* Important News! *

Our new website is up! Please check http://paramountbjj.com/news.html as we will no longer be updating News onto the blog. Thanks!

The new website: http://www.paramountbjj.com

NJGC Results

One of the premiere events on the East Coast is the New Jersey Grappling Championships (NJGC), which offers cash prizes and stages Professional Divisions for world class grapplers, in addition to holding Gi and No Gi divisions for all levels. Paramount BJJ brought 3 of our top competitors to the event this weekend and they represented well. Here are the results, with clips below:

Zach Farhenholtz: Gold, Intermediate No Gi
Ryan Zuver: Gold, White belt; Bronze, Intermediate No Gi
Kevin Macmullen: Gold, Blue belt; Bronze, Intermediate No Gi

In the Professional No Gi division, 19 yr old Team Lloyd Irvin phenom JT Torres took home 1st place and $1000 after beating 3 very tough opponents. JT has 6 (SIX!) Gold medals from International BJJ competitions in the past 8 months alone, from events in California, Portugal, and Japan. Stay tuned for video of JT's awesome performance this weekend.


Kevin submits his first opponent.


Ryan passes and mounts to win the Final.


Zach scores the winning sweep in Intermediate No Gi.

* Special thanks to Glenn for recording the matches!

Congrats Coach Matt!

We just received word from our always enthusiastic Boxing coach Matt Chambers, he's the father of a brand new baby boy! Mother and son are healthy and the word on the street is that Coach Matt is already working on the little guy's jab. Unfortunately this means No Boxing Class Tonight- a small price to pay for a future member of Paramount!


Coach Matt (baby not shown)

Childrens Class Promotions

Today we held our Belt Test as well as a Stripe Test and the kids did NOT disappoint! From throws and take downs to offense and defense on the ground, each student showed impressive technique and great attitudes.



Congratulations to all of the newly promoted students in our Children's Program! Our next Test is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28th.

3 Minute Conditioning Routine

Not enough time to fit in your workout? Is the gym too far away? No weights or machines at home? No Problem. You only need 3 minutes and a good work ethic for this Conditioning Routine. Check out the video below, as some of the students go thru the "Squat, Crawl, Push-up" after Tuesday night's Boxing class..

Father vs Daughter BJJ Match

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the already famous father vs daughter challenge match video! Dad (42 yrs old) calls out his 12 year old daughter during "Open Mat" at Paramount BJJ and pays for it!



Check out http://www.youtube.com/ParamountBJJ and don't forget to subscribe to receive updates on all of our new videos in 2009!

Belt Promotions 2009

The official announcement was made tonight: Belt Promotions for 2009 are just weeks away! Our Belt Promotion Event for 2008 was enormous, with students in both the Children's and Adult classes awarded new belts all on the same day. This time we'll be doing them separately, check below for the dates and times...

Saturday, January 31st at 10am: Children's Belt and Stripe Test
* Parents, feel free to take pictures or record video!

Saturday, February 21st at 11am: Adult Belt Promotions
* Adult students, clear your schedule and show up to support your teammates!

Holiday Schedule

Paramount Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will be closed on the following days:

Wed, Dec. 24
Thurs, Dec. 25
Wed, Dec. 31
Thurs, Jan 1

Here's wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday!!

Team Training: Jan. 10!!!!

Lloyd Irvin will host the 2009 Team Training on Saturday, January 10th at his Camp Springs, MD academy from 12pm to 3pm. If you've never been to one of the Team Training events I can assure you it's something you don't want to miss. Last year's Team Training was HUGE, with Mike Fowler flying in from Guam, Brandon Vera coming out from California, as well as Black Belts from Brazil, Tennessee, and up and down the East coast sharing their knowledge.


Paramount BJJ will be closed, so clear your schedule and make sure you're there!

