Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get to spend a week at Marcelo Garcia’s new academy in Kailua, Hawaii. Training with Marcelo was on my bucket list and the experience exceeded my expectations. Marcelo was back to competition this year after a long hiatus and has a brand new academy in Hawaii that is only 7 months old. His academy is about the exact same size as ours and just the vibes and energy Marcelo brings to every practice is hard to put into words.
It was a fun week to be there training since he was getting his students ready for Master’s Worlds at the end of the month so there was a focus on getting a good start in competition and the rolls were high energy because of it too. He does a great job of focusing on keeping the energy high at the start while keeping things simple. Marcelo stays humble when bringing up his past experiences and how they shape his strategy.
It is crazy to be training with him because I watched him compete so much, watched him train on mginaction for years. Certain techniques I use are straight from watching him over the years.
If you ever have a chance to make it out that way check his academy out https://marcelogarciajj.com/hawaii/