Ralek Gracie Visits Codella Academy!

Last week a select few got the pleasure of seeing Master Renzo as he stopped by our kids' class accompanied by one of the Gracie Academy brothers, Ralek Gracie. Some of you may know him from his victory over Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba last year or more recently from the awesome Gracie UFC breakdown videos. Here's the most recent one, a breakdown of UFC 137 Penn vs Diaz:                                           

                                     

(At about the 10 minute mark of this video Rener mentions an excellent nugget of wisdom about making your opponent tap mentally, by shutting down all avenues of escape, before he eventually taps physically...powerful stuff right there!!)

If you don't catch these videos regularly, you should because the do an awesome job of analyzing   and commenting on the techniques executed successfully and the possible reasons why they weren't successful. Subscribe to their you tube page and their newsletter, Gracie Insider (The email sign up is 1/3 down on the left.)  The impromptu visit was not scheduled and Prof. Codella would have preferred to grant him a more welcoming reception, but he did give him an as yet unreleased soft cover version of his book, Alphaville, as a parting gift. Hopefully next time he visits with us he'll grace our mats with some great instruction and training!!

In other news, our golden boy Will Couchon was victorious last Saturday in his debut with Dead Serious MMA. He submitted his opponent in the second round by ezekiel choke from the mount. He looked very calm and collected in the cage against a stand up fighter with some grappling experience and a amateur fight under his belt. All that was neutralized with his relentless takedowns and submission attempts. Congratulation Will on a well executed game plan and your first MMA win!!

Next up for MMA fights are Albert "Big Al" Medina making his debut on 11-12-11 for Evolution Fighting Championships in Rahway, N.J., also  Joe Peteroy and Mark Fellicia fighting for a new promotion, KAP MMA on 11-19-11 also at the Rahway Recreational Center. That same day there will a crew from the Codella Competition Team traveling to Newark to represent The Rock at the NAGA Championships.

If that wasn't enough Master Renzo has informed us that the Renzo BJJ Open (Invitational that is open to everyone) will be a part of the MMA Expo being held at the Jacob Javits Center, Saturday 12-17-11. Registration info will be posted soon. Looks like November will be continue to be an exciting month for our academy. Continue to support your teammates at the events and on the mats..TRAIN HARD, FIGHT EASY!!