ventured out to. I did however get to see a few good view points from around the hostel area .

I also checked out the Naples National Archaeological Museum which had some cool arches and columns and other building pieces, I’m guessing from old towns around the area or maybe even Pompeii, as well as many, many statues.

Then there was this section on phallic statues, sexual paintings, and well, flying penis wind chimes…

I also went out to Gino Sorbillo’s acclaimed as the best pizza in Naples, I planned to get there for an early lunch, which proves to be smart as there was quite the mob waiting when I left.

Sorbillo’s when I showed up, this space was full of waiting people when I left.

Of course there’s tons more photos on my Flickr account, so check it them out if you’re digging them!

Pompeii

I spent a day and went to see Pompeii, the city that was swallowed up by a volcano over night. It’s about an hour ride out of Naples but easy enough to get to, and very much worth the trek. One thing I didn’t think of is that Pompeii was indeed a full city and it’s a very big place to see. I would say be prepared to spend a least 3 hours or more of walking around there if you want to see everything.

 

O-Nami Jiu-Jitsu

When looking for places to train in Naples I asked the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook community and I was told of two places by several people, O-Nami Jiu-Jitsu was one of them. I contacted them and we kept in contact while I traveled and planned out my visit. I missed my first night training with the club because I spent way too long out in the sun walking around Pompeii but I made it out the next class. Through talking to the club I met the black belt, Renato Avallone who offered to pick me up and bring me to class. Renato picked me up on his scooter, which are very popular in Italy and apparently have the right of way to go anywhere, and gave me a little tour telling me about the city as we drove to the gym. Classes are held in two different locations, the night I came out it was held in a government sports building, a big building filled with gymnasiums and matted rooms for all kinds of sports, I believe the room we were using was also used for Judo.

I was too busy talking and rolling to get photos of the night, this is the only one I ended up with.

Unfortunately it was a slow night at the gym and there were only a few of us there so we just spent rounds grappling with one another. It was a great time, everyone there was friendly and happy to have me, we would talk between rounds about different things, my traveling, the club, or different techniques that did or didn’t work during the previous round. The rounds were tough, not that they were going hard crushing me but Renato is a black belt and his other students that came out this night were a brown belt and a very game white who I only got to roll with after several rounds with the other two. I had my hands full the entire time, mostly just trying to survive, and often times failing, but that’s all part of training. This would be the only time training with O-Nami, I wish we were able to train more than once and that I was able to meet more of the team. Renato was a great help and very friendly, even inviting me out for food after training the next time, but I was unable to make it as I had already promised to visit another gym. I will definitely have to visit again, thank you Renato for the great night! 

Ground Pressure Team

The second gym I was told I have to visit was Ground Pressure Team who train out of Naples Pro Fighting club. I sent out a message to the club and soon had a reply telling me I was more than welcome to come train at their gym anytime. I checked out the schedule, decided which day would be best to visit and set out to meet another gym. I took the transit to the gym and it was easy enough to find, provided you don’t miss the side street it’s on. Naples is very hilly and some streets branch off and suddenly go down hill while the main street continues uphill, and it’s easy enough to miss these little turn offs when navigating around the city. Anyways I found the gym and made it to class, the gym is a bit intimidating at first, right in front directly behind the front desk was a rather enthusiastic fitness class taking place and a quick tour showed lot of serious guys in the change room, I thought I may have my night cut our for myself, but they were all there for kickboxing. Then I met the Jiu-Jitsu guys and the instructor Cristian de Maio on the mats in the back of the gym, just relaxing and stretching all very chill compared to the rest of the gym. I introduced myself to everyone and they all seemed very happy to have a visitor.

After a quick warm up we got into working grips and entries for throws, the object was just to try off balancing your partner. I like doing this drill, in a world of guard pullers I don’t think grip fighting is trained near enough these days. I did ok to defend and attain grip control with a few students but then Prof. de Maio made me feel like a rag doll. After grip fighting we got into guard passing drills, working from passing to side, knee on belly, switch to other side, and I think I remember throwing in an armbar and choke too. I was teamed up with a young strong guy, an American who was living and going to school in Italy, he was very helpful with translating and showing me the drills, it was a good time training together, talking about the area and my travels and Jiu-Jitsu, I would have liked to roll with him and the other class members but my stomach started to act up and I by the time rolling came around I wasn’t feeling too well. I sat out and watched at the class rolled, taking pictures of the action I wish I was a part of, the guys all seemed to have a strong game and I’m sure I would have been put to the test there. This was the one and only time I was able to make it to Ground Pressure team and although I wasn’t able to roll I had a good time meeting and training with everyone and hope one day I can come back and finish an entire class, thank you for having me guys!

After a full schedule of pizza, Jiu-Jitsu, Pompeii and finally getting my luggage back it was time to head to one of the top cities on my list, not for Jiu-Jitsu but for sight seeing, Rome! You can be sure there’s going to be a lot of photos!

On my way to Rome!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Shoes and Egos Outside – BJJ India

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Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can be a pretty niche sport. But in India it’s really niche.

Delhi is the country’s capital with over 20 million people hurrying around its packed streets under smog covered skies.

Despite the mass of people I could only find one club, which by chance was a 15 minute walk from my hostel.

It’s located on a busy shopping street in New Delhi, near Panchsheel Park, a leafy suburb with opulent marble homes and private security.

On my first visit a map led me slightly short of the club. 

I held my gi top up to a man dressed in white linen, expecting him to point me towards the entrance.

Instead he thought I was a tourist in need of currency and led me down a flight of stairs to withdraw cash.

The club is located up a winding flight of concrete stairs, above a boxing gym which echoes with the crack of pads.

Outside is a doormat which reads “Egos and Shoes Outside” – a reminder of the sport’s values as students cross the threshold onto soft blue mats.

India, and Delhi in particular, is a place of insane hustle and bustle. There are so many sounds, smells and bodies; it was a relief to finally be in a place of calm.

I felt at home.

The club is a large white room with blue mats and padded walls around the bottom half. It’s decorated with belts, photos of students and images of martial arts greats.

During my visit the sessions focused on side control escapes. 

First technique, followed by drills, practice and a short shark tank game.

Generally I roll with larger people and rely on creating gaps to slip out from, often without applying a great amount of technique. 

These sessions gave me some good methods of escape, but also challenged me as many students were smaller or practiced in dealing with smaller people and my usual routine no longer worked.

Throughout my time in India people have stared, hassled and photographed me, but here the class felt warm, safe and welcoming.

I was treated just like every other student; they respected and trained kindly with me. They were positive and supportive.

The following night we learnt two new side control escapes, they were very different to anything I had gone through before, focusing on controlling arms before a strong hold was established.  

Fans are running constantly to combat the 35 degree days but it remains uncomfortably hot. 

