In huge news, BGJJ Kickboxing Instructor Adam Bourke is now scheduled to fight PRIDE veteran Charles "Crazy Horse" Bennett in the upcoming King Of The Cage show in Sydney on July 7th.

For more information about Adam's opponent, internet MMA fans may be interested to check out Krazy Horse's MMA Record

Good luck Adam from all your teammates, students, and friends!

GJJ Brown Belt Steve Williams will begin teaching a new GJJ Fundamentals class on Tuesdays starting 27/6/06 at our full time academy in Newcastle.

The classes will focus on the fundamental (ie. most important) skills of Jiu Jitsu, and run from 6pm to 7pm every Tuesday.

A pioneer of BJJ in NSW, Steve is a walking encyclopedia of Jiu Jitsu, and we are very lucky to have him teaching this new class

Recent visitor to BGJJ, Prof. Luiz Tannuri is now teaching BJJ on Tues and Thurs nights at Powerhouse Gym Stafford, home of IMA. 23 Wolverhampton St, Stafford, North Brisbane.

Prof. Luiz is a fantastic instructor and anyone who has the opportunity to train with him has a great opportunity.

Beston-Gracie Students and internet fans may be interested to check out our new 2006-2007 Yellow Pages Advertisement on page 833 (Martial Arts) under "Gracie Jiu Jitsu", and also page 684 (Health & Fitness Centres) in the newly distributed Newcastle Yellow Pages.

Our Central Coast Academia advertisement is due to be published shortly.

Check out our Articles pages for an article on the success of our West Coast family in the Submission Grappling tournament earlier this year.

Check out our Gracie Diet, Gracie Fitness, and BJJ Technique pages for our newly added online resources.

Today was the offical NSW BJJ State Titles organised by the prestigious NSW BJJ Federation.

Our biggest team ever made up of a massive 14 Students including white, blue, purple, and brown belts from Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu competed as part of Prof. Bruno Panno's powerhouse Gracie Sydney team.

It was a great day for Jiu Jitsu, and for the students of Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu in particular. All our representatives displayed great Jiu Jiu Jitsu, and our results speak for themselves picking up a bumper FIVE GOLD MEDALS, one silver, and one bronze.

Congratulations to our newest batch of State Champions - Nathan "Gringo" White (Blue Belt), Brendon Campbell (Blue Belt), Jay "King" Riege (Blue Belt), Matthew Allen (White Belt), and John Reynolds (White Belt), and also to state championship medallists Luke "Lucozade" Nutley (Bronze - Purple Belt), and Bryan Taylor (Silver - White Belt).

Prof. Bruno sends his congratulations to all our competitors

Topping off an already fantastic day it was Luke's honour to present Matthew Allen with his Blue Belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Matt has been a dedicated student of Jiu Jitsu for many many years and his blue belt is an achievement Matt has well and truely earnt. Well done Matt from all your training partners and friends!!

Thanks once again to the NSW BJJ Federation Directors Prof. Bruno Panno, Prof. Marcelo Rezende, and Prof. Paulo Guimaraes for running another great event, and also for Prof. Peter de Been (AFBJJ President) who attended the tournament. Once again Angela Gracie's GracieSeminars.com was an official sponsor of the NSWBJJF to support the progression of all who support the sport in NSW.

As always, thanks to all who were there on the day to support our athletes, and thanks to the entire team who were all part of their preparation. Special thanks to our senior colour belts who are instrumental in the training of our competition team - Ben Thomas, Steve Williams, Paul Haffenden, Luke Nutley, and Dave Frendin

Gracie.com.au is honoured to welcome Prof. Dani Mello as a contributor to our website. Prof. Dani counts many of Brazil's top grapplers amongst her students and she will be sharing her expertise on this page with regular articles specifically focused on scientific Strength and Conditioning as it applied to the art of Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Check out our new Gracie Fitness page for Dani's first article.

