Heidelberg & Mannheim Germany: Another Beautiful place in the German Countryside

Greetings from Heidelberg & Mannheim Germany! (15-20 June 2017)

The train rode up to Heidelberg from Friedrichshafen was an enjoyable one, watching all the fields of hops and apples and pears pass by as we whizzed through the beautiful country side. Once I got to Heidelberg I had to take another train, only about 10-15 minutes long, to the next town over as I couldn't find a place to stay in Heidelberg itself that was within my price range. In between Heidelberg and Mannheim there is a small town of mostly industrial areas called Friedrichsfeld, this is where i stayed in a cheap badly run motel. I had originally planned to stay in Heidelberg and had found the perfect Airbnb in town but a problem arose when I tried booking it. Apparently my account had been suspended.

I think this whole problem might have gone back to when my credit card had fraudulent charges on it when I was in Spain. Charges were made to Airbnb and Expedia and although those charges were ultimately reversed I think maybe Airbnb traced that card back to my account, even though it was other account the charges were made from, and suspended my account to be safe. This is all just my own personal theory as it took a week for Airbnb to get back to me and the only thing they said that it was suspended in error and I should now be able to use my account as normal. Of course by this time the perfect listing was gone and nothing showing was within my price range for the visit. This led to me looking at Mannheim for available places and given that there were other summer events going on during my visit there wasn't much out there. That's how I ended up in this small industrial town in a motel whose staff were only around for 4 hours a day and was full of loud party people who sat and drank and smoke directly outside my window until late every night.

To Airbnb's credit I sent them an e-mail explaining that because of their actions, and failure to notify me of suspending my account so that this error could have been caught and fixed sooner, I now had to spend a lot more money on my visit. To which they replied with a coupon to make up for the extra spending, a small coupon at first but when I told them how much it was costing me in the end they actually went the extra mile and gave me a coupon that covers the full difference. That is far and beyond anything I would expect from any hotel or online booking company so I will gladly stay as a customer for them, thank you Airbnb for going this for me. I've held on the coupon and look to use it when I get to Australia or New Zealand, where the exchange rate for me is not so good and I could really use a free place to stay.  

Wandering Around the Cities

Because I was staying outside of town, stuck in middle of either, I didn't get out and wander too much but I did manage to take a few photos of both Mannheim and Heidelberg while I was out either using the free wifi at Starbucks in Mannheim or doing laundry at the one laundromat in Heidelberg.

The Wasserturm in Mannheim. An old tower from the last 1800's

The park behind it.

The Neckar river that runs through Heidelberg.

A pretty cool water fountain I found In Heidelberg.

The Neckar with the Heidelberg Castle in the background.

A night time shot of the castle, I actually took this during the Globetrotters camp.

As usual I have more photos of my visit that can see on my Flickr Account.

Training in Mannheim - SDS Academy

The first gym I was able to visit was in Mannheim at the Spiros Defense System or SDS Academy which has Kickboxing and Kung Fu and other martial arts styles as well as BJJ. Spiro himself is a tall lanky guy who is really fit and runs a tough class. He was happy to have me visit and welcomed me in and showed me around the place. The building has 2 floors and a basement, I only went up to the second floor to use the toilet and don't remember what else is up there but the main floor was all mats and bags for kickboxing and other classes. The basement was also all mats and where the Jiu-Jitsu classes were held. The other classmates were pretty quiet and I didn't talk too much with them until end of class when one of the guys passed me on the street and gave me a ride back to where I was staying and even showed me where was good to grab some food, but in class there wasn't too much talking, we were too busy training.

Spiros had a very active warm up and drilling class sections for class. I can't remember when the last time I did so many crunches and sit ups in one class, I would have to go back to basic training in the military. I got through it though and my De La Riva and X-Guard sweeps are better for it. I did over work my groin and hamstrings though and I could only roll once before I had to stop and just watch. Thanks for the hard class and tight techniques Spiros, until we meet again!

