** = split division with teammate.
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Accompanied by Ivey League’s MMA‘s Wayne Johnson, Crazy 88 BJJ sent six competitors to the Rupture Northeast Jiu Jitsu Championships in PA.  It was a small competition of ~150 competitors but the team went to support Jon Delbrugge in his superfight vs. Chris Wing.  Jon won 9-2, sweeping his opponent from the half guard 3x and passing his opponent’s guard (video of the match can be found here).  Team Lloyd Irvin won the Team Title and BJJ United’s Jared Weiner defeated De La Riva’s Tony Passos.

Matt “Jumani” Rihani won the No-Gi Beginner division and went 3-1 in the Gi, taking Bronze there.  This was Matt’s first competition other than the In-House competition a few weeks back.

Chris “Short Round” Tran continued his summer of BJJ with another tournament (he has been competing almost every weekend) and ended up winning a Gold and a Silver.

Big Sal utilized his “B” gameplan to full effect; his record at the end of the day was 8-0.  Big Sal was in full crazy mode, pulling mount and other craziness, but finding a way to win, despite being down 10-0 in some matches.

“Lawyer” Dave had 3 fights, winning all three (including his first Purple Belt gi victory). Being a push-through competition, Dave fell back early in his matches but came back late and was able to secure the finish.

The Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition team did not take a summer vacation and continues to compete all over the world. It was back to Rio de Janeiro for Crazy 88′s Tye Ryan Murphy and Third Law BJJ‘s Roberto Torralbas as they would enter the IBJJF’s Rio International Open, a 4-day tournament for <30 years olds,  which runs concurrently with the International Masters and Seniors.

Tye Ryan Murphy started things off with a choke from the back after racking up 10-0 against his opponent from BTT (unconsciousness ensued).  He then choked his second opponent unconscious with a choke from the front headlock position.  In the quarterfinals, he faced eventual division winner, Luiz Fernado from Gracie Barra PE in Northeast Brazil and lost 2-0 (2-3) with some controversy.  Apparently the scoreboard was not being updated and it read 0-0 (2-3) *Tye winning by one advantage* until the whistle blew in which case it was discovered that it was 2-0.  During the match, Tye also had a sweep back so there was a lot of confusion over whether it was 0-0 (scoreboard) or 2-2 (mental count).  Either way, a good showing by Tye.  All part of the process for the 2011 World Championships!

Look for a longer writeup to be posted on our blog from Tye upon his return to the USA.

Blue Belt Medio (1 of 2)

Roberto Torralbas won his first Jiu Jitsu match 8-0 with 4 takedowns (!) and then took the back to defeat his quarterfinals opponent 4-0.  In the semifinals, he faced Francisco Iturral (Alliance) who had footlocked his first two opponents.  Unfortunately, Roberto ended up being the 3rd opponent to fall victim to the grappler from Alliance Ecuador – a “crazy” footlock as Roberto almost took his opponent’s back.  Francisco ended up taking a fourth foot with him and won Gold.  Roberto is icing up his ankle and is looking forward to the Open division tomorrow!

Purple Belt Medio (2 of 2)

Chris has been training from 9 AM – 10 PM during the summer and exemplifies the attitude that we are looking for at Crazy 88.  For his first tournament (2010 Grapplers Quest US Nationals), the coaches wanted him to do Intermediate and despite some personal and familial misgivings, he entered the tournament, and won all his matches by submission.

A few weeks later, Chris was asked to move up to the Advanced division, despite falling at least 2 years below the training time recommendation, and he again challenged himself, winning a Gold and Silver.

When not winning tournaments and training, Chris can be found aggravating David Zwanetz re: the Process.

Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu held another In House Competition for Team Lloyd Irvin White Belts – this one was with the Gi.  Over sixty grapplers from Ivey League MMA, Top Flight MMA, and Lloyd Irvin Martial Arts Academy (and about forty spectators) all made the trip to the mats of Elkridge, MD in order to get competition experience.  As a team, we make an effort to plan out our training and competition schedule to peak in June, the month of the World Championships so this was the opening ceremonies.   The tournament was run in a double-elimination format and seeded in order to give as many matches as possible to each grappler regardless of skill or size.  Everyone had a lot of fun and hopefully, gained some feedback about what they need to work on!

Special thanks to Stephanie Reitmeyer for the photos.  You can find more photos on the Crazy 88 BJJ Fanpage.