The students here have got to be some of the most dedicated humans I’ve encountered, despite the heat and thick humidity they train for nearly two hours.

I adored Delhi and it was my time with this club that really made it.

1st Stop on Australian North BJJ Tour

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Blog #1: Australian North BJJ Tour

Hello fellow BJJ Travelers! I am so excited to start my blog.
My name is Rob, I am a 38 yr old white belt. I have been playing BJJ for about 1-1/2 years and i am in love with it. I was born in Canada but i am also Australian and so it is in the remote Australian North Outback where my BJJ Globetrotting journey begins.

I am currently here: Karratha, Western Australia

In July of this year my contract at work ended and i decided the next chapter of my life would be a long journey “backpacking around the world doing jiu jitsu and stuff”………..so using facebook I found out that there were BJJ Gyms located all over Austraila’s north (Karratha, Tom Price, Newman, Port Headland, Broome, Darwin, Mount Isa….and the list goes on). I decided then to become a backpacker (or camper really at this stage) and pack my swag (aka an austrlian single man’s tent) and pack my ute (truck) with some essentials and get going. This is the path i intend on taking over the next couple of months; it should allow me to visit Karratha, Port Headland, Broome, Darwin, Mount Isa, Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane (at least).

As side I should tell you that its Australian Winter this time of year; which means that the north is the most comfortable place to be (dry season, hot days & warm nights). And i’m basically in search of seeing Crocodiles in the wild; because I don’t actually think you’ve seen the outback until that happens, hahaha. I’m also on the hunt of living next to pristine beaches & visiting gorges and waterfalls where possible, and of course the ultimate desire of finding awesome places to play Jiu Jitsu.

My journey starts in Karratha where there are 2 BJJ Gyms. Renegade Karratha and Karratha Jiu Jitsu.

Renegade is my home gym that I must leave so i am proud to present it to the BJJ community. It is an affiliate of Australian Elite Team (AET) who is one of the largest BJJ clubs in Australia. Renegade has teams in Adelaide, Brisbane and Karratha. It’s headquarters are located in Melbourne. Each group offers MMA, Jiu Jitsu, and a great kids program….a big hit because bullying is a big issue in Australia.

The club offers something for everyone; there are three childrens classes (anti-bullying and two Junior programs) as well as a fundmentals and advanced adult BJJ & self defence class. They also offer an MMA and nogi class. The owner & head coach staff is Camerin Coles; Cam has been doing Jiu Jitsu in remote North Australia for years and his passion for the sport is clear to see.
The club is extremely welcoming and friendly and enforces a feeling of community and encouragement for anyone to learn. A great thing they do is they introduce and aplaud in and out every visitor. Along with the trecherous “Circle” for big events (birthdays, weddings, babies and leavers)……. I will miss this club forever! Oss.

The other BJJ club in town is Karratha Jiu Jitsu. It is run by 4s Purple Belt Brian Thompson and it is an affiliate of a club in Perth. I spent the last 3 weeks here and it was a superp experience. The smaller class sizes resulted in a lot of one-on-one attention that i was greatful for. I really liked the focus on fitness via BJJ specific warm-up drills which left you exhausted; and then similarly reinforced again during the technique portion of the class (after being clearly explained). By the time i’d get to rolling I wasl always good & fatigued. I was super glad i visited with the other club in Ktown (its the BJJGlobetrotter way!).

Sorry i don’t have any personal photos of Karratha this time. I took the one below in hopes of showcasing the beach and the large Iron Ore wharf in the background. I will do better haha. It is a great place to visit. What i like most besides some of the best people is the fringing reefs that can be found around the islands. It is here that i’ve swam with more sharks and turtles than I could ever count and once I was lucky enough to swim beside a Dugong (sea cow) which to me was the most spectacular and beautiful underwater experience i’ve had yet. To find out more about karratha look here: https://www.karratha.wa.gov.au/

A bit more about me:
For the past 1-1/2 years i have been lucky enough to visit 4 Countries where i’ve trained Jiu Jitsu (Japan/New Zealand/Australia/USA). Every time I visit a new club I am blown away by the opportunity to experience different styles; and new friendships made. It is for this reason that i have joined the BJJGlobetrotter Movement and I hope the joy of doing this never ends for me . Until next blog (BROOME); OSS!

West Coast Best Coast part 2: LA, Pacific Coast Highway and Yosemite

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We were sad to leave San Diego and Atos in the end, but we were excited to start our road trip up the West Coast, stopping by LA to train at 10th Planet HQ, then through Big Sur to Yosemite for a few days off training for my birthday. 

 

10th Planet HQ

In LA we chose to train at 10th Planet HQ in downtown LA, which took us about an hour to drive to from where we were staying in Long Beach (it’s also on a bit of a quiet street which took us by surprise). A day pass will put you back $30 and you can only buy it online and not in the gym itself, which is basically just the big mat space and the bathrooms/showers.

We wanted to meet the man Eddie Bravo himself (we had spent the morning watching the recent mini-doco on him ‘Building an Empire’ as well as the hilarious ‘Flat Earth’ Joe Rogan interview with him in preparation), so we arrived at the gym in the evening so we could take one of his classes – he teaches the advanced classes on Monday to Thursday nights, as well as the morning classes on Tuesdays and Thursday’s. However, the advanced class moves fast and unless you’re very familiar with the 10th Planet style, terminology and know the set warm-ups, try go to the Fundamentals class first as you will get more out of it.

Alessia was a bit nervous as she isn’t too familiar with the 10th Planet style, and while I’ve always been a big fan – my brother Gavin, who introduced me to BJJ in the first place, was obsessed and was always trying out rubber guard and lock down on me as a white belt – and even though I’ve also trained a little bit with the guys in London and Amsterdam, to be honest the advanced class was too ambitious for us technically. With some guesswork we somehow managed to follow along enough to not slow the class down though.

It was like 35 degrees in the gym as the air-con was broken

When sparring time came, things felt more familiar and I had some fun rounds with the guys there. I managed to catch a few subs while only being heel-hooked once. Before leaving London my coach Ross was heavily focused on heel-hooks and counters in preparation for his Polaris fight with Oliver Taza in August, so that definitely helped a lot in those rounds at HQ.

Leg lock city

It was cool to meet Eddie – He seemed like a nice guy and was welcoming enough, although we didn’t get to talk to him much and he wasn’t rolling himself due to injury. The students in the class were more friendly and talkative though. Nathan Orchard and Phil Schwartz were also there visiting, and I had a really good round with Phil who gave me his card and invited us to train with them if we ever passed through their way.

 

Disneyland and Six Flags

LA was crowded, huge and expensive, so we decided to go to Disneyland while we were there for more crowds, more driving and to spend more money. It was totally worth it in the end though as we had a lot of fun and it felt like being a kid again.

