Earlier this month, we had multiple-time NAGA, Grappler’s Quest, Bud Cup, Best of the West, and who-knows-how-many-more tournament Winner and Submission Grappling circuit phenom Ryan Hall (www.ryanhallgameplan.com) of Team Lloyd Irvin visit us during a long Columbus day weekend. Ryan is an old friend of ours from when he used to go to school in NYC. he’s infamous for his relentless and unorthodox guard attacks, however on our mats he also displayed for us some of his favourite takedowns, arm-drags, and what seemed like a magical twister-control.

October also brought to our shores Christian Graugart (shogunhq.blogspot.com) BJJ Purple belt (sandbagger) and Instructor of the Copenhagen Sports Academy in Denmark. Christian was here for 2 weeks, while also taking time to visit the West Coast and enjoy NYC, he was nice enough to teach some of the newer aspects of his phenomal game (“Five Swords” Top Game) to the guys at Ronin Athletics! This year marks Graugart’s 4th straight annual visit and we look forward to seeing him again next fall.