I try to not copy other people's articles.  However I made an exception on this one because it is near impossible finding out interview of the master translated in English. Tonicao means big Toni (just in case you wondered). Tonicao gave the black belt to Douglas Santos. Therefore Tonicao is part of our lineage. I got the info from http://klbjj.blogspot.co.nz/2008/06/interview-with-tonicao.html Interview with Tonicao I translated from Portuguese to English and made some corrections. INTERVIEW WITH TONICÃO The first developer of Jiu - Jitsu in Santa Catarina, this black belt (almost red and black) of 54 years well lived, 30 of them devoted to the Jiu - Jitsu , is definitely a person with a lot of histories . An extremely "good people", that captivates people in 10 minutes of conversation, no exception to the questions and plays with death. Enjoy the result of this pleasant conversation with the "Master Tonicão " which lasted an...

According to a poster in NZ Grappling Forum Face book group, I do not qualify for the list of New Zealanders who hold the rank of Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I did all my BJJ training since white belt in Auckland for the past ten years. Why? I have a NZ citizenship but I was not born here. Since I am not a Kiwi black belt, I will claim my heritage as I was born in Pirae, Papeete, Tahiti about 40 years ago. I believe I am the first Tahitian who hold the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I usually travel to Tahiti once a year to see my parents in Punaauia. So if anyone in Tahiti wants a seminar or would welcome me for a class or two, please contact me. Also, if someone in Tahiti already got a legit BJJ BB, I will happily retract my self claim of being the first Tahitian who hold the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Maruru

We went for lunch after the open mats. Stu went for his Korean vegetarian meal. Serge had for his usual Chinese pork soup but forgot to eat because he dreamt about his next gi company plan. We hit back Douglas santos BJJ for our first aid course with CPR. Security Medical Services (SMS) provided us with the training. They will come to your martial art club as well. They can provide NZQA assessors to train and certify your staff or club members in Workplace First Aid, or First Aid refresher courses.  Their instructors are trained by ProMed (Pro+Med) Medical Services (NZ) Limited and can issue the relevant unit standards (6400, 6401, and 6402)  Thei staff have trained a wide variety of clients but can share their daily experiences from their current involvement in the emergency service sector.  http://www.securitymedical.co.nz/index.html

We hit the Douglas Santos BJJ mats for our usual Saturday open mats at 11 am. Heaps of guys strolling in, as usual you pick your partner to roll with as time goes by. A lot of blue and purples belt as usual and 3 boys from Epsom chapter turned up. Wes managed to berimbolo a dude 30 kilo heavier than after clocking a night shift working the doors on the viaduct Auckland. The guys in the picture are both purple belts, Benjamin and Corey. Corey is the kids instructor for Douglas. Kid class are on Saturday from 10 to 11 am.

We train our take down on crash mats. The topic of the day way turtle. Beginners was three ways to back take and subs. Advanced techniques was the dreaded Peruvian necktie, darce choke, anaconda. Training was concluded with rolling from stand up and grounds.  Welcome to our new member Igor from brazil.  Also congratulations to Gene and Luan on their academic achievements: Certificate in Freight Forwarding,   Well done!

Today we tested the new crash mat. So double leg takedowns was in order. Then turtle escape. Rolling from turtle known as situational rolling. Concluded with normal rolling

Listening to a Judoka lamenting about the state of Judo made me think about the current state of Brasilian Jiu Jitsu. The problem was that the IJF took away most of his favourite newaza in their competition. Of course, there is nothing new about the fact that most Judokas are against the new IJF rules. In F12 (a notorious grappling forum on sherdog.com, where we waste our time responding to trolls and bashing on nogi guys), judokas keep repeating similar information and even worse: "Do not let the IBJJF take your BJJ to the Olympic games and turn it into something useless for the sake of making the sport more spectacular to the public!". I think BJJ will never make it to Olympic level. The sport is too clannish and controlled by a few people. The grass seems always greener on the other side of the fence. I read about this problem but hearing about it face to face reminded me of my pet peeve with my cherished Jiu Jitsu: its lack of stand up. Is BJJ is going downhill...

You can now book your diary for the next BJJ competition (Auckland, New Zealand) I think saturday 17 august 2013 will be the adult day and sunday will be the kids day. The event is always well run, heaps of prices. IBJJF rules and points systems (no advantages rules for this one however). For more details: http://nzgrappler.co.nz/upcoming-tournaments/ for IBJJF rules link http://www.ibjjf.org/rules.htm

While training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you will come across words, names in Portuguese that have some interesting pronunciation. When r is the first letter of the word or when you have rr , the sound is always like h in 'house'. So Ronda Rousey would be Honda Housey. Barra would be Bahha. Sorriso (smile) would Sohhiso. Ronehunga would be Onehunga (just kidding).

This is an interesting Triangle escape that I will have to try out at our next session.

Stu and myself were invited to their mid-winter party. It was hosted at the Tanuki restaurant on queen street. For $45, I had prawns, oysters, tuna and salmon sashimi, chicken, steak, dessert and one large beer. Brilliant deal.  I spent the evening discussing techniques and learning strategies.  I learned an interesting kimura grip which was taught at the kodokan.  Be a good mate and don't let your team mate fill up his own beer glass. Such tradition must lead to some epic drinking session. 

So we went to Douglas Santos BJJ open mats. The majority of the guys were blue, purples and black belts.  There were only two white belts present. John was the youngest student. 16 years and 94 kg.  I had a couple of rolls with Douglas, Stu.  Gene took the opportunity to roll with everyone. After training, we went for lunch at the posonby  international food court. I had some nice traditional Vietnamese spring rolls.  We spoke about training in Florida with the Tonicao jiu jitsu team. 

I really like these short compilation videos because I feel that they give a good overview of a variety of techniques and allow you to stop and review anything you find interesting. Also I like Techno on a loop.

Hi all as our new gym is a Judo Dojo its owner (our landlord) Sensei Littlewood has asked us to respect a modified form of Judo Etiquette at the beginning and end of the class. Class Start: All students below black belt level are to line up at the bottom side of the Dojo next to the entrance, with highest ranking students on the right. Students will then sit on their knees in the seiza position. Black belts will line up on the right hand side of the Dojo and instructors will line up on the top side of the Dojo. The senior ranked student will say, Sensei ni rei everyone will do a kneeling bow, stand up and the class can start. Class End: Students will line up as at the beginning of the class in seiza (kneeing). The senior student will say, Mokuso everyone will close their eyes and quietly mediate on how they performed at training and think about what they can do better. Mokuso yame everyone opens their eyes and stops meditation. Sensei ni...

Ouchi Gari (Large inner reaping). Basic guard pass, the de la riva for the advanced students. Then rolling from stand up. Open mats from 11 am on sat at Douglas santos BJJ