Training in Heidelberg - Team Choco

One person I talked to a lot about planning my visit to Heidelberg was fellow Globetrotter Ruadhán, an Irishman living in Germany who trains everyday at both clubs in Heidelberg. To say this guy is in shape in an understatement. The main club Ruadhán trains at is Team Choco BJJ Heidelberg which is primarily a no gi club. The club trains in a downstairs room inside a community center, or I think it was a community center, maybe it was a college building. I met Ruadhán at the main station and he brought me to the club, and given traffic we were in a rush so I just followed him downstairs to the class and honestly forget where exactly I was.

The guys were all welcoming of a new visitor, and although they were all young athletic students none of them went too hard running circles around me. We trained some chain movements and worked some take downs that night. I find take downs are covered a lot more in no gi than gi and for a lot of lower belts getting into gi competition that's where they suffer because of the lack of training in them. I myself use a lot more no gi style take downs for my game simply because I have more experience training them. During rolling some worked from standing and tried the take downs we drilled in class live. I also went a round or two with Ruadhán purely just working grips and controlling techniques which fun to do and also a lot of work, Ruadhán is a fast mover and it was all I could to do to try and keep up. There was another class starting up after we were done, I believe it was a wrestling class, but I was too tired to keep up and participate in that so I called it a day. It was great meeting the club and finally getting to train with Ruadhán, thanks for the great training guys, and thanks for all the help Ruadhán!

BJJ Heidelberg

Another club that I trained with, and actually hung out with the most, was BJJ Heidelberg. The head coach is Ben, a blue belt who's far over due for his purple, through Ruadhán I met him as well as Mina and Jan and the rest of the club. Before ever making it out to training I spoke with Mina about meeting up in town and showing me around. As it happens, one of the many events seemingly going on at the exact time I was visiting was the big summer party at a fortress called the 'Handschuhsheimer Kerwe' involving food, mainly sausage, fries, salads, and lots of strawberries.There were all sorts of strawberry drinks, some alcoholic some not, and as we entered the place we were given free drinks of it and could pick up more at the night went on. I don't what the party was in celebration of, it was mid summer so I don't think it was for a good harvest, but no matter the reason it was a lot of fun to be a part of. There was a dance floor and music being played, once people got enough drinks into them it filled up and it was very amusing watching some people really get into the songs. I especially found the one shirtless air guitar guy who was oblivious to the girls wanting to dance with him as tried giving the most realistic air guitar performance he could a captivating show. After the first night out of meeting everyone at the party I now had new friends to look forward to training with.

At the Handschuhsheimer Kerwe with the club.

Mina and Jan also hosted a BBQ over the weekend that I went to and met more of the club like Quentin, a huge American living in Germany who may be a white belt but his knowledge and experience in sports and as a sports trainer (check out Coach Q's page!) give him the ability to soak up and process the techniques being taught and dissect them faster than anyone else I've trained with. Training with the group was fun, the club held classes in a community center that had a huge wrestling  room so they had all the space they could want to train in. They were killers and I was kept on my toes playing defense with them all. The techniques we train were a fun chain, Ben was great at coaching and with Quentin as my training partner we were able to make everything work for us big, not so flexible Jiu-Jitsueros. There was a great energy with this club, both on and off the mats, that just fueled them to keep going, talking all night at the party, rolling all night at class. I had to stop at class during the rolling because I just couldn't keep up with them. It was great training with them but they were machines and I was wore out. Maybe that was their plan all along, bring me out to a festival and over to their house and feed me full of wonderful German meats so I'm slow and unable to defend against them. That sounds like a good explanation and I'm sticking with it! Seriously thanks so much for everything guys, it's always a pleasure training with you and I hope we see each other again soon! And thanks again for the tasty burgers Mina and Jan!