Thanksgiving Hours

Paramount BJJ will be closed Thursday 11/27 and Friday 11/28 for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Jared from BJJ United has invited everyone to his academy in Jenkintown for his Annual Day-After-Thanksgiving Open Mat. The training starts at noon and continues for several hours. This is a great opportunity to train with some of the best Purple, Brown, and Black belts in the country!

BJJ United Tourn Results

Another great tournament put on by Jared and everyone at BJJ United, and another successful tournament showing for Paramount. We brought nine students this time and just like the past few tournaments we had great results. Here's the breakdown:

Ryan O'Connell lost his first match in White belt Featherweight by 2x2, 2x1 advantages. He stuck around and entered the Open weight division and won his first match before losing another close one on points.

Ryan Zuver beat 3 very tough opponents to win the White belt Lightweight, then beat his first 2 opponents in the Open before losing a strange match in the Semi-finals. Ryan escaped a very tight armlock mid-match, but some of the spectators thought Ryan had tapped. Ryan went on to win by points, but declared his opponent the winner since he too felt that he had tapped the leg during the escape.

Zach Farhenholtz won the White belt Middleweight, winning his first two matches without any trouble before squeeking out the win in an all-out war in the finals. In the Open, Zach beat 3 more tough opponents to bring home two 1st place finishes. Zach ends up 6-0 on the day!

Brian Sieb beat his first opponent in the Blue belt Featherweight 11x0, then finished his opponent in the Finals with a clock choke for 1st place. In the Open, Brian used his infamous wristlock to win the first match before losing his second on points.

Kevin MacMullen bounced back from a first round loss in Blue belt Middleweight to tap all 3 opponents in the Blue belt -173lb Open weight and take home 1st place in his Blue belt debut. Kevin took first place after being down on points and rallying to submit his opponent with less than 30 seconds left.

Bruce Thomas was also competing as a Blue belt for the first time, and brought home two more 1st place finishes for Paramount by winning the Light Heavyweight and +173 Open weight. The final in his weight class was another match of the day candidate, with Bruce coming back from a 5 point deficit to score 13 unanswered points for the win.

Jim Mattson lost his first match in his weight class on points, escaping several tough spots and battling till the end. He entered the Open division and despite losing gained invaluable experience. This was Jim's first tournament after training just a couple of months.

The Stats:
Paramount students had 29 total matches, 20 wins.
We won 3 out of the 5 Open divisions.
Finishes:
Ryan Z: 1st place White belt LW, 3rd place Open
Zach: 1st place White belt MW, 1st place Open
Brian: 1st place Blue belt FW, 3rd place -173lb Open
Kevin: 1st place Blue belt -173lb Open
Bruce: 1st place Blue belt LtHW, 1st place +173 Open

GREAT JOB GUYS!!!

Special Guest Instructor!

Its been almost a month since we kicked off our Boxing and MMA Programs and they're going great so far! Coach Matt Chambers has been training the students on the critical aspects of Boxing and now I'm proud to announce our first of many MMA Guest Instructors.


Undefeated Pro MMA Fighter Tim Carpenter will be teaching Thursday night's MMA Class on November 13th. Tim is 3-0, and both the Sportfighting and Combat in the Cage Lt HW Champion. There is NO CHARGE for this class, all students on the Combat Athlete Program can attend- just like any other class!

This is a huge opportunity for students to absorb real hands-on knowledge from a fighter who's been in the Ring and in the Cage and knows what he's talking about. Don't miss it!

Boxing 101: Pics From the First Class

Paramount BJJ held it's first Boxing class this past week and it was a resounding success! Coach Matt Chambers started off with the proper hand-wrapping technique, then went into the fundamentals of boxing: footwork, movement, and the jab. Coach Matt finished the class with one of his patented conditioning routines that left the students gasping for air and glad it was over. Despite the high level of intensity- or perhaps because of it- every single participant is eagerly awaiting the next class. Check out the pics from Day 1...

Coach Matt being very strict on the students' footwork

Working the Jab

The end of a hard workout...

Boxing and MMA at Paramount!

