"The only BJJ team out there dedicated 100% to just do cool stuff" |
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BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // July 2014 |
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| Dear Globetrotters,
The Summer Camp is over and what a camp it was. With more than 250 people on the mats in total, it was our biggest gathering of Globetrotters from around the world to date. We finished it off in style with an in-house competition and a huge party, and I will remember this week as something very special for a long time to come. This month's newsletter will focus a lot on the camp and I hope you will enjoy reading about it.
Unfortunately, a lot of people didn't manage to book their spot in time, since we sold out pretty early. More than 40 people were turned down, which made us decide to do another camp already in September. Keenan Cornelius and a bunch of other interesting instructors will drop by and I hope to see you here as well :-)
See you on the mats,
- Christian |
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What you'll find in this month's newsletter:
Newly promoted BJJ Globetrotters black belt
September Fall Camp Sneak Preview
Testimonials from Summer Camp participants
Photos from the Summer Camp
Karla Karlita
Halldor Logi Valsson
Quick Ones! |
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| Newly promoted BJJ Globetrotters black belt! |
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| Summer Camp coach Kári Gunnarsson was promoted to black belt during the camp. Kári has been doing Jiu Jitsu for 12 years and is by his own account no great athlete. "It's no great secret how you become a black belt, just train and keep improvement. Of course there are those who hit the "DNA jackpot" and it comes easier to those people, but anyone can do it with a bit of persistence and stubbornness".
We congratulate Kári on the great achievement and include this awesome picture of him on a unicorn. It's also the only picture known to man where Kári has a sixpack |
| | | September Fall Camp sneak preview |
| | The Fall Camp is on in less than three months and already, more than 50 people have signed up, including lots of participants from the Summer Camp, who wanted to come back for more.
The mission for our camps is simple: To create intense, affordable, politics-free, highly social training camps with top instructors. The camp is only €199 for six days of constant training and fun. Meal plan with food 3x daily is an additional €100 for the week.
We hope to see you here too for a fantastic time with lots of great people!
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| Keenan Cornelius will be at the camp to teach his infamous Worm Guard that he has used to beat one black belt after the other at the world's most prestigious competitions. |
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| Oliver Geddes, a Roger Gracie black belt, has quickly become a BJJ Globetrotters camp favorite. His classes are intense, full of information and details you had never thought of before. He has a very systematic approach to Jiu Jitsu and has proven it effective in numerous competitions around the world. |
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| Christian Graugart is the man behind the BJJ Globetrotters. You can recognise him easily because he will be running around non-stop for the full week to plan and coordinate everything for the camp. He will also be teaching daily classes and answer questions on anything BJJ-related or not BJJ-related. |
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| Kristian Woodmanse is a very active competitor in the rooster weight division and a brown belt under Robert Drysdale. He is both World- and Pan Am champion and has taken medals at IBJJF competitions no less than 18 times. |
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| Eric Bydairk the newest addition to the instructor staff for the Fall Camp. Eric is a former Division 1 wrestler who attended the Summer Camp. Everyone quickly realized that he was a great wrestling coach and people would have him teach small classes on the side during the week. Everybody loved training with him so we had to invite him to come and teach "officially" at the Fall Camp. Look forward to some great wrestling training in the fall! |
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| Carsten Ettrup is the successful MMA coach of CSA.dk and will be teaching no-gi classes with a heavy emphasis on wrestling and positional control. |
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| Kári Gunnarsson, who was recently promoted to black belt, will be showing some of his no-gi secrets that has taking him to the top of the podiums around Europe at brown belt recently. |
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| Daniël Bertina from Amsterdam was teaching for the first time at the Summer Camp and everybody loved his classes, so it was a no-brainer to invite him back again already. |
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| Ingthor Valdimarsson is a 4x Icelandic BJJ champion. He also has more than a decade of Judo competition behind him, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the mats in Copenhagen. |
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"The BJJ Globetrotters camp was a unique experience. I never shared the mats with that many different people, different nationalities, backgrounds and styles. In spite of being so different from each other, the vibe in the gym was great - it felt like we were all friends already. I made many new friends and im definitely comming back next year, God willing."
-Francisco Sinistro Iturralde, Ecuador
"We could only make two full days of Christian's summer camp, but the atmosphere was awesome. People coming from all over just to learn bjj and enjoy themselves. Copenhagen is a beautiful city and for sure next year, we are coming with more people and staying for the whole week. Like the people who annually attend music festivals I think this camp could turn out to be a yearly pilgrimage"
-Chiu Kwong Man, United Kingdom
"Reading Christians book, I was only expecting good things from the Globetrotters Summer Camp. Well, I was truly blown away by the whole experience! I ended up booking the fall camp whilst still being in the Summer Camp. If you are serious about your Jiu Jitsu, you need to come to this camp once in your life."
