Weekend Warriors

I'd be a deaf, dumb and blind Meerkat if I did not take note of some of the amazing grappling events that happened over the weekend. So I'd like to pay tribute to all my friends, training pals and in fact everyone who took part in the IBJJF European championships in Lisbon. I've been catching up on all the stories - of amazing wins and crushing losses. Guys and girls, you should all be proud. Win or lose, you come home with your heads held high.

The other major event from this weekend was Roger Gracie fighting his MMA fight at StrikeForce. Roger fought Trevor Prangley - a tough fighter with a good record. Roger won by RNC in the first round. you can see the closing stages of the action here. Again, it makes me proud to be associated (he's my instructor's instructor) with this great champion.

Here's a great photo from the weekend's action in Lisbon courtesy of the Jiu Jitsu Style magazine - which is due out at the end of February:

Now that's what I call wearing your heart on your sleeve...or on your head in this case :P


.

byMeerkatsu

in

January 31, 2011

Weekend Warriors

I'd be a deaf, dumb and blind Meerkat if I did not take note of some of the amazing grappling events that happened over the weekend. So ...

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Gi Review: Howard Combat Kimonos (HCK) Competition Lite

By guest reviewer James Carey...

So those of you who read my last article for Meerkatsu’s blog ("Confessions of a gi addict" PART ONE and PART TWO) will know of my eternal search for the perfect fitting gi, and that with the Fushida Mantis I pretty much found it. But you can’t keep a good gi addict down...

byMeerkatsu

in review, uniforms

January 28, 2011

Gi Review: Howard Combat Kimonos (HCK) Competition Lite

By guest reviewer James Carey... So those of you who read my last article for Meerkatsu’s blog ("Confessions of a gi addict" P...

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Jiu Jitsu Postcard from Peru

Think you gas on the mats? Try doing the same thing at altitude! Luckily, this postcard from Peru shows that BJJ is alive and well over there...

BJJ in Lima – Peru

Hi guys, I am Pierre and I’m a Peruvian blue belt from Guigo Jiu Jitsu Academy in Peru, a subsidiary of Guigo Jiu Jitsu based in Sao Paulo – Brazil, led by Luiz Guilherme (Guigo), who is a black belt under Jorge Pereira (direct student of Rickson Gracie)...

byMeerkatsu

in Postcards From

January 25, 2011

Jiu Jitsu Postcard from Peru

Think you gas on the mats? Try doing the same thing at altitude! Luckily, this postcard from Peru shows that BJJ is alive and well over ther...

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The Boy From Oklahoma - Rafael Lovato Jr Seminar, London

Rafael Lovato Jr is huge. Not just in height and weight, but huge in personality and enthusiasm - facets that filled the room at today's excellent seminar at my former instructor's academy, The Ultimate Fitness Centre. The academy was rammed with eager students - some travelling from hundreds of miles away (Hi Adam and co from Factory BJJ!) who all had a blast sweeping the feet off each other. In fact Rafael taught a whole series of sweeps and attacks stemming from the spider guard, all of which I found to be extremely useful, easy to apply and filled with nuggets of wisdom that could only come from a world class champion.

Rafael was keen to highlight the details of not just the actual mechanics of the sweep, but he placed as much importance on where the opponent would land. Rafael cited many occasions where he saw top class competitors pull off a beautiful sweep only to fall into a triangle or other bad position due to the lack of control over where his opponent landed. Rafael also made sure he covered how to use a spider guard sweep against an opponent who countered in various ways.

After the seminar, Rafael sat down with us and during the Q&A, he revealed the compelling story of his upbringing. A BJJ obsessed father and son duo who trained together in a place where there were no other academies to train at. And a dad who hated flying so had to send his young teenage son alone around the world to train and learn BJJ from the best, and bring back the knowledge. As a 15-16 year old, Rafael would hit every tournament he could, study every VHS tape he could get his hands on, learn from every instructor he could find. His story of a life dedicated to jiu-jitsu is incredibly inspiring. Fast forward to today, with Mundials gi and nogi titles (among a zillion other titles) under his black belt plus a thriving academy in his home State, Rafael has carved a glittering career for himself. And there's plenty more to come as he will compete at next week's IBJJF Europeans and further ahead, is looking to make his MMA debut. When Rafael was asked what had jiu jitsu given him? He smiled and said: "I'm just the boy from Oklahoma, look at me now, I'm in London - teaching and training the thing I love the most. Jiu Jitsu has given me so much!"

I think that said it all.

The seminar was a technical masterclass but the icing ontop of today's gi-wrapped cake was the chance to take some studio lit snaps of Rafael and the chance catch up with my former instructor Eddie Kone. All in all, a super day out for the Meerkat.

