NY Open Brackets Posted

Team Lloyd Irvin is sending a killer team to the NY International Open Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament. The squad consists of quite a few Pan Am medalists including Tracey Goodell (2x Gold), Kim Rivers (Gold), Evan Gideon (Bronze), DJ Jackson (Bronze), Jim Harbison (Bronze), Kenny Brown (Silver), among others.

Its phenomenal that we are able to send such a strong group to NYC despite having the Brazilian Nationals the following week (had to split the team). Should be an exciting weekend and Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is happy to play its part. Ouss!

David Zwanetz faces 2009 Jiu Jitsu World Silver Medalist Son Duong for the fifth or sixth time.  Dave has managed to win each of their encounters but they have always been tough and this time promises to be no different.

Blue Belt Rooster

Kwami Mensah on page 2 of the bracket.  The ageless Kwami Mensah will be building off momentum from a strong performance at the Copa America BJJ tournament.  The plan is to meet the other 2 Lloyd Irvin competitors who are on page 1 of the bracket.

Blue Belt Feather (2 of 2)

Keith “Trainspotting” Cebula in a BIG division.

Blue Belt Light (2 of 2)

Eric Palmer will be making his IBJJF tournament debut.  Eric has made some big improvements in his game since he decided to “get serious” and the NY Open is a good chance to test the waters!  2009 No-Gi World Champion and 2010 Pan Am Bronze Medalist, DJ Jackson is Team Lloyd Irvin’s mainstay in this weight and he hopes to win the NY Open for the 2nd time.

Blue Belt Middle (1 of 2)

Evan “Oz” Gideon is continuing his run to a World Medal in June and will be facing a familiar DC area competitor in his first bout.  Team Lloyd Irvin has two very strong competitors in this bracket; Frank Camacho will be leading the charge from the other side!

Blue Belt Medium Heavy

Fred “Brad” Thomsen‘s first time competing for Crazy 88.  Looking forward to seeing how he does in a higher weight class than he usually competes in.

Blue Belt Heavyweight

Phil Thorn rematerialized a few weeks onto the Crazy 88 mats and even went to North Carolina to win a bunch of Gold medals at a US Grappling tournament.  Hopefully, he will rematerialize again – this time to the top of the medal stand.  The other Team Lloyd Irvin member is the very talented and hard-working Kenny Brown from Evolve Academy; Kenny just took Silver at the PanAms last month and is probably the odds-on favorite for this division.

Blue Ultra Heavy

Cathy Tran-Zwanetz won this tournament as a White Belt last year and hopes to repeat this year at a new belt.  Helping her out will be Third Law BJJ’s own Pan Am Champion Kimberly Rivers!

Female Blue Light Feather

Brad “Fred” Pearson also competes for the first time since joining Crazy 88 and will be in the Purple Belt Medium Heavy division.  A 2nd-round match vs. Thomas Beach poses an interesting challenge but he will have to win the first before we worry about that!

Purple Belt Medium Heavy

Womens Jiu Jitsu Seminar – Team Lloyd Irvin Ladies Training Session!

Nyjah Easton was at Crazy 88 Jiu Jitsu today to run a Team Lloyd Irvin Womens Martial Arts Day. All the ladies from the team were invited for more than 3 hours of serious BJJ training.

Oftentimes, women who train in BJJ are limited by their lack of training partners or are treated as non-serious students. Judging by the level of training at the session this is obviously not the case at Team Lloyd Irvin!  At the recent BJJ PanAms, Team Lloyd Irvin won the Womens Team Gold medal for the entire event which means we have the Best Womens Grappling team in the country!  (check it out here!)

Thanks again to Nyjah Easton for coming up to Crazy 88 for the seminar and also good luck to her as she prepares to start her own Jujitsu program in Capitol Hill!

Check out some of the photos from the seminar below and make sure to join the Baltimore Martial Arts fanpage for even more pictures!

Childrens Self Defense Workshop at St Augustine School was a Lot of Fun!

Coaches Rodeo, Devastator, Oz, Cathy, and Danny

Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was asked by St Augustine School in Elkridge, MD to come in and run a Kids Self Defense Workshop for the day.  Each gym class was divided into three groups and the children were taught some basic Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, and Wrestling in the context of defending themselves.  Due to the effectiveness of the techniques taught, the instructors emphasized the importance of using these moves only when absolutely necessary. It was amazing to see how quickly the children were able to learn and perform the techniques shown.