Sleeping beauty castle

Suns out, guns out

The rides were awesome (Indiana Jones ???) although a bit more entertaining for kids than adults, and Alessia said she wanted more intense roller coasters so we ended up going to Six Flags Magic Mountain the next day to get more of an adrenalin kick. It turned out to be 45 degrees Celsius that day, so fortunately that kept the crowds away. Unfortunately it meant we were reduced to a sloth-like, lethargic state somewhere between kidney failure and heat stroke in between rides. But those rides, they were insane – Even though it was Alessia’s idea she was freaking out on most of the rides. Our favourite was easily the Full Throttle where you accelerate to 70mph in a second ?.

We ended up staying in Long Beach because it was cheaper, but we didn’t account for LA traffic so it took us forever to drive anywhere. We briefly did the usual tourist stuff like visit Hollywood, drive through Beverly Hills, hike up to the Griffith Observatory for the view, but we weren’t really loving LA, so we decided not to stay too long.

Alessia posing ‘naturally’ at Via Rodeo

This one’s for you Freddie

 

Pacific Coast Highway and Big Sur

After a few days in LA we packed up the car and started heading up the coast along the infamous Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), which traces the epic coastline from LA to San Francisco. It’s an extremely popular route, but unfortunately due to a major bridge collapse and severe landslides the past year, a long stretch near the middle of the route around the Big Sur area is closed off to vehicular traffic while they work on the repairs. The area in between is effectively an island virtually cut off from the rest of the region until the infrastructure is restored. That particular part of the coast also happens to be some of the most beautiful in all of California, and this has hit the local communities which rely on the tourism pretty hard – but also given birth to a few unique opportunities for those still keen to visit.

After going as far up the coast as we could from LA, stopping in beautiful Santa Barbara for lunch and Pismo Beach for cinnamon rolls on the boardwalk, we detoured inland to the 101 and continued North to Aromas, a small town where we spent the night.

Pretty Pismo Beach

The next day we drove back to the coast near Monterrey, on the North side of the PCH closure, and worked our way down to Pfeiffer Big Sur National Park.

Walking through the giant Redwoods

After a short but steep 40 minute hike, we arrived in Loma Vista in the closed area and rented electric bikes from a company called Big Sur Adventures ($50 for a half day), and rode down one of the most epic parts of the PCH which is closed off to everyone else, ending at the McWay Falls.
In normal times, the PCH would be full of cars and impossible to enjoy at a leisurely pace. Now we had it all to ourselves, the only thing breaking the peace and serenity being the occasional ranger car and noisy seals.

Alessia on her RadRover

McWay Falls

Spot of road rage

 

Yosemite National Park

After spending a couple days in the area, we borrowed some camping equipment from a friend and set off for Yosemite National Park. I’d always heard stories of how beautiful it is, so I was dying to go and really excited to be spending my birthday there. Apparently everyone in the States had also heard those stories, as the park gets insanely busy in Summer, with some people booking their camping sites 6 months in advance. All the grounds inside the park were full, but we managed to snag one just 5 minutes drive from the Big Oak Flat Road entrance. We arrived around lunch time, checked into the campground, set up our tent and headed off the to park to do the Mist Trail up to the epic Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls and back. We started hiking at 4pm so we had the trail pretty much all to ourselves, which was absolutely incredible. We got soaked in the falls and arrived back down at the trailhead just after sunset and started the long drive back to camp where we had a dinner of 50c instant noodles cooked on a tiny camp stove to reward ourselves. ???

The Mist Trail

Nevada Falls

Over the next few days the hike up to Cathedral Lakes through icy forests, climb to the top of Lemberts Dome for a stunning 360 panorama of the park, and check out the views from Taft Point, the Fissures and Glacier Point. There’s just so much to do in the park you’d ideally need to spend a few weeks there to do it all properly.
I really wanted to do Half Dome, but we hadn’t gotten permits in advance and we didn’t really have enough time – while you can squeeze it into one day it’s a tough 12 hours and best done as a two day trek (one for next time!).

Cathedral Peak

Ice all over the trail

The view from Lemberts Dome

Glacier Point

One other thing Yosemite is also famous for its Black Bears, there are signs everywhere warning people to keep their food in secure bear-proof bins and to be wary of any encounters. On our second day in the park, while hiking back down from Lembert’s Dome we spotted a deer running across the trail in front of us and started joking that maybe a bear was following it, only to turn around and eat those words as there was indeed a bear seemingly following the deer. To be fair, it looked profoundly disinterested in us, but I didn’t get a chance to take a photo. Alessia was starting to freak out, so we started hiking down the trail at double speed, talking loudly and clapping our hands to make noise while Alessia was repeating ‘don’t look at it!’ any time I turned around to see if it was still there or following. As if by not looking at it, it wasn’t real ???

Bear-proof food bins

While the park was completely full, we were quite lucky that all the trails we did felt quite empty. On the last day we did some of the more touristy spots that you could drive to and found mini-hordes of families who were definitely not doing much hiking or exercise, but could probably do with some. But for the most part, it felt like we had the park to ourselves and it was a peaceful interlude from the pace of the rest of our trip to date. We regretfully left Yosemite for what would be the last leg of our trip in the States: San Francisco and training at Caio Terra’s academy in San Jose.

But maybe one day we’ll be back (i’m looking at you, Half Dome!)

 

Marcus and Alessia

Instagram @marcust.bjj and @alessiabjj

 

The Beach and the Valley

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Had you asked me a year ago that I’d be waking up on the shore of the Pacific, traveling the country, living my dream… I’d probably have laughed in your face. Had you said that I was going to be practicing the sport that I loved while doing so, I’d have laughed harder. 

Waking up in LA was a trip. The City of Angels. La La Land. The Big Orange. Much like I mentioned in the first few posts I made, the vastness of some of these cities can be claustrophobic. So much to do, so little time. 

After training at the Gracie Academy, I decided to spend a few days hanging around the city and exploring. First stop? Venice Beach. My mind raced with the thought of what I could do; swim, explore the sights, meet people, etc. After driving up and down the boardwalk for a few hours, I finally found a parking spot. I left my car, made my way to the beach, and gazed off into the distance. The boardwalk bustled with street performers, tourists, merchants of all types, etc. I met a guy who sold carved out “Hobo” coins; I saw a troupe of acrobatic street performers who coaxed $20, $50, and even $100 bills into huge garbage bags; I even visited a store that sold scrap metal sculptures, including a life-sized “Predator” build. 

 

“DO IT. DO IT NOW.”

 

Venice Beach. Santa Monica. Los Angeles. All areas in which reality seems to suspend itself. It was almost inspirational seeing people who truly followed their dreams. It’s as if no matter how old you are, you can become whoever you’ve always wanted to be. Considering I was doing the same (i.e., dropping everything to travel the country and train), I felt like I’d already assimilated into the community.