NOVICE RESULTS

Womens (novice) : Monica Barlow

Light (novice) : Tay Virgin

Ultra Heavy (novice) : Kevin Sellers

STANDARD RESULTS

Feather : Danny Johnson

Light : Travis Outten

Middle : Nick LaSalle

Medium Heavy : Danny Heath

Heavy : Josh Kuykendall

Ultra Heavy : Brian Clifton

Open : Brian Clifton

Womens AA : Heather Allen

Womens AAA : Avene Wynn

Short Round Continues "the Process" in the Open

Brian Clifton AKA "Jacare" won 2 Golds

Travis Outten Won the Lightweight Division

Jon Takes a Break from Reffing to Share Techniques with the White Belts

Heather, Erin, and Helen Battled It Out in the Womens Division

** = split division with teammate.
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The Kids Martial Arts team was down in Virginia today competing at US Grappling’s Junior Championships. The competition was for children and teens only and offered both Gi and No Gi divisions.  It was also one of the few tournaments that was double-elimination, allowing the competitors to get at least 2 matches per division.

As the results indicate, all the kids fought really well but special recognition has to go out to Chris “Short Round” Tran who stepped up to the Advanced divisions without complaint and grinded out his way to two finals – winning one and losing the other.   Also, Austin “American Idol” Moore got onto the mats and fought hard despite his circumstances; Austin is a former Crazy 88 BJJ student who moved to Texas where he has not been able to do BJJ.  He asked to spend the entire summer training at Crazy 88 and got a full week in before going into the competition.

Great job everyone!

(l-r) Shawn Suser, Seth Fillers, Chris Tran, Coach Jon, Mason Hollis, Brendan Bill, Trystan Balderston

Today was the No-Gi Submission Grappling Seminar with Rafael and Guilherme Mendes. Rafael is the 2009 Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Champion in the under-65 kg category. At that event, Rafael defeated two legends – Leozinho Viera and Rubens Charles aka Cobrinha. The seminar was packed again, with both Team Lloyd Irvin students and visitors who were interested in learning from the BEST (there were grapplers who drove all the way from Florida for this seminar). Everyone learned a lot – especially an important point about passing on the knees and on the toes in gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu vs. no-gi! Can you figure out which passing style goes with which type of grappling?

It was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu overload this Saturday in Camp Springs, Maryland where Team Lloyd Irvin hosted Rafael and Guilherme Mendes for the first day of a two-day Jiu-Jitsu extravaganza. The brothers have actually been here since Monday, training with the team 3x a day, but today would be the start of the “official” seminar.

Rafael and Guilherme are two “prodigies” of BJJ and grappling (I use quotes because they have strong beliefs regarding talent and training).  Both are World Champions at the Black Belt level.  Guilherme is the 2nd person in history to win the Worlds at every belt in consecutive years and Rafael also holds a Gold medal from the 2009 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championships.

The mats were filled with enthusiastic students – some from Texas, some from New York, and even some from Florida!   As a coach, I am excited to begin implementing some of the new drills, positions, and philosophies that we picked up over the course of the week.

** = split division with teammate.
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We had a few Crazy 88 BJJ rookie competitors head up to US Grappling’s Diamond State Games.  The event had both Gi and No Gi divisions.  Travis Outten was the star of the show, winning his White Belt division and taking 2nd in the Absolute despite being a lightweight.  Great job guys.

Evan Gideon Beaten Without Gi

Evan “Oz” Gideon became the 7th Crazy 88 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Purple Belt tonight.  Evan has been one of our most consistent competitors, winning Gold at the 2010 BJJ World Championships and taking Silver in the Open Division at the same tournament.   He is also tied with the legendary “Hawaiian Punch” in coach-aggravation ability.

Evan had this to say about his promotion, “I just want everyone to know that I am extremely thankful for all their help and patience with me.  And I’m going to train hard everyday to live up to Team Lloyd Irvin and Crazy 88′s expectations.”

Ouch!

Mike Atkin, Evan Gideon, Jon Delbrugge, David Zwanetz

Crazy 88 BJJ Team at NAGA VA Beach

** = split division with teammate.
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Nathan Allen Took 3rd in His First Tournament!

Josh Almost Went into Cardiac Arrest from Nervousness but Still Won Gold!

Our Up-and-Coming Womens Team!

Lakita Wins the Blue Belt Division as a White Belt!

Big "Sal" with the Man Who Named Him, Kurt Ratcliffe - Lots of Gold b/w the Two of Them!

Devastator Wins Purple Belt Gold and Advanced No-Gi Open Belt