Upcoming tournaments April 18 and May 2

Gracie Barra Bellevue will be hosting an interschool tournament April 18th. There is no cost to enter the tournament and it is a great first tournament for kids. There are no weigh ins, competitors will give their weights on an honor system, and appropriate match ups will be made the morning of the tournament. If your child is interested in competing please email me with your child's name and weight so that we can try to find other kids in their weight for them to compete against.

Submission Wrestling League will be hosting a tournament at West Seattle High School on May 2nd. For more information about this tournament please visit Subleague.com. Sub League tournaments do not have points and are win by submission, lose or draw. It is a qualifying event for the Sub League Championship which will be held on May 30th in Hillsboro, OR.

Cindy going to coach at Pan Ams BJJ Tournament

I will be going to Los Angeles March 26th-30th to coach Gracie Barra team member, Nate Lynch, at his first Pan Ams tournament. The Seattle Kids class schedule will not be effected, but Bellevue Kids classes will be canceled on Friday March 27th and Monday March 30th. Also, Bellevue Womens boxing classes will also be cancelled on the 27th and 30th. Thank you for your understanding. Normal class schedule will resume April 1.

Best of luck to Nate at the Pan Ams!

Angela Hernandez wins 1st and 2nd place at Revolution Tournament

GB Kids class instructor, Angela Hernandez, wins 1st place in the beginners no gi division and 2nd in the blue belt gi division at the Revolution 3.07.09 tournament. Angela has been training BJJ since 2006 and has been a key member of the Gracia Barra team. Before taking up BJJ, Angela trained and taught Karate, in which she received a black belt in 2001, and also played high school soccer and softball. Despite her busy schedule of work and training, Angela still finds the time to help with Seattle kids classes and is a huge asset to the program.

Congratulations to Angela on her victories and a huge thank you for all she does for the Gracie Barra kids team!!!!

Revolution 03.07.09 GB kids team videos

Check out some of the GB kids team matches at the Revolution 3.07.09.

Austin Dreifus takes second in freestyle wrestling tournament

Austin Dreifus, one of Gracie Barra Bellevue's first students, takes second place at a freestyle wrestling tournament in Bellingham last weekend. This was Austin's first freestyle tournament and he secured his second place victory after several hard matches and a grueling finals match, where he lost by only 2 points. Congratulations Austin!

Great job at the Revolution 3.07.09

Congratulations to Jack, Peyton, Christian and Emannuel for a job well done at the Revolution 3.07.09 Tournament. Everyone did a awesome job and showed huge improvement. The kids brought home several medals and helped Gracie Barra secure the Gi and Overall team titles!!!! Keep up the good work! Videos of some of the matches and more photos will be posted soon.

Congratulations to Emannuel for his GB Kids team sponsorship!

Last year I began hearing about this kid, Emannuel, that was a natural jiu jitsu talent. I didn’t think much of it until I finally had the chance to meet him and watch him grapple. The first day that I met Emannuel, I showed him series of moves (snap the head to guillotine, pull guard, wait for the person to hand fight then switch to the triangle, then when they go to posture to defend do a back arch over and into mount and finish the triangle from there or switch to armbar). He picked up the series after only a few tries. I was floored. I taught a portion of this series in my adult class and many people, adults, had trouble with it.

I knew at that moment, Emannuel was something special. I have been coaching Emannuel since I took over the kids class last summer and am inspired and humbled by him every day. He is not only an amazing grappling talent but also one of the most focused, driven and caring people I have met. He is a leader in every sense of the word and is a tremendous asset to the kids program.

In an effort to recognize and foster his talents, Emannuel has been teamed with local business man, Johnny Flavin, who will act as a sponsor and mentor. Johnny is a financial advisor in Seattle and a former collegiate wrestler. Johnny credits wrestling to opening doors and opportunities in his life and is generous to want to open doors for the next generation of grapplers and leaders.

A luncheon was held at the Columbia Tower Club on February 20 to formally announce the sponsorship to Emannuel and to introduce he and his mother, Wednesday Ardena to Johnny, as well as UFC fighter Ivan Salaverry. Emmanuel, as usual, shocked and impressed everyone by discussing his latest reading, Germs, Guns and Steel. Emmanuel is an A student and enjoys reading, writing and dancing. The sponsorship will be contingent on Emannuel's continued academic and personal excellence and will create a relationship between Johnny, Emannuel, his family and myself, all working together to help Emannuel achieve victories on and off the mat.

I look forward to continuing to work with Emannual and watch him excel in every aspect of his life. I am also excited to build additional mentor/sponsorship opportunities and continue to grow children’s grappling in the northwest. thanks to everyone who has made this possible.

Congratulations again to Emannuel Ardena!!!!!

Haiku master, Sean, share his poems with the class.

When he isn't grappling, hanging out with his sisters and brother or just being really cool, Sean loves writing poetry. He recently wrote a collection of haikus about his teammates and shared them during the positive self talk portion of class.

Here are some of his haikus:

Sean knows poetry.
Sean knows how to make haikus.
Sean works really hard.

Noah has big hair.
Noah likes the sumo game.
Noah is awesome.

Seiji is the man.
Seiji is awesomely short.
Seiji has black hair.

Jack is really new.
Jack is really tall and huge.
Jack is really fierce.

Adell is a girl.
Adell knows a lot of things.
Adell is old school.

Sam is really new.
Sam is really big.
Sam knows everything.

Tucker is a girl.
Tucker is very funny.
Tucker is white raced.

Shay is very cool.
Shay is very cool and awesome.
Shay is very tall.

Christian is funny.
Christian is really strong.
Christian has big hair.

Eman is awesome.
Eman is really skinny.
Eman talks a lot.

Nikki has short hair.
Nikki and Tasha are bad.
Nikki is awesome.

Bella has no stripes.
Bella is in jiu jitsu.
Bella is awesome.

Peyton has blonde hair.
Peyton is really heavy.
Peyton is awesome.

Luke is really tall.
Luke is really tall and big.
Luke is really cool.

Ashley is crazy.
Ashley is from Cascade view.
Ashley likes playing.

Hopefully Sean will share more of his poems with us soon. Keep up the great work!!!!!

Seattle Tuesday / Thursday classes now at 4:30-5:30

The class time for the Seattle Tuesday and Thursday class is changing March 1. The new class time will be 4:30-5:30pm.

All other class times will stay  the same.  Thanks for your understanding.