“An Awesome Opening Night!”

On September 26, I had the pleasure of attending the ECU mothership’s Grand Re-Opening at our new location on Central Avenue in White Plains, New York. JoJo and various team members worked tirelessly to ensure that JoJo could find a facility that would fit the growing ECU family within a week.

Even with the outstanding new facility, opening night enthusiasm strained our new facility’s limits – but there are plans already in place for the future.

I was extremely happy to see the largest crowd I’ve ever seen at an ECU training session, and I can’t wait to see how many people the new ECU brings into the family.

Moving can sometimes be hard for everyone involved, but this time it seems like JoJo and everyone else at ECU have traded an apartment for a home.

“An Exciting Time!”

With the original ECU location straining under its rapid growth, JoJo has had his eye out for a larger space. After considering several options, JoJo found an excellent new facility that will fit the new ECU.

From a student’s perspective, the new facility promises more room to train, easy access from virtually anywhere in Westchester County, and great parking. Of course, the instruction and training will remain as great as always.

While I’ve played only a small role in helping to facilitate the move, I was happy to help. I was even happier to see JoJo’s enthusiasm. He’s dove into this project head-first, and has accomplished in a week what would take most people a month.

According to JoJo, “I'm driven to finish The New ECU in Record Time!”

I can’t wait to post about our first night at the new ECU!

“An ‘Accidental’ Instructor”

ECU Fundamentals Instructor Eric Guido chose BJJ by accident. Following his graduation from St. John’s University, Eric decided he wanted to get into shape. He found a boxing program at a gym in White Plains, NY.

One day, when he came for his typical workout, he found out that the gym had been taken over by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Legend Sean Alvarez. Sean eventually convinced Eric to "TRY" a class. Eric couldn't move the next day. He was sore in places he never knew existed. Sean told Eric, "I understand, BJJ isn’t for everyone..." and Eric promptly paid up-front for a year knowing full well that it was FOR HIM.

Since then, Eric has made a steady rise through the ranks. JoJo quickly recognized that Eric’s analytical mind and dedication to BJJ, made him an excellent choice as an Assistant Instructor at ECU.

Eric’s goals as an instructor are:

· To pass on the valuable lessons that have been passed on to me that help everyone on and off the mat;

· Do my best to pass on our style of Jiu-Jitsu, always thinking WWJJD (What would Jojo do) while encouraging people to find their own style at the same time;

· To always continue learning as much as I can, trying out new techniques, new positions, while always maintaining the "never stop learning" attitude;

· There should never be a move that you say "Is not for me," because of your size, strength or physical limitations; and

· Always keep an open mind and train hard.

“Mr. B-Kim”

The rapid growth of ECU has required that Jo-Jo find assistant instructors to meet the demand for more and more classes. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to a few of them.

Brian Kim is definitely one of ECU’s prodigies. Barely three years ago, Brian realized that simply training at the gym was boring, and he needed a better challenge – now he’s an ECU Purple Belt and one of Jo-Jo’s Assistant Instructors.

As a former wrestler, Brian decided that grappling might be fun. He found Jo-Jo. Training under Jo-Jo, Brian quickly became an elite competitor.

Brian’s rapid rise includes numerous competition titles, and his current roles as Head Children’s Instructor, and Tuesday/Wednesday Day Instructor at ECU, give Brian plenty to think about.

Brian handles everything “Expertly”. Jo-Jo definitely made the right decision when he named Brian one of his assistant instructors.

“I thought I knew how to Punch”

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of visiting my brother and his family. During some downtime, I checked out my brother’s garage/boxing gym. For fun, I hit my brother’s heavy bag a few times.

While I was hitting the bag, I heard a laugh from behind me. It was my four-year-old nephew Curtis. He had moved a lighter bag into his range and went to town on it. “You have to punch like this Uncle Henry.” Curtis told me - and then proceeded to show me.

If a four-year-old tells me I need to work on my striking technique, I’d figured I needed to learn how to strike. Fortunately, ECU has regular striking classes right here in Westchester that are taught by professional MMA fighters. So I said to myself, “What the hell?” And started training striking at ECU.

I thought my years of watching Joey Kocur videos had taught me enough, but I was wrong. Jo-Jo has completely transformed my striking – and that’s after only three classes.

It turns out that I really don’t know how to throw a punch.

JoJo patiently guided me through my first class. Since then, I’ve had to learn both how to strike properly, and be an excellent training partner.

But I’m learning quickly. What I couldn’t do yesterday seems easy today.

Imagine what I do will do in a year?

So, I’d strongly suggest that anyone who has ever thought of trying an ECU striking class get there ASAP.

Another Great Seminar at ECU!

On Saturday July 9, 2011, JoJo hosted yet another outstanding seminar at ECUBJJ. One of the JoJo’s great strengths as a school owner is his ability to recognize the many different ways he can help his students improve. “When we have seminars, I like to bring in people who have different games than mine so everybody can see different things.”

As a student, I definitely appreciate that. In the less than two years that ECU has been open, I’ve had the privilege of attending seminars given by Black Belts such as “Rob G.”, Jared Weiner, and Justin Garcia, as well as Leg-Lock expert Tito Hartz. Every single seminar has shown me a slightly different perspective that I’d like to think has helped me grow my game.

Saturday’s seminar brought a new player to the game – NJ United MMA & Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu owner, and head instructor Jay Hayes. Barely eight years into the BJJ game, Jay currently holds the rank of Black Belt, is a multiple-time Pan Am medalist, and a school owner. When JoJo told me about Jay, I knew this was a seminar I didn’t want to miss.

I’m glad I didn’t.

Even though I arrived a little later than I’d hoped (I had to go home to get my no-gi gear), I loved the way Jay linked the techniques he taught and didn’t overload us with too much information.

While I missed Mr. Hayes’ takedown-defense philosophies, the great Josh Kaplan filled me in. Even secondhand, I could see the advantages.

I did make it back in time for Jay’s exploration of the Guillotine Choke. Jay showed tons of details that made the guillotine much more effective for me (and I hope everybody else at the seminar).

Jay’s details gave me the confidence and skills to finish a choke that I haven’t hit for a long time but, finished six times in three rounds of sparring on the day of the seminar.

I’d like to thank JoJo for bringing Jay to ECU, and I definitely want to thank Jay for putting the guillotine back in my arsenal.

As always thanks for reading the ECU BJJ & MMA Blog. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed the seminar.

Submission!

Recently, JoJo has placed a renewed emphasis on submissions. According to JoJo, “We need to work on submitting our opponents.”

To help us accomplish that goal, JoJo has been introducing new drills that emphasize submitting our opponent.

While I’m admittedly only an occasional competitor (and far from elite when I do), I can see the wisdom of this approach.

Tournament matches typically last anywhere from five to ten minutes. Even the most finely conditioned athletes will eventually tire after four or five matches that go the distance. A quick submission will give the competitor time to rest physically, and mentally prepare for their next opponent.

The second huge advantage is even more evident. In grappling competitions, submissions immediately end the match. Whether you are leading on points, or down significantly, if you earn a submission YOU WIN!

Finally, earning a submission victory lets a competitor win without leaving the match in the hands of referees/judges. As JoJo says, “You can’t fight the ref.”