Happy holidays.

A-Team is closed from Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 until January 3rd, 2010; training will resume on Monday the 4th. Happy holidays everyone.

Tournament Results.

At the last tournament, we took a team of a little more than 20 and managed to walk away with 2nd Place; a whopping 49 points. It took three schools combined to take away our throne: Cleber Jiu-jitsu (27 pts), Ace Jiu-jitsu (20 pts) and Coachella Valley (18 pts) for a total of 65 points. Regardless of an 'official' first place, we had the most points for any single school and everyone did an excellent job. A big congratulations and thank you to all who participated and attended the tournament for all of your support and helping make it possible for us to do as well as we did.

Kid's Gi

Kade - 1st Place
Jesse - 1st Place
Robert - 1st Place
Anna - 1st Place
Parker - 1st Place
Jason - 1st Place
Ryan - 1st Place
Allen - 1st Place
Victoria - 1st Place
Joshua - 1st Place
Tye - 2nd Place*
Andy - 2nd Place
Matthew - 2nd Place
Olivia - 2nd Place
Isabella - 2nd Place
Tyler - 2nd Place
Cassy - 2nd Place
Makayla - 3rd Place
Brennan - 3rd Place
Nick - 3rd Place
Devon - 3rd Place
Wyatt - 3rd Place

Kid's No Gi

Robert - 1st Place
Wyatt - 1st Place
Tye - 1st Place
Kade - 1st Place
Ryan - 1st Place
Anna - 2nd Place

Adult's Gi

Kia - 1st Place
Brian - 2nd Place

* Tye and Isabella both tied for first place with Kade and Anna respectively, while they were counted as second place wins--they both deserve first place.

If any adjustments need to be made, please leave a comment and I will fix it as soon as possible. Thanks again to everyone who participated and went to support the team, we would be nothing without you.

We've got Facebook.

For those of you who have your own Facebook pages, we have made our own Facebook account. Unfortunately, only those people who have Facebook accounts will be able to view the A-Team Facebook page, it seems to be the only way that Facebook will allow it. The account will help connect team members and be another source for A-Team important information and photos.

So, add the Facebook account today!

Halloween Party.

The A-Team annual Halloween Party will be taking place at 5:00 PM on October 30th, 2009. The regularly scheduled open mat session will not be going on tomorrow, but otherwise, bring your family and costumes and come have a good time.

Post-Party Edit: The party was a major success, I will be posting a little review of the party once I get some pictures to add to the blog. If you have any pictures to share, feel free to send them to the A-Team Times e-mail address (ateambjj@gmail.com).

Alex's Wedding

Ali and the rest of A-Team would like to take a moment to congratulate one of the students, Alex, on his recent marriage. When Alex isn't doing jiu-jitsu, he serves as the lead vocalist for the band Atreyu who will be going on tour soon and releasing a new CD on October 27, 2009. If you have a spare moment, feel free to check out Atreyu's fansite.

Ali was invited to the wedding and has provided pictures, but the blog is having trouble uploading them at the moment, I will post them as soon as I can.

Congratulations again, Alex.

Muay Thai class change.

A quick note: the Muay Thai class that Ali has been holding every Thursday evening has been changed to Wednesdays from now on. Thank you!

A handful of news.

Last week A-Team was visited by Leandro Vieira, who has recently moved to Signal Hill to open up the headquarters for his new school, FightZone USA. Leandro is Ali's favorite coach and it's great to have him opening up a school relatively close so that both schools' students can visit and train together.

We had a great performance by the team at the tournament last weekend. Our kids team came in second place, losing only by less than five points total to a team of four schools combined. Thank you for everyone who came and supported our team and good work to everyone who competed.

In other news, Monday (9/7/09) is Labor Day and the school will be closed.

