Monday 15 November 2010

Igor wins in Rio!

I'm proud to announce the good news that my good friend Igor Vasilyew won his first MMA fight out in Rio at the weekend; I heard Igor gave a dominating performance and in true Igor style, tore his opponent apart for an impressive win. Igor is state Judo and Sambo champ in St Petersburg and has a tremenedous work ethic, as well as being one of the nicest and humble people you could meet. Igor is staying at Connection Rio and Jeremy Arel and Dennis Asche and crew are helping Igor to further improve his impressive fight record.

Here's a photo of Igor after the fight. The blood isn't his by the way.




For more about the fight, read Jeremy's brilliant Blog - www.greatgrappling.com/blog.cgi?id=87

Friday 5 November 2010

Tatami Fightwear Sponsor Team 2011!

Introducing the 2011 Sponsor Team from Tatami Fightwear!



A real rogues gallery of individuals, who are looking forward to continued success in the 2011 competition calendar.......Can you believe it we are nearly at the end of 2010?! How quickly time flies!!

Technique of the week - Eddie Kone style!

My good friend Eddie Kone demonstrates a cool submission from side control :)

Chris Haueter seminar - Factory BJJ!

After the fun and games with Chris at Pontefract, the next gi seminar was at Factory BJJ in Reddish, Stockport and the session was packed to capacity. Chris took the class through a number of takedowns, specifically tailored for gi fighting and from these takedowns, Chris showed us how to develop an attacking guard, instead of 'a lie down and rape me guard', as quoted by Chris.



After the takedowns were covered, Chris took the class through an attacking half guard game, with some really cool entries, that really disrupt your opponent's base and once disrupted, sweeps and reversals naturally followed as surely as day follows night.



In a bid to get the best out of the seminar as possible, Chris rounded off the session with a number of drills, that would help bring on your overall game in leaps and bounds. Rather than showing technique after technique and overloading everyone's brains, everyone paired off and played the hooks game from a butterfly guard. That is, one guy had one hook in at the knee and had to elevate and sweep their opponent, whilst the other had to defend the attack. From this position, one was able to use the techniques Chris had shown earlier and was great way to finish the seminar and these drills will certainly be used back at the club next week.



The night was rounded off in fine style, as Ryan Hunter was put through a brutal Iron Man, facing blue belts, purple and brown belts and a smattering of white belts, which culminated in a very well deserved black belt and a mighty whack across the back from Chris.



As is always the case, the seminar was over and another tour of the Combat Bsse clubs in the bag for Chris; all that remained was a no gi session at Caged Steel the following day, but due to teaching commitments I was unable to attend what would have been an awesome session. One hopes that Chris will return in the very near future and not make it as long as last time, but in the meantime, I now have some really cool shit to drill with the lads and try out in competitions.



Group photo John Sherwood.

Others from yours truly.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

New black belt @ Combat Base!!

After a gruelling iron man session at the end of a brilliant seminar from Chris Haueter, Ryan Hunter was promoted to black belt!!

Ryan is a very talented Judoka at 2nd Dan and was put through the mill this evening at Factory BJJ by Chris, having to go through all the blue belts, purple belts, one brown belt and a few white belts, in a well deserved promotion!



Congrats to Ryan on a well deserved promotion!

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Chris Haueter seminar - Pontefract!

Chief instructor of Combat Base, Chris Haueter, is over in the UK on a whistle stop tour, hosting a number of seminars at various Combat Base clubs; the Rigan Machado black belt and one twelfth of the infamous Dirty Dozen, gave a class at the Pontefract club last night, run by Helen and Darren Currie.



Rather than Chris take the class through techniques, he opened the session up to all the attendees to ask him questions on things that they were having problems with in their game. Darren kicked off the session with a question of his own and the session started with Chris's take on take downs and how to disguise the initial attack of a single or double leg takedown, which works well if you're facing a skilled Judoka in a competition.



On the ground, Chris showed a number of ways to pass the butterfly guard, as well as how to defend the pass and keep the hooks in, via a selection of cool drills, that can easily be integrated into any warm up. Tips on sweeping from the butterfly were also shown via drilling methods, with Chris emphasising the finer points in detail.



Keeping the drills coming thick and fast, Chris rounded off the last segment of the session with ways of dealing with an opponent when they turtle up and showed a really cool and super simple way of adding an extra eight inches to your game.......something so simple everyone, including myself where saying 'why the hell didn't I think of that?!'. It's little gems like this that make these sessions so memorable and worth every penny of the mat fees. Darren also showed me a tip Chris had shown him on gripping your opponent, yet another really simple concept and one which will come in handy in my night time job, looking forward to using it this weekend!



Chris finished the session off by rolling with the senior grades, namely my good self, Rob Lawlor and Ryan Hunter who are both brown belts; rolling with Chris is never a pleasent affair, as he plays the pressure game to such a high level that it's more like a slow torture than a roll. You just about manage to escape one bad position, when BAM! you're in an even shittier position and it goes on and on and on.......he could have submitted you umpteen times within the roll, but he likes to make you sweat and strain and run yourself into the ground until you're a spent force and then makes you work even harder.

The session ran over time, as they always do, but who's complaining when you've got such a world class jiu jitsu player on your mats?

Next seminar is tonight at Factory BJJ in Stockport and I'll be there, camera at the ready, as always.

More Interclub pix!















A few pix from the camera of Alex Cannon, from Ng Gar Tien club, Runcorn.











Monday 1 November 2010

Combat Base Interclub!

Had a great day at the interclub yesterday at Caged Steel; referee'd, competed and cornered for eight of my students and was great to see Chris Haueter at the event, who's here for one week hosting a number of seminars.

The event was well attended and was a mix of gi and no gi matches and there was plenty of talent on display from all competitors; well done Will Aston and James Charlton from my club on bagging silver medals in their respective divisions and a great achievement for James, in his first ever comp and six weeks total in training!


Lewis Shaw hit the mats in the first match of the day against a yellow belt and showed off a great Judo throw and some good groundwork, but sadly got subbed before he could do any more damage! Team spirit was definitely strengthened after yesterday's comp, bringing all the lads together to support each other on the day and everyone that competed were winners, regardless of the outcome of their fights.

A huge well done to all the lads who competed and to everyone who helped at the club getting the lads into shape; days like this make it a pleasure and an honour to be an instructor, watching all the hard work take shape in the competition arena.

Check out more great pix from John Sherwood at http://www.flickr.com/photos/factorybjj/sets/72157625287405144/

Leoni Munslow interview @ Kombat Clinic dot com!


My latest interview on a very deserving female BJJ athlete :)

http://kombatclinic.com/2010/11/leoni-munslow-interview/