Before leaving LA, I had one last thing to do: train on the beach. I’ve spent hours on YouTube watching videos of Kron, the Ribero brothers, Rickson, and all of the old school Gracies training on the shores of the Pacific and on the beaches of Rio. I’ve envied that. As luck/fate would have it? I rolled into LA on the weekend of an event that I’d been interested ever since I first scrolled past their Instagram in the summer of 2015: Jiu Jitsu in the Park.

JJITP as a concept is nothing new; it’s literally taking some mats, hauling them into an outdoor area like a park, and getting down to business. That said, Jiu Jitsu in the Park as a business has taken it to a whole new level. They have built an event so well run, so interesting, and JAM PACKED full of jiu jitsu, it’s almost unfathomable.

 

Getting all registered!

 

After a night spent sleeping on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway, I made my way to the event. When I first pulled into the parking lot of Malibu Bluffs Park, about 30 minutes north of LA, I was taken aback by the sheer beauty of the location. The mats themselves, situated under a canopy of off-white tents, lied no more than 100 yards from the cool, deep indigo waters of the ocean. I approached the registration tent, paid the five dollar mat fee, and filled out my waivers. For five dollars, this open mat format was incredible. I was one the first person on the mats that day, along with another gent, Jeff, from a 10th Planet school not far from Malibu. I was donning my black globetrotters gi (GREAT choice for the blazing Malibu sun, by the way), and he wore the fancy rash guard, shorts, and spats typical of 10th Planet. We rolled, and he swiftly snagged a leg lock. Game on. 

 

Gi? NoGi? No difference! Photo courtesy of Mike Frausto @mikefrausto @fraustocreative

 

That was the first of many rolls I had during my two hours training. I trained with guys from all over Southern California: Ribeiro Jiu Jitsu in San Diego, AOJ, City BJJ in San Francisco, and even a purple belt that trained out of his garage in a small town halfway between San Diego and LA. As always, we weren’t strangers. We all spoke a language of BJJ. I will say that I was likely the only person from New York at the event! Everyone who heard I was traveling the country, training jiu jitsu, living out of my car, etc., all thought I was living the dream! It was amazing.

 

Rollin’ the day away! @fraustocreative

 

The day was split up by a few superfights; some kids, some adults, some women, some men. I watched the kid super fight… and was just shocked. I always say stuff like, “If only I’d have started training when I was that young…” And these children reinforced that. Watching the future of BJJ invert, throwing triangles, impolite transitions… it made me feel old. I loved it.

 

That look when you realize you just got berimboloed by a 9 year old. @fraustocreative

 

Now… let’s talk about acai for a second. I’ll admit, I’ve always been apprehensive about a lot of the more “fad” things in BJJ: 10th Planet, Foam Rollers, Vegan vs. Keto, etc. With that, Acai is something that’s always been one of those “Whatever. How good can it be?” Kinda things. Well, like everything I’m hesitant about, I gave it a shot considering they had an all organic Acai stand at the park with the event. Well, here are the results…

 

Before

10 minutes later.

 

After leaving Jiu Jitsu in the Park, I stopped at a small seafood shack a few minutes up the road from the park along Coastal Highway 1: Malibu Seafood. I had arranged to meet with a friend of my dad’s for lunch while I was in the area, and I’m glad I did! Meeting someone my father grew up with for the first time was awesome; hearing stories about the old man is always fun. He was supportive of this trip from the start, and knowing I always had a support system back home kept me going on the hard days.

 

If you look closely, the waters of the Pacific are off in the distance!

 

Following a quick lunch at Malibu Seafood, I started north. My destination? Well, the place that inspired this trip in the first place: Yosemite National Park. You see, in addition to my BJJ, I cross train with rock climbing when I have the time to do so. After watching the documentary “Valley Uprising” in the summer of 2016 (it’s on Netflix: watch it. Watch it now.), I made the decision to road trip across the country.

I drove north on the PCH from Malibu. For a few hours, I hugged the coast; I watched sea cliffs grow larger, curves in the road become more abundant, and speed limits slow. The scenery was unbelievable. In a moment so typical of a globetrotters trip, I decided to alter my itinerary a slightly; instead of taking the fastest route possible from San Fransisco (my next journey after Yosemite) to Oregon, I decided I’d ride the PCH from south to north. Best decision I could’ve made, but more on that in a later post. I drove north from Malibu into the evening. I blasted the Beach Boys’ “Surfing’ the USA” as I drove, and I felt true joy. 

 

To Yoesmite I go!

 

As night fell, the road became quiet, and an eerie sense of loneliness fell over me. Traveling alone on the coast in the dead of night… it was creepy, to say the least. As I ascended another hill, coming around a bend, I was stopped at a roadblock: a landslide had shut the road down. Unsure of where I should go, as my cell service had ceased, I stopped at a small motel to ask the best way back to the highway.

“Back 30 miles.”

Damn. It took me another hour to get back to the highway, and another two to get to the rest area I stopped at about two hours outside of Yosemite. As the coast disappeared, farmland did the opposite. I drove along valleys surrounded by farms and cornfields. I woke the next morning, made the two hour drive to Merced, and prepared for four days in the park!

I wish I could put into words how excited I was as I drove through the park entrance. 45 minutes more and I’d be centered in Yosemite Valley: the birthplace of American rock climbing as a whole. I zigzagged along the winding roads of YNP, through huge oak trees and even a controlled forest fire. Then…

 

4,000 miles for this view…

 

Tunnel View. I drove 4,000 miles from New York, down to North Carolina, up to Tennessee, sat through a tornado, drove across deserts in Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, then up the California coast, JUST to see this view. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear.

For four days, I explored Yosemite. I could do an entire post just about my time there, but I’ll give the footnotes. I sat at the foot of Sentinel Rock, one of the biggest faces in YNP, with a beer in my hand and a bowl of ramen in the other. I sat at the base of 2,500 foot granite walls, watching the sunset bear down on the valley. On my second day there, I spent the day climbing with Peter, a guy whose number I’d gotten from a board at Camp 4. Anyone whose climbed in the Valley knows the importance of Camp 4. We bouldered, and ran up some multi pitch climbs near Lower Yosemite Falls. On my third day, I spent the day solo hiking the Yosemite Falls trail: 7.2 miles round trip, 3,000ft. vertical gain. I sat on the edge of Yosemite Creek, downing a cold tub of Campbell’s Chunky Beef Sirloin soup as the raging waters flowed towards the 2,500 foot drop to the valley floor. I slept in my Jeep on the road by El Cap meadow. On my last day? I touched the bottom of El Cap for the first time. It was June 15th, 2017. Mark my words: by September 21st, 2025, I’ll climb that beast of a rock. 

