GBMarbellaBrazilian Jiu Jitsu in Marbella, Spain

Last week we had the privilege of hosting none other than Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes himself for an evening of seminars, beginning with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and concluding with Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Draculino

Draculino is literally one of the “founding fathers” of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has probably produced more champions in his career than any other. Today he lives in Houston, Texas (USA) where he runs the Gracie Barra Houston academy, as well as managing a network of affiliates (ours included) around the world.

A seminar with Draculino is always special, as he has a natural gift for teaching. In the BJJ seminar, we focused on the back position, looking at various ways to transition to the back, and to finish. Every technique he demonstrated was efficient, effective, and something we can immediately incorporate into our toolboxes.

We were also really happy to have in attendance our friends from around Andalucia, including Vinicius (from Marbella), Jose Antonio (from La Linea), Pablo & Luis (from Malaga), Pablo Cabo (also from Malaga) and Nacho (from Tarifa).

A farewell to Thelmo

There was a sad portion of the evening as well, as we learned that our instructor of the past years, Thelmo Calmon, is returning to his home country of Brazil, to reunite with family and pursue a number of opportunities that have arisen for him there.

Thelmo has been dedicated to the club for almost half a decade, and will be surely missed. Fortunately, it looks like he’ll be able to return each July for a visit.

Leadership of the club will now pass to black-belt Matt Henderson, and brown-belt Leo Galati, with instruction assistance from all the brown belts, including Augusto Aloiso (who’s also the director of the gym), Daniel Nagore and Mike Rios.

With the European Championship nine weeks away, there’s no time to rest, so it’s back to work!

On Monday, Thelmo casually ended the class by saying, “So a good friend of mine from San Francisco is coming to town. He's a black belt and will be teaching a seminar.” We all thought, “Ok, cool.” Then he casually added, “Oh, yeah… it's Sapao!”

CARLOS SAPAO BAN!

This is huge news for the academy! Sapao visited us a few years ago, back when we were training in Puerto Banus, and everybody agreed he was one of the best guest instructors we've ever had. Sapao is one of the authentic pioneers of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. When you see those photos from Rio de Janeiro, with Royce Gracie, Rickson Gracie, Helio Gracie, Ryan Gracie, etc. — you'll usually see Sapao right there in the mix. He's a legend.

And so we're super excited to announce a seminar tonight with Sapao, from 7PM to 10PM at Dynamic Training Center. The cost is 30 euros. Don't miss it!

Our very own Babak Alimoradian, owner of local adventure company Team Extreme and current Blue Belt Masters European Champion is training hard in preparation to compete in at the World Championship mid-April in Abu Dhabi. He’s been training very hard (good for Babak, bad for the rest of us poor souls), and we believe he’s got a great chance to take Gold Medal. Good luck!

CAMBIO DE GIMNASIO / CHANGE OF GYM

A partir de hoy, 2 Diciembre, empezamos a entrenar en el gimnasio nuevo que se esta montando Augusto, en el edificio a lado de SmallWorld Cafe, cerca del disco de Olivia Valere en la carretera de Istan. El horario es el mismo — 20:30h a 22:00h. Hay un link abajo a una mapa.

Beginning today, December 2, training will take place in a new gym, being set up by Gracie-Barra member Augusto. The gym is in the same building as the SmallWorld Cafe, close to the Olivia Valere disco in the Istan road (in Marbella). Training times are the same — 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Below is a Google map to the location.

Map to the new gym…

Google map to the new gym

NEW FACEBOOK PAGE

A new Facebook Page has been created to help keep everybody informed about Gracie-Barra Marbella, and to announce events. Please visit the page, become a Fan, and let others know about it. Thanks!

Gracie-Barra Marbella Facebook Page

For the past week or so, we’ve had the pleasure of having Nabil Khrissi, of Paris, France, training with us at Gracie-Barra Marbella. Nabil is a very talented brown belt under Master Ricardo de la Riva.

It’s always great to have the opportunity to train with high-level BJJ practitioners from other schools. It was particularly nice having Nabil with us, as, in addition to having a very solid BJJ game (he received his brown belt after only three years!) he’s also a really nice guy, that we all came to consider a new friend.

We’re looking forward to seeing Nabil again here in Marbella, or perhaps at the upcoming ADCC in Barcelona, and the BJJ European Championships next year in Portugal.

Friday night was kinda sad for us at GB Marbella, as it was the last night of instruction from our guest professor, Carlos Sapaõ Ban.

To close the month, Carlos gave a special workshop, beginning with some classic BJJ self defense techniques, and closing the night with a series (progression) of attacks and submissions beginning with a choke from the guard which, even though many of us had never seen it, turns out to also be a classic BJJ technique.

We want to wish Carlos all the very best in his career, and as a close friend of our teacher, Edson Sururu Jorge, we hope that Carlos will have a chance to return and continue supporting the group.

Carlos now leaves for a few weeks giving workshops in Poland, before returning to the United States. Have a safe trip, Carlos. It was great having you with us this summer!

We also want to say a big thanks and express our appreciation to professor Edson Jorge, for taking good care of us during his extended stay in Brazil. While away, Edson is helping to keep our jiu-jitsu sharp by organizing superb guest instruction from world class athletes like Carlos. Thanks, Edson! We're all looking forward to your quick return to Spain!

Finally, we'll close with a final interview from Carlos:

Last week we said goodbye to Augusto “Tio Chico” Vieira, a close friend of Edson who visited us for two months as guest instructor.

During the months he was here, Tio Chico became a friend to us all, and taught us some amazing jiu-jitsu. To give you an idea just how good he is, consider that this year at the BJJ Mundiales, he barely lost to the very guy that choked out the mythical Kron Gracie, and eventual gold medalist. And just prior to leaving, he spent his last weekend here in Sevilla, competing at the Hemo Hold grappling tournament, where he took first place in both his category and absolute, beating, in the process, some of Spain’s best grapplers.

You can certainly expect to see big things in the future for Tio Chico!

Augusto now leaves Marbella with destination New York, where he’ll spend some time with Renzo Gracie, and set his plans for his future.

With that, we wish Tio Chico all the best in his career. Thanks for two great months!