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Alliance News

Alliance 2010 Pan Am Championship Training Camp

February 18, 2010

Alliance Headquarters in Atlanta is proud to announce our upcoming Pan-Am training camp. The camp will be Wednesday March 31st to Wednesday April 7th. The camp will be ran by 6th degree blackbelt and Alliance founder Romero “Jacare” Cavalcanti. Featured will be top stars from all of the Alliance affiliates throughout the world. There will be two training sessions a day. There will be discounted lodging available through local merchants. This will be a great experience and will raise the level of anyone attending.

When: March 31, 2010 - April 7, 2010
Where: 6332 Roswell Road, Atlanta, GA 30328
Price: $300 for non Alliance members and $200 for members
More Info: Call 404-843-0606 or email info@alliancebjj.com

Kid Peligro Jiu-Jitsu News . . . Romero "Jacare" with the Rangers - Alliance Team Ready for the European

January 27, 2010

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Look back and move forth

In an emotion-filled report, the leader of Alliance Atlanta sums up a year replete with joy and hardship

November 12, 2009 as featured in graciemag.com

Alliance founder Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti lived out a year 2009 full of highs and lows. His team won its fourth Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, but the master had some close calls where his health was concerned. “After training with Cobrinha, I felt this horrible pain in my chest. I went to the hospital and woke up with a quadruple bypass, along with some other things,” recalls Jacaré, who had another scare early in the year, when a kidney problem kept him out of combat for a few weeks.

It was in Jiu-Jitsu that Romero sought support: “The whole time at the hospital I was thinking it wasn’t time to go, that I still have much to do.” A phone call from a friend helped in his recovery: “Renzo called me one day and I was too weak even to speak. He told me from the other end of the line, in his characteristic cheerful and positive way: ‘Champ, be strong because you’ll get past this, we’ve been through rougher patches before, this is nothing.’ And I imagined him standing before me, with that winning smile that shrugs off hard times, and thought to myself: ‘Of course I’ll make it past this.’”

After the scare, Jacaré turned 57 on October 22 and the date made him reminisce about the beginning: “I had a flashback of these past nearly 30 years, ever since I started, back in the ‘70s, at the famous Carlson Gracie academy, above Casa Gebara, in Copacabana. I trained with Professor Tuninho. That was where I fell in love with Jiu-Jitsu, a sport that wasn’t as hyped as it is today. There were no World Championships, no Pan-Americans, etc… It was the north zone versus the south zone, in Rio.” Competing was a lot different too: “Heel-hooks and slams were allowed; it was rough, a mistake in defense would cost you the match. You would only get a rematch the following year, since it wasn’t like now with competitions all the time. I once took a slam at the Rio Championship and spent a few months unable to train. I got greedy about the arm from the guard and only woke up a while later.”

Since then Jacaré witnessed the growth of his passion and the transformation of a sport into a global industry, as he himself recounts: “Our art is perhaps the fighting style growing most in the world, reaching epidemic proportions worldwide. Wherever you go, at all four corners of the globe, there is Jiu-Jitsu.” And, without feigned modesty, Jacaré knows he played an important role in this growth: “I’m happy to have helped, along with the others, to get Jiu-Jitsu to where it is. I produced good teachers and students, participated in all the competitions since the ‘70s. Alliance, which was first Jacaré and then Master, is around to this day and even the best in the world these past two years. From it others arose, like Brasa and Check Mat. My mission is being accomplished.”

The inspiration for this tireless work comes from the example bestowed on Romero by his great master: “I always converse with my late master Rolls Gracie. I ask him: ‘Now are you satisfied? You left the party early, but we’re here till now to make you happy.’ He answers: ‘Dear Jacaré, this isn’t even the beginning. We still have a long way to go.’”

With the words of Rolls echoing, Jacaré finishes: “In 1989 I promoted my first black belt, Fabio Gurgel. He is without a doubt doing an extraordinary job and if today we have branches in South and North America, Europe and Asia and still remain united, I owe a lot of it to him, who always believed we could stand tall again after all we went through with the split. With work and perseverance, we shall always have the hope of better days to come. I wish the entire Jiu-Jitsu community a 2010 loaded with success and everyone doing their part for this marvelous sport to become even greater so when the day comes that we meet our eternal masters, Carlos, Helio, Rolls and Carlson, once again we may ask them: “Where do we go to train?”

