BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // November 2014
Dear Globetrotters, 

Welcome to the November newsletter! The camps of the summer are over, so I've put a lot of time into my own training, preparing for the Europeans in January where I'll have my big comeback after knee surgery. Training hard and can't wait to try my luck against some of the best black belts out there. No matter what happens on the mat, Lisbon is always a sure bet for a great party, so it's a trip that can't fail :D

Apart from training, I am spending a lot of time working on long-term projects for the Globetrotters. A little sneak preview of what this is, can be found further down in this newsletter.

This month there is a new section called "Globetrotters around the world". Here there will be short features about what members are up to, from competition results as well as other random stuff. As always, if you have any suggestions, comments or exciting stories, feel free to shoot an e-mail to newsletter@bjjglobetrotters.com

- Christian Graugart

What you'll find in this month's newsletter:

  • Globetrotters around the world

  • What's next for BJJ Globetrotters?
  • Marie's blog post about the Fall Camp

  • Dan "Imal" Reid features on a BJJ podcast
  • Jack Burrell on his blog, London Open and the advantages of being 40% rubber 
  • Alika Wong came all the way from Hawaii for the Fall Camp!


Globetrotters around the world:
Bruno Capasso got gold at the Bari Jiu Jitsu Challenge, in Italy. (Blue Belt, Master 88 kg division).
Globetrotters Andreas and Barabara did well at the London Open last month. Barbara got a 2nd Place in her category with Gi and won the absolute class. Additionally, she won gold at the NoGi competition. Andreas got a 3rd place with Gi and a 2nd NoGi.
Jesse Veltri got a silver medal at the No Gi Worlds, which took place in California on October 4th.
Congratulations to all Globetrotters on the great results! If you want to get your pretty face in the newsletter next time, you can mail your results to newsletter@bjjglobetrotters.com.
What's next for BJJ Globetrotters?
It's fantastic to see how our community is growing day by day. Our facebook group is very active and many of our members actively meet up for training, travels and socialising all over the world.

I believe this is only the beginning, though. Together, we can spread this philosophy even further through the BJJ world and it will create even more incredible experiences, opportunities and friendships for all of us. I am actively working hard every day on coming up with projects and ideas that can help this process. Obviously, our training camps are working really well for this, so if everything goes by my plan, 2015 will see a handful of very, very interesting Globetrotters events all over the world. The first one will hopefully be a winter camp in Austria, combined with snowboarding and other fun activities. This is the idea for the setup, that I posted on our facebook group to see what the interest was like: (it was BIG :D)
The details or dates for this camp are not finalised yet, but we are working hard on it and you will hear more about it soon.

It also looks like 2015 will be the year, where we'll do our first USA camp. We're currently negotiating terms with a venue and will announce everything as soon as it is set. Summer Camp in Copenhagen is planned for the first week of June, but this time it'll have a little twist you might not have expected ;-) 

And then of course, the BJJ Globetrotters gi project is almost ready to launch. Within 1-2 weeks, we expect to have a full stock of super-flashy surf style design gis and also super-light travel gis at a very reasonable price. Stay tuned for more!
Check out Marie's blog post about the Fall Camp
Marie-Laure Kocher writes a great BJJ blog in both French and English. Check out her latest post on her experiences at the BJJ Globetrotters Falls Camp in Copenhagen:

Brown belt Dan Reid features on a BJJ podcast!
BJJ Globetrotter Dan "Imal" Reid featured on a podcast this month discussing his views on BJJ and other stuff. Daniel quit his life in Scotland and moved to Taiwan to start a BJJ academy. Check it out!

Jack Burrell on his blog, London Open and the advantages of being 40% rubber
UK-based blue belt, Jack Burrell, came to this years fall camp and subsequently shared his thoughts via his blog. We talked to Jack about his BJJ and Globetrotting.

Hey Jack! Thanks for taking the time, could you tell us a bit about yourself? How long have you done BJJ and where do you train?

I’ve been doing BJJ for a little over 3 years and I’m a blue belt at RGA Mill Hill, a Roger Gracie affiliate in North London under Professor Nick Brooks. We have a number of top level competitors such as Michael Hawkins, Ed Ingamells and ADCC competitor Dan Strauss as well as top designer and BJJ personality Meerkatsu.

You competed at the London Open recently. How did that go?

The level of competition is very high with competitors from all across Europe. I managed to get a bronze medal in the Gi and silver and bronze in the nogi but was lucky to escape injury from a rolling Americana in the semifinal, luckily I’m 40% rubber.

How did you first hear about the BJJ Globetrotters?

I heard about Globetrotters when planning my travels and have recently come back from the autumn camp in Copenhagen which was a hugely rewarding experience. As athletes we may be divided by teams but our passion for what unites us (a shared love of Jiu Jitsu) is far stronger. 

Have you done any traveling to compete/train?

I took my gi when travelling through South-east Asia last year, I taught my first class in Hanoi and dropped in for a few days at Kowloon BJJ in Hong Kong. I’ve also competed at IBJJF Zurich and trained at Hilti Stockholm, where everyone is a beast!

