i hurt my mcl pretty badly recently too. jumped on the mats too soon before my neck healed and this is what happens.

i am still thinking about competing but cuz my leg is like jelly, i may need to play half guard...

i've had chronic neck problems. the trip did flare it up but as soon as i got back to la, what happens? i get into a fender bender. my neck started to get worse. i went to the chiro and it feels a little better but not good enough to train. my day isn't a good day unless i am training!

ahhh good to be back home...

i got to train one day while i was in the chicagoland area. i found a place called champion jiu jitsu in arlington heights. they were kind enough to let me drop in and didn't even charge me a mat fee. professor assou harvard and junko harvard were very nice and hospitable!

at core fitness in kentucky. I got to meet a legend. helio sonneca is one of names you always hear about in bjj. hes been around the game a long time, been a black belt forever, and has trained people all over. i don't know what he's doing in kentucky but while they have him there, they are lucky.

he had us drill a lot of wrestling takedowns and taking the back drills. his wrestling was good his techniques were very detailed. every time we didn't do it right, he would stop the class and show it again. until everyone had it down perfect. all the moves were from taking the shot and coming around and taking the back, to stuffing the shot and taking the back. in no gi, the highest percentage finish usually is the rear naked choke.

i was rolling with my buddy chewy and he hillbilly spazzed on me and popped my neck so i will be out of training for a bit. but i'm glad i got to train with helio sonneca cuz i had missed him while i was in colorado.

the thing i got from him is foot placment. i never thought about if my feet should be up or down, or what angle they should be. he focused from the feet up. get your footwork down, then do the rest of the move. that makes a lot of sense.

training at the source. i train under a renzo bb, named shawn williams back in la. this is the home base of all the renzo affiliates. it is the home of renzo gracie and the ifl pitbulls. there are so many good guys walking around, let alone actual gracies and other black belts. the person i was looking forward to training with the most was john danagher. i got to take some classes with some of the other black belts and those were wonderful. john's classes were good as well. the difference in john's class is, its more laid back. never started on time while i was there. no warm ups. the first set of techniques start from standing, the later ones on the ground. and he shows it about twice, and has us drill it a million times haha. or at least i did. i love to just drill moves until i get worn out. but its become ingrained in my nervous system. with proper sleep , it should be in there forever. or at least a long time.

i like to call john danagher's style of teaching and techniques, economy of movement. hes very soft spoken, doesn't over explain things, doesn't show the move a whole bunch, and the move itself isn't riddle with useless sub-movements. it's very lean with just the essential meat of what you need. he doesn't need to show the move a whole lot cuz the move doesn't seem overcomplicated and it relates to the move you just did previously. he won't show you a move that is low percentage, and watching him move is like a machine, exactly the same every time. he doesn't seem to make any mistakes. amazing.

i enjoyed all the classes i took at renzos. its like a 4 seasons there with lockers, showers, reception, vending machine, weight room, etc.

i loved all the stand up training i did there. the main mat is gigantic but fills up with a lot of guys. all the rolls usually start from standing, even if there is room or not haha.

all the guys i met there were friendly and they get the luxury of training with a lot of the best renzo guys.

i made it all the way to the other coast and got to train with the infamous academy, lloyd irvin's brazilian jiu jitsu. love them or hate them they are renowned, produced champs, and are the "it" school right now. i was speaking to ryan hall about this and he told me he doesn't get why so many people hate him. he has a ton of fans but he also has guys who can't wait for him to lose. i don't get it either cuz ryan is such a nice guy and the few moments i spent with lloyd irvin and in communicating with him over e-mail, he was nothing but hospitable and gracious and asked for nothing from me and offered me access to his whole academy. wow.

in cities i wanted to visit, no city in maryland was on my list. but the reason i came here was strictly for lloyd irvin's academy. to see what all the talk was about. i was planning to stay only a few days but ended up staying a whole week. it was that good. and all the guys took time to talk jiu jitsu with me and offer me any kind of help.

one of my favorite classes was ryan's science of jiu jitsu class. it was a theory and concept class and that's always been my fascination with jiu jitsu. the science and theory behind it. i'm like that about everything from film, jiu jitsu, economy, history, philosophy, its all about concepts and theories for me. so ryan and the other guys were talking right up my alley. i am terrible at names so i don't remember everyone. one of the purples showed me some closed guard tricks and they had wrestling classes which i loved. master donny showed me some great gripping principles and principles in passing and shared a lot of wisdom.

