{"id":369,"date":"2026-04-12T20:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graciebarra.com\/northville-mi\/?post_type=news&p=369"},"modified":"2026-04-12T20:38:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T00:38:28","slug":"4-13-how-was-your-weekend","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/graciebarra.com\/northville-mi\/news\/4-13-how-was-your-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"4\/13: HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND?"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope your weekend was as impactful as mine….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"article":"\"\"\r\n\r\nAbout 20 years ago, a friend of ours was running for President of the Michigan Jaycees, an organization of about 10,000 members at that time.\u00a0 Early in the campaign I indicated my support for him and allowed him to put my name on his campaign material.\u00a0 As the campaign progressed, it started to become clear he was not as prepared as I thought, and I pulled my support.\u00a0 It caused him to have to re-print most of his campaign material.\u00a0 He did not win the election that year because others saw the same issues.\u00a0 The following year, this same individual became the campaign manager for my wife in her bid for the Presidency (which she lost as well\u2026.and if you are wondering, I did support her the whole way through\u2026) .\u00a0 He could have held a grudge against us but he did not, because I knew that even though he was not yet prepared for the Presidency, he was an honorable man that always supported my wife.\u00a0 Fast forward a couple years and he ran again.\u00a0 This time I whole heartedly put my support behind him because he was now ready.\u00a0 At the end of the campaign, he called on me to show up at the last convention and work on convincing my home chapter to support him.\u00a0 I did, THEY did, and it helped him win.\u00a0 At the time, I told him I would only do that as long as he promised to NOT nominate for any board position.\u00a0 I was doing this for him, not for any reward on my part.\u00a0 Unfortunately, he ultimately didn\u2019t listen and offered me a position that was something I thought would be a good growth opportunity for me and I took it.\u00a0 At his year-end convention, I relayed this story about him from the stage in front of thousands of people to let everyone know the character of the man.\r\n\r\nI want to speak from stage again about the seminar from this weekend.\u00a0 This had been a 2 \u00bd year journey to bring Prof Carlos and Prof Marcos into the gym for a seminar.\u00a0 When we first discussed this as I was opening GB Northville, we had a date set then things fell apart on my end.\u00a0 Prof Carlos could have written me off, but by now I realize that was never in his thought process.\u00a0\u00a0 As I have gotten to know him over the last year through many trips to Chicago, and many interactions at tournaments, I got to know the person behind the martial artist.\u00a0 While the latter is awesome, the former is even better.\u00a0 This was my first time meeting Prof Marcos, but he and Prof Carlos have been training together for 25 years, and he is every bit as honorable a person.\u00a0 I meant what I said at the end of the seminar, that it is more important to bring good people into the gym for seminars, than just good practitioners.\u00a0 Fortunately, he and Prof Marcos are both.\r\n\r\nMost of you are probably not aware that they conducted the 3+ hours of the seminar having had no breakfast.\u00a0 After ordering at the restaurant next door, the wait time was going to make them late for the event so they cancelled the order.\u00a0 For months we had planned on focusing on half guard, but after my training session Friday night, I asked if they could share the guard passing techniques that Prof Marcos was using on me all night long, and they accommodated.\u00a0 I can tell you from so many past seminars, many practitioners will not take requests on material to present, and very rarely make changes at the last minute.\u00a0 What I saw Prof Marcos doing was so unique and so effective, I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to experience it first-hand.\u00a0 Finally, they actually went over the planned allotted time for the seminar because they wanted to get through the material they planned on sharing instead of making a hard stop on the time.\u00a0 Again, I can tell you that almost never happens.\u00a0 From the dozens of seminars I have attended, this one ranks right at the top of them all.\r\n\r\nBeyond the people that they are, I want everyone to fully appreciate what was provided in the techniques.\u00a0 You got to experience the primary guard passing system from a 5th degree black belt\u2026.his \u201cA\u201d game.\u00a0 You also got to experience world class additions to my primary guard game, half guard, from another 5th degree black belt.\u00a0 I was very excited to see the responses from so many of you who attended, as you got to experience firsthand what I promoted for the months leading up to the event, and many of you have already expressed interest in the next opportunity.\u00a0 Yes, we will continue to practice the seminar material this week in class so those that could not make the event can learn the material.\u00a0 But for those that were able to attend, you can now see the benefit of being there in person.\r\n\r\nFor me this was a fantastic weekend.\u00a0 At lunch after the seminar, I told Prof Carlos and Prof Marcos that I had high expectations for this weekend, and I felt they exceeded them.\u00a0 We have already discussed other opportunities both in MI and in Illinois and I look forward to them when they occur.\u00a0 For those that attended, I hope your weekend was as fulfilling as it was for me.\u00a0 For those that were not able to attend, hopefully you will be able to make the next opportunity.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve said so many times, these opportunities are fleeting.\u00a0 Do not expect there to always be \u201canother time\u201d with these practitioners.\u00a0 My former business partner had Gordon Ryan in for 2 seminars in a year right as he was becoming famous.\u00a0 Good luck trying to train with him now.\u00a0 Other practitioners just get tired of the travel and stop doing seminars.\u00a0 BJJ offers incredible opportunities to train with the best people on the planet, but these opportunities can end in a moments notice, so take advantage of every one.\u00a0 I believe we now have 30 additional people that see the benefit.\u00a0 I look forward to the next opportunity myself!","featured_image":"","featured_image_id":"","featured_article":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-369","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n4\/13: HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? - Northville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graciebarra.com\/northville-mi\/news\/4-13-how-was-your-weekend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4\/13: HOW WAS YOUR WEEKEND? - Northville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I hope your weekend was as impactful as mine....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/graciebarra.com\/northville-mi\/news\/4-13-how-was-your-weekend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" 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