Danny Alvarez | Graciemag

Alvarez BJJ has round of promotions including new black belts after Dallas Open

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 23:07:21 +0000

Danny and Marc

Following the successful campaign at the recent Dallas Open, GMA member Danny Alvarez had a graduation ceremony at his school in Arlington, TX.

Among many students getting new belts and adding degrees to their belts, Marc Trought received his black belt after years of training.

Danny and AJ

AJ Tucker also received his black belt after many years of training.

Danielle and Danny

Danielle Alvarez, Danny’s daughter, received her brown belt after a very successful run as a purple belt, when she collected numerous medals.

Congratulations to all students who received new belts or degrees.

Know more at www.AlvarezBJJ.com

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Alvarez BJJ sends 4-person army from Texas to Rome, earns 7 medals

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:56:16 +0000

Joe, Danny, Bryan show off their no-gi medals on the podium. Photo: Alvarez BJJ Instagram

Black belt GMA member Danny Alvarez of Alvarez BJJ in Arlington, Texas took a team of students to compete alongside them in Rome, Italy. Normally at most IBJJF events around the country including Boston Open, Houston Open, Las Vegas Open and more, Danny himself pushes for the best results to get onto the podium and shares the same momentum with every one of his students who express the same interest.

On June 29, the first IBJJF Rome Open gave the Alvarez BJJ army a chance to prove their skills in the gi. Here are the results:

Joe Gonzales placed third in his purple belt master medium-heavy division.
Danielle Alvarez placed second in her purple belt adult lightweight division and third in the absolute.
Danny Alvarez won gold in his black belt master featherweight division.

Daughter Danielle Alvarez was out of competition for 10 months as she moved a few hours away from home to attend her first year of college. Prior to becoming a first-year college student, she competed often since she was a juvenile racking up titles in IBJJF tournaments all over the world as an adult, winning a ticket to Abu Dhabi WPJJC and earning the title of best blue belt competitor in Texas two years in a row. This competition was a good start for her return to Jiu-Jitsu competition.

The second day, on Sunday June 30 came the European No-Gi Championship and the time for the team to prove their skills without the gi. Here are the results:

Bryan Landin placed third in his blue senior 1 ultra-heavyweight division.
Joe Gonzales won gold in his purple master medium-heavy division.
Danny Alvarez won another gold in his black belt master featherweight division.

Congratulations to the team.

For more information about Alvarez BJJ you can visit www.AlvarezBJJ.com

Check out Danny Alvarez in action in his final at the European No-Gi Championship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvRgQBTl5k

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Teams prep for IBJJF Dallas Open May 5; Register by April 27!

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 02:10:54 +0000

Danny Alvarez coaching his students at the IBJJF Houston Open in February. Photo: Erin Herle

The registration for the IBJJF Dallas Open is coming to a close. The annual tournament hosted its first event in 2011 and has grown since then, catering to academies throughout Texas and further.

Some of our GMA academies will be present bringing anywhere from 5 to 40 competitors. Getting ready for both the upcoming Dallas Open and the fast approaching World Championships, we asked them about their preparation:

Danny Alvarez of Alvarez BJJ – Arlington, Texas

“We should have 30-40 competitors by the end of the deadline for registration [which is Saturday April 27!]. I have been pumping this thing up every day since IBJJF announced they were coming to Dallas.

Last year Alvarez BJJ, representing Nova Uniao, had so many competitors compared to the other NU affiliates and scored so many points that Bruno Bastos let us take home both the first place kids trophy and the adult team trophies to display in our academy. It was a great day for us and I expect this year to be even better!

I am excited for the simple fact that I know that all our competitors are so much better than last year. We work so hard all year round but we have really kicked it into high gear since the new year. I think we have done at least 10 competitions already this year. We have goals to make 2013 the best year yet and we are off to a great start. We have so many new students that have now joined our competition team and they are doing great and getting better every day as well. We have been doing a lot of positional drilling and live positional training to help us prepare. We play a lot of pass and defend from the closed and open guard. Some days its seven, eight or nine minute rounds with at least four to five rounds per class. One thing is for sure, our competitors will be in shape and will be ready to push the pace come May 5.

I go over Strategies and Scenarios a lot on how to score points advantages and of course finishes. We spend a lot of time on these things because I don’t want my competitors going out there trying to “wing it.” They all know to bring their “A” game and the tournament is not the time to bust out something new they saw on YouTube. I really just expect great things come May 5 and feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning! Be on the look out for the Alvarez BJJ patch because they will be all over.”

Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes of Gracie Barra Houston – Webster, Texas

“The preparation for the Dallas open is following the same protocol as the other big tournaments here in the state of Texas: Hard training morning and night! Also, to complement that, we have special drilling classes and stand up training.

As the Director of Gracie Barra in the state of Texas, the Dallas Open represents a very tough and exciting challenge for us. However, the city of Houston is our home base, where the state headquarters is located.

In the Houston Open, GB Texas won the tournament in all its four editions. This year, besides the Houston Open, GB Texas won the State Championships in March. There is a branch of GB in Dallas (Southlake area) and some of our other schools of Houston who will be there to compete as well.”

Justin Rader of Lovato Jiu-Jitsu – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

“The IBJJF Dallas Open Jiu-Jitsu tournament is sure not to disappoint. With many top competitors competing in past years, this one looks to be no different.

