Lots of BJJ promotions in the new year!

Been a hectic few weeks with traveling and now getting set back into the routine here in Kuwait.

While in Thailand I got an opportunity to stop by Maximum Fitness and Muay Thai in Patong, Phuket to see Swedish Grappling sensation Wiktor Svensson.  Wiktor has been promoted from White to Blue, Blue to Purple and Purple to Brown under me, and it was my honor to put two more stripes on his Brown Belt.  Also training at Maximum Fitness was Michael Saint Claire.  I first trained with Michael almost 6 years ago.  With life and how things can be, he eventually left Thailand for Mexico City where he continued his training, focusing more on Gi training than Nogi, and earning 3 stripes on his White Belt.  After almost 6 years of grappling training, I finally awarded Michael St. Claire with his Blue Belt. *CONGRATS*

While I was training in Thailand the boys at Kuwait Combat Athletics competed in the 2013 Brazilian jiu Jitsu Gulf International Cup in Kuwait.  Overall the team did considerably well, especially considering most of my guys were competing in their first tournaments.

Phil, a Judo Black Belt competed in the Gi as a White Belt.  Technically  this would be considered ‘sandbagging’, however it was Phil’s first BJJ tournament and he had only been training under me for about 2 months of total ‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’ training.  With the difference in the rules and scoring, we entered him into the White Belt category instead of the Blue Belt division in hopes of getting him some extra matches, and securing a placing.  The plan worked…well, almost.  Phil won his division with several tough matches, only to be ‘Disqualified’ due to the fact that he was a Judo Black Belt competing against BJJ White Belts.  Nothing malicious in the sandbagging, as I was the one who placed him in the division, essentially he was competing with less than 90 days worth of BJJ training and strategy.  It wasn’t all bad though, as Phil was rewarded with ‘Player of the tournament’ despite the ruling in his division.

Returning to Kuwait I awarded Phil and Ghareeb with their 2nd stripes on their BJJ White Belts, and added two more stripes on Khalid Davis who already had his Blue Belt when he started training with me.

Congrats guys on all the hard work.

BJJ IV LIFE