Braulio Estima Seminar

The seminar places were quickly filled and attendees included brown belt Rick Young who’d travelled down all the way from Edinburgh just to train; Neil Hall; Peps and Andy Roberts from Sheffield; James Pilling and Steve Heyes from Sts BJJ: Paul Hartley from Preston; wrestling animal Mark Cocker and a host of white and blue belts from the local club.

Braulio started the class with a sequence of takedowns and moved on to submissions from the side and top mount position, a move which was repeated for the no gi section of the class. Braulio went on at length to make sure the students had absorbed what he’d shown before moving on to the next technique. In the no gi section, a number of nifty takedowns followed, as well as a familiar open guard sweep and from there Braulio showed the class a slick defence from the sweep culminating in taking the back and sinking in the choke.

Then, gi’s were back on and guard passing was the name of the game; a host blue belts together with Rick and Braulio lay on the mats and the rest of the class had to pass, as the boys on the floor swept or submitted and this is where the magic began. Braulio made sure that every student had the chance to attempt to pass his guard and yes, the old helicopter arm bar made itself known, as did a myriad of sweeps, chokes and arm bars, with Braulio hardly breaking a sweat and convincing a number of sceptics along the way into the efficacy of BJJ and his expertise. Total number of students, thirty, total number of guard passes by the students, none!

All too soon the seminar was over and another display of world class BJJ in the bag; special thanks to Rick in coming down and supporting a fledgling club and to all the other attendees who supported the event; Braulio will be back in the future, as well as Roger and Felipe and when time permits The Bear himself Mauricao Gomes.

Until then see you on the mats!

Classes at GB Manchester are Wednesday 7-9pm and Sunday 11-1pm, which will be sparring only. £4 a session and when time allows Rick Young will be popping in from time to time to train. E mail [email protected] for more info.