Roberto gives yet another fantastic seminar

This past Saturday Roberto Atalla hosted a seminar at Rio Grappling Quantum Tribe gym.The seminar was no gi and Roberto taught us escapes from submissions.Roberto enlisted the help of his friend Paulo (another BJJ black-belt and world champion) to teach us several different ways to escape from some of the most common submissions to some more technical ones.

The seminar was a huge success as the gym was full of students from all over!Roberto has a special ability to teach Jiu Jitsu that makes it easy for beginners to understand and for more advanced students to improve the way they do the techniques. The seminar was three hours long and everyone came out of it feeling like they had learnt something valuable.

 The next seminar will be in two weeks at my gym Rio Grappling Tap Out in Northcliff on Sunday the 2nd Of November and will be a gi seminar. We look forward to it as there is no doubt that it will once again be informative and improve everyone’s Jits games substantially. There will also be a ceremony for the guys that graded and got their blue and purple belts, it is very exciting to see Rio Grappling South Africa’s students progressing and growing!

Tap Out Gym welcomes BJJ Black belt Roberto Atalla

Roberto Atalla is visiting South Africa for the second time. Tap Out Academy as well as several others have affiliated themselves to this master in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Roberto Atalla is on a mission to spread Jiu Jitsu and we in South Africa that have fallen in love with the art are excited about the relationship we are forging with him. Roberto is set to teach two three hour seminars.

The first is a no gi Jiu Jitsu seminar that will take place on the 17th of November at the Lyndhurst gym. The seminar starts at 2pm and will finish around 5pm. The second seminar will be in the gi and will be on the 2nd of December and held in the Tap Out academy. It will start at 3pm and end at around 6pm.

Apart from the seminars that he is set to teach Roberto is very giving of his time and is always willing to take over one of the regular classes in any of the gyms to impart his knowledge to the students. I have met several black belts and Roberto is not only technically the most sound but is kind, humble and out going. It’s hard to believe that this guy is a multiple world champion in Brazil.

The level in South Africa is far behind Brazil or America in Jiu Jitsu but with Roberto’s help and our willingness to train hard we can grow to a good level in just a few more years. Already Tap Out Academy is becoming well known amongst other grappling clubs for our competition team. In October this year we went to the Jiu Jitsu Nationals with 6 competitors and competing against more than a hundred and fifty competitors we did the best of all the gyms taking 9 medals (4 golds 2 silver and 3 bronze). We are the only gym in the country that sports 4 national champions. Liam Cleland, Denis Ovcina, Bradley Cossey and Wiekus Swart.

I am hoping to travel to Brazil in a few months with Roberto and to train with many other world champions that he is friends with, this will lift my technical level and increase my knowledge so that I can spread it to my students and anyone else that loves Jiu Jitsu like we do.