BE. HERE. MIYAO.
I’m so excited to announce that we will be hosting Joao Miyao on July 9th for a Gi Jiu-Jitsu Seminar. Joao Miyao is one of the greatest competitors of his generation, and is still active on the Masters circuit today. He is truly a living legend of the sport and art. He has won essentially every major tournament in the Adult division and is now cleaning up most Masters divisions with his unique open guard, berimbolo, and baratoplata style. Him and his brother shot out of Cicero Costha’s Social Project making a name for themselves with their incredibly aggressive and dynamic guard style, revolutionizing the open guard and berimbolo game. Joao and Paulo just opened their own academy, Studio 1908, and will continue to contribute to the art in meaningful ways. I have been following Joao and his brother since they were Purple Belts and this is such an honor for me to announce, and an incredible opportunity to all that can make it out. This will certainly sell out, and will likely fill up fast. You can sign up for this seminar via the link in our Instagram bio, or just notify Jordan or Ryan and we can take care of it for you! I will make very regular announcements about this and will update everyone on how many spots are left.
GUEST INSTRUCTOR SERIES
I don’t want the Joao seminar to overshadow the much nearer seminar/clinic we will be hosting this Friday at 6:00 P.M! Aaron Brooks of Pica Pau Jiu-Jitsu will be teaching a No Gi Passing clinic that is FREE! to all of our members (standard $20 drop-in fee to non-members). Aaron is the head instructor and owner of Pica Pau Jiu-Jitsu in Aurora, IL. and is also an accomplished competitor. I first noticed Pica Pau because of their unique – and really cool! – logo. However, when I saw their motto was “Train Hard, Be Kind,” I knew that they were truly a unique academy of people that had a similar vision and philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu as us at Sanctuary. I knew I had to reach out to Aaron to have him come in to teach. I’m super excited about this and I really hope you all came make it out!
We will be looking to bring in other competitors, instructors, and academy owners from around the Midwest (and perhaps beyond!) to teach clinics/seminars in lieu of one of our regularly scheduled classes. These will always be completely free to our members. It is a way for us to give back to our students, ensure our culture and our Jiu-Jitsu is never myopic and inward-looking but instead is always looking to grow and learn from others, and to build healthy friendships with other academies in the Midwest. This is just the first clinic in what we hope will be a popular and meaningful series of clinics!
NEW CLASSES
A reminder that we now have four new classes on the schedule! On Mondays and Wednesdays at noon, I will be running a Lunch Rush! class. This will be a fast-paced Gi Fundamentals class that will allow you to be in and out of the gym within an hour right in the middle of your day. It will be a great way to get in a workout, learn, and train some Jiu-Jitsu during your lunch hour. Thursday evenings at 6:30 P.M. Coach Karen will be teaching a co-ed Gi Fundamentals class. This will be the same curriculum that we rotate through in all of our other Fundamentals classes and gives everyone an extra time slot to learn these essential techniques and get in some great positional training! Finally, Fridays at 7 P.M. will now be a regular Competition Class. This class will alternate between Gi and No Gi week-to-week. We hope you can take advantage of these new classes and look forward to having you on the mats!
Fundamentals: this week we continued studying the Mount position. On Wednesday we reviewed the Keylock from the Mount. I like to particularly emphasize the futility of this submission. It is very low-percentage at higher belt levels and leaves one particularly vulnerable to escape or reversal from the Mount position. It is, however, a decent way to open up other routes of attack, such as the straight armlock from the keylock – which we also learned and drilled. On Friday we studied the Upa – or bridge – reversal from Mount.
Advanced: in our single Advanced Class of the week we continued our study of De La Riva Guard, taking a look at the Underhook De La Riva position. Drilling the Double Ankle Sweep, retaining our guard when our opponent traps our leg, and Taking the Back.
No Gi: in No Gi this week we reviewed transitioning to the Waiter Position from Deep Half Guard, getting the Waiter Sweep, transitioning to Waiter X, Taking the Back from Waiter X, and finally getting to the Aoki Lock from Waiter X. We also reviewed the material from the Mason Fowler Seminar late last year, learning how to isolate the arms and attack the Rear Naked Choke (RNC) and One-Handed RNC from the Back Position.
We had a great week in kids’ class! We continued working on retaining and escaping Mount and threw in some chokes and armlocks for good measure. Jiu-Jitsu can be challenging, so having partners who let you work but also make you work is important for growth. A strategy we have been using to aid in this growth is starting with Easy Mode, moving up to Challenge Mode, and then finishing off with Expert Mode when drilling techniques. Not only does this allow us to work at increasing levels of difficulty, it also teaches our partners control. A congrats to Jackson for earning his next stripe!
Gabe and River chose to share Jiu-Jitsu with friends and family for their 8th Birthday – it was great to see so many new faces on the mat. One of the greatest aspects of this sport is sharing it with others.