UNITED

::SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:: Marcelo Meleiro (MMBJJ) and John Clarke (Combat Wrestling) are now officially UNITED and opening a school together. The new school will be called ‘RFLX Training Center’ and will be located at 69 North Federal Hwy (One block North of Dania Beach Blvd). All Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes will remain running on the same schedule as usual.

This past Saturday, August 6^th, five of our teammates had the opportunity to compete in the FFBJJ State Championships. Our MMBJJ Family ended the day by bringing home a total of seven medals – 2 Gold (1^st), 1 Silver (2^nd), and 4 Bronze (3^rd). Hands down, this was a priceless experience.

———————————–

Small Recap:

• Logan Stewart never ceases to amaze us while taking 3^rd in the Kids Male Division & 1^st in the Juvenile Women’s Division.

• Jen Stewart brought home the Gold (1^st) in the Women’s Middle Weight Division (Blue Belt) by submitting her opponent with her specialty…the arm bar. She also defeated her first opponent in the Women’s Blue Belt Open Weight Division, by arm bar.

• Sanya Cordray received the Silver (2^nd) in the Women’s Feather Weight Division (Blue Belt) & 3^rd in the Women’s Blue Belt Open Weight Division.

• Carlos Palacio had his first competition experience as a Purple Belt and brought home the Bronze (3^rd) in the Adult Male Middle Weight Division.

• Marcelo Meleiro, our Coach and Mentor, also brought home the Bronze (3^rd) in the Medium-Heavy Male Black Belt Division.

———————————–

I believe everyone learned a lot from this experience and will hopefully use their newly discovered intellect to only improve and succeed further in their lives…on and off the mat.

Original article at http://family-mat-ters.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-am-member-of-team.html?spref=fb

“I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”…Mia Hamm

Okay, it is time for me to get a little mushy. I love my team! I have the privilege of training with an extraordinary group of people from all walks of life, under the leadership of a strong-willed, determined, but compassionate coach. Had I never started training BJJ, I would have never had the opportunity to welcome these people into my life.

I guess the “mush” has been inspired by many activities over the last few weeks. As you may have saw in a previous post, Marcelo’s coach, Master Andre Pederneiras hosted a seminar at our school on June 23. He was traveling with students Jose Aldo and Marlon Sandro who joined us as guests earlier in the week. They were all working with Marlon for his upcoming Bellator fight against Genair da Silva. All were warm, humble and genuinely nice men who made me proud to be a member of the Nova Uniao team.

This was my first official BJJ seminar and I loved it. In the three-hours we learned several new moves from take downs to chokes and had the opportunity to train with guests from other schools. It was an honor to learn from my coach’s coach. That Saturday night many of us showed up at the Hard Rock to cheer Marlon on in his fight against da Silva. What a great fight that was!

On the 30th we came together as a team to celebrate Marcelo’s birthday. We practically took over our local hangout, Shenanigans, and celebrated over dinner and cake. I believe that evenings like these bring us closer together.

On the 4th I hosted a small barbecue for my family and a few friends and was happy to have our two female training partners join us.

The unanticipated benefit of bjj training is the addition of new friendships found in my bjj family!

Andre Pederneiras with his Black Belt Marcelo Meleiro

Andre Pederneiras also known as Dede is one of the best Jiu Jitsu and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) coaches in the World, the leader and co-founder of the Nova Uniao team was voted Best MMA coach in the World in October 2010 by the renowned PVT magazine (Portal do Vale Tudo) in a referendum made between fighters, coaches and journalists of the sport.

Andre “Dede” Pederneiras is a black belt under the late grandmaster Carlson Gracie and also the one of the two founders of team Nova União. Andre Pederneiras has trained such notable black belts as BJ Penn, José Aldo, John Lewis, Marc Laimon, Vitor Ribeiro, Robson Moura, Marcelo Meleiro, Renato “Charuto” Verissimo, Gustavo Dantas, João Roque and Wagnney Fabiano.

For more info please call 954 243 2179

Saturday was the day of the adults.   

Four placing first (Carlos ” mono boy” Palacio, Sanya Cordrey, David Soika, Marcelo Meleiro).
Five  placing second (Sanya, David Perez, Roberto “Gus”, Mike  Rivera 2,  Marcelo Meleiro)
Two  placing third (Adam and Marcelo Meleiro).

Sunday was the day of the kids.
Logan Stewart won 3 different divisions, finishing the day winning  a “super fight” against a 154lbs girl. Logan won with a total domination by points and at the end of the match almost tap get out with a nice armbar from full mount. Logan weights about 114lbs.
Caelin, Anthony and Max got third place each. It was Anthony and Max first competition.
Our younger competitor, Hunter Stewart (Logan’s brother) competed for the first time and brought home second place.

As a coach and head instructor I am very proud of all of my students, not only for the awesome result, but for the way they behave. All of them have a lot of respect for their opponents, the opponents coaches  and for the referees. It is really sad to see bad behavior  from competitors and coaches, unfortunately happens all the time. 

For us from mmbjj team, the main reason we  go to the competitions is to have fun, of course we want to win, but for us, win the first place is not the most important thing,  the most important thing from us is to go out there and have fun, because without the fun nothing really matters.

Special thanks for my sponsors, Amazing Flowers Miami and CrossFit ATP; my great friend and partner John Clarke from Combat Wrestling/RFLXTraining.com, my brothers from MMA Masters Daniel Valverde,  Cesar Carneiro and the all team for helping me on my training and supporting me as a friend.

And of course to all my students and friends, without you guys I wouldn’t be here making it happen. 

Marcelo Meleiro
2nd Degree black belt under Master Andre Pederneiras