[The Colonel]

I had a pretty good training experience recently when I went back home and just wanted to spread the word a bit. I grew up in Louisville, KY but I've been away for about four years since joining the Air Force, but I recently went back home on leave. An old friend of mine had recently started grappling and he trains at Louisville Core and was good enough to hook me up with a month's membership while I was home. They offer boxing, muay thai (very good trainer there) and brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The instructor in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is Helio Soneca, a 4th degree black belt who started training with Gracie Barra before it was even Gracie Barra. He got his black belt from Carlos Gracie Jr. when he was 22. What's really crazy is there is a list on one of his pages of various grapplers/fighters that he instructed and he gave Jose Pele Landi Jons and Vanderlei Silva both their purple belts. I'm not sure exactly what all competitions Helio has won, but there is a pic of him fighting Megaton Diaz back in '96. My buddy told me that Forest Griffin was thinking about training there for his then upcoming fight with Shogun, but he ended up going some place else because of some kind of financial stuff.

Its all so crazy to me because I remember in Louisville where literally the best we had was an experienced blue belt teaching classes in one academy there. Now there are brown belts everywhere and a 4th degree black belt? It just blows me away.

But in one of the classes that Helio ran that I went to he had a guest come in from Brazil, a good friend of his whose name I didn't really catch (Luis something, Helio called him Reniare' or something like that) but this guy was a 1st degree black belt and was a national champion in Brazil. I'm just an experienced blue belt so of course the guy just completely toyed with me and kicked my butt. No lie he cross collar choked me so hard I could feel it every time I swallowed the next day lol.

Its a great place though. Lots of good people to roll with (rolled with a few purples there and it felt great that I could hang with them without getting completely dominated) everyone has a pretty good attitude and Helio is just cool. Anyways, just wanted to clue some guys in to it if anyone is passing through Louisville or thinking about moving there and needing a place to train.