PROFESSOR RETURNS
We’re excited to announce that our Professor, Caio Terra, will be returning to Madison on December 6th and 7th to offer a two-day Gi and No Gi seminar. Saturday, December 6th will be in the Gi and will begin at 10am and Sunday, December 7th will be No Gi and will begin at noon. You can choose to attend both days or the individual days.
For Sanctuary members, registration for both days is $100 and single-day registration is $75. For non-members the cost will be $90/day or $125/both days. Sanctuary members should register for the seminar at the academy, and non-members should follow this link.
We’re really looking forward to this and hope that you are as well!
TEEN CLASS!
Starting this Thursday, November 6th we will be offering a Teen Class! This class is for people 12 – 16 years of age and will be a concise and focused class implementing aspects of the Fundamental and Advanced CTA curriculum, with an emphasis on dynamic systems of movement, control, and submission. The class will be held every Thursday evening from 4:45pm – 5:30pm. If you’re interested in this class or have any questions, please reach out to us – we’d love to hear from you!
FUJI FALL OPEN
Everyone who competed at the Fuji Milwaukee Fall Open did an amazing job, and we we’re able to earn 2nd place in the Adult Academy rankings! Everyone should be incredibly proud of their efforts and performances. I saw a lot of great Jiu-Jitsu and also room for improvement – things that we will be working on as a team and individually – but I was most impressed by the real-time improvements being made as everyones matches and brackets progressed. Being able to put yourself out there on the competition mats and then improve on the spot is amazing. Congrats to everyone and I hope you’re all looking forward to the next!
TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Welcome Reid Graham to Blue Belt! Reid had an incredibly impressive run during his last competition, submitting all 3 of his opponents in his Gi division making it very clear that he no longer belonged at the White Belt. Just as I alluded to above, more important than the outcome of any given competition is the progress you make and the approach that you take. Reid essentially sacrificed his final No Gi match – after submitting his previous two opponents – to try something new and try out his stand-up and wrestling game. The match was very close but he ended up losing the match on points – but in my mind gained something far more valuable. I don’t promote based solely upon competitive accolades – and that is certainly true for Reid as his consistency, work ethic, and attitude on the practice mats will testify.
Welcome Josh Barry to Brown Belt! This is an immensely important promotion for an incredibly important person here at Sanctuary. Josh is the real deal, on the mats and off. He is one of the kindest, most considerate, gentle, and compassionate people you’ll ever meet – who will absolutely wreck you on the mats and when you’re done training with him he will leave you wondering why you even train Jiu-Jitsu at all. He’s just as likely to bake you a cake as he is to blast-double you across the room. But at the same time he’s always training with purpose, at a technical pace, very often allowing others to work and improve their game. Josh gives back more than he takes and has been deserving of this belt for so long, and I’m embarrassed I didn’t publicly recognize him sooner – but that’s the other thing about Josh: he trains for the sake of training and improving, not for the recognition. Josh is such an important part of this academy, community, and culture. We’re all privileged to be able to share the mats with him! Congrats, Josh!
Finally, welcome Eric Carmody to Brown Belt! Like Josh, Eric came to train with us already a skilled grappler. It’s these students that are often the hardest to promote because it’s important to me to see their development, develop a relationship with them, and to make sure that they understand our curriculum and philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu. Eric is a great teammate, teacher, and brings a lot of skill, experience, and knowledge to the training room. Congrats, Eric!
TOY DRIVE!
This Holiday Season we are doing a Toys for Tots toy drive! Starting now through December 1st we will be collecting new and unwrapped toys to donate to Toys for Tots.
Started in 1947, Toys for Tots is a national United States Marine Corps organization that works with local chapters to distribute toys and books to disadvantaged children in our community. In 2024 they were able to provide gifts for 13 million children nationwide and also distributed 3 million books to children via their Toys for Tots Literacy Program including 570,000 books to Title I funded schools. Last year the Madison chapter alone provided 30,000 toys to 15,000 children!
This is a great way for us to give directly back to our community and exercise our generosity and charitable values! If you have any questions please reach out to us or visit the Toys for Tots website here.