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An introduction to Professor Gustavo Carpio

Last Sunday the 10th of June Professor Gustavo Carpio came to our studio in San Gabriel and taught a seminar on his favorite guard: the spider guard. Professor Gustavo is a true expert on one of the most challenging but extremely practical guards in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Professor Gustavo is a 2nd the degree Black Belt under Leo Vieira who is a 5th degree Black Belt and head of the Checkmat team. Gustavo teaches at Checkmat Connect in Southgate. He took the gold medal at the prestigious IBJJF Pan Championships of this year.
We were excited to have him come out and show some of his competition secrets.

Jiu-Jitsu techniques, strategies, concepts & principles

Professor Gustavo explained most techniques and strategies from a competitor’s point of view. With most of his techniques, he explained his thought process. Not only did he cover unique details and concepts, he shared concepts and principles with us. We prefer these simply BJJ techniques because they are universally applicable. A few interesting ideas and concepts were the following.

Professor Gustavo’s ideas and strategies part I

a. Establish a safe position. It is important to have a position that you can fall back on. Ideally, it is a position where you are safe and where your partner has to work. This buys you time and enables you to plan your strategy. It gives you the opportunity to time your attack. One strategy could be to stay there until your partner gets desperate. That is a great time to start attacking.
b. Make yourself as heavy as possible for your partner. Often this is done by bringing your knees to your chest.

Professor Gustavo’s ideas and strategies part II

c. Time the transition to when your partner commits to grips. That way you minimize the chance your guard gets passed. You are often most vulnerable in the transition.
d. Professor Gustavo shared his opinion about the importance of the Omoplata technique. The Omoplata sets up different techniques and because of that should be practiced in order to perfect it.

Looking forward to the next Spider Guard seminar by Professor Gustavo

For almost 3 hours Professor Gustavo shared his extensive knowledge with us. Since he covered a tremendous amount of details it good to know that he shares them with the Jiu-Jitsu community. For more Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques not limited to Spider Guard, check out Professor Gustavo Carpio on the internet. Learn techniques by watching his Youtube channel and his Instagram. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe.

Learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for Adults & Kids in the San Gabriel Alhambra area

Want to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the San Gabriel Valley area such as Alhambra, San Marino, Temple City and surrounding areas? Silanoe Martial Arts offers a Free Week Trial. If you would like to read more about our students such as Nikki or Juliet check out our Student of the Month Blog.

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Friday the 23rd we welcomed the Girl Scouts of South Pasadena over at Silanoe Martial Arts for a Self-Defense seminar.
It was a great group of girls of the ages 10-12. After starting with a warm-up game we sat down together and talked about important topics such as safety, confidence, and awareness. The majority of girls said they have felt unsafe at times. Furthermore, some mentioned having been verbally assaulted without any reason while others have been felt like they were being followed around. Bullying was also mentioned making some fear for their own safety or that of their friends. A number of scouts felt unsafe in certain parts of Los Angeles in particular during nighttime or when it gets dark earlier during wintertime. We asked them questions about being aware. Before anything else, awareness is the first step you can take to remain safe and sound. How does it work?

Awareness

The Oxford Dictionary mentions awareness to be: ‘knowledge or perception of a situation or fact’ and ‘concern about and well-informed interest in a particular situation or development’. It is about knowing of a situation or fact. Awareness is about being well-informed in a certain situation. In today’s society, many matters are competing for our attention one prominent being our cell phone. Our cell phone often distracts us and makes us easily lose sight of our surroundings. Professor Gino tested the scouts and asked them if they could tell us where our exits were in case of an emergency. In addition, he advised the scouts to always notify friends and family of their whereabouts but also of daily commutes and possible changes of plans. Professor Gino urged them to learn at least two phone numbers by heart in case of an emergency. After the talk about awareness, it was time for some exciting practical mat work!

Self-Defense should be practical and effective

At Silanoe Martial Arts we believe that self-defense should be practical. Most importantly, it should be effective. We selected a few techniques that are relatively easy to execute. Moves that work against a physically stronger assailant. An example of that is an escape from the full mount on the floor. In addition, Professor Gino also explained in detail how to kick and execute a knee strike properly. In Self-Defense people tend to overlook the mental aspect. Professor Gino gave two examples of how posture and attitude can help avoid being targeted by offenders. The scouts agreed that being confident is one of the most important assets. What the scouts didn’t know was that we Arts had a test of confidence in store for them…

The Silanoe Martial Arts Self-Defense test of confidence

At the end of the seminar, professor Gino wanted to test the girls to boost their confidence.
Thus in the final exercise, all attendees had to be able to block and defend strikes thrown by Professor Gino and his assistant Anna.
We are excited to tell you that every single South Pasadena Girl Scout passed our test with flying colors!

Specials thanks

First of all, we would like to thank Linh from the South Pasadena Girl Scouts for her tremendous effort. She did a great job coordinating the Girl Scout Self Defense seminar with us. We had fun organizing such an event. The future is looking bright with such a smart group of girls. The South Pasadena Girl Scouts are always welcome on our mats. Want more information for Self-Defense seminars please click here. To schedule, a free week trial of Jiu-Jitsu for adults and kids or Muay Thai click here.

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The community a safer place to all

One of our aims is to make the community a safer place to all. Unfortunately, crime will always be a part of life. One way we like to contribute to the community is by offering self defense seminars free of cost. We held our self defense seminar the 20th of May. It was great to see people attending from from all over the county. We had attendees from Glendale, Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Alhambra, Temple City and Monterrey Park. These people all realized the importance of learning how to defend yourself.

Hard working attendees

Some of our students helped us organizing and assisting with the techniques.
Not only did we show practical ways to defend oneself, we also talked about awareness. It always better than to cure. After a warm up, we covered some of the scenarios one could encounter.  We then showed how you could get out, escape and control the situation using a variety of techniques. Most of these self defense oriented techniques can be either found in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Muay Thai.
A total of 5 self defense techniques were shown first, and the attendees were giving time to practice them after the instructions.

Time to get to know each other

After the seminar we all sat down and ate together. We provided some delicious healthy sandwiches and drinks. It was time to wind down and relax and review some of the techniques. We were able to really get to know some of the people that came to our seminar. We had a great time and want to thank everyone for attending, and hope to see them all back at our next self defense seminar.

Want to learn how to defend yourself?

Martial Arts will make you able to defend yourself. You will be more confident and you will have fun getting in shape. Tryout our Martial Arts for free here or check out our schedule here. Don’t forget to read more about our events such as our Self-Defense Seminar for the South Pasadena Girl Scouts or our 1st year anniversary.

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