"The only BJJ team out there dedicated 100% to just do cool stuff" |
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BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // May 2014 |
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| Dear Globetrotters!
There have been some big things happening this last month in our community. First of all, we just reached the 100th affiliated academy! Second, we also are happy to announce that since the Summer Camp sold out, we made a quick decision to set up a Fall Camp already in September. The first instructors are already confirmed, amongst them Keenan Cornelius and Oliver Geddes. So if you missed out on the Summer Camp, this is your chance! Read more about it further down :-)
I hope you'll enjoy the newsletter and the interesting stories from BJJ Globetrotters around the world.
See you on the mats,
-Christian |
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| What you'll find in this month's newsletter
New Belt Promotions The Fall Camp takes place on the 22nd-27th of September - Keenan Cornelius confirmed! Jodie Bear: Tattoos, travels and training BJJ in Greenland: Jason Nystrup on starting a new club The 100th affiliated academy: Fusion Sports Globetrotting 18 countries: Michael Whalen on living the Globetrotter dream and how you can too
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| | | | Halldór Logi Valsson of Team Fenrir Akureyri in Iceland recently recieved his purple belt from his instructor Ingþór Örn Valdimarsson. Halldór has since competed at the Danish Open where he won gold (only one month after receiving his new belt!) and bronze in the open weight class in no-gi. The weekend after that (3. & 4th of May) he competed at the Copenhagen Open and won silver in the gi and got the gold in no-gi.
Congratulations to Halldór on the belt and his new medals!
All newly graduated Globetrotters can send a mail to newsletter@globetrotters.com with their rank, academy and instructor and bask in the glory of Globetrotter celebrity in the next issue.
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| | | Fall Camp with Keenan Cornelius, Oli Geddes, Christian Graugart and others! |
| | For those who missed out on the sold out Summer Camp there is now another chance to catch some late summer training on the 22nd-27th of September in Copenhagen, Denmark!- Monday 22/9 to Saturday 27/9 in Copenhagen, Denmark
- Six day training camp
- BJJ, MMA, Muay Thai, boxing and S&C classes every day
- Top level instructors
- High quality, modern training facilities in Copenhagen
- Training sessions all day long
- Belt promotion ceremony
- Affordable food and accommodation options during camp
- Everyone welcome, reg. of team/affiliation/experience
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| Confirmed instructors include Keenan Cornelius, Oli Geddes, Christian Graugart and others. |
| | Hawaiian born black belt Keenan Cornelius is arguably the greatest active American BJJ competitor today, at only 22 years of age. He's known for his great Spider- and De La Riva guard as well as efficient use of the Berimbolo. Keenan won all the major tournaments both as purple and brown belt, which is quite a feat.The Summer Camp sold out its 140 spots more than two months before the camp, so it's probably a good idea to book a spot early. Look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!
Don't miss out on this opportunity to get some great training with top instructors and connect with the Globetrotter community - everyone is welcome, regardless of experience, rank or affiliation.
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| | | Jodie Bear: Tattoos, travels and training |
| | Jodie Bear, Globetrotter and tattoo artist from Chesire in England, recently won gold at the Rome Open and did a Charity Grappling Event called Grapplethon. Jodie has been an active Globetrotter, attending the Beach Camp in El Salvador and has plans to attend the Summer Camp as well. Through BJJ she's been able to drop 57kg, meet new friends and travel the world. We sat down with her and had a chat about BJJ, weight loss and rolling for charity. |
| | Hey Jodie, Congrats on the win in Rome, what was it like competing there? How did you win your matches? Hey, Thanks! It was great! Really nice venue as it was a 360° arena and an amazing atmosphere too! My first fight my opponent got DQed after 3 warnings for stalling but still continued to do so. And the final I won by submission, a choke!
What's the BJJ scene like where you live?
There isn't really a huge BJJ scene but I think it's growing!
How did you get started in BJJ and what has the journey been like so far?
Back in February 2013 I was at my biggest 152 kg and Keith [Hipkiss, chief instructor at Warrior Martial Arts] came into the tattoo studio and we got talking. He said I should come down and try BJJ. I laughed it off, but ended up down there the next day. You should have seen Keith and Mandys' [assistant instructor at Warrior Martial Arts] face when I walked through the door. But from that day I was well and truly addicted to BJJ! Helping me to lose weight (I'm 95kgs at the moment) and meet amazing people and travel around the world!
Have you done much BJJ travelling?
Oh yeahh, and I love it! I recently went to The Globetrotter camp in El Salvador, a once in a lifetime thing! But other than that I have been to Rome, Portugal, Lanzarote and many more, and plan to go state side soon. My main aim is to travel, tattoo and train!
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| What does a typical week look like for you, and what is your drilling to live rolling ratio?
Well I usually do 3 BJJ classes a week. We usually drill and then roll at the end, but the club I train at has a separate rolling room so, when im not training kickboxing I'm usualy rolling or drilling. Depending on how busy I am I usually train between 5 and 7 nights a week.. but dont forget rest days!
