Photo: Publicity
Yes, Hercules yielded to the Gentle Art. But we’re not talking about a Greek demigod. We’re talking about the Roman ruins in Jordan known as the Temple of Hercules. The location, along with the magical city of Petra, were the setting for a great Jiu-Jitsu camp promoted by Jordan’s team The Source, under the command of black belt Samy al Jamal and supervised by professors Fabricio and Ronald Barcellos, who came over from Brazil especially for the event.
The team is comprised of 62 blue belts from the country’s security forces, and the camp served as the latest step in their training process. Today, during the country’s independence day celebrations, the servicemen presented the techniques learned to King Abdullah II. And representatives of two armies from the Middle East and one from Europe were present and solicited assistance in implementing Jiu-Jitsu in their armed forces next year.
According to Samy, this was the biggest Jiu-Jitsu promotion ceremony ever in the Middle East. “Next year we plan to promote 360 blue belts, and by 2017 all the country’s security forces shall receive training from local black belts. King Abdullah II is a great admirer of Jiu-Jitsu and offers his full support so we can carry out this effort,” he says in finishing.