A-Team's 1st Annual Beach Party

It's almost time for the first annual A-Team Beach Party ( and Corinna's 13th Birthday ), a soon-to-be tradition. If you've been at the school at all lately, you probably know that Ali has left notices about it all over - but, in case you can't remember something from the notice or you haven't been around or whatever the reason may be, I'll list the information for the party here.

What: The A-Team 1st Annual Beach Bash
( & Corinna's 13th Birthday )
When: Saturday, August 1st @ 10:00 AM ( no ending time, ends when people are done )
Where: Bolsa Chica State Beach Tower #25 (North of Entrance w/ $10 Entrance Fee)
Bring: Please bring a side-dish of your choice to share and your favorite beverage.
Hamburgers, hotdogs, chips & cake will be provided.

Any questions and to RSVP: Crystal (562-508-0098)

Thanks, and we hope to see you there!

Edit: The 1st Annual Beach Bash was a big success, thanks to everyone for coming. I've added some pictures to the post, I hope you enjoy them!

Annoucements.

Yesterday morning, June 27th, A-Team had a pair of visitors while a few of us were rolling after the kid's class. The visitors were Chris Franco and Ali's teacher and Head of CheckMat, Leo Vieira. Leo had been in town and decided to pop-in and train with the guys at A-Team.

In other news, yesterday was also Matthew's 8th birthday. We have had a few birthdays recently, including: Robert (8), Brennen (9), Devon (13), Jakey (7) and Calyssa (9). Happy birthday, everyone! If there are any mistakes or if anyone else had any recent birthdays, feel free to leave a comment.

Finally, A-Team will be closed on July 3rd and 4th (Friday and Saturday) for the holiday and then will re-open on Monday. Have a fun, safe Fourth of July.

A promotion & an addition to the family.

On Tuesday evening, a promotion that has been a long time coming finally occured. The student who has been promoted has been training with Master Ali for a long time and has deserved this promotion for awhile now ( abilitiy to come and get mat time was limited, which was the main reason why it had taken so long). This student has great technique, has always been a threat at any of the tournaments he's competed in and has a lot of heart. A-Team looks forward to seeing more good things coming out of this guy and I don't think we'll be let down by any means.

Congratulations on your orange belt, Diego.

In other news, a new addition to A-Team has arrived earlier this week. This currently nameless pup is a 3-month old soft-coated wheaton terrier is a smart, loving dog has already begun to feel at home at the school and loves to play around with the kids. At the moment, Ali is currently deliberating between a few names for the pup, but it seems that he might be leaning towards Titus Pullo. Welcome to A-Team!

Edit: The puppy's name is officially Titus Pullo.

World Championships (6/4/09)

Tomorrow is the World Championships at Cal State University Long Beach. Ricky and Bryan will be fighting in the morning around 9 am, while Bronson and Danny will be fighting around 2 pm. General admission should be around $10, if you can come and support.

There will be no kids class, but, there will be an adult class still.

Memorial Day.

Monday, the 25th of May, there will be no class as it is Memorial Day. Classes will resume as usual on Tuesday, have a great weekend and we'll see you then.

Re-post: Promotions, with three added.

Within the last month, there were a few promotions within the school. We have for the kids; Collin and William who both received their first stripes on their white belts. Dana, who was a two-stripe purple belt, has now received two more stripes and is a four-stripe purple belt. Congratulations, Collin, William and Dana.

On top of that, Nick and Makayla Ruiz have gotten their first stripe promotions as well. Congratulations to everyone once more.

EDIT: The other day, Bryan, one of our white belts going to the World Championships next month got his second stripe, congratulations, Bryan.

EDIT: Also, Ryan got his third stripe on his white belt, congratulations.

Best of the West Results.