20th Anniversary for Jacaré's First Black Belt

November 6, 2009

October 23, 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of Jacaré promoting his first Black Belt. That promotion went to none other than the now 4x World Champion Fabio Gurgel. Fabio, also known as "The General", is a co-founder of the Alliance Team. He heads the association in Brazil with his own academy in Sao Paulo and has affiliates all over the world. He is called "The General" because of his outstanding coaching and leadership abilities. Fabio has trained and helped people like Rubens "Cobrinha" Maciel, Marcelo Garcia, Tarsis Humphries, Sergio Moraes, Michael Langhi, and many others achieve world champion status. He is a cornerstone of the Alliance Team and Jiu Jitsu tradition.

Thinking back on when Fabio began training with him, Jacaré describes Fabio as looking like a full-grown man even at the young age of 14 when they met. Jacaré also recollects how he got into trouble with Fabio's parents because Fabio would skip school in the afternoon to train Jiu Jitsu. He considers Fabio to be one of the best modern Jiu Jitsu fighters of his time. Jacaré is very proud of his first black belt and long time friend.

In an interview found on KombatClinic.com, Fabio recalls how it all started for him:

"I got involved with Jiu Jitsu when I was 13. My sister's boy friend, Heleno de Freitas, was one of the top Carlos Gracie Jr. students and he convinced me to start Jiu Jitsu. Initially, I went to a very small academy close to my school where an old guy called Toninho was teaching. He gave me a lot of attention and my first steps were in self defense with a lot of basics. But, after 8 months the academy moved far away. I then thought I should move to Carlos Gracie's academy but once more Heleno told me to search for a small academy and recommended Jacaré's school, which was close to my house (I'm very thankful to him everyday in my life for this).

I met Jacaré when I was 14 and started training very seriously. Jacaré was just starting his own academy and, after less then one year, I found out that Jiu Jitsu was the thing that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The only thing that I needed was try to be the best, and I succeeded.

I got my blue belt when I was 15, purple at 16, brown at 18, and black at 19. It was pretty fast but I use to train 6 hours every day no matter if it was a holiday, weekend, or vacation."

It was that kind of dedication, which included training every day, competing, and being gifted with a talent for Jiu Jitsu, that earned Fabio the Black Belt at such a young age with only 6 years of training. And, what did Fabio do to celebrate the anniversary? He trained Jiu Jitsu, of course.

We here at Team Alliance want to say "Congratulations" to both Fabio and Jacaré on this momentous occasion.

Alliance UK Climbs for Charity

October 7, 2009

As told by our Alliance UK rep, Lee Brown:

"With 14 students from Alliance UK, what we did is known as the National 3 Peaks Challenge. Including driving time, we had to climb the 3 highest mountains in the UK in under 24 hours. The driving distance is over 500 miles which only left around 13 hours for climbing. The distance of all 3 climbs is around 26 miles, so it was like doing a marathon on a mountain!! There was no time for stops, rests other than fuel, or toilet. Also, sleep deprivation was a big factor.

We began at Ben Nevis in Scotland at 3:50pm on Saturday, September 26, 2009, then on to Scafell Pike in England at around 3am (in the dark). We finished at Mt. Snowdon in Wales completing the challenge at 3:48pm on Sunday the 27th with only 2 minutes left on the clock!! The main problem we had was the mini bus we hired had a speed limiter, fitted by the rental company, set at 60mph. This cost us lots of time and we had to run the final mountain to beat the 24 hour time limit.

The charity we raised money for is called Help for Heroes (H4H). This charity was set up in the UK to provide facilities and help for injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a very worthy charity and it was quickly agreed upon to give the money we raised to H4H. So far, we have raised around £2500 ($4100) from our climb, which makes the aching legs seem well worth it.

Although a couple of guys picked up injuries during the challenge, most of us were back on the mat by Tuesday. However, we did avoid drills that used the legs!!"

Kid Peligro Jiu-Jitsu News . . . Word: Alliance Team Leaders Romero "Jacaré" Cavalcanti and Fabio Gurgel talk about the '09 Worlds Title - Tournament Round-up

June 23, 2009

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