Meet Your Instructors – Part 1:
Romulo Barral & Kendall Reusing
Romulo Barral & Kendall Reusing
Hello fellow grapplers and grapplinas!
I hope your training is good and you are having a nice day. I am currently on a train on my way to visit an old friend in the countryside. We’re going to hike a mountain, swim in a lake and probably talk about Dragon Ball a bunch. This guy can tell you everything about Dragon Ball, it’s crazy!
Today I will introduce the first two of our five head-instructors at Jiutopia 2022. One is a living legend, who won multiple world titles and the other is a rising star, who made a big impact in the scene in a relatively short time. Both athletes represent Gracie Barra and we are honored to host them this August in Greece.
You might have already guessed from the picture but just to make sure, I am talking about Romulo Barral and Kendall Reusing. Since I can tell you a more personal side to Romulo as a professor, I will start with the rising star first.
Kendall Reusing
Kendall Marie Reusing is an active BJJ fighter competing in the super heavyweight division.
She has been training Jiu-jitsu under her father, Tom Reusing, from the age of five. As a 13-year-old she decided to focus on wrestling.
In the following six years she developed into a top-level competitor and brought home the California State Championship as well as four US National Championships in high school. That’s just insane right there.
After this successful run she came back to her first love – BJJ – and dominated her weight class in all competitions as a colored belt.
As a black belt, she won gold the IBJJF No Gi Worlds (2019), IBJJF Pans No Gi (2021) and Silver in the open weight division.
We are excited to share the mats with and learn from such a talented athlete as Kendall Reusing.
Romulo Barral
Professor Romulo was one of the head-coaches last year and I wrote about my experience of the trainings and the camp in general in this blogpost right here.
I’m sure all of you heard of Romulo Barral. At the peak of his career he was the best BJJ fighter in the world. At this point I could list all of his accomplishments, and there is plenty but instead I’ll tell you what he is like in training.
Romulo Barral is a thunderstorm of positive energy. From the very first moment of training you will feel his passion for BJJ and especially for teaching it.
What I liked in particular is that he didn’t show any complicated techniques but instead stuck to his favorites. He showed the half-spider guard with three sweeping/attacking options you have, depending on what your opponent does.
Aside from explaining his techniques in way that is easy to grasp, he continually adds in personal anectodes from experiences that are related to what he is teaching. This makes his classes extremely entertaining and informative at the same time.
In this video you can get a glimpse of his teaching style as well as see one of the techniques that he showed last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inCu_AeDqkU&ab_channel=BJJLibrary
Alright my friends, that’s it for today.
Thanks for engaging with the Jiutopia community. Everyone on the team is working super hard to make this year’s experience better, bigger and more fun for all of us!
If you have any questions about the camp, feel free to reach out via our IG channel @jiutopia_camp or email us at info@jiutopia.com.
Have a beautiful rest of your day!
Best,
Artur from Jiutopia.
