Professor Luis "Limao" Heredia Seminar

I had the chance today to travel to Bluffton, SC with two of my buddies from Swampfox BJJ, Mark and Mike, and attend a seminar at Cross Rhodes BJJ  from the very much accomplished and well renown mind of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Professor Luis Heredia. First of all this is was my first seminar and it was truly a life and game enhancing experience.

A little background about the Professor: He was the first purple belt to step foot in the United States. With friends and training partners, Rorian and Rickson Gracie, he helped to start the spread of Jiu Jitsu throughout the US. He has trained with the Gracie Family and associated with the founders of the gentle art since he was around 14 years old. He is a 5 time Pan Am champion and world class instructor and professor at Maui Jiu Jitsu Academy. You can visit the site and find out more about this pillar of the Jiu Jitsu community.


Now, this was my first seminar ever, and with such a honored member of the Jiu Jitsu family. So let's get the awkwardness out of the way. That's right, I showed up in a Black Kimono. Yes, I now know that I am to wear a white one. I felt kind of bad and embarrassed about the whole ordeal.


After Professor Heredia gave some background on himself. We started with some techniques from questions that everyone was asking. It was kind of overwhelming to see his mind work at the puzzle of Jiu Jitsu. The first question was about your opponent being off balance while in knee-on-belly mount and they have bad posture for setting up the choke, what do you do on bottom? You could see the 30 plus years of experience in the art at work immediately. He started instructing us on some sweeps from bottom while in knee-on-belly mount.

His technical skills and ability to teach techniques was amazing. He flawlessly flowed from one question to the next and the next. Answering each one and demonstrating each technique to the counter and the attack. All of us listened to his detailed explanation of each move.
 How to control the head and the hips were the keys to all of the techniques; if you allow an opponent to have movement of their head or their hips, they can escape or counter.

He explained his progression through Jiu Jitsu and how he became to wonder about being a small frame guy and learning to keep mount position after he had been playing bottom and guard for a majority of years. He started to learn about weight distribution and started working full mount and submissions from mount. His coaching for mount positions and submissions is something, I think, I will never forget.

With this, he started his tutelage on mount position and submissions from mount. We worked the choke and went over the orientation of the wrists and how crucial it is to the choke submissions. While drilling these moves, I learned a lot about the cross choke, hip placement and weight distribution.

He shared stories with us about some of the tournaments, and his thoughts and beliefs on Jiu Jitsu. He told us that Jiu Jitsu is the only sport that he can feel present in and focused on, and not think about anything else.

This being my first seminar, Professor Heredia and Cross Rhodes BJJ have set the bar and exceeded my expectations. I look forward to utilizing and adding some of these moves to my game. If you get a chance to attend a seminar from Professor Heredia, I suggest you take it. It will be the best investment and experience you will make to your life and Jiu Jitsu.

Thanks Professor Heredia, Ben Rhodes, Cross Rhodes BJJ guys/gals, and my training partner during the seminar, Andrew.

Please feel free to post your comments or your feedback.

And now some videos of Professor Heredia: