Professor Gui Valente Jiu Jitsu Seminar – July 2015

Robin French with Professor Gui Valente - July 2015

When I first heard that Professor Gui Valente was not only coming to the UK, but coming just 30 minutes down the road at Jon Hegan’s Gracie Jiu Jitsu academy in Upminster, I knew that I had to get there!

After warming up, Professor Gui took us through the straight arm lapel grab defence, bringing particular attention to a point I had never really considered; to me at this point, the seminar had already proved invaluable.

After moving to the floor, Professor Gui explained the danger of using the turtle position for defence, and then had us drill simple, yet effective, A-B options to quickly get back to a better position if we were ever to end up in the position.

The rolls then switched; what could we do to take advantage of someone in the turtle? Professor Gui took us through a series of particular nasty chokes (hence the neck rash in the photo).

The seminar then rounded out with a Q&A on Professor Gui’s philosophy for martial arts, and in life; which was very interesting to hear.

Many thanks to Professor Gui for travelling to the UK to give such an excellent seminar, to Jon Hegan for hosting, an to Martyn Rackham for being my training partner!