even if i write everything down during this journey i wont remember all i've seen. its impossible and writing jiu jitsu down, i can never understand it nor do i even bother looking back. but the perspective i've gotten i will keep forever. and one thing this school had in spades was a passion for brazilian jiu jitsu!

ps: ryan hall is as good as they say. but beyond that he is a nice guy and is open to sharing everything he knows. we shared one thing in common, visiting academies and seeing guys trying to tear your head off. haha we had a good laugh about that. visitors show respect by tapping often.

brazilian jiu jitsu and mma is everywhere. this is proof. actually mma is huge in the south and in the midwest. seems like everyone is a fighter or has hopes to be. i came upon this school cuz i have been buddies for a long time with one of their fighters, nick albin aka chewy aka tugboat. he invited me over, i stayed at his place, we ate clean, trained hard all week. he helped me a lot with incorporating wrestling with my jj. which has now become the theme of this trip, incorporating wrestling with jj. wrestling isn't just takedowns, it only begins with takedowns.

colin and kyle the bjj instructors were so cool and laid back and gracious and i got to roll with both killers who prove to me that bjj is alive and well in the heartland. there are some drills and moves they showed me that i will take with me and keep practicing. a lot of it is good old fashioned bread and butter bjj. and also this trip has opened my eyes to perspectives, and they had a lot of simple ways to get around moves i didn't think about. a lot of controlling their legs with your hand when you are on top as opposed to fighting for an underhook lets say. and spinning around. guys here were spinning and taking my back here like tops.

another fighter i got to work with a bit is george, who was closer to my weight and a hell of a jj guy. their wrestling class was fun and a lot of little details i learned that i will need to work on, on my own.

there are also a lot of mma guys there who train strictly mma it seems. they are explosive to roll with. i almost forgot what it was like to roll with nonjj guys. you got to ground them and start to work grips and keep them planted so they can't back out and if they stand, get underneath them. when i came here, i came with 2 lightly sprained ankles that i got at att. and eventually one guy i did roll with dropped down for a heel hook and popped my ankle and i had to escape cuz i didn't even have time to tap, cuz he went so fast. i got scared that my whole trip was going to end cuz i got my knee shredded. luckily my ankle just swelled up a bit but my knee felt ok. this is not indicative of the school, but every academy has dudes or scenarios you got to be mindful of. a reminder for me to always tap early, especially to leg locks, such as heel hooks. but general rule of thumb in bjj is no heel hooks with gis on, and lower belts should never try them, and when high belts do, should be done with utmost control. you train smart and you train long.

i had a great time here and had a lot of fun and got into incredible shape thanks to chewy and the guys at derby city. everyone there is tough and made me feel like a white belt. even the kids. i feel beat up and will probably take the rest of the weekend off.

but i loved derby city!

wow dammit! i made it to american top team. the mecca for fighters. when i thought of places i had to visit, att was at the top of that list. are you kidding me? its a who's who. if you are a fight fan, just walking around, you will see tons of fighters, not only fighters, but contenders. in kickboxing, boxing, and mma. not only that but the man himself ricardo liborio also teaches here. wow! its by far the largest facility i have ever seen. full weights, cardio area, a store, kids area, lockers, showers, sauna, cage, 2 giant mats, a boxing area, a 2nd square cage, a ring, are you kidding me? its an mma fantasy gym.

so many good fighters here. there are also a ton of black belts. i took a gi and no gi class. and even a class with liborio. ufc fighter carmelo marrero did a wrestling takedown class, there is stuff i picked up there that i will continue to use.

liborio and shark fine tuned my jiu jitsu. and the guys i rolled with at this gym... man made me feel like i am out of shape. maybe cuz they are near the beach. but a lot of beach bod type guys picking me up and tossing me around like a rag doll haha.

but in one training session a guy rolled on top of both of my ankles. it was pain like, i couldn't move. i was on top of him and he spazzed some to get out and i had my ankles locked underneath him with myself on top and he kept bumping up and down over and over and it wrecked my ankles. i could barely walk. thank goodness i was able to unlock my legs in time, i think they should be fine. definitely not broken thank God. but a light sprain.

but when you do a sport as tough as this, this is to be expected. this is a gym for all kinds. pro fighters, children, women, enthusiasts, and competitors.

