Rising to the top: As a coach I always love to watch the most essential dynamic of a healthy training room – the work done by junior students (kohai) to rise to senior status (Senpai). Watching the growth of the juniors is always uplifting to me as a coach and is the best feedback I get as to the relative health of the training program I run. A notable addition to the ranks of the kohai is a young student of my great friend and teammate Matt Serra, Jason Rau. He came to us with a strong positional game and has taken to our methods very well indeed. Keep your eye on the progress of this talented young man. Next week he will compete in a tournament that has helped launch so many of our kohai to the next level – Sapeteiro 7. It will feature a sixteen man tournament featuring many outstanding grapplers, some of whom are in this weekends EBI event. It will be at a weight of 175 pounds and the athletes will duke it out for two thousand shekels in what should be a thrilling experience for the competitors and the fans. I'm looking forward to a display of skills from Mr Rau blending old school positional skill with squad style submission workWorking out with him are fellow kohai Matthew Tesla and Frankie Rosenthal along with MMA legend Jake Shields – here they work their armlock Juji gatame drills before getting into sparring
