American Top Team BJJ in Atlanta

I have a few passions in my Life. One is Jiu Jitsu. When shits getting hectic, sometimes you need to get on the mat with the American Top Team in Atlanta. I drove one and a half hours south solo, with mi Storm Kimono, looking to choke a bitch out. NOT today!

Master Roan Jucao Carneiero is apparently a very good instructor and a very polite man. I like how he left the mat during drills and disappeared into the back room,apparently on the phone. I kept looking at the door waiting to hear his voice, lol. Two blue belts and two white belts. A strong young Brazilian, 28 years old. A young athletic black man, Mitchell, 45, and a 38 year old computer technician named Tito Ortiz, OMG. Haha. All real good students. Excellent grapplers.

We did a warm up and I was getting a good sweat.  Roan demod a sweep from the guard that was pretty advanced. Holy shit! He definitely has BJJ on his Jiu Jitsu mind. We drilled then we trained 5 minutes rounds. Roan is very skilled and definitely knows how to match his students according to level.

Tough room and I actually tapped once. I highly recommend you learn BJJ from Master Roan at the American Top Team in Atlanta.

Joe Almeada

Team Storm

I met the Storm Team at the BJJ Expo in Long Beach. This is a very skilled group of competitors. I was looking forward to the Diaz match with Bruilo, but it did not go down.

Diaz No Show...

Opinion
As a Brazilian I love Brazil but not all things Brazilian. In the last decade I have witnessed Brazilian cronies running the IBJJF and making it impossible for Americans to get a fair shake when competing against their Brazilian countrymen. These cronies have instituted rules to where if you miss weight by even half a pound you are disqualified and not refunded your entry fee. They gladly keep your money and treat you like crap in your country because they can.  One of these cronies (Junior) decided to bend all the rules for Braulio Estima and treat Nick Diaz like crap. Sorry that didn’t work out here.

As for Braulio I still respect him as a great BJJ artist. As far as calling Nick out for a mma fight, he knows that is impossible because Nick is signed with the UFC and in mma you have to make weight when they want you to. Not when you want to.  If Braulio ever finds success in mma then he can mention Nick’s name for a fight. Right now he should respect the man.

Nick is not without fault by any means. His lack of communication with his team and coach was inexcusable. This will be addressed privately.

Renzo and I have spoken and we are committed to continuing with this otherwise awesome event….without the services of Junior.

It should be noted that Nick paid to St Jude’s Children’s Hospitable the sum of what would have been his entire purse.

Thank you,
You have my apologies and my respect
Cesar Gracie

Teaching

I love to teach. I have been teaching ever since I got my blue belt in ' 96. I have taught many, many students. I have taught some huge names in MMA today. And I have taught people you will never know. My first mat that I had all to myself was in '98 at LA Boxing in Huntington Beach. I really liked that mat. I called it the Redroom because of the red mats. It was a racquetball court room with wall to wall Norbert mats.  My mat now is blue. I like blue. It makes me feel good. The last group of guys were my most successful yet. I nicknamed them the DeathSquad, because they killed it at every competition we entered. The biggest was the NAGA Las Vegas 2011. I feel that over the last ten years that the students were more concerned with an MMA class as opposed to traditional BJJ. The DeathSquad focused on the traditional and it proved to be effective.  When teaching a student with no knowledge, I feel it is best to begin from worst position first. On your back. So, I focus on the guard and how to defend it. Keep your legs from getting smashed and moving hip to hip. How to escape, to sweep and of course to submit from the guard. The most importan t key is not to focus on just one submission, but a chain of three or more and the transitions in between.

John T. Lober is on Twitter

Reluctantly, I have now created a Twitter account that you can reach me with @JTLober. I am looking forward to BJJ @ 9am this Saturday with RubberToe.

My Mat

https://www.facebook.com/BjjDeathSquad

I am always teaching. 

BJJ Soldier

Robert "RubberToe" Lopez and ME

I met Robert through his nephews. He had  recently been released from prison, after a 7 year term for cocaine distribution. Back in the day, he would hop fence to fence, party to party in Newport with his backpack  filled with a kilo of coke. With out gloves, he would pull the block out and crack it with his bare hands. It had its toll on Robert with time, from an All-Star short stop to a prison convict with a noticeable deficit from the years of constant cocaine contact. Robert has a uniquness about him because of this.
From out of nowhere, Robert wanted to do a Grapplers X. I hadn't really noticed, but Robert was really getting into the grappling we were doing with his nephews. He entered the Grapplers X and wanted me to coach him. In his first match he immediately got caught in a wicked toe hold. As soon as he escaped from the most righteous toe hold ever in competition, I knew we had something to work with here. Hence, the name, Rubber Toe.
I trained with Robert and coached him at three  more grappling tournaments. Robert has developed a strong guard and submitted half of his opponents and only lost in the the finals of each tournament by minimal points. Acrueing three silvers with me and one more at another school.  I promoted Robert to a Blue Belt with Ken and sponsored him with a Storm Kimono. 
During my down time when I was not training, I encouraged him to seek out other BJJ. He found a school and competed at the Pan Ams 2012. Robert won by armbar in the first round and lost by 3 points in the final elimination tournament.
The week after he hit me up to train. Robert showed up eagerly to train with me Saturday morning. Oooh... I had some shitty sleep last night, but here we go. Right now, he is in the best shape I have ever seen him in. Stronger than ever. After thirty minutes of hard grappling and me just mobbing him, he takes my back and Gi chokes me. Legit. Hahaha, I could tell how good that made him feel. Something in me said to encourage Robert as opposed to making an excuse. I surely don't expect that to ever happen to me again, being a bb, but nonetheless it happened and I was proud of him. I consider Robert a loyal soldier in the legion of Jiu Jitsu. And I am the Ambassador. We will be brothers in our Jiu Jitsu life as we journey apart and back...to be continued.