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.