Na Teia do Aranha

Through the past year, The Master Text has surprised many and received some amazing reviews; in fact, I was shocked to hear so few negative ones. Being a perfectionist, I immediately knew what I wanted to improve as soon as I released the book. The one comment that originally came to me that I thought I should address was from Michael Jen; he said he considered my book to be advanced and might be a little hard for some beginners to understand. To resolve this, I wrote my new Basics Book. Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Basics is a prerequisite to The Master Text that contains some techniques from the Master Text that I feel beginners should work on first. These techniques are described in twice the detail and depth. In addition to the Master Text Techniques, there are a whole slew of 'new' beginner moves that I have added, organized by position. This book is a combination of my first book (The Student Handbook), A few moves from The Master Text, and a great deal of techniques I have not yet released in any book.

The second thing I have been working on is a new kimono to sell here at JIU-JITSU.NET. I have teamed up with Chris from Kagi Kimonos to make an Aranha Signature Kimono for sale exclusively here at this site. The idea came to me after testing one of Chris' kimonos, which I had intended to review. The Kimono was so nice, I decided to alter a few things and work with his company to make the best kimono on the market. Expect it to be available sometime next year. In the mean time, check out my review of Kagi Kimono's Gold Weave.

I will be hosting another Seminar at NYMAG this month. This time, my friend Michael Jen will be joining me. If you would like to attend, please email me right away at aranha@jiu-jitsu.net. Here are the details:

Michael "Bolo" Jen (BJJ Black Belt and Moderator from mma.tv) and Gene "Aranha" Simco (Author of The Master Text) will be holding a seminar at NYMAG in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on Saturday, September 14.

The cost for the day is $40! If you would like to reserve a spot, please email us back and let us know right away. You must pre-pay. Directions will be provided when you register. aranha@jiu-jitsu.net

Check out Aranha's site at www.jiu-jitsu.net Bolo at www.jenbjj.com and their techniques at www.bjj.org

ARANHA'S WEDDING ALBUM!

As you know, Heather and I just got married. I feel very great full to all those who have supported me and my efforts on this website, and consider many of you family. Here is a link to some of the photos taken at the wedding at the NYMAG site: ARANHA's Wedding album.

I ran across this very interesting article about marriage through an AOL link a week or two ago that I figured I'd share with all the eligible bachelors out there shaking their heads at my wedding decision: From www.ivillagehealth.com

Marriage keeps men alive longer

Last Updated: 2002-08-15 13:01:02 -0400 (Reuters Health)

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Marriage seems to be so good for men's health that married men are less likely to die in a given period than their single counterparts, according to British researchers.

Professor Andrew Oswald and Dr. Jonathan Gardner from the department of economics at Warwick University looked at data on more than 12,000 adults from the British Household Survey and the British Retirement Survey.

Factoring out influences such as smoking and drinking, married men were 6.1% less likely to die over a 7-year period than single men, they found. Women benefited less from marriage, with their death risk dropping just 2.9%.

Researchers have often found that married men and women are healthier than singles, and the Warwick researchers speculate that a spouse might reduce a man's stress and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

But that does not seem to be the only factor, they note in their report, which is published online at http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/Economics/oswald/.

"Exactly how marriage works its magic remains mysterious," they write in their report. "Perhaps a strong personal relationship improves mental health and helps the individual to ward off physical illness. More research here is certainly needed."

Oswald said the findings debunk the idea that wealthier people live longer.

"Forget cash. It is as clear as day from the data that marriage, rather than money, is what keeps people alive," he said in a statement.

ARANHA

Aranha,

I wanted to thank you for running the ad on the Gustavo Machado seminar July 27th. The seminar was a blast. We had people from Americus, GA; Albany, GA; Savannah, GA; Augusta, GA; Virginia Beach, VA.

Gustavo had us working on the Guard. We worked now only passing the guard, but also having someone in our guard and working our way out to taking the back. With each step he would show where the submissions would be as we went along. He is very technical with everything he uses. He has a nack on explaining the game. We had a couple of people get promoted to Blue Belt, myself and my daughter Lena Hudson. Lena is 16 and has been in the martial arts since she was 6yr old. She has been training in BJJ for the past four years and for the past year has been under Gustavo. It is so good to see more females have a passion for the BJJ.

I have attached several pictures from the days event.

Again, thank you for your help and time.

Ken Hudson
Family Martial Arts Center

1st AMERICAN NATIONAL JIU-JITSU CHAMPIONSHIP

The tournament will take place on November 2nd and 3rd in Hawthorne Memorial Center - 3901 W. El Segundo Blvd, Hawthorne, CA.