Do you have any BJJ heroes or role models?
The main people I admire are my team mates, and to be fair 99% of people I have met through BJJ and training are an inspiration to me! Will you be attending the BJJ Globetrotters summer camp? Of course! Super excited to meet everyone and get some amazing training done!!! Do you have a favorite submission? Chokes - the guys down the club say "don't give Bear the collar" haha! You recently did a 24 hour charity rolling event called Grapplethon. How did it go?It was EPIC! Very tiring but well worth it. Met some amazing people and all in all raised over £5,000 for Kinergy! I enjoyed it that much im setting one up in August 16th-17th in the club I train at in Cheshire...all welcome!
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| | | BJJ in Greenland: Jason Nystrup on starting a new club
Born and raised in Nuuk Greenland, Jason was first introduced to BJJ while living in Denmark. After returning to Greenland he wanted to start his own training in his home country. This hasn't been an easy task however, with only 16.000 inhabitants and no BJJ tradition. We asked Jason about his training, travelling and BJJ in Greenland. |
| | Could you tell me a little bit about how you got started in BJJ? I started practicing MMA in Aarhus cause I thought it looked awesome and I liked the idea of being able to protect myself. After spending some time in the gym I started to get injuries because of the bad training, so I wanted to switch to another club. I then heard of the BJJ gym they had in Aarhus which was part of the Choke organisation. I then went to a couple of trainings and I really liked the focus on technique and the nice people i met through the club.
What's the BJJ scene like in Greenland (is there a BJJ scene?)
No, not a lot of people know about BJJ. Even the people that watch UFC don't really have an exact idea of what BJJ actually is. So there really isn't a big BJJ scene in Greenland. When people see me in my BJJ kimono they think it's another exotic martial art and when they hear Brazilian Jiu Jitsu they think it's Capoeira haha!
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| | You've been trying to start up a BJJ club in Greenland- how is that going? What are the greatest challenges?
Yeah I have a BJJ club in Nuuk. It hasn't been an easy task cause we didn't have any mats at first. We tried to get a deal with a Karate club which was the only club which had mats, but they wouldn't let us use their facilities. Not too long ago we finally got our own mats, so I will look forward to offer people better facilities. It's hard getting people to come train. Also people have to be convinced it's not just another karate martial art, it's an effective system which works in real life. But I think people will start showing up eventually.
Does Greenland have any type of martial arts tradition?
Yeah, Greenland is really big in Taekwondo. They often win medals in world championships and european championships. So I think Greenland would be able to produce some very good BJJ champs.
Have you done any BJJ travelling?
I did some training in Iowa, USA and Ottawa, Canada cause I lived there for some time. Other than that I hope to go to Brazil and train BJJ one day!
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| | The 100th affiliated academy: Fusion Sports from Germany |
| The BJJ Globetrotters keep on growing and we've now reached a 100 affiliated clubs, with Fusion Sports from Germany being the 100th academy.
It's easy to become a member and there are no requirements or fees. Academies who want to become affiliated only have to follow a few simple requirements
– Understand, follow and spread the values of the team
– Welcome anyone to come train, regardless of affiliation, etc.
– Never deny members to go train somewhere else
– Let any visiting member of team BJJ Globetrotters train one week for free
Danny Soto is the head coach for MMA and BJJ at Fusion Sports. He has shared the idea of no politics and training across affiliation for several years and was therefore very pleased when he discovered the like-minded members of the BJJ Globetrotters. It's therefore fitting that Fusion Sports is the 100th academy and we are very proud to welcome Danny and his academy into the team! |
| | Could you perhaps tell me bit about your academy and how it all got started? The Fusion Sports academy came about through a group of BJJ and nogi clubs looking to train with each other. We were outsiders in the BJJ community here in Germany. We were active competitors that competed but were not part of this 'you only can train with us if you are one of us'. We just wanted to roll and learn from everyone, so we started to put together a group where we'd just meet and roll and roll. When we first started out we were just two clubs and now we are about 25 teams in Germany, Austria and Poland. We also help other teams out with mats and gyms because we are no profit and are a club here in germany we can help out everyone. We are a community of grapplers that want to share and exchange knowledge about our sport.
How did you hear about the BJJ Globetrotters and what attracted you to them? Yes that is a funny story. I was in London training with a school there and saw a really cool patch on this guys gi. And as the day wore on I went to him and was rolling with him and afterwards asked him "Hey, what school is that patch from?" and he said "This is the BJJ Globetrotters, you should check it out". So I ended up buying this book from ebay that night. I read this book about a brown belt traveling the world and rolling everywhere. Look, this is what I have been doing for the past 7 years and this was an idea that was worth something. So now I am a BJJ Globetrotter through and through.
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| | What is the BJJ scene like in your area? Here in Germany we are lucky the Grappling and BJJ scene is huge. We could compete every weekend and there are new clubs popping up everywhere. The level is growing and growing fast .I love it!
