Lions Den Martial Arts Newsletter 2/2025

A recap on whats been going on and whats coming up! MEMBERSHIP SPECIALS!!

Hello everyone , thank you for taking the time to check out our latest newsletter. We will fill you in on whats been going on at the Den for the last 3 months and what we have coming up in the next 3 months. We have had alot of events going on and have seen much growth in our students and coaches that we are excited to share with you. Lets start with December and work our way forward.

In December we revamped our Lil Lions program here at the Den! This is our Brazilian Jiu jitsu program for ages 4-7. Our goal was to expand the program. While most gyms designate classes like this to blue belts and teachers that are just getting started we decided to do the opposite. Black Belt Professor Svingala teaches this program personally with the help of 3 assistants to give our young Lions plenty of attention on the mat to help them succeed. While this group can be challenging, we have had huge success on the mat and these lil guys and girls have even started competing. pics below

In December we also had an awesome Seminar with UFC Legend Jon Fitch! Jon fought in the UFC in from 2005 to 2013 and ammassed and incredible career. He fought for the title versus George St Pierre and had wins over many of the top stars of his era. Jon came in and taught our students some of his favorite techniques and we had a great time. pics below

In January we welcomed the Rensselaer Police Department to then Den! The department signed up for 2025 which is an incredible tool for its officers to take advantage of. Case studies have shown that police departments that are enganged and train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu have a much lower rate in on the job injuries , lower rate of injuries during arrests to offendors and have also SAVED departments thousands of dollars per year in law suits and insurance claims. Along with being able to take advantage of all the classes here at the Den we also put on special Law Enforcement seminars throughout the year. Our seminars are taught by our Instrcutors whom are cerified through the Department of Justice and which are designed specifically for law enforcement situations making them incredibly beneficial to officers. pic below

In January we also had our local girl scout troop in! We had a great time giving the scouts an introduction to self defense classes and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We put these on anytime a troop reaches out and the girls always have fun. pic below

January was a busy month and we sent some of our instructors down to the Driven Gym in NJ. This gym is also a Tom Deblass affilate and run by a great guy and competitor in James Meals. We have traveled down and worked with his students numerous times and in this case our Instructors got to work with UFC Star Charles Oliviera. James has opened his doors to us numerous times and along with working with these high level stars our competitors have also gotten in some great sparring. Cant wait to make it down again! pics below

In Febraury we didnt slow down much. We kicked things off with 2 of our adult students competing in MMA at the local Cage Wars event. This event was held at the Glens Falls Civic Center and we had Taha Sevincer making his debut and Woody Clement competing for a 2nd time. They both trained hard for this event and we loved seeing the support of our student base and coaches leading up to the fights. Many of our students and coaches attended the event and its always a great time. UFC Star Jorge Masvidal even dropped by the locker room prior to the fights. Both fighters were victorious and we are already planning for the next event in April for 4-5 of our fighters. pics and videos of the fights below .

Next up in February was our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt ceremony at our Affiliate School in Glens Falls. We traveled up to spend the morning with our friends at Matt Secor BJJ. We were among 5 schools in our affiliation and Our School as well as Matts had some belts going out. Professors Tom and Trent Svingala were awarded their first degrees on their Black Belts. Instructor Kat Johnson recieved her Brown belt. Students Vin Defazzio was awarded his purple belt and Declan Johnson his blue belt. Many of our students and coaches also made the trip up to support them and we are proud of all of them for their hard work and dedication to the sport. Great job everyone ! Pics below

In February we also had our Local NAGA Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tournament. This tournament is the largest and toughest for BJJ in our area annually and we always have it on our schedule. This was a tough time for us as the cold season has hit our area full steam and many of our students caught the bug the week of this competition. Our numbers were low but our students really stepped up and we won the Team award for Kids and Teens for the 12'th consecutive time over 6 years now! We had less students than the other top teams but our kids pullled it off with lots of wins and by competing at the higher levels with many of them in advanced and expert divisions. We couldnt have done it without every kid out there competing and each one got wins on this day. This team came home with more championship belts than any other we have had to date. We were also so happy to see all of the kids matside for each others matches and chearing each other on. We love the support they show each other and the sportmanship they show on the mat. I cant tell you how many times we saw our students helping opponents up or even offering them a hug after competition. Big shout out and thank you to the parents as well. On the Adult side of things we had 8 of our students competing and the competition was tough. Our adults all did great and we loved what we saw both during competition and leading up to it. Our entire student base really gets involved in helping our students preapare for competion. Most of our students have no desire to compete however they all help out by being awesome training partners. The highlight of our adult wins came from Instructor Terry whom went out and competed in the expert division following his 50'th Birthday!!! Terry began with us almost 6 years ago and fell in love with this sport . In that time he has lost almost 60lbs and has gotten into the shape of his life. He had some tough competition out there and was competing with athletes 20 years his junior and we are super proud of him. He brought home another Belt!

Congrats again to everyone and we cant wait to do it again! Pics below

That catches us up to the present!

Some things we have coming up are our Brazilian Jiu Jitsu promotions here this Thursday 2/20/25. We have 3 more adults being promoted to Blue belt and a handful of our youth students are being promoted as well. We hold these promotions here at the Den 3 times per year and they are pot luck events. Each family brings a dish to share and there is plenty to go around so bring the fam. All BJJ students should be in attendance.

Next month we have our next seminar and this one is near and dear to us. UFC Star Mike " Beastboy " Davis will be with us on March 28 & 29. Mike was one of Coach Svingala's first students and fighter.s They won numerous amatuer titles together while going undefeated on the amateur circuit. Mike started where all of our students are and made his way to the top of the Martial Art world and we are proud to have him back. He will be teaching our students seminars in Muay Thai , MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with not only seminars for adults but also one for kids too! Some early training pics of Mike and all the info on his seminar is below. We also will have all of his trading cards in stock if anyone wants to pick one up and have him autograph it!

We have an Intro to wrestling program starting up for ages 4 - 7! This is a 12 week program which has practices on Saturdays starting March 22'nd. Kids will learn the sport of wrestling from some of the areas best to ever do it. All the info is on the flyer below, spots are limited so we strongly suggest signing up ahead of time. It is currently half full.

Upcoming Events & Membership specials

February 20th - BJJ belt promotions

March 22 - Intro to wrestling program kicks off. ( ages 4-7 )

March 28 & 29 - Mike Davis Seminars

April - Judo Promotions

Memberships Specials

We are offering 2 amazing specials from now Until March 20'th. Take advantage of these as you will not see them again.

The first is our MEMBERSHIP BUYBACK SPECIAL

This special is for any of our OLD members . If you have been a student under Professor Svingala he is offering you your OLD rate back if you sign back up by March 20'th 2025. Did you train with him back in 2012? He will honor it ! We want to see some old faces back, now is the time!

The 2nd Special is our Cash Membership Special

We are taking $100 off of any pre paid 6 month membership or $200 off any 12 month membership! These are by far the lowest rates you will find anywhere! Expires March 20'th 2025.

Thats all for now !

See you on the mats!