Subject: [February newsletter] Featured Traveler Liz Corso // Sporto Klubas Laumžirgis

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BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // February 2019
Dear Globetrotters,

It's a relatively quiet time of the year with just one camp in the next three months; the Caribbean Island Camp here in St. Barth next week. It's the 6th time we're doing it so I feel very relaxed about it - nothing like before doing a new camp location for the first time and I can't sleep at night, constantly nervous about if it will work out or not :) As usual, I'll be doing live video story from the camp on our Instagram profile, feel free to watch along: www.instagram.com/bjjglobetrotters

Our warehouse in Denmark closed down a little over a week ago and we're working really hard to prepare everything for the opening of our new one, directly located in our factory in Pakistan. We are all excited to offer new gi models at better prices for everyone as soon as we're up and running. Three different travel- and competition gis are in full production and will be available shortly!

Have a fantastic day,

What you'll find in this month's newsletter:

  • Featured Traveller: Liz Corso
  • Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Sporto Klubas Laumžirgis
Last 25 tickets remaining
We’re kicking off our main European camp season in the crisp spring air of the Baltic Sea. Come join us for some rolls and beers in this medieval northern city where a Jiu Jitsu revolution is quietly brewing.
Featured Traveller: Liz Corso
Let’s start out with some quick facts about you…

Age: 35
Belt: Blue
Profession: Teacher
How many years in BJJ: Two
Other martial arts: None
Where do you live: Paris, France
Where are you originally from: New Jersey, USA
Other fun or curious information you'd like to share: I do mail art, collages, and stop-motion animation. I also get really happy when I encounter a 3-pronged fork.

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I’ve always been a traveller. I crave new perspectives and enjoy solving problems (how do I get vegetarian food in this strange language?!). I left the US as soon as I finished school, and have since lived in half a dozen different countries and travelled to well over 50. I accidentally stumbled upon BJJ while living in Taiwan and immediately became obsessed. My first coach, Daniel Reid, is a Globetrotter, and he introduced me to the Globetrotters network, which makes it so much easier! 

Tell us about your most recent trip and your upcoming trips – where have you been and where are you going?
I just got back from the Winter Camp in Wagrain and it was amazing! I always meet so many great new people at Globetrotters camps. My next trip is back to the US to visit friends and family. There’s a 10th Planet gym near my folks, which is a fun change from what I’m used to in Paris. Before I set off for the summer, I plan to revisit Prague in the spring. I hope to add a couple cities around that trip… possibly Vienna and Brno. We’ll see!
What are the things you enjoy about traveling?
I’ve met so many great people training in different places. Some of them have gone on to become really good friends, some have even shaped who I am as a person. When you leave your comfort zone, you learn. Sometimes it’s painful (we all remember our first couple BJJ classes!), but learning is always rewarding.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
In addition to meeting great people, having lots of fun crazy nights, experiencing new cultures, and trying new things, travelling helps a lot for BJJ. Sometimes I’ll be having trouble with a particular aspect of my game, and this is often the best time to travel somewhere new and train. Fresh perspectives can really help to get you out of a rut… both in your BJJ game and sometimes life in general!

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
Realizing how far a smile and patience can take you. Keeping my cool has helped me out of many many tough situations. For example, after living in Berlin for a couple years, I got tired of the weather and decided to do a motorcycle trip from Berlin to Bamako, Mali. Actually, I didn’t have an end destination… that’s where I ended up selling the motorcycle for plane tickets to Asia - but that’s a different story. 

Long story short, I had entered Guinea illegally. Not because I had wanted to, but because...OK, short story...that’s how it was. When crossing the border into Mali, I ran into trouble: I was illegally in the country with a foreign vehicle. This being Africa, the border guard was eager to cut a deal: $100. The only problem was that 1.) I didn’t want to spend $100, and 2.) I had sewn my larger bills into the waist seam of my pants and I only had a 1 dollar bill on me. Not losing my cool, staying friendly, and having patience worked to my advantage. It took a lot of smiling and A LOT of patience, but in the end, I parted with my $1 and was on my merry way.

