Quest for improvement: I love the excitement of watching junior students working hard to catch up to the skills of the inspirational seniors and drive towards their goals and dreams. jason rau has been doing exactly that. This weekend he entered sapeteiro Invitational 185 pound division – despite being a 170 pound athlete- and took gold – winning every match by submission in regulation time. Mr Rau has a formidable arsenal of attacks that just keeps growing, but sankaku (triangle) and ashi garami Based attacks are his favorites. He used both to win the gold. In the finals he faced EBI standout Josh Hayden, who has a reputation as a strong leg locker and a very difficult person to leg lock. Mr Rau had no problems breaking through and getting the win via heel hook variation to take a fine victory. This all happened prior to the big Kasai show last night and it was inspiration to his team mate and great friend Nick Ronan, who got the good news and then went out on stage to win via strangle in his superfight with Mike Davila. A great weekend for these two friends and students of our approach. This constant quest for improvement is the heart and soul of jiu jitsu study. We all need a reason to get up and go every morning – without such a reason every step is an effort – but when you have a passion and goal every dawn is a renewed chance to get what you want and your feet feel light indeed.
