Then, low and behold, this video pops up on YouTube, which I came across on one of my Franco Behring teammate’s Facebook page. In it you will find the likes of Grand Master’s Helio Gracie, Carlos Gracie & Joao Alberto Barreto as well as Master Carlson Gracie & Sensei George Mehdi. (sorry if I got any of those titles wrong. Ousssss.) In their demonstration, which was to get Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu sanctioned by one of the most important presidents in Brazil’s history: Getúlio Vargas, they show the compete realm of jiu jitsu which Master Rickson talks about. Please watch and enjoy this video.

Be sure to look around GrapplingWeekly.com while you’re there. There are some great articles, videos & photos as well as events, news & results sections. Definitely one to bookmark and come back too.

See you on the mats. Oussssssssss!

Found this video on Facebook and just had to pass it along.  It’s two BJJ masters doing a Jiu Jitsu demo at a Pride Fighting event in April of 1999.  Watch and enjoy!  Ousssssss!

Another fine group of BJJers! Thank you all for coming! Ousssss!

Wow! That’s all I can say about that seminar.  Judo, stand up, ground work, 3 black belts on the mats, 3 and a half hours of pure martial arts amazingness! Oussssss!  Thank you Professor Shah for coming to London BJJ and bringing two of Franco Behring’s distinguished Black Belts, Prof. Marco Costa and Prof. “Papi Loco”.  It was a treat for those who came out.  Click through for photos from the seminar.

First and formost I have to give respect to Professor Shah Franco for coming to London BJJ. It was an honour to have you and you're welcome back anytime. Oussss!

Prof. Shah Started the seminar with some shadow boxing, pummeling and judo and then moved to a really cool foot work drill that was applicable to striking arts as well and grappling arts. Good lesson. After all, fights always start of the feet, right?

The drill was a bit like a dance at first and caused a lot of laughs as it was a little perplexing to get the hang of.

Big Al and Simon. Two mountains in sync. Look at the focus.

Prof. "Papi Loco" watches the groups foot work drill. A thank you to you for coming to London BJJ. Ousss!

We moved on to some self defense concepts. Can you spot it? If not, maybe come try out a class or two.

Prof. Marco Costa helps out Tom and Sen with the drill. A thank you goes out to you as well for your support of London BJJ. Oussss!

After a small break we moved to the ground for some guard passing and choke techniques.

I don't remember Prof. Shah showing any rubber guard techniques but Aidan manages to sneak it in.

Sometimes the simplest things make all the difference. Like asking, where are the hips? Doesn't make sense? Maybe you should come try a class or two.

Clearly Eric likes it. Maybe a little too much? Naaahhh, that's not possible!

Larry, Moe and Curly listen and watch intently.

Yeah, that was a good chooke, wasn't it Tom?

Sempai Tim and Billy working the drill.

Thanks again to all who came out! Hope to see you all at our next event. If you missed this one, don't worry, there will be more. See you on the mats! Oussssss!

Come to Rio and live like a Carioca!

You may have seen it posted all over Facebook, but if you haven’t, come to Rio for sun, fun and training! Professor Francis at Rio Sports Tour has put together an amazing camp for Franco Behring team members this summer to travel to Rio and live like a carioca!

The trip consists of 11 days, from August 12th to the 23rd, and will include 1-2 training sessions per day with 7th degree red/black belt, Master Sylvio Behring, of the Franco Behring Association, as well as some local tours including a trip to the Christ Statue!.  It is truly the trip and experience of a lifetime.  You’ll be visiting the Ipanema, Leblon and Recreio neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Accommodations are in Leblon just a few meters from Leblon beach one of the coolest places in town.

If you’re interested and want to hear more, please drop me an email via the contact page and I will get you information on the trip. You can also visit www.riosportstour.com.  Be sure to check out the past tours page here to see and hear about other peoples experiences.

Travel to Rio with London BJJ and Team Franco Behring for sun, fun and training and live like a carioca!

He put the "Franco" in Franco Behring. OUSSSSSSS!

