The Secret Shaka #18

You can check out any time you like....

The ADCC comedown

We all saw what happened. Gordon Ryan was so dominant that we’re all legitimately wondering if his next match should be against an actual gorilla. Kade Ruotolo took the crowd by storm subbing all of his opponents en route to gold in the 77KG division and poor Craig Jones took silver again, this time in the under 99KG division, losing out against a massive Kaynan Duarte.

So what else do we talk about? Well, aside from the amazing matches we saw, some of the production was awful. The event ran late on the first day of matches, there was absolutely no need to introduce every single athlete with the Pride announcer, the stream kept stalling and cutting out (not just for me, plenty of reports about it) and Mo Jassim going live on instagram the night before to just verbally attack a blackbelt made the whole thing seem very, very unprofessional. A bad look for someone trying to bring the sport to the masses. Oh, and Bruce Buffer was a nice touch, but him and the Pride lady? You only need one announcer.

It’s been amazing seeing ADCC get this far, but honestly it feels like now it needs some investment from someone bigger. Like when a start up brings in a board of directors to actually steer the ship. Take it to UFC fight pass. Let some actual businessmen get their greasy mitts on it and level up the professionalism, maybe then it could even be broadcast on network TV, which surely should be the endgame? No non-Jiu Jitsu fan is going to pay Flograpplings prices just to tune in. Blackbelts don’t even bother.

Speaking of UFC fight pass, there’s a sneaky Polaris card this Saturday.

Polaris 21, Sardinia style

Taking place as part of BJJ Summer week in beautiful Sardinia, Polaris 21 have a full card going down. Straight matches, no team competition style, just good old fashioned sub only Jiu Jitsu.

In the headline bout UFC submission sniper Paul Craig takes on Jed Hue in a match that nobody really though they wanted to see until now. Jed gives up a huge 20kg in weight. I expect a tonne of showmanship from Jed but an actual submission from Craig.

Other notable scraps are Michelle Nicolini Vs Ashley Bendle, Tom Barlow Vs Robson Moura, Alessio Sachettie Vs Tom Halpin & Josh Hinger Vs Owen Livesey. All going down on UFC Fight pass, all the details will be on their instagram I imagine!

New T-shirts & video coming soon

We have some T-shirt samples coming soon that I’m very excited about, and I got so carried away with the design that I turned it into a VHS tape. Naturally, that means I’m now making a Jiu Jitsu movie. I loved creating Kickflips & Kimuras, and I’ve wanted to sink my teeth into another longer form video project so here we are. ‘No rolls barred’ coming soon. With some limited VHS tapes that we’ll do a give-away for.

Open Mat

ICYMI we’re hosting an open mat in November! With a closed guard seminar from our head coach Jamie Taylor for the first hour, then 2 hours of rolls/drills/chills. I’m trying my hardest to source some açai, and we’ll have some stuff on sale. Mostly it’s a chance for everyone to get together and chill/hang and talk jiu jitsu. All gyms & affiliations welcome, there’s a £5 entry fee for non stealth members. You can buy tickets online or just bring cash on the day. We’re very excited!

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