Leticia Ribeiro/Beatriz Mesquita seminar review

Thirty women and girls of all ages and belts braved the heat and humidity of central Texas in June to learn from two preeminent blackbelt champions, and it was so worth it!

One week after nailing her sixth world championship, Leticia Ribeiro and her star protege Bia Mesquita spent several hours with us, covering techniques from standup grip fighting, to takedowns, to a whole host of guard fun.

I've done a Leticia/Bia seminar before and this was par for the course. I have to say, Leticia/Bia present a STELLAR seminar environment, maybe the best I've ever attended. Why?

* They speak and understand English fluently.
* They teach a series of techniques that flow together from one to the next, never leaving you to wonder "how do I even get to that position?" or "what would I do from there?"
* Whether you're a yellow belt child or a brown belt, they give you material you can put to use
* Leticia addresses the emotional and psychological aspects of jiu jitsu in addition to the physical side
* They both walk around the room and correct your application and execution with such a friendly encouraging manner
* After the seminar is over, they encourage people to roll and train together and they stick around to roll with students, too.

We covered:
Grip breaks from standing
Three takedowns- a single leg, a double leg and a reap
A better sleeve grip for playing spider guard
A simple spider sweep
The Bia sweep she used against Lana
Spider to DLR to X guard
DLR to back take

I'll post some pictures later, I promise. Thanks to my husband for taking them!

I was happy to get to meet Margaret, this year's blue belt lightweight World Champion, and Maxine, this year's purple belt lightweight Pan Champion, who flew in from California to attend the seminar. I didn't get a chance to roll with Margaret, but Maxine and I had a really challenging (for me) roll after the seminar. I couldn't pass her guard for the life of me and she was probably being nice about that triangle... I got swept, too, and was not very successful in getting out of that kesa gatame until I tried to catch her head with my foot.  We called it quits then and I was pretty happy just to have been able to feel her guard and experience her transitions, which were excellent, of course.

Triin posted her seminar review on the Fenom Kimonos blog here, too.

While I'm at it, let me point out Meerkatsu's excellent post on a company in Poland which will make rashguards, grappling tights, shorts, etc with your own designs-- if you have academy artwork, this would be pretty cool for advertising!