Draculino Team MarbellaBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Marbella, Spain

Update: For those not quite familiar with the sport of grappling– Despite what it looks like, Bray and Jeff, in the above picture, are actually participating in the act of combat. There is absolutely nothing romantic going on there, and Bray is not trying to pull Jeff’s pants up just a little bit higher.

Well, it’s the holiday season, and that means trying to balance training with travel and Christmas activities. Your humble author is presently in the US, in the middle of an absolute eat-a-thon. And being in the US, that means training at my home-away-from-home, the Gracie-Barra gym of Paul Creighton Mixed Martial Arts, in Duluth, Georgia.

I met Paul about three and a half years ago, when his gym had an enrollment of about four students. Last night, we had a hard time finding room for the nearly 20 people! (And that was the “advanced” class, which takes place after the “beginners” class at 5:45 pm.) The place is definitely growing, and that’s great for Paul and the sport in the northern Atlanta area.

Training in Duluth also means getting see my old buddies like Bray, Josh and whirlwind Mark. It’s been a lot of fun. Last night we did a guard pass (no-gi, passing the butterfly guard) and a leg bar submission.

The news from Marbella (via Mike) is that Edson’s received a great offer, and we’re now training at the brand new Platinum Gym, in downtown Puerto Banus (five minutes from Marbella.) Mike reported that the first night of training was great, although Jose Antonio submitted him about three times. Jose, we better see you at the Europeans!

(Speaking of the Europeans, how in the world am I going make weight by 30 January, given my commitment to have at least one Starbucks Mocca Frappuccino per day???)

Tonight we trained a nice pass of the sitting guard, and a standup judo-related takedown. We sparred for about 30 minutes at the end of class. Now that Edson is training hard, we really see his talent!

Be sure to check out a video of tonight’s technique!

We had a lot of fun at training tonight. Edson showed us some techniques for taking the back position, attacking from the back, and defending from the back. We spent about 20 minutes in specific training, and then about 30 minutes in live sparring. Edson’s recovering well from his broken hand, and is back sparring with the guys.

Jose Antonio was back tonight from his 25 day trip to Argentina, and, unfortunately for the rest of us, he did lose much technique during those days. ;-)

Friday night means grappling, and tonight Edson started the class with a technique for passing an opponent’s sitting guard. After we mastered that one, he showed up two incredible leg locks (kneebar and foot lock) to apply when the opponent counters with a half-guard.

And most importantly, we decided that we’re going to introduce a “Chica del Mes” (Girl of the Month) section for this website. Stay tuned!

Tonight we repeated the double attack from the guard (since a number of people attended who weren’t there on Monday). We then did about 30 minutes of specific training, guard passing, whereby the winner stays in. Good class.

Tonight we trained the double-attack from the mount and from the guard. Edson also showed us some details about property choking technique, in particular proper wrist movement for the cases where (1) you have both hands in the lapel of the opponent’s gi, and (2) where one wrist in inside the gi, and the other is grasping the shoulder area. Very important!

We ended training with about 20 minutes of specific training, one opponent starts in the mount. The winner stays.