A little while ago, our team went to the Best of the West tournament that was posted about a few weeks ago. Here are the (not-so-shocking) extraordinary results from our team that went, in no particular order:

Kids

• Kade (1st)
• Tye (2nd)
• Andy (2nd)
• Allen (1st)
• Logan (2nd)
• Isabella (2nd)
• Matthew (2nd)
• Devon (3rd)
• Ryan (3rd)
  
• Cassy (Lost)
• Victoria ( Lost)

Adult

• Ricky ( Lost, but won 2 matches )

Ricky was the only adult that we took, but, he did very good in his matches and was about to win in his last match by submission, but, time ran out right as he was finishing it. Everyone continues to do a great job in the tournaments and makes Ali and the rest of the A-Team proud.

Good job, guys.

CheckMat & Tournaments.

Quite a bit of news on the tournament front this evening, but, first things first. After much discussion and thought, Ali has collaborated with the people over at CheckMat to form an affiliation. What does that mean for you? Well, it means that we are affiliated with one of the (if not the) top teams around. CheckMat is lead by Leo Viera, one of the greatest and most cutting-edge Jiu-Jitsu instructors around at this time. Ali will be working with Leo and the people at CheckMat and bringing us those same cutting-edge moves that are being executed out there and bringing home world championship victories. It also means that, from time to time, we will be visited by the team of CheckMat, so that we can all train together for the big tournaments.

In other news, tomorrow is the Best of the West tournament. We won't have many people participating, a few kids and Ricky, but, they need your support nevertheless. If you have the time, make sure you make your way to the tournament and watch some of the awesome fights that are sure to be present. The location of the tournament is as follows:

Long Beach City College
4901 East Carson St.
Long Beach, CA 90808

Also, starting next week, there will be training for the World Championships for a few of our team members. We won't be taking a large team, but, please make sure that you train hard and be there for your teammates. It takes the help of every member of the team to get our team mates in the best shape they can and provide a good, hard-working training environment.

Stay tuned to the A-Team Times for tournament turn-outs and any other breaking news.

A New A-Team Angel.

Within the last month, there has been an addition to the A-Team family. Chris and Nicole Ruotolo had a baby girl named Nya Marae Ruotolo on March 29, 2009. If you know anything about the Ruotolo family, you know that they are the parents of the twins, Kade and Tye, two phenomenal little kids. Who knows what is in store if little Nya gets on the mat in a few years, only time will tell.

Please congratulate all of these folks when you get the chance, we are proud of every single one of them.

Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship & the IBJJF.

This weekend is the Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championship (formerly known as the Pan-Americans or Pan-Ams), one of the biggest jiu-jitsu competitions around, with over 2,500 competitors this year. The competition is one of the many International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation* tournaments and will be at Cal State University Dominguez Hills in Carson, California.

As of this moment, the only person I know of who is competing is Kia, so let's all wish him goodluck and try to be there to support him if you can. Besides being there for Kia, the tournament is bound to bring out some of the best fighters around, which makes it well worth the time to go down there and pay a visit. I would also like to wish the best of luck to our friend, Troy, who came from Hawaii to train with us while he was in town for the Pan Jiu-jitsu Championship, make sure you cheer for him if you see him around!

If you are interested, the IBJJF is looking for scorekeepers for the tournament, and if you can - you should get ahold of Mike Buckels, he will hook you up with all you need to know about scorekeeping. It's an easy job and it comes with lots of benefits and you can work as much or as little as you want. You can understand how much help is required with a tournament of this capacity, and it runs from Friday to Sunday.

For more information, contact Mike Buckels at usjjfeventstaff@gmail.com.

* The purpose of IBJJF is to unify jiu-jitsu as a sport, to bring it together and make it more organized. This is done by making a single set of rules that will apply at all tournaments, if you have been to multiple tournaments - you know that the rules are a little bit different from tournament to tournament - but, the IBJJF is looking to fix this and help Jiu-jitsu move along as a sport. The IBJJF also will be collecting a complete roster of schools and members of the schools, and making it more difficult for people to fight in inappropriate divisions or "sandbag".

How to bookmark with an RSS Feed

So, you want to know when there are new posts to the A-Team Times without Ali telling you, or having to go check all the time? Well, I'm going to tell you. Create yourself an RSS Feed for the Times, so that way you can check to see whenever there is an update.

