“Who needs points when I can just tap the dude?” –Jeff Glover
by Gabriel Alconcel
TORRANCE, California On Sunday, July 22nd, 2012, South Bay’s own Ryan Parker & Royal House Fight Club hosted their very first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu seminar with Jeff “The Pipe Layer” Glover.
Jeff Glover is a prominent American grappler and Paragon BJJ black belt under Ricardo “Franjinha” Miller. Glover gained popularity over the years on the competition scene winning the Pan Americans two years in a row at brown belt (2005, 2006), the black belt World No-Gi Championships (2007), bronze medal at ADCC (2011), and numerous smaller competitions.
Glover’s esteemed reputation also comes from his signature Brabo and Darce chokes and innovations with the deep half guard.
The long day included a two-hour gi seminar followed by a lunch break and another two-hour no-gi seminar and free-training with the American BJJ black belt.
Both seminars consisted of stability ball exercises, drills, some of Glover’s favorite techniques and positions (e.g. deep half-guard and knee-on-belly), and techniques inquired by participants, which Glover was not hesitant to answer at all.
Although word about the seminar was fairly last minute, the short number of those who attended definitely seemed in awe and enthusiastic of Glover’s instruction. Additionally, the first 10 sign-ups were given their very own Jeff Glover autographed Grappling All-Stars DVD courtesy of OTM Fight Shops!
The seminar was an eye-opening experience as it showed all of the participants (including myself) that we should be creative with our jiu-jitsu, have fun, and draw inspiration from all takes of life, whether it be how a 7 year old applies a choke or even jumping on your uncle’s leg as a kid.
(Interview with Jeff Glover)
Thank you Jeff for such a great gi and no-gi seminar. What do you think is harder, gi or no-gi?
Glover: Uh, personally I think the gi is more difficult.
And why is that?
Glover: More to learn, you get hotter. You know what I’m saying? The gi kind of keeps you all warm and toasty. I just think there is more friction and guys can get grips on you that you can’t break sometimes and in no-gi it’s really easy to break grips. In my opinion, I just think Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is much harder than No-Gi.
Now I understand that you recently moved to Los Angeles, is that correct?
Glover: Yeah, I moved out to North Hollywood now.
But why Los Angeles? It already seems heavily saturated with enough Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools.
Glover: Wells that’s the thing. I don’t actually have my own school, so I’m here in L.A. just teaching private classes out of my house in North Hollywood. I have mats in my backyard and stuff that are covered right next to the pool.
So I’m not looking to move in on anybody’s spot and open an academy and become competition for anybody but you know, I’m here to share my Jiu-Jitsu.
There’s a lot of people in this town, in L.A., in the Orange County area who know about me compared to where I’m from. Where I’m from, nobody really knows about Jiu-Jitsu. So, you know, L.A. was a good choice, the next logical step in my career for spreading Jiu-Jitsu worldwide.
What competitions are you looking to do next?
Glover: Well the tournaments that I do are the ones where I’m either invited or they pay me, you know what I’m saying? Like Abu Dhabi, they invite me. The Super Fight with Caio Terra was a thousand dollars, win or lose. If there’s a tournament where I have to sign up, I’m probably not gonna do that. Probably just because I’m egotistical and I think I’m the sh*t, but it is what it is (laughing).
So is your take on competitions more like Robert Drysdale’s?
Glover: What’s that? What’s his take?
That Jiu-Jitsu fighters train like professionals so they should be paid like professionals.
Glover: Absolutely. I personally feel that way. I train like a professional. I know I’ve put wear-and-tear on my body for the last 13 years and I want to be paid for it, bro. I mean, I think I’m an exciting Jiu-Jitsu guy. I think a lot of people like my style, like to watch me and I think I’m one of the best in the world at what I do.
And I think all of us, Mendes Brothers, Cobrinha, and all of the dudes who are the best at their weight class deserve to get paid a lot of money, man. You know what I’m saying?
We work harder than freakin’ basketball players do. I know that for a fact, that I’ve done harder workouts than Kobe Bryant ever has. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll kick his ass. So that makes me think I deserve more money than him, but whatever…
Will we be seeing you in a gi more? At super fights, etc.
Glover: Um, probably not, I don’t know. Like I said, I’d have to be invited to want to do a tournament. Super fights, possibly. But I’m not gonna sign up for a gi tournament anytime soon.
And do you have any shout-outs that you want to give to anyone?
Glover: I got a shout-out to OTM, my sponsor. Got a shout-out to Franjinha, my teacher and Bill Cooper, Tyrone Glover, my mom and dad, my brothers, my bros and hoes and everyone who knows.
And how can people reach you about doing privates and group seminars?
Glover: The way to get a hold of me, the best way to do that is to just send me a message on Facebook. If you just look up “Jeff Glover” on Facebook you’ll see, I pop right up. Just shoot me a personal message, man. I respond to almost all of them, sometimes I get a little overwhelmed on Facebook but contact me through there or you can email me at <glovergrapples83 at yahoo.com>. Shoot me an email, I’ll get back to you guys.
Sounds good, thank you for having us!
Glover: My pleasure, thank you for chatting with me.
For all seminar inquiries please contact:
Ryan Parker Seminars
Phone: (310) 221-1228
Email: royalhouseryan@gmail.com
or if you simply want to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, please contact:
Royal House Fight Club
1431 Knox St. Space #1100
Torrance CA, 90501
Phone: (310) 618-1269
Facebook Search: Royal House Fight CLUB