Na Teia do Aranha

Check out this month's special review of MKimono's Hybrid Weave Kimono by Aranha...

"I had the opportunity to correspond with Luciana Machado Simon about her company and the products made by M Kimonos (formerly Machado Kimonos). Luciana personifies all that is radiant and beautiful in a Brazilian woman. Her charm and personality reflects the quality of her product and makes the process of purchasing a Kimono a pleasurable event... [Read the Whole Review]

Black Belt Magazine's Review of the Master Text!

GRAPPLING TOURNAMENT

WHEN: MAY 11, 2002

WHERE: NASHVILLE, TN

For more information and to pre-register go to www.GrapplerGear.com and click on "Tournament".

Thanks,
Ed Clay - www.GrapplerGear.com

Machado Seminar

I would like to thank everyone that supported the Carlos Machado seminar this past weekend.

We had a real good turnout and everyone learned a lot of valuable jiu-jitsu techniques. Mr. Machado covered numerous new submissions on Saturday and then covered a lot of new escapes on Sunday before getting on the mat and rolling with everyone.

We had a lot of new faces as well as a great many of our "regulars". Everyone was helpful and worked hard and learned a lot!!

Mr. Machado put a lot of thought and work into revising the seminar format. And I feel that he succeeded in making this seminar the best one yet. He put together a typed outline of the techniques covered to help the participants remember what they learned. This proved to be invaluable. Also, everyone received a certificate of participation.

Some of the students received stripes on their belts - but I don't have a full listing of these yet -- so I'll just say congratulations to anyone that was promoted. Keep up the hard training !!!!!

Our next Machado seminar will be held on June 29 and 30. We look forward to seeing you there.

Also --- REMEMBER our upcoming ISCF submission grappling regional title belt qualifier tournament coming up on May 4. I'll be sending out rules and details later. REMEMBER that the rules are aggressive and the stalling rules are rigid -- so make sure you get your stamina where it needs to be in order to make these fights action packed and crowd pleasing.

Also - I just put on line an interview with Mr. Casey Oxendine who recently competed at the Arnold Schwarzenegger World Gracie Submission Championships. You can ck this out at: www.ironspiritpromotions.com

May 18, 2002

Seminar
Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti (6th dan)

Jacaré is a 6th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was the 1977 and 1978 Brazilian National Champion. He has trained 50 Brazilian champions, and is the head instructor of the Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Team. He is highly regarded as one of the top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors in the world. Upon opening his first academy in 1985, he rapidly established a reputation as a gifted instructor and trainer of champions. Since it's inception, Jacare's Brazilian Jiu jitsu Academy (and the current Alliance affiliates) has consistently held top ranking in all major competitions. Jacaré is the instructor of noted Brazilian champions such as Fabio Gurgel, Roberto Traven, Alexandre Paiva, Anderson Xavier, Leo Costello Branco, Eduardo Jamelão, Leonardo Vieira, Fernando Gurgel, and Vinícius Campelo

Wait a Minute…

Well, I'm sure anyone who read Frank Shamrock's impassioned plea to start up a Mixed Martial Arts regulatory committee has got thousands of things to say on the matter. MMA enthusiasts are probably lining up faster than singers at a 9/11 concert, but I'm going to forego talking about it until next month as I have something else on my mind. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check the news archives at http://news.adcombat.com/article.shtml?id=750. If that doesn't work, then you'll hear all about it next month from yours truly.

Anyway, I want to pause a moment to thank those who have been visiting Aranha's great site, buying his great book, and then actually taking the time to read my semi-average column. I've gotten emails from folks in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Europe, and around the U.S. It's good to know someone's listening. I've also gotten a number of viruses since I went public with my email address, but luckily I'm savvy enough not to open them (bastards). One person I'd like to spotlight who wrote me recently is Mr. John Wilson, who corrected me on a subject I wrote about back in March. He brought to my attention the fact that there have actually been many MMA events in the state of Colorado since the first couple UFCs, making me woefully misinformed. However, it is my belief that what the promoter was trying to communicate to me (and what I bungled in that terrible sickness and drug induced column) was that this was the first "sanctioned" MMA event in Denver since back in the day, if not ever. According to the "Rumble In The Rockies" promoter, this was the first event that the Colorado State Boxing and Athletic Commission was going to be on hand for. Now I could still be wrong, but that's what I'm getting out of it. In any case, thanks John for keeping me on my toes and sorry to Colorado MMA fans. I'm still new to the area (where the heck do I find Sheldon Marr, guys and more importantly, how do I get past the automated messaging system?).

But I have many other things I want to discuss this month. Namely, everyone's favorite event in the grappling universe: Abu Dhabi.

I've been wondering for some time why there's been no news at all about this year's Abu Dhabi World Submission Wrestling tournament. Every year, without fail, I start frothing at the mouth in anticipation over who's entering, who'll win, who'll be upset. Last year I nearly had a coronary over Renzo's loss. Royler winning again surprised no one, of course. Jean-Jacques Machado's submission war with Matt Serra left everyone gasping for air. Mark Kerr's triumph over Ze Mario put Kerr back into a spotlight that had perhaps moved away from him a little bit following some tough MMA battles. The previous years were no different. The entire grappling community sits on the edge of its seats waiting to see who's going to go and what's going to happen. As April got closer and closer I figured I'd maybe missed something. Perhaps Abu Dhabi had happened and I just wasn't paying attention. Granted, I'm on the ADCC site almost every day reading the latest news and rumors, but still, maybe there was a link I was supposed to follow that I'd overlooked on the page.

