Two students show off their GracieMag magazine. Photo: Purebred BJJ Guam

GMA Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam held an in-house tournament for their kids on July 27. The tournament was to help the competition experience come easier in their own environment and to introduce that aspect. Also, all of the kids received a GracieMag magazine for their growing minds.

Professor Stephen Roberto explains, “We have some upcoming competitions and wanted to use this time to familiarize the students with a tournament atmosphere as well as getting to know their fellow teammates between the two Purebred academies on Guam. Every student that participated was given a copy of GracieMag in order to open their minds to good Jiu-Jitsu journalism.”

More information about Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam can be located at www.PurebredBJJGuam.net

See photos below:

Cobrinha after winning the 2009 World Championship. Photo: Alicia Anthony.

The 15th reason to follow, and in this case compete in, the 2013 World Championship is about the competitor. For this type of motivation, you must be able to evaluate your training and yourself as you compete.

Reason #15: Win or lose, competing will allow you to test yourself against the best in the world.

Competing is always about experience. It’s a confidence booster and sometimes even a slap in the face to wake up and change your training approach. Sometimes it’s not even what you’re training but how. And sometimes it isn’t the amount of training you’ve completed to prepare but how you’ve been able to prepare mentally.

We often hear black belts talk about having a “good day” and that is what can determine who wins a championship. Other times, when asked about how they handle being at the competition the day of, they talk about how they keep their mind right with music or solitude in order to get ready for battle, so to speak.

The experience of competing, win or lose, is just that: Experience. You must be able to use the testing grounds for improving yourself, even if you are able to submit every opponent. If you lose your first match be it to a referee decision, you must be able to take the opportunity as a way to come back stronger the next time and not place blame on any outside sources. Simply take the loss and make it productive.

Rubens Cobrinha Charles is a decorated athlete who has won the World Championship four times and has always come back with motivation to compete. When GRACIEMAG asked how he finds this motivation these days, he said, “For me, it’s a challenge and as long as I have a challenge in my life I will keep working towards it.”

DJ Jackson is a newer black belt who has had his fair share of losses in the expert black belt division so far. But he always comes back for more better than he was before. He says, “The experience you get from competing is one of the best ways to improve your Jiu-Jitsu. You will be tested and you will make mistakes. If you fix your mistakes and don’t make them again you will see your Jiu-Jitsu skyrocket.”

To sign up before the deadline tomorrow, May 21, click here.

Lower belts wait for their mat assignments at Pan Ams

While the black belts are always the headlining event at the Pan American Championship each year, the colored belts should never be ignored. Often it’s the matches in the lower belts that provide the most action, risk and passion.

Sign up for the 2013 Pan Ams and go ahead, steal the show. Whether you have one year of experience or five, every athlete deserves the opportunity to get on the mat, feel the roar of the Brenn Event Center, be supported by teammates and peers and put Jiu-Jitsu techniques to the test against a viable opponent.

Head over now to the IBJJF website to register today only.

Click here to register now.

The 2013 Pan Ams will be held from Mar 20-24. Be sure to check the pre-schedule to see when you will be competing in order to make your arrangements.

The location is at the UC Irvine Brenn Event Centere 100 Bren Event Center Irvine, California 92617.

Check out some action-packed matches from previous years in the brown and purple belt divisions:

Opponent tries sweeping Paulo Miyao from half-guard at 2011 Pan. Photo by Ivan Trindade/GRACIEMAG.com.

Fernando Nassif is a Jiu-Jitsu professor at California-based academy Gracie Barra San Clemente, a school belonging to our association, the GMA.

Alongside Flavio “Cachorrinho” Almeida he teaches the basic Jiu-Jitsu that works. Or as he learned from Carlos Gracie Jr.: “The great technical virtue possessed by black belts isn’t the number of moves they know, but the experience that goes into their performing the moves they do know.”

So today Fernando shows us seven steps for getting a mounted opponent off you, putting him in half-guard and sweeping him.

1. Use your elbows to get the opponent off your chest.

2. Extend your leg and latch on to one of his legs with your legs.

3. Turn sideways, open up room and grab the opponent’s belt.

4. One of the key steps: rock your legs back and forth sideways to get hold of his ankle and then bring your knee up between his legs..

5. Kick his leg up and, holding his leg firm, push his leg with your foot.

6. Look outside and kick until you are positioned behind the opponent.

7. Posting firm on your foot, pull his knee and complete the sweep.

How did you like that?

Can Dan Henderson’s experience and maturity be a match for the youth and dexterity of Jon Jones, the 205 lb champion for four fights and a year and a half now?

To Hendo, the road to victory is paved with gas, surprising and punishing Jones standing for five rounds. Can he pull it off?Watch the video produced by the UFC and share your predictions regarding, UFC 151, coming up September 1.