We recently got the chance to sit down with Matteo Vasi, the brains behind the upcoming Ronin BJJ Camp Ibiza, which features incredible instructors like Ffion Davies and Roger Gracie among many more.
Hi Matteo, first off why don’t you tell us a little about yourself and your background in BJJ…
“I started 5 years ago after a long path in karate as black belt. After a long trip in Japan, also training karate and discovering a different philosophy, once back to Italy I was not able to find my right karate academy and I decided to try a different martial art. One of my best friends trained BJJ so I decided to try and I fell in love with this martial art because of all its aspects such as brotherhood, effectiveness, philosophy, physical preparation and mental health.”
“I started at a Roger Gracie Academy in my hometown, Ravenna-Italy. After a year, the owner and black belt decided to quit and leave the academy forever due to personal reasons. I thought of that as a sign. It’s always been my dream to run my martial arts academy. So, with my strong background as general manager and three passionate brown belt instructors I took over the Roger Gracie Academy Ravenna and that’s how it all started.”
How did you get into the world of arranging BJJ Training Camps?
“It started as a simple idea two years ago: I wanted to create something never existed before, a new concept of camp, capable to merge a one of a kind event, based in the magic island of Ibiza, with high level accommodation and a line up with a legend and all top notch competitors with different skills in Gi and No gi and with all these things in one package.”
“I want to spread around the jiujitsu culture more and more and see it growing all around the world by sharing its amazing effects on mind and body. We are a big community but we can be even bigger! what’s better than showing it by having all the best athletes around in a memorable event?”
How big is the operation, do you organize it all yourself or do you have a team behind you?
“The operation is huge. I am the general director of the camp so I needed to build the idea in all its details but I have a staff composed of travel agents,event planners, marketing strategists and content creators. More or less 7 people are working on the camp right now. The most difficult part was to arrange the deal for the accommodations in Ibiza with many resorts and choose the right one and the logistics for the mat to reach the island.”
It must’ve been pretty hard to get so many elite instructors in one place too, how did you pull that off?
“It wasn’t easy, especially because I was quite new in the world of BJJ but thanks to my skills as a manager and with the help of an athlete’s manager, now friend, Maggie Left and some other friends (special mention to Wesley Lopes, head instructor of Roger Gracie Reggio Emilia), I did it. I also have to say that when all the athletes understood the goal of the event and my vision everything became smoother. They were all very kind and keen to join it.”
Are you planning on training at the camp yourself or are you going to have other work going on?
“I definitely want to train but of course, I will need to be sure that everything goes right during the camp. By the way, there will be all my staff at the camp to help me with the entire organization and to ensure that everything goes in the perfect way!”
Is there anything else you’d like to let our readers know?
“I like to underline that most of the people think of Ibiza as a place to party everyday and have ‘wild nights’ but I have to say that it is the opposite. If you want, of course you can have the best party in the world but it is just a small part of the island. The real magical part of the island is the beautiful sea, amazing restaurants directly on the beach, chiringuitos, stunning hide coves and bays and chill vibes.”
“Whatever you are looking for, Ibiza must be the place. This is gonna be the first edition of a camp that I want to do every year with the same format: The legend professor who attend one or more masterclass, not too much professors in the line up but only the best competitors athletes around to ensure super high quality on every class and high standard of location and accommodation and services.”