    
After having such a great time that while staying in a motel I really didn't enjoy I still left wishing I could stay another week and hangout with everyone it was time to move on. At least I had the BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp to look forward to as it was held in Heidelberg and I was able to see everyone again, but you've already read about how awesome an experience that was (read it again here). I packed my bag, jumped on the train and headed for Dusseldorf to meet up with a fellow Globetrotter, Daniel, to train with his club, but that's another story.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Friedrishafen Germany: Home of The Zeppelin and The Three Points!

Greetings from Friedrichshafen Germany! (11-15 June '17)

It was a smooth bus ride into Friedrichshafen, my first stop for my month tour through Germany. This visit I would be staying with Ben, a fellow BJJ Globetrotter who had a Matsurfing ad. I messaged Ben and we talked briefly, he was more than happy to have me at his place and show me around his home town. Ben met me at the bus station, drove me back to his place while giving me a quick history of the town, and set me up his spare room and let me settle in. Ben had a lot of plans for training and showing around Friedrichshafen and the surrounding area during my visit, we set out bike around town and meet up with some old friends of his soon after dropping my gear off. There was no wasted time during this visit.

Home of The Zepplin!

Friedrichshafen is the quintessential small German country town. It's set among beautiful orchids of mostly pears and hops, which the area is quite known for along with the wines and beers made from them. The area itself is also known for the The Three Points as the three countries of Switzerland, Austria and Germany come together and meet at Lake Constance, which Friedrichshafen is placed right in the middle of. The Friedrichshafen area is where the Zeppelin was invented and they're still very proud of the invention. There's a museum on the history of it's creation and statues throughout the area and even a several daily Zeppelin rides to tour the area and see The Three Points from above. During the day when Ben was working I borrowed his bike to spin around town and take pics of the scenery, here's some of the my best photos from the visit.

A water fountain made of old engine parts and statues.

They even have a Zeppelin playground.

This church was one of the few things that survived being bombed in WWII, the steeple is the only original part to it, the rest was re-built. 

There's a lookout tower to see the three points from, or look over the town.

One evening we took the ferry over to Konstanz to eat and show me around their neighboring city, which has some awesome old buildings and is actually where Ferdinand von Zeppelin (creator of the Zeppelin) lived.

The tavern where apparently the Council of Constance between the Pope and the mayor took place many years ago. 

A statue in memory of Ferdinand von Zeppelin...or Konstanz just really loves the FFVII lore.

There was a council with the mayor and pope in Konstanz once, this statue of Imperia is to commemorate it. or satire it, depending who you talk to. 

Bed picture but it's the town square water fountain with different fairy tale animals around it. 

Staying with Ben

Ben was a great host, he has a nice place with a fully furnished spare room and huge living room with more than enough space for me to put out my yoga mat and foam roller and stretch out. It was very comfortable staying at his place. Friedrichshafen is a small town so it only took 10-15 minutes on bike to get anywhere so during the stay I most just biked around using one of Ben's bicycles. During our adventures out Ben would fill me in on the history of the area, both before and after the war, as most of the area was blown up during WWII and re-built afterwards. Most of our bike rides were broken up with Ben stopped to say hi to people he knew, which seemed to be most of the town. You quickly got the impression of a safe and friendly small town and I had no problem getting around during day without Ben. Thank you for inviting me into your home and showing me around your beautiful town Ben, you're a great host! I highly recommend people go visit Ben and the club if you're doing a visit of Germany!

Training in Austria

One evening Ben brought me out to an open mat session in Dornbirn Austria, which is about an hour away. It was a fun ride through the winding roads and mountain tunnels to this small Austrian town where we met with a few members of the Dornbirn BJJ Carlson Gracie Austria club. The club is in a community center on the top floor in with a Kung Fu club. The club is divided into two sections with a cage wall down the middle of the long room, one side a work out area with weights and machines, and the other a matted floor for martial arts training. The guys were all happy to have us drop by for a few rolls and although my hand was still hurting, I taped it up to try and minimize the problem and roll with some of this beasts. They were all game and very talented, I probably spent more time trying to survive than anything but it was all in good fun, no one going too hard anyone although they did roll with a good amount of speed aggression. By the end of the time we were all beaten, sweaty and tired. Happy to have a good session and hungry to go get some food!

