Champion Hillary on her way to 2009 No-Gi Worlds title, in photo by John Lamonica

Hillary Williams had been planning to kick back and enjoy her vacation in Rio, cramming it with Jiu-Jitsu training, as always. Until she got a call from her university in Arkansas. There was a problem with the future doctor’s thesis, meaning she had to redo ten pages and present it again. The black belt world champion of 2010 trembled like a white belt, hastily packing her bags and catching the red eye back to the USA, to avoid any complications.

But all went smoothly and she’s already back to take up the “studies” that most interest us. And the best part: the American, along with her black belt partner Denilson Pimenta, will conduct a seminar at a special rate next July 2, a Saturday.

The chosen venue is GFTeam academy in Duque de Caxias, another bull’s eye from the duo, who through this effort will help spread the gentle art in the greater metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. “The class is open to all, all they need to do is call first to make sure there’s still room and bring one kilo of non-perishable food,” says Hillary.

That’s right, the seminar will only cost one kilo of food, and a wealth of Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu techniques will be on offer.

So don’t miss it: Academia Armagedom, at Rua Artur Marques 10, near Adega on Rua 5 de Maio. Telephones: (21) 7897-2252/3774-4382.

Marcelo in final against Lucas Leite / Photo: Ivan Trindade

On beating Lucas Leite in the Long Beach pyramid this month, Marcelo Garcia made it to no less than five Jiu-Jitsu World Championship wins.

One of the best black belts of all times, our GMA in New York isn’t one to hide his game. Hence his release of another can’t-miss DVD, “The Best of MG in Action”.

On it practitioners and fans will find the fighter’s innovative positions presented in 25 techniques, nine advanced lessons, and 2010 highlights, as well as a bonus training session and exclusive technique discussions.

Find out more here.

Roberto Cyborg and physical conditioning coach Eduardo Ferrino / Photo: Ed Delahunty

In the lead-up to the 2011 Worlds our own Nalty Junior was in Miami and caught up with physical conditioning coach to American football players Eduardo Ferrino, who has also been working with “Cyborg” Abreu in his preparations for the championship in California.

During his conversation with GRACIEMAG.com, Ferrino revealed the secrets of Cyborg’s physical prep work at Legacy Fit Fight Sport Miami training center, where he trains a number of wicked sports stars – including ones from the UFC, NFL and the NBA. Check out what he had to say.

Ferrino, how’s Cyborg’s physical fitness work for revving up his Jiu-Jitsu going?

His workouts revolve around three main aspects: First, we identify his objectives – that is, the big tourney’s Cyborg will be at over the year. Starting from there, we perform some physical tests and evaluations and I put together a training program that hinges on proper periodization. The periodization is divided into three stages: pre-base, pre-competitive, and competitive. There are demands specific to each stage (or period): focus, intensity, volume, duration, use of force stimulus, agility, explosiveness, endurance and some other factors.

But he was injured during a seminar a few months back. What’s the news on that?

Yes, we suffered a surprise knee injury while he was conducting a seminar prior to the 2011 Pan back in March. We had to rearrange his training a bit, but he’s already 100% and ready to do battle at the Worlds. At weight and absolute!

As far as exercises go, what’s he been doing?

The foundation of Cyborg’s training is power-lifting. There are, however, secondary functional exercises we put together especially for him, dealing with particular movements and characteristics. Nutritional support, yoga, and massage therapy are all part of the process.

Physically, does Cyborg seem to be at another level as an athlete?

Yes, I guarantee it. He’s 225 pounds (102 kilos) and moves like a lightweight. He’s extremely flexible, and his results in strength-based exercises have exceeded those of professional American football players! And I’m talking about 330-pound (150kg) athletes! Cyborg has the characteristics of a super athlete: explosiveness, strength, flexibility, endurance and – to round things out – plenty of grit!

To wrap things up, who else do you guys train?

There are plenty of athletes from different styles. From Jiu-Jitsu there’s Denis Mitchel, Ricardo Resende, Sofia Amarante, Jake Mackenzie, Moacir “Boca” Oliveira and others. In muay thai there’s world champion Gregory Choplain and Remy Bonnel. From the UFC, Cheick Kongo, Raphael Assunção, Rafaello Trator, Alessio Sakara have all trained with me. And together with Manning Sumner, we developed a physical conditioning plan for eight NFL and NBA players.

The Long Beach pyramid was nearly empty that Saturday night of the 2010 World Championship. Even so, there was still quite a ruckus coming from the crowd cheering for the two finalists. The match didn’t happen, just the arm of the victor being raised after the athletes from team CheckMat in the brown belt absolute closed out the final. The arm raised was that of Vinícius “Bochecha” Almeida.

Later on, at the podium, the same cheering section chimed in with a chant that promised major emotions for the very venue one year later. “Hey, Roger Gracie, wait and see, your time will come!” they roared. At the top of the podium, Bochecha, who had just turned 20, was all smiles. His black belt soon followed and Bochecha kept up the solid results – the main one coming at the 2011 Pan, where he won the superheavyweight division.