they offer so many classes. the guys were all getting ready for naga, i wish them the best. with liborio as your trainer, i can't see them not doing well. both shark and liborio and even the general manager were all gracious as well as all the fighters walking around.

i loved it!!!

finally got the chance to train at alliance bjj. i had heard about it for years. jacare is the head of alliance team and they have produced a lot of champions like jacare himself, chris moriarty, marcello garcia, franjinha, fabio gurgel and cobrinha

their academy is top rate with some great techniques. they were getting ready for the pan american games. everyone was working hard and i learned some invaluable techniques. they had a great mix of older and younger grapplers.

this academy produces champions as they say. they had us work a lot of takedowns, which were great. every time i just grabbed any old way, i was corrected. proper grips! they are highly technical.

there were also a lot of brazilian guys there. there's a lot of brazilians in atlanta? i never knew.

man his guys were all tough. and he pairs everyone up and has them do 10 min rounds and oversees and along with cobrinha coaches everyone. it was really great to know the instructors are watching and observing you at all times. makes it safer and makes you better.

they were generous and we talked about the person in common we knew. even gave me a souvenir. as i left a toe nail there as a souvenir haha. hopefully some day i will come back.

i got to spend a couple days in oklahoma city training at lovato bjj academy. they just opened up their new facility and i guess i had just missed xande and gumby who had just left. i had accidentally went to their old academy but luckily they had info posted on their window regarding their new academy. the lovatos welcomed me like no other academy before. father and son both were so hospitable. rafael jr personally returned my e-mail with his contact info in case i needed anything. rafael sr knew i was coming and talked to me and gave me a bit of history on the school and asked me all about my jiu jitsu journey with genuine interest. he even gave me a lovato team shirt. score! rafael jr made an announcement to welcome me to his academy and asked me to roll right away so i wouldn't leave without having a chance to roll with the man himself. oh man i feel so grateful to the lovatos. makes me want to move here and train...

i didn't get to do any of the class but better than that, i went to their open mat and got to see the lovato team training session. let me say the new facility is big, has a cage, showers and they are still working on it. even got a little store. its a huge facility but its not about size its about quality.

the room is filled with pan am and world champs. rafael having a huge year last year and the year before. rolling with him was great. truly a level above. but the great thing was afterwards he asked me if i had any questions. wow. the first time anyone asked me that. i asked him a few things and he helped me with my guard telling me to bring my knees closer to my chest to always keep a wedge between myself and my opponent. great advice. the little things make all the difference.

he invited me to eat with him but i had to go before it got too late. but i did get to watch the team training. i can see now this is not a school for just techniques, this is an academy and team for people who want to be champions. their team training was unlike anything i had seen before. not in california, not in vegas, nowhere.

rafael still actively competes so i can see he makes the training tough not only for his students but also himself. its bitter cold in there, you can see your breath. but they steam up the windows after a while. but man when you first step on the mats, your feet sting. it was a mix of high school wrestling training, cross fit, kettle bells, sparring, and hell.

rafael jr told me to prepare to see pain. and thats what i did see and it made me salivate. man it was like watching rocky train. and they all motivate each other to gut through it. its not like one person motivating the group, everyone is in it to the end. that is awesome.

this supports my theory jiu jitsu thrives in towns that are already competitive and good at wrestling. they also offer striking and the lovatos have a background in amateur boxing! they also make you test for a blue belt to see if you got the fundamentals. thats brilliant.

i got to roll with one of their purples who was smooth as butter. and a wrestler who is also a blue belt getting ready for the pan ams. i had a lot of fun with those guys rolling and getting smashed. i feel bad i bled on one of their gis haha.

i loved it here and will probably some day come again!

past few days i have been doing 2 a days at easton bjj. its in boulder colorado and the first thing you notice is the altitude. its super high and super cold. its like rocky training. this is what i mean by 2 a days. i wake up. go to amal's. do the day class at noon. train for an hour and a half. come back and drink some jamba juice. go to the sauna for 45 mins. take a freezing shower. nap. eat again. go train. shower. eat again. and ice and ibuprofen. all the training and traveling is taking a toll on my body for sure. but its all worth it.

