Congrats to new SBGi BJJ brown belt!

Big congrats to Karl Tanswell, I awarded him a well earned brown belt yesterday. His Jits game is innovative, fundamentally solid, well rounded, and dangerous.

SBGi's 11th Spring Camp was a blast!

Awesome -Awesome - Awesome Camp!

First off, we all missed Luis very much, he got very sick on the way to the plane.

But that said, I probably picked up more things from this Camp myself, then any other previously. Eric Jetton's wrestling clinic was amazing. . .tons of little details that had an immediate impact on my game.


Karl, as always, rocked with his clinch and BJJ sections. His brown belt was overdue, and well earned.

Eric Hemphill showed why he is SBGi's newest black belt with some amazing Jits techs, his game is unique, and dangerous.


And Whittier?!

He taught the flip side of the 3 zones of death defense we all work that Kav taught last spring. Fantastic fundamentals for the guy in top guard for MMA. . . .and the side training between Steve Whittier and and Hemphill gave us a whole new MMA guard bottom game to play with. As always, simple and effective.


Also big thanks to Rebecca for some very cool warm ups, as well as to everyone who showed up from around the world. I really appreciate the guests we had from Canada, Scotland, London, etc. . . . .One of the individuals present, who has not really been around the scene before wrote me this:

"I was completely blown away by the vibe and energy of all the sbg players...amazing. That is what i call authenticity."


I couldn't say it better myself. Thanks everyone. . .now I am going to sleep for a few days ; )

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SBGi Denmark highlight video

Highlight video of SBGi Denmark's fighters in the CSA Open 1 tournament is now online:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3731855092111769194&q=%22csa+open%22

Also, some of the fights are online here:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22csa+open%22

Enjoy!

Congrats new SBGi purple belts!

Big congrats to new SBGi purple belt Lily Pagle!



I just returned last weekend from a great visit to our Berkeley CA Gym. And I am privilaged to announce that I awarded Lily Pagle a well deserved purple belt on Saturday. Lily's BJJ is on fire, and she is a living testamnet to what SBGi is all about. Congrats Lily! : )

-Matt

Robert (T3) gets his purple!

Congratulations to Robert (T3) Freliech for his recent promotion to purple belt. At 17, Robert has taken NAGA National Champ titles throughout his teens, won his divisions at GQ and Abu Dhabi tournies, and even taken Judo state champ title along the way. A royal pain to any adults competing at his weight class, he is now the first of our PAW generation of kids to get his purple.

Most importantly for us at One Dragon/ So Flo, he is quickly becoming our finest coach and will soon be running most of all PAW sessions and a large part of our gym.

Congrats T and special thanks to Jonathan for helping me keep him down for the belt ;)

-Luis

SBGi Denmark at CSA Open 1

Saturday SBGi Denmark had more than 15 fighters in the first CSA Open tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark. We had lots of beginners fighting, and everyone did really well. We took home a few medals:

-66 kg

Lasse Blaabjerg age 14 took silver in this adult class winning against a handfull of bigger and more experienced opponents. He armbarred a 15 year old orange belt who has been winning several Judo and BJJ turnaments. Very good performance from this promising athlete!

-77 kg

Kim Ignatius - a.k.a. "The Garbage Man Submission Machine" - submitted all his opponents on his way to the final, where he lost against a really good opponent. He almost finished the fight with a kimura but lost on points.

Claus Vistesen, who just got his blue belt from Matt a few months ago, did a very good job against many tough opponents and took the bronze medal.

-99 kg Morten Jensen took the gold medal in this weight class after beating two big and strong guys both by submission.

All the other fighters had tons of great fights and wins although they didn't made it to the finals. I am very proud of the team!

For more pictures of the SBG athletes in action, go to: http://www.csa-cph.dk/galleri.asp?id=21

Fights and highlight video will be available on Google Video soon :)