 

Best dinner location yet!

El Cap and my trusty steed!

Scenery that keeps getting better!

 

I talked about rock climbing and it’s parallels to BJJ in my Joshua Tree post, so I’ll spare the philosophy, but I will say this: BJJ has gifted me with life lessons that I don’t think I would’ve gotten anywhere else. I’m a completely different person now compared to when I started training four years ago. One of these life lessons is this: 

Although pressure can be uncomfortable at times, you can always find a way out. Set your goals, figure out how to reach them, and then do it.

 

And of course: repping BJJ Globetrotters in one of the world’s most beautiful places!

 

From Yosemite, I drove west to San Fransisco before going north to Oregon. But that’s a story for another day. Until next time! Oss!

Los Angeles week 2 – Dee

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Well we are at the end of our time in LA, as we will head down to San Diego on Monday, after a quick stop in Anaheim to visit Disneyland.

Our time in LA feels to have passed very quickly, I am sure I will be saying this statement I few times over our trip and then again at the end.

We have kept ourselves busy with all things touristy, such as the walk to, sorry to Hike to Hollywood sign – at no point did this feel like a walk – Adam found a Read more

Palermo Sicily Italy

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Greetings From Palermo Sicily Italy!

Hello! I finally made it to Palermo, after the longest day in transit I’ve had to date. I’ll get into the whole debacle and giant mess I got into traveling to Palermo in a minute but first let me just say that the Island of Sicily is amazing and if you’re heading to Italy you must head down and visit Sicily as well! The sun, the sights, the food and most importantly the people, Sicily is definitely on my list of places to visit again! Now let’s go over how I got there and the trials I went through. It’s a long story so bare with me.

Casablanca Airport And The Luggage Debacle… 

Like I said earlier, getting to Palermo was one long, hard trek. I’ve dealt with over nights, rough rides and not sleeping before and they were longer travels but this was worse than those for the stress alone. I left the hotel in Marrakesh early in the morning, it was still dark when I got to the airport. I had a short connection over to Casablanca then from there to Rome and then to Palermo. There was a 8 or 9 hour layover in Casablanca and if I had saw that (remember I had to book the ticket in a hurry in order to make my flight to Morocco) when I booked it I would have just taken a later train into the Casablanca airport instead, but then I wouldn’t have this adventure to tell you about. So I check in at the airport in Marrakesh and the steward for Royal Air Maroc tells me that while I’ll have to re-check in at Casablanca my luggage will go on and I’ll see it in Palermo. That alone sounded some warning bells. I should have stopped and packed a day bag right there before sending my luggage away. I usually always pack a day bag with a gi and a days worth of clothes in it to carry onto the plane, but I guess being tired and not having any traveling problems lately I had my guard down.

I made the short flight over to Casablanca and was looking forward to finding somewhere to grab breakfast, as I hadn’t eaten yet, and working away on the blog. Little did I know the shit storm I was about to walk into and how that little simple plan would not work. As I needed to check in with the new airline, Alitalia, I didn’t have my connection ticket to head into the lounge area, instead I was briskly told ‘No! Get out of line! Go!’ As he pointed back towards the end of the line. After some confusion it seems there was another hall to go down in the opposite direction where the connection check in desks are. I got all this from other people in line as the security guard checking tickets just kept repeating ‘No! Go!’ I make my way to the connection desks and ask around about where I am to get my new ticket and continue on. The connection area seemed mostly run by Royal Air Maroc, who told me Alitalia would be there soon to give me my ticket, so I sat down and waited, and waited…

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you might remember me posting as the day went on how upset I became as the idiotcracy built up. I waited for a few hours, asking different stewards if they were Alitalia or could help find them whenever a new airline showed up, only to be told ‘no, you have to wait’. Finally I asked the manager of the connection area, a manager from Royal Air Maroc, if he could help me since all I wanted to do was find a place to sit down and have some food. It was now 11 and I had been up since 5 to make the flight, I had been sitting there since 7:45. The manager told me there was nothing he could do, that I would have to wait until an hour before my flight, which wasn’t for another 6 hours or so. When I asked him what I was supposed to do to get some food he responded with “It’s not my problem. Our airline did our job of getting you here. Now you’re someone else’s problem. There’s nothing I can do.” Or rather there was nothing he would do, after all that would involve caring for your costumers. I can’t believe that Royal Air Maroc is supposed to be a ‘4 star airline’ with this kind of costumer service. I was also told by someone else if I went over to the passport control and customs that I would be let out and then I could go around to the front desks and sort out my ticket problem. So I set off to do that.

I get to the passport control area and wait in line for a long time. When I finally got to the front I explained my case to the passport security guard about just needing to enter the front of the airport. Apparently this was a big problem as the authorities at the Marrakesh airport stamped my passport, meaning I had left the country. As far as the passport security guard was concerned the only way I could re-enter the country, which is what I needed to do in order to exit the airport and enter again through the front, was if the customs agents were to cancel my exit stamp. I don’t why I couldn’t just get the passport re-stamped for entering and exiting again but either way I was sent over to another line. This lone was shorter, with way less organization as the agents in their offices didn’t seem to care about anyone problems or want to deal with them. When I finally got the attention of one of the agents I told them my situation. Another agent came in to listen and they both started asking me questions. ‘Where is your plane ticket? Where are you going? What is you problem?’ They didn’t seem to understand my situation and I tried several times to explain. Finally they tell me they can’t reverse the stamp and I can’t leave the airport since my passport has been stamped for exiting the country. When I asked what I was supposed to do and where I was supposed to go for food I was told “Just go up and around” so I left their office and searched for this ‘up and around’ staircase.  As I walked the hallways I realized they meant go through the connection area, which I couldn’t do since I didn’t have my connecting ticket, which I couldn’t get since the airline didn’t have anyone at the connection area and no one would call them for me. I was stuck in a loop of stupid uncaring and unhelpful people.

Unable to fix my situation I was brimming with rage and sat down waiting, trying to use the shitty airport internet to figure out a way to solve this problem, away from having to talk to anyone. As I sat there, going on 8 hours with no food, no ticket and no help I noticed people who were being deported were being fed. They were being kicked out of the country and because they were waiting for a few hours they were given a hot meal and water, but me, I could rot there and it wouldn’t be anyone’s problem because, after all, Royal Air Maroc had did their job of getting me in this situation. As I was sitting there, furious at the shitty airline and my shitty situation a member of the cleaning staff had noticed I’ve been there all day. He asked me why I was still there and I told him, perhaps a bit over zealously, and told him how I had been sitting there with help or food all day. His answer was simple “Do you want food? I’ll get you some food” and with me giving him some money he left to get me some food from the cafeteria. That’s right, no one who’s job is it to help the customers at the airport, not the stewards, the managers, the passport of customs guards or clerks or anyone of the dozen or more people I talked helped me the slightest, it was the cleaning staff that did that job for them. As far as I know he may have been the one to tell the Alitalia airline I was down there too.