The champions of the blue, purple, brown and black belts adult divisions(man only) will join the first Jiu-Jitsu American Team to compete USA X Brazil Jiu-Jitsu Teams Challenge that will take place in the USA next year.

Only american citizens allowed at this tournament.

The Enrollment Form soon will be avaible at the site

Why I Love America

So I'm sitting here puzzled over what my next column is going to be about only hours away from deadline, when all of a sudden I check my inbox and find the single most disturbing email I've ever seen (besides that one with the donkey and the...). The International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo Association (IBJVTA) is offering the belt of your choice, along with a certificate stating that you actually are at the level you claim to be for the excellent price of somewhere between one and two hundred forty seven dollars. This means that you too can get your black belt using the good old "honor system" without ever having to dirty up a mat! If you'd like instructor certification you can get that for a mere $217.00 and if you want to fight vale tudo, just mail in the same amount and a handy dandy slip of paper that says you're qualified will show up in your mailbox! Naturally at the bottom of the application/advertisement is a disclaimer saying you release the IBJVTA from any and all responsibility should you, oh say choke someone to death after holding onto a triangle for too long, or in the event that you cripple a few small children by not letting go of your kneebars in time. If you want an extra copy of your instructor's certificate to put on your girlfriend's wall, you can purchase one for a scant twenty five smackers and everyone who comes over for a round of "behind the black belt's back" will be forced to stop and wonder if they aren't taking their lives in their hands.

To say this is absurd would be redundant. In my six years fiddling around with guys on mats and watching dudes in speedoes pound the crap out of each other, I've never heard of something so potentially destructive to our sport. I don't know exactly who this IBJVTA is, but if times are that tough in the BJJ community that we have to start handing out belts to amateurs to make ends meet, maybe we need to start a social security program. Let me urge you to email these shysters and tell them what a bunch of scum sucking bastards they are by providing their email address. Naturally they have no website because public advertisement of this nonsense would probably result in a lawsuit from Carlos Gracie Jr. The email address is BRAZIL_ARTS@yahoo.com. Write your friends, instructors and cousins and tell them to overload these jerks inbox with hate mail for trying to tarnish our sport.

Now.

On the one hand, I can see how people would feel like they needed something like this. So many of us toil in obscurity, training hard on our own or with friends and having no validation for our travails. Some watch every instructional video they can find and pore over the techniques in GRAPPLING magazine or THE MASTER TEXT, all the while knowing there's no jiu-jitsu school within miles that could be of any assistance. But so what? I've toiled away in obscurity for years as have the guys I've trained with and the guy who taught us all. Anyone who's anyone knows that the key to validation is in display. If you want to teach jiu-jitsu, go enter the Grappler's Quest in the Advanced Division and surprise everyone by taking first place. If you want a blue belt, go to a seminar where an instructor can gauge you and award you what you deserve. If there's nothing near you, too bad! You don't need a belt for anything except a lever in gi competitions. I wear a white belt with pride when I'm forced to wear a gi because it shows that I'm eternally a novice and it shows that I really don't know a gi from a space suit. If somebody's that insecure in their abilities that they need to strap a belt around their waist and frame a certificate on their wall, then they have no business teaching anyone anything. If they feel they lack credibility because they lack certification, then they can get certified!!! I'm not certified to teach so much as an upa, but I do it anyway. I primarily do it because I need sparring partners and whenever I do, I explain my history and lack of official instruction. The people behind this charade should be flayed on a bed of coals. They're going to drag us down a scam a bunch of naive kids with their little yahoo paypal scheme. Disgusting...

Once again, I urge you to write and tell them how worthless they are as human beings at BRAZIL_ARTS@yahoo.com. I doubt you'll get a reply, but they deserve a good savaging. For my part, I'm going to make it my business to find out who's behind this latest mail-order belt scam and give you all a name to put on your dart boards. Keep the filth out of our sport and enjoy your Labor Day folks. And, as ever, keep on rollin'...

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

NEW MARIO SPERRY VIDEO!

"Day Of The Zen, Mario Sperry and the Brazilian Top Team" is the new behind the scenes documentary that fans and fighters of mixed martial arts will love. See the top Brazilian JiuJitsu fighters in action like Mario Sperry, Murilo Bustamante, Rodrigo Nogueira and many more. This documentary is available in DVD and VHS. To read more and order, visit World Martial Arts website at www.groundfighter.com.

UNITED GRACIE JIU-JITSU TOURNAMENT 2002

We would personally like to invite you and your students to join us at our Second United Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Tournament. The competition will take place on September 28th and 29th, 2002 at San Francisco State University (Main Gym) in San Francisco, California. Last year's tournament yielded 400 competitors from around the world and many competitive matches that provided the crowd of 2,500 with a weekend of excitement. In our highly anticipated 2nd year, we expect over 500 competitors and over 3,000 spectators with even more exciting matches. The United Gracie Tournament has become one of the premiere US tournaments due to all the support it has received from the academies, competitors, and spectators. All belt levels and age groups are invited to compete and attend. The top two competitors in each division will receive medals, and the top five schools will receive Team Championship trophies to display in their respective academies.