training at easton bjj has been amazing. i feel my cardio is up and my techniques that much better. all the guys there are eager and have a true passion for bjj as well as all the instructors and assistant instructors. i like their infrastructure of respect based on rank and responsibility, higher ranks teach, some clean, some do administrative, etc. like a bee hive. i liked that a lot. and the amount of respect to the instructors and the higher belts gave jiu jitsu its martial arts appeal back to me.

i also met tyrone glover here. he is out here for school and i rolled with him a bit and he is one of the most athletic black belts i've seen. its like i know he's better, hes smarter, more technical, but more athletic too? how do i fight that? i told him about how ricky lundell ran me through a d'arce clinic and of course tyrone did the same thing haha. i rolled with one of the black belt instructors there named nick kline and he was very gracious and even allowed me to play my game a bit. he has a great guard and half guard game, and uses his long legs to lace through and sweep. i've seen no 2 black belts with similar games.

amal taught a class and he's very specific on how he wants things done and pays attention to details to see if you are doing it right. i liked that a lot. the class is structured so we kind of follow along first then try it out on our own and its all timed. their warm ups are killer as well too. they got a preset warm up that really not only warm you up, but for me wear me out haha.

rolling with amal easton was very cool. he showed me a lot of mistakes i was making, like my pressure is good until i get scared and give up all the hard work i did to gain ground. when i am on bottom, he showed me a few tips to make my bottom game a lot more effective and less tiring. like from being sidemounted, having the arm under their chin and monitoring the hip, which is something my instructor shawn williams advocates as well, and instead of bench pressing, you bridge high and lift with your elbows, push your shoulders back and shrimp then retain guard. little things like that will got a long way for my game. also monitoring the hip.

my game was too loose as he pointed out and i can see that myself. every mistake i made with him , every limb i put out there, he kept. he was very tight. he wasn't fast and had a very economic functional game and i hope to some day be like that as well.

training in boulder was great and i may do it again cuz i have a buddy who trains there as well.

i was driving through this, cept it was dark with no light, and snow swirling. i couldn't see one foot ahead of me and all the swirling snow was making me sick.

the scariest drive i can remember. hope the hard part is behind me.

i was on my way to boulder. but i had to stop in utah to get a chance to train with the youngest american black belt, ricky lundell. he is also a fila world submission wrestling champion and black belt under pedro sauer.

he is still an active competitor so it was my first gym that was run by a competitive instructor. when i came in he was working his wrestling with his coach. even though ricky is young, the way he comes off and speaks is very adult. maybe jiu jitsu has matured him.

first thing i noticed was the altitude in utah. not as high as boulder, but still higher than portland and much higher than la. its around 48,000 feet ricky said. so i really felt it push my wind and my muscle stamina. he ran us through every possible jiu jitsu warm up drill there is, some old school drills too and partner drills. it was great. and another drill i had forgotten about was the reverse hip escape.

ricky lundell is a true jiu jitsu nerd. a true student of the game and is always calculating new ways to hurt you and submit you. recently his obsession has been with the d'arce choke. so all day long that's all hes going for, from everywhere. working such new set ups as the d'arce maul and the d'arce vader. i am not joking. i am serious. but i won't say he always calls it those things cuz only a sith speaks in absolutes. actually laimon told me that.

he musta tapped me with the d'arce choke a bazillion times. each place i go, i notice lil bad habits i have. like lifting my head when they get sidemount allowing them to get head control, not running out when i have the chance, standing up when i can, adapting, etc.

my neck was sore but i was never cranked. this was the first school where the guys didn't roll all hard with the new guy. a testament to how ricky must run his academy. i'm glad i wasn't seen as fresh meat.

i rolled with some great partners and rolled a steady pace for a long time. ricky is a great competitor and a great teacher, he is as scientific with his jiu jits as i have seen.

if you ever happen to be passing through utah, stop by this academy!

anyone who knows anything about jiu jitsu knows this name. in grappling magazine a year ago they asked who the best bjj practitioner ever. they asked 10 of the legends of jiu jitsu to rank the top 3. everyone either ranked sergio or rickson as number 1, and a few said rolles gracie.

his academy is named after him. its just called sergio penha. its a nice school with the cleanest mats around. it was sparkling. its not even a year old i dont think. its new so lots of white belts. but they got 6 or more black belts there. you know a guy is good when so many black belts follow him.