I was sitting and eating the fried rice and fish he had gotten me that I was ever so grateful for I heard an announcement that my flight was loading. I quickly went over to the managers office and asked them to call up and let Alitalia know I was down there, stranded without a ticket to get to my flight. They actually responded with “I can’t help you, it’s not my airline” that’s right, the staff of Royal Air Maroc at the Casablanca airport were willing to let me miss my flight on the the principle that ‘their job was done’ when they stranded me at the airport 8 hours ago. In fact one of the stewards was questioning their manager not helping me at this point, so it was becoming clear that the managers were seen as assholes by more than just me. This is when finally a steward from Alitalia showed up. He ran down and quickly got on a computer to check me in and print off a ticket for me. As this was going on he asked ‘Why not just leave the airport and come in through the front like you were supposed to?’ First off, supposed to? when the hell was the memo of this apparent list of proper actions coming out, because I was never given any instructions on how to get my new ticket what so ever or this whole shit show might have been avoided. I gave him the full story of why and how I was stuck down there. Apparently this is an on going problem at the Marrakesh airport of them stamping passports for connections that don’t require it, effectively blocking them from being able to spend their layover in any comfort and even potentially blocking them from making the connection. As for my dealing with the managers of Royal Air Maroc, the steward’s reply was “Wow! What a piece of…work!” As he looked over at them and just shook his head in disappointment. My ticket was printed and we were off, the Steward actually took my bag and raced me to the gate where the plane was waiting for me. I was the last on the flight. My long struggle to get out of the shit hole that a shitty airline had put me in was over. It would be clear sailing, or flying, from here on out. Or so I thought…

The plane landed in Rome, late. My connection had started loading almost 10 minutes before I landed. I was going to have to make one of those mad dashes across the airport you see on movies. As I got off the plane ready to make this dash I saw that there were stewards waiting with signs of my next flight number on it. They were, as I suspected, there to escort us directly to our waiting flight. Or so the said. The stewards guided us into the airport to the customs area and got us to the front of the line, after that they just stood there. I thought maybe they were waiting for the rest of the people making the connection, but as it happened they were just standing there, their work was done, it was now up to us to hurry across the airport. The stewards told me which gate I was supposed to go to and I was off, it felt like the airport went on forever as I raced across it to finally make it to the proper gate. Luckily everyone made the flight and we were off on a short flight to Palermo to finally end this long day of traveling. We landed and I messaged my host, Ruben, that I would be out soon. Soon ended up being a bit longer than expected. I exited the plane and made my way to the luggage pick up area, only to wait, and wait, and no backpack showed up. I was not the only one, as it happens about half the the people who rushed to make the connection, from my guess, also lost their luggage. I was quite mad at first that this would happen when allegedly my bag was sent directly off to the destination, but while in line waiting for a long time to finally report my lost bag I had cooled off and just wanted the day to end. I made my report with all the information I could give them and left Ruben’s number as a contact as my phone was out of data or minutes.

As the visit went on there would be more work to do online to track my bag and finally find it. It took a week to get and I wasn’t staying in Palermo that long, so I didn’t get my backpack back until Naples. Without me packing a day bag to carry on with me that meant I was without any training gear and only had the clothes on my back for this visit. This of course meant I was only training in no gi for the next few days. Once I got out of the airport and met Ruben he drove me around the town to see a bit of it and we grabbed some pizza. My first slice of real Italian pizza. It was pretty good, and little of the city I saw that night was beautiful, I could see that after all the shit I went through I was going to be alright.

Flying into Rome while on my way to Palermo.

The Sights!

While I was staying with Ruben and Andreina it was a whirlwind of sightseeing and training. The usual day would start with them taking me out somewhere to see the city, then straight to class, then off to more of the city, eating and meeting with friends. Ruben was constantly setting up plans to show me another place around Palermo and we even set out to Trapani, a city an hour away, to train with their friends and sister club there and show me more of Sicily. Here’s some pictures I took while out seeing this beautiful place, I’ll try and label all the places the best I can.

Massimo Theater.

I believe this is call ‘Four Kings Square’ each corner was made like. I have a panoramic of it on Flickr.

The Palermo Cathedral.

The landscape was awesome to see as we drove around, the hills and mountains that surrounded the roads and buildings were impressive to a visitor like me. So I took a few random pictures while we drove around.  

When I was in Trapani I was brought to this amazing town that’s built on top of a mountain and has all sorts of castles and churches and the best possible view of Trapani and the coast. Erice. If you’re visiting Sicily you have to come out to the west side and visit Palermo and since you’re already that close you might as well go visit Trapani and Erice.

And of course Ruben brought me to the beach to see the beautiful view and crystal clear water.

I have many more photos for you to see at my Flickr account, check them out!

MatSide BJJ Palermo

Ruben, who is a purple belt, runs the MatSide BJJ Palermo club which is in an old school gym that also has wrestling classes by an Olympian who competed and won in some competitions in Canada and all over back in his days. The wrestling class was full of take down techniques, some of which I’ve seen before but there were all kinds of small details I was being shown to make them better. One thing I’ve learned on this odyssey, one of many, is that I really need to work on using my body and body weight better. The re-occurring strong points for wresting take downs and control is using your full body as a force to keep them from moving any other way than you want. small things that help keeping your weight on them or into them. These details I’m still learning and trying to work on as I travel, I really do believe training in different classes like Judo, Wrestling, Catch-As-Catch-Can, or Sambo only help build a stronger, more complete game

For Ruben’s classes there was a common theme he would work on, with working on the base movement and adding to it or going over the options from that movement or position. As I was visiting we were going over various open guard passing movements, one class was working off stepping into the open guard and sitting in a combat base position, capturing a leg. Ruben and I had a lot of fun bouncing ideas back and forth as we trained, he’s always thinking and studying what positions he gets into from what movements. The rest of the club is a wide range of different styles and skill levels, all were very enthusiastic and eager to train and roll. Some had experience in other martial arts and were new to the ground game like Benny Cannata who is an Italian boxing league champion who is now training for MMA at MatSide with Ruben, he’ll be a killer ground and pound artist in the next year for sure. It was a good training with everyone, I had to be on my toes all the time because each person was so different. In the end I really enjoyed training and rolling with everyone, I learned a a lot about my own game as well as made some good friends.

The class at wrestling, Benny the boxer is the guy in the white shirt.