This is looking to be one of the biggest teams the Lovato Jiu-Jitsu Team has ever taken to one of the IBJJF Open tournaments. All the guys have been training very hard, and I’m very excited to see our team in action and coach them on May 5! We’re coming in strong and we’re gunning for that first place spot on the podium as a team, that is our goal!

I think one of the divisions I’m most excited to watch is the black belt middleweight division, with names like Leonardo I. Iturralde Aguirre, Albert Hughes, Nic Nikolaisen, Jacob Mackenzie, Marcus Vinícius Costa Antelante, and Carlos Diego Ferreira Neves. This division could be anybody’s! Other names to watch for are Mackenzie Dern, Gabriel Vella de Freitas, Rafael Lovato Jr., and I’m sure others will be signing up!”

Jason Ebarb of Texas Punishment Crew – Beaumont, Texas

“We’ve got about six guys making the 4.5 hour drive to Dallas. I will be there to coach. Some of our guys are using this tournament to tune up for worlds and to test their game plans which is always beneficial to make any time sensitive adjustments and to make any weaknesses stronger during preparations for worlds. Thats not to say we don’t have good local tournaments to do the same thing but we are always excited to see the IBJJF make it to Texas and be able to compete in such a prestigious organization in our own backyard and not have to buy a plane ticket. The IBJJF reputation always brings in a different scene of back patches and competitors to the mat from all over and that is very valuable when trying to progress and prepare. It’s a unique opportunity that we encourage our students to take advantage of.”

Paul Halme of Peak Performance BJJ – Keller, Texas

“We are getting very excited for the Dallas Open. With a team of over 20 hard working competitors, we are looking to make a push to get on the team trophy podium!”

—

The tournament will be held on May 5 at the Texas Women’s University Kitty Magee Arena 1600 N. Bell Ave, Denton, TX 76209

Registration ends Saturday April 27 so hurry and go here to reserve your spot: http://www.ibjjf.org/dallas2013home.htm

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GMA Alvarez BJJ gathers multiple medals at the 2013 Pan

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:00:44 +0000

The team on the medal podium at the 2013 Pans / Photo via Alvarez BJJ facebook

Team Alvarez BJJ of Mansfield, TX headed out to the five day event called the Pan Ams last week led by head black belt Danny Alvarez. The GMA traveled to Irvine with eleven competitors representing Bruno Bastos and the Nova Uniao banner. By Sunday they had eight medals to take home from their trip as souvenirs.

Five of those medals were the color gold, most of those competitors having at least four matches. Three thousand competitors means most divisions have a lot of hungry athletes hunting for the top spot and Alvarez BJJ was full of starving individuals.

The weekend left one student promoted, others with a brand new accomplishments and for some, a Pan title to fit well with their existing World title.

Congrats to the team at Alvarez BJJ! Check out who won what below and don’t miss the video of one gold medalist, Natalia Shepler in her final match.

Taking home gold were:

Miriam Villar – white belt light feather division

Natalia Shepler – blue belt light feather division

Jordan Shepler (silver in the absolute) – blue belt master middle division

Vin Abadie – blue belt master feather division

Justin Rebolloso – blue belt juvenile 1 feather division

The silver medalists:

Ryne Sandhagen – purple belt super heavy division

Bronze:

Danny Alvarez – black belt senior 1 light feather division

To read more about the GMA academy, you can visit: www.AlvarezBJJ.com

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Gustavo Dantas on Nova União at the 2011 Pan

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:43:43 +0000

Despite his endless toil at the helm of team Nova União’s US wing and the Arizona Jiu-Jitsu Federation putting on events like the Southwest Classic and Arizona Open, not to mention his everyday commitments as a teacher and coach in Arizona, Gustavo Dantas is always sure to make it to all the major championships bringing a troop of stalwart competitors with him, and last weekend’s Pan-American Championship in California was no different. In constant contact with GRACIEMAG.com, Dantas breaks down how Nova União did at the Pan and reveals what the plans are for the team in the near future:

Gustavo Dantas and Pan bronze-medalist Kristina Barlaan / Photo: John Cooper

How was Nova Uniao’s performance at the 2011 Pan?

We are pretty happy with the results, we got 26 medals. We took second in the novice division just one point behind first place. We did a good job organizing the team, which is another step to get towards our main goal: to win the adult division at Worlds again. I know that we are not there yet, but hopefully we can hope to see some of the competitors from Brazil compete in the US in the future. There are some really tough and hungry representatives there that unfortunately don’t have the means of making it to the US. Regardless of that, there is a lot of new talent being produced from the NU Instructors in North America and if we organize right, I believe we can do it in a few years.

Who were the team’s standouts?

At black belt, Bruno Bastos did a great job as usual and took second in the super heavy division. Also, Bruno’s student Danny Alvarez did awesome taking second place at master/light feather. Danny’s daughter, Danielle Alvarez, took third in the blue belt/feather. Bruno is a great example of what Nova União is about, very passionate about the team and a great leader in Texas, and in a few years his team will be huge.

And from Arizona, Christian Broadnax took second in the tough purple/feather, and Kristina Barlaan took third in the purple/feather/female division. In the blue belt division, John Van Buren took third in light feather/adult – he is one of our new upcoming competitors. We expect big things from them this year.

What is next for Nova União?

We have the Phoenix and Dallas International Open coming up, and we are going for first place in both of them. And of course with the Worlds coming up, we know that it will be hard, but we will be doing our best to be on the podium. Also, we’re really working on building a strong female team this year and I really believe that they can shine this year.

For further information regarding Dantas’s team Nova União USA, visit www.novauniao.com.

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