-Robert Jordan Ash, United Kingdom
"Probably the best experience of my life so far! Jiu Jitsu, friends and Copenhagen. Ooosss!
-Mighele Valente, United Kingdom
"My best Jiu Jitsu week! You have the real BJJ lifestyle and amazing people to train, hang out with and to share globetrotting stories. There's high quality BJJ all day and world-class instructors. Christian did a great job and everyone at CSA was nice and helpful (and what a party!). The only downside is the return home, but I look forward to the next time!!! "
-Florian Grasso, France
"The BJJ Globetrotter camps are an absolute blast. Travelling all the way to Denmark from the United States just to train Jiu Jitsu was worth it! On top of all the amazing instruction you meet people from around the globe and share awesome experiences on and off the mat. I'll be back for as many camps as I can. Have to keep up with my new Jiu-Jitsu friends some how! Vince Millett 'm a little older than most participants so I was apprehensive but the camp was brilliant. I met amazing people, learned a lot from the excellent instructors and took part in my first ever tournament. Awesome! "
-Ben David Nelson, United States
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| Photos from the Summer Camp |
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It was a great week of rolling, drilling, competing, partying and fights. For those feeling the infamous post-Summer Camp blues, there are a few (understatement of the year) photo albums from the camp. Feel free to tag yourself and anyone you might know!
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| Summer Camp participant: Karla Karlita |
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You recieved your blue belt at the camp - congratulations! How long have you been training and why did you start doing BJJ in the first place?
Thank you :) Receiving the blue belt was a huge surprise and I'm still not sure if I really deserve it. I was fascinated by martial arts since I was a teenager but only started traditional Ju-Jutsu in Germany at the university about 3,5 years ago. It's a mixture of standup self defense, judo throws and groundwork, which is called Newaza and which our trainer loves a lot so we "cuddle" there too. The first time I got in contact with actual BJJ was 2 years ago when I visited the states for two months. I had good coaches there and made quick progress. Back in Germany I was finally able to whoop the boys asses ever since I try to attend seminars and visit the states every now and again for training. Currently I am looking for an actual bjj gym around my area that is affordable for a poor student.
What was the best part about the Summer Camp in your opinion?
Everything!! The gym itself was great, I loved making new friends from around the world (already miss them) and having top level instructors. It was also my first time in Denmark and I enjoyed Copenhagen very much. Back home I bike a lot, so renting a bike and exploring the city was a lot of fun. The party and cage fights were also pretty awesome.
Had you attended a Globetrotters camp before? Did the camp match your expectations?
It was my first camp but will certainly not be my last!!!! I'm back for not even a week now and already miss it a lot and will check my finances to see if I can come back in September. It was an amazing week! The classes/instructors were outstanding and the people wonderful.
Did you have a favorite instructor or technique or concept?
It is hard to pick one. I liked them all for different reasons. There is still so much I have to work on, so basically everything was valuable for me. Was it hard training that much? YES! The first day was ok with 3 lessons, but I had a severe overflow the second day and felt my mind drifting off a lot. I swore myself to take notes because I knew I would forget a lot...but never did. I think only on Thursday I made videos of some awesome techniques I loved. I'm also hoping on other people sharing their video material with me and everyone else. Even days after the camp I still haven't recovered. But it was all worth it!
Anything else you want to add?
Thank you Christian for giving me a blue belt. You certainly made a dream come true! I also wanna thank all the people that made my stay unforgettable. I miss you scallywags already and can't wait to pounce on you again. |
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| Summer Camp participant: Halldór Logi Valsson |
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What was the Summer Camp experience like for you?
My experience during the Summer Camp was amazing. I came on my own from Iceland and stayed alone initially. I was fortunate enough to meet eight Brits who were nice enough to let me stay with them and had a fantastic week with them and the rest of the people who were a part of the camp.
Who was your favorite instructor and why?
It's hard for me to pick one. I tried to attend classes with all of them since they all had different things to offer.
At last years Summer Camp you had your first MMA fight at the party - do you have plans to do more of that?
I'm hoping to fight again soon, but perhaps not during a camp. Last year I didn't get the chance to enjoy Denmark and the training quite as much as I'd have liked, since I was focused on the fight. This year I could relax more, attend more classes roll more and didn't have to worry about anything, which made the experience more enjoyable.
Did you have a favorite technique/concept that you took away from the camp?
