Team Yemaso Makes History!!!

Yemaso BJJ Makes History by Bringing Back an International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation IBJJF Team Title to Sacramento, CA

Marcos Torregrosa, a three-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion and Elk Grove resident, led his academy to a 2nd place team title at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation's San Francisco International Open IBJJF Championship on February, 24th 2013.

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Sacramento Jiu-Jitsu Academy - Yemaso BJJ Brings an IBJJF Team Title Home

You don't have to be a fighter to train with our champions.

Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) March 07, 2013

Local Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu powerhouse academy Yemaso BJJ made a visit to the Kezar Pavillion, San Francisco for the IBJJF San Francisco International Open where they brought back 25 medals and earned the 2nd place team title.

Marcos Torregrosa, a three-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, has been on a tear. Before this first tournament of the year, Torregrosa amassed 14 medals at IBJJF tournaments in 2012.

Marcos, with his relentless collecting of titles, is ranked number three in the world among black belts in the masters division. Realizing the number one ranking is one of Marcos' goals for the year. His expression of jiu-jitsu technique and focus was enough to earn him two gold medals in San Francisco to begin the 2013 tournament season.

Yemaso BJJ started the day off taking the adult age group by storm. The group collected 5 medals and started with an early lead in team points. As the tournament unfolded it seemed unlikely theSacramento BJJ academy would earn a team title with only 19 competitors. But, at the end of the night, with only 3 matches left in the entire tournament purple belt Rich Bothun and instructor Marcos Torregrosa both won open weight division Gold medals giving the academy enough points to earn the 2nd place team title.

The open weight division, often referred to as the, "absolute" division, is a division that participants cannot just sign up to compete in. Rather, the absolute division is a consolidation of all of the medal winners from that belt division. You have to be a champion in order to compete in the open weight division. It is referred as the absolute division because by winning a gold medal in that division you firmly establish that you are the best competitor in that entire belt rank regardless of weight. In the open absolute division you can have a competitor weighing 141 pounds competing against a 270 pound, or more, competitor to establish who truly is the undisputed best competitor at that belt rank.

The 2nd place team title is incredibly significant for obvious reasons. But, in addition, there are two circumstances that make this more special. First, the Sacramento BJJ academy has only been in operation a little over one year. Second, the number of competitors they took to the event pales in comparison to the numbers some of the other teams took. Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jisu the 3rd place team title winner, for example, took an army of 50 martial artists to the tournament.

When asked if he was surprised, Marcos Torregrosa said that he was not at all surprised, "We put in tremendous amount of work; I am surrounded by some of the most dedicated individuals I know. The proof is in the pudding. You don't have to be a fighter to train with our champions."

Marcos Torregrosa teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu out of his academy Yemaso BJJ, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy located in Sacramento, California.

Back on the Grind!!!!

As anyone knows, after long and careful thought I have returned to my original instructor Marcos "Yemaso" Torregrosa and Team Yemaso in South Sacramento.  Marcos welcomed me back with open arms and the team is fantastic!!! I am very happy to be training again with an instructor and team that takes jiu-jitsu seriously and like to train intelligently and efficiently. 

Yemaso BJJ training under the watchful eye of Marcos "Yemaso"  Torregrosa 

Going back to the first day was rough!!!! I almost threw up after the warm-ups, which are way more intense than I remembered. We warmed up for about 15-25 minutes, and then went into instruction, drilling and finally rolling.

I had two good rolls. Each round is 10 minutes, which is on the extreme side of things but coming from a military background I am no stranger to tough training. At the end of the day my body was wrecked, I had random bruises, cuts, scrapes, gi and mat burns, MAN IT WAS GREAT!!!!

Now after a week and a half of training my wind is coming back and I don't feel as sore at the end of training, my body is remembering what it used to be able to do and is getting back to that level.

I have had to make some adjustments to my gameplan. I do not have the strength and power in my left side as I used to so it is a lot harder for me to force the americana and kimuras, but Marcos and I have worked on some adjustments and now I have a whole new angle of attacks.

At 31 years old I have knees that grind, a bum left shoulder and a completely torn pec muscle but I am still training and on the grind, until I get my next operation.

What are you doing? have you trained today???

BJJ Training

This is for BJJ training for 1-11-11. I was too tired to write yesterday.

First BJJ lesson of the year!!! After everyone made fun of my glasses, we did our warm up and then went into technique. Marcos show the De La Riva Guard and a sweep from the De La Riva.

The De La Riva is an awkward guard to me. It seems like you can tear up your knee with it; Marcos addressed this and said that our knees will toughen up and condition themselves to the rigors of the De La Riva.

I have always wanted to learn the De La Riva Guard. It seems like it is the next step in the guard fighting process, after mastering the basics of the closed, open, and spider guard. We drilled the move for about 30 minutes and Marcos was joking around with me and said that my De La Riva was looking good and was calling me Joaquin "Demente", who is a player that I look up too for his aggressive "Big Man" BJJ.

After drills we rolled. I rolled with one of the many Mikes we have at Team Yemaso, this Mike I call Asian Mike because he is Filipino. Mike is a Purple Belt and he is never afraid to roll with me and we had a good battle going back and forth. I almost submitted him but he transition out of it. Asian Mike pushes me and I like to think that I push him as well. Great Roll!!!

I also got to roll with Mike U. who is my greatest opponent at Team Yemaso. He has gotten very good, so good that most of the things I try do not work and I find myself constantly getting swept or reversed and then submitted. Somewhat discouraging, due to the fact that the battles used to be more 50/50.

I know that Mike U. has greatly benefited from private lessons with Marcos. I decided that I will start taking private lessons from Marcos at least twice a month; in one lesson alone I developed a game plan that I used to crush all the Mike in class and everyone else, until they all took privates and figured out counters to my game plan. So now it is time to step it up to that next level and I strongly believe that private lessons will aide in that goal.

Be blessed!!!!

Promotions!

Yesterday was a great day in my life. I was honored by Professor Marcos Torregrosa and promoted to the rank of Blue Belt in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The first step towards becoming a Black Belt.

What a great way to end a great year of Jiu-Jitsu.

TEAM YEMASO