Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Matt Serra Guard Passing Instructional
Classic series of passes shown here. Pay attention to how all three variations combine together depending on what energy your opponent gives. Also like the idea of "hiding" the arm that stays inside the guard before passing. Nice details on standing with good posture as well.
Monday, June 29, 2009
BJJ Takedowns 2008 HL
Typical BJJ, not flashy but it works. Nice to see takedowns and throws modified for BJJ comps and also some cool set ups. Interesting to note the scramble for position once the takedown is initiated since the fight doesn't stop when it hits the floor like Judo. Australia's own Sophie McDermott from Dominance in Melbourne gets a nice double leg takedown.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Champions Cup Trip August
My calendar has cleared for August and it looks like I will be able to go to the AFBJJ Champions Cup on Sunday 23rd August in Adelaide. The plan would be to fly into Adelaide on Saturday and fly out on Sunday nite. This event is eight weeks away. The Champions Cup is a great lead up to the Pan Pacs which this year are in October. I checked flights and they are between $60-80 each way at the minute but this wont last long. I think 6 guys to make the trip worthwhile is the cut off. So please register your interest with me in the next week or so and I will book flights. Entries will be online at the AFBJJ website from July 19th. Hobart was a great road trip last year, although the journey home was a bit hard on Coach Ralph who was feeling very seedy.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
New Classes Added
BOXING FOR MMA Tues 6pm Sat 11am
Boxing footwork and basics for MMA. Padwork, drills and combinations. Aspects of Dirty Boxing in the clinch. As well as set ups to takedowns from punches and takedown defence.. You will need MMA Gloves, 16oz gloves and a mouthguard. All about learning the fundamentals.
The class will be taught by Dave Cassar. Dave is a longtime friend, student and sparring partner for Dave Berry, a living legend in martial arts circles. Dave Cassar has over twenty years experience in stand up fighting and has had multiple amateur kickboxing fights and sparred some of the big names in the business. Dave brings his no-nonsense approach to classes and is focused on developing real world fighting skills that transition well into MMA. There is a separate class, starting in September, for MMA Sparring during the week that is open by invitation only.
MMA SPARRING Fri 7pm Starting September 2009
Invitation Only. You will need headgear, shinpads, 16oz gloves, mouthguard and MMA gloves to attend. Class will focus on timed sparring rounds and isolation drills to develop MMA skills in a competitive environment. Pressure testing the skills you have acquired against a non-compliant opponent. 6 months of regular attendance at Jiu Jitsu and Boxing for MMA classes will be required to attend this class to ensure proper skill development.
The goal will be to develop a group of athletes to compete in a C class Shooto event in December 2009 against athletes from Extreme academies in Ringwood and Chadstone.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Blue to Purple
The following extract is taken from Matt Thorton's Aliveness Blog in an entry he wrote back in February 2007 entitled Exploring the Map. I wanted to post this as an another possible answer to Niall's question last nite in terms of what to focus on now after achieving blue belt. This section is relevant to blues but its worth going to the link and reading the entire article to see the big picture again. Here is the blue to purple part....
" The journey of blue to purple is one of detail.
If an individual has no previous background in wrestling, then a lot of BJJ can seem like magic when you first learn it. There is a stage as a beginner where knowledge of a new technique can become that crucial edge that allows you to survive or even beat, a large, strong peer who may have previously smashed you on the mat. So it’s normal that as one comes out of that white belt stage and begins to play the game as an early blue belt, the idea that accumulation of technique equals learning becomes a natural assumption. This is why the blue belt stage is where you gather your instructional DVD collection. It’s also one of the traps of the blue belt. We will talk more about this further down.
Using the map analogy, it’s where you really start to explore the different neighborhoods. You are past the stage of learning to identify north, south, east, west, and the major neighborhoods/ positions, and you’re fully engaged in exploring these areas. No matter what position a Coach calls out, a solid blue belt should have no problem identifying it, and having a good basic idea of what they should be doing from there. Becoming ‘good’ at playing in those different positions is what the stage of blue belt is all about...
What to work on:
As a teacher your major focus is best spent on drilling positions. Submission should be kept to the minimum solid core moves, but the emphasis should always be kept on holding, controlling and escaping from positions. This is of course the case for all levels of athlete. But I think this rule becomes particularly important at the blue belt phase, because the Coach needs to bring the student out of the technique based mode, into a broader positional perspective.
I also believe that blue belt is the where the open guard should really start to be fleshed out. Open guard is the heart and soul of BJJ, and by starting people with the open guard, as opposed to the closed guard, you encourage the development of excellent hip movement. And no-thing in BJJ is more important then that.