My thanks to Eddie for hosting Rafael and welcoming us back to his academy, thanks to Rafael for patiently waiting around while my camera misfired, and thanks to Callum who teamed up with me and wrote the interview for Jiu Jitsu Style Magazine (issue 2) within which you will see the rest of my Lovato snaps.

:)

byMeerkatsu

in seminar

January 23, 2011

The Boy From Oklahoma - Rafael Lovato Jr Seminar, London

Rafael Lovato Jr is huge. Not just in height and weight, but huge in personality and enthusiasm - facets that filled the room at today...

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Jiu Jitsu Burst My Eyeballs!!!!!!

Not me, but this guy...(he gave me permission to post this)

.
What happened? He got choked out, went to sleep, the blood vessels on his eyeballs burst, that's what happened. In his own words: "I didn't need treatment because the blood capillaries didn't burst in the inside of my orbital. Though, was probably only seconds away from that happening."

Frak me...people, tap, TAP before you fancy getting a little unprompted out of season Halloween makeup on yer face!


:(

byMeerkatsu

in injuries

January 20, 2011

Jiu Jitsu Burst My Eyeballs!!!!!!

Not me, but this guy...(he gave me permission to post this) . What happened? He got choked out, went to sleep, the blood vessels on his e...

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Patch design: "DogHulk"

Meet 'DogHulk'. He's seriously badass. He also took me an age to create, see how I did it here...

byMeerkatsu

in design

January 17, 2011

Patch design: "DogHulk"

Meet 'DogHulk'. He's seriously badass. He also took me an age to create, see how I did it here...

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My Favourite Photos by John Lamonica

John is a BJJ photographer based in Santa Monica, California. His photos covering elite grappling events all over the world first caught my eye on Facebook and Gracie Magazine. I love the way John's images are all about the facial expressions and the emotions. Here are some of John's own favourites from his archive, enjoy...


1. Andre Galvao vs Rafael "Gordinho" Correa
 "This is my favorite photo, and my luckiest.  I arrived late and asked if Galvao was competing, they pointed to the mat he was on and I realized he already had started. I ran over kneeled down and shot, this is the result. Nothing before and nothing after." 

2. Romulo Barral after he submits Xande Ribero.  
"Saulo Ribero, Xandes older brother and coach's reaction. "

3. Roberto Cyborg Abreau vs Jeff Monson. 

"I love this picture because you see in Monson's eyes that he is in trouble.  The night before I ran into Roberto and he told me he was nervous about facing Monson.  It was such a great match."

 

 

 

4. Marcelo Garcia vs Pabolo Popovitch.  

"Two of the best going down to the wire."

My thanks to John and look forward to seeing more of his work in the BJJ media.

:)

byMeerkatsu

in photography

January 14, 2011

My Favourite Photos by John Lamonica

John is a BJJ photographer based in Santa Monica, California. His photos covering elite grappling events all over the world first caught my ...

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New blog header art

At the beginning of each year I give the blog a spring clean and knock up something fresh for the blog header. Past efforts have seen me mock up a Kill Bill pastiche, a Street Fighter tribute and um, I forget but they were cool at the time.

Anyway, this year I've gone for zombie-chic...

and in case you are reading this on your google reader, here's the header again...

I chose to sub-head the blog title with 'Words and Pictures' mainly because I'm aware that I don't really use the blog as a web log in the traditional sense (ie a log of my training activities), instead I tend to post updates about my interviews, photography, artwork and other BJJ-related media activites, so the sub heading reflects that. I might still drop in the odd bit of technical and training post, as the mood suits.

Here's a couple stats from 2010:

No. visits: 90,466

Pageviews: 185,371

No. Unique visitors: 43,998

Anyway, here's another chance for me to say thanks to all the readers of this blog and thanks for all your support, comments, emails etc I do it all for you guys...okay that's a lie, I do it for me, but you're never far from my thoughts.

:)

byMeerkatsu

in blogs, design

January 10, 2011

New blog header art

At the beginning of each year I give the blog a spring clean and knock up something fresh for the blog header. Past efforts have seen me moc...

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Logo design: Clube de Jiu Jitsu de Lisboa

This job was a perfect one for me to try - Hélio Perdigão, black belt instructor at the Clube de Jiu Jitsu de Lisboa in Portugal asked me to design a new logo from scratch and he wanted a crow (symbol of his city) standing in the classic Gracie pose. Yeah! Jiu jitsu animals - or as I now dub them, 'Jitsanimals', are so my thing.

So, I start off with the obligatory pencil sketch for approval:

Then draw the same thing in Illustrator:

But we agreed, the crow, who we nick-named 'Crowrion Gracie' seemed to look better zoomed in just torso and head. The next stage was to play around with all sorts of surrounding circles and triangles with various fonts and colours, until finally, a favourite emerged. And here it is...

Crowrion sure looks mean, I hope he's raven a good time!