Everyone I’ve met in Jiu Jitsu has been so warm and welcoming, when I first started the thought of walking into a strange gym for the first time terrified me, now I look forward to it.

Do you have any future plans to travel for BJJ?

I’ve already booked my flights for the European championships in Lisbon, my girlfriend is very understanding and has even started suggesting places to train when we go to Thailand next year.

Tell us a little about your blog.

I compete a lot and wanted to reflect on the experience of competition as well as individual performance. I still get nervous before stepping onto the mat and I try to address a few things that might encourage newer students to give it a go while keeping it as entertaining as possible.

Anything you want to add?

I’d like to say a big hello to everyone I met on the BJJ Globetrotters camp as well as thank my teammates for all their support. Check out my blog at http://triangleattack.blogspot.co.uk and thanks for having me!
Alika Wong came all the way from Hawaii for the Fall Camp!
There were a few Americans at the fall camp, but only one person from Hawaii: Alika Wong. We sat down with him and discussed his BJJ travels and taking selfies of people choking you.

Hey Alika! Thanks for taking the time. First off, could you tell us a bit about yourself?  

Before I start I really want to say thanks for interviewing me for your newsletter and again thank Christian for the invite to the Fall Camp!

My name is Alika Wong and I’m from Oahu, Hawaii.  I am actually coming up on my 5 year anniversary since I started Jiu Jitsu this month!  I am a purple belt and train at O2 Martial Arts Academy which is a Relson Gracie affiliate in Aiea, Hawaii.  We have 5 black belt instructors: Mike and Chris Onzuka, Kaleo Hosaka, Bobby Moss and Kyle Snyder-Olivares.  So if anybody is ever on the island please drop in!

You recently went on a trip to train BJJ, how did that go? Which countries did you visit?

The trip was aweome! I went on a three and a half week trip and got a ton of great rolls all over the world. I stopped in St Louis to train at SIMS Martial Arts Academy/10th Planet Ofallon with Gary Meeks, New York at Marcelo Garcia’s, Kaiserslautern and Homburg Germany at The Matrix BJJ with Rene Becker, and then I ended my trip with the Fall Camp in Denmark.

How did you first learn about the BJJ Globetrotters and why did you decide to join them?

I learned about the BJJ Globetrotters through the book and the website. You guys really encompass a great philosophy and I wanted to be a part of it. Jiu Jitsu for a better world!

Were you inspired by the BJJ Globetrotter book when it came to traveling for BJJ?

Oh definitely! I travel a lot for work and I always bring my gi just in case, so I have actually dropped in on quite a few schools. But this was my first trip purely for leisure that I have ever taken. I had just read the BJJ Globetrotter and at the end of the book Christian encourages and invites people to come to Denmark to train. So I emailed him and he invited me to the Fall Camp.  

I originally had planned to come at the beginning of September but Christian told me about the Fall Camp and Keenan Cornelius so I totally changed my plans. Also I had been on work trips and kept missing Keenan by a day or two when he went thru Hawaii, Guam and Tokyo so I figured he had to stop running from me and I could finally roll with him in Copenhagen. Then I tapped him but he stole my phone and erased the video ;p (inside joke for you Fall Campers)
You posted a funny picture to the Globetrotters Facebook site of various BJJ personalities choking you – how did that idea come about?

You know, I didn’t plan on having that many pics of people choking me, but I kept getting my back taken and there just happened to be someone who snapped a pic at the perfect time hah.

Seriously tho I don’t know what made me start to take those pics. I think it may have been my friend’s son Kaikela who jumped on my back while I was trying to take a picture. He’s the kid on the bottom left of my collage and I’m pretty sure he was the first pic I got for my collection. From there I just kept taking those pictures because they’re pretty funny and it fit my personality instead of the normal “make a fist and mean face” pics. When I got home I saw I had a bunch of em and I just put em all together. I really liked how it turned out so I’m claiming it, it’s mine, and nobody better steal my idea!


Do you have any plans for BJJ travelling in the future?

I definitely want to do another trip. My girlfriend and I are trying to go to Myanmar after seeing a post on the Globetrotter Facebook page asking for guest instructors. I also want to make it for another camp at Christians, to Brazil of course, and I have to go back to Marcelo’s since he was still recovering from his ACL surgery when I was there and I didn’t get the chance to roll with him.

After this trip I really realized how much Jiu Jitsu really connects people. I made a ton of new friends from all different cultures and learned a lot about the world. So from now on I am making it a goal of mine to do at least one trip a year. If anyone has any good suggestions on interesting places to train let me know. 

Anything you want to add?

I want to invite fellow Globetrotters out there to come and visit Hawaii. I gotta keep the good karma going from all the love I got on my trip. So if anyone is interested I would love to host you, show you around the island, and train with you at O2 MAA. I also have spare surfboards and live less than 10 minutes from the beach. I was actually hoping to work with Christian to do a surf camp here in Hawaii and he told me if I can get him information he would consider it. So keep your eyes open for that!

Lastly I would really like to thank the people that helped me out on my trip. Kainoa Kaohi, Quinten Brewer, Andreas Resch, Greg Lanier, Debbie Connolly, Michael Leng, Martin Thrane, and of course Christian Graugart!
 
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