laputaria

Hey Miah, what's up? Your timing is kind of funny actually...I'm taking a trip to Phoenix tommorow morning. I was training with Ralph Gracie, and I did that for 4 years, but he was a complete psycho and I just felt I couldn't deal with him anymore...however he wouldnt let any of the other black belts in the area accept me as a student. It was messed up. So I took all of my savings, hooked up with a Brazilian black belt I could actually get along with, and opened my own damn school ;-). HA! Bested by a purple belt GIRL! Ouch....that's gotta hurt. The url for the Academy is: www.opendoorbjj.com . The head teacher of the school is Sergio Silva, but the school itself is a part of the De La Riva association (and Ricardo De LA Riva actually came and visited us last month, so that was pretty cool too). How long have you been training? I'm not familiar with your instructor....is he American or Brazilian? Anyway, drop me a line anytime and if you're ever in Nor Cal come train with us! Take care,

Jess
aka: cyclops queen

You know what that's not the first person that I've heard some crazy shit about Ralph from. One of my friends trains with Eddie Bravo in Hollywood. I guess Eddie took of and started his own school too, because of all of the drama. Eddie is doing some really inovative stuff from what I hear. You ever heard of his "Rubber Guard" stuff. Check out his video on www.onthemat.com.

My teacher is really down to earth and cool. He actually is american but trained for seven years at Gracie Barra down in Brazil and got his black belt there under Draculino www.jjbh.com, Yeah thats cool you started your own school. We have two girls in our school that are pruple belts, and they don't take no shit either. If I'am ever in your neighborhood I'll look you guys up.