This past Sunday I had the pleasure of attending another great seminar taught by Joe Moreira. I think this was my 3rd or 4th at this point and all of them have been excellent. It doesn’t matter how long you have been training Joe can break down a basic technique for hours, and show you so many more details to tighten that move up, it will amaze you. This seminar was held at Pushard’s it was about a 45 min drive from The Foundry so we all car pooled. The weather was great so the drive flew by as we all chit-chatted and talked Jiu Jitsu. Once we got there we were introduced to Rob Pushard, the person in charge and the one who made this seminar a reality, also a very nice and welcoming individual. We all suited up and started to stretch. Jon Lamarche ran a short warm-up and then we got down to business. Joe showed some great top game stuff this time and I really think this will tighten up my side control and give me some more options. After we all went out to eat and it was great to talk with all the guys and hang out with Joe. It was a great seminar, met some great new people, learned some great new techniques. Another day in the Jiu Jitsu life.

If any of you are like me, you spend time on Youtube looking at Jiu Jitsu videos. I would like to create this post as a place where everyone can send links to their favorite Bjj highlight videos. Some of these videos are so well done they give me such a rush to get on the mats and train. So lets try and motivate each other and at the same time spread some great videos at the same time. I’ll start with a few of mine- Braulio Estima, Marcelo Garcia, and of course Cobrinha.

This past Wednesday I had the chance to train with BJJ black belt Alexey Cruz down in Portland Maine. He teaches out of the Choi Institute of Martial Arts and Science. Alexey is a 3rd degree Jiu Jitsu black belt under De La Riva. He also is the one who puts on the Freestyle Grappling Open Tournaments every year. I was super excited to get a chance to train with him and his guys. I think we had a total of 6 people from The Foundry make the almost 2 hour drive. Call it a Foundry field trip if you will. Alexey showed some sweet half guard stuff, mostly passing it, but also a few submissions thrown in. I rolled with 3 of his blue belts, all of them were really skilled and seemed like all around nice guys. At first I was playing super defensive, feeling like if I went for submissions it would not be respectful. I’m not sure where that feeling came from, but I think my logic was, well this is their house and I am just a guest. No one likes to tap to a guest. After a few mins though this feeling passed and it was really awesome to roll with new people. I think we will be making more trips down there to visit from time to time and I am looking forward to it. Do any of you make trips to visit others schools regularly? If so do you see a jump in your game?