As a student work your open guard! Learn to play an active and aggressive guard game. Treat it as an offensive position, with the mindset that regardless of who they are. . .they will not pass your guard. Work your escapes from bottom game. Your emphasis on open guard will help here, as you will be developing solid hip movement. And as always, stick to developing your positional skills and thinking in broader concepts.
Why does BJJ work the way it does?
What are the top three things you are trying to accomplish in any given position?
What is the best priority for those things?
Find the answers for yourself to questions like this. Now that you can play the game it’s time to begin that lifelong process of simplifying the principles and concepts that the game is composed of.
Things to avoid:
As a Coach the biggest thing to remember when coaching blue belts is patience. Patience is always important no matter who you are coaching, but it can be particularly trying with blue belts because as mentioned previously, they may still be caught in that accumulation phase. The belief that getting better must mean learning a new submission, or a new move, is a phase that many blue belts go through. And as a good coach you need to be patient with them and create an environment where they are guided towards a bigger picture perspective.
As always, sticking with core fundamentals in every class helps facilitate this process.
As an athlete the thing to watch for as a blue belt is the tendency to be distracted from the fundamentals by some flash, or an overly complicated game plan. Learning to differentiate between movements which really are core fundamentals and those that are not, is a skill which may not be fully developed yet. Just because you see a very good competitor or black belt execute that movement or game doesn’t mean it’s something you need to be working on right now.
How is your elbow escape?
Head and arm escapes?
Cross sides escapes?
Base & posture in the closed guard?
By sticking to core fundamentals you will grow much faster."
" The journey of blue to purple is one of detail.
If an individual has no previous background in wrestling, then a lot of BJJ can seem like magic when you first learn it. There is a stage as a beginner where knowledge of a new technique can become that crucial edge that allows you to survive or even beat, a large, strong peer who may have previously smashed you on the mat. So it’s normal that as one comes out of that white belt stage and begins to play the game as an early blue belt, the idea that accumulation of technique equals learning becomes a natural assumption. This is why the blue belt stage is where you gather your instructional DVD collection. It’s also one of the traps of the blue belt. We will talk more about this further down.
Using the map analogy, it’s where you really start to explore the different neighborhoods. You are past the stage of learning to identify north, south, east, west, and the major neighborhoods/ positions, and you’re fully engaged in exploring these areas. No matter what position a Coach calls out, a solid blue belt should have no problem identifying it, and having a good basic idea of what they should be doing from there. Becoming ‘good’ at playing in those different positions is what the stage of blue belt is all about...
What to work on:
As a teacher your major focus is best spent on drilling positions. Submission should be kept to the minimum solid core moves, but the emphasis should always be kept on holding, controlling and escaping from positions. This is of course the case for all levels of athlete. But I think this rule becomes particularly important at the blue belt phase, because the Coach needs to bring the student out of the technique based mode, into a broader positional perspective.
I also believe that blue belt is the where the open guard should really start to be fleshed out. Open guard is the heart and soul of BJJ, and by starting people with the open guard, as opposed to the closed guard, you encourage the development of excellent hip movement. And no-thing in BJJ is more important then that.
As a student work your open guard! Learn to play an active and aggressive guard game. Treat it as an offensive position, with the mindset that regardless of who they are. . .they will not pass your guard. Work your escapes from bottom game. Your emphasis on open guard will help here, as you will be developing solid hip movement. And as always, stick to developing your positional skills and thinking in broader concepts.
Why does BJJ work the way it does?
What are the top three things you are trying to accomplish in any given position?
What is the best priority for those things?
Find the answers for yourself to questions like this. Now that you can play the game it’s time to begin that lifelong process of simplifying the principles and concepts that the game is composed of.
Things to avoid:
As a Coach the biggest thing to remember when coaching blue belts is patience. Patience is always important no matter who you are coaching, but it can be particularly trying with blue belts because as mentioned previously, they may still be caught in that accumulation phase. The belief that getting better must mean learning a new submission, or a new move, is a phase that many blue belts go through. And as a good coach you need to be patient with them and create an environment where they are guided towards a bigger picture perspective.
As always, sticking with core fundamentals in every class helps facilitate this process.
As an athlete the thing to watch for as a blue belt is the tendency to be distracted from the fundamentals by some flash, or an overly complicated game plan. Learning to differentiate between movements which really are core fundamentals and those that are not, is a skill which may not be fully developed yet. Just because you see a very good competitor or black belt execute that movement or game doesn’t mean it’s something you need to be working on right now.
How is your elbow escape?
Head and arm escapes?
Cross sides escapes?
Base & posture in the closed guard?
By sticking to core fundamentals you will grow much faster."
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Good training partners are hard to find.