his class was unlike none other i been to. so relaxed and so family like. when i got there he told me to stretch out. then he paired me up with someone and had us roll for 10 minutes. then he taught 1 technique, a sweet half guard sweep. then he had us roll again and paired us up. first with the first female black belt i ever rolled with. then himself. the female black belt is a penha black belt so you know she is no joke. and they go hard here cuz she had bruises to prove it. wait so did everyone else.

rolling with sergio reminded me of the old days of rolling with gokor. old school subs, like wrist locking, keylocks using his legs, and judo crush and taps every 5 seconds.

to be around such a legend was great. it was like the matrix movie, meeting the oracle. he gave me some words for my trip and about jiu jitsu. it was short and i'm sure he didn't put a whole lot into it but was very profound cuz he just spoke for the heart about jiu jitsu. i could tell it's his passion. what he told me is only for my ears only. but it did pick me up and give me some strength for the rest of this journey. he's one of the nicest guys i've met and one of the best jiu jitsu.

but i did sustain my first long term injury. me neck is very sore and is clicking again...and my elbows are starting to get sore too...but i got a lot more miles to put on my car and my body before this is done.

strike first, strike hard, no mercy. this is cobra kai. i had the luck of being able to train with laimon and simpson go when i went. a lot of places the actual instructor doesn't teach the class. luck was on my side.

simpson and laimon were both super technical and showed variations on moves i already knew. one was on a cross choke, the other on a side choke. i took their gi and no gi. marc was super nice and so was sim. i had a lot of fun and their guys are a good balance of rough and technique.

bill cooper was there too helping to run marc's class. glover is a teacher there, along with a host of others. its murderer's row there. they don't know how lucky they are to have the level of talent that they got. and i heard he's getting new mats in soon. they had 2 grappling rooms and tons of classes, even kettle bell.

just tough tough guy, no place has easy guys to roll with. these guys though were highly technical. must be the influence of all the good guys on the mat. some osmosis affect. the more good guys you got on the mat, brings up everyone else's level.

that's cobra kai.

the thing about vegas is. a lot of it is new, newly developed and the city is spreading. so a lot of the directions you find online are wrong.

also vegas people tend to just hang out where they live, and very few are born and raised there, mainly transplants.

so when i went to look for xyience and i drove around for hours and google maps was completely wrong, i called the place and the guy didn't know where anything was and gave me some terrible directions. he wasn't helpful at all. i got so frustrated i left cuz i just missed the last 2 bjj classes for the day and now i wont be able to train cuz all the other places, the classes have already started.

today i am a very angry grappler. grrrr.

i have been learning the hard way that i have to fill up whenever i am at half a tank. sometimes gas stations are far and in between. i was close to running out of gas twice. distance between gas stations? 150 miles. no cell phone. no service phones on the side of the road. no cars passing. one time was in the snowy mountains of idaho. one time was in the desert in nevada. if i were to get stuck in the middle of the road, i do not want to imagine what might happen cuz i've seen cars on the side of the road and no one stops for them. gulp! this trip is more dangerous than i thought. i went through a snow storm, a rain storm, a hail storm, and gust storms and my car was all beat up. and so far i've been through california, oregon, idaho, and nevada. oh yeah the fogs suck too. i already need my first oil change!

I have been training two a days here in oregon at impact jiu jitsu for a week. one of my favorite classes here is called combat conditioning. it reminds me of a cross fit circuit. it last for an hour and really pushes your core, endurance, and muscle stamina. i normally can roll for hours. after this class i can roll for about 10 mins before gassing.

they have this class at 5:30 and i would go to that and come later in the day for jiu jitsu. this school, their difference is that this is a sparring school. so much sparring takes places. learn a technique then apply it. theory then application and it makes total sense. they have a lot of organized sparring, with different goals. like the pass, or start stacked, or only use butterfly, etc.

all the guys here are super scrambly too, even the white belts, consistently beating me back to the knees or feet. lots of good wrestlers too. i loved my time here. its a big school and they got a great kids program and those kids are going to become beasts! tom and mike and their instructors are all first rate. i got to roll and train with some of them like armand and keisuke and omar. made me feel like a white belt again. they like the butterfly and attacking the straight arm and scissor sweeps and knee on belly and all about control, like their sbg roots for instance the harness.

they were getting ready for a regular tournament series up here called sub league so i got a lot of roll time in. these guys kicked my ass and i'm grateful!

i saw my first bum fight right in front of ralph's school. i've finally seen it all.