RONIN ATHLETICS athlete, Erik Ryerson, won 1st Place in the purple belt, master, rooster weight division at the inaugural 2009 IBJJF New York International Open Jiu-Jitsu Championship on Saturday, April 18th!

A number of Team RONIN ATHLETICS athletes came out to CCNY to support Erik (our sole competitor at this event) and the day went perfectly!

The event itself was top-notch, had some incredible matches, and the IBJJF absolutely put on a great competition for gi competitors. Team RONIN ATHLETICS is definitely looking forward to future IBJJF events in NYC!

Congrats, Erik!

Huge congratulations are in order for Sensen Lin on his promotion to BLUE belt and Zak Koonce on his promotion to PURPLE belt!

These two “home-grown” athletes began their BJJ careers at RONIN ATHLETICS and their hard work has definitely paid off!

Both Zak and Sen were awarded their new ranks on Sunday afternoon by our good friend and one of our black belt mentors, Dave Ginsberg with an emphatic nod and a, “yes!” from RONIN ATHLETICS Head Instructor, Christian Montes.

Congrats Zak and Sen!

A HUGE congratulations is in order for all Team RONIN ATHLETICS competitors who took part in the 2009 NAGA World Championship on April 4th in Newark, NJ.

Although we’re still in the process of getting the official NAGA ranking count corrected to include some omitted wins from the list, Team RONIN ATHLETICS represented strongly and placed 2nd in the Team Results!

We had a number of first time competitors and competition veterans all making impressive showings and are extremely proud of all who stepped onto those mats to represent the Team!

Special shouts out go to:

Christopher Dolan

1st Place, Mens NO-GI Intermediate Fly Weight

Alex Horowitz

3rd Place, Mens NO-GI Intermediate Middle Weight

Derek Kershner

1st Place, Mens NO-GI Directors Intermediate Light Weight

1st Place, Mens Directors White Belt Light Weight

Zak Koonce

3rd Place, Masters NO-GI Expert Middle Weight

Liz Milizio

1st Place, Womens White Belt Light Weight

2nd Place, Womens NO-GI Beginner Fly Weight

Matthew Oley

2nd Place, Mens NO-GI Intermediate Feather Weight

Paul Paone

2nd Place, Masters NO-GI Beginner Cruiser Weight

Angelo Vicari

2nd Place, Masters NO-GI Intermediate Feather Weight

Manuel Villafane

2nd Place, Masters NO-GI Intermediate Cruiser Weight

Stay tuned for updated ranking results, photos, and video from the event!

Great job, Team!

This past week, Team RONIN ATHLETICS was surprised with a visit from four friends from Japan.

Soon after arriving in NYC, our good friend & professional MMA fighter, Hiroyuki Abe of the Abe Ani Combat Club (AACC), dropped in again for a visit.

This time, Abe brought along three friends from Japan: two of his top youth team members, Ryoto and Kento, and the extremely talented graphic artist, Kato-san (a.k.a. Art Junkie).

Abe, Kato-san, Ryoto, and Kento joined RONIN ATHLETICS students on the mats for Wednesday’s Submission Grappling and Thursday’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gi classes providing great energy, technique, and encouragement to all present.

Many thanks to Abe, Kato-san, Ryoto and Kento for great time. We’re all definitely looking forward to future visits!

Congratulations to the small (yet mighty!) group of Team RONIN ATHLETICS members who made the trek down to Wildwood, NJ this past weekend for the Grapplers Quest Beast of the East 2009 competition.

In their first ever grappling tournament, we’re very happy to announce that Elijah “Eli” Elias took 1st place and Dennis Rivera took 2nd place in their divisions! Honorable mention and a huge shout out to Sasha for his 1-1 battles.

Great job everyone!

Stay tuned for photos from the event!

Huge congrats to Francis Dimayuga on his recent promotion to BLUE belt!

Francis has dedicated a huge amount of mat-time at RONIN ATHLETICS developing his skills and has committed himself to building an extremely technical jiu-jitsu game.

Congrats, Francis!