Club Leg Lock on Grapplers Quest Boston 2010

Grapplers Quest, a grappling championship that attracts hundreds of competitors of all ages, came to Boston for the first time in August. Co-located with the UFC Fan Expo Boston in the John B. Hynes Convention Center, the grappling event was attended by thousands of spectators.

The Swampscott based club Leg Lock was represented by two grapplers, both students of Ruslan Pavlov, competing in the mixed style of Russian Sambo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:
    Brett Mullen competing in the heavy weight beginner division took home a gold medal, and Roman Ganchin, competing in the 13-15 years old advanced division won the bronze.

This is an exceptionally good result for the club, given that both competitors have been training for slightly more than a year.
When asked to comment on this success, Ruslan Pavlov said: “Grappling is an exciting and smart sport. But like in any sport it takes dedication and discipline to succeed. The advantage that our students have is the small class size, which lets me pay individual attention to each student and make sure that no technique is left unexplained. That and our shared enthusiasm for the art of Russian Sambo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the key to our student’s success on grappling tournaments.”

Excerpts from Leg Lock’s appearance on the Grapplers Quest are at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSWT4O9ScKk

Dance Ovations 2010

Ari Shteynberg and students of the dance and aerobics class represented Youth Talent School this year on the Dance Ovations competition.  Ari has debuted with a hip-hop dance choreographed by Raul Arauz and was awarded a High Gold and a special recognition award.  You may watch his performance on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ5KuPRPOLc 

The aerobics and dance team competed with the Mambo #5 dance choreographed by Alexandra Mishenina.  They were awarded a Gold prize. A recording of this dance from the Spring Fantasy show is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HivY8khjA1Q

Team Leg Lock returns from the USA Open Sambo championship

On May 2nd the team Leg Lock has competed in the XVII USA Open Sambo Championship in Rahway NJ. Every year this tournament attracts grapplers from around the world.  This time teams from seven countries attended.  Some of the best Sambo fighters from USA, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Kazakhstan represented their countries in this international event. It was Leg Lock’s first appearance on this championship and the club was represented by 5 fighters: Nicholas Sirota, Roman Ganchin, Ari Shteynberg, Brett Mullen and Ruslan Pavlov, ages 6 - 33. The results were extraordinary.  Our boys, having trained in submission grappling between only 5 months and a year have demonstrated exceptional skill. The team brought back two silver and one bronze medal, and two fifth-place finishes.  This success is attributed to the brilliant instruction by Ruslan Pavlov and dedication, skills and fighting spirit of the boys. Attending championships like this one provides priceless experience for boys in building strong character, team spirit, confidence and respect for all other martial arts practitioners.

Not everyone on this hemisphere knows about Russian Sambo.  Some confuse it with the Brazilian dance, the Samba, but the two have nothing in common. Sambo is an acronym that in Russian stands for Self Defense Without a Weapon. This form of martial art was developed in the first half of the 20th century, primarily by Ojepkov, who was the first ever European to receive a black belt from the Kodokan Judo school in Japan.  The other major contributor to this sport was Spiridonov, and his form of Sambo was primarily used by special forces and is known as the Combat Sambo.  Russian Sambo today comprises techniques found in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, as well as in various martial arts of the vast former Soviet territories. With USSR being behind the iron curtains for so long, Sambo had a late start in developing worldwide recognition. But in recent years the awareness of this sport has been growing around the world primarily due to MMA fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko. Russian Sambo is a very versatile martial art that requires lots of skill and intelligence. It develops agility, coordination, concentration, fast thinking, confidence and strong spirit.  It helps boys grow up into confident and strong men, and adults learning the grappling skills that they always wanted, and consequently become stronger, better physically fit and confident.

The club Leg Lock welcomes all boys and men to experience and learn the wonderful martial art of Russian Sambo.

The excerpts from the championship can be viewed on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZZfEogRlU


In the local news: The Swampscott Reporter 5/13/2010

YTS dancers win the High Gold Champions in Rhode Island

Congratulations to Gina Asipenko, Lora Sapozhnikova and Becky Shteynberg on winning the High Gold Champions award in the International Dance Challenge competition in Rhode Island. Girls performed the "Indian Flower" dance choreographed by Alexandra Mishenina. Over 250 performers from all over New England competed in this event.

See their award-winning performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCWslwJAAtg.

See the article in the Swampscott Reporter

Benefits of yogurts

According to research published by University of Montreal (2010, April 14) there is a correlation between the level of cleanness of the living conditions and the incidence of allergies and autoimmune diseases.  Over the past decade the number of cases of allergies and autoimmune diseases has gone up in places with improving sanitary conditions, but remained constant in locations where sanitary conditions have not changed.
Dr. Delespesse indicates that the bacteria in our digestive system plays a big role in educating the immune system.  For that reason Dr. Delespesse recommends probiotics such as yogurts to enrych our intestinal flora, which in turn should benefit our immune system.

Read the complete research summary in ScienseDaily: Is cleanliness to blame for increasing allergies?

Bottle-fed babies absorb the most bisphenol A

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a primary element of polycarbonate synthetic materials that are used to manufacture plastic items for everyday use, such as reusable water bottles, food containers, baby bottles and food packaging. Plastics made with BPA usually have the number 7 on the bottom. Such containers tend to release BPA into the food or fluids within at a small rate. BPA is a hormonally active substance that acts like the natural hormone estrogen and as an anti-androgen (inhibits the biological effects of male sex hormones). Small quantities of BPA can have an affect on sexual development, especially of fetuses and babies. In the recent years there have been several studies looking at health risks associated with BPA. Although no direct evidence of harm to humans yet exists, the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has indicated some concern about the potential negative health effects of BPA on infants and children. ( Chemical In Plastic Bottles Raises Some Concern )
A new report by ETH Zurich (2010, April 6) summarized in Science Daily indicates that babies fed using PC bottles are the most affected by the exposure to BPA - Endocrine disruptors: Babies absorb the most bisphenol A
With this in mind it can be considered a safe practice to give preference, when possible, to glass, porcelane and stainless steel food and liquids containers, and BPA-free baby bottles.

Baby's weight depends on mother's weight

An article published in the ScienceDaily (2010-04-05) describes an ongoing study suggesting that mother's weight during pregnancy and the first months after giving birth has an effect on child's ability to regulate own weight. The study proposes that signals sent by the mother to the child during those months can increase the risk of child becoming an overweight adult.  Read the full summary in Sciense Daily