After the session Ben and I and a few from the club went out for kebap. We walked around the city center, showing me some of the downtown beauty of the Dornbirn. We talked about all sorts of things as we hung out, Jiu-Jitsu philosophy, my trip of course and club social events like grabbing food after training or going to the bar together. During our many conversations came up the fact that you can make friends instantly in pretty much any setting by asking "Anyone want to grab some kebap?" as everyone seems to love kebap, even vegetarians will go for falalfel. That brought up the importance of knowing what kebap was, and what it's called in other languages. I know it as it's widely called in North America and the middle east, Shawarma, although in my experience in Europe it's mostly called Kebap or Donner. I'm sure I've mentioned this before but knowing this fact will give you the ability to find food and make friends pretty much anywhere and at anytime as kebap places are usually the latest stores open, if they close at all. So we hung out eating and having a great time socializing after a good session on the mats, making friends and memories all in one night. This is one of the many many awesome experiences on this Odyssey that I set out for, thanks for having me guys!

Rolling with Patrick

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend any training sessions with Ben's club, bad timing, but I was able to meet up and train with Patrick, purple belt and coach of the club. One day he picked me up and brought me to where the club trains, at the local gym in a gymnastics room that has the entire floor covered in puzzle mats that are designed to look like a wood floor. Patrick is a very gifted, technical and knowledgeable student and while we rolled he was very calculated, picking part my game and mostly toying with me. We would dissect what I got caught on and drill it a bit before continuing rolling some more until I got caught again with something else. We went on like that for an hour or so and if I was in better shape we could have easily spent another hour rolling, drilling and philosophizing. It was a fun session and a great opportunity to learn my weaknesses and get a different perspective on rolling. I was told Patrick drills and trains a lot and has a pretty nice set up at his home too. I would have liked training with Patrick more and attending a class with the club, to see how he runs training, but sadly this was the only time we would train together. I will have to return some day to train with everyone more and get to meet the full club. Thanks for the great one on one session Patrick!  

After a fun and educational visit to Ben's place in Friedrichshafen my first stop in Germany was over, setting the bar high for what to expect for the rest of the trip. I would not be disappointed. Ben dropped me off to catch my train to the next stop: Heidelberg!

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Zurich Switzerland: The Beautiful Land of Chocolate

Greetings From Zurich Switzerland!

After a smooth uneventful flight up from Rome I met my host for the visit, Hristo, at the airport. Hristo is a friend of fellow Globetrotter I was talking to, Martina, but I'll cover that later. While we made our way back to his place he told me about the trains and streetcars (or trams) and how to get around and see the city. We stopped off to show me the club he trains at, 360 Martial Arts, so I would know how to get here as Hristo would be busy working the next few days. Even though classes were done for the night we were in luck and caught up with the BJJ coach, Ivan Musardo, who is a very accomplished MMA fighter. Together we caught the train across town and talked about traveling and training, and all the places Ivan had fought at before. Talking to him Ivan was really quiet and relaxed, definitely not the 'Ivan the Terrible' ring-name you would picture. As it happens I was never able to attend one of his classes, which was disappointing, I would have liked seeing how his classes were run. We parted ways and we got to his neighborhood Hristo pointed out the necessary stores, like the local market and where was good to eat. I settled in as we talked about all sorts of things, like Hristo's training and martial arts background and my traveling adventures, until we finally called it a night, the next day Hristo would be up and gone really early and I would have the day to explore the city.

The Beauty of Switzerland!

The view flying into Zurich.

I spent a lot of my time wondering around Zurich, especially down by the lake, and took a lot of pictures of the beauty of the city. There are all kinds of old buildings around the city and some great view points. The lake is so beautiful and walking around it, you see the still water surrounded by the city and parks on a hot sunny day, all set with the snow topped mountains in the background. truly amazing to see. Here are some of my pictures from my exploring.

