Steve's BJJ Blog

Today was the Grand Opening of Foster BJJ’s new space.  We’ve been training there for almost 2 weeks now, and it is so nice.  Lots of mat space.  Givanildo Santana (pictured with me below) was in town this week, and he taught a few techniques at a free seminar.

Rodrigo Lopes and several other Gracie Barra black belts were there, along with many of their students.  The place was packed.

Honestly, though, the big news was the promotion of five guys at the school.  I had a feeling that there were going to be some big promotions today.  It’s just the sort of day for such things.  I called the first three, too (and even the order).  It started with Jeff Bourgeois, getting his brown belt, followed by Bing and then Josh.  All three of these guys are awesome jiu-jitieros.  They work tirelessly to improve their games and are awesome teachers and teammates.

After this, Coach promoted his first two black belts.  Bill and Todd.  I just can’t get over how big this school is getting.  When I started, James had one brown belt, I think two purple belts and a handful of blue belts.

Here’s a picture with Bill, Giva, Coach, Todd, Bingo, Jeff and Josh.  Congratulations, guys.

Giva showed us some really cool stuff.  The one technique that really interested me was a gi choke from turtle.  Shown below.

I played around with this during open mat, along with the other tips and techniques he showed us, and I’m excited to incorporate them into my game.

This is a picture of me and James.  I’m the one on the left, if you can’t tell.  Actually, I’m the one in the cool “Lock and Roll” tee from Scramble.  Thanks, Matt. I got a lot of compliments on it today.

I got to talk to a lot of people from the other schools in the area, but I didn’t get a chance to roll with anyone.  It’s funny how things work out… I would look around and everyone was pretty much matched up.  But I did get to roll with some cool people… just cool people I roll with at school anyways!

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