Scissor sweep seminar @ Combat Base Runcorn!

Had a very enjoyable afternoon over at Ng Gar Tien Combat Base in Runcorn yesterday, as Darren and Helen Currie were over giving a seminar on my all time favourite technique, the scissor sweep. This is a very high percentage sweep, which has worked very well for me over the years on the competition circuit in the UK and abroad, in gi and no gi events.

Helen took the class through a thorough warm up that included drills and movements all designed to help with the coaching section from Darren; once warm, Darren took the class through the basic set up for the scissor sweep, showing the right way to grip and where to place the legs for the sweep. Darren then showed the group how to break the opponent's base and balance, which of course is the key to all successful sweeps; from there, a number of options were shown to sweep the opponent when the first attempt failed and when the opponent defended the sweep.

A lot of the coaching from Darren on the day was pretty simple to execute, yet rested upon some very deep concepts of jiu jitsu, which Darren went at length to explain in order for everyone to gain a deeper understanding of not only the sweep, but of jiu jitsu as a whole.

From the failed scissor attempt, Darren showed a way to get out of the sweep position into stand up, which he felt many jiu jitsu players don't do often enough in rolling and competition; from the stand up came a nice loop choke and rolling loop choke and entries into triangles and flying triangles. Arm bars and triangle from defences against the sweep were also shown and as always, time was upon us and all that was left was for specific training and some rolling.

Another great session and Part 2 of the seminar, which will look at ways to beat the sweep, will be held at Combat Base Bolton some time in August/September, so make sure you don't miss it!

UMA Winners!

As a coach, there is no better feeling than seeing your students do well in competition; all the hard work in the gym drilling and training week in, week out was duly rewarded at the UMA BJJ comp on the last weekend in May. Fifteen students took to the mats, flying the flag for Combat Base UK and hauled in an impressive two gold, nine silver and two bronze medals, as well as being crowned team champions on the day.

A superb result all round and a HUGE congrats to all the guys that competed and to all the guys that didn't compete, but have trained alongside the competition guys at the club, who by now have got the bug for competing.

Next stop Hereford!

New Fundamentals Class!

Commencing Thursday 6th June, on a weekly basis from 6-7pm, there will now be a new BJJ Fundamentals class at the club; I cannot stress how important the basics and fundamentals of jiu jitsu are to every one of us that practices BJJ.

You only need to look at Roger Gracie and the way he applies the basics on a world class level, to appreciate and understand the need to be adept at the basics, which in turn gives you a strong base and foundation, from which to build your jiu jitsu skills and take your training to the next level.