With the Worlds approaching, all signs pointed to the showdown foreshadowed in the song happening, but Roger’s absence poured a bucket of ice water on those expectations. Less than a week before kick off at the contest in Long Beach, Bochecha spoke with the GRACIEMAG at the Worlds Blog about what he expects from his performance, lamented the Gracie’s no show, pointed out his strengths and defects, and revealed the less-than-modest dreams he has for his career.

Lucas jubilant following win / Photo: Deb Blyth

The last time the Gracie Barra brown belt won gold was in the middleweight division as a brown belt at the 2010 Pan. “That was the last tournament I won,” he says, “I went one year without winning.” Rocha said it has been hard on him. He was used to winning regularly as a purple belt.

The Samurai Pro was a good tournament for him. “I remembered how to win again,” he says, “Now, I am back. I lost my focus, but I have found it again.” In his middle heavy division Rocha had two matches. He won the first with a flying armbar and the second he submitted his opponent with a wrist lock. “Both were two-minute fights,” he says.

Normally, it takes Rocha awhile to find his stride at tournaments. He starts out slow and then gradually gains momentum until he is unstoppable. “This tournament was different,” he says, “It was all the way forward from the beginning. I had no slow starts.”

Lucas celebrating / Photo: personal archive

In the absolute Rocha had four matches. He won the first and second by points. In his third match, he swept his opponent and then landed in full mount, from where he finished with a choke. In his fourth and final match, against Beniel Dariush of Ralph Gracie, Rocha swept Dariush and got mount. He scored six points. Dariush recovered guard. “I tried to apply a foot lock, but he defended,” Rocha says, “After that, I just waited to finish the fight.”

Rocha says it was a perfect day. “I could feel the guys as I was fighting,” he says, “I was able to change my game for each one. My posture, my vision… I did very well and played different games.” Rocha says he felt more comfortable at this tournament than at any other he’s ever fought in before. “This was the first tournament in my life where I felt so confident about winning from the beginning,” he says, “I don’t know exactly how or why, but that’s how I felt. My mind felt strong.”

Rocha says he hopes this positive mental state stays with him for the Worlds. “I said before the tournament, ‘I don’t know about next week or next month, but today I can’t lose.’ My focus was there.”

Rocha left California in August 2010 to go back to Brazil and returned in March 2011. He trained regularly in Brazil with his GB team under his uncle Professor Ze Radiola. “I trained with some of the guys like Bruno Almeida Alves, Otavio Sousa, and William Marcin,” he says, “I also trained with strong purple and blue belts over there. They look like black belts. They all really helped me in my training.”

Teammates Lucas Rocha and Otavio Sousa with their medals and the GB Cup / Photo: personal archive

Now he’s back training at the GB Headquarters in Irvine, CA. “I got my visa and I’m training hard and competing as much as I can,” he says, “I’m back training with all the GB greats: Otavio Sousa, Romulo Barral, Kayron Gracie, Philipe Della Monica, Rodrigo Simoes, Rodrigo Augusto, Bruno Antunes, Bruno Rocha, and Fabiana Borges.”

Rocha says he’s ready for the Worlds. “Now that I’ve done this tournament, I’m confident to take on the Worlds,” he says, “I’m looking forward to facing all my competitors.”

As for his goals for 2011, Rocha says, “To be honest, I’m working on getting my black belt in 2011. I want to throw myself into the tournaments as a black belt to test myself and see who I am.”

Bruno Malfacine and Felipe Costa at the Worlds, in photo by Regis Chen. Both athletes will be at the 2011 Pan.

Yes, the 2011 Pan will be the greatest Pan-American Jiu-Jitsu tournament since 1995, the year the championship was created.

The reason isn’t a record number of athletes to sign up, as occurs year after year – a sign Jiu-Jitsu is netting more and more white belts every year. (In 2010 the Pan brought in around 2,800 athletes).

Looking to the top of the pyramid, one will also notice the size of the IBJJF Pan, especially this year’s.

This year the California-based tournament promises to draw around nine current black belt world champions. An absolute record.

Check out the black belts who won the last World Championship, in 2010, and now look good to appear at the 2011 Pan.

Sign up for the event by clicking here, time’s running out.

And visit the GRACIEMAG at the Pan 2011 Blog by clicking here.

Bernardo Faria (heavyweight)
Michael Langhi (lightweight)
Rafael Mendes (featherweight)
Bruno Malfacine (roosterweight)
Marcus Vinícius Almeida (brown belt absolute)

Luanna Alzuguir (absolute)
Gabrielle Garcia (heavyweight)
Michelle Nicolini (medium heavyweight)
Hilllary Williams (middleweight)

Barral felt pains at January 29 tryouts. Photo: John Lamonica.

Few in sport Jiu-Jitsu have a record to match Rômulo Barral’s. The Gracie Barra fighter has collected three silver medals from the absolute division of the world championship, two world titles, a No-Gi World title, some shut outs with teammates, etc., etc…

The current world absolute and medium heavyweight runner-up with the enviable CV was bummed out. The reason being the pain he felt in his knee at the end of January in Las Vegas, while participating in the tryouts for the Abu Dhabi World Pro.

