Advanced Sports Performance Comes to Elkridge

Team Lloyd Irvin Camp Springs’ D’Angelo Kinard came to Crazy 88 BJJ this Saturday to hold a Strength & Conditioning seminar. D’Angelo runs Advanced Sports Performance and handles the physical training for the professional fighters and grapplers. His presentation involved a short talk on his philosophies (“goals, plans, sacrifice”), and fixed up the participants’ forms on three fundamental exercises: the pushup, the squat, and the crunch. He then engaged the class with a short “warmup” and opened it up to a rather lengthy Q&A. D’Angelo will be planning out the 12-month routine for the Competition Team so everyone will be in tip-top shape for the 2011 World Championships!

Could this be the return of Devon "Demonstrator" Delbrugge?

National Zoo – Hot but Fun for the Kids

This week’s field trip for the Kids Summer Program participants was to the National Zoo in DC.  The weather reports indicated that it might rain and there were some drizzles on the way there but the weather was clear once we arrived at the Zoo.  Because of the (nonexistent) rain, the Zoo was pretty empty which allowed us to see all the major exhibits pretty quickly; the big winners with the kids were the Pandas and the Small Mammal house.  Tomorrow the little animals will be back in training at the Crazy 88 Zoo.

Great White Belt In House Tournament

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

Crazy 88 Summer Program Visits National Air & Space Museum

The Crazy 88 Summer Program Kids took a break from 3-a-day Mixed Martial Arts practices to visit the National Air and Space Museum in Virginia. It was all planes and rocketships and helicopters.  Although most of the adults fell asleep during the IMAX movie about engines and all sorts of other gadgetry, the subject matter was apparently quite intriguing to those 12 years old and under.   The infamous beltway traffic which mentally decimated the staff was seemingly also quite enjoyable for the van-riding children.  Overall a very dichotomous experience.

Baltimore Aquarium – First Destination for Kids Summer Program

The Kids Summer Program participants took their first field trip today – this one to the Baltimore National Aquarium.  We were able to park the school van relatively easily and get into the facility no problem.  The dolphin show and big stingray pit were the big hit attractions and, surprisingly, the kids just blew past the shark portion of the trip.  We also had a Crazy 88 student Scott Heindl, an employee of the aquarium, go out of his way and feed some of the animals for the kids.

Rafael Mendes & Guilherme Mendes BJJ Seminar was PACKED!

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.

Evan Gideon Promoted to Purple Belt

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

Surprise Visit by Sylvio Behring Black Belt Richard Nancoo

Richard Nancoo Demonstrates Moves on AungLa

Crazy 88 BJJ hosted a surprise visitor this weekend in Canadian BJJ Black Belt and Mixed Martial Arts Fighter, Richard Nancoo. Richard was in town for the weekend and stopped by our school for our Saturday Mixed level BJJ class and Sunday Basics class. We were happy to have him on the mats for some good training. He was very generous with his time and stayed after class on Sunday to share his techniques with others. If you are ever in the Ontario, make sure to check out his school – East York Martial Arts!

No Gi Grappling – Avellan Brothers Style

Crazy 88 BJJ was happy to bring Marcos and David Avellan to Baltimore for a three-hour No-Gi Grappling Seminar.  Marcos and David bring impeccable No Gi credentials to the mat including a recent Bronze medal at the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championship by David where he defeated Rafael Lovato (Gracie Humaita), Tarsis Humphries (Alliance), and “Cyborg” Abreu (BJJ Revolution) among others.

The session was very fast-paced due to the high technical level of the attending students and they were able to cover their favorite takedowns along with their home-grown guard passing style.  We will be posting video clips from this seminar so make sure you “LIKE” our Baltimore Martial Arts fanpage.

If you are a Martial Arts School Owner and are interested in hosting the Avellan brothers for a seminar, I would highly recommend it.  You can reach them at Marcos’ fanpage here…

Tyrone Eaton Promoted to Blue Belt

Tyrone Eaton was promoted to Blue Belt tonight. Tyrone has been a great addition to our Baltimore Martial Arts team ever since Kwami Mensah, his brother-in-law, brought him. Tyrone brings strong wrestling ability and a good attitude to the mats and we are proud to have him represent Crazy 88 and Team Lloyd Irvin at the new belt.