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| | | | BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // January 2021 | | Dear Globetrotters,
Happy New Year everyone!
Patience is a difficult thing these days. It feels like forever since things were normal with the camps. It's soon been a full year of camps affected by the pandemic and while there is light at the end of the tunnel, this last stretch to get there does feel exhaustingly long.
Anyway, we will host a small Caribbean Island Camp here in St. Barth next week and I'm excited about it. Hopefully the global situation will quickly improve this spring so we can get on with our scheduled trips. So many friends I haven't seen and rolled with all year! I hope you're all doing ok out there and that we can get back to the mats again soon.
Have a fantastic day,
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What you'll find in this month's newsletter:
- Featured Travellers: Pámela Bóveda and Josue Gonzalez
- Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Kampfsport Manufaktur
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| | Arizona camp postponed to March, tickets available
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| | | | Sign up for the free online premiere of our documentary! |
| | The Gentle Art of Travel is following the BJJ Globetrotters camps behind the scenes over the course of one full year and 12 training camps around the world. Sign up now to receive an invitation for the free online premiere. |
| | | | | Featured Travellers: Pámela Bóveda and Josue Gonzalez |
| Age: 32 (Pámela) and 29 (Josue)
Belt: Black (Pámela) and Purple (Josue)
Profession: Aerospace Engineer and Language Teacher (Pámela), Chef (Josue)
How many years in BJJ: 14 (Pámela) and 8 (Josue)
Other martial arts: MMA (Pámela), only BJJ (Josue)
Where do you live: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Where are you originally from: Paraguay (Pámela) and Argentina (Josue)
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: Pámela was the first female black belt from Paraguay and also the first female aerospace engineer from her country. Josue can juggle and he cooks the best vegan pancakes in the entire world. We have a YouTube channel where we show the academies and other places we visit while traveling. |
| | Tell us what inspired you to travel and train? Self improvement keeps us motivated. From every place we learn more and more, not only technically but mentally. Also, getting to know so many different and cool people around the world is what keeps us inspired. We hosted a lot of globetrotters at our place in Buenos Aires, and always had such cool experiences. We can't wait to host again. We also have been hosted in Europe when we had the chance to travel.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?After living in Cordoba, Argentina for several years, then Asunción, Paraguay for a year, and finally in Buenos Aires, Argentina for 4 years, we decided that experiencing the US BJJ scene would be a great option. So we applied for a Sports Visa, came to Miami, and started training at Fight Sports Miami and Vagner Rocha's martial arts academy. We competed a lot. We also had the chance to teach and travel to El Paso, Texas, where we trained with Kings MMA El Paso and Fight Sports El Paso. Then we came back to Florida and trained at Fight Sports and Aviv Jiu Jitsu.
Next we're going to South America, to visit our family and compete around there. We miss the food so much, that we need to get back for a while. (kidding)
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| | | What are the things you enjoy about traveling? We enjoy being in places we haven't been, getting to know people, training and learning from the culture and the people. We also enjoy sharing what we know. Teaching Jiu Jitsu or languages is always cool.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
I remember one time Josue and I were going to Germany to compete, and this girl reached us out because she saw we were from South America, so she actually went to the train station to wait for us and show us around. Someone we had never met before. Our friend from Paraguay was also there waiting for us, and they ended up training together because he was living there.
Getting to know these kinds of people is priceless. After that we trained together, and now she is a friend.
Another thing that happened in Germany is that we made a mistake on the date while booking a hostel, so we had no place to sleep and no extra money either. So i just googled "jiu jitsu Munich" and found this academy, Munich MMA. I asked if we could spend the night there. The owner had never seen us in his life, and he said yes - he trusted us with his academy with no one there. The next day, I had the chance to teach a women's class at his academy. It was amazing.
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| | What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling? This happened back in 2013. My friend Raith and I went to compete in Gramado, Brazil, and we had no money to go back to Argentina. So we started to hitchhike, and this guy saw us with a Jiu Jitsu t shirt from the tournament, so he stopped his car, took us to the bus station and bought us tickets back. We asked him for his info so we could send the money later, but he said no. He said one day we also need to help someone, and then left.
