This past weekend members of Renzo Gracie Pittsburgh were treated to not one, but two days of instruction from one of the greatest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teachers in the world, Shawn Williams. A second degree black belt, Shawn has been studying the art since September 1996. Being only the fifth American in history to obtain a black belt, he graduated under the tutelage of Renzo Gracie himself. Shawn’s long list of accomplishments include medalling in prestigious competitions such as the ADCC trials and Grappler’s Quest. He even created his own variation of the high/rubber guard, dubbed the “Williams Guard.” Read More
Ever since I first started practicing jiu-jitsu around this time last year, I knew that one day I had to make the trip up to New York City and experience for myself the main academy I’ve heard so much about. And so, around 7:00 AM last Wednesday, fellow teammate Derek Lukas and I boarded the Megabus downtown and embarked on our journey to the famous Renzo Gracie Academy; located in the heart of the Big Apple. About six or seven hours later, we finally arrived at our destination. After settling down in our hotel and doing some sightseeing, we decided it was time to make our way down to Renzo’s and explore this mecca of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Read More
Today was a very special day at Renzo Gracie Pittsburgh. This morning around 11:30 a.m., twenty two jiu-jitsu students assembled at the academy in Lawrenceville and eagerly awaited the arrival of Igor Gracie; a member of the legendary family who pioneered the sport and art we happily devote so much of our time to. The moment he walked through the door, an empowering aura washed over the room. It instantly felt as though all of us there had realized we were part of something much greater than ourselves. Right away I knew the students attending, including myself, were in for an enlightening experience that would forever impact the way we practice jiu-jitsu. Read More
The Gracie Adventure Camp wrapped up today, Sunday March 21st 2011. It was a success and a great training experience. For the first time, probably in many years, several members of the Gracie family where on the same mats teaching together. Roger Gracie, the best jiu jitsu competitor of all times, taught every day. He also grabbed me during one of the live sessions and beat me up. His teaching was very methodical in that he repeated key points from different angles so that it was easier to understand the position as a whole and how it connected with other positions. It seems like this is part of his genius; he sees and is able to covey details without loosing the larger perspective of the position. For a rather simplified example, during his teaching of side control Roger emphasised controlling opponents arms so that once he past to mount his knees where already in the armpits in his deadly high mount position. It was also evident that Roger studies Judo with world class judo players and has picked some of their strong points that work well with jiu jitsu. Alex Shum of Storm Gis (a 4 stripe blue belt under Renzo Gracie) helped me understand some of Roger’s teaching better. He has worked with him before and studies film obsessively. Alex came in from Hong Kong. Read More
The new year is here! Looking back on our first year I am surprised at how well it has gone. First of all we have grown in membership from zero to the point where some of our classes are full! From my experience with other academies once the the membership numbers that we have now are reached academies only grow exponentially. This means new workout partners, new friends, and a solid business base. The later should allow us to do more fun extra events such as our trip to NYC and the main Renzo Gracie Academy last July. We had a few other members who where not along for the July trip, individually take advantage of the training at the main school. At Renzo Gracie NYC world champions including two current ufc champions (Edgar and St. Pierre), two of the best jiu jitsu competitors of all times (Roger Gracie and Braulio Estima) as well as many other world level competitors train regularly. While in NYC we had some belt promotions. Logan Stout, Noah Nieman, and Mike Wilkins where awarded blue belts. All of them had at least a year of training in jiu jitsu before starting at RGA Pittsburgh academy, lots of talent, and where long overdue promotions (sandbaggers!!!). Lance Thompson was awarded his purple after only about two and a half years of training including his first year and a half at Steel City (another BJJ academy located South of RGA Pittsburgh). I had the great honor of getting my Black Belt from Renzo Gracie himself with many other of my teachers, friends, and mentors including Shawn Williams, John Danaher, Daniel Gracie, and the Brothers Rolles, Igor, and Gregor Gracie there supporting me. Rolles, it has been a lot of living passing since Cuiaba, Brazil, for me (probably for both of us) but Jiu jitsu has been a constant. Thank you Renzo and thank you to my students and training partners including past and present in Brazil, Costa Rica, California, State College, and now Pittsburgh for helping me past this milestone. We had two other belt promotions including Anthony Previte (officially the second person to join RGA Pittsburgh). Anthony was my first belt promotion. Earlier Daniel Gracie awarded talented Lucas Burdette his Blue Belt as well. Read More