The "Milanimal" seminar

Last week, we had the honour to host a seminar with our good friend and trainer Andrea Baggio. Andrea is a brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and main instructor of Milanimal brazilian jiu jitsu academy.

Day 1:The topic of the seminar was how to control the mount position and react on the escape by taking the back. Using the technical mount, how to stay on the position even with different escapes. A new way of moving our weight and balance on the top of the mount position!

Day 2: Andrea emphasized the importance of a strategic game! The topic of the first part was how to take and control the back and choke from this position. The second part was how to defend the choke from the back and escape from the position. The point of having a game plan by taking the back from your opponent forces you to be more aggressive and always be ahead. By always going for your opponent's back, in an attempt to defend and escape, many other possible positions open up. Andrea's advised us to think of BJJ as FLOW-motion, each move leading to many other possible moves like chess as opposed to a choreographed dance.

At the end of the seminar, Andrea promoted me with the brown belt. Grazie Andre. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my friend, partner and trainer Pantelis and all the guys at Aspida team that helped me in my journey to earning this belt. It's not only my achievement, but Aspida Team's achievement. This belt shows that the level of the school is high and promising for the future!

This seminar is the first of many collaborations between Aspida team and Milanimal JJ. We would like to thank Andrea for a very enjoyable and considered seminar and pointers. Everyone enjoyed themselves and certainly learned something new about positions and the importance of a strategic game plan.