Igor Gracie Seminar

Igor Gracie Seminar

Last week I had the pleasure to host a 5 days seminar for Igor Gracie in Cyprus and Greece. The seminar took place at Aspida Team Renzo Gracie Cyprus and at MMA GYM Athens the main academy representing Renzo Gracie in Greece. Igor Gracie shared with us some of his favor techniques both in sport Jiu-Jitsu and in MMA. All participants had the chance to see his smooth and detailed technic. It was an honor to have such a high level Black Pelt visiting us from our main academy (Renzo Gracie New York). Hopefully we will have more Gracie’s coming over soon.

Thank you Igor

Milano Challenge 2013

Group photo at Pave cafe 

Milano Challenge 2013 

After a great competition in Milan, Italy, Aspida Team Renzo Gracie managed to bring back back home four gold and three bronze metals .Milano Challenge is one of the biggest and most highly esteemed tournaments in Europe. With more than 600 athletes the tournament was one of the most organized events that I took part in and all these thanks to Milanimal's own, founder and coach, Andrea Baggio. For four days, while in Milano, we felt and were treated like royalty thanks to Andrea who treated us as if he wasn't burdened by the stress that usually comes with a-600-plus-person-logistics'nightmare.

The Aspida Team member's bonding grows stronger and stronger after each competition and this trip was a great example. Everybody did great despite winning or losing; For me, as a coach, everybody did great in their own right, for their own reasons. The spirit of fighting and competing  is a very personal thing and in this competition I learned two new things:  

A:NO excuses

B: Our greatest foe is not the one standing on the opposite side of the mat, BUT our own self!  

RESULTS

Paris Kemanes    - Bronze -65 kg white belts 

Panos Petralis   - Gold   +100kg and open division blue belts 

Thomas Georgiou  - Bronze -88 kg purple  belts

Dino Kouyialis   - Gold   -82 kg purple belts

Panikos Melodias - Gold   -100kg and Bronze open division brown belts

Written by Andreas Achniotis Perales

Edited by Dino Kouyialis

Panos Petralis first place at +100kg and open 

Dino Kouyialis first place at -82kg

Panikos Melodias first -100Kg and third in open 

Thomas Georgiou third -88kg

Paris Kemanes third -64

New ATRG Academy in Thessaloniki

Μόλις γύρισα από Θεσσαλονίκη! Το σεμινάριο ήταν σούπερ!
Θέλω να ευχαριστήσω τον αθλητικό σύλλογο Ατραπό που με κάλεσε για το σεμινάριο και ειδικά τον δάσκαλο Στυλιανό Πανούση. Τους καλωσορίζω στην οικογένεια μας. Από σήμερα η Aspida Team Renzo Gracie βρίσκετε και στη Θεσσαλονίκη!
Καλή αρχή
train your mind train jiu-jitsu
Pantelis Panayides

Igor Gracie seminar

On 5 of December we will have the honour of welcoming 3rd degree Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Igor Gracie. Igor is the son of bjj legend Rolls Gracie  (1951-1983).
Igor is one of the head instructors at Renzo Gracie academy in New York. He is and active competitor in BJJ and MMA and holder of multiple titles.
This is a grate opportunity for all bjj fans and practitioners to experience first hand training with such a high lever instructor and competitor.
Cyprus is now becoming a well know place for bjj and is attracting numerous high level instructors from all over the world.

Friday training session

Friday night training session at the Academy is becoming fast the most popular night, with its open mat and brief foundamental class! Get the chance to roll with as many partners  possible or as many as u can take on! See you on the mat!

Season competitions!

Dear members of RGAT, we would like to inform you thgat for this year the academy is planning to participate in two official tournaments/competitions! The first one is the London Open/ibjjf european no-gi in october, and the second tournament will be the Milano Challenge in November! All those interested in paticipating ine any one of the events please let us know se we can plan accordingly!

 

www.ibjjf.org

www.milanochallenge.com

Thelma Polyviou nutritionist (PHD)

A great week to all! Last week we had the luck and honor to welcome on the mat, Thelma Polyviou, a nutritionist (PhD), who stole some time from her vacation from Scotland so she could share with us some tips on BJJ athlete's nutrition. She spoke about the timing of the meals before and after practice, the meals themselves and their properties as well as their specific attributes, and she even gave tips on budgeting! Thelma has printed he presentation, which is larger then her actual speech, so for those who failed to get a copy last Thursday, there are some left at the academy. We will soon upload them on the team's page so they can be downloaded.

New 2013 - 2014 schedule!

Adcc 2013

On 19th of October Beijing China will host the 10th ADCC championship.

As always the categories are full of elite athletes and super stars.

In the -66kg category Raphael Mendes will try to break the record of the great BJJ legend Royler Gracie, who currently holds three titles in the category. It will not come easily for Mendes as he needs to face fighters like Cobrinha and Tancinho. In the last match at the world championships, Tancinho beat Mendes and left the championship with the tittle. 

In the-77kg category Leonardo Lo, Octavio Sousa, Kron Gracie and Lucas Lepri are some of the many names that  will fight to fill in the void of the category's greatest ever, Marcelo Gracia.

The -88kg category, I believe it will be the most interesting category as one of the fighters is the best brown belt in the world. The "phenomenon" Keean Kornelius is one of my favorites to win the category.

Of couse Rumulo Barral, Lucas Leite, Michael Langhi, Claudio Clazanse, Raphael Lovato JR are thirsty for the title as none of these great athletes has an ADCC tittle on their record yet.

