I am so happy to see our Kids classes starting to take off! For me, this is personal, because I am a proud product of Romero Cavalcanti's kids program and I know how incredibly important it is to have a positive impact on young children. The focus of the class is a little different than the adults program. In the kids class, you should expect to see a little more discipline, incredible self defense, practical jiu-jitsu, and some great games for the little ones to let off some excess energy. As a parent/guardian, feel free to participate in any kids class! If you have any questions or are interested about the program, give Haley a call or stop by the front desk for more info. Currently, the class is Tuesday and Friday from 5-6pm. Let's work on not only making future champions, but good people!

The Basics Program

So much is happening at FZ, its crazy! A few weeks ago, we decided to start up a fundamentals program with Kevin at the helm. In this class, you can expect to brush up on your self-defense techniques, escapes, positional control, and basic submissions. If you keep getting armlocked - you need to check out this class! Currently, the class is Monday and Wednesday from 5-6pm, but it will be expanding to third day shortly. Beyond this, Kevin just finished writing his second book, this time with famed jiu-jitsu black belt, Andre Galvao. With some time available, Kevin is open to some limited private lessons until he finishes Leo's book in about a month! Call for availability.

Competition Round Up

I wanted to congratulate all that competed at the Copa Pacifica tournament recently. It is incredible to see how well you all did with such limited time in jiu-jitsu. Whether it was Van's half-guard, Vince's open guard, Helmer's attacking game, Juan's lightning fast transitions, Carlos's sweeping game, or Brandon's kimuras, you all showed a great level of jiu-jitsu and we took home one first and two third place showings as a result. You made all of us at Fight Zone proud. However, don't rest on your laurels, bring the mistakes that you made (even winners make errors) to the academy and we will use it to tune you up for your next endeavor.

This brings me to my final point. We will be having an in-house tournament at Fight Zone on the weekend of March 20-21, 2010. This is a friendly tournament to give you all a little more experience dealing with the jiu-jitsu points game. Kevin and I will be reffing the event and we hope to see you and your friends at the friendship tournament. More information is available with Haley at the front desk.

Remember - Keep Training Fun!

I am really happy to hear about the competition that you guys did in Temecula. Our training is definitely paying off. For those of you that did not attend, we went with a few guys and we took home 4 golds and a silver medal. This is amazing. More important than the trophies, is the experience. I am proud of all of you for going out there and trying your hardest and I am just as happy to know that so many of you went out there to support your teammates!

I look forward to mustache choking all of you in 2010.

Keep Training Fun!

As 2009 comes to an end, we at Fight Zone USA want to thank you for making this year great! We wish you all a happy holiday and look forward to being a part of your lives in 2010!

Fight Zone USA will be closed from Thursday, December 24th through Sunday, January 3rd. During this time, we'll be doing some repairs and fixing up the pro shop to make our facility even better in the new year!

Our Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo classes will resume on Monday, January 4th.

Get ready to learn even more of the Vieira Bros method as we bring Leo and Ricardo Vieira to Long Beach in 2010!

Have a safe and happy holiday season and we'll see you all next year!

Keep training fun,
Fight Zone USA Staff

To celebrate the closing of our first holiday season together, we will be having an academy Holiday Party on Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 6:00pm. For all Fight Zone USA students, please bring a clean white kimono for our first official team Fight Zone portrait. This will be displayed at the academy forever, so look your best!

Once finished, we will have a holiday gift exchange and potluck dinner. If you would like to take part in the gift exchange, please bring a wrapped gift in the $10.00 to $20.00 range. Then we will draw numbers and let the fun begin! All Fight Zone USA students, friends, family, and visitors are welcome to take part in the gift exchange.

For the potluck dinner, just check in with Haley at the front desk so that she can coordinate the dinner for the evening.

You guys have already made me so happy to be here. I cannot believe how quickly the academy has expanded and I really thank all of you for being such incredible students. Let's close off 2009 in style!

Keep Training Fun!

Winter Schedule:

Our Winter Schedule has officially started. By popular demand, we have changed our schedule from 7:30a-8:30a on Tuesday and Thursday to 10:00a-12:00p. All of our morning students indicated that this would be a better time for themselves and we decided to reward all of our incredible students by giving them an extra half hour of training on both days! This schedule is effective as of Monday, Nov. 30th, 2009.

I am really happy to see the morning program expanding and I look forward to adding even more classes as the Fight Zone family expands!

Thanksgiving Schedule:

As a reminder, we will be closed from Thursday, Nov. 26th to Saturday, Nov. 28th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We wish everyone a happy and most importantly, safe, holiday! Make sure to eat plenty of turkey, Tofurkey, cranberry, and potatoes - and then be prepared to work it off on Monday!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Let's Keep Training Fun!!

Last weekend, Adrian Rejon competed at Millenia's 2nd Turkey Tapout. The event was no-gi and Adrian was able to get two fights. He won his first match by submission after taking his opponent's back and he beat his second opponent by points! Congratulations Adrian! We're all very proud of your accomplishment!

Also, we've had a special Brazilian guest training with us this week, Leandro's student, Teta! It has been great having Teta and he spoke very highly of everybody he trained with. He will be coming back in 6 months to train with all of us for a month.

On that note, I wanted to thank every one of our students at Fight Zone USA. Whenever our teammates from Brazil or elsewhere are in the academy, you all have done a great job of welcoming them, making them feel at home, and making them tap! In all seriousness, I appreciate your hospitality and you can expect many more visitors in the future!

Let's keep jiu-jitsu fun!

For the second year straight, the Check-Mat jiu-jitsu team took first place in No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu World Championships! Created in 2008, Check-Mat has already established a tradition of excellence by achieving two World No-Gi Team Championships, a 3rd place at the 2009 World Gi Team Championships, a 1st place at the 2009 European Team Championships, a 3rd place at the Brazilian National No-Gi Team Championships, and many more lesser championships.

As most of you know, Team Check-Mat is composed of Fight Zone, Check-Mat, Vieira Black Belt, and VB Team academies. I would like to congratulate all of our teammates in their success and applaud all of our students for their support, our Brazilian teammates were very impressed with all of you. I would also like to thank all of our Check-Mat teammates that prepared for the championship at Fight Zone USA.

With our tradition of excellence, let's enjoy our successes and set our sights on winning the team championships at the 2010 Pan Americans and Mundials. We have the instruction, technique, training method, support, and camaraderie to make it to the top!

Let's keep jiu-jitsu fun!