GOODBYES!
We said goodbye to Reetta this week, and we’re so sad to lose her! She has been a huge asset to Sanctuary, bringing her drive and enthusiasm to the mats, lifting up everyone she trains with. Something I really love about Sanctuary – and something that I think that makes us relatively unique – is the amount of visitors we get. Usually people visiting us are in Madison for a week or less on business or pleasure, but we were lucky that Reetta was here for much longer. In any case, I love hosting people from other academies because openness is important for the growth of our members on and off the mats. A huge perk of training Jiu-Jitsu is the variety of people you are able to meet through the art that you would otherwise never be able to meet. I feel very lucky we were all able to meet and train with Reetta and I look forward to following her career on the international competition scene.
HELLOS!
As most of you have noticed, there’s a lot of new faces around the academy, so I just wanted to formally welcome our newest members here! The hardest belt to achieve in Jiu-Jitsu is the White Belt. Most people never step onto the Jiu-Jitsu mats. It’s a hard art to learn and train, and stepping into a situation that many find uncomfortable and intimidating takes a lot of courage and will! So we’re sending out a huge welcome to Taylor, Melissa, Peter, and Emiliano! We’re all excited to have you on the mats and a part of our academy!
JIU-JITSU IN THE PARK
Another reminder for our upcoming Memorial Day event! This will be our first Jiu-Jitsu in the Park outing. It’s on Monday, May 29th from noon – 2 P.M. at the Warner Park Rainbow Shelter. We will have food (burgers & brats) and beverages for all, and we will also have mats set up for rolling! This is a members-only Open Mat and you don’t need to bring anything aside from yourself, your Gi (or No Gi gear), and you can bring a dish to pass if you’d like! You’re welcome to bring family as well, of course! If you would like to attend, please RSVP by clicking the link below. We really hope you can all make it and are really looking forward to this!
COMPETITION CLASS
In preparation for the upcoming Grappling Industries tournament in Wisconsin Dells we have opened up two competition classes during the week. They have thus far been quite well attended, challenging, and super fun! It’s important to know that the training in these classes is very structured and considerably different from what you’re used to in a normal Jiu-Jitsu class. There is no music, and silence (no talking) is required during the entirety of all training rounds. However, this class is not just for competitors! Everyone can benefit from the focused training of this class, and everyone is welcome to come and train in these classes. Competition class is currently held in lieu of Wednesday and Friday 7 P.M. Advanced and No Gi class. However, the Friday Competition class will be No Gi.
Fundamentals: this week we finished out our Side Control curriculum by studying the first positional progression from Side Control: Knee on Belly. On Monday we learned the positional concepts of Knee on Belly including the basic transition to Knee on Belly from Side Control. We also covered taking the Mount position from Knee on Belly and the Spinning Armlock when your partner tries to defend Knee on Belly. On Wednesday we studied Knee on Belly defense and escapes, culminating in attacking the Single Leg from the Knee on Belly escape. On Friday we moved to the next position in the curriculum: the Back. We learned the basic Collar Choke from the Back and how to set up and finish a Bow & Arrow variation when our partner defends the Collar Choke. These next couple of weeks we will be working exclusively from the Back position, both attacks and defense, in our Fundamentals classes.
Advanced: in our sole Advanced class of the week we learned three sweeps from the De La Riva guard with the pant grip and far-side sleeve grip: a basic sweep to the side, transitioning to the X-Guard and doing the Technical Stand-Up Sweep, and putting their hips to the mat when our partner defends the off-balance by stepping back (called the Marangoni Sweep).
No Gi: in No Gi this week we studied disengaging and passing the Reverse De La Riva (or Half Guard), looking at a stacking pass to Leg Drag, the Over/Under pass including a Knee Bar option, and a High Step pass as well.
This week in Kids’ Class we reviewed how to advance the position from both Knee on Belly and Side Control. In No Gi we worked on two different methods for finishing a Rear Naked Choke. We ran mock competition rounds to prepare for the upcoming tournament – this also upped the level of effort and focus! During competition rounds, we emphasized maintaining control and settling into positions long enough to score before working to advance the position or submit. Congratulations to Viggo for earning his next stripe!
REVIEW OF THE WEEK!
At Sanctuary we have a culture of giving back to our members and to the larger community. While we think that everyone should train Jiu-Jitsu on a regular basis as a serious pursuit, the reality is that most never will. That doesn’t mean that one can’t learn something valuable from Jiu-Jitsu! We hosted a free Women’s Self-Defense Seminar back in January of 2023 that was open to the larger Madison community and it was a huge success! It’s important for us to give back to our community in any way that we can. We will certainly be hosting more of these in the future, so keep your eyes open!