The day after Leandro Lo won his 4th IBJJF World Championship, Leandro was in Duncanville, TX for a two part seminar hosted by Alex Martins at Alex Martins Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I had the extreme honor to be able to learn from him.
Alex Martins and Leandro Lo
About Leandro Lo:
Leandro Lo is a 26 year old first degree black belt from São Paulo, Brazil receiving his black belt from Cicero Costha at the Cicero Costha Academy.
He started training in 2004 in the Lutando Pelo Bem, a social project ran by Cicero Costa to help underprivileged children.
He has won numerous titles both with the gi and without the gi, but Leandro started becoming popular after defeating Celso Vinicius and Michael Langhi in 2011.
Leandro Lo’s Records:
4x IBJJF World Champion, in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015
3x IBJJF Pan American Champion in 2012, 2014 and 2015
2x IBJJF Brazilian National Champion in 2011 and 2012
4x Abu Dhabi World Cup Champion in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015
Leandro Lo’s Final Match in the 2015 IBJJF World Championship in against Tarsis Humphreys for the Medium Heavy Weight Class.
The Seminar:
Needless to say, it was a complete honor to simply be in the same room as Leandro Lo, let alone having the opportunity to learn from him.
At Alex Martin’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy, Leandro Lo had a two part seminar on the Monday and Tuesday after the 2015 Mundials. Unfortunately, I was only able to make it to the second day of the seminar series, but even within those 3 hours, I learned so much from him.
This was not like any other seminar I had been to previously, I was one of the lowest ranked belts there; with numerous other black belts lining up to learn from him, and in general mostly more experienced practitioners. On Monday, 19 people, and on Tuesday, 17 people showed up to learn from one of the greats.
Leandro Lo – May 2015
As I don’t speak Portuguese, there was a bit of a language breakdown, but my coach, Alex Martins, translated, and broke down each movement enough to understand by only watching if necessary.
We learned three sweeps, and two passes. These sweeps used a combination of lasso guard, spider guard, de la riva and x guard. The passes were a spider guard pass and a de la rival sweep. During instruction many people, including myself took notes trying to absorb as much instruction and information as possible from Leandro. Pictures and video were not allowed during instruction.
After each instruction, we spent time learning the move, and Leandro Lo and Alex Martins came around helping demonstrate and critique.
After learning 5 moves, there was a question and answer section, where we asked specific questions to Leandro Lo. Here he showed techniques such as an escape from worm guard and a defense for double under pass, along with numerous other things. He also answered questions about his training, his students and his gym.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with his game and the technique he taught. I only hope I was able to pick up a little bit to help improve my game.
