Hereford Open 6!

Rounded off the weekend with a day out in Hereford on Sunday, refereeing at the white belt only competition, organised by my good friend Dave Coles. After the seminar in Leicester, Lee and myself drove back to Jim Mc Sherry's and after feasting on pasta bake and chocolate, we hit the sack for a well earned early night, in readiment for the comp the next day.

Drove down to Hereford in the morning and when we got there, the hall was filled with white belts junior and senior, male and female, all ready to do battle on the tatami; I started off refereeing the junior brackets and I have to say I was very impressed by the standard of all the young competitors, if only I had BJJ when I was 7 years old!


Big congrats to Tony Riley, who fought valiantly in the repercharge for the bronze medal, well earned against some stiff competition; massive congrats to Lee Gilmore in his second competition with only four months training under his belt. Fought two tough matches against two tough guys and did everything but win the matches, losing by a one point margin in both matches, making them look average players. In time we'll be seeing more of Lee on the winners podium, you read it here first!

Shouts out to Dave Coles, Simon Small, Pat Baker, Jim mc Sherry, Brad Stewart, Stacey Davies and my lovely sponsors Gareth and Lee mwah!

Look forward to the coloured belts competition in March!

BJJ seminar @ Leicester Jiu Jitsu Club!

Had a great afternoon of jiu jitsu at the weekend, spreading the BJJ gospel at Leicester Jiu Jitsu Club; always happy to be teaching at traditional jiu jitsu clubs, as that was where I started many years ago, long before BJJ arrived on UK soil. I was invited down by Rob Phelps and was ably assisted by Jim Mc Sherry and student Lee Gilmore, as we covered drills, fundamentals, take downs, guard passes, sweeps and just about had time for a couple of submissions!

Look forward to the next one!

Open Mat fun and games!

Once again, another fine turn out for the Open Mat, with four purple belts and one brown belt gracing the mats for another great session. Shouts out to Scott Pickering, Tom Dolly and Thomas Hanlon from Team Sukata and Graemme Kidd from Fighting Fit BJJ Labs for coming down and continually supporting the sessions.

It's so nice to see different academies coming together on one mat, to train and swap techniques and advice; the white belts love these sessions, but I think I like them more, as it gives me a chance to roll with guys at my level on a weekly basis, without having to travel miles for the privilige.

Judo class!

Had a great turnout for the Judo class last night, another top notch session from George, who is proving to be a real assest to the coaching team here at the club. All the students are picking up the techniques easily and can see for themselves how Judo compliments BJJ so well. I am enjoying the classes immensely and will be picking up where I left off in 2005 with my Judo grades, where I was a lofty top blue with the BJA. I will be transfering my grades over to George's association and will be working hard to get my black belt and start teaching kids when I pass my brown belt grade.

Teaching Judo to the kids can give me the angle of getting them into BJJ, which will make them all round accomplished grapplers and I will be looking to get them into competitions as soon as possible and from there it will be world domiantion in no time!

More info on class times at http://www.combatbasebolton.co.uk/classes

MMA class for footballers!

Had a large contingent of footballers attend last night's MMA session for some off season conditioning, thanks to their coach and good friend Rob Rostron; the lads were given a taste of MMA training, with the infamous Wolfslair's 'Bendy Kness' that sorted out the men from the boys!

All the lads worked hard throughout the session, taking part in strength challenges, as well as pad work and lots of cardio, before taking in some ground work and rounding everything off with a rumble in the cage.

After the session, the vast majority will be returning next week for more of the same and join in the classes proper and who knows, we may have the next wave of footballers turned cage fighters!