But his funk is now behind him, he insists, falling back on Jiu-Jitsu philosophy to help pick up his spirits: get out from underneath, get up, and win.

“You get bummed out for a few seconds, but never let it get to you! I’m already getting back to full blast,” he told GRACIEMAG.com today.

“My leg is a lot better now, thank God. I had the injury looked at and I had a strained medial collateral ligament. In a few days I’ll be 100%! And the best part is that I’m training again,” he says, to his fans’ relief.

“When I operated on my shoulder I trained using only one arm for a year and a half, so why not train with only one leg for a few weeks, right? The thing is that I think I started up again a bit early, I was missing that adrenaline, I felt I was fine, so I entered the tryouts,” he adds.

“So unfortunately my knee popped early in my match with (Marco) Sharpei, when he was in half-guard and I tried to cross my knee over to pass. I felt pain the whole match, and then I felt I ruined the operation I had after the 2010 Worlds… I iced it and decided to give up on the competition, but I couldn’t resist and ended up doing the semifinal anyways, even though I was nervous about it. But I realized there was no way I could do the final with Kron. It was a shame, I’m sure we would have had a great match.

“Then I got past the sadness because I thought it was something really serious but turned out to be temporary. I’m already focused on training and I’m confident I’ll have a great year. My main objective is the 2011 Worlds. I’m going to go for the absolute and, of course, the Worlds Pro in Abu Dhabi, since the organization confirmed me for the competition. I’m raring to compete, and as soon as 100% I’ll be back in the mix to throw some muscle around!” said Barral in finishing.

Who was it that used to defend this thesis statement? None other than Grandmaster Helio Gracie, who left us two years ago on January 29, 2009.

The master was right. These days, Jiu-Jitsu is being practiced by more and more women as a means of self-defense, as a sport and as exercise. At the 2009 World Championship there were 143 of them signed up. At the 2010 Worlds the number jumped to 176.

The growth of female Jiu-Jitsu is one of the themes of Brazil’s “Sensei Sportv” television program this Saturday, featuring super model white belt Carol Francischini practicing self-defense positions with her boyfriend, Guilherme Valente.

As an homage to the philosophy of the late teacher, GRACIEMAG put together a special Training Program on self-defense.

Rush to get yours at bookstores. Or click here to subscribe and get the inside scoop, the latest training techniques, and everything else there is to know about the gentle art of Jiu-Jitsu in the comfort of your own home every month.

Don't mess with this top model. Photo: Publicity/Sportv.

Langhi against Durinho in photo by Alicia Anthony

Michael Langhi and Gilbert Durinho are, currently, the two biggest names in Jiu-Jitsu’s lightweight black belt division. Langhi is coming off wins at two World Championships, even beating Durinho in the final at the 2009 one. Now the Atos representative is the current World Pro champion, as well as holding other major titles, like the Brazilian Nationals and Asian Open.

Last Saturday at the Rio de Janeiro leg of the World Pro tryouts, the two met in the final yet again. The athlete from Alliance ended up with the win, but Durinho showed he’s got the good, having escaped from dangerous holds and only lost by two points.

Check out how it went, in this video shot by the folks at X-Combat.

Michelle Nicolini at the top of the podium after two wins / Photo: Publicity

Among the stars guaranteed to compete at the European Open Championship coming up this 27th are two world championship-winning black belts. And these two gi-clad aces very well could face off in Lisbon.

Owner of the lightweight gold medal from the last World Championship Kyra Gracie was featured today in Brazil’s O Globo newspaper telling of her eight hours of training per day six days a week for the Euro Open.

“It’s the first competition of the season, so it’s good to start off at a good pace. Then there’s the Pan (April in California), the Brazilian Nationals (May in Rio), and the World Championship (June in California),” says the fair-faced fighter to journalist Sanny Bertoldo, who slipped up by calling Kyra’s uncle “Enzo.”

The Gracie takes off for London tomorrow to undergo the final stage of her preparations with her cousin Roger.

Now the current medium heavyweight world champion, Michelle Nicolini, has already had a winning start to her year, in Portugal. Nicolini arrived in the capitol, Lisbon, on the 14th and her first order of business was to win the World Pro tryouts on the 15th, which she did after winning two matches in a row.

On the 16th she embarked for Finland, where she conducted classes and seminars. Next week she returns to Lisbon for the European Open, where she will compete in the same division as Kyra.

Nicolini in Finland

The reason being that this year holds the ADCC and the World Pro and, with her sights set on these competitions, Nicolini wants to compete in the 60kg and 63 kg divisions, respectively. According to the athlete, she is well prepared and more than confident for her debut in the division.

Some great matches between Jiu-Jitsu’s muses are coming up on the horizon.

For more information on the European Open, check out the IBJJF website and our Blog on the championship.

Luanna in photo by Mike Colón

Three worldwide references in their styles, Demian Maia, a UFC fighgter; Luanna Alzuguir, weight and open weight Jiu-Jitsu world champion; and Tiago Camilo, an Olympic silver medalist in judo, go for broke in their workouts.

Check out the video: