Tuesday 28 February 2017

No Gi Armageddon!

We now have two competitions to prepare for, which will be our first dip into the world of No Gi events; we will be entering the English Open in April and the Southend Open submission only event in May. 


Four guys are competing so far and were put through some harsh specifics and some brutal shark tanks last night; I've only got these guys twice a week so I have to push them hard, plus they will hopefully be getting in extra classes at LFF to help them get ready for WAR!!


Lots of hard training ahead for everyone at the club :)

Mean Streets Seminar Review!

I went back to my roots on Sunday just gone, attending the Mean Streets Seminar hosted by Russell Jarmesty at his gym in Atherton; Russell had put together the best of the best into one room and delivered a seminar that was tailored to give people the skills to finish live situations FAST! No bullshit. No nonsense. Just seriously pressure tested techniques that have been forged on the doors and on the streets in live situations time and time again.


On the seminar, the guest instructors were Jimmy Kelly, Scott Caldwell and Trevor Roberts, as well as Russell, all of which need no introduction, their reputations and pedigrees speak for themselves and for the next four hours, the seminar attendees were given masterclasses in the art of destroying anyone that stands in your way.


All the drills and techniques taught were designed to get the job done fast, with no messing about and absolutely no rolling around on the floor, the most contact with the floor was one knee at best and if you did end up on the ground, back on your feet as quickly as possible.


Jimmy Kelly started the afternoon off with a thorough warm up and a large number of grappling drills, starting off slowly, then working up the pace and intensity, before going into a number of ways of taking some one down from throat grabs, yet remaining on the feet as you carried them out.  Jimmy said these were basic techniques, but these were moves I've been using on the doors for many years; basics when applied properly and after many hours of drilling and pressure tested are all you need, remember we're not here making daisy chains.


Trevor Roberts followed Jimmy and progressed from Jimmy's teaching, moving into the nitty gritty of close contact grappling, when you have to go shit or bust, as Trevor is wont to say; there was much eye gouging and fish hooking, generating that head movement and of Kuzushi, breaking  your opponent's balance, all important in live situations, which is essential to get a guy on their toes and then into the concrete as hard and fast as possible.


Scott Caldwell was next and gave the group a taste of his teaching methods and concepts, which starts from an initial step forward into the aggressor, covering with an upward elbow to protect the face and the other hand trapping, before moving off to the side and unleashing hell.



Scott really ramped up the pace in his session, as he spoke about the need for intent and absolute conviction when applying these moves, which was mirrored in the partner drills, which progressed to as full on pressure testing as you can get, culminating in group pressure testing drills, in groups of four of five, with one guy in the middle having to react to each guy's attack and getting them to the floor as quickly as possible.


Russell rounded off the session with a look at pain compliance, both on the aggressor and on the victim, with a lot of emphasis on the ways fights start and how to use verbal cues to switch on and get to work.  Arm drags and face bars are Russell's favourite moves and he showed lots of ways of getting into an arm drag position, which made way for the bone crushing pain of the face bars and these were put into practice with some great drills.  Dealing with throat grabs and psyching out your attacker rounded off the session and I'm sure most of the people that atteneded the seminar will now have a nice reminder of the day everytime they swallow some food or drink.

Huge congrats to Russell again for organising a hugely informative seminar, there was lots of energy in the room on the day from everyone who attended.  In addition to a great day of  training and on a more serious and humbling note, all the guest instructors generously donated their fees to help fellow martial artist Anthony Pillage in his fight against cancer. Anthony is undergoing intensive holistic treatment to help him in his fight and monies from the seminar, the guests fees and money raised from a raffle on the day, as well as donations from all who attened, also went to Anthony. Anthony was present at the seminar and gave a quick speech thanking everyone for their generosity and this week embarks on his treatment regime in London. From everyone at the seminar, we all wish you the best with your treatment.

I myself had a really great time catching up with Trevor and sharing the mats with him once again and in finally meeting Russell, Jimmy and Scott and am really looking forward to the next seminar, sharing the mats with some really great martial artists and now friends, which is what it's all about.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Grapple Kings and BAIN!

Great class last night, everybody training hard, as we start to switch up a gear, as a couple of No Gi competitions loom on the horizon, more about these comps in a later post.


Was repping the Grapple Kings Gi last night and the Gi also has added submission protection from a cool BAIN patch, thanks to the Harj Bains and the team; this Gi is one their earlier production runs and am looking forward to giving one of their new Gi's a thorough road test both here at Checkmat Wimbledon and London Fight Factory.


BAIN info - www.bainstore.com 

Monday 20 February 2017

Children of Ezekiel!

I am now a Child of Ezekiel!

Thanks to my sponsors at BAIN for this awesome tshirt, really top quality and with an awesome design, will be dishing out some Ezekiel pain tonight in class :)

 
 

Wednesday 15 February 2017

Checkmat Wimbeldon on the BJJEE.com website!

Huge thanks to Guillaume Hume for sharing the video of my student in action :)



 

Putting theory into practice............

Here at Checkmat Wimbledon, I try and give my students the best tools to help them in competitions and more importantly, to give them the upper hand in a live situation. In this video is one of my students on duty at work, dealing with a drunk and aggressive individual. Beautifully executed takedown (banned in IBJJF), then straight to mount (four points IBJJF) to nullify the aggressor. 

I cannot say how proud I am of this guy, putting theory on the mats into real life practice and that he has the skills and the confidence to defend himself in such a professional manner. Oooosssss


Monday 13 February 2017

Northen travels

Was great to catch up with a couple of my old students at the weekend, visiting sunny Runcorn and meeting up with purple belts Alex Cannon and Chris Lewis; both trained with me at the start of their journey and got to blue belt and now they have joined up with Arlans Siqueira and are now running a very successful outfit, with their students tasting success on the competition circuit.


Alex and the team went out of their way in looking after me and it was a pleasure to share the mats and get back to see old friends; it's very nice to see some of my old students keeping up with their training since I moved to London and I know they'll be in very safe hands with Arlans and his team.
 Also like to give a shout out to my good friend Ki Oni, who was in the area and dropped in to support the seminar, very much appreciated and humbling indeed.

Thursday 9 February 2017

Checkmat Wimbledon in the news!

Once again, huge thanks to Martin Voller from SW Londoner, who visited the club last week and put together a short video of the club, outlining its aims for the coming year. It's very much appreciated from both myself and my students and great publicity for the club and we look forward to carrying on working with the SW Londoner throughout the year.