Check out our Gracie Diet page for our new recipie of the month from Angela Gracie.

Check out our Gracie Technique page for our new technique of the month from Royler Gracie Black Belt Prof. Jason Izaguirre.

Thanks to VAS who now sponsor BGJJ student and Central Coast based Professional Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Nathan White, who is currently the No 1. Contender for the Australian Super-Heavyweight MMA title.

For more information on VAS please visit www.VAS.tv.

Luke Taylor	| Stripe White Belt
Grant "Grande"	| Stripe White Belt
Scott Atkinson	| Stripe White Belt (West Coast)
Derrick Hooper	| Stripe White Belt
Josh "Smashing Machine" Kerr	| Stripe White Belt
Russell Murray	| Stripe White Belt
Brian	| Stripe White Belt
Chris Jones	| Stripe White Belt
Shane Black	| Stripe White Belt
Geoff	| Stripe White Belt
Tim Van Duren	| Stripe White Belt
Michael Brown	| Stripe White Belt
Wesley Nielson	| Stripe White Belt
Steve Blackwell	| Stripe White Belt
Mitchell "Mitch" Ashworth	|| Stripe White Belt
Ben Patterson	|| Stripe White Belt
Lukas McGrath	|| Stripe White Belt
Dillon "Dill" Ohearn	|| Stripe White Belt
Tristan Jones	||| Stripe White Belt (Kids)
Matthew "Matt" Allen	||| Stripe White Belt
Andrew "Sparkle" Bennett	||| Stripe White Belt
Keith Hitchcock	||| Stripe White Belt (West Coast)
Jaye "Moonk" Mankelow	||| Stripe White Belt
Nick "Zen Machine" Dawson	|||| Stripe White Belt
Paul "Hellfire" Janovski	|||| Stripe White Belt
Andrew "Tonka" Smith	|||| Stripe White Belt
Zack Allen	| Stripe Yellow Belt (Kids / West Coast)
Luke "Luca" Morrison	||| Stripe Yellow Belt (Kids)
Michael "Mickey G" Galvin	||| Stripe Orange Belt (Kids)
Shane "Huggy" Haffenden	||| Stripe Orange Belt (Kids)
Adam "Bourkie" Bourke	Blue Belt
Gordon Alding	Blue Belt (West Coast)
Gavin "Big Gav" Davies	Blue Belt (West Coast)
Jay "King" Riege	Blue Belt
Simon Smith	Blue Belt (West Coast)
Kieran Hewett	| Stripe Blue Belt
David "Black Belt" Moore	|| Stripe Blue Belt
Javert Marques Periera	|| Stripe Blue Belt
Brandon Campbell	||| Stripe Blue Belt
John Thompson	|||| Stripe Blue Belt
Taff Davies	Purple Belt (West Coast)
David "Frendo" Frendin	Purple Belt
Paul "Matrat" Haffenden	Purple Belt
Luke "Lucozade" Nutley	Purple Belt
Ben "Benjamin Franklin" Thomas	Brown Belt
Steve "Steeeeeve" Williams	Brown Belt
Luke Beston	Black Belt (Gracie / Panno)

Hamish at InfiniteMMA.com has just completed a profile of Luke Beston's instructor and Gracie Sydney Head Instructor Bruno Panno.

Click here to read the Bruno Panno profile.

Today we were visited by our friend Prof. Luiz Tannuri for a Seminar at the new full time Beston-Gracie Newcastle Academy.

Luiz taught some of his favourite moves that he used to become Australian MMA champion and NSWBJJF Champion.

Thanks to Luiz for a fantastic seminar, and thanks to the students who were able to support the seminar.

Prof. Luiz Tannuri is now living in QLD teaching group lessons, privates, and seminars, and is the highest ranked Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor in the state. QLD is lucky to have such a nice guy and high level practicioner of Jiu Jitsu and we highly recommend anyone who is in the region to check out his classes.