1. Open up your web browser of choice ( I used Firefox for the example picture ) and go to the A-Team Times.
2. Once you are there, click the orange RSS-Feed button, circled and pointed to in the picture. ( It will be in a different place on different browsers, but, you should be able to tell what it is. )
3. You will then add it to your bookmarks through that button, and it will become a feed, that will show you new posts and updates to the site whenever you look in the A-Team Times folder that it will create.

I am kind of strapped for time, so this is a rushed explanation. If further explanation is required, please say so in the comments and I will expand on it when I get the time. Thank you!

Grapplers' Quest Results.

We took a very small team to the Grapplers' Quest in Del Mar on Saturday and came out with some pretty good results. Our whole team did great, but, did you really expect any less from the A-Team? Congratulations to the following members of A-Team for placing at the tournament.

If there are any corrections, or if you have any pictures from the tournament, feel free to send them my way.

No-Gi ( Kids)

• Anna - 1st
• Robert - 1st
• Ryan - 1st
• Wyatt - 3rd
  

Gi ( Kids )

• Robert - 1st
• Tye - 1st*
• Kade - 2nd*
• Anna - 3rd*
• Ryan - 1st
• Wyatt - 1st
  

No Gi (Adults)

• Tim - 3rd
• Kia- 3rd

* Tye, Kade and Anna were all in the same division, and we got all three places because they all tied against eachother.

Grapplers' Quest

Tomorrow ( Saturday, March 21st, 2009 ) there will be no class, as Ali will be taking a few of our team members to the Grapplers' Quest tournament in Del Mar, California. Please wish them luck if you see them before the tournament, and don't come in on Saturday!

Tournament season is really kicking into high gear, as there will be quite a few tournaments in the next few weeks, with some even bigger ones coming in a few weeks to months. Let's get our training in so we can go represent A-Team in the tournaments and let them know how good this new team is.

Good luck at Grapplers' Quest, keep your eyes open for an update with how our team did.

Promotions and Pictures (from the Tournament).

A big congratulations to Devin, Tyler, and Brennen Jones, as well as Jake Fassino, who got their first stripes this past week. Congratulations, you deserved it!

Also, check below at the tournament results for pictures from the tournament! If you have any additional pictures, please send them my way and I'll do my best to get them up here in a prompt manner.

Aloisio Silva Friendship Tournament Results

Today, there was a friendship tournament at the Aloisio Silva's school in Lawndale, where our team went and made a good show, as always. A lot of our students went in and took first place, and those who didn't- still got second or third place and did a great job. Whether it was Alan or Andy, Keith or Kade, all of our students went there and gave it their all.

Congratulations and good work, everyone - keep training, this was a warm-up for the bigger tournaments around the bend. The fun has only just begun! Thanks to Aloisio Silva's Joao Silva, who did a good deal of the work over there, and thanks to the students and helpers that helped the tournament run smoothly, we're sure to see you around at the tournaments to come.

Make sure to congratulate our students when you see them at the school, they deserve it.

And without further ado, the results!

Kids:

White Belts:

• Kade-1^st
• Tye-1^st
• Alan-1^st
• Robert-1^st
• Ryan-1^st
• Devin-1^st
• Tyler-2^nd
• Anna-2^nd
• Brennen-4^rd
• Andy-4th

Yellow Belts:

• Calysa-1st
• Joshua-1^st
• Diego-1^st
• Morgan-1^st (against orange belt boys in super fight)
• Morgan-2^nd (against yellow belt boys)
• Corinna-3^rd

Adults:

White Belts:

• Brian-2^nd
• Ricky-3^rd

Blue Belts:

• Daniel ("Danny Boy")-1^st
• Tim-2^nd
• Keith-2^nd
• Chris-2^nd

Purple Belt:

• Kia-3rd