Peak BJJ black belts

The leader of Peak Performance BJJ, Paul Halme had very special reasons to celebrate the promotion ceremony held at the end of November at his school in Keller, TX.

Among many well deserved stripes and new belts awarded to several of his students, Halme had the pleasure to promote two of his pupils to the black belt ranking.

Kristine Felts and Matthew Waltmon deserved the honor.

Kristine’s achievement was extra special, as she became the school’s first ever female black belt.

Halme wrote about the achievement: ” Our most notable belt promotions goes to our newest black belts, Kristine Felts and Matthew Waltmon! They have put in a lot of time, sweat, and hard training into the mats over the past decade, and we are so proud to have them join the ranks of black belt! This was a history making event for Peak as well, as Kristine is the first female black belt to be promoted at Peak! Huge congrats to the both of you!”

Know more about Peak BJJ at peakbjj.com.

Earlier this year, GMA member Cassio Werneck awarded black belts to two very deserving Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, John Garcia and Mike Uhlinger.

John has been training for over 13 years and with Cassio for 10 of those years.

He has been competing since white belt and hopes to continue well into his black belt career.

Mike has also been a very consistent competitor and amassed many gold medals.

Along with his wife and Cassio Werneck brown belt, Lenna Uhlinger, he is the creator of the Ultimate Grappling Federation tournament circuit which recently had it’s flagship California State Grappling Championship in Sacramento, CA.

Mike and Lenna also run their own academy Mixed Grappling Arts in Elk Grove, CA.

Cody Bartlett also had the privilege of earning his black belt through professional MMA fighter and fellow Cassio Werneck black belt Jaime Jara, with Cassio’s blessing of course.

Cody has been training very hard and is a threat on the mat from any position.

Cody also helps teach Jiu-Jitsu classes at Jamie’s school in Orangevale, CA – Team Carnage MMA.

For more info, go to cassiowerneck.com

The black belts at the big seminar. Photo: Marcelo Pereira

On Saturday, Jan. 17, Bruno Bastos of GMA Bastos BJJ Midland in Midland, TX received his fourth degree on his black belt. This promotion came from the hands of Professor Marcelo Pereira.

The day was part of a full seminar weekend where students were to learn from Ricardo Demente Abreu, Rico Bastos, Marcelo Pereira, Gustavo Dantas and Bruno himself. Promotions were also held for the students.

Hear what Bruno has to say about his promotion and check out the video below:

“Last Saturday I was awarded with the 4th Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by my long time friend, Professor Marcelo Pereira ( @marcelinhojj ). It was a BIG DAY for me. Very special moment. There witnessing this moment, my “Bebezao” Rico Bastos, Ricardo Demente Abreu ( @ricardodementeabreu ),#TheBjjMentalCoach Gustavo Dantas ( @gdjiujitsu ), the man who brought me to Midland Bradley Barnes ( @bradgordinho ), my lovely wife#BulgarianBeautyPetya Petya Bastos and ALL my @bastos_bjj_midland family alongside my affiliates as well.
14 years of Black Belt feels good and I’m ready for more. Next May I’ll be completing 25 years of Jiu-Jitsu and I’m going to celebrate competing in the Adults division to give some old man hard time for the young guns. There’s only one Highlander…”

Learn more about Bastos BJJ Midland at www.bastosbjjmidland.com

Ronda Andrews, an avid competitors for years and a familiar face among women’s BJJ, has achieved the rank of black belt from Professor Amilcar “Mica” Cipili of GMA Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Las Vegas.

We spoke to her about the promotion and the journey as we can all learn from what it takes for an individual to get to the rank. Here are her words:

“I’m sure many use this word, but it feels surreal to finally receive a black belt. To think about the beginning when I had no idea what Jiu Jitsu was. I jumped into a no-gi class because I wanted to wrestle dudes. I’m not making jokes. I was definitely a meat-head when I started. Someone gave me a gi and said it would make me better. Year after year I got sucked in deeper and deeper into learning, teaching, and allowing Jiu-Jitsu to change me and my life. I still can’t believe and, even this morning, am overwhelmed to tears by all the love and respect I felt in the academy last night becoming the first female that stuck around and went the distance in my academy. My professor, Amilcar “Mica” Cipili and many more have played a part in my journey. I wish I could thank all of them personally.

