Tho Vu won five of seven fights at the Asia Jiu-Jitsu Championship recently held in Tokyo, Japan. In the master’s blue belt division, Vu submitted three straight opponents and lost his fourth fight 2-0. In the open division, Vu defeated a 181-pound opponent 2-0 and then lost a close decision by one advantage in his second fight.

It was an outstanding performance for a very competitive tournament. The Kimura Switzerland team also competed with seven competitors taking home 12 medals. Vu wanted to thank all of his friends and instructors in Boston who helped prepare for the tournament and his sponsor, WIKIGAZETTE. 

Due to the severity of the snow storm and the coming holiday season, we’ve been forced to move our promotions to Saturday January 17, 2009 at the same time (1:00pm).  The academy will also be closed December 24th, 25th, and 31st as well as January 1st for the holidays and new year.   Keep checking updates here at Kimurabjj.com for news about emailing/text message lists to keep everyone well informed of Kimura BJJ news.  Please stay safe and warm and we’ll see everyone on the mat soon!

Kimura Academy’s 2008 winter belt promotion will take place on Saturday December 20th at 1:00pm.  Promotions will be held in the Watertown school and students who are promoting need to talk to Jean and pay the promotion fee by Thursday December 18th at the very latest.  Students who have been training consistently and for a reasonable amount of time since their last promotion or start date (roughly 3 months for white belts, 6 months for blue belts and up) will be eligible for promotion to the next stripe or belt.  If you are unsure, please talk to Jean.  Fees for the promotion will be 25 dollars if you are getting a stripe and 50 dollars if you are getting a new belt.  Belt promotions are a recognition of all the knowledge and improvement students have made through hard work and training and not an actual test.  With each promotion we look back and see the amazing accomplishments the students and academy has made.  The technical level at the academy has become so high in just 6 months, it’s truly inspiring to think of what the school will be like in another 6 months.  Congratulations to everyone and keep up the good work!

To call 2008 a banner year for Tho Vu would be an understatement.

After studying jiu-jitsu under master Jean Kleber for less than two years, Tho has amassed a total of 13 medals, ceremonial swords, and trophies over 2008, competing in 10 tournaments that took him everywhere from California to Abu Dhabi.

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Kimura BJJ competitors put forth another strong showing at the 2008 NAGA North American Championships held in Newark, New Jersey November 8. Competitors took home a total of ten medals, including six first-place finishes.

Purple Belts: Diego took 2^nd place (Adult)

Blue Belts: Tho Vu won two championships (Master and Adult divisions), Bruno took 1^st (Master), Stanley Chen and Lucas Lowry took 3^rd (Adult), Rob had 1^st and 2^nd finishes (Adult & Master), and Xandao 2^nd Place (Adult)

White Belts: Marcelo took 1^st place (Adult) and Jeff Hsu took 1^st place (Adult)

Jeff Hsu said he received one of his most challenging matches date. After winning four fights all by submission, Jeff faced a tough judo competitor in the finals. The fight went the distance with Jeff winning by an advantage.

Check out the NAGA website (http://www.nagafighter.com) for team results, which will be posted soon.

Kimura Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu held its Third Kimura BJJ Tournament on October 18, 2008 at the school’s Watertown gym. The event drew over 55 competitors from both its Watertown and South Boston schools for a full day of top notch jiu-jitsu competition.

“This was the most successful school tournament so far,” said Kimura BJJ master, Jean Kleber. “The competitors just keep getting better, and I would like to congratulate everyone who participated.”

Among the many divisions, the tournament had two Absolute Divisions for white belts and blue/purple belts. Jeff Hsu, a 2008 World Jiu Jitsu champion, cleaned up the white belt division, finishing in first place and taking home a prize of a new Atama gi and registration fees for an upcoming NAGA tournament. Jean finished in second place and James finished in third.

For the blue and purple belts, Diego took first in the Absolute Division, with Stanley coming in second and Bruno taking third. Diego also won an Atama gi and NAGA registration fees as a prize.

“Bruno was a revelation,” said Kleber. “He showed the true spirit of jiu-jitsu. He is only maybe 145 pounds, but he was beating people many pounds heavier than him, and was always competitive.”

The academy schedule has been updated for Wednesdays and Saturdays to include our new Muay Thai class.  We are proud to offer this class which is being taught by Kimura BJJ’s very own Harut Arutyunyan.  Harut has trained with us in BJJ for quite some time and the few students who do not know him by name will most likely recognize him by sight as he is almost always at class, training diligently.  What students may not know however is that Harut is also a world class Muay Thai competitor and instructor!

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Just in time for the new year, Kimura BJJ Academy is proud to present a newly designed website that is now hosted on a faster and more stable server.  Please check out our new schedule and pictures section!  We will be putting up many more pictures as well as adding information and new features that will be very useful our students’.  So please check back soon!  A special thanks goes out to Harut for taking time to apply his amazing design skills to create this beautiful new design!

The 3rd Kimura BJJ Academy Tournament will be held on October 18, 2008 at 1:00pm at the Watertown school. Weigh-ins with the gi on will start at 12:00pm. Weight classes can be found on the ibjff.org website.

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Kimura’s Marcelo and Bruno took first and third respectively in their white and blue belt gi divisions at Naga’s Battle at the Beach in New Jersey on August 2-3. Both Marcelo and Bruno competed in both the no-gi divisions as well. Despite never having any formal training in no-gi, Marcelo won an impressive 3 fights in that division! Congratulations once again to Marcelo and Bruno and a much deserved round of applause for making the long drive down Wildwood, NJ to represent Kimura BJJ! Fantastic job guys!

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