Prof. Luiz teaching

Luiz sparring with Shane "Huggy" Haffenden

Luiz sparring with Luke

Prof. Claudio Cury, Brasilian Black Belt from the legendary Prof. Ryan Gracie is now teaching at the Yennora academy of the Gracie Sydney Association. For more information, please visit the Gracie Sydney website.

Hamish of Infinite MMA has recently published an interview he conducted with Royler Gracie Black Belt Luke Beston. Click Here to read the interview.

We are delighted to announce that our Newcastle academy has moved to a new, full time location at Glendale. On the cross streets of Lake Rd and Main Rd Cardiff, the academy is centrally located a short walk the Glendale Super Center. There is plenty of parking at rear, just take the driveway next to the Tattoo shop.

Students travelling from Sydney and the Central Coast will have a quicker trip now too, and should now take the CARDIFF EXIT off the freeway, the academy is located on that road. (Turn left at the main intersection after Dominoes Pizza, parking at rear)

With our new and improved location comes an updated timetable, with 2 new weekly classes available in Newcastle.

• Our Kids GJJ program has recommenced, with classes to be held friday afternoons, before the adult class.
• Sunday we have added a new Muay Thai kickboxing class, to be taught by 2 time Australian Champion Adam Bourke

In addition, we will now have Pilates classes Monday and Wednesday mornings, from 9:00am to 10:00am

To register for Muay Thai, Pilates, or the Kids class, please contact Angela Gracie

Also as part of our new time-table, Instructors Ben Thomas and Steve Williams are both available for private lessons in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, by appointment.

The Central Coast Academy timetable is unchanged, and Royler Gracie Black Belt Luke Beston will continue to personally teach each and every Tuesday and Thursday class as usual.

See Academy page for full timetable and map of new location.

Photos to come shortly.

Thanks to all our friends who generously helped out in their spare time to make the academy look so fantasic for opening day, and thanks to Angela Gracie for making all this possible.

Following on from his recent national title in submission grappling, and promotion to Gracie Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt, last night BGJJ representative Adam Bourke won his MMA fight at Manly Leagues club "War on the Shore" event.

Well done Adam, and thanks to all who helped in his preparation, and were there on the night to support him.

Adam will be starting the new Muay Thai program at Beston-Gracie Newcastle in the next week.

Regular visitors to our website will notice that the Gracie.com.au website development team has added a new Gracie Technique section to the website. Each month, the team will add a new Gracie Jiu Jitsu technique demonstrated by the Gracie Family and their Black Belt students.

Brazilian BJJ Black Belt, Prof. Luiz Tannuri of Brazilian Top Team will be visiting Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu, and conducting a seminar for Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu students on Saturday the 15th of April.

Prof. Luiz will also be available for privates.

To register for the seminar or privates please see Beston-Gracie Director Angela Gracie.

Coming off a great performance earning a Silver medal at the combined blue/purple belt division at last weekend's Australian Championships, Aussie MMA Legend Dave Frendin was presented his Gracie Jiu Jitsu Purple Belt. Dave has been grappling, cross training, and fighting "No Rules" before most people had even heard of these things, and with his vast amount of martial arts and ring experience is a great asset to the team.

Congratulations to Dave from his training partners and friends.

Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu's Gold Medal Bonanza continued this weekend on both coasts.

At the Central Coast Submission tournament, teen phenom Shane "Huggy" Haffenden won gold after winning an amazing 4 matches, all by submission. BGJJ Purple Belt Luke "Lucozade" Nutley won his division, and Steve Blackwell also won gold completing a clean sweep for the Beston-Gracie team.

Meanwhile on the West Coast, the Beston-Gracie West Coast academy entered their first competition team in the No-Gi competition. Winning one gold, two silver, and one bronze, all our representatives performed very well, and were a credit to their coaches Taff Davies, Gavin Davies, and Simon Smith.

Well done to all, and thanks to the whole team who helped in our atheletes preparation, and thanks to those who were there on the day to support the team.