I often repeat this line about training partners and that when you've got a good training partner look after him! Trying to find people on a similar wavelength to you and at a skill level that complements your own and you are both willing to exchange ideas and try new stuff at full tilt without letting the ego get in the way is very very difficult indeed. So when you find one take care not to break them. Even though this is an individual endeavor to some extent no-one can make real progress alone. Books, youtube and dvds are great but at some point you need to try and see if it actually works and then workshop any difficulties you inevitably encounter. Entries, set ups and recounters etc. So to get a someone whose feedback you trust and is willing to highlight your weaknesses and then set about eliminating them is what good training is all about. Thats when you make real progress together. I guess that's one of the reasons I opened a club down here is to develop a bunch of training partners with different games, body types and personalities to help me get better as a grappler and martial artist. So its exciting to have a bunch of new blue belts on the mat after three years and see that dream start to come to fruition. And I hope that by having a group of guys grading together that they keep each other honest as a group and make the next step forward together. On the other hand, one of the downsides to teaching, is that I dont get to go Chadstone as much as I would like to work on my own game against more experienced grapplers. Time just doesn't permit. But I always remark when people ask me about this, that Jason keeps me honest in terms of my own development. I am grateful to have such a good training partner. Hard to find.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Resilience
resilient |riˈzilyənt|
adjective
(of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed. See note at flexible .
• (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions : the fish are resilient to most infections.
DERIVATIVES
resilience noun
resiliency noun
resiliently adverb
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin resilient- ‘leaping back,’ from the verb resilire (see resile ).
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
We are on the move....again.
View Larger Map
All hands on deck. On Saturday 27th June at 10am we will move to our new training facility at 3 Archer Drive in Mornington (see map below) literally 2min from where we currently reside. I need as many hands as I can get to move the mat to the new location so we can train at midday as per normal. Adrenalin Gym is renovating upstairs that weekend and the mat will need to be pulled up anyway. It is the perfect time to move now that the new premises is nearing completion this weekend. So please set some time aside and come down and help out. I will review the training timetable over the coming weeks as we will have full time access to the new mat, giving us a chance to expand the number and type of classes from the existing format. The new gym will be a work in progress but over time I hope to get some punching bags, throwing dummies, crash mat and some sort of cage wall for MMA training.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Grading Photos
Here's some photos of the nite. Thanks to Kakoda. Where is Marco on the Mornington group shot?
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday Night Grading
Congratulations to all those who graded successfully on the night. The addition of six new blue belts to the mat is a welcome sight and testament to the growth and development of the group. I hope each of the new blues now makes a commitment to the next phase of training. We used to say at karate that the only good thing about being a black belt is being able to wear it. In that ultimately the higher your grade the more responsibility you carry both in terms of yourself but also to the group as a whole. Everyone performed well on the night with a format that is still evolving and we will debrief on the some of the grading expectations over the next few sessions and make adjustments for next time. On a downer, Big Rick was on the receiving end of a nasty knee and ankle injury that we will assess and manage over the next few weeks. Tough for a guy who is very deserving of his new rank with such an outstanding competitive record. We wish him a speedy recovery. So over the next few classes please bring some camera's to training for happy snaps and please send me copies so I can post them on the blog. If all goes well we will be moving to our new home down the road in July, I will provide more details shortly. So thanks again for your your efforts in representing our club and I look forward to training and competing together in the months and years ahead. Osu.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Gi Class this Thursday
To help with preparation for this weeks Grading on Friday nite at Chadstone tommorow nite will be a gi class instead of no-gi.
So dont forget to pack your pyjama's for training!
So dont forget to pack your pyjama's for training!
UFC 99 Preview Hardy v Davis
We will be watching this at Slym's on Sunday from 12pm. The event will be live from 5am so stay off the net if you dont want to know the results before the midday replay.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Joga Bonito
Jase and I were talking the other day about how Brasilians move differently on the mat compared to the rest of us. I think its interesting how a culture reflects so heavily on how athletes perform or carry out their sport. Whether its the organisation and precision of the Germans, the arrogance and swagger of the Americans, the laconic Aussies or the brilliance and flair of Brasil. Joga Bonito means Play Nice or Play Beautiful. Amazing to watch.
Friday, June 5, 2009
MMA Live ESPN
Previews Brown v Faber 2 and Kimbo Slice on TUF 10 is discussed. As well as Lawler v Shields.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Shawn Tompkins Radio Interview
Some interesting ideas here regarding the game of MMA and how wrestlers now fight like boxers to keep matches exciting by avoiding prolonged ground and pound. Th idea of game plans is also explored and how to best beat Machida.
Monday, June 1, 2009
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