BJJ Seminar with Charles Oliveira

On Friday, June 17th I went with my friend to a jiu jitsu seminar with Charles Oliveira at Gold Team Texas gym in Sugarland.  For those of you who don't know, he's a 21 year old UFC fighter and a brown belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.  I was sort of on the fence about going to this seminar, but my friend really, really likes him and wanted to go, so I decided to tag along.  It ended up being a very small seminar, maybe six people total.  It was like getting a semi-private lesson, except the instructor doesn't really speak English, just Portuguese.  I just kept thinking to myself, "How in the world is this going to actually work?"  I was pleasantly surprised by how well things went.  Most of how I learn jiu jitsu is by watching, over and over and over again, trying it myself a few times, watching it some more, and then trying it some more.  What do you know, it didn't matter (to me anyway) that he didn't speak English.  I know a little bit of Portuguese and little Spanish, and it turns out that's all I really needed to know.  We did about an hour of gi training and then we moved on to no-gi training for a little over an hour.  This was my first real chance to try no-gi.  What a delicious surprise it was for me...I actually loved it!  Overall we worked on some great stuff (interesting that we did several techniques that required rolling...which most of you know is one of my biggest fears...that day I won the battle).  I also think that I might have a new favorite choke.  Not going to tell you about it just yet, I'm going to try it out in class first.  I am super excited to train this week.  Can I translate what I learned at a seminar into real time moves on the mat??  What about you?  Have you gone out and learned anything new you would like to share?   Have you attended a good seminar, read a good book or watched some really helpful videos?  Let the sharing begin!    

I would like to extend my appreciation to the following folks who made this seminar a wonderful experience for me and my friend:  Charles Oliveira, Jorge "Macaco" Patino", Ericson Cardozo, Alvin Tillman and Gold Team Texas gym.  Obrigada!  :)

Me and Charles Oliveira after the seminar!