It took 8 years for me to achieve black belt. Not long after I started, I started training twice a day 4-5 days a week. That’s 4 hours a day I’d be on the mat, as a white belt. Thankfully my work schedule allowed me to train more than the average full time working adult. I mentioned getting sucked in and allowing Jiu-Jitsu to change me and my life. If I had not been open to the change, I would’ve never accomplished what I have today. Always the responsible adult, who took pride in always taking care of herself, I made a life changing decision while still a purple. I was far from being a young college kid financially dependent on her parents, but still decided to leave my job of 17 years to become a full time Jiu-Jitsu student and competitor. Many have dreams of making Jiu-Jitsu their life, but I garnered the courage to take that plunge. Taking my decision seriously, I made and smashed my goals.

1. Compete and medal at high level competitions. DONE! No need to spew off titles. Anyone can look up IBJJF results from 07′-13′ and will see my name. My best year being 2013, as a brown belt middle weight. I hurt my back in early 2014, which took me out of competition.

2. Learn to teach. DONE- also a never ending process, but I’m onto something.

3. The ultimate goal: open an academy. Done! DONE! DONE!!!! Me and my best friend, with Royler Gracie’s blessing, opened Gracie Humaita North Las Vegas August 1, 2014. My friend, Leticia Ribeiro, was a huge inspiration. The support from Royler, Mica, and Leticia made my dream come true.

My plans are to focus on my academy, my students, and get back to competition. I miss competition. The stress of competition makes me absolutely NUTS, but I love being able to pull it all together once the ref says “Combate”. My time off from competing was a blessing. With that focus taken away from me, I placed my focus on teaching. My instructor, Amilcar Cipili, and my best friend and business partner, Bryan Glenn, gave me the opportunity to learn and mold me into a teacher. Teaching has been the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Passing on the art and watching people grow because of it.”

Becoming a Jiu-Jitsu black belt takes time and a lot of work. Everyone has their own path whether recreationally or through competition or both. There are people from all ages starting Jiu-Jitsu and getting to the real start, the black belt, at various times in their lives.

For two students at GMA Yemaso BJJ in Sacramento, CA they found that their promotion was met last month and given by Marcos Torregrosa.

In their speeches, Bill Click and Marcus Boness explain the journey and how it feels to reach the ultimate rank:

End of year celebration. Photo: Personal archive

GMA member Stephen Roberto of Purebred Jiu-Jitsu Guam is leading his team to be better every single day.

Over the years they have formed and adapted and evolved to become one of the best teams in Asia, as proven by their individual and team results at the IBJJF Asian Open in Tokyo, Japan every year.

As part of the end of year celebration, as is custom in a lot of the academies, there were belt promotions.

Three new black belts. Photo: Personal archive

Perhaps most significant were the promotions to black belt–all three. The students promoted were Rob Gutierrez, Mark Pangilinan and Joe McDonald.

Stephen says, “They are great defenders of Jiu-Jitsu and long time practitioners. Well deserved and long overdue. They’ve been training for over 12 years together. A super proud moment.”

Marco Torregrosa and the Yemaso BJJ black belts. Photo: Personal archive

The 2014 year started very strong for Team Yemaso. Led by 2014 Pan Jiu-Jitsu, American National, No-Gi World champion Marcos Torregrosa, the team took a humble number of competitors to the San Francisco Open and brought home to Sacramento an IBJJF team title.

Throughout the year there were more and more challenges met and obstacles overcome. In June, Team Yemaso commenced the first of 3 different moves that now sees them in their final location. The times were very difficult but the team persevered together, a shining example of the beautiful and powerful bonds formed through our art.