After months of preparation we're ready to launch the Boxing and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Classes at Paramount. We've brought in Matt Chambers NSCA-CPT to teach the Boxing class and help design the MMA curriculum. For the past 10 years, Matt has worked with Professional and Amateur Boxers, as well as various Athletes from the NFL, MLB, and members of the U.S National Rugby Team.

Stay tuned for a full Bio on Matt as well as Pics and Video from the first week of classes. Check out the class times below:

Boxing: Tues 7:30pm
MMA: Thurs 7:30pm

BJJ United In-House Tournament

From Jared at BJJ United:

I am pleased to announce our next Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, GI ONLY In-house tournament will take place on Saturday November 8th. We will have divisions for White, Blue, and Purple belts. Men and Women. The weight classes are as follows:

feather- up to 148lbs
light- 149-161lbs
middle- 162-173lbs
middle heavy- 174-185lbs
heavy- 186-200lbs
super heavy-201-220lbs
over- 221lbs- up

We will have sign-up sheets at the school. Pre-pay is $30, day of tournament is $50. Save yourself a few dollars and pre-reg. Pre-registration also helps up set things up a lot quicker and helps things run a lot smoother. We will hold weigh-ins the night before at BJJ United from 6pm-8:30pm, and the day of from 8am-10am. The tournament will start by 11am. This tournament is open to all BJJ United, and team Lloyd Irvin affiliations only. We look forward to seeing you there.

-Jared

US Nationals Results

This past weekend Team Lloyd Irvin brought 5 competitors to this years' BJJ American Nationals and came home with 7 medals! Here are the individual results:

Andre Arata (Third Law BJJ) won the White Belt Super Heavyweight.
Mike Florey (88 BJJ) took 3rd in Blue Belt Light Heavyweight, and 2nd in Blue LtHW No Gi.
Fred Ramie (88 BJJ) took 3rd in the Purple Belt Heavyweight.
Roberto Torralbas (Third Law BJJ) won the Purple belt Lt Heavyweight and took 3rd in the Open.

Brad Court (Paramount BJJ) took 3rd in Black Belt Lightweight. Brad tapped his opponent in the quarterfinals with a wristlock, then lost to 3x World Champion Fredson Paixao by a score of 7-6.


Paramount BJJ Head Instructor Brad Court on the Podium

Adjusted Schedule 9/20-9/22

Head Instructor Brad Court will be away this weekend from Saturday thru Monday, to compete in the US Nationals in Los Angeles, California. As a result our schedule has been adjusted. Please note the changes, and we will be returning to our regular schedule on Tuesday Sept 23rd.

Saturday
10am: Kids Class
11am: Open Mat

Monday
730am: BJJ Basics
7pm: Open Mat

Belt Promotions Results and Pics!

This weekend we held our biggest Belt Promotion ceremony yet! First up were the kids. Our Childrens Program is only a few months old, but we have a fantastic group of kids who come to class and always give 100%. Three of them were promoted to yellow belt, and the rest all got stripes on their belts!


After the kids were the Adults, and I can't even begin to describe how impressed I am with the new blue belts. Not only are technically sound, consistent and hungry to learn.. They each trained with everyone in class (about 25 students) for 2 minutes each- Non-Stop. That's almost an hour straight!

And to top it all off we had a special guest- Undefeated Pro MMA fighter and BJJ Black Belt Tim Carpenter was in the house!


Yellow Belts
Kevin
Gianna
Jake

Blue Belts
Kevin MacMullen
Matt Bauer
Adam Carpenter
Steve Miller
Bruce Thomas

Congratulations guys!!

Closed - Labor Day (9/1)

There will be no classes at the Paramount facility on Labor Day, next Monday (Sept. 1st). Be safe and enjoy the holiday!

New Video Technique

I was recently asked by my friends over at Balance Studios to demonstrate a technique for a video shoot. So here's one of my favorite transitions from a pass attempt to a submission. Pay close attention to the details and shoot me an email if you have any questions!