Kids Team Kicks Butt at NAGA World Championships

On Sunday April 11, we took 11 kids to NJ for the NAGA World Championships. This is the largest group of kids we have taken to a competition. With 11 competitors bringing home 15 medals, we definitely proved that the Crazy 88 Kids Martial Arts team was there to win and make it happen.

Majene Boyer placed 2nd in beginner gi and no-gi. She fought a third match in the expert division and though she didn’t pull out a victory in that match, she definitely did an excellent job. Majene has some excellent take-down defense, take-downs and submission ability, not to mention pure love of the sport. Majene is hungry for gold and we expect her to bring it home in her next tournament.

Shawn Suser‘s drive and ground game pushed him through the intermediate gi and no-gi divisions and led him to 1st place finishes in both divisions. He won with a combination of points and submissions. His most notable moment was an arm lock from the guard in no-gi with 40 secs. left in the finals. Shawn will be moving up to the advanced divisions with only one year of training, and he definitely has proven that he is ready for the challenge.

Brendan Bill moved up to the advanced division and did well against his opponents. He was paired up against some tough kids. This was an excellent learning experience for him and we look for him to bring home gold in his next tournament.

Seth Fillers had some tough matches and put on possibly one of his best performances. He brought home 3rd in no-gi and 2nd in gi in the advanced divisions. Seth finished all of his winning matches by dominating in points with the exception of one match where he took his opponent’s back and sunk in a standing rear naked choke and finished once he and his opponent hit the floor. He also hit a text-book standing cement mixer.

Tony Kosack was pumped and ready to go for his first tournament. He definitely made it clear that he was there to win, by taking 1st place in no-gi and 3rd place in gi beginner divisions. He won multiple matches by using good solid take-downs and pressure guard passing.

Lil’ Anthony was competing in novice (no submissions). His division much like Mason’s was one of the largest, with about 25 competitors. He was on top of his game and proved he is ready to compete. Lil’ Anthony ended up bringing home a 2nd place finish in no-gi and a 1st place finish in gi. Solid take-down defense and excellent guard passing combined with great ability to hold position while in mount led him to victory.

Kai “Jersey Shore” Atanasoff had some very tough matches. He fought in the intermediate division in his weight class and did an excellent job. Jersey Shore is ready to get back in the gym and start training and bring back gold medals in his next tournament.

Ethan Ho had an excellent showing in NJ. He pulled out some nice victories. He finished two of his matches 2nd in both beginner divisions. Ethan had an overall excellent showing from take-downs, take-down defense, as well as, taking his opponent’s back in multiple matches.

Amanda Kosack had a great first tournament. She showed phenomenal take-down defense, despite being in the wrong division. She finished 4th in no-gi and 2nd in gi in the novice (no submissions) division. We look forward to taking her back for her 2nd tournament.

Fard Muhammad faced some very tough opponents in the intermediate divisions. His opponents were able to avoid his outstanding sweeps. Fard is one of our most technically advanced fighters in the kids’ classes and we look forward to his next tournament where he will have the opportunity to show off his skills.

Mason Hollis competed in one of the largest divisiions at the tournament, with about 25 competitors. He brought his A-game and was on top most of the day. Mason brought home a silver medal finishing 2nd in no-gi, and 1st in gi. He displayed arm drags to double-leg take downs then taking his opponents back.

Congratulations to all the Kids and Parents who held down the fort on the East Coast while the Adult Competition Team took care of business on the West Coast.  Special thanks to Amanda Fillers for the write-up.

Make sure to check out the Crazy 88 BJJ Fanpage for the latest videos from the Pan Ams!

2010 BJJ PanAms Day Three Results

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Mike Atkin brought Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to a 100% medal rate with a Silver medal in the Brown Belt division.  Mike had to bump up a weight class because there would only have been one match in his normal Medium Heavy and Mike is always looking to get good matches.  He utilized his half-guard in the first match but lost on points in the finals to a tough wrestler from Genesis JJ in Texas.

Jon “Devastator” Delbrugge had another compelling performance – this time in the Purple Belt Open division.  In the quarterfinals, Jon was up 2 points and seemingly on his way to a hard-fought but clear victory when his opponent timed Jon’s guard pull and scored a “takedown” tying the score up.  Jon fought back hard and scored a back take in the final minute to enter the semis against the Middleweight champion and Purple Belt World Silver medalist, Alec Baulding (Alliance).

