Are You Competition Ready?

If one thing is readily clear to me, it’s that JoJo cares about his students – even when he’s in “MEAN” competition training mode.

While JoJo and I were discussing the confusion about how the ECU family should register for tournaments (ECUBJJ), JoJo also mentioned how he would like to see every ECU student get approval from their instructor before entering competition.

“I’d like for every student to get approval from their instructor before they compete. Only their instructor knows if they’ve been training enough to compete without getting hurt.”

Three Schools (for now) – One Family – ECUBJJ

ECU’s exponential growth has created a bit of confusion. What started out as fifteen students at the North White Plains location in late 2009 has grown into a three school family with over 150 students.

When entering a competition, many students wonder what academy they should put on their entry form. Some choose, “ECUQueens”, others ”ECUFairfield”, some might even choose “East Coast United”. JoJo was understandably dismayed by this confusion.

All ECU students, no matter where they train, should be listing their affiliation as ECUBJJ.

BTW: The ECU family continues to grow. Leg-lock expert Tito Hartz will soon be opening ECU Bronx.

Are You Ready for “The Grinder”?

As we prepare for “Competition Season”, ECU’s training becomes more intense. This past Monday at the Purple+ class, JoJo instructed ECU Competition Team coach JT Torres to, “put them through the grinder.”

JT certainly did.

After a quick, but intense warm-up we did numerous rounds of grip-fighting, which is always intense. While many of us were already breathing heavily, the night was just starting.

Then it was time for “Beat Downs”. While I’m not going to go into any details, let’s just say that Beat Downs are probably the most intense drills I’ve seen in my five years of BJJ. JT, a world-class competitor, considers them so important that he does them several times a day when he’s getting ready for a competition.

Even though JT is in Abu Dhabi for the next two weeks, the Beat Downs did not end. At last night’s competition team class, JoJo brought them back. For well over an hour, ECU student after ECU student, finally ending with what ECU Fairfield co-founder Joe Oppedisano called a three-hour workout in 8 minutes.

If you want to learn more about Beat Downs you’ll have to visit ECU.

A Great Day!

This past Saturday, ECU held its first ever In-House Tournament. Not only was pride at stake, but also the opportunity to represent ECU in the Team Competition at the ACOM Sports tournament on April 30^th.

After many a hard-fought battle, ECU’s “A-Team” was finally crowned.

Heavyweight – Andrew Lobsenz

Light – Heavyweight – Jeff Schneider

Middleweight – Alex Nachaev

Welterweight – Brian Kim

Lightweight – Tom Waldren

Congratulations to everyone who competed, and I hope everyone enjoyed the post-tourney BBQ.