We will soon be hosting another in-house Jiu-Jitsu tournament for Roseberry's students. Not only is it free and fun, but by competing you are helping us to improve. We would like to get more practice running our tournament system, so we need a good number of competitors for the best results.
If the turnout is too low, any Roseberry's Jiu-Jitsu student who does not compete will have their identity assigned to one of the competitors, who will then compete under your name. You won't get any say as to who competes as you, either! If you have a good reason for not competing (such as that you broke your wrist a couple of months ago), you will be excused from mandatory compliance.
Seriously, we really appreciate everyone's help, and besides competitors we will also need to round up the usual suspects...people to help set up, run tables, refs, etc. Since it's a free tournament, there won't be any medals or other prizes, just bragging rights and good Jiu-Jitsu karma.
(Disclaimer: There is no guarantee that competing in and/or helping out with this tournament will get you good karma. Enter at your own risk.)
1/25/12
Upcoming In-House Tournament
1/17/12
1/15/12
19th Best of the Best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Westside Community Center
3534 South 108th St.
Omaha, Ne. 68144
Register online
January: $50/Females and Juveniles $30
February: $60/Females and Juveniles $40
Late Registration Begins March 2nd @ 11:59p.m. $70/Females and Juveniles $50
Late registration ends Wednesday, March 7th @ 11:59pm
No late registrations on tournament day!
12/17/11
Rojas Victorious At CFC by David Kluthe
Robert “Tito” Rojas recently started attending Jiu-Jitsu class about 3 months ago. Robert used to train in Hastings at Hardknocks Gym. Then once he moved to Lincoln, he began training at Lincoln MMA. When Robert first started attending classes at Roseberry's, not many of the fellow students in our Jiu-Jitsu class were aware of Robert's MMA résumé. I knew that Robert had a very decorated amateur MMA career here in Nebraska, winning fights and championships in promotions like Tri-State Cagefighting. Just last year Robert made the jump from being an amateur mixed martial artist, to a professional. I knew that he had very good boxing skills and wrestling to back it up. Robert's first class at our dojo was the first time I had actually met him face to face. I was impressed with his very polite and humble attitude. It is an honorable thing when a fighter admits to a weakness in his game and seeks help to better himself in that area. That is what Robert did by coming to our dojo and attending Jiu-Jitsu.
During class, Robert was a very good student of the art. He had the three essential skills that martial artists should have; he had a positive attitude, a good work ethic and an open mind. Robert was like a sponge at every class. He soaked up the information being taught, and he did a great job of practicing it. Each class session you could see improvement in Robert's game, and his knowledge of the gentle art was increasing. Leading up to his fight last Friday night, Robert was not only hanging with the advanced students during open mat, but sometimes even submitting them.
This past Friday night, Robert was the Co-Main event at the Cornhusker Fight Club: “Seasons Beatings” event. He took on Joel Frandsen at a catch weight of 175 lbs. In the first round Robert demonstrated his very crisp boxing and great patience. He easily won the round by outstriking Frandsen. The second round was more of the same as Robert proved to be too technical with his striking, landing huge shots on Frandsen. There were a couple of minutes spent on the ground with Robert on top in half guard, using ground and pound to punish his opponent. There were a couple times where Robert saw the d’arce choke that he learned with us, but he did not commit to it. The third round began, Robert was clearly winning the fight, and everyone knew it. Frandsen began to shoot for takedowns as a desperation mode kicked in and he knew he had to change it up. Robert’s takedown defense was very good, using a quick sprawl. Midway through the round, Robert was on top of Frandsen in a turtle position and Robert began working his arm in position around Frandsen’s neck, looking for the d’arce choke. Robert was able to get his arm under, and he locked up the choke. He pulled him into position on his side and held the choke until Frandsen had no choice but to tap! The crowd erupted with cheers and Robert was the winner of a very dominate fight.
It was a proud moment to witness. After the fight Robert had the same attitude as the day he entered the dojo, he was polite and humble. Robert showed he is a well-rounded mixed martial artist, and he is a professional inside and outside of the cage.
David Kluthe
12/14/11
Training and Treats!
Every year Shihan says that the best gift you could ever give him is to train, and this year he is offering the gift of training together with him as a family. I hope many of you will be able to attend. My arm may be in a sling, but I will be there!
Working with the Seated Guard
Yesterday in class we practiced working from a seated guard position. I taught a few sweeps and takedowns from this position. It never ceases to amaze me how the same principals that apply to stand-up techniques, also apply on the ground. Once you wrap your brain around this, it really opens up your game.
12/9/11
Renzo Gracie Demonstrates How To Triangle Larger Opponents
This video is a few years old, but still one of my favorites. I really enjoy Renzo's teaching style, and how humble he is about describing how he figured out the proper way to do the technique.
12/7/11
Don't Give Up
Some days when I would show up to train, the front door of the dojo would be locked. I’d wait outside for about fifteen or twenty minutes and then leave when no one showed. I recall more than a few times when I was a white belt, Mason and I would be the only two students on the mat, waiting to see if our coach would come in to teach class. Mason, an intelligent, skinny teenager who had about six months experience on me, but was rarely confident enough to step up to teach. Me, the seasoned cop and Army vet ready to step up for anything, but too stupid about Jiu-Jitsu to even know where to start. Mason and I would sit there for about a half hour before he would work up enough courage to start showing me things.
Granted, most of time it wasn’t like that, but it would have been easy for me to lose interest, as was the case at one point. There was a long stretch of about a month or so when our teacher stopped coming in. I actually did stop training as well. After a month or so, I ran into him downtown and he asked me why I wasn’t going to class anymore. I was pretty frank about it and simply told him that when he stopped coming in to teach for such a long time, I decided it wasn’t worth coming in. He assured me he was back, so I started going to class again. I was glad I did.
I worked hard those first years, soaking up as much as I could. I remember too many classes that ended with me being in a delirious state of exhaustion. The tougher it was, the more I wanted to train.
At about my four year mark, our coach was really focusing more and more on his MMA training, and again stopped coming in on a regular basis. By this time we had a handful of students, and I was the senior. Every class was a guessing game as to whether or not he would show. It was great when he did, but we eventually learned not to wait for him and to just start the class. When it became apparent our teacher had moved on and wasn’t ever coming back, I began wondering if it was still worth coming into the dojo. I was teaching all the classes by now. I was still learning and growing as a practitioner, but it was all self motivated and self taught from experience and time on the mat.
My competitive juices were still running high and I knew that if I were to continue learning, I’d need a lot more students, a lot more mat time, and a lot more training myself. Being that I was already in my mid forties, I knew that my dreams of being a high level competitive grappler were long gone. Local tournaments, NAGA and the like were my fair. I’d travel to other states for seminars, spend exorbitant amounts of money on books and DVD’s, and train like a starved mad man. I was teaching and training Jiu-Jitsu five days a week.
All in all, I don’t think my story is necessarily that different from a lot of others. When you live in an area where there aren’t BJJ schools readily available, you sometimes have to learn Jiu-Jitsu through the school of hard knocks. If you want it bad enough, you have to fight for it. That’s kind of my point to all of this. No matter where you train, it’s really your own responsibility to make it happen for you.
I owe a ton to all who have had a part in teaching me, my trainers and my students. Learning Jiu-Jitsu is not easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. It takes dedication and hard work. The bottom line is that you have to want it as bad as you want to breathe. I posted this video a few months ago, but I think it fits appropriately here.
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