The turnout at the promotion night. Photo: Personal archive

Team Yemaso just held their final promotion for the year and this was the biggest of them all. Marcus Boness and William Joseph Click celebrated one of the highest honors our sport can bestow: the black belt! After many years of consistent dedication and having met the goals they placed for themselves, Professor Torregrosa felt their time had come! Steven Tafoya, black belt with Team Yemaso since 2011 was also promoted. In a ceremony that included his brother Bruce Tafoya from Cleber Lucianos, Tafoya was promoted to 1st degree black belt.

Three brown belts were also awarded at promotions, Richard Selmar Bothun who, after having competed vigorously over the last two years alongside Torregrosa in many IBJJF competitions and having achieved the number one ranking in his belt and age, was promoted along with Shawn Cox and Rudolfo Vidarri.

Team Yemaso also saw the ascension of a number of purples and blues, further solidifying their presence in the Sacramento region as one of the most decorated and prestigious academies around.

Whenever in the Sacramento, California region don’t hesitate to stop in to the academy. Marcos Torregrosa teaches all classes and with the new year initiates a dedicated kids program to be run 5 days a week!

Go to www.Yemasobjj.com for more details.

The whole team at Toronto BJJ and other affiliates. Photo: Vernon Anthony Kee

Professor Jorge Britto and his students from Toronto BJJ, a proud Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu representative, including affiliates 905 BJJ, Stratford BJJ and MTC Windsor celebrated another year together with their 6th annual in-house tournament and belt promotions recently in Toronto, Canada.

Over 200 students of all ages and belt levels competed in the end-of-year tournament held on four mats with IBJJF rules that included special male and female no-gi divisions and a brown belt absolute division. For many it was their first time tasting competition and experiencing a real tournament. For others it was another chance to sharpen their skills in front of family and friends with familiar training partners.

To begin the event, the students from the kids and teens programs provided an impressive demonstration of traditional BJJ self-defense and modern BJJ.

The new black belts. Photo: Personal archive

Additionally, Toronto BJJ celebrated many promotions as students reached the next level in their BJJ journey. Most notably nine students, some of who are also instructors at Toronto BJJ, reached the level of black belt! The new black belts in Toronto are: Nathan Rector, Michael Zaniewski, Firdavs Sulaimonov, Mike Nomikos, Eyal Cinamon, Sandro Tucci, John Serio and Steve Ramos.

The total of 100 new belts:

Adult
7 x Green
25 x Blue
6 x Purple
16 x Brown
9 x Black

Kids / Teens
6 x Grey/white
6 x Grey
2 x Grey/black
5 x Yellow/white
7 x Yellow
5 x Orange/white
4 x Orange
1 x Green
1 x Blue

Andrea Martyn receives her award. Photo: Personal archive

Furthermore, two students, Andrea Martyn and Nicolas received the Seana Rossi Award for their display of the warrior spirit in 2014. This award honors the legacy of student Seana who passed away in 2012 after a long fight with cancer and whose memory and spirit still inspires and motivates the team to this day. Seana’s parents alongside TBJJ Director Josh Rapport presented each award.

The academy also collected food donations for The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto with a goal of collecting 1000 kg of contributions for the holiday season.

Professor Jorge Britto surprised with a birthday cake. Photo: Personal archive

To finish the day the team surprised Professor Britto with a cake to combine the day’s celebration with his birthday. Keeping up with tradition, the group picture was captured and the party came to a close after another successful event was in the history books.

Congratulations to everyone at Toronto BJJ and we look forward to hearing of more success in 2015!

Learn more about Toronto BJJ at www.torontobjj.com

On Saturday, Dec. 6 Renato Tavares traveled to his affiliate academy Triton Fight Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for his yearly seminar.

The event gathered a whopping 130 students together. Seventeen of them were black belts including Triton Fight Center head instructor Piet Wilhelm, Renato Tavares himself, James Foster of GMA Foster BJJ in Seattle, WA, Mike Budnik, Gina Franssen and others. During the seminar Renato taught various back-takes.