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip? As you guys have read, we are 100% budget travelers. Competing and traveling is not easy at all, but it is worth it! We plan a trip using public transportation as much as we can, buying the tickets in advance to get better prices, matsurfing or couch surfing or staying at a friend's place. We also try to teach seminars or classes when we go to a new city. We have a lot of experience at refereeing, so we offer that kind of training also.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be? The advice would be - go for it. There is nothing like seeing the world and enjoying what you love doing. It will be very hard sometimes, but it will be worth it, especially if it's a long trip. |
| | | | Come join us in beautiful Tallinn! |
| | * From April 26th to May 1st, 2021 *
* In Tallinn, Estonia *
* Less than 20 minutes from Tallinn airport *
* Huge mat space in a beautiful medieval town *
* Six-day training camp *
* Gi and no-gi classes all day long *
* High-level international instructors *
* Free ticket for world premiere of BJJ Globetrotters documentary *
* Competition in classic wrestling styles *
* Yoga every morning *
* All experience levels and affiliations welcome! *
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| | | | BJJ Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Kampfsport Manufaktur |
| | Where is the gym located?
Our gym is located near the city center of Mannheim (Industriestraße 39, 68169), Germany. Mannheim is a “Universitätsstadt” (university town) close to Heidelberg (20 minutes by car), and about one hour from Frankfurt Airport. Mannheim is famous for its 18th-century palace where the university is located nowadays. The streets are unusual in comparison to other German cities, since they're laid out in a grid pattern. Therefore the city's nickname is “Quadratestadt” (the Square City).
How many people train there?
We have around 110 registered members in total, and about 8 trainers in different areas (BJJ/Grappling, MMA, Muay Thai, Boxing, Kids BJJ, Self Defence, and Functional Training). But obviously, like in any other gym, not everybody who is registered will join in every training session. Before we had to close the gym because of Corona restrictions, we would have about 10-20 people in a training session. The gym is a newly built industrial-style hall with 300m2 of space, so we have different areas where the people can hang out or train (mat space, boxing ring, fitness area, chillout area) so even when more people are there it doesn't feel too crowded.
Is the gym growing - if so by how many new members each month or year?
Bad timing for answering this question, because we just opened the gym in October 2020 and had to close because of Corona restrictions after only 3 weeks of training. Luckily there was a martial arts club in our location beforehand, and after renovating all the facilities and opening as a new gym, I took over most of the members from the previous club. At the opening party and the weeks afterwards, we welcomed around 35 new members that trained their asses off for the next weeks and were also motivated to join the online courses and thereby support the gym so that it can still exist after the lockdown. Right now we're still closed and don't know when we will be able to open for normal training. Just today, we started a new offer for interested people where we show them the gym, explain everything, and they can start with online training for free and start paying in March, in order to give new people a chance to start with the sport.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
Our highest belt is the newest member of the instructor team: BJJ black belt Thomas Stoll, who also runs Team Choco in Heidelberg. I'm very happy to have such a competent and warm-hearted trainer in the Kampfsport Manufaktur to support our BJJ and Grappling program. As well as that, my long-time friend Rene Becker, who is a well-known black belt in Germany, gave me the opportunity to affiliate with his team, Matrix Jiu-Jitsu, so he'll often be in our place teaching and giving seminars. Our people can also go to Matrix headquarters in Kaiserslautern (about a 1-hour drive) and train with some of the best grapplers in all of Germany.
I'm a purple belt myself after a long time training, because we had no black belt training with us and most of the time we figured stuff out by ourselves or by learning from friends' videos and Globetrotters camps. We have another purple belt teaching with a big focus on no-gi, and a bunch of blue belts training for a really long time who are probably at a higher level because they didn't have the chance to get promoted in the years beforehand. Obviously because we opened in October 2020 as a new gym, we also have a lot of white belts, and thus structured the training to be very beginner-friendly with a lot of fundamentals. Our lowest belts are probably the “Mini BJJ” group we started because of my 3-year-old daughter. I just wanted to give parents the chance to come on Saturdays with my daughter's friends to let the Minis move a little bit, run around, and do their forward rolls. Out of nowhere, we had around fifteen Mini 3-year-olds running around and training BJJ. This was really cool! Can´t wait to start with them again soon!
When did the gym open?
The gym opened in October 2020. I worked as a trainer before in the Martial Arts Academy Mannheim for Muay Thai and Grappling. In summer 2020, I was asked if I'd be interested in buying that club. From the second I taught my first class in 2008, it was a dream to open my own gym, so I didn't hesitate and agreed. From that moment we started working on the gym and pretty much re-made the whole place into something new. Most members stayed with me, so I had a good foundation. Sadly, like I said before, after only 3 weeks of training we had to close because of Corona restrictions. But we're doing the best in this situation as we can, and we look forward to training with all our people again soon.