London BJJ is extremely proud to announce, one of the Franco Behring Association’s head instructors, Professor Shah Franco, is coming to London BJJ for a seminar on Sunday April 11th from 2:30-5:30. Open invitation to all martial artists!

With over 30 years of teaching and training in the Martial Arts, Toronto’s legendary MMA trainer, Professor Franco is one of the most respected and well-known Traditional and Modern Martial Arts Instructors in all of Ontario. A Master of Traditional Karate, Professor Franco was one of the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners to be ranked to Blackbelt in Canada directly under the legendary Master Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Professor, Sylvio Behring, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Some of his ranks & achievements include  International Instructor & 7th Degree Blackbelt in Karate, 2nd Degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Blackbelt, Certified Instructor in Israeli Scientific Combat, Professional MMA Coach/Manager, I.K.A. World Champion, North American Champion,Top eighth finish at the World Games, IOC-recognized national champion, Former Canadian National team captain, Former Karate Ontario team coach, Received International Achievement Award in Amateur Sport from Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation and he is a trainer to a long list of provincial, national, and international Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, and MMA champions.

Cost for the 3 hour seminar is $40 open invitation & $30 to Franco Behring members. It will be held at Family Karate Center’s North location, 1695 Wonderland Road North, London, ON, N6G 4W3‎. The dojo is located in the plaza behind the gas station and the car wash.

Please contoact Loncon BJJ via the Contact page with any questions. See you on the mats!

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“Imagine that you stop off at a convenience store after work to get a soda and as you’re walking through the door, a guy runs out the store and bumps into you.

You say excuse me for your part in the mishap, even though it wasn’t your fault, but the guy drops his soda and now demands that you buy him another or he’ll kick your butt.

And as you try one futile attempt after another to resolve the issue peacefully, our rude friend decides to…

Now, I ended the scenario right there because I don’t want to say exactly how it turns out since it could end a number of ways. But the question I want you to ask yourself is this:

Does your grappling training prepare you for this kind of situation or is it geared more toward competitions?

Why am I asking this question, you may ask?

Ever since grappling emerged on the MMA scene in the early 1990s, MILLIONS of people have joined grappling schools around the world, hoping to learn how to fight like they saw Royce Gracie do in those early UFC matches.

Some schools taught their students how to fight or defend themselves, but far too many schools made their students sport tournament grapplers incapable of defending themselves in that kind of convenience store scenario.

They never learned how to throw a punch, kick, head-butt, bite, how to hit someone with a brick or even the right self-defense mindset…
but they know how to apply an armbar or 3 different ways to escape a triangle choke.

Don’t get me wrong because I’m not against sport grappling at all. I just believe that every school should provide a vehicle to teach their students how to protect themselves outside of the sport tournament rules framework. And if they don’t know how, they should bring someone in that can teach them.

I also believe it’s the responsibility of each grappling student to ensure they learn how to defend themselves so they will feel confident to deal with those kinds of situations when they occur and can’t be resolved peacefully.

Flying triangles look cool, but they won’t do you any good if someone slaps you, puts you in a headlock and throws you down to the ground in front of your family, while you flop on the ground helplessly like a fish out of water. How do explain to your loved ones what happened when you’re telling everyone that you’re at the gym “fighting” 4-6 days a week?”

From Ross’ site; “Founded by Ross Enamait, RossTraining.com is dedicated to excellence and innovations in high performance conditioning and strength development. My goal with this site is to provide a content rich resource designed to assist you in the pursuit of your own unique goals.”

If you have the time to visit his site, do it. And be sure to check out his articles. Some pretty informative stuff.

In the video Will Smith shares some great wisdom on working hard to achieve success, his positivity towards life and more.  Whether it is acting, training, your career, or your life in general, in order to have success you must love what you are doing and you must put in the work. There are no other ways around it. Only in the dictionary dose success come before work; and positivity comes before both of those.

Click here for Ross’s blog entry where I found the video.

Great group of BJJ practitioners! Osssssss!