Alec got on the board first with a beautiful sweep but Jon would tie it up 2-2 quickly.  Alec has a phenomenal Cobrinha-esque spider guard and kept Jon at bay for the remainder of the bout and went on to win 2 advantages to 1.  Alec would go onto win the division over Beneil Dariush from Ralph Gracie.

We also had Jimmy Harbison and Cory Robinson kick butt in the Brown Belt divisions.

• Cory Robinson: BRONZE @ Brown Featherweight
• Jimmy Harbison: BRONZE @ Brown Middleweight

Check out some of the footage from the PanAms below and make sure to join the Baltimore Martial Arts fanpage for even more videos!

2010 BJJ PanAms Day Two Results

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Jon “Devastator” Delbrugge came back strong with a Bronze medal in the Purple Belt Medium Heavy division and became Crazy 88 BJJ’s second Pan Am Medalist (only 1 more competitor to go – Mike Atkin tomorrow in the Brown Belt division).  Jon dominated his first two opponents and then had a close match with last year’s Silver Medalist, Elias Ramirez (Gracie Barra).  Jon took the narrow victory to enter the medal round where he lost on points to a tough Brazilian grappler who then went on to win the entire division.  With the Bronze medal, Jon gets a berth into the Purple Belt Open division tomorrow (only the medalists from each weight class are permitted to compete in the Open).

It was another AWESOME performance from Team Lloyd Irvin BJJ team as we went onto dominate the Blue Belt Open divisions!

• Tracey Goodell: GOLD @ Blue Female Open
• Sijara Eubanks: BRONZE @ Blue Female Open
• DJ Jackson: GOLD @ Blue Open
• Willie Leonard: SILVER @ Blue Open

Check out some of the footage from the PanAms below and make sure to join the Baltimore Martial Arts fanpage for even more videos!

2010 BJJ PanAms Day One Results

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Evan “Oz” Gideon became Crazy 88 BJJ’s first Pan Am Medalist this year with 4 wins and 1 loss. Evan had a strong performance at the Houston International Open of Jiu-Jitsu and continued his win streak through the early rounds before losing in the semi-finals to Marcus Sosa from Claudio Franca.  Good experience for Evan as he now prepares for the NY International Open of Jiu Jitsu in May.

Evan was part of a strong Lloyd Irvin Adult team:

• Tracey Goodell: GOLD @ Blue Female Lightweight
• Dominyka Obelenyte: SILVER @ Blue Female Lightweight
• Kim Rivers: GOLD @ Blue Female Light Featherweight   *first tournament as a blue belt*
• DJ Jackson: BRONZE @ Blue Middleweight
• Willie Leonard: GOLD @ Blue Ultra Heavy
• Kenny Brown: SILVER @ Blue Ultra Heavy

Check out some of the footage from the PanAms below and make sure to join the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fanpage for even more videos!

2010 Pan Am Brackets Released

Evan Gideon is on page 3 of a 4 page bracket (at the big IBJJF tournaments, each ring operates a page independently of each other and the winners of each page face off in the later, usually medal, rounds) for Blue Belt Meio-Pesado.  Guilherme Lima (Drysdale BJJ) is also on Evan’s page – Evan won their last encounter 2-0 at the US Nationals but it was hard fought!  Teammate Frank Camacho will be taking care of business on page 1.  Interestingly enough, Frank’s first match will be against Shiloh Roberts from Rafael Lovato’s school, a grappler that Evan has faced twice already.

Roberto Torralbas is on page 3 of a 4 page bracket as well.  The big challenge on his page is Alex Baulding (Alliance) who is the returning World Silver Medalist.  Before Alex Baulding, Roberto might face Jeffrey Shulze (Gracie Barra), who at Blue Belt won a controversial Judges Decision over Jon Delbrugge.  Purple Middleweight is a notoriously difficult division so we should get some good matches out of the Third Law BJJ coach.

Jon Delbrugge has 3 matches to get into the Medal Round and 5 matches to win the Gold in the Purple Belt Medium-Heavy weight class.  The only name I know on his page (2 of 4) is Elias Ramirez (Gracie Barra), last year’s Blue Belt Pan Am Silver Medalist.

Mike Atkin will be competing Senior 3 Brown Belt Heavyweight (he moved up from Medium Heavy because there was no one in his weight division).  There are a few guys in this bracket that Mike has not faced before and Willie Rodriguez who Mike has competed against a few times.  Should be fun!