One-year anniversary for RGA Bucks. Photo: Personal archive

Last weekend on Sunday, July 27, GMA Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire celebrated a milestone. The RGA Bucks, led by Kev Capel, had their one-year anniversary.

As part of the event, Roger Gracie came down to teach a class before grading some of the students. What followed was a barbecue in the rare British sunshine. Roger even cut the homemade cake with the club’s samurai sword!

Congrats to the RGA Bucks and many more years to come.

Check out more of the Roger Gracie Academy in Buckinghamshire at www.rgaa.co.uk

Toreando pass. Photo: Erin Herle

One of the most common guard passes that you’ll see at any tournament is the toreando or bull fighter pass. There are many variations and opportunities but most involve placing your grips on both pant legs and pushing and/or pulling the legs out of the way as you step to the side to secure side control or north/south.

Here are two variations to create the toreando guard pass and one video on how to counter the pass once an opponent has control of your legs:

Kev Capel of GMA RGA Bucks shows a traditional toreando pass:

Leandro Lo shows his version of pushing/pulling the legs and spinning around to north/south:

Flavio Almeida shows this counter for when your opponent has already tied up your legs:

Did you find these useful? Let us know in the comments below!

Kev Capel earns first degree from Roger Gracie. Photo: Personal archive

Kev Capel of GMA Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire is celebrating his third year as a black belt. As a customary mark, the head instructor received a degree on his belt from Roger Gracie.

Congratulations to Kev and the RGA Bucks.

Learn more about RGA Buckinghamshire at www.rgaa.co.uk

Both Shanti Abelha and Ida Hansson are active black belt competitors from Denmark who have won and medaled at the most prestigious Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. On March 28-30 you can join with these two pioneers as well as other black belts like Yaz Wilson from GMA RGA Buckinghamshire and MMA fighter Rosi Sexton.

The weekend training camp will be held at Arte Suave in Copenhagen, Denmark. The agenda boasts 5-6 training passes, time for eating, resting and a little sightseeing around Copenhagen.

The camp cost is 100 euros for the weekend which will be reduced by 10% if you’ve attended the camp before and 20% if you attended two or more camp recently. To sign up please email bjjbonanza@gmail.com

Reserve your spot now for a fun-filled weekend of learning experiences from two of Europe’s best females on the mat!

Kev Capel submits with the bow and arrow choke.

Our GMA members at Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire in England earned two medals at the 2014 IBJJF European Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship in the last weekend of January.

Instructor Kev Capel competed in the black belt master 2 light-featherweight division and fought his way to the top earning a European title. His student, Dan Lewis, took home the bronze medal in the purple belt master 1 medium-heavyweight division.

Kev’s gold holds more weight than most given that he had been hunting it down since 2004. His victory marks a decade of hard work.

Congratulations to Kev, Dan Lewis and the RGA Bucks.

More information about RGA Buckinghamshire can be found here: http://www.rgaa.co.uk/

Dan Lewis in the black gi.

Daniel Lewis won gold at the UK Championship. Photo: Personal Archive

On Sunday, Dec. 8, GMA Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire traveled to Watford for the UK Championship.

One RGA Buck stand-out Daniel Lewis came home with two medals: one gold for his weight division and one silver for the absolute.

This was Daniel’s first time competing since he was promoted to purple belt by Professor Kev Capel. All of his matches were decided by footlock submissions.

For more information about the RGA Bucks visit www.rgaa.co.uk

Kev Capel teaching at his academy. Photo: The Urban Athlete

GMA member Kevin Capel of Roger Gracie Academy Buckinghamshire was recently interviewed on open mat radio.

In the podcast he speaks about how he received his black belt from Roger Gracie and training with Roger’s father, Mauricio Gomes in the UK.

Kevin  trained in many different martial arts including boxing, Tae Kwon Do and Judo before he ventured into Jiu-Jitsu and now teaches in the UK.

Check out the interview here: http://www.openmatradio.com/2013/10/08/episode-86-kev-capel/