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| | Some facts about you:
Name: Björn Laubenstein (born: Feil) Age: 32 Belt: Purple Profession: Social worker Years in BJJ: 10 years Other martial arts: I started Muay Thai in 2006, had 17 fights (8-7-2) and fought at some local championships, then did MMA (1-0-0) before I decided to focus more on BJJ. Currently living in: I live in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, which is the city next to Mannheim. The two cities are separated by the river Rhein/Rhine, which is the longest river in Germany. Originally from: I grew up in a small village called Ellerstadt in Rhineland-Palatinate, which is about 30 minutes away. My mother is from Sweden and I still have some family living there, so even if my Swedish sucks I feel connected to Swedish traditions and the country.
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| | Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence I taught Muay Thai in the Martial Arts Academy in Mannheim for a very long time, as well as BJJ for a while. The gym owner opened another gym in another city years ago, and eventually couldn't be in Mannheim as much as he used to. After some time, he asked me in summer 2020, kinda out of nowhere, if I would be interested to take over the gym. Because it was a dream for me to open my own gym one day, I didn't hesitate and quickly agreed. But I knew that I wanted to rebuild the gym, structure everything new, and make it completely how I wanted a gym to look, create the right training atmosphere, and make it a place you really love to go. I was able to start working on the gym in summer, making small changes, while training sessions were still running for the old club. Then I took over the gym in October and we closed until 10th October to really put in the hard work. After rebuilding everything - from new matspace and fitness areas to a chill out area - we opened Kampfsport Manufaktur on 10.10.2020.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We have pretty much everybody in the gym, especially because we now have a mix of the old guys and BJJ nerds from the previous gym, to complete beginners that never trained in their life before. I want the gym to be a place where everybody feels welcome and wants to hang out. I'm very happy that my plan worked when opening the gym, and we welcomed a lot of women that started BJJ and even MMA.
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| Why do they train? In general, I would say that most people joined the Kampfsport Manufaktur for fitness reasons at first. They wanted to start martial arts and feel better, get fitter, and feel safer. In our club, you only pay one fee and can train every martial art. The moment they try BJJ and enjoy it, you can see most of them focus on BJJ and get sucked into the BJJ nerdiness and totally forget the fitness reasons they had in the first place.
What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general and in your location specifically?
I'm pretty new to running a gym, so in general the paperwork and all the associated admin stuff is pretty challenging and annoying. Of course the situation with the Corona lockdown is really really challenging at the moment, because in my case I don't get any support from the government for the gym. So it's pretty challenging to offer the members the best I can in this situation, in order to keep them satisfied and to keep on supporting the gym financially. But of course everybody is struggling with this at the moment. In our area, we have a few more gyms that offer BJJ and Muay Thai, but I think that this is not a problem for anybody. I think every gym has its focus, atmosphere, and training habits, so everybody will join the gym that makes them happy.
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| | How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
In my opinion, Germany was a little bit behind compared to other countries in terms of BJJ or even fight sports in general. Maybe because MMA or other martial arts are still not so accepted or so popular in society compared to sports like soccer. But nowadays it feels like we are back on track. This has been made possible through the exchange of knowledge, like when you e.g. join a Globetrotters camp and everybody is eager to make you better in BJJ while having a really great time together. Now a lot of people join the gym because they're interested in learning BJJ specifically, whereas in the past a lot of people started BJJ only because they started boxing and ended up wondering what that rolling around thing was. So it seems BJJ keeps on growing.
What’s the best thing about your gym?The people, the atmosphere, and the spirit we want the gym to have. I think you can have the best looking gym, the biggest mat space, or the best black belt in the world, but if people don't feel good when they're there, what's the point? We welcome everybody, regardless if they're a white or black belt, and will have a good time training, hanging out together and going out for a beer and a burger if you visit us.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym? In Mannheim you should check out the palace, the water tower, and go out in the “hip area” called Jungbusch, where you can find a lot of cool bars and nightlife. Then you should definitely make a trip to beautiful Heidelberg, which is about a 20-minute drive by car. There you can check out the famous castle, the old town and hang out in summer at the “Neckarwiese” (a riverfront park). Furthermore, you should drive to the city Bad Dürkheim in the Rhineland Palatinate area (about 30 minutes by car) - a spa city in the Palatine Forest where you can enjoy traditional German food and local wines, and walk through beautiful old wine villages or the forest. If you wanna check out the best traditional German food I have ever eaten, while sitting outside in summer in the woods, you should check out the restaurant “Thomashütte” in Forst an der Weinstraße. Feel welcome to join us in the Kampfsport Manufaktur when you're travelling and we can make these trips together.
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Thanks for sharing with us! If you'd like to pay a visit to Kampfsport Manufaktur, you can find them here. |
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