One unique part of our program at EDH is that students organize a community activity at the end of their belt promotion. As a way to celebrate their accomplishment with the team, and to enrich their community in some way.
Ryan has his event coming up in August. Please share!
Purple belt bjj Promotion
Javen, age 17, is the youngest from El Dorado Hills, CA to receive his purple belt. A martial artist at heart, Javen has embraced training as a continuous exploration of self awareness. As young as he his, his maturity as a person and jiujitsu practitioner is deceiving. People often mistake him for being in his 20’s when they first meet Javen.
He is humble, respectful, eager to learn, and ready to receive input and advice.
As a jr. coach, Javen is eager to teach. As a teacher he looks to connect with students, helps them find comfort with the uncomfortable, and guides them to push their boundaries. As a coach, he finds ways to improve the physical, mental, emotional capacities of his athletes. A leader of character by example.
We’re very fortunate to have him on the mat with us. Thank you for giving it your all both on and off the mat.
Gray-white belt promotion at EDH “the hills” Jiu Jitsu
Eli has really grown into overcoming some adversity. Yet, he listened to the support and advice from his family and coaches to keep going. Trusting the advice of authority can be difficult at times, but this is a critical skill to develop in training and in life.
Now Eli brings a “go get it” attitude to training and is a constant growing force in his skills and ability to focus. His level of determination to train at really stepped up and we look forward to him being more of a leader in class.
The Mat Mind Retreat is a unique experience to fully immerse yourself to the jiujitsu lifestyle. A lifestyle where you take the challenges and lessons from the mat and apply them to the rest of your life.
The training session will be an opportunity to challenge yourself both physically and mentally in your skills on and off the mat. Mat Mind sessions are designed to help bridge any gap your might have between your physical training with your mental training. In addition to being on the mat, we will be surfing Folsom Lake! Bring some sun screen!
🛡柔🛡G-W Belt Promotion! Congrats to Ella on her belt promotion. Ella started with her sister, a bit shy ☺️ at first but with the support of her family, friends, and sister she made the transition in no time. Her resilience to persevere through adversity is unmatched. We are looking forward to seeing her further challenge herself on and off the mat! Congrats! 
🛡柔🛡G-W Belt Promotion! Congrats to Ella on her belt promotion. Ella started with her sister, a bit shy ☺️ at first but with the support of her family, friends, and sister she made the transition in no time. Her resilience to persevere through adversity is unmatched. We are looking forward to seeing her further challenge herself on and off the mat! Congrats!
March 4, 2019
By Aaron Martinez
I wanted to give my thoughts on what is the best way to coach a Black Belt during competition, or an athlete that is higher ranked, or is more skilled than yourself. I remember thinking, “Should I even be saying anything at all?” I asked a former Black Belt instructor of mine after one of his matches, when we traveled together to compete and I was the only one there to coach him. I was a purple belt, but he said, “Absolutely.” I did my best, but certainly could have coached him better if I knew what I know now.
As a black belt now, I really want my coaching kept simple. I’ve worked my game plan and drilled it a thousand times. I don’t need someone trying to coach every single element of the match. I want to know:
1. The time left in the match
2. Situational- I’m up or down by points and advantages
3. Be calm and breathe when I’m getting too excited
4. Motivation when I’m down and losing hope.
It’s the complete opposite of coaching a white belt, or someone new to competition. In those situations you have to do a lot of hand holding and walk them through situations when you can. A black belt knows how they want to defend a choke from the back. Screaming directions on how to defend the neck and escape the hooks is silly unless you see something you 100% know they can’t identify on their own because of their position.
There are many different kinds of relationships between coaches and athletes and many different scenarios that will dictate the dynamics of coaching. But if you walk into a tournament and see your black belt instructor competing and no one is there to coach them, you can at least be helpful and give them information they can use to help them win.
GW Belt Promotion! Congrats to Max on his belt graduation. Max kick started the jiujitsu fever in his family and now his sister trains with him on the mat. He came with great hustle, and has developed the ability to focus fully through his training. Once he mastered this skill, his learning has been snowballing! We see Max to be a silent leader as he continues to grow up on the mat and help his peers become stronger!
February 18, 2019
By Aaron Martinez
Why I don’t cross train at other gyms
When I first started training I was so excited to learn Jiu-Jitsu that I remember wanting to go to all the other academies to train. Before I started driving around and paying drop-in fees I found out that my head instructor really didn’t want us training at other schools. I never asked why and I didn’t care to speculate. I was happy at my school and loved my team. There was no reason to train somewhere else and go against my instructor, even if I thought he’d never know.
Now, as an instructor and a competitor I have a clear perspective on cross training. I don’t do it, I don’t like it and I’d prefer that my students and teammates didn’t do it as well. The common assumption by students is that their instructor wants to control their students and is afraid that cross-training students will leave their academy for another after visiting enough schools. This is not my motivation for staying away from other schools, and there are perfectly good reasons for attending other schools under other circumstances.
But here are a few common reasons why I have heard it is good to cross train and my reasons why I don’t agree with them.
The truth is that there are good reasons to train at other schools. If you’re traveling, if they are an affiliate of your school, if you are participating in an event like a seminar, if you cross train as a team etc.
I also understand that at a certain point, a practitioner want’s to train with similar training partners that their academy just simply lacks. High level females, professional level black belts, rooster weights, ultra-heavy weights, etc. These aren’t terribly selfish reasons to train elsewhere in my opinion, but there is a goal behind it: to get ready for competition.
And that’s where the difference comes in as an individual. As a competitor, I’m training with competition in mind. That is the focus of my training and reasons to decide why I don’t want to cross train. I really believe that if I leave my team to train somewhere else for competition I am never going to have the training partners and school I would need to get ready for competition. It’s the symbiotic nature of training together. Everyone is helping each other get better; consistently over time. Every time a main training partner is absent because they are training somewhere else our training suffers.
If you don’t compete and sparing is your competition then I understand why you’d want to branch out and train with other people. To me, it’s silly to be that competitive and not actually compete, but maybe I’m wrong and there is something I just don’t understand. I’m open to hearing your input.
Gray white belt promotion
🛡柔🛡
Congrats to Ally on her next challenge! Ally started Jiujitsu after watching her brother on the mat. If was as if she was already training when she stepped on the mat. She understood the importance of focus. Her ability to focus is a very strong asset that she continues to use and develop in training. 
On another note, this marks the beginning of our 3rd year teaching the peewee class (age 4-6). It’s great to see the little ones grow out of their gi along with their growth on the mat. Here’s to another year of learning through fun & play!