Mad Monkey Academy/MatSide BJJ Trapani 

One day Ruben brought me out to train for a noontime class then after lunch he and another student hit the weights for an hour and then we met with Andreina and other clubs members and all piled into the car and headed to another gym to train at that evening in Trapani. The Mad Monkey Academy, which is the MatSide BJJ Trapani club, is in the Wolf Fighter Trapani gym which is a primarily kickboxing gym. The gym is set up with puzzle mats covering the entire floor with some heavy bags along one side and a boxing ring in the corner. The class for Trapani seemed a lot younger, many kids who were newer to BJJ. The class there is run by a blue belt who trains under Ruben and they were more than happy to have us show up and teach. Ruben was showing more of the open guard to combat base that we were working on, having played with some things earlier that day we had new tricks to add and show this eager class ready to soak up any details. Nadir, the blue belt, and I worked together going over the techniques. He’s a bigger guy and we had similar traits and a similar style so it made perfect sense to work together and exchange tips. Lucky that I had been working on the techniques earlier that day and troubleshooting them working for me so I was able to help him out and give some pointers.

The gang in Trapani after class. Ruben is in the white shirt, Nadir is in the back in the black shirt.

I had a few matches with some of the class after class. the kids were eager to impress the visiting blue belt and were gunning for me, luckily they had little experience so I just worked defense, letting them get take down or a guard pass and then working from there to sweep and attack. One big thing that I noticed was the lack of grips and control, they’re were so set on passing or attacking they wouldn’t time the time to set the position or fully control me while passing my guard. That’s something that comes with time and is been a big topic I’ve been working myself during this journey. Grips and controlling techniques are key and I love seeing new ways to control someone and work my slow Panda climbing game. I work on all the grips I can while rolling so when someone misses controlling my legs and goes straight for wrist grabs or try to run around my guard I notice it. Now I do anyways. I guess since my mind is always working on controlling and grip techniques my awareness of the training partners grips and controlling techniques.

I don’t know any Italian but I’m pretty sure the night went well.

After class Nadir and some of his students as well as the whole group from Palermo went out for food and showing me around the city and more food and more sights and next you it was 4am. It was one seriously long day but amazing at the same time, I got so much training in and meeting great people and seeing some great places and eating good food, all in one day. It’s not something I could do often but it was a blast! As we were walking around Trapani Nadir was telling me of the history of the city and the sights, as well as telling me what we would see tomorrow. It really wished I had a proper camera and could take night pictures that night. I stayed that night at Nadir’s and the next morning we were off to show me more sights before heading back to Palermo, I’ve got to say Nadir made me really feel welcomed, thanks for the tour, the food and the hospitality!

Trapani at night, wish I have a proper camera and could take night photos.

Torre Ligny, the most western point of Trapani. Apparently it marks the separation of two different seas.

Thanks again everyone I met in Palermo and Trapani for all the great times, and thank you Ruben and Andreina for everything you have done looking out for me and making this an amazing visit!  

Ruben, this guy is always willing help and host, go visit and train with this awesome guy!

Andreina, thanks for everything!

I was off to catch the ferry to Naples, but Ruben wasn’t able to join me there as he had new guests arriving to pick up at the airport at the same time. Andreina gave me a drive to the harbour, it was rush hour so we had a few set backs getting there but I got on the boat just in time. Shortly after leaving Sicily for Naples I get a text message from Ruben, it was a screenshot of a message he received from the airport that my bag had finally been found and landed in Palermo, now on it way to Naples. After a crazy trip to Sicily and a whirlwind of a visit, which was way too short, I was off to see some amazing sights and re-unite with my backpack, but that’s another story.

I’m on a boat! On my way to Naples.

Quite the view leaving such a beautiful Island.

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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West Coast, best coast part one: San Diego

/in /by

After the heat and crowds of New York, San Diego was a literal breath of fresh air. It’s the 2nd largest city in California but it feels very spread out and livable, the downside is that you need to drive everywhere and traffic can get heavy during rush hour, just like anywhere else.

Pacific Beach

Coronado

Because it was mid Summer and 4th of July was just around the corner, we didn’t have a lot of options for accommodation. We had been speaking to Dean Lister via email about potentially staying with him, as he used to run a fighters house with affordable accommodation, but he has since closed it down unfortunately, and was out of the country anyway. That was a shame as I’m a big fan – his K.A.T.C.H instructionals have had a big impact on my leg lock game.

Instead, we managed to find an Airbnb in Chula Vista just a short drive South of the city and close to the Mexican border, where we stayed with a French couple and their enormous, beautiful dog Mafalda.

Mafalda made our stay

First thing we did was head to the beach of course, but after that it was time to train. The first night we went to Victory MMA, we knew Dean Lister was out of town but wanted to take one of Jeff Glover’s advanced classes. It was $20 for a day pass which lets you take as many classes as you want. We were really impressed with the gym facilities, they were huge! 3 mat spaces, a boxing ring as well as the usual. As soon as we arrived we ran into Jeff Glover, but unfortunately it looked like he had literally just hurt himself as he was holding an ice pack to his leg and limping a bit, but still taught the class anyway. We went through some drills very much in his style – literally trying to confuse and distract your opponent with speed, explosiveness and feints from various positions. It was fun but very different. Afterwards we were split over two mats for sparring, and I had a few good rounds with some purple belts but unfortunately all the higher belts were sitting out as they had trained hard in the class before it seems.

After training at Victory MMA

The next morning we decided to go to Atos, where we ended up staying at for the rest of our time in San Diego, despite original plans to try out other gyms. It’s a bit further out than some of the other gyms so you definitely need to drive.

The price is whopping $60 for a day pass, $175 for a weekly, or $350 for a month. But don’t let the cost scare you away, as we can attest to the fact it is 100% worth it. You do have to wear a white gi with no club/affiliation patches (you can rent one for $10 which Alessia had to do), and a black rashguard. When you get there you can see why they have the uniform policy though – the gym is beautiful. The black and blue mat space is elevated and with lots of natural light, with a secondary mat around the corner. Rows of trophies line the wall, and you can feel the intensity in the air as everyone there is so committed to their training.

The awesome mat space at Atos HQ

Professor Galvao takes the main morning and evening classes, and all the classes are filmed professionally for his website. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he is an incredible teacher, with the entire class was hanging off his every word because he puts so much detail into every technique. Even moves that we had seen before he managed to add his own personal touch and details to it in ways we hadn’t thought about before. Not only that, he came across as an incredibly friendly, approachable and humble guy – even mopping the mats himself after class.

With Galvao. What a legend.

Sparring was some of the most intense I’ve ever come across. Pick anyone in the gym and chances are they have won gold at Worlds or Pans etc. I managed to roll with Josh Hinger, Pablo Mantovani and many other incredible fighters. Special mention to Conner DeAngelis, a beastly heavyweight purple belt who put me to sleep during our roll – that’s the first time I’ve ever not tapped in time, the choke was that tight. I remember waking up and Andre joking that he’s heard it’s like having a nap in the middle of the round so I should be refreshed – and in fact I did a little bit ?