A delicious new recipie Chicken Pasta with Broccolis by Angela Gracie of the legendary Gracie family of Brazil has been added to the Gracie Diet page of www.gracie.com.au. Thanks Angela!

As regular readers of Gracie.com.au News may be aware, Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu head instructor Luke Beston was promoted to Black Belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu last year by Prof. Royler Gracie and Prof. Rolker Gracie, and their chief representative in Australia, Prof. Bruno Panno.

The following article on Luke's promotion to Gracie Jiu Jitsu Black Belt appeared in the most recent edition of BLITZ Magazine, and has been archived on www.gracie.com.au's Article page:

Luke's interview with Rickson Gracie Black Belt Jorge Pereira that appeared in BLITZ Magazine has been added to the Articles section of www.gracie.com.au

Adam Bourke, who had just followed up his great performance in his recent MMA fight with an Australian Submission Grappling title was presented his Gracie Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt. Already a Muay Thai Champion, and now an Australian Submission Grappling Champion and Gracie Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt Adam is set to make even bigger waves in MMA in the near future.

Congratulations to Adam from his training partners and friends.

Thanks to Gavin "Big Gav" Davies who is one of the instructors of Beston-Gracie West Coast and spent the past week training and competing with his team mates here on the east coast.

Gav was our first ever participant in the Beston-Gracie Camp "live-in" intensive training program, and also represented the Gracie Sydney team in the NSWBJJF Australian Submission Championships.

Gav's Jiu Jitsu is a credit to his coaches and training partners back west, and thanks once again to Gav from all his friends, and good luck to all our West Coast based family in this weekend's No-Gi Competition in WA.

Today was the prestigious NSWBJJF Australian National Submission Wrestling Championship, a huge turnout meant big divisions, and the exceptional skill level of all competitors meant spectators were treated to lots of great action.

The Beston-Gracie team as part of Gracie Sydney continued their "Champion Factory" form from last years Gi competitions with many great performances this time without the kimono. Our biggest competition team to date with 11 competitors from our Newcastle, Central Coast, and Perth branches took two 1st, two 2nd, and two 4th Places. Great Jiu Jiu Jitsu displayed by all our representatives, as well as our friends from Prof. Bruno Panno's other academies across Sydney.

With all the major Australian BJJ teams represented in the Nationals, Gracie Sydney took 2nd place overall so congratulations to Prof. Bruno Panno and all of Gracie Sydney.

Thanks as always to our entire family of students who were all part of out competition teams preparation and those who were there on the day to support the team, and congratulations once more to our newest No-Gi National Champions Andrew "Sparkle" Bennett and Adam Bourke.

An indication of the great exposure that our competitors have achieved by competing and winning in such a prestigious event, the NSWBJJF Australian National Submission Wrestling Championship has been reported on MaxFighting.com, MMA.tv Australiasia, InfiniteMMA.com, ADCC News, and will be covered in the upcoming editions of BLITZ Magazine and BuJutsu Magazine.

Today Prof. Bruno Panno, Royler Gracie Black Belt and founder of Gracie Sydney taught a Gracie Jiu Jitsu seminar at Beston Gracie Central.

Brasilian blackbelt Prof Bruno taught a fantastic seminar showing some of the latest Brasilian moves from Brasil and some of his personal favourite techniques, as well as taking technique questions from seminar participants. On behalf of all who attended thankyou to Prof. Bruno

At the close of the seminar, Luke used the opportunity to promote three team members to their next grade in Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Coming off his gold medal performance at last years prestigious NSWBJJF cicuit, Jay "King" Riege was promoted to Blue Belt.

In a massive milestone for the Central Coast club, Luke also graded his first ever purple belts - Paul "Matrat" Haffenden and Luke "Lucozade" Nutley.

Luke sent the following message:

On behalf of myself and the rest of the team congrats to Paul, Luke & Jay on their great achievements. We are all lucky to have you as training partners and friends. Well done guys!

