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 [...]

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!

Tonight was a special session of the Gracie-Barra Marbella training, filled with happiness and disappointment.

The training focused on defending the back position, with some special training for about 20 minutes.

As part of our training we then did some tournament simulated fighting, beginning on our feet (we do this from time to time). The first match-up [...]

As any reputable martial arts club, we’re introducing a Girl of the Month section on the website. (As soon as we have some girls in the club, we might even add a Guy of the Month section. Well, maybe not.)

Anyway, the lads voted, and our first Girl of the Month is the gorgeous Plaza Gym [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

The Gracie-Barra BH team traveled this weekend to have some fun in Granada, and participate in a totally different sport — wrestling. Ben Johnson, Mike Rios and professor Edson Jorge competed. Edson made it to the championship round, where he lost to the competition favorite (not bad for a guy recovering from a broken hand!)

Plaza Gym has reached a new agreement with our club. As of December 1, 2005, all paid members of the Gracie Barra BH Marbella martial arts club are now full members of the Plaza Gym, entitled to visit as often as they wish, and make use of all gym facilities, including weights, training machines, aerobic classes, etc. This is great news!