Whats in store for this spring/summer?
Hi all, we are here to keep you updated on what has been going on here at the Den along with some fun things that are on the horizon in the coming months . Things are always busy here as we have so many programs going on at once. We are wrapping up wrestling season and in the last few months our wrestlers have taken the mat and competed in over 10 tournaments now. With last season pretty much non existent due to Covid it was great to see our kids out there competing. They finally got to see just how far they have come and they absolutely killed it in competition.Our team was very dominant in every tournament we competed in. These kids should be super proud of themselves and the parents definitely owe them an ice cream sundae. Wrestling is a very tough sport and these kids have worked hard to get where they are. Im expecting big things from them all in the future.
On April 1'st we take the wrestling team on a field trip to the university of Buffalo. We will be spending 3 days in Buffalo and I hope everyone likes chicken wings because we will be filling up on them and some of the best wrestling in the Country. The kids will get a full tour of the athletic complex and facilities before beginning their practices in Buffalo's wrestling room with the teams coaching staff and wrestlers.
The kids are currently getting prepped for that this week with coach Caleb back in our room and working with them. Caleb is coming off his 2nd year with the Buffalo Bulls and racked up a bunch of wins in his redshirt year compiling over 20 wins already at the Division 1 NCAA level. He and coach Trent are looking to be wrestling at 133 and 141 for the Bulls next season. We are excited to see more of our wrestlers from the Den continue to grow and develop as we would love to send some more of them to Buffalo and other top programs in the coming years.
Our Jiu Jitsu program has been growing and we have a ton of new students on the mat. Last weekend we traveled to NYC and trained at the world famous Renzo Gracie main academy. We had a great time and took a class in the morning on Saturday and then had a private session with Robson Gracie that afternoon. It was great to see and work with Robson again and he showed us a ton of new material when we were there. Members can access videos to most of these techniques on our members only page on facebook. We are already planning our next field trip back down and plan to offer something for our Muay Thai students this next time as well.
In the coming months we will be competing in 4 different Jiu Jitsu tournaments . On April 15'th we will be in springfield MA, June 4'th right here in Albany NY , August 17-18 in Wildwood NJ and then in September back in Springfield MA. We have all of our youth students compete at the local Albany event and they can pick and choose to do any of the other ones that they would like to do. For our adults , this is all voluntary and up to you. The tournament in August at Wildwood is a great time . We usually spend time at the beach / pool together the day before as well as grab dinner together while we are down there at some great restaurants. We also do the boardwalk with the kids one night as they have lots of games and rides. This year we were also thinking of doing the waterpark as well. The kids had an absolute blast last year, parents too! If you are planning on attending that one, book your room soon and if you are looking to carpool down and share a room with other members , create a post on our members only page. We usually have a few people looking to do this and that is a great spot to get things planned. Our next belt promotion and clinic with Professor Secor is scheduled for April 30'th!! We have a ton of kids up for promotion as well as one of our adults. If this is your first time to a clinic/promotion , it is a great time. Each family brings a pot luck dish to share. We do a clinic for an hour , followed by promotions and then we all share what we brought in. There is enough food for the spectators as well, grab a plate.All BJJ students should be in attendance.
We have some great events lined up for you in the next few months here at the Den as well. We have the UFC past and present here this summer!UFC fighter, Mike Davis will be here with us in July for 2 full days putting on a bunch of different classes! Then in August one of the best ever in Dan Severn will be with us for a day. Dan is a UFC Hall of famer and it is an honor to have him here with us. This summer we will also have Kyle Shoop in from the University of Buffalo and he will put on a wrestling clinic . Kyle is currently the assistant coach for the Buffalo Bulls.
On May 7'th we will host our next UFC viewing party here at the Den. We will have the big screen out and the fights on all night. Bring yourselves and a dish to share along with a couple of drinks. These parties are 18 and up. no kiddos , its a late night . This is shaping up to be a great event!
MMA!! We have a great crop of up and coming MMA fighters here at the Den and we will have 8 - 10 fighters fighting over the next 10 months!!!!! Trent and Caleb will be kicking things off in July at the Cage Wars event. We also plan to see some other guys following them soon after in Steve, Q , Brendan , Elshaddai , Rich and Diego with a couple more not far behind. These guys have been training hard and you can expect to see them all in action soon! We should have a fighter in an event every few months.Great job by all of our coaches in helping prepare these guys.
Also , dont forget we have a great Summer camp in August for kids 5 and up. 5 full days with 3 field trips all included to the movies , funplex and bowling. The kids play games including having Nerf Wars each day inside the facility and also do 2 practices per day. Coach Caleb is the head counselor throughout the day along with 2 assistants. This is limited to 20 campers so pre registration is advised. more details and cost can be found on the events page of our website. Deposit of $50 needed to hold a spot
Here is a link to our events page so you can get more details on all of these great events
Last but not least , you can look forward to some added classes in the coming months. We will be adding a " Just for Kicks " class for kids. This class is for children already taking our boxing classes who would like to add kicks . This will prepare them for our adult Muay Thai classes down the road. We are also looking to add Jiu Jitsu to our Sunday schedule and an added MMA class. Stay tuned as these classes will be added to our schedule in the coming months.
See you on the mats!!