Last Friday Dave Frendin and Adam Bourke both fought MMA in QLD.

Extremely proud of both Dave and Adam, they are both a huge asset to the team with their wealth of ring experience and training ethic. Thanks also to the rest of the team who helped the guys prepare, and those who were there on the night to support them.

Adam Bourke's fight in particular was a great performance. Standing up Adam put on a spectacular show and technical workshop landing lots of bombs and knock downs on his feet. Adam also got a chance to show off his Jiu Jitsu ground skills with a beautiful reversal of his opponent achieving the top position and initiating the ground and pound before being stopped by the bell. Well done also to Adam's opponent who was a credit to himself and his coaches who showed not only great skills, but great heart by going the distance with Adam. Thanks especially to all the locals who came up to Adam after the fight and expressed their support.

Luke would also like to thank again to Sensei Peter Biers who was a very gracious host and a great ambassador for QLD MMA.

As part of the soon to be released "Beston-Gracie Autumn 2006 Fightwear Collection", the new Beston-Gracie No-Gi/MMA shorts are now available. Designed for maximum comfort, the shorts prominently feature the authentic Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu logo, but still leave a generous amount of space for students to attach the logos of their individual sponsors.

Well done to Nathan White and Adam Bourke for their performances at last Friday's King of the Cage event in Sydney. Both fighters stepped up to face very tough opponents and put on what all reports unanimously agree were two of the best fights on the night. KOTC has announced that the event will be aired on TV in the USA making for some great international exposure for our fighters.

Look for more of the ever growing roster of Professional Mixed Martial Arts fighters from Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu in upcoming MMA promotions, to be announced soon.

The Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu website development team have added a new Online Catalogue of merchandise available from Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu

For any enquiries, please contact Beston-Gracie Director Angela Gracie.

The NSW BJJ Federation, the official organisation for NSW for the International Jiu Jitsu Confederation (CBJJ) Will be holding it's first tournament on Sunday the 19th of March.

This will be a submission grappling (No-Gi) competition. There will be many competitors from Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu Competing in the Gracie Sydney team.

Prof. Royler Gracie Black Belt, Prof. Bruno Panno will be at Beston-Gracie Central Coast on 11th March for a Gracie Jiu Jitsu Seminar.

Prof. Bruno, founder of the official 2005 NSW Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation State Champion team, Gracie Sydney, has just returned from Brasil with the latest Brasilian techniques and looks forward to sharing them with everyone.

The seminar will be from 11:00am to 2:00pm and will cover both Gi and No Gi techniques.

For more details, please contact Beston-Gracie Director Angela Gracie.

Master Carlson Gracie passed away today in Chicago where he lived and taught Jiu Jitsu with his son Prof. Carlson Gracie Jr.

Master Carlson will be remembered as one of the greatest Jiu Jitsu fighters and teachers of all time, and an extremely kind & generous individual, and missed by his family, students, and friends.

[The report below is by Kid Peligro of ADCC News]

It is with the saddest of hearts that I have to report that Jiu-Jitsu legend Grandmaster Carlson Gracie passed away this morning. According to his son Carlson Jr, Carlson had been hospitalized for kidney stones and was doing well: 'He was cracking jokes last night and everything seemed ok. This morning he had a fatal attack and succumbed!'

Carlson Gracie was one of the greatest fighters in the history of Jiu-Jitsu, his legendary battle with Waldemar Santana avenged the loss of his uncle Helio Gracie. During several decades Carlson was the defender of the family name.

He created one of the most powerfull BJJ teams 'Carlson Gracie Arrebentacao' and was responsible for many of the top Black Belt fighters and instructors around including most of the founders of BTT like Mario Sperry, MUrilo Bustamante, Ricardo Liborio and Bebeo Duarte and Andre Pederneiras co-leader of Nova Uniao .