The main train station.

I also happened to find an old vintage toy museum that was full of cool old toys like train sets and tin soldiers and of course lots of creepy dolls.

While on my way to Switzerland I got several requests for chocolate mailed to them. I sent a box of chocolates to my mom, keep a few chocolate bars for Ana in Hamburg as that would be my payment for staying there and also stocked up on chocolate for myself. Sadly, I have no pictures of all the chocolate I bought, I must have destroyed the evidence while feeling guilty, but believe there was a lot of chocolate bought.

Of course you can see more pictures of my adventures in Zurich over on my Flickr Account.

Staying with a Friend of a Friend

I only met Hristo online a few weeks before showing up. He's a friend of another Globetrotter I had been talking to for a while, Martina. It was understood that Martina might be busy dealing with her family when I visited so staying at her place wasn't a guarantee, and as it happened she ended up really busy with her children that week. I was almost about the resort to booking an expensive hotel room downtown (Zurich is very expensive as it is and there wasn't any options for hostels or cheap Airbnb for my visit) when she told me she had a friend who was up for hosting me. Martina connected Hristo and I on Facebook and at first he was shy to talk, as his English isn't very strong, but opened up once we met at the airport. In fact Once we met Hristo loved talking, asking me all sorts of things to do with Jiu-Jitsu.

Without knowing me Hristo opened up his place to me and although he didn't have a spare room or couch he did find a spare fold up cot for me to sleep on, which was fine. I was very grateful for him to let me stay at his place and set me up to train at his gym, it saved me a lot money and I made more friends this way. This is the generosity of the community that I love, that I've set out to meet and that I will forever be paying back fro the rest of my life. Thank you Hristo for all your help hosting me and a big thank you to Martina for connecting us and helping me with all my questions about Zurich.

360 Martial Arts

I first made it out to the club that Hristo trains at, although he was away working and unable to join me. 360 Martial Arts seems to be more MMA oriented but has a lot of Jiu-Jitsu classes as well. The gym is in a business building and has a lot of space, all matted in blue and white. The class I made it to I thought was a open mat but ended up being more a individual drilling class. The members were all nice and welcoming, I spoke with a few briefly of my visit to Zurich but there wasn't much time spent chatting. The drilling class was run by a purple belt and broke into segments. First we had some partnered warm up exercises we did then we had 5 minute rounds of one person drilling a technique they wanted to work on over and over until the buzzer and then switch.
I can't quite remember what my partner worked on but I do remember we worked some guard passes and I also worked on the kimura sweep from bottom side. My partner was a white belt but a very knowledgeable and good to drill with, we would play with different resistances to see how the techniques would work. It was a good drilling class and I felt like I solved a few issues but it would have been nice to switch around with other teammates, I only worked with the one guy and never got to meet the others, other than in the change room for a few minutes. I would have liked to meet more of the club as there were only a few out for this class, but I ended up injured during this visit and this would be my only class. Oh well, I guess I have a reason come back and train and visit again. Thanks for the fun class guys!

BJJ Lab


The second gym I visited is where Martina trains, although she couldn't make it out for class, and it was actually closer to Hristo's than the club he goes to. BJJ Lab is in an old warehouse that is split into a multitude of small business shops. It was actually hard to find as there wasn't a sign for which door to enter or where to go. The club is on the top floor in the back, shared with a Karate club and is actually a nice spot. During warm up the club was talking about moving to a more easily found spot and nicer area, I'm looking forward to seeing what their new club looks like. After circling the building looking for the gym I met another student who brought me up to the proper area where I met more of the class. I showed up for a no-gi night and the head coach, JB, was happy to have me and introduced me to the group. Martina had let JB know of me coming to visit so I didn't have to explain too much, and JB is a really chill guy, he just seemed happy to have a visitor. The club in general was very relaxed and friendly, I felt very comfortable training and chatting with the guys there, it was a good club atmosphere.

