Christmas Message!

Rather than post up a sober run of the mill festive inspired photo up for Christmas, I thought I'd put on something to warm the cockles during these cold cold nights of late. I'd like to thank everyone who has read the Blog and commented on posts this year, I have had great pleasure in posting on here, especially my run up to the Scandinavian Open in October.

There will be more of the same in the New Year, as I will be embarking on Far Eastern adventures of which I will be sharing with you all on here, so keep an eye out for announcements real soon!

Just like to wish everyone I have been involved with this year a very Happy Christmas and look forward to renewed good fortunes in the New Year!

Helen Currie - sponsored by Tatami Fight Wear.com!

Congratulations to Combat Base UK's Chief Instructor Helen Currie on securing sponsorship with Tatami Fight Wear dot com.................

http://http://www.efnsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=8142.0

Introducing Rubens 'Cobrinha' Charles............

I had the immense pleasure and privilige of meeting and hanging out with Cobrinha, at the Capital Challenge International in Jordan in 2008; always on the look out for inspiration and motivation, when the weather's really cold and miserable and feeling achy and sore, I play my selection of highlight reels and they are enough to fire me up and hit the mats.

This HL reel is new and updated, so watch the clip and witness a superior grappler at work on the mats and if this doesn't inspire and motivate you, then you need to take up some other sport!!

No gi class @ Salford Fight Factory!

Had the immense pleasure of taking my final no gi guest class of the year at Salford Fight Factory this evening; at the invite of Darren and Michelle Sherlock, I made my final trip of 2009 to the mean streets of Swinton and as always, a good turn out was at hand and as ever, it was a pleasure to teach with plenty of laughs and jokes to accompany serious training.

I will be back in the New Year, ready to shake off the extra pounds that are sure to creep up over the next few weeks!

Big shout to Darren and Michelle for having me over to the club the last few months, have really enjoyed every visit and of course making new friends along the way.

See you all in 2010!!

UMA no gi comp 6th December!

Just like to say a massive thanks to all the competitors who fought their hearts out today, win or lose you did yourselves and your clubs proud.

Also a big thanks to Jim for organising the event and to all the other referees, table officials and behind the scenes volunteers - without you guys the event wouldn't be happening at all!

Sportsmanship and warrior spirit was in abundance today, especially on my mat and I'm sure the same was repeated on the other two mats.

I refereed the Advanced -85 and the Novice -75 and -85 brackets and the Absoulte and was very impressed at the standard from all fighters, especially the novices, who went flat out in all their matches, with some HUGE pick ups throughout the day.

On my mat, shouts out to Ian Bromley, Darren Sherlock, Ryan and Matt Robinson, GB Brum lads, Tap or Snap, Chester Massive, Radoslav and all the other competitors whose names escape me

Was also glad to see Leicester Shoot's Caz Tweedy get to fight, full marks to the lads for stepping up.

Results - http://www.efnsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=8070.msg77251;boardseen#new

We got ROPE!!

Must be coming to something when I get all excited about a delivery of a 12 foot length of rope, but that's exactly how I felt this morning when the courier knocked on my door with a shiny white box, containing no less than a 28mm diameter Polypropylene Hemp Gym Rope, with steel fitting one end and the other end heat sealed and resin coated. It doesn't get much better than that on a Wednesday morning I'm sure you'll agree.

All that has to be done is to get the rope set up at the club and get climbing!

Forearms will take on a new dimension in size and grip strength will be going through the roof after just a few weeks and just think of the damage we can wreak on the mats going for collar chokes and such like!

Over time I will be looking at getting a few more lengths of rope in, the more the merrier, so in every class you can be guaranteed of getting 'roped in' to the warm up (geddit, 'roped in', OK I'll shut up)........