Will anybody from your academy be attending the Summer or Fall Camp in Copenhagen? Yes I would have been at the camp in June but it is sold out. I will be there in fall for the camp.
Anything else you want to add? It is a wonderful thing that Christian and his team have put together and Fusion Sports is proud to be the 100th team member to the BJJ Globetrotters. |
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| Globetrotting 18 countries: Michael Whalen on living the Globetrotter dream and how you can too |
| | Michael Whalen, a Nebraska native and Google employee, recently went on a BJJ Globetrotter inspired training trip around Europe, visiting around 18 countries.
Hey Michael, could you tell us briefly about your travels?
In total I ended up visiting around 18 countries, training or competing in 14 of them. The route I ended up covering looked like this: Iceland, Ireland, Wales, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Austria, Luxembourg, Slovakia, and Finland were short visits. I competed in Italy at the IBJJF Rome Open and didn’t get a chance to visit a gym while there. Was your trip inspired by the BJJ Globetrotter book? (If so, how did you first hear about it?) It absolutely was! I can’t remember how I came across Christian’s book, maybe searching for “Brazilian Jiu Jitsu” on Amazon? In any case I remember delving into it, unable to put it down. The book had me incredibly pumped up when I reached the end, I knew that I had to do something similar. I was originally going to go down to Brazil this year and train for a couple of months, but after reading the book I decided I needed something more fulfilling to myself. I knew that I couldn’t take the amount of time off work that Christian had originally done, but a couple of months would be fine. How did you go about planning your trip? Was it hard to fund? Originally I thought that I would just google academies in different countries and just show up. However, that wouldn’t really follow in Christian’s footsteps. I ended up making a few posts on different forums such as Reddit, Sherdog, and the Rogan Board. From there I started putting together a spreadsheet out all the contacts I was receiving. Once I had the first leg of the trip pretty solidified, I started purchasing the main airline tickets and researching train routes to get around once in Europe. I used a few well known sites for the travel and lodging, Kayak, Hostel World, Booking.com, and Rome2Rio. It wasn’t difficult to fund as I had been saving for it since last year and I was also traveling under paid vacation time from work. The largest portion of the cost would have been the large legs of airline travel, and then food in some of the more expensive countries.
Do you feel your BJJ has improved a lot as a result of your travels?
Initially that would have been hard for me to answer. There was so much to take in, so many black and brown belts feeding me knowledge along the journey. I actually started to regress in my game a bit towards the end of the trip from exhaustion and information overload. Once I returned to my home gym though, the fruits of my labors were pretty apparent to myself and my teammates.
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| | What has been most memorable?
I’d have to say how willing the BJJ community is to take someone in that they barely know. There were a handful of people who went above and beyond in helping me with this trip, from giving me free lodging, training, rides, entertainment, tours, and private lessons. The Swiss team (Werdum’s Ruckus) and the Polish team (Academia Gorila) I trained with were probably the standouts of all the counties. Both teams really made me feel welcomed, and the Swiss guys really beat the hell out of me.
Any weird/funny incidences?
There were a few! A couple of times during the trip I caught a flying elbow or knee to the head and getting briefly knocked out, only to come to and find myself still grappling but from an entirely different position. In Amsterdam I meandered into a bike path on accident late one night, and a drunk guy almost hit me but pulled away at the last second and then almost hit a light pole. He was pretty angry, shouting at me in Dutch, I apologized profusely which only made him more angry. When I was in Hungary, probably one of the hardest countries to communicate in as an English speaker, I went out one night to a local market to buy some water and fruits. I went to pay, but was relying on the register to show me the amount that I owed. I promptly paid what I thought it said, but the older Hungarian woman just pointed at the cash register and started yelling at me. There were people behind me, and I was getting a bit nervous because I didn’t know what in the hell was going on, so I just started putting down more money until she stopped yelling. It turns out the registers offset the fourth numeral a centimeter or two with no comma like we would have in the US. A visual example would be: $1,234 but in Hungary it read 1 234.
Do you have any future travel plans?
Absolutely! I’m going to travel to the rest of the Balkans and Eastern Europe in 12-18 months from now. I may throw in a couple of the Western and Scandinavian countries at the start and end of the trip too. But, the main focus will be deeper into Europe.
What advice would you give other Globetrotters who dream of doing what you and Christian Graugart have done?
The biggest thing I’ve heard from a lot of people back at home and traveling is “Man! I wish I could do what you’re doing!” Well, you can! Save up, plan it out, find people who are willing to take you in and give you lodging. The community as a whole is pretty awesome. I’ve never experienced a “family” as close knit and giving as the BJJ one! Also, take notes! Keep a blog! You will want to remember the details of your training. You will encounter so many new things that trying to keep it in your head isn’t going to happen. Lastly, speak to your contacts in a country to find out exactly how expensive food is, some of the countries I went to surprised me in how expensive they were for a meal or a beer.
Do you have plans to attend the summer and/or fall camps in Copenhagen?
Probably not this year. I’ve used up all my vacation time. However, I will try to work it into my next round of travels! |
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