Franco Behring members from London, Orangeville and Toronto, as well as a few guests from other London area BJJ clubs, were present for a great seminar on Jan 2nd, 2010. Professor Marco went over some great drills for sport competition as well as some basic fundamentals of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Words can’t really explain what he is like as an instructor. You’ll have to come out to the next seminar to really understand why they call him “The Encyclopedia”. Thank you Professor for your continued support of London BJJ! See you on the mats! Namaste. Ossssssssss!

A good warm up started the seminar off and this wall walk was one great drill. A little tricky to get the hang of...

...but practice makes perfect!

Some shrimping fun came next. Alex and Cameron take part.

Professor explains a technique as some Orangevillians listen intently.

Hands up boys! Hands up! Great Jiu Jitsu is in the details!

Taking a break to explain some techniques.

On to some stand up techniques. Judooooooo!

Professor explained the ideas of getting your grips and then showed some techniques when you get the grips you want as well as the counters to those techniques. Very informative.

Cameron and Sensei Angelo fight for their grips under the watchful eye of Prof. Marco.

We finished the seminar off with some rolling. Always fun!

Sen is usually the smallest person on the mats but there was finally someone his own size to roll with. I think he took advantage of the situation though. Roya is under there somewhere! lol.

Roya took her frustrations out on Alex though. Aha ha ha! Just joking! Alex is posing for this pic.

And Sen got thrown back into the mix with the tallest guy in the room. Noticed Sen is standing and Johnny is sitting, but they seem to be the same height. Sen is still taking no prisoners though. lol.

Sempai Tim suffers the storm that is Raph from the Orangeville Dojo. Aha ha. All this after a morning of snowboarding too, huh Tim?

Prof. Marco, thank you again for coming to London BJJ. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Can't wait for your next visit. Osssssss!

Professor Marco Costa of Toronto, ON comes to London BJJ January 2nd, 2010. Ossssssssss!

Here it is!  The first seminar of 2010!  London BJJ is pleased to welcome Franco Behring black belt, Professor Marco Costa to the Family Karate Center’s dojos on Jan 2nd, 2010! Click “Read the rest of this entry” for full details.

The seminar will be held at Family Karate Center’s North Club location, 1695 Wonderland Road North, London, ON, N6G 4W3‎.  The dojo is located in  the plaza behind the gas station and the car wash.  The cost is $20 – open invitation & $15 for Franco Behring members.  Please contact London BJJ via the contact page with any questions.

Who is Professor Marco Costa?

Professor Costa moved from Portugal to Canada when he was 13 years old.  Always fascinated with martial arts, it wasn’t until he was 17 that he enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do school in the Toronto area.  Along with studying TKD, he also trained Thai Kickboxing and several other martial arts.  When he saw Royce Gracie win UFC 1 in 1993 he was captivated by the Brazilian’s fighting style and began researching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to learn as much as he could about it.  But it wasn’t until 1998 when he started training with Professor Franco and Master Behring of the Franco Behring Association that he knew he had found his calling.  Now, after 18 years of training, he has realized a dream; he is a Second Degree Black Belt in TKD as well as a First Degree Black Belt in BJJ under the Franco Behring Flag.  From 1993 to 2007 he won many provincial and national titles in many different disciplines including BJJ, kickboxing and mixed martial arts competition.  His focus has now changed from competitor to teacher.  With his vast knowledge of martial arts and competition, along with his ability to pass along information, he has been appointed the new Head Coach of Competition for Team Franco Behring.

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Members from Family Karate, The Orangeville Dojo and London BJJ With Professor Francis Abramson. Ossssss!

It was a busy couple of weeks filled with BJJ.  With the instructors weekend on November 7 & 8, and the Franco Behring Symposium the following weekend, London BJJ managed to find the time to have Professor Francis Abramson visit Family Karate’s dojo for a BJJ and Grappling seminar.  Special thanks go out to the group from the Orangeville Dojo who made the drive to London for the seminar.  All who attended loved it and we’d all love to have you back Professor!  Ossssssss!  Click the thumbnails for a larger view of the photos.

The seminar began with a quick warm up of some general movement drills which mimic the movements made by the body when training BJJ.  From there Professor Francis shared some techniques to the group.  I got no pictures of this as I was busy trying it out for myself.  But here is what I did get.