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
Staying and training with a Globetrotters host not only helps you to meet a great new person, but also cuts down on accomodation fees. In the summers, I quit the city for good. I sublet my apartment and explore around Europe in my VW camping van (yeah, the sexy kind). I love the freedom it affords and I only wild camp, so it doesn’t cost much. It’s really nice, but the van doesn’t have a shower. That’s where training fits in perfectly! I find a nearby club with showers to train at. I still go to laundromats to wash my gis, but nogi gear can easily be hand washed.

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Smile. Be open to people and experiences and things will happen.
More than half the tickets sold for our 50th BJJ Globetrotters Camp!
We’re heading back to Heidelberg for our 50th camp and another incredible week of BJJ training, workshops, outdoor diving competitions, morning yoga sessions, midnight cocktail bar crawls, martial arts movie nights, and live DJ open mats (with free beer).

This stunning university town has become a regular on our annual camp calendar and this year we decided it will be the location for our big, classic Summer Camp. We are excited to see you all there!

BJJ Globetrotters Academy in Focus: 
Sporto Klubas Laumžirgis
 About the gym:

Where is the gym located? 
We rent 300 m2 full-time in the southern part of Vilnius, Lithuania. Here you can see the precise location of our gym, Laumžirgis (which means "dragonfly" in Lithuanian): https://goo.gl/maps/DyP5Y6tSDmo. It's not easy to find us when you're there in person though - just contact us through Facebook and we'll send you a detailed how-to-find-us guide.

How many people train there?
It varies - sometimes greatly - depending on the time of the year.  We had around 40 people show up at least once this January, for instance; some only have time to train few times per month, whereas others train consistently for 6+ hours per week. We consider ourselves an MMA club; about half of the people train Jiu Jitsu and wrestling, while others are only interested in boxing and striking, so we separate the classes and then people can build their own schedule based on what they enjoy.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
We've seen slow but steady growth over the past few years. In the early days it wasn't uncommon to only have 2-4 people in the class. Now that we're open to the public, we usually get 10-20 new people showing up each year when the new season starts, and several of them stay and become long-term members, which is what we're looking for. Jiu Jitsu and combat spots in general is not something you can really learn in a month, or even a year.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
In our Jiu-Jitsu classes we have blue and white belts. We also have higher belts visiting, but because they're visitors they don't count in our statistics.

When did the gym open?
We started as a group of enthusiasts interested in training together in 2007. Our club, Laumžirgis, was officially founded in 2009. We started renting a place full-time in 2014, and moved to our current location in 2017.

Some facts about you:

Name: Irmantas Radavičius
Age: 33
Belt: Blue
Profession: I teach Computer Science at Vilnius University
Years in BJJ: My first class was in 2007
Other martial arts: I started with Aikido back in 1999, tried a lot of different things over the years, and finally settled with MMA. Meaning, one accepts what is useful and rejects what is useless, and wants to be efficient in all ranges and areas of combat.
Currently living in: Vilnius, Lithuania
Originally from: Also Vilnius, Lithuania
Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence: 
The aikido community I started with introduced me to martial arts, for which I will always be grateful. However, that community was like a cult, with lots of hierarchy, bowing, and rituals, which is ultimately very at odds with what I'm about. 

I was looking for a community where I would feel happy. I was also interested in self-defense and functional martial arts, since I wanted to feel safer and more confident; able to trust that what I do actually works. Aikido did not give me that, so I quit in 2006 and went through many clubs looking for somewhere to belong. Sometimes I didn't like the teaching style, sometimes the community was a bit off, sometimes the techniques were very strange, and since I was a student at the time sometimes the classes were just too expensive. 

