Joe Duffey, co-owner of Academy of Combative Arts in York, took one of his most promising fighters, James "Shrapnel" Chappell, to the MMA try-outs at American Fighter in Philly today. Just after 7 p.m., Joe emailed me, saying that despite the limited information available on the try-outs, they were for real, they were professional and time will tell how Chappell did, although preliminarily, it appared those in charge were impressed, Joe said. I'll have more on this as it becomes available.
Here's an email from Larry Novak, owner of Tattoo Fightwear, a New Cumberland-based mma clothing company:
Tattoo Fightwear is sponsoring James "Shrapnel" Chappell, here are a few of his stats:
-Green Belt USMC Martial Arts
-High School Wrestling
-Blue Belt BJJ
-1yr. Boxing/Muy Thai
-Competed in NAGA, UGC and took a gold medal at the PA.State BJJ Tournament
-Ammy record: 3-0
-Light weight title holder for the Central PA. Warrior Challenge.
To see one of Chappell's fights, click here.
Ted's Take: Jimmy's won all of his fights by armbar - which, don't get me wrong, is a great thing - but I can't wait to see it when he lets his hands go.
An email from Brad Souders, of Extreme Sportsplex in Martinsburg, W. Va., sent me these videos the other day with this note:
"Here are two videos i shot last night on two common bjj problems. The first deals with the popular knee cut pass and the second is one counter to the brabo choke which is becoming popular in no gi grappling.
Sorry about the boxer show and notice my gut hanging haha and for added Matt,Mark, and Grove notice the shirt lol."
This piece was recommended to me by George McGinnis of YMMAA in Red Lion and was written by Rosendo Diaz (pictured above) of Rosendo Diaz Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Royler Gracie-David Adiv:
The keys to becoming better at Jiu-Jitsu don't always rest in the in the hands of your instructor or the quality of your training partners, nor does it always come from getting the most up to date techniques used in competition.
While those things are important and contribute to the overall development of your skills, what really matters is the commitment you make to the art of jiu-jitsu and your discipline and what I like to refer to as the three P's of training.
What are the three P's of training?
Practice, Persistence and Patience...
Here's an email I received from George McGinnis, head trainer at York Mixed martial Arts Academy:
This article was sent to me by one of our top students (Tom Fleming) yesterday. I personally read the article twice because I thought it was that informative. Though most of us have been instructing for some time and have likely developed our own style of teaching, this article could still benefit you (as well as the students) in more ways then one.
It reminds us of the three most common styles of learning and reception (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic). Though I feel that our facility commonly accommodates for all three types of learning behaviors, I decided to adjust last nights class out of curiosity. To be completely honest, last night was probably one of the most responsive classes that I have ever tought. Students were asking twice the amount of questions, getting more involved, changing their angles of view and complying to the outline. I am also receiving emails and text messages about how great of a class we had. Give it a read. You could too be missing one or two angles of curriculum that could benefit one or more students.
No Holds Barred: Robert Drysdale on ADCC Superfight with Jacare
On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling world champion Robert Drysdale
(http://robertdrysdale.net/).
The winner by submission of all his fights in the absolute division of
the 2007 Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) Submission Fighting World
Championships, Robert Drysdale now has earned a place in the featured
Superfight in ADCC 2009 (http://adccbarcelona.com), September 25-27,
in Barcelona, Spain. His original opponent, however, Roger Gracie, the
2007 Superfight winner and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion many
times over, was forced to withdraw from this match because of an
injury.
It was just announced Friday by the ADCC Committee that the new
opponent for Robert Drysdale in the Superfight will be the exciting
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and mixed martial arts star, Ronaldo "Jacare"
Souza. In his last appearance at ADCC, in 2005, Jacare won the 88 kg
division but lost in the absolute finals to Roger Gracie.
You can play or download No Holds Barred at
http://nhbnews.podOmatic.com/entry/2009-09-12T11_38_27-07_00.
You can also download No Holds Barred at http://www.mediafire.com/?tnwyb2mny3l.
Brad Souders, of Extreme Sportsplex in Martinsburg, W. Va., sent me a link to this site, grapplearts.com, for an in-depth look at the de la Riva guard:
Ricardo de la Riva is a slight unassuming man with a gentle smile. Talking to him it is hard to imagine that this man is on the cutting edge of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Voted as one of the top five technical fighters of all times by his peers, every BJJ school on the planet is teaching his famous de la Riva guard.
Nobody could have imagined the impact this skinny 15 year old kid would have on the jiu-jitsu world, when he walked into one of Carlson Gracie's affiliate schools in Copacabana and started training under the then brown belt Marcus Soares. When Marcus closed his gym, de la Riva started training at Carlson Gracie's main academy; de la Riva had previously impressed Carlson by beating Carlson's nephew in an inter-academy tournament.
To see more about de la Riva's guard, click here.
A note from Robson Pereira: HEY GUYS DON'T MISS OUT !!!!
"BEST OF THE BEST"
THIS IS WHERE THE BEST GRAPPLERS AROUND WILL BE COMPETING FOR THE BEST OF THE YEAR!!! GI AND NO-GI DIVISIONS FOR MORE INFO GO TO WWW.PEREIRABJJ.COM
From the Grapplers Quest Web site: The new 90,000 square foot Lancaster County Convention Center, connected with the brand new Marriott Lancaster will play host to The 2009 Northeast Grappling Championships on Saturday, September 26th.
The venue is located at the Lancaster Convention Center, 3 East Vine Street,Lancaster, Pa.
DISCOUNT TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW, Save $5 and Experience the Greatest Grappling Show on Earth, Meet Your Favorite MMA Superstars, and Watch the World's Best Grapplers & Fighters,
CLICK HERE
COMPETITORS, Save up to $30 & Get a FREE T-Shirt, CLICK HERE
For Directions go to, LancasterConventionCenter.com
OFFICIAL Hotel
Lancaster Marriott® at Penn Square
25 South Queen Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17602 USA
• Phone: 1-717-239-1600 CALL 717-239-1600 FOR DISCOUNT RATE OF $139 Per Night
MUST MENTION GRAPPLERS QUEST - Save $40+ per night or BOOK ONLINE at MarriottLancaster.com (MUST use group code GRAGRAA to Get Discount Online)
For more info. go to the official Web site.
Here's an email I received from Robson Pereira, promoter of this past weekend's Ultimate Grapplers Challenge:
"We would like to thank everyone who came out and competed in the UGC Tournament on Sat. April 11th. We had a great time and hope everyone there did as well. We have a set date for the next UGC Tourament "Day of Destruction" for June 13th to be held at the Sports Complex in Broadheadsville. We look foward to seeing everyone there. Again thank you for the great event... Please feel free to let us know what you thought or if you have any suggestions, please email us : ultimate.grappling@yahoo.com
To go to the UGC Web site, click here.
