Last month we had the honor of hosting a seminar at the academy for Van Robertson. It was a really neat experience as the attendees were mixed with adults and child practitioners.

Van taught variations of the Bull Fighter (also known as the Toreando) pass, with a very reactive and systematic approach. The passes primarily dealt with the guard player maintaining both grips on the sleeves of the guard passer. Using both sets of grips (on the guard player’s pants and their grips on the passer) she anchored their guard and switched grips on the legs in a specific manner that killed their ability to make space. There was more to it than that, but that’s what I took away from it in essence, besides the specific techniques that she taught.

The seminar was a donation based event where all the money made was donated to a non-profit brazilian jiu jitsu program in Oakland called Guardian. Guardian Jiu Jitsu is a martial arts program that funds children to train under the age of 18 with donations from their adult members and community events. We were able to raise just about $400 for the event.

If you have the opportunity to train with or learn from Van in the future we highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity. She is detailed, thoughtful, and engages with learners in a fun and active way.

Van now lives and trains in Auckland, New Zealand, but we are lucky that her parents live here and that she comes and visits when she is in the area!

Coach Aaron