Josh Hinger

Even though the training is very intense there and almost everyone is a serious competitor or athlete, there is still a very friendly and supportive vibe in the gym, and they were all incredibly welcoming to us. The Friday night warm-up was a long game of dodge ball which was loads of fun. Alessia was also really happy since there was a strong ladies contingent on the mat – down to Angelica’s influence most likely, she runs a Ladies Only classes twice a week but unfortunately we didn’t have time to go.

We also met a Swedish couple Karl and Elina, who had been staying there for a month just to train. In fact it seemed like quite a lot of people had moved to San Diego purely to train at Atos, whether for a month or permanently. And we could understand why. The training at Atos was a whole other level, and both Alessia and I absolutely loved it and took a lot away from the experience. We seriously considered changing our plans and staying in San Diego to train another week, but sadly in the end it was too last minute and impractical. We’ve both made a deal though, that after this trip we want to move to San Diego for a few months just to train, I hope we can make it happen.

The rest of our time in San Diego was spent at the various beaches – our favorite was La Jolla Cove where the Sea Lions and Seals chill out on the rocks, play on the beach and swim next to you in the ocean (don’t get too close though).

Snorkeling at La Jolla

Seals. Seals everywhere.

La Jolla truly was a gem

Old town was awesome, the historic area was preserved and reconstructed to keep things like they would have been during the 1800s and is a great day out.

Old town by day

Old town by night

San Diego Zoo was the biggest I’d ever been to and with lots of space in the enclosures for the animals, which seemed to be well looked after.

Who did it better?

We also spent 4th of July in historic Coronado, watching the parade and chilling at the beach, before heading to Old Town again for the rest of the day and fish tacos.

The historic Coronado Hotel

I have to take a moment here to dwell on the fish tacos. Amazing. All food in San Diego is pretty incredible – being so close to the border you can find Mexican food everywhere, with some places being so authentic the staff literally don’t speak English and they only serve beef head tacos (with Alessia being vegetarian, needless to say we didn’t end up eating there ?). But fish tacos. I don’t know how many fish we consumed in the end but it was somewhere between a school and a species. The place we would highly recommend is Pacific Beach Fish Shop, halfway between Atos and Pacific Beach ??? ?. Also, Aunt Emma’s Pancake House in Chula Vista for huge stacks of pancakes on the cheap. Unbelievable.

Pancake heaven

We were sad to leave San Diego, but excited to start our road trip up the West Coast to LA (via Disneyland), the Pacific Coast Highway and Yosemite National Park to San Francisco. Till next time!

 

Instagram:

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@alessiabjj

 

Washington D.C

/in /by

     We decided that it would be cool to spend the 4th of July, the nations birthday, in the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. We stayed at a campground about 30 minutes outside of D.C. at a state park. From there we drove to a nearby train station and got on the subway, which was a new experience for my family and I. None of us had ever ridden one before so learning how the whole process works was an experience in itself. Luckily, someone passing by could tell we were having some difficulties and offered his assistance. So now that we had transportation under control, we headed to the National Mall for our first day of sightseeing.

     The National Mall is a national park in downtown D.C. and spans over 2 miles. Since it was our first day there we decided to visit some of the attractions that were easy to get to and in walking distance to the subway station. The Smithsonian actually has 19 different attractions in the city and our first stop was the Natural History Museum. My family and I enjoyed all the exhibits; my wife’s favorite was definitely the Hope Diamond. The Hope Diamond is a 45.5-carat diamond and has an estimated value of 200-250 million dollars. I’m pretty certain she took like three hundred pictures of it alone.

    From there we went to the Air and Space Museum, my son’s favorite stop that day. Not only do they have a large collection of space memorabilia they also have a large room full of hands on activities for kids which teach them about aerodynamics, draft, lift, and other aspects of flying that he really enjoyed, so did the rest of the family but him especially. In fact the only drawback was that apparently a ton of people decided it would be a good time to visit the capitol as well; so everything we went to do there were huge lines. That was a constant throughout the week by the way.

     The next day we went to some of the memorials in the National Mall. The Lincoln Memorial was a good time, tons of people and very hot, but was fun teaching my kids why he was such an important President in the United States’ history. From there we went to the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, and was actually able to find some information about some of my family members that lost their lives in those wars. From there we went to the Washington Monument, a 515-foot tall obelisk built to commemorate George Washington, the first President of the US. We were not able to go up inside the monument because there is a faulty elevator, which a park ranger informed me, should be fixed by the summer of 2019. Our last stop for the day was a quick photo outside the White House.

     Our third day we went to the International Spy Museum that was pretty entertaining. Its full of spy memorabilia and has a bunch of video interviews with former spies from all over the world. It’s a very James Bond type of attraction, and there is actually a large portion of the museum dedicated to the 007 films.

     The evening of our third day I finally got some time to train. There are quite a few gyms in the D.C. area but I knew of one that I absolutely had to visit and that was Matt Larsen’s Combatives Fitness. Professor Larsen is a former US Army Ranger and one of the founders of the Modern Army Combatives Program, which if you have read any of my other blogs, know that’s where I got my start in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Matt started training jiu jitsu under the Gracie family in Torence, CA, and eventually earned his black belt from Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti under the Alliance flag. I feel it’s important to mention that Matt was also inducted into the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame. Not only is Matt a friend, but also I was promoted by one of his black belts, Professor Tim Farris. Anytime I get a chance to train with Matt is a good time and this one was no different. I attended the nogi class and ended up staying for both the basic and adult classes. I was so exhausted from all the sightseeing that by the end of training I could hardly move.

Professor Larsen with Professor Jacare and Professor Helio

     After training, and about a gallon and a half of water, my family and I went on a nighttime cruise of the Potomac River. It was really cool to see the sights lit up in the night sky and hear the information provided by the tour guides.

     The next day was the fourth of July; we decided it would be appropriate to spend the day at Mount Vernon, a large plantation where George Washington lived with his wife and two grandchildren. The day consisted of a lot of walking, a lot of sweating, and learning all kids of historical facts about Mount Vernon as well as a military demonstration from the timeframe, oh, and the things my kids loved the most, free birthday cake!

     Our last day we went to the Arlington National Cemetery which is the United States’ largest national military cemetery and is the final resting place of more than 400,000 people from the US and 11 other countries. I went there to visit some of my friends that I served with that lost their lives and because I wanted my son to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. If you have never had a chance to witness this ceremony, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is quite moving and respectful.

     All in all, during our time in D.C. we walked 34 miles; saw all the major tourist attractions, met people from nine different countries and 14 different states. To say we enjoyed our time there would be an understatement. We were exhausted, sunburnt, and cranky by the end of our stay but the memories made with my family during this trip were all, without a doubt, worth it.