This past weekend, the Gracie-Barra BH Marbella academy had the pleasure of hosting a BJJ and grappling seminar with Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães. And I honestly have to say, it was the best seminar I’ve ever attended.

Draculino is the head of the Gracie-Barra Belo Horizonte (BH) jiu-jitsu academy in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and is considered to be one of the world’s leading instructors of modern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and submission wrestling. To consistently produce world and pan-american champions, as Draculino has done, it’s essential that an instructor continually studies and evolves the art.

The theme of the seminar was change and the unexpected. Draculino began the seminar by discussing the modern day situation in competition jiu-jitsu. He explained that knowledge of the art has dispersed to a point that nearly all the traditional strategies and tactics are now commonly known, and that to have an edge in today’s competition, one must be prepared to react to situations in unexpected ways; ways in which your opponent will not expect. He said that much effort is given in his academy to in-depth study of positions and strategies, and that much of what we will see in the seminar are fruits of that effort.

During the next four hours, we were taught some amazing strategies, tactics and techniques applicable to the some of the most common competition situations — counter attacks to the single leg takedown, guard, half-guard and side control.

I’ve attended many jiu-jitsu seminars, and several things really caught my attention during the Draculino seminar. First, the man is very friendly, and down to earth. During the seminar, he really seemed like “one of the guys,” which created an environment in which the students didn’t hesitate to ask questions. Secondly, his attention to detail was impressive. He wasn’t satisfied until each student really understood the huge importance of subtle details in each of the various techniques. Finally, the techniques that we learned are techniques that we learned are very applicable. Sometimes I’ve seen techniques taught in seminars that, while often spectacular to what, have a relative small probability to be executed properly in live fighting. The techniques that Draculino taught us, however, seem immensely applicable, and will be very difficult to defend against.

If you ever have a chance to attend a Draculino seminar, we can highly recommend it! And we look forward to having him back during his next European tour.

Esta semana pasada, la academia Gracie-Barra BH Marbella tuvo el placer the impartir un seminario de BJJ y Submission con Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhães. Y honestamente tengo que decir que fue el mejor seminario al que he acudido.

Draculino es la cabeza de la academia Gracie-Barra en Belo Horizonte, Brasil, y es considerado uno de los instructores lideres del Jiu-Jitsu Brasileño y submission wrestling moderno. Para producir constantemente campeones a nivel mundial y pan-americano, como ha hecho, es esencial que el instructor esté continuamente estudiando este arte.

La linea del día fue cambiada de manera no esperada. Draculino comenzó el seminario discutiendo la situación actual de la competición en Jiu-Jitsu. El explicó que el conocimiento del arte se ha expandido hasta un punto en el que todas las estrategias y tácticas tradicionales son comunmente conocidas, y que para tener oportunidades en las competiciones actuales, uno debe estar preparado para reaccionar ante situaciones no esperadas; caminos que tu oponente no va a esperar. Nos explicó que en su academia se esfuerzan en estudiar de manera profunda posiciones y estrategias, y mucho de lo que ibamos a ver en el seminario era fruto de este esfuerzo.

Durante las próximas cuatro horas, se nos enseñó algunas estrategias increibles, tácticas y técnicas aplicables a algunas de las situaciones mas comunes en competición — contraataques contra proyecciones a una sola pierna, guardia, media guardia y control lateral.

He presenciado muchos seminarios de Jiu-Jitsu, y varias cosas realmente captaron mi atención durante el seminario de Draculino. Primero, es muy amistoso, y con los pies en el suelo. Durante el seminario, el realmente parecía uno mas , lo que creó un ambiente en el que los estudiantes nunca desistieron de realizar preguntas. Segundo, su atención a los detalles fue sorprendente. No estaba satisfecho hasta que cada estudiante realmente entendía la gran importancia de los sub-detalles en cada una de las técnicas. Finalmente, las técnicas que aprendimos son muy prácticas a la hora de aplicarlas. Algunas veces he visto técnicas dadas en otros seminarios que realmente tiene una muy baja probabilidad de ser ejecutadas correctamente en luchas reales. Las técnicas que nos dió Draculino parecen inmensamente prácticas y son muy dificiles de defender.

Si algunas vez tienes una oportunidad de acudir a un seminario de Draculino, te lo recomendamos! Y esperamos tenerlo de regreso en su próximo tour europeo.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 1st, 2006 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.