This past Saturday, May 12^th, Pure MMA held it’s second  Pro event, called “The Next Episode” in Wilkes Barre, PA.   It was an action packed card, full of talented fighters from across the country, with notable guests such as Greg Jackson, Marcus Davis, Matt Riddle amongst others.  The main event was 9 time UFC Veteran Din Thomas vs Cody Bollinger.  This event was held in the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome, giving the event a grandeur uncommon in such a new promotion.  The local Fox station covered the event as well, adding to the big show feel of the event.

Our good friend, and teammate Elder Ramos ( 2-3-0 ), fought the first pro fight of the event.  He faced off against James Watt ( 0-2-0 ) in the cage, and won by TKO in the first round.  The knockout was by head kick.  And in the words of MMA reviewer, Tony Reid of  Rattling-the-cage.com:

“Ramos landed one of, if not the, nastiest headkicks I have seen”.

Congratulations to Elder Ramos on his impressive victory!  Everyone at Vanguard Gym is proud of his achievements thus far, and can’t wait to see how far Elder “El Psycho” Ramos can go!

Ryan Anderson

Mary Kaza

JJ Brown

Tommy Kaza

Jake Johnson

Elisabeth Kaza

Peter Kaza

Altogether, the kids took home 4 Golds, 4 Silvers and 2 Bronze medals.  Their excellent performances against tough opponents secured the 1^st place position for Vanguard Gym as a double A school.  Congratulations to our kids and awesome job out there this weekend!  Thanks to all the coaches and parents who came out to support our kids team!

And below, we have Elisabeth executing a little bit of BJJ genius:

We had a busy weekend with all the competitions we had scheduled. I would like to congratulate everyone who competed and thank everyone who helped them prepare and kept everything running so that our instructors and some of our senior guys could compete.

I feel like everybody did well, worked a battleplan, and showed heart. We had some successes and some defeats which is inevitable when you compete on an international and national level. The important thing is that we learn as much as we can from both our wins and our losses and remain objective about our performance and what we can do to improve.

I would like to address a few points that I think we all can benefit from.

1. Competition is a time to test yourself, see how far you’ve come and how well you deal with the challenge of new opponents. It’s a time where you don’t have to hold anything back and put all your technique, power, speed, and heart on the line.

2. Preparing for a competitions gives you concrete time goals for working and developing your game – win, loose, or draw your game can’t help get better by having something to push you and strive for.

3. Martial Arts are a way to become better people; stronger, more resolute, and more humble. No matter who you are there is somebody out there that can beat you on any given day. If you win the gold you just didn’t face that person in the finals.

4. This is a journey, not a destination. Have you grown, learned things about yourself or your teammates you didn’t know before? Then it was a worthwhile endeavor. Lots of people get off the train because the journey is too hard – they want the gold medal or title but lack the dedication, desire, and vision to put in the work.

If you are willing to put in the work, I will be there to support you with technical knowledge, coaching, hard training, battleplan development, and current strategic advise based on never ending hours of top level competition analysis. I may even have a few words of encouragement along the way. If you are willing to do the work, you will have successes.

This is a journey measured in years, not weeks or months.
Great job again to everybody, I look forward to many more years of hard work, success, and camaraderie.
Thanks,
Coach

De La Riva Guard
Part One
Part Two

Reverse De La Riva Guard
Part One
Part Two

Inverted De La Riva
Inverted Del La Riva Guard

Berimbolo

Countering the Berimbolo

Really good videos on developing a style of BJJ and different guards:

Saturday, February 25, 2012 at the US Grappling competition in Richmond VA, 8 of our Big Brothers / Vanguard Gym competitors brought home 17 medals.  This placed the Big Brother’s Team at 2nd place overall against the other Adult Teams, and Vanguard Gym at 3rd place against the other Adult Schools.  Congratulations to the local Richmond team and school, BJJ Revolution for an excellent 1st place showing in both the Team and School rankings.  The Pedro Sauer team did great as well, placing 3rd in teams, while the Richmond BJJ schools also proved it’s mettle, taking 2nd in schools.  And Congratulations again to the Big Brother’s and Vanguard Gym warriors who went out and represented!  Below is a brief of the Team and School placings.

Adult Team Points
1st – BJJ Revolution Team
2nd – ***Big Brothers ***
3rd – Pedro Sauer

Adult School Points
1st – Revolution BJJ
2nd – Richmond BJJ
3rd -*** Vanguard Gym ***

Vanguard Gym / Big Brothers

This weekend on Saturday, February 25^th, our Vanguard Gym / Big Brothers Competition team performed with excellence and heart at the U.S. Grappling Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Submission Grappling points tournament in Richmond, VA.  Our team included the following warriors:

Luis Henry

Vinicent Holland

Christian Banghart

Blaze Carmical

Steven Gendron

Duy Le

Francis Torres

Issac July

Altogether, the Vanguard Gym / Big Brothers Competition Team earned 17 medals total.  10 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze.  On behalf of all of us at Vanguard Gym: CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Big Brothers / Vanguard Gym Competition Team

The Junior Grappling Association began it’s 2012 Tournament  Series this past weekend, on Saturday February 18^th.   And Vanguard Gym’s kids were there to put their skills to the test.  Amongst many other kids from various other schools, our kid’s competition team shone above the rest and made their parents, and coaches proud!  Here is a list of our kids competitors who attended the tournament:

-Jesse Dunn

-Brooke Dunn

-JJ Brown

-Nelson Raley

-Jake Johnson

Altogether our kids brought home 4 golds, 3 silvers, 1 bronze.  8 medals total, and a ton of awesome memories!  Due to their valiant efforts , Vanguard Gym placed in 2^nd as a AA School. Congratulations again to our kids competitors and thank you to all the coaches and parents who came out to cheer them on and have supported them in their marital arts endeavors!