Like I said, I felt like all the teachers had something unique to offer and I tried to learn as much as I could from each of them. I'm still drilling a lot of the techniques and trying to imprint them into my muscle memory. I've been working on the spider/lapel guard that Chiu demonstrated and his closed guard lapel breaks and chokes. I also really enjoyed the concepts demonstrated by Christian Graugart. Robson showed a great guard pass and Brad had a nice back take. Then of course there was the kimura trap from Eyvind.
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What's your name, rank and where do you train? Bryan Maritato, Brown Belt, I train at Vamos BJJ in Holbrook, New York.
What was your favorite thing about the Summer Camp? My absolute favorite thing about the summer camp was all of the cool people that I met. Being able to train and share knowledge with so many practitioners from around the world was a unique opportunity, and a great experience. Most importantly I feel like I made a ton of new worldwide friends too. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back next year!
What was the biggest single thing/technique/concept that you took away from the camp? The biggest thing I took away from the camp was several concepts & details on guard passing. Both Christian & Sinistro in particular showed some things that I was able to implement in my own passing game right away.
Bonus question: You have the chance to pick a style and become the best in the world at it. Do you: A - Become a master at the inverted guard and pull off berimbolo sweeps against everyone. B - Have the best closed guard in the world and only attempt cross chokes from there. C - Exclusively play 50/50 guard and win all your matches on one advantage D - Tap out quickly so you can get back to coaching people from the sidelines. I think I'll have to go with choice B here. Having a killer closed guard and cross choke would be bad ass! |
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What's your name, rank and where do you train? I'm Alessandro Ardini, i'm a blue belt with 3 stripes and i train in Genoa my hometown, at Gracie JJ Genoa.
What was your favorite thing about the Summer Camp? Actually i really liked the fact that the camp was full of really strong , young and athletic people, willing to sincerly study and work on their game during the sparring rather then trying to "kill" their partner.
What was the biggest single thing/technique/concept that you took away from the camp? I think that the whole concept by Robson on trying to pass the guard from a no grips sitution rather then stepping into one's guard and then try to pass it, was really interesting. Seems fairly simple but if noone tells you it's not so easy to think about it by yourself. Also i'm an open guard player (i try at least :) ) so i loved Chiu Kwong Man hybrid spider lesson and style of playing. The rest was still amazing but these were the things that caught me the most.
Bonus question:
You have the chance to pick a style and become the best in the world at it. Do you:
A - Become a master at the inverted guard and pull off berimbolo sweeps against everyone.
B - Have the best closed guard in the world and only attempt cross chokes from there.
C - Exclusively play 50/50 guard and win all your matches on one advantage
D - Tap out quickly so you can get back to coaching people from the sidelines. Extremely undecided between A and D :) |
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What's your name, rank and where do you train?
Kira Ingelsrudoeyen, purple belt. I train in a few different places at the moment; The mat I call home is at Valhall
Gym in Larvik, Norway. We are a nogi/mma team, so for my BJJ fix I have to travel to
SBJJA in Sandefjord, and once a week I travel to Oslo to train with a good friend of
mine and a really talented blackbelt; Renato Tavares de Moraes.
What was your favorite thing about the Summer Camp? If I have to pick just one, it has to be the vibe. The energy you felt washing over
you as soon as you stepped in the gym. It's one of the things you have to be there
to really know, words can't quite justify it. Even though you don't know everyone,
they all felt like friends and family. A collection of openminded, joyful and just
awesome people gathered on the same mat with the same purpose. It never felt like "us" and "them", it was just one big mash of great athletes having fun and doing
what they love.
And of course, add a s***load of high quality instructors to this mix, and then you
have the epic week that this turned out to be.
What was the biggest single thing/technique/concept that you took away from the camp? I had several big "dingding" moments. The biggest one were the concepts that
Christian taught us about hip/head placement, and how to use the beachball-method to
pass the guard. I've had a lot of focus on guardpassing the last 6 months, so this
was just what I needed.
There were so many good instructors, and they had so much awesomeness to teach us.
But the two tidbits of wisdom that really stayed with me, were the fact that if you
are winning 5 out of 5 times, then you're not a very good training partner, and that
you should offer intelligent resistance when training technique.
I could really go on and on about the importance of this, but it all boils down to
the fact that you are training WITH and not AGAINST your partner.
Bonus question:
You have the chance to pick a style and become the best in the world at it. Do you:
A - Become a master at the inverted guard and pull off berimbolo sweeps against everyone.
B - Have the best closed guard in the world and only attempt cross chokes from there.
C - Exclusively play 50/50 guard and win all your matches on one advantage
D - Tap out quickly so you can get back to coaching people from the sidelines. Not fair! Because there's only one option and three non-options...
It would have to be option A, the inverted guard and berimbolo. It's not really fair
alternatives, because everyone will pick the first one :) |
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