An article written about our recent Blue Belts; Roel & Cha and their seminar adventures! Here is the translation: Three years ago, Roel Fleuren and his wife Charissa moved to the United States because she accepted a new job at Penn State University which as you might know became NCAA wrestling champions for the fourth consecutive time this year. Roel and Charissa have discovered BJJ in America and since they are moving back to Europe in a few months, they have set themselves the goal to visit a lot of seminars while still in America. Fortunately, Roel managed to find us and in the near future we will publish some more of his pieces about their last BJJ supper in the US. We kick off with their visit to a Master Rigan Machado seminar. “Three years ago, Charissa (my wife) and I moved to the U.S. because she accepted a job at The Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA. In the past, we have both trained in several different (traditional) martial arts in the Netherlands, such as Taekwondo, Pencak Silat, Capoeira, Kung Fu and Kickboxing, so one of the first things we did in the U.S. was go and look for a gym that offered martial arts. We ended up at Central PA Mixed Martial Arts, where our eyes first fell on their Muay Thai classes. We decided, however, to register for the MMA program because it included both Muay Thai and submission wrestling (no-gi) which seemed interesting to try out. We really liked the submission wrestling classes so we decided to sign up for the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes as well. It didnt take long before we really started liking all the ground work, and ever since then weve been spending quite a few hours in the gym. During the last three years we have done a couple of seminars (for instance by Erik Paulson and Daniel Gracie), but since were moving to Germany in August, we decided to go to as many seminars as possible during these last few months in the U.S. One of the opportunities that came along was a seminar by Master Rigan Machado about 3.5 hours away from our hometown. Luckily, driving in the U.S. is a lot more relaxed than in the Netherlands (get onto the highway, turn on your cruise control and...go), so the decision to go was easily made. The seminar was organized by Combat Fitness Martial Arts in Doylestown, PA. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the owner, head instructor and brown belt under Master Rigan Machado, Mr Joe Cargado. The gym was pretty big with lots of mat space and a fitness room. The morning session was reserved for the no-gi work. Since the experience of the participants ranged from several months to about 3 years, Master Machado decided to focus on the holy trinity of BJJ: armbar, triangle and omoplata. With attention to detail he first explained how to set up an armbar from the guard. One detail he mentioned was that in no-gi he prefers to grab behind the opponents elbows instead of controlling the wrists, because it gives him more control while setting up the armbar. After the armbar was explained and drilled, it was time for the triangle. Next, both submissions were combined in one drill. During this drill, Master Machado would tell you when to change from armbar to triangle and vice versa. This started out slowly, but during the next few minutes he would increase the speed until it was so fast that I couldnt keep up anymore. Having observed everyone during those drills, he decided to show us some stretching exercises for the hips so that everyone would be more flexible and mobile in the exercises that were to follow. During the stretching exercises, he told us a story about how he sat on a bench as a 14 year-old boy with his uncle, Professor Carlos Gracie, who was in his eighties at that time. He asked his uncle why he was still doing these stretching exercises every morning and evening. His uncle answered him by putting one leg behind his head and then got up and stood on his other leg. Okay, that sounds like as good a reason to stretch as any Ive ever heard. Then he showed us some shrimp and spinning drills using the wall, which would help us to do to the armbar, triangle and/or omoplata faster. Next, he explained the omoplata followed by some drilling. This was added to the triangle and armbar and was again followed by a round that went from slow to really fast. I had worked up quite an appetite by doing these exercises, but luckily it was also time for lunch. After a nice lunch at the local Panera we went back to the gym for the gi session. The experience level of the participants varied a little more this time with several blue belts and one purple belt. The topic for the afternoon was the spider guard and we looked into the many possibilities of this position. Master Machado showed us a lot of techniques in a short amount of time, so it was a good thing we brought pen and paper to write everything down so we could review it later and practice it by ourselves. First, he showed us how to sweep someone from spider guard by putting one foot on their bicep and the other on the hip. Next, he told us how to use the spider guard to set up an armbar followed by how it can be used to hit to omoplata. After he showed a technique, we had a couple of minutes to practise them with our partner. At one point, Master Machado came over to my wife and me and told us that because we have such long legs (Dutch people are clearly taller than most Americans :-) ) we should really practice the spider guard because it would work really well for us. During the session, special attention was paid to the various sweeps you can do from spider guard, both when your opponent is sitting down and when he is standing up. They ranged from relatively simple, like the one mentioned above to some really complicated ones, e.g. one where you go inverted or one where your lift your opponent by putting your feet on his hips and then throw him to the side while blocking his leg and pulling one of his sleeves. Finally, he asked whether people were interested to see some black belt techniques. Well, of course we were. First, he showed us how you can quickly take someones back after going to omoplata from spider guard. This part I could still kinda follow. But then he showed how after you get to a similar position you can have your opponent do a little somersault after which he ends up in an armbar. Hmmmmm, I think I have to see that one a few times more, but it was really cool to see how easy he made that look. The end of the seminar was in sight, but not before he had us repeat everything. He showed us all the techniques one more time and after that he made us run laps around the gym and when he called a number, we had to run to the nearest partner and each person had to perform that technique once. This way, we were able to try all the techniques we just learned on people with different body types...very instructive. The afternoon ended with a great surprise for organizer Joe Cargado as Master Machado decided to give him his black belt. For me, it was the first time I saw someone get his black belt and it made quite an impression on me. It was a perfect ending of a great seminar. Next, we drove to Allentown, PA to see two of our friends fight at a kickboxing event. After the fights were over, we started the journey back home and now it is time to drill all these techniques weve learned so that the acquired information will not be lost. Next Thursday, were going to a Robson Moura seminar, so well very likely to suffer from information overload by the end of this week, but I m really looking forward to it.”
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 01:28:10 +0000
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