After a good warm up we got into drilling the techniques for the evening and then into rolling. I had a lot of fun drilling and rolling and chatting with everyone, JB and other senior students were very helpful if I had a question and rolling with everyone was relaxed and fun, I even able to try new things without getting crushed too badly. I wish I could have returned, preferably to a class with Martina so I could finally meet her, but I would be out of rolling or training for almost week after that class. Thanks again Martina for connecting with your awesome club and thanks JB and the club for having me and making me feel welcome! Until next time guys!

That night I woke up in the middle of the night with my left hand throbbing in pain. I was unable to close my hand and make a fist for a few days, the pain was so bad, but there was no swelling or visible bruising. I don't know what happened, some days I felt like I may have broke or cracked a bone, others it felt like a pitched nerve, either way it was a pain and a problem that put me on the sidelines for the next few days, and sometimes it still comes back a little bit here and there, so all I could do was sight see and relax.

This has nothing to do with my hand for the blog but Switzerland has cannabis iced tea, it's quite tasty! 

After a short visit Hristo brought me to the bus station to catch my bus to Germany and we said our good-byes, I wish I could have stayed longer and got some more training in and met more people but at the same time I was excited to start my month long visit across Germany. With one last overly expensive latte from Starbucks I was off, first stop Friedrichshafen!

Starbucks, getting your name wrong all over the world..

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

Seminars and Camps!

Hitting up Seminars and Camps Everywhere!

I know I'm way behind on my blog keeping you updated on my adventures and travels through Europe (Rome was my last post and that was from end of May) but I Just got back from my first BJJ Globetrotters camp and decided I have to cover it now. I've also added the seminars I've attended recently since there's a few of those too. I have a pretty big and awesome camp coming up in a month that has me traveling to San Diego and meeting my friend (and maybe long lost brother) Luke and a few members from his club from Perth Australia. I want to write about the whole adventure, and the shenanigans we'll be sure to get into, separately so it's no better time to cover the other seminars and camp than now!

Keith Owen Seminar In London UK (2 June '17)

This is the first seminar I made it to while on this Odyssey. I changed my plans to make sure I could make it and even tried to show up as a surprise (I think it worked too!). Prof. Keith Owen, or Mr. Keith as we all call him, is our head black belt. He's a 3 degree black belt under Master Pedro Sauer, he's the coach of my coach Ari and I earned my blue belt from him so there's a lot respect I pay to him. I always love attending his seminars as there's always something I learn that I take with me, not just a technique but lessons in life. Mr Keith is always dropping knowledge bombs and helping you be a better person both on and off the mats.

The seminar was put on by Team Pedro Sauer UK and was held in a gymnasium in a small town about an hour east of London. I had been in talks with Robin, the coach of the club that lead putting together the seminar, about trying to show up undetected by Mr Keith and all the schematics about how to get to and from the seminar itself. I was looking forward to meeting Robin and the club, being fellow affiliates of the same Jiu-Jitsu lineage it's almost like you're meeting relatives for the first time. I was not disappointed. When I showed up Robin and his group, and of course Mr Keith, were all happy to welcome me and within minutes it was like I was always a part of the club.

During the seminar Mr Keith went over a few techniques from a favourite position of mine, 'S' mount. There was no fancy techniques or 'new moves' that Mr. Keith was teaching but the small details he showed for securing the position and locking in the arm bars were the key. I always say you could watch 100 people do an arm bar and learn something from each one and in this case you could learn a lot, with all the little details. There all kinds of little things that I have since written down in my head and keep bringing up when rolling.

It was a great seminar and also a great excuse to fly back to London, see Mr Keith (we've met in 3 countries now) and make new friends like Halldór, a fellow Keith Owen fan who came from Iceland. I also got to hangout with friends I made from my first time visiting London as I was staying at Ellie's (also maybe a long lost relative) and it was her birthday so she threw a huge party with a lot of the guys I had met from Wave BJJ attending. It was a quick but awesome 2 day trip and well worth it for the knowledge gained. I left back for Hamburg to finish my visit with Ana and Nexus Fighter Academy feeling motivated to continue to evolve my game, exhausted from the lack of sleep over the weekend but motivated all the same.            