In the -99kg category, 2 times ADCC champion Dean Lister, will face the BJJ favorite, Rodolfo Vieira who is in the best shape of his career.

In the +99kg category, Marcus "Buchecha" Almeida is the favourite to crush everyone on his category, but also every one who steps into the absolute division with him.

2013 Annual Grading

On the 19th of July, Aspida Team (Renzo Gracie) had its annual grading ceremony.

It was a chance for many students to be rewarded for their efforts in terms of jiujitsu and the sprit they exhibited during the year! 

Many students were promoted to a higher level belt and some students received intermediary stripes on their way to the next belt level.

The students are graded based on performance, learning and their overall presence in the academy.

Promotions to Blue belt:

Andreas Ketonis

Philip Malik

Simons Galatariotis

Michalis Petrou

Promotions to Purple Belt:

Dimitris Louca

Dakis Kyriakidis

Dino Kouyialis 

It was also a great chance to reflect on the events of the past year regarding the academy  and for its students for their achievements in competitions but also the their level of jiujitsu demonstrated within the academy.

Another important aspect emphasized is the  spirit of brotherhood exhibited on and off the mats! 

Regarding the academy's future plans, the healthy progression of growth was emphasized and it was announced that a second academy will open in Nicosia.

Also in the very near future the cooperation with  another academy will be announced.

Thank you all for attending this ceremony and note that it is important to participate in the academy's activities regardless if you are being promoted to a higher level or not. It is always important to support the academy and your fellow athletes!

Rome open international / European no Gi

Rome open / European no gi  During the last weekend of June , this BJJ event took place in Rome. Itally.  Six members of Aspida team took part at this event and they managed to bring home 1 gold , 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. Konstantinos Mavris . From Aspida team Athens - gold ultra heavy white belt at the Rome open Andreas Ketonis From Aspida team cyprus bronze in the feather white belt division at the Rome open Andreas Achniotis bronze in the brown belt light division at the Rome open  Andreas Achniotis silver at the European no gi brown belt light.  The rest of the team Nicolas Mavromatis , Theodoros Kyriakidou and Filippos Filippou from Aspida team paphos Fought well and were very close to a medal!   The whole team had a chance to attend a seminar with one of the most technical player at a profesional level Caio Terra  the next day.  Andreas Achniotis Also had a chance to visit tribe jiu jitsu Firenze run by Luca Caracciolo and gave a 2 hour lesson ( gi  and no gi)   Overall it was a great experience and a good time for the team to develop and practice jiu jitsu at an international level    We look forward to next tournament 

1st national bjj open training

Group foto

On the 6^th of April the first open training session took place in Cyprus. Around 50 students from different Jiu-Jitsu schools showed up ready to train with new partners and test their techniques. That was the main purpose of this open training, to test the technical and cardiovascular level of each person.
The whole training was contacted by Prof Pantelis Panayides and Head Instructor Argiris Argirides.
The training program started out with a 15 to 20 min warm and the main training followed with Randori (live sparing). Every match had 5min duration with 2min brakes. All athletes had at least 5 to 6 Randori. At the end there was a 5 min cool down. During the whole training there was a positive energy by all athletes.
The reason behind this type of training and the ones to follow is to get the athletes ready for competition. People who follow this training program eventually are going to be ready for real level of competition.
Jiu-Jitsu grows because we share.
Train your mind train Jiu-Jitsu

By professor Pantelis Panayides

How to wash your gi

The keys to success By Caio Terra

A really nice inspirational video from Former world champion in rooster division. Technique last forever power not. This is a view from a very successes fighter in bjj tournaments.   

European bjj championships 2013

 Is been almost one month after our European championship and the truth is that I've been so skeptical and confused to compose an article about it.

The results from our academy was not the results that we were expecting. In total we just had one win by young athlete  Nikolas Mavromatis. He destroyed his opponent by taking almost all the positions possible. He showed great jiu jistu skills!

Everybody was faced strong opponents which eventually were placed on the podium.

Losing is part of the game but the hard part is to accept it and move forward by improving and learning from your mistakes .

 My last European championships were in 2010 and since then the level has improved greatly. The reason for this is that more athletes now train on a daily basis and constantly compete in several tournaments around Europe and the world. Competing on a regular basis enables an athlete to perform better at tournaments and deal with the adrenalin and stress. 

Here I'd like to remind you all, that we, unlike the other European athletes, only compete once or twice a year, because it is difficult and expensive to travel from Cyprus. This leaves us inexperienced and lacking. Training only with the same members of your academy over and over again, means when you will be inexperienced and unprepared when you come up against an opponent whose style or game you are not familiar with. 

For this reason, we need to take action in Cyprus and have to regular common training sessions with other academies, organize seminars and tournaments. Eventually as the sport grows, a federation can be formed that can help athletes and trainers.



The team



Winter Grading 2012

On 21  December 2012 Aspida team from all over Cyprus meet once more for the annual grading Event.

The academy filled up with Aspida members family and friends.

 The evening began with a small Bjj exhibition by the new kids team, for the first time.

The young Aspida members showed a sample of training exercise and combinations of different techniques. At the end everybody had a chance to see the future participants  roll for 5min. 

After the introductions, and with all the members on the mat, 5 belts was given from professor Pantelis . Congratulations to the newly graded members.

We finished the night with pizza and beers!

 Finaly, I'd like to thank everyone who came and a special thanks to all the friends and family for their support. Congratulations to the kids team for the amazing performance.

Aspida Team 

Our new belts