Along with the seminar came the belt ceremony. In all, there were over twenty promotions for those who were deserving of new belt ranks.

As part of the twenty, three special promotions came in the form of black belts to Reed Haji, Tim Holman and Omar French.

Omar was amazed and although super cool he says it was also super scary. “It was amazing! Not so much for getting the rank but because your instructors trust you to represent them. It was insane amazing.”

Learn more about GMA Triton Fight Center at www.tritonfightcenter.com

The promoted students at GMA Team Redzovic. Photo: Personal archive

On Nov. 18 the Redzovic family, Adem, Eddie and Idriz, held a special promotions ceremony with long-time friends Clark Gracie and his father, red belt Master Carley Gracie.

After an exciting weapons defense seminar put on by Master Carley Gracie, Carley promoted Eddie Redzovic to 3rd degree black belt.

The Redzovic clan also graduated several black belts to their first and second degrees as well as awarded six new black belts! Among those promoted to black belt were: Ramon Arellano Jr, Jerry Hagene, Vince Fosco, Jon Tutaj, Muhamed Nesiren, and Haris Usanovic.

The Redzovic family has been teaching Jiu-Jitsu for close to 15 years in Chicago and runs one of the largest and most successful Jiu-Jitsu teams in the midwest.

You can learn more about the team at www.chicagojiujitsu.com

By 2012 at purple belt, he had moved to Atos under Andre Galvao and won the Pans, placing third in the World Championship after we planned for a great run in our pre-worlds predictions.

But it was 2013 that he secured his place at the top winning both Pans and Worlds as a purple belt and earning double gold at the Pans as a lightweight.

At brown belt this past year, not much changed. Pans and Worlds were his to take along with third in the Worlds absolute and he also won his division at the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.

On Nov. 4 Liera Jr. was promoted to the prestigious black belt at the age of 21 by Andre Galvao. Check out the celebration and nice words by his professor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVYVnWO27_s

The Basulto family. Photo: Personal archive

On Saturday Oct. 11, 2014 Mestre Royler Gracie conducted another great seminar at Gracie Humaita North Carolina in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina.  Prof. Armando Basulto had over 40 Jiu-Jitsu devotees on the mats to learn from the master himself on his annual visit.

Among the promotions that Mestre Royler presided over that day was a very special one.  Christine Basulto, Prof. Armando’s wife and student of over 15 years, was awarded her black belt in front of all present.  This makes her the only Gracie Humaita female black belt in the state of North Carolina and one of the few women black belts in the world who were promoted directly by Mestre Royler Gracie.

Christina receiving her black belt from Royler Gracie. Photo: Personal archive

Royler Gracie addressed the assembled students to comment on Christine’s long-time commitment through the years and challenges.  Christine had maintained her training and discipline through the birth of twin boys, graduate school degrees, work-related responsibilities and all while administrating the GMA Basulto Academy of Defense full-time.

It is said that the thousand mile journey begins with one step.  Christine began training with Prof. Basulto not long after they met and married 20 years ago.  As a NYC inner-city school teacher who had to travel late-night alone throughout the city, she was motivated to learn an effective martial art.  At the original Basulto Academy of Defense in New Jersey, she was the only woman on the mats for many of her formative Jiu-Jitsu years.

Christine was a silver medalist at the 1999 Royler Gracie Championship and was also a competitive kick boxer, being a member of the 2002 USA Savate Team to fight in Belgium (coached by Prof. Armando).  When the couple moved to North Carolina to raise their newborn twins, she continued to train as often as she could while the new academy was established.

Today at Gracie Humaita North Carolina, Christine has assumed a leadership role, helping to develop women’s participation in the “arte suave” and organizing women’s self-defense seminars and running specialized “Women’s Training Nights” at the academy.  Now the academy boasts a range of women fighters ranging from yellow belts to purple belts, all taking their first steps on their personal thousand mile journey.

Learn more about Armando and Christine Basulto and GMA Gracie Humaita North Carolina by visiting www.wncbjj.com