Hey everyone , we wanted to send out a quick newsletter that will give you a rundown of our planned events for the remainder of 2023. We also want to cover the topic of cross training. Lets start with our competition schedule and events and then we will finish with all the great Cross training opportunities. Below is our competition schedule. All events are voluntary except the July 8'th Naga for kids and teens as we compete once a year as a complete team here at the Den. We will add more wrestling tournaments as well as Muay Thai/ MMA events throughout the year as well.
Competition Schedule
March 11'th - Wrestling tournament in Whitehall NY
March 18'th - Wrestling Tournament in Ballston Spa NY
March 26'th - Wrestling tournament in Queensbury NY
April 22'nd - NAGA BJJ tournament in Middletown CT
May 13'th - MMA/Muay Thai fights in Barre VT
May 27'th - Grappling Industries BJJ tournament in Saratoga NY
June 24'th - NAGA BJJ tournament in Springfield MA
July 8'th - NAGA BJJ tournament in Albany NY
August 4-6 - NAGA BJJ tournament in Wildwood NJ
September 9'th - NAGA BJJ tournament in New Haven CT
OTHER EVENTS
APRIL 2ND - Belt promotion at Matt Secor BJJ
April 3rd - Picture Day at the Den
April 14-16 - Super Seminar Weekend here at the Den
June 3-5 - Renzo Gracie Main academy retreat
August 19'th - Belt Promotions at the Den
October 28'th - Annual Den Halloween Party
November 3'rd - UFC seminar TBA
December 9'th - Parents Night out kids Christmas Party at the Den
December 16'th - Belt promotions at the Den
One competition that stands out from the rest each year is the NAGA BJJ tournament held in Wildwood NJ (pictured below). This is a 2 day event with Kids competing on Saturday and Adults sunday. This is the toughest Naga event held annually . It is also the most fun as the venue is right on the boardwalk and overlooking the ocean. We usually also do a beach day the day before (friday) so all the kids can play together before they weigh in that night. Wildwood is a great little beach town and a great place for a long weekend, so if you come down, you should plan a day at the beach and pool as well. They have some great restaurants if your a foodie. We have also hit up the boardwalk as a group at night while the kids did all the rides together, we went to the waterpark together too. Great time!
ok, so as you noticed above we also had a schedule for other events. These are special training events which we will talk further on below as well as Belt promotions and free family events we hold here at the Den. The fun family events are the Annual Halloween Party we have each year . Mark that down especially for kids. Each kid gets a large pumpkin to carve , we have an awesome contest for that after as well as a costume contest with lots of prizes handed out , Piñata and some fun games followed by food. Our parents night out Christmas party is a night for kids.We do hot cocoa ,decorate Christmas cookies and make ornaments while the parents get a night out to Christmas shop , wrap presents or do whatever you could use some free time for around the holidays.
Cross Training
Cross training at the Den is a lot different than what most schools consider cross training. Most schools consider it an open mat opportunity at some local school once in awhile or having to go somewhere to get training that is not offered at their current school. The Den is different . We have the top local fighters and competitors under our roof and we also offer all the arts you need for MMA under one roof. Regardless of that Professor Svingala was cross training the country before it was even cool. He travelled to train and learn from close to 100 of the top UFC stars and champions over the last 15 years from fighters like Randy Couture , Chuck Liddell ,Rampage Jackson, Sean Sherk, BJ Penn, Urijah Faber, Rose Namajunas , Pat Barry, Matt Hughes, Jim Miller, Valentina Shevchenko, Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Joe Warren, Glover Texeira , Hermes Franca, Kenny Florian, Mike Brown, Thiago Alves , George St Pierre , Frankie Edgar, Tito Ortiz , Jake Shields, Rashad Evans, Jon Jones, Dan Henderson, Cat Zingano, Shane Burgos, Jimmie Rivera, Ben Askren , Dean Lister, Wanderlei Silva, Chael Sonnen, Dennis Bermudez , Eduardo Dantes, Brandon Vera just to name a few which does not include the Olympians and World class coaches he traveled to learn from such as John Danaher, Renzo Gracie , Vitor Ribeiro , Pablo Papovitch , Andre Pederneiras, Firas Zahabi , Marcelo Garcia, Kendall Cross , Jordan Oliver , Gabe Dean just to name a few.
At the Den , our idea of cross training is bringing in the top Coaches and Athletes from around the world to our students as well as traveling to train with them . To us , cross training is supposed to be an opportunity to get something more than what we do in a normal class or day. In the past 12 months alone we have taken field trips to learn directly from Valentina Shevchenko ( pictured above ) We are also working with her again in 2 weeks and this trip is open to all MMA and Muay Thai students as this is what we are covering. In this trip we are visiting the Driven gym which is a Tom Deblass affiliate. We are training with Valentina and then the next day sparring with Pro fighters from the Driven gym along with a couple other big gyms in NJ. We did this as well last month only we then we trained with Former UFC Champ Demetrius Johnson.
