New Academy, more classes

After 8 years of nomadism, the academy finally has it's own identity and space in the centre of Nicosia. Aspida has gone from strength to strength and out grown all of the previous gyms and studios, and so we've made the decision to open our own space that will allow us to have more classes and training sessions for our members. The space is 120 sq.m of tatami mats, open space for sparring and conditioning training, and spacious changing rooms / showers.

The academy will have DAILY classes for beginners and advanced levels, and for the first time BJJ for kids, strength and conditioning training, wrestling and boxing.

The goal of the academy is to give its athletes the opportunity and correct space and training to advance to high / professional levels at an international standard. The new academy opens it doors the first week of September. The new school will be located in Salaminos Avenue, next to Luk Oil gas station.

The "Legacy"

Renzo Gracie is a world-renown practitioner of Brazilian jiu jitsu and MMA. He is a senior member of the famous Gracie family of jiu jitsu teachers and fighters who did so much to change the shape the current state of martial arts instruction in America. He has assembled a great team of some of the very best instructors from Brazil, many of whom are members of his illustrious family and who teach his system to a very large and ever- growing community and his world famous New York City Academy. Renzo's fame and charisma is the basis of a truly enjoyable place to train, grow and develop your skills among many avid practitioners of the sport, ranging from famous professional fighters to everyday enthusiasts.

European Fighters League 2

Aspida Team member, Panayiotis Melodias participated in the second European Fighters League MMA elimination pool tournament in Crete this May.

In the light heavyweight category, in his first fight he faced Hercules Grigoriades, BJJ brown belt of Brasa Hellas. BJJ purple belt, Melodias proved to be a stronger grappler, as well as in his stand up game. Melodias came out victorious by unanimous decision.

ΜΕΛΩΔΙΑΣ VS ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΑΔΗΣ EFL 2 by LordofRingsTV

Second fight was with a last minute substitute, thai boxer Ioaniddes, who did not have a first fight and was rested. Melodias came to the fight just 9 minutes after his first fight, destroyed his opponent on the ground. But due to Nikos Ioannides being rested, he managed to escape from submission attempts one after. Again, Melodias won by unanimous decision. See the fight below:

ΜΕΛΩΔΙΑΣ VS ΙΩΑΝΝΙΔΗΣ EFL 2 by LordofRingsTV

Melodias could unfortunately not fight the final against Andreas Michaelides due to an injury to the jaw. Leaving open the rematch between the two BJJ fighters.

9 out of 11 medals

Welcome to Aspida Team's blog, the first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy in Cyprus. For our fist post we'd like to congratulate our team, out of the 11 athletes 9 got medals at Cyprus's first organized Grappling and Kickboxing championships in Larnaca, May 2011.

The organization of the event was not great, but with the help of some of our team members and other academy members, we were able to complete the event despite the organizers disappearing before the end of the day. Six official grappling academies turned up for the event, we were expecting more participants from other academies. Hopefully we will see them at the next championships. Congratulations again to everyone who participated and may we have many more of these type of events in Cyprus.

Gregoris Demetriou: 1st place -75kg (Beginners)

Charis Yiankou: 3rd place -75kg (Beginners)

Nikolas Mavromatis: 3rd place -75kg (Beginners)

Zacharias Aristidou: 2nd Place -86kg (Beginners)

Stelios Lambrianou: 1st place -75kg (Advanced)

Andreas Achniotis: 1st place -86kg (Advanced)

Dino Kouyiallis: 2nd place -86kg (Advanced)

Dimitris Louka: 3rd place -86kg (Advanced)

Andreas Prezas: 1st place +100kg (Advanced)