As it turned out, there was a little ADCC link on the bottom of the page (www.adcombat.com by the way) that had two quick items written by grappling journo extraordinaire Kid Peligro. One detailed the plans made by tourney director Guy Neivens to host the next event in 2003, which meant that there would, in fact, be no ADCC tournament this year. I was dismayed. The next news item explained that the 2003 ADCC tournament would be going global, thus no longer being held in Abu Dhabi. According to Neivens, this would be an attempt to "bring the event to all four corners of the world." Despite the change of location, the format and name of the event would remain the same.

Now does all of this strike anyone besides me as a trifle odd? On September 11th, 2001 we all saw the devastation of a terrorist attack first hand, replayed over and over. The World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and four planes were all destroyed and the loss of human life was overwhelming. The persons responsible for this horrible act were identified as people of Middle Eastern descent. As a result, tensions between the West and the Islamic world went through the roof and mushroomed into such things as bombings in Afghanistan and the current madness in Israel. It didn't matter who exactly was to blame. As long as someone was carrying a Koran or facing the East five times daily, they were a likely target for the rage people were carrying inside.

The United Arab Emirates is located in the far-Eastern section of the Middle East. The people there are devout followers of Islam and hold their religion in the highest esteem. The UAE supported the American drive to attack Afghanistan, more than likely due to political pressure than anything. Bin Laden had been demonized, as had the Taliban, and to lend anything but support to the American attacks would put a nation in a very precarious position. Nevertheless, the people of the UAE have never exhibited anything but kindness and compassion toward the fighters entering the ADCC submission-grappling tournament. I remember watching Mikey Burnett being interviewed after ADCC 2000 and saying how this experience was one of the greatest of his life and how no one would ever be able to take it away from him. Then I read an article with Rigan Machado where he spoke about the tournament's hosts treating him like he was a true professional athlete-a gladiator that deserved all the finest treatment and riches in the world.

So doesn't it seem like having to grapple somewhere other than Abu Dhabi will be a real drag for the fighters who have shown up there year after year? I know it would to me. But then I thought about it for a minute. There must be reasons for having no tournament this year. There must be reasons for moving the tournament. But do the reasons coincide with the 9/11 attacks? I'm no detective, but it sure smells like they do. Why else would the annual ADCC event be cancelled? Why else would it be deemed appropriate to change the location? Maybe some fighters didn't want to go because they didn't trust the Islamic people to treat them as graciously as they had in the past. Or maybe they thought some madman would come charging into the tournament with a couple pounds of C4 strapped to his chest. Maybe the event's organizers just felt that it wasn't safe to have a bunch of people from all over the globe traveling to a hot spot like the Middle East. Or maybe getting visas to make the trip would have been even more difficult than it usually is. Maybe someone finally clued into the fact that Abu Dhabi is a remote location and no one wants to travel there if they can help it. Or maybe Prince Tahnoon is just tired of having all these weird sweaty guys rolling around at his behest.

Having no answers readily at my disposal I resolved to do a little investigating. So, I wrote to Mr. Guy Neivens--the event coordinator for Abu Dhabi--and asked him what was up. Mr. Neivens explained to me that "the decision to make the competition every two years was made more than eighteen months ago." Thus, it would seem current events have nothing to do with 2002 getting skipped. The change of location was apparently made more recently, but Mr. Neivens assured me that the decision had "…nothing to do with Sept. 11th's events." In fact, the ADCC tournament will still be held in Abu Dhabi every third event, making it a visitor every six years to the country that spawned it. This is being done to "promote the event more and make it truly international," said Neivens. According to him, "Abu Dhabi has no problem security-wise and is still a safe place to visit."

The first question that springs to my mind is 'safe for whom?' While it's true that the fighters themselves might be safe from any attacks by the good people of Abu Dhabi, how safe are the citizens of Abu Dhabi and the UAE from the anti-Islamic sentiment that's spread through the Western world like wildfire? Who's to say some all-American wrestler might not snap when he hears a few words in Arabic? Sure, we can talk about the warrior spirit and scapegoat the poor wrestler for losing his cool, but haven't we urged on this kind of spirit by flying our USA posters and supporting news media that basically says the people of that region of the world are our enemy and we should treat them as such? It would certainly be a threat to the national security of the United Arab Emirates to have a bunch of foreigners who no one knows all that much about and who can break people's limbs with ease stirring up trouble.

Now this is not to say that I doubt the word of Guy Neivens. He's coordinated a great event for the past few years and brought the best in the world together to compete on a level we fans might never have gotten the chance to see. Between himself and Prince Tahnoon, the greatest tournament in the history of grappling is now a reality, giving motivation to both beginning and veteran grapplers who want to devote themselves fully to the sport. His integrity has no reason to be called into question, but the lack of coverage and seeming media silence on the issue of ADCC's continued existence caused my eyebrow to be raised, if no one else's.

That said, I'm looking forward to next year's ADCC, wherever it may be held (though I really, really wonder what they're gonna call it if it's not in Abu Dhabi). I hope Mr. Neivens' plans are successful and I hope I've given you readers some information you deserved to know. I still haven't completely ruled out the possibility that the changes to the Abu Dhabi tournament are in at least some way related to the events of September 11th, but until I have concrete proof, it's simply speculation and food for thought, which I'm able to put out there because I never claimed this column was objective. Let me know what you think about ADCC moving and having its frequency changed. My address is at the bottom. Please don't send viruses. Cheers and all that, and as ever, keep on rollin'…

Diami J. Virgilio
May, 2002
kneeblock@yahoo.com

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Aranha
JIU-JITSU.NET