Matt Serra and Drago Sell Visit Madama Jiu-Jitsu

Matt Serra's seminar was a resounding success. The UFC star and one of his top students, Pete "Drago" Sell (also a UFC fighter), taught 50+ students over a dozen techniques and concepts in just over three-and-a-half hours. "Although a lot was covered. None of it was rushed or cramped," Serra told the students. He went on to say that the Madama Jiu-Jitsu team members had such a good grasp of many of the movements and postures that he was able to cover a lot of material in a relatively short time.

Matt, a charismatic teacher and world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, taught techniques ranging from taking down a wrestler from the standing position and finishing him with an arm-in guillotine to how to regain the guard against someone muscling through your guard to a highly technical way to set-up a bow-and-arrow choke against a turtled opponent. After demonstrating the techniques and instructing the students, Matt and Drago walked the room offering advice, tweaking positions, and even jumping in from time-to-time to help someone who was struggling.

The first half of the seminar concentrated on no-gi moves. Matt taught techniques that proved successful in his UFC fights paying special attention to how to combat an opponent that tries to muscle you. After a brief 5-minute break, the rest of the afternoon revolved around techniques that can be done with the gi, including a series of sit-up guard sweeps.

While Matt and Drago were friendly to many of the senior students - remembering them from past seminars, addressing them by their first names, and making small-talk - they made sure to pay special attention to the newest students, assuring them that they were doing the techniques properly and giving them individual instruction as needed.


At the end of the seminar, Matt sat in the center of the mat and congratulated the gathered students on a successful seminar. He went on to talk about Josh Madama, Madama Jiu-Jitsu's owner and main instructor:

"Josh is a long-time student of mine and still makes regular two-hour trips to my academy on Long Island. Most times he makes it several times each week. That shows tremendous dedication and loyalty. Josh even helped me prepare for my last UFC fight (against Matt Hughes).

"I want you guys to know that he is the real deal. You can trust the jiu-jitsu he is teaching you. Know that the things he knows, his jiu-jitsu comes from close to the well, close to the source of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He didn’t learn it from video tapes or from an instructor with questionable credentials. You should be as confident in him as I am."

And with that, he and Drago spent the next half-hour or so chit-chatting with the students, taking pictures, and signing autographs. Everyone left with smiles on their faces and heads full of new jiu-jitsu knowledge.