Thus me and few other guys started training on our own. My first experience with Jiu Jitsu was in 2007, when I went to a grappling seminar by Ričardas Piepolis, a famous grappling coach in Lithuania. A lot of what we did after that was gleaned from articles, blogs, books, and videos. I remember watching Matt Thornton’s video series, as well as numerous others. Jiu Jitsu was just not really present in Lithuania as it is now. I was reading Matt Kirtley’s and Christian Graugart’s blogs, and when they announced they were going to Estonia to teach a training camp in 2009, I knew I had to be there. This is when we first started travelling to different places for training, and where we first met Priit Mihkelson, a then-purple belt from Estonia (now a black belt) who we now consider our head coach and mentor. From that point onwards, everything changed. 
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We've had people from 15 to 56 years old, guys and girls (sadly only a few of them, but their number is growing as well), most of whom are hobbyists training for various personal reasons. Many of them work in IT-related fields, which, given my own profession, is not at all surprising! The majority of new members are brought to our club by friends.

Why do they train?
People in our club train for various reasons (social, safety, health, fun, etc.) that tend to change over time. Most newcomers come because of self-defense, or because they want to try something new and maybe find a new hobby. Once they decide to stay and are there for a long time, however, I think it evolves into something different - it is always the case that they simply like the activity and the community, and all the benefits those two things bring into their life.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general and in your location specifically?
Since we're a small gym we do most of the things ourselves, including book-keeping, cleaning, repairs, etc. We don't have many staff members, and that limits us since there are only so many things that can be done per day, and only so many classes that one can run and teach. Retaining our members thus becomes really important, as otherwise we have to start learning/teaching everything from scratch again, and at the same time it's very hard to lose a member whom we consider a necessary part of the community. There are many activities in Vilnius, and it's not uncommon for people simply to decide not to pursue martial arts anymore and take up something else. The long grind is sadly not for everybody.
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
BJJ has been constantly growing here over the past few years. When we started there were no black belts at all in Lithuania; now there are. I suspect and hope that BJJ will continue to grow and will also continue to evolve in every sense, including techniques, coaching methods etc.

What’s the best thing about your gym?
Unarguably, it's the community that we have. It's very important to have a space where you feel welcome and safe, and it becomes even more important if you train martial arts, which by definition is a risky and dangerous activity. No building and no mat space can ensure that by itself; it is always about the people. It's the students that empower any coach and make his work worthwhile, it's the training partners who help you get better, and are there when you succeed and you struggle, and so on. Personally, I consider the people I train with to be some of my best friends that I'm happy to have.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
Vilnius is a great city. If you're into museums and architecture, we have our Old Town and some sights that date back to the Middle Ages. Lithuania is a small country, meaning travel distances are relatively small - we have beautiful nature and some places to visit in the countryside, too. If you're into food, there are many cuisines in Vilnius. If you want to try more traditional Lithuanian food, try some dishes from potatoes and/or meat, and we have good beer too. If you're into overall leisure there aren't many things that you can't find in Vilnius; we have big commercial and leisure centers, with restaurants, cafes, cinemas, and lots of athletic and fun activities.

Really, come to visit, and when you do you are most welcome to come to our gym and say hi!

Thanks for sharing with us! If you'd like to pay a visit to Sporto Klubas Laumžirgis, you can find them here.
 
 
 
A familiar setting, but at a new time of year and with an entirely fresh set of possibilities! For this summer camp, we’re heading back to Wagrain for five days of training among the rolling hillsides that are now brilliantly green and ready for you to explore. We’ll probably still manage to fit in the odd après-ski party though…
We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we set out towards the very first Zen Camp in 2017, but whatever those expectations were – it exceeded them in every possible regard. Over the course of a few days, we immersed ourselves in the peaceful atmosphere of the beautiful Dojo Stara Wies – a purpose-built Japanese-style village located in the middle of the Polish countryside – and lost ourselves in hours of friendly BJJ training, samurai photo shoots and early morning mushroom hunts.

As soon as it was over, we knew we had to make it happen again and again. So we’re very excited to invite you back to this truly special location for the next instalment of Zen Camp!

Hope to see you there. If you can find it.