We also took this field trip with our wrestlers in which we traveled and spent 2 days at the university of Buffalo with their team and coaches to learn directly from them. We also took a field trip this past year to the Renzo Gracie main academy for 2 days. We had 2 private seminars with their coaches over the weekend along with taking some of their regular classes so we could roll with their students as well.
Through the years our Instructors have spent lots of time at the Renzo Gracie main academy and Trent actually trained there for 2 full years while attending Columbia University. It is a great experience for all as it is one of the most famous BJJ schools in all the world. Our students love this Cross Training opportunity so we made it an annual thing!! We will be doing this again from June 3'rd - 5'th. Our students will be able to take some regular classes and cross train with the students at the Renzo Gracie Main Academy and we will also have some private seminars just for us. Also we want to add , that whenever we do these things we have opportunities for all to train. This is not just for competitors and we always have special classes for the kids too which is unheard of anywhere else.
Speaking of unheard of anywhere else . Be sure to check out our upcoming Super Seminar in April !!!! This is an amazing event and you rarely see anything like it anywhere. The value of this event is about quadruple what we have priced it at so take advantage of it right here at your own gym. We currently have 5 spots left open for the kids seminars, 7 for the Womens only seminars and 11 for the Coed adult seminars. Once its full its full so reserve your spot! Details in the pic below. We have 5 of the top female competitors coming to us in for an action packed weekend.
Cross training with the top athletes and coaches in the world is a huge part of who Professor Svingala has become over his years of training and is why we brings these opportunities to our students. Instead of traveling the country to get these opportunities , he now brings these fighters right to us. This year we also got to learn directly from UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman. Mark rarely ever teaches and we are the only school to have Mark actually get on the Mat and roll , since he competed years ago!!
We also had Dan Severn in this year which is another UFC Hall of famer. We try to offer our students a little bit of everything when bringing these stars in. We have had in current fighters , UFC champions , Male fighters , Female fighters , Hall of famers, we cover all the bases. We also bring in our own Home Grown talent such as UFC Star Mike Davis (below) who began his training with Professor Svingala and competed and had an illustrious amateur career before moving to Florida. Mike still comes back once a year and it is great for our current students to be able to learn from and roll with some of our most successful students who started 10 years ago.
Pictured above is a seminar we did with Jake Shields a few months back. Back when Professor Svingala opened his first Martial Arts Academy over 10 years ago he had an affiliation with Jake. Jake was in the prime as a competitor and fought George St Pierre during that time for the UFC Championship . Jake came and did a great seminar here at the Den this year and it was great to see him.
Pictured above are some of our MMA fighters at the Driven gym in NJ after a day of sparring. Most of the guys in this pic are all professionals and we have a couple of our own moving to professional this year as well. Very exciting times.
Cross training ...... Oh Yeah , did we mention our affiliate school? Matt Secor BJJ in Glens Falls. Matt is one of the top 3 BJJ competitors to ever come from our area and the other 2 would be Trent and Caleb hands down. Our students have the ability to roll with these athletes at any time. Not only do you get Trent and Caleb but you can attend classes at Matt Secor BJJ for FREE anytime!!!! Matt is still very active on the Matt and he also has a few very good female competitors which is an asset to our ladies. He also has some very good male and youth students If you are looking for cross training opportunities , look no further and its available 7 days a week and FREE for our members.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. We really wanted to share with you all of the great cross training opportunities we offer aside from just our regular classes. When Professor Svingala began training, it was in a time when Academies did not offer all of the different arts needed for MMA. He had memberships at different schools for Muay Thai, Wrestling and BJJ, he went to another gym for boxing and traveled the country for extra training opportunities. He spent a fortune on his training and knowledge. His goal was to offer all of this at one school AND to make it more affordable than a plain old membership at another school offering 1 of the arts/sports.So all could afford it. We have succeeded in that and our students can attend all these extra events and pay for their membership here and it is still less in total per year than other schools memberships alone. We have also been successful in bringing in some of the top Athletes and coaches in the world for our students and we are excited for who we have coming in over the next 12 months. Take advantage of these opportunities and enjoy your martial arts journey. These memories will last a lifetime! These pictures are just from the past 12 months and we have another exciting 12 more ahead of us. Enjoy the ride because here at the Den you can get a martial arts experience like no other.
SEE YOU ON THE MATS!!!