Written by Emir Alagic from Team Edson Carvalho Bosnia.
The best thing about BJJ in my opinion is that it changes people in a good way. Because this, a lot of us don’t want to stop training even when we go on a vacation. A BJJ gi is only two more kilos in our baggage, but you know that if you bring it with you, there will be an adventure.
When i decided to spend my vacation with my family in Germany, I knew that I would bring it. The plan was not to visit as many academies as possible, but to visit a local academy in that area that I was going to and see what it would look like if I lived in that area and trained on regular basis.
I was going to Dusseldorf (Germany), so i googled about bjj in that area. I already knew about Checkmat team in Cologne because I had was attended a seminar of profesor Petar Schira in Sarajevo, which was a very cool 5 days seminar organised by Arena BJJ from Sarajevo. So ggogle gave me two locations where I could go to.
I went on facebook and sent a message to both teams that that I found. I didn’t get any response from one team (i don’t blame them) other one was PANKRATION ACADEMY Checkmat Dusseldort. I got an instant response from Dimitrios Kotsidis their HEAD COACH who is a purple belt under Chico Mendes. Thats how I found the academy that i was looking for.
In our first training, I was glad to see that in this team they like guests and don’t just treat them as a targets, which was good because i ate a lot that day. After politely introducing myself and warm uping, we started to work on techniques. In this team they are very open minded, so they brought one luta livre guy to show some leg locks which are not allowed under ibjjf rules for lower belts which was good and funny at a same time. This was good because from my experience sometimes a lot of us while focusing on competitive bjj under ibjjf rules forget and leave our legs exposed or maybe it’s just me. 🙂
In another training session we were doing a lot of triangle variations, I taught a couple of my triangle tricks, and did a couple of rolls. I even brought my family to check out this team, so maybe my younger cousins will be a couple of stripes white belts next time I visit them. That would be awesome.
Conclusion is that I highly recomend visiting Pancration Academy in Dusseldorf. It is important to say that this is not only a bjj gym, they also train MMA. I plan to visit them next year also, because it became my Dusseldorf bjj team by default. It will be nice to see how all this great guys improve when i get back there.
Head coach Dimitrios Kotsidis has this say about his academy:\
PANKRATION ACADEMY is part of Checkmat under head coach Chico Mendes. In our academy, loyalty, respect and discipline are very important. We want to teach the old school way of Martial Arts to the people: respect each other and you will earn respect. Leave ego outside. Besides we are having fun of course and we train as a family. PANKRATION ACADEMY is a very competitive team but we don’t force people to compete. Most of our students love to compete no matter what age.
1.Can u tell me more about bjj scene in your city?
The scene here is pretty small. Unfortunately everyone is doing their own thing. I would Love to see more cooparation.
2. How u see yours team in next 5 years?
We will grow together as a family and will get better day by day.
3. Do u plan to organize any seminar in near future?
Yes.We already had our master Chico Mendes here couple of times plus Jackson Sousa and Rafael Heck. Next we will get Chico and Leonardo Viera here.
4.Who is yours favorite bjj black belt which is still an active competitor?
Chico Mendes.
5. Can u describe your style of jiu jitsu?
My style? I train all the situations I am Always prepared. Jiu-Jitsu wins (laughs) CheckMat BJJ OSS
I will take opputunity to say thanks to my sponsors supporting my bjj journey. Big thanks NG System, Elit Nutrition and Legion Fightwear from Sarajevo.