:)

byMeerkatsu

in design

January 09, 2011

Logo design: Clube de Jiu Jitsu de Lisboa

This job was a perfect one for me to try - Hélio Perdigão, black belt instructor at the Clube de Jiu Jitsu de Lisboa in Portugal asked me t...

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Print Matters - BJJ Magazines Galore!

I'm super excited! I know, that's my default emotional state anyway, but right now and in the next couple of months, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will be given the most amazing exposure with the publication of several landmark publications dedicated to our beloved gentle art. In chronological order, here they are:

First up, here in the UK, out on the 13th January is the long awaited BJJ Special Edition of Martial Arts Illustrated. Inside, interviews with Roger Gracie, Victor Estima, Kevin Chan, my own instructor Nick Brooks...and my pals Oli Geddes, Leoni Munslow, Delroy McDowell and also a look behind the success of the Chris Rees Academy in Wales. Plus there's loads more besides that!

Next up is the UK's first ever BJJ dedicated magazine - Jiu Jitsu Style. If I am super excited about the BJJ special of MAI magazine, you can only guess how giddy I am with delight at the prospect of our very own BJJ periodical. Issue One will be out in late February and feature exclusive interviews with Marc Walder, Michael Langhi, Romulo Barral and whole smorgasbord of goodies, delights and wonders. Oh and I get to sneak in an interview with my good pal Pippa Granger - one of the UK's most prolific female competitors.

This photo is a very early dummy edition cover (featuring my photo of team mate Daniel Strauss), the proper one I am not allowed to show yet, but it's freakin' awesome!!!

Phewee! You keeping up? Okay, next up in our line up of coolio new Jiu Jitsu magazines is the US based Jiu Jitsu Magazine. Yay! Actually I don't know much about what Issue One will contain but I have written something nice for you gi lovers out there, so watch out for Jiu Jitsu Magazine when it hits the newstands in March.

Again, I am not allowed to show you the real Issue One front cover yet, but here's a dummy they sent me to whet your appetites:

Finally, let's not forget good ole Gracie Magazine, who have served us with exclusive BJJ coverage for many years now. Well, as you may recall, I was asked by Break Point FC if they could use my gi review montage image for their advert, well, here it is in their latest (Feb 2011) issue:

There's no hiding from Meerkatsu! Hahaha.



UPDATE:
I totally forgot about the Jiu Jitsu Style T-shirt (designed by Scramble). If JJS magazine gets 1,000 'likes' on Facebook, they will give you one of these blue and yellow babies to 50 randomly selected winners (UK residents only). They are on 978 at the time of writing, so if you haven't already joined, please do so.

:)

byMeerkatsu

in media coverage

January 07, 2011

Print Matters - BJJ Magazines Galore!

I'm super excited! I know, that's my default emotional state anyway, but right now and in the next couple of months, Brazilian Jiu J...

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Easter Egg

byMeerkatsu

in

January 05, 2011

Easter Egg

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Wall Murals

Huge, massive, gigantic wall murals plastered over academy walls rock...period. Take a look at my BJJ compadres over at F4 Martial Arts Academy in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was painted by kids, yes KIDS I tell ya (with the aid of a projector and about 12 hours of hard labour).

Seeing that just gave me the most amazing tingling feeling inside, I mean it's just so cool to see something you created, transposed into another format by anothers' hand.
Tell you a secret too...when I was a kid, I got nicked for graffiti (or as I called it at the time, art) on walls. Oh how things have changed hahaha.

The F4 wall mural also reminded me of the huge blown up photos the adorn the walls of the Alliance head academy. Here's one photo courtesy of Michael Langhi's Facebook page:

It must be so inspiring to train under the watchful gaze (albeit in still form) of Michael Langhi, Luanna Alzuguir, Sergio Moraes, Tarsis Humphreys, Lucas Lepri, Gabi Garcia and many others.

If your gym has a wall mural I'd be really keen to have a look so pop a link in the comments section. Ta!


:)

byMeerkatsu

in design

January 03, 2011

Wall Murals

Huge, massive, gigantic wall murals plastered over academy walls rock...period. Take a look at my BJJ compadres over at F4 Martial Arts Acad...

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Gi Review: K2 Fight Gear Premier Gi

Summary
New UK fightwear brand K2 release an outstandingly robust, thoughtfully designed and stylish pearl weave jiu jitsu gi. This gi is priced at the higher end of the gi market (£89.99) but with the large number of practical features designed to ensure longevity and durability, this gi represents very good value for money.

DISCLAIMER: I am not sponsored by any company nor to I endorse any brand. This review represents my honest, unbiased opinions. Thank you to www.k2fightgear.com for sending me this gi for review.

byMeerkatsu

in review, uniforms

January 01, 2011

Gi Review: K2 Fight Gear Premier Gi

Summary New UK fightwear brand K2 release an outstandingly robust, thoughtfully designed and stylish pearl weave jiu jitsu gi. This gi is...

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