Nicolas Gregoriades Seminar In Berlin Germany (8 June '17)

The next seminar was totally unexpected and also only a week or so after Mr Keith's. I made my way to Hilti BJJ in Berlin and met Frank, who's an awesome guy that everyone making a Germany trip must drop by and visit, when he dropped the surprise (to me) that Nic Gregoriades from the Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood would be doing a seminar the day after next. I haven't followed Nic very much but I had read some of his Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood posts and liked what I saw so I was really interested to meet him and see what sort of seminar he would be doing.

There was a good turnout and I met quite a few new people visiting for the seminar that I hadn't seen in class before, I made sure to train with a few different people, like I usually do when I attend seminars. This is something I think should be pushed as to meet more people and make new friends. It's great having your favourite training partner and going to seminars together but at the same time only sticking to each other is the Jiu-Jitsu equivalent of going to a party and only hanging out by snack table. Anyways, this seminar was a happy surprise, not only did I get to meet more of the club and Jiu-Jitsu scene in Berlin and meet Nic Gergoriades but also picked up some great mind blowing techniques.
I'm not going to give away what Nic taught us but I will say he started out his seminar by saying "If everyone knew these 3 things I'm about to show you then I would be done teaching Jiu-Jitsu" and after training those 3 things I must say he is correct! The key concepts we practiced I constantly keep in my mind when rolling and it's greatly improved my control and different positions on my opponents. Actually when paired with the concepts Mr. Keith showed us and applied to all the techniques I have learned and am learning as I travel completely changes my game and even makes learning new techniques easier.

Nicolas Gregoriades himself was a great guy to meet, really relaxed and approachable. Obviously I didn't have a lot of time to talk with him, but we did chat a bit while getting some pictures together. I told him about the Odyssey and my plan to head down to Australia and he offered to help point me in then right direction, which would be awesome. I hope I get to meet up with him again and attend some classes. I really like the conceptual training he teaches and would love to do more classes on it and really get to learn them more thoroughly. Also, one day I would love to see Nic and Mr Keith do a seminar together. I think the two of them would make a great seminar together!  

BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp In Heidelberg Germany (21-27 August '17)

Very early in the Odyssey I decided I needed to make it to a BJJ Globetrotters camp and finally meet all the awesome people I have been talking to online since the start of the this whole idea, almost 4 years ago now. The problem was finding the right one that wasn't too much out of the way to make it to and that I could afford on my budget. Up until now the second part has been more the problem as I don't mind flying across the world on adventures. Canada is horrible for flight prices so unless I wanted to spend three times the price of the camp itself just to get there and back I could never make it to a camp, but now that I'm in Europe it's a different story. I picked a camp to go to, bought the ticket and made plans so that I wouldn't be too far away before so flights would be cheap. When I left Canada it was one of the few things I knew I would be doing: visiting UK in March, Morocco in May, Russia in July and my first Globetrotters camp in August.

I was really looking forward to seeing old friends I had made on the road (especially all my friends I made in Heidelberg when I was there a month earlier) and finally meeting those I've only ever talked to online. One thing I haven't really thought about was the people who came up to introduce themselves and tell me they've been following my blog. I mean obviously I have people reading it and wish I had more but up until I walked into the gym and had the first person come up and say "Hey, you're Robert Barker right? You're traveling and write the Odyssey blog right?" I was purely looking at the camp as big milestone to check off, giddy to finally attend one. I was really quite excited to walk in and see the huge Globetrotters Fall Camp banner, about 100 people on the mats and Christian Graugart himself running things behind the desk.

