Last weekend the 2009 BJJ Pan-Ams shook Carson, California, with over 2,500 Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners testing their skills against one another. While the listeners to The FightWorks Podcast predicted that Alliance would win first place in the team competition, Gracie Barra took the gold medal! So to discuss this big accomplishment we brought on Flavio Almeida, who is not only one of Gracie Barra’s elite competitors but also is in charge of the expansion of Gracie Barra globally.

Cohost Dan and I chat with Almeida about the tremendous performance of Gracie Barra competitors, the upcoming BJJ Mundials in June, and the return of Roger Gracie to BJJ competition. He will also lend his expert advice in response to a question from The Mighty 600,00 about how to handle the unpredictability one encounters during the day in many jiu-jitsu tournaments, both physically and mentally.

We will also play a 2009 BJJ Pan-Ams soundbyte from Rickson Gracie, who gave a brief eulogy for his recently deceased father Helio Gracie.

Dan and I will also discuss the recent BJJ Poll we had on the site about the dissatisfaction that 60% of BJJ practitioners feel regarding the quality of takedown and throw instruction in their academies.

Finally, there’s a little bonus material at the conclusion of the show because in our last show I accidentally neglected to include our conversation with Alicia Anthony about the 2009 Pan-Ams! (Sorry Alicia!!!)

http://www.thefightworkspodcast.com/podcasts/fightworkspodcastepisode159.mp3