To insure that the tournament runs smoothly, we strongly recommend that all competitors and coaches be at the tournament at 9:00am on Saturday and Sunday. The competition will begin promptly at 10:00am. In addition to awards, all competitors will receive free T-shirts while spectators as well as competitors will be entered in a raffle to win prizes. We would love to see all competitors, spectators, family, martial artists, etc. gather in this friendly atmosphere that will help promote the great art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Sincerely,
Charles and Ralph Gracie
United Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Team

U.S. Grappling Association East Coast Championship

Register online now at USgrappling.com until 9-18-02

Go to www.Usgrappling.com to get a copy of our superfight poster. If you have a school and would like us to send you a full color poster and forms please send me an email Director@USGrappling.com or call 856-482- 9555.

Thanks for your support and check out our video clips from the 2002 Mundials, and our video archives should be up and running right after the tourney.

Joe Priole
Director
www.USGrappling.com
856-482-9555

Judo team from Dade pins L.A. carjacker

This guy picked the wrong visitors to carjack.

His victims: a college judo team from Miami-Dade that pounded him on the head, twisted him like a pretzel and pinned him on the ground until L.A. cops arrived.

"I thought it was pretty funny because out of all the cars this man picked, he picked ours," said Cristina Baldacci, 23, one of the members of Florida International University's judo team in the backseat of the rented minivan Sunday.

'All I kept thinking the whole time was, `This guy is really barking up the wrong tree.' "

In town to teach a women's self-defense course, the six students and instructor had spent the day cruising Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles before stopping to gas up near their hotel.

At the gas station, they noticed a man acting erratically, then hassling a young couple a few feet in front of them.

The students' judo instructor, Nestor Bustillo, made eye contact with the man, who then approached him.

The stranger begged for $1. Everyone in the group refused to hand him money. Then, they said, he made a dash toward his car.

"I didn't know at that point if he was going to get a gun or a weapon," said Bustillo, 44, who has a black belt in judo.

Bustillo ran toward the man's Nissan -- which police said he carjacked earlier in the day -- and pretended to swipe the keys from the ignition. That's when the stranger made a run for the team's rented Chrysler Town and Country minivan, swung open the unlocked door on the driver's side, and climbed in.

In the backseat were Bustillo's wife Vivianna, 23, and son Adam, 18 -- both judo students -- and the members of the FIU team: Raul Cruz, 21; Luis Rizo, 28; Katheryn Vasquez, 20, and Baldacci.

'Someone kept screaming, `Let's get out of the car! Let's get out of the car!' " Baldacci recalled. "I considered just jumping out, but then I thought about all the valuables in the car and I became really [upset]," she said. ``I wasn't getting out of the car without a fight."

The six students and their coach began pounding the man on the head and face. They pulled him out of the vehicle and shoved him to the ground, accidentally rupturing the gasoline pump hose.

"The scariest was when the gasoline started pouring out," Bustillo said. ``That was my main concern."

As the students pinned the man to the ground, gasoline drenched them all as they waited for the Los Angeles Police Department to respond.

Tyrone Jermaine Hogan was charged with carjacking, kidnapping and robbery. When he had stolen the Nissan earlier, police said, he had punched the driver in the face and shoved his wife out of the car.

Hogan received minor injuries at the hands of the judo students but required no medical attention. No members of the judo team were injured -- or face any charges for injuring Hogan.

"He picked the wrong vehicle to try and steal," said Officer Jerry Richter, spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. ``That he would find himself in that situation is pretty funny."

Richter said what the judo students did was commendable but does not condone that type of action when confronted with an attacker.

"Anyone who is brave and witty enough to do anything like that could be armed, and you don't know if the person could come back and shoot or stab you," Richter said. ``While this incident turned out for the best, it's not worth putting your life at risk."

On Monday, the students were welcomed home from their three-day California trip with a hero's welcome.

A gaggle of reporters awaited their arrival at FIU's Golden Panther Arena, where they re-enacted the scuffle on a mat wearing their judo gi. Today, they are expected to take their story on the national morning television circuit.

Bustillo said he's surprised about all the publicity the group has been getting.

"To us, it wasn't a big deal," he said. ``It was just one guy acting stupid."

Their bravery did not get them out of paying the gas bill. They still had to cough up $27 for the gasoline -- most of which ended up on them.

"I think now he'll think twice before attacking someone else on the street," he said.