The Globetrotters camp has got to be the best Jiu-Jitsu camp to go be part of, to my knowledge. Not only is it a camp so full of training that if you make it through all the classes you are such a certifiable beast there is a patch for it, but also the socializing and social activities going on make it impossible to attend everything. 10-12 hrs of classes and open mat sessions a day, sight seeing activities in the morning and partying in the evening until the wee hours of the morning. This goes on every day and every night, some people are morning people and start the day off with yoga and the morning classes, some wait until after noon to jump into classes, others are just socializing and are there for partying and the evening open mat. Basically there's social groups for everyone there.

I knew there would be a lot of classes and also a lot of socializing and I'd have to make sure to be a part of it as much as possible to really get the full effect out of this camp, but I would really have to pace myself. Luckily I've quit my partying ways or I (and my bank account) would never be able to make it out alive by the end of the week. I remember thinking 'what am I going to do when I'm sitting out of classes? I'll be so bored not training' which is laughable because in actual fact is was more 'oh it's time for that class already? Shit I'm still really tired!' between hanging out with all my new friends and making trips into town with people my days basically started at 8am and didn't stop until at least 10pm. An easy relaxing night was sitting in the lobby, I was staying at the sports hall dorm with a bunch of other campers, and having all sorts of great conversations with everyone until midnight. And the camp final party, well let's just say I didn't sleep until I got to my hotel in Hamburg the next day. I can easily say I've never have so much fun doing Jiu-Jitsu and never have I made so many friends all at once.

The camp isn't all partying, let's not let the evening fun overshadow the daytime fun. Between the various open mat sessions and all the classes throughout the day there was more than enough time to not only learn all sorts of great techniques for your game but also practice them with willing people. I lost count of how many times people I rolled with attempting, some succeeding others not, techniques we just studied that day, or earlier that week. Also, with about 2 dozen different instructors each teaching their own styles different from each other, you could pick which classes would be better for you to attend and when would be a good time to rest. No matter what your skill level was or what your game style was there was definitely something for everyone each day. There are a few gems I took with me from the camp, and new instructors I now want to visit and learn more from.

After the camp a lot of people posted to the Facebook group about the 'post camp blues' which I thought was great. It's actually something I have a problem with a lot, accepting the good times are over (for now). I quietly left the party on the last night without any big good-byes because I really hated having to say good-bye to all the awesome people I met and admit the best camp I've been to was over. I had this same problem with my sails in the Navy, even if the deployment was shit it was still more fun being on ship with friends than going back to an empty apartment while everyone else got to see their families. So I know all too well about the post event blues and seeing that I was not alone in this feeling just cemented more how I've found my place in life and am in good company. It also shows you how deeply these camps that Christian puts on touch everyone that attends them. Of course now I'm hooked and have to figure out how I can go back to another!

Interview With Christian Graugart! 


One of the many joys and highlights of the BJJ Globetrotter camp was getting to sit down with Chirstian Graugart and do an interview with him. Christian has been a role model to me ever since I was referred to his book by a teammate. For those who don't know Christian's story (you can read his book here) he traveled around the world training Jiu-Jitsu like 10 years ago, before Facebook, Reddit or the huge awesome community that now exists or even social media. In fact the community that I mainly use to plan out the Odyssey and that hundreds of people use daily to plan out their own trips and vacations was created by Christian and the trip he did, working off of sports chat sites. From this trip he created the Globetrotters banner for people without affiliations to use to be able to compete in IBJJF competitions and of course the camps. Without giving too much more away here's our conversation we finally had after working around the busy camp schedule to find time.

It's crazy to think how all this came together without any grand plan and just going with the flow, it was definitely meant to be! Christian is a great guy and so humble, I swear stress just doesn't exist with him and talking to him and being around him and his camp you can see there's no room for stress for any of the other campers either!

I hope my experiences at these seminars and the BJJ Globetrotter camp inspire you to make it out to more seminars or take the plunge and attend your first camp!
I promise I'll get back on track with my travel blog shortly, with the next article being on my visit to Switzerland.

Until next time,
see you on the mats!
OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey