Stronghold Blog

Some tips on hygiene...

2009-05-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

One thing you have to know when starting a sport, especially one that involves skin to skin contact is that unfortunately, your risk of contracting skin infections go up. In Jiu Jitsu It just comes with the territory. The good news is that it can be avoided with proper hygiene and using some other precautions. I've compiled a few tips to help avoid some unwanted funk on your body. =]

1. Wash your gi and training clothes in hot water when possible. Some avoid washing gi's in hot water for fear of shrinkage but if you hang dry and skip the dryer, you should be fine. Also use CLEAN gi's and training clothes for every training session. It's a well known fact that guys use the smell test for cleanliness, but sorry, bacteria can multiply over time but still smell nice. ;]

2. Cover up all open wounds well. Even if a wound is not due to an infection, it can potentially be a point of entry for harmful bacteria.

3. Shower immediately. You'd think this is a no brainer but to some it's not. Wash all that funk and other people's sweat off you ASAP!

4. Check your body often and thoroughly. You can have a skin infection and not know it. Nowadays you can never be too paranoid about something that looks amiss on your body. Infections left untreated can lead to some major problems and you risk passing it on to others.

5. Look into some anti-bacterial foam to use before and after training. We sell Athletic Body Care foam at the gym, but products like KS Skin Cream work well too. This helps to add a protective barrier while you're training and kills whatever germs you might have picked up after with a second coat.

6. If you notice that you have an infection, STOP training. Don't think that it's safe to do so because it's not. Respect you fellow training partners by staying off the mats. Sadly I'm sure this is why the cycle repeats with an outbreak because the hygiene level isn't staying up.

7. Avoid touching younger children and babies after training. Their immune systems are not fully developed at a young age so you increase the risk of a minor infection to become worse.

Again, these are just tips for you so you and your training partners can train in a safe and clean environment. It's shouldn't make you paranoid, just aware. Hope this helps! Happy training!

Why having a supportive significant other is vital...

2009-05-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

This post is more to outline the importance of having a supportive significant other when it comes to pursuing your hobbies. I joke a lot with a lot of our single Jiu Jitsu guys that they NEED to find a girl who does jiu jitsu or their life will be over. Haha. Honestly, I'm not really joking about it. =] I've seen quite a few guys quit Jiu Jitsu (or their favorite hobby) once a girl got into the picture. I'm not saying it's bad to spend time with your girlfriend, but it's always important to keep a part of yourself I guess you can say.

In general, I think it's vital for couples to find ONE thing they can do together and enjoy and when I say this Im not including: going out, eating, playing video games or shopping. Haha. Find a hobby that can be both productive and goal oriented.

Happy training! =]

Join the Stronghold Competition Team

2009-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Join the Stronghold Competition Team

Grappler's Quest in Del Mar is just around the corner! GQ the biggest BJJ and Submission Grappling tournament in the nation. Usually we travel all the way to Las Vegas to compete but this year it's coming to San Diego!

Our competition team started small but has grown significantly over the year. Our students have been doing extremely well at our local tournaments and you have probably seen our students compete including:

Tommy Espinoza, Reggie Salazar, Renzo Salazar, Jeremy Ferebee, Paul De Guzman, Steve Michael, Vince Colcol, Andrew Ferebee, just to name a few...

If you have been trying to figure out a new hobby or to just make a new goal for yourself, now is the time. Join our team and have the opportunity to compete this coming March! No experience or tryouts necessary.

Check out number 41! That could be you...

thestrongholdsd.com
grapplersquest.com

Grappler's Quest XIII

2008-05-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Grappler's Quest XIII
By: Raquel Cusi

This past weekend was Grappler's Quest in Las Vegas. The weather was pretty pleasant, and not as busy as I originally thought it would have been, since it was Cinco de Mayo weekend. 11 people went to Vegas, and out of the 11, 5 competed: Mike, Rene, Roger, Jeremy and Steve.

The tournament felt a lot longer than usual though, and the day seemed to just drag. It started at 10AM with Children, Teen's and Women, and the Men's divisions started around 1PM, so we were waiting around for quite awhile. =( The last divisions to go were the BJJ Blue Belts, and that was around 7PM! You can just imagine how tired these guys were after all that waiting. Anyway, here's some results in case you were curious! One of Mike's videos is down below.

Mike
Mike competed in the Advanced No-Gi division, and won 2nd place out of 8 guys. He did awesome! I was so proud =]

First match: Mike over Santino (Santa Fe BJJ): Submission; Kimura
Second match: Mike over Chris Holdsworth (Cobra Kai): Submission; Footlock
Third Match: Francesco over Mike: by advantage

I will have to double check with Mike for Rene, Roger, Jeremy and Steve's results, but they all did a great job!

We will be heading to Best of the West in a couple of weeks, so it's back to training hard again!

Stronghold Babies!

2008-04-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

Stronghold Babies!
By: Raquel Cusi

We have quite a few Stronghold babies due this year, which is quite exciting! Today in particular was a special day for Mike and I. I am currently almost 5 months pregnant and this morning we went in to do our Ultrasound and learn the baby's gender. The technician had to take a few pictures of various body parts first before she would study the "goods." =] To her and our astonishment, she found our baby in a weird position. Our baby had both legs and feet curled up over its head, and wouldn't budge for a good 20 minutes. I mentioned to Mike that our baby was already practicing his shoulder rolls for Jiu Jitsu! She finally got the baby to move to get him in a better viewing position, and told us we were going to have a boy!! Although we didn't mind either sex, we got what we were rooting for. ;]

So even in the womb, our baby boy is just like Daddy; training BJJ!!

A couple years ago, Mike and I, and a bunch of our friends went to Las Vegas for Grappler's Quest. The day began with the Children's matches, and we were amazed by all the child competitors. The youngest kid had to be around 5 or 6, but you would be surprised at how much BJJ these kids knew! Our favorite was a kid from Cobra Kai, and before he started his matches, he stared at his opponent with a Pit Bull face and hands up ready to take him down. It was the cutest thing (his dad must have been so proud). That day we all talked about the Grappling team we would start when we all had kids.

Two years later, we finally get to fulfill the dream... Be on the lookout for these Stronghold phenoms in 5 years!! Haha...

Mr. Roy Harris

2008-04-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don’t know Mr. Roy Harris or have had the pleasure of meeting him, I suggest you put it on your to do list. Who is Roy Harris you might ask if you aren’t familiar already? Around the world, he is well-known as an amazing instructor, mainly in the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but also in Jeet Kune Do and Kalis Ilustrisimo. Many Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners around the world have learned from Roy Harris in one way or another whether it be his BJJ Instructionals or the many resources he publishes on his website: royharris.com.

I first met Roy in October of 2005, when I was searching for a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor in San Diego. There were quite a few BJJ schools in San Diego, but one of the main things that caught my eye when I visited Roy’s website was the amount of valuable info that was available and a particular section “In Christ.” To me, I figured that was a double bonus and so I went to Miramar and signed up for classes. It didn’t take me long to find out how great an instructor Roy was. I have never took any martial arts classes before BJJ, but in comparison to any teacher or professor or I have had in school or college, no one was as detail-oriented, interesting or insightful as Roy was.

As time went by, I got to know Roy a bit more, and learned a lot more about him from his instructors and students. The consensus from every person who knows him is that he is not only a great instructor, but a very wise mentor and friend to all who know him.

What used to be Pink & Checkered....

2008-02-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

What used to be Pink & Checkered....
By: Raquel Cusi

It really seems like yesterday that Mike, Ray, myself and a bunch of our friends and family were working on a 2,700 square foot pink and checkered building and transforming it into the massive gray Stronghold you now see today. Pink and checkered you ask? Yes, we thought the same thing. Before we moved into our business home in Point Loma, it was operated by a neighborhood-known ladies' resale shop, "Girls from the Park." Did I mention cheetah print walls as well?

What at first seemed like a very daunting task, turned out not to be as bad as we thought. Thankfully we had a lot of friends and family come and lend helping hands to tackle the job. Armed with paint rollers, drills, putty knifes and face masks, The Stronghold team worked on turning Hot Pink into Stronghold Gray. We also had 15 foot walls in our planned mat area and the outside building painted pink, but thanks to Ray's professional painter friend, Sean, those areas were finished in a matter of a few hours or so. All I know now is that paint guns are the way to go! Imagine if we had to roll those all ourselves. Yikes.

Big holes being patched up, floor tiles removed by a crowbar, and smashing out walls equaled a lot of sweat and mess. Overall it was a great week of hard labor, and which is what we're used to anyway (we are a gym). Looking back it just reminds me that big efforts are always worth it no matter how hard it seems at the time.

Enjoy the photos of our crazy transformation...

I'm ready for battle!!

Outside...

KC & Rene pulling out nails...

Mike & Ray working on my office... =]

Leopard Print!

Bye bye Leopard Print.

The Before...

After...

Ray & Mike scraping tile. Jay eating L&L.

Mike and his Tatame Mats.

Yay Mat Space!!