UFC Fan Expo/GrapplersQuest2012

Thanks to all the guys over at Shoyoroll for continued support,Big thanks to Chad at The ArmBar Soap Company for helping me keep my skin healthy and thanks to Gilberto from JiuJitsuProGear for everything!!!!

Now onto the tournament. We took 3 golds a silver and a bronze medal. I am very pleased and I know that Diego is also very pleased with the result of how every one did this past weekend,I have only been teaching at the school for 6 months and Diego for a little over a month now and our methods and techniques that we use to teach showed in each student as they competed this past weekend!!! As a coach I couldn't be prouder as a competitor I wish I would've finished in each one of my matches but you learn and improve with each match!!!!

highlight

Old stuff meets new stuff with some mad flavor

IBJJF Spring OPen 2012

I just want to say thank you to every one who has never given up on me!!! I come from a hard life and know that the only way to make it in this sport is that you have to suffer and lose to experience the high of winning!!!!!!

Not only did I do good but my students absolutely killed it out there on the mats and made me feel like I'm going in the right direction with how I teach!!!!!! One got gold the other silver couldn't ask for a better Saturday!!

A big thanks to Shoyoroll for the continual support and Marc and Scott at Crossfit SGV!!!!!!

Pans 2012

I don't even know where to begin on this post but I will start by saying that I had the worst performance I have ever had competing!!! I'm not one to make excuses and I won't but my performance 2 weeks ago has got me motivated to train harder and smarter from now on.First and foremost you are what you eat and your body is the only one you got so take care of it and fuel it right!! With that said lets talk about my performance.
My first and only match was against a tough guy by the name of Nathan Mendelson!! I've always seen him around at all the local tournaments but never had the chance to compete against him until 2 weeks ago. He's a very legit competitor and my hat goes off to him for shutting me down and smashing me. You live and learn from your mistakes and experiances good or bad!! On to the next one!!!
With the image of me doing so poorly and burned into my brain I started working harder on my grey ares in bjj or my weak areas and tried adding some new stuff. I've been going nuts knowing I did not live up to my potential or come close to even doing good!! All in all I am now headed to New York to redeem myself for how I did!!! As you read this you may think I'm too hard on myself or that I dwell to much on this loss but to me this is my life and I'm a very competitive person who hates to lose or do bad in anything. With that I am leaving on the 18th and compete on the 21st and I'm very pumped and stoked to be going to NY!!! I am headed out there with a bunch of my team mates and friends from Cobrinha bjj Alliance Los Angeles. I can't wait to go and compete and enjoy all that NY offers!!!!!!!!!!

Kenny Johnson Seminar

I want to start this off by saying thanks to Mike Velez from Jiu-Jitsu Magazine for having me! It was an honor!!!
For those of you who don't know who Kenny is here is a brief bio and background on him.
Kenny Johnson wrestled at the University of Iowa under the legendary coach Dan Gable, and is training for his 6th Olympic Games. Kenny is a premiere wrestling coach in MMA working with BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Jose Aldo, Paul Daley, Lyoto Machida, Antonio Nogueira and martial arts legend Dan Inosanto. Kenny Johnson is 1 of only 35 coaches in the world to be certified at a USA Wrestling NECP Gold Level. He is also a Purple belt in brazilian jiujitsu and is a World, Pan Am, and National Champion in the Gi and No-Gi. Kenny is also a monthly contributer to www.jiujitsujiujitsumag.com

Okay back to the seminar.The seminar was focused on wrestling for bjj and the timing of the seminar couldn't be better with the Pan Jiujitsu tournament coming up next weekend. Kenny started off the seminar by explaining the importance of stance and gave his theory on defensive/offensive wrestling. He then went on to talk about how hand placement, footwork, posture and distance between one another is the difference between basic level wrestlers and champions. He went on to show the proper way of gripping re gripping and how to grip to set up takedowns. Kenny showed how to properly snap people down and use the snap down to get the front headlock and set up takedowns from the single to outside single. Once everyone understood he proceeded on to showing how to finish takedowns and talked about the importance of not staying on your knees when getting in deep on shots. One thing I really liked about this seminar is how open minded Kenny was. He stressed the importance of being able to know when to explode and when not to. He is also very good at breaking down what he is teaching to you so that no matter what your skill level is you will understand what he is teaching to you. He is also a very care free funny type of person and had every one who attended laughing numerous times!!! I don't want to give away all his secrets and everything he taught today because it is better for any one who is interested in improving or just learning wrestling to get into contact with Kenny and taking privates or just attending one of his seminars like I did. Believe me when I say it will improve your stand up game for mma,bjj or just to get better at wrestling a hundred fold!!! Kenny runs Bolt Wrestling Club and just released a new DVD called White bolt!!! For more info on Kenny Johnson go to www.boltwrestling.com. Once again I'd like to thank Mike Velez and Jiu-Jitsu Magazine for having me!!!!!!!

AZ International BJJ OPen 2012

This past weekend had the pleasure of competeing against the best lightweight mma fighter and newly crowned UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson!!! Benson just fought Frankie Edgar the weekend before in Japan so I wasn't sure if he was going to actually show up to compete or not but being the true warrior and champ that he is, he showed up and we had a good match that went in his favor. I lost by 2 points due to an akle pick he took me down with at the beginning of the match.I wish I wouldve done better but what can you do? Ben is a class act and I'm sure I will have the chance to compete against him again sometime. I'd write about the match and my mistakes and bitch and moan about losing but whats the point when you can watch it for yourself. My hats off to Benson!!! Truely a beast and theres a reason why hes the UFC champ!!! Thanks to everyone for their support next time I will do better!!! Thanks to DR. james Jung, Autumn Simpson of Maluco Clothing and the best gi company in the biz SHOYOROLL!!!!!!