Black Belt Rodrigo Medeiros said: 'He was like my second father! He taught me everything. He had a heart of gold and would help you no matter what. I will miss him so much!'

A friendly and funny man with a great passion for everything he did Carlson will be greatly missed by all that knew him or had the honor to know him, myself included. But I am sure he is taking his rightful place next to his father Carlos Gracie!

Congratulations to Beston-Gracie instructors Ben Thomas and Steve Williams who were today awarded their Brown Belts in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, marking another huge milestone in the history of Beston Gracie Central, and Jiu Jitsu in the region.

On behalf of the entire Beston-Gracie team, congratulations to Ben & Steve on this huge achievement, and thanks for your continuning contribution to the Jiu Jitsu of all those who train with you.

The Beston Gracie Central Website Development Team have added a new Gracie Diet section to www.Gracie.com.au

Each month the Beston Gracie Central Website Development Team will be adding a new Gracie family recipe from Beston Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy Director Angela Gracie, who is the granddaughter of the Gracie Diet inventor Grandmaster Carlos Gracie. The first Gracie family meal that Angela Gracie has shared is a delicious Watermelon Smoothie

The Gracie Diet was designed many decades ago by Grandmaster Carlos Gracie to help promote maximum health and vitality. Today it is used by many elite athletes like Luke and the Gracie family to give them the nutrition necessary to support their 6 or 7 days a week of intensive training.

Beston-Gracie Representative Adam Bourke will be fighting Roy Pariente in the february King Of The Cage (KOTC) Event.

Good luck to Adam from all his teammates at Beston Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

A new delivery of top quality Aussie Jigsaw mats for our Newcastle academy means we can now retire the mats we originally started with. The new expanded mat space will help to accomodate growing class numbers gives the Newcastle academy twice the original matspace from 2004!

Luke's cousin-in-law, and living legend Prof. Royce Gracie will be fighting former UFC Champion Matt Hughes in the Ulimate Fighting Championship in May 2006.

In the past decade Prof. Royce's achievements include three tournament format UFC's with no gloves, no weight limits, no time limts, and no rules, the longest MMA match in modern history, a win over a sumo grand champion, a dominating performance over an olympic gold medallist, and most recently another domination of a rising star of the next generation of MMA fighters.

Now the greatest fighter ever to step into the octagon is back in "his house"! There are plenty of new rules and regulations added since Royce's last appearance in the Octagon to benefit fighters like Hughes, and he will be facing perhaps the most successful UFC fighter (other than himself), but tough challenges are nothing new to Prof. Royce.

Good luck to Prof. Royce from his family and friends in Australia.

Beston-Gracie Representative Nathan White will be fighting BTT Black Belt Luiz Tannuri a March 03 MMA Event.

Good luck to Nathan from all his teammates at Beston Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Beston-Gracie Representative Adam Bourke will be fighting Hector Lombard in the March 03 QLD MMA Event.

Good luck to Adam from all his teammates at Beston Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Beston-Gracie Representative Dave Fendin will be fighting BTT Black Belt Pedro Galiza in the March 03 QLD MMA Event.

Good luck to Dave from all his teammates at Beston Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Beston-Gracie Head Instructor and Royler Gracie Black Belt Luke Beston has now completed the required units of competency and attained the SRS30303 Certificate III in Sport (Coaching) - Sport specialization: Martial Arts, a nationally recognised Martial Arts Coaching qualification via the Interational College of Kenshusei.

Check out the new January edition of BLITZ Magazine for Luke Beston's latest published interview which is with Rickson Gracie Black Belt Prof. Jorge Pereira.

We are very pleased to announce the establishment of Beston-Gracie West Coast, which had their first official training session last night.

Beston-Gracie West Coast will be headed up by Purple Belt Taff Davies, assisted by Blue Belts Gavin Davies and Simon Smith

For more information contact our Beston-Gracie Jiu Jitsu Director ANGELA GRACIE:

Phone: 0438 270 342
Email: info@GracieSeminars.com