IBJJF pan ams and Lutador Open.

Training in America has been a really cool experience so far. Training with Jeremy at Great Grappling is forcing me to learn alot of stuff I don't really use in my own jiujitsu as we both have different styles. This can only be a good thing and of course his teaching is second to none, which I already knew from training with him in Brazil.

 As a keen competitor I am also getting plenty of opportunities to compete, just recently ( after still recovering from jet lag ) I competed at the Newbreed BJJ competition, I managed to win and the team took 2nd place overall - a reflection of Jerermys hard work since returning from his time at Connection Rio.

I am competing at the Lutador BJJ open in 3 weeks, another warm up before the Pan Ams in California in March. We have 6 guys flying out to compete so it will be a awesome experience. Having competed all over the UK mutiple times it will be great to put my skills to the test at a major tournament.

USA and Brazil BJJ trip 2014

Opportunties in jiujitsu are few and far between so after delaying my trip by a few months I took the opportunity to travel to South Carolina and train with my good friend Jeremy Arel then hopefully on to Brazil to train at Gordo jiujitsu.

I trained with Jeremy in 2010 at Gordo Jiujitsu when we where both staying at the original Connection Rio house back when I was a blue belt and he was a brown belt ( recieving his black belt on that trip from Gordo). It is really cool for me to have the chance to now go and train at his own successful and established academy in South Carolina, USA

Such a long trip pursueing jiujutsu isn't for everyone, but for me it was the right choice and I hope to make the most out of what will be my last trip for awhile (although I'm sure I said that last time!) through lots of training , competitions , and learning portuguese at long last! I had my first training session last night, lots of really good competition purple belts and a bad ass brown belt who recently won the worlds masters and seniors! Looking forward to some good training.

Please feel free to follow my journey at leewrightbjj.blogspot.co.uk and twitter @leewrightbjj.

I am Lee Wright, Connection Rio sponsored athlete, BJJ player, personal trainer and generally addicted to any form of intense exercise! This is my blog about my travels to the USA and Brazil training and competing in BJJ. I am traveling to South Carolina in October 2013 to train with my good friend and Gordo Jiu-jitsu black belt Jeremy Arel then going to Brazil to train at Gordo`s main academy in Rio. I have spent a lot of time in Rio training and I hope to be able to share my experiences with anyone looking to do a similar thing! I am regular competitor on the UK circuit having competed in over 20 plus tournaments. I hope to be able coach my own team one day to and pass on the knowledge I have gained traveling the world to pursue BJJ.