Merry Christmas!

To all my BJJ brothers and sisters all around the world, have a great Christmas, put your feet up, hang up your gi's and enjoy a few days off the mats. 

As always, I've added my favourite photo for the time of year, to compensate for the lousy weather :)

Christmas Timetable for Combat Base Bolton

Here's the timetable for the club this Christmas; tomorrow will be an Open Mat session starting at 2pm, open to all my BJJ brothers and sisters across the region.

Schedule:-

Monday 23rd BJJ 6-730pm, sparring 730-9pm
Tuesday 24th Xmas Eve Open Mat 2-330pm (£5pp)
Saturday 28th Open Mat 1-3pm
Monday 30th BJJ 6-730pm sparring 730-9pm
Tuesday 31st NYE Open Mat 2-330pm (£5pp)
Thurs Jan 2 Beginners 6-730pm sparring 730-9pm

 

See you on the mats!!

Great Grappling Documentary - Part 5

New Purple Belt!!

HUGE congrats to my very good friend Jim Mc Sherry who was promoted to purple belt yesterday; as you know Jim heads the UMA NGB and runs the very popular UMA tournaments that include Karate, BJJ, Grappling and Groundfighting formats.

 

I had the honour of cornering Jim at the Grab and Pull Blackpool Open last month, where Jim took gold medal; Jim works tirelessly towards promoting all styles of martial arts competition and is a credit to himself, his club and his coaches.  

 

Next stop brown belt mate!!

Great Grappling Documentary - Part 4

Great Grappling Documentary - Part 3

Great Grappling Documentary - Part Deux

Enjoy!

Straight foot lock set up with Nic Gregoriades!

Keeping things focussed on the foot lock on the Blog this week, after one of my students promised me a win via straight foot lock at the Blackpool Open and delivered the goods.

Check out this cool set up for the foot lock from black belt Nic Gregoriades and as always -

DRILL! DRILL! DRILL!!

Foot lock clinic with Dean Lister!

Wednesday is No Gi day at Combat Base Bolton, where you can find me teaching all the non IBJJF friendly techniques I've acquired over the years from training at various grappling clubs around the North West.

With this in mind, check out this cool video from the leg lock legend that is Dean Lister and be sure to drill these out in class and start taking home some ankles..........

Guard passing with Rafael Lovato Jr

Another cool video from Rafael Lovato Jr on guard passing; the first pass on the video was shown to me when I attended a seminar of his at Eddie Kone's gym in London a couple of years ago and this was the last pass in a series of passes that start from the same passing position.

 

The second pass is a detailed study of passing the butterfly guard and Rafael shows his favourite way of passing guard straight into mount, something I have been using ever since attending his seminar; Rafael ends the video showing how you can combing both passes, making yourself a real guard passing beast, the scourge of all guard players.

 

As always, watch the video, get your instructor to watch the video, hit the mats and drill, drill, drill!  As always, get in touch and let me know if you hit any of these passes in training or competition.........................

 

 

Battle of the Roosters!!

An epic battle between two young warriors, real nail biting action! Massive thanks to George Higgins for stepping up and giving Lee a real run for his money, he's a credit to himself and his club.  As with many BJJ fights, after the result, both combatants are now very good friends, which is what Jiu Jitsu is all about, so sit back and enjoy a thrilling fight.................

 

 

 

 

Tatami Goodies!

The latest offerings from the boyo's in Wales......................

 

 

 

 

www.tatamifightwear.com



Jeff Glover!!

A few weeks ago I received an email from Jamico Elder, one of Chris Haueter's students at The Garage in LA, asking me for one of my old Combat Base Bolton patches, as it contained some artwork that was on one of Chris's t shirts and he wanted one for his new gi.

 

 

The club patches were designed by my right hand man Ben Ogunby and I had none left so I did the next best thing and took the patch off my gi and shipped it over and in return, Jay sent me a couple of cool t-shirts that Chris had recently designed.

 

 

What Jay didn't tell me was that after a training session with the legend that is Jeff Glover, both Jay and Jeff posed for a few photos at The Garage with my patch in hand, as did Chris Haueter. 

 

Jay emailed me the photos as a little surprise, which really brightened up my day; Jeff Glover with my club patch in his hand!!!!

Cartoon funnies...............

A couple of cartoons that raised a few smiles today...........................

 

 

Lee Jones - GOLD!

Massive congrats from myself and the lads to super heavy weight Lee Jones on his gold medal at the Blackpool Open at the weekend; Lee finally faced someone at his own weight, George Higgins from Checkmat in London and the lads gave a masterclass on competitive BJJ.  One of the best matches I've seen in a long time, both lads fought their hearts out and gave it 101%

 

Video will be online very soon..................

Blackpool Open pix

Blackpool Open pix

Blackpool Open pix

Blackpool Open pix

Blackpool Open!

After having such a great time at the Blackpool Open last year, the students and myself were really looking forward to the event again this year; scheduled for August this year, the comp was moved back to November and clashed with the British Open that was running all this weekend.

Krishnan (r)

With the clash in mind, the comp was well attended and ran across three mats and Gus Oliviera and his hard working team of officials and runners did a great job making sure the brackets ran as close to as on time as possible.  The longest delay my students had was ten minutes, hardly a heinous crime as with all the best will in the world, sometimes brackets run over.  Running comps is a thankless task at the best of times, but speaking to people all day from various gyms, the general consensus was that the event ran pretty smoothly, I didn't really see or hear anyone complaining to Gus throughout the day.  This is just my own observations on the event and I haven't been paid by Gus to write a glowing article either :)

 

It's always nice to be at these comps as it's a chance to catch up with all my old friends and not so young friends, as well as making new friends on the day and today was no exception. I had one white belt and five blues competing and we had the honour of having Jim Mc Sherry join our camp as he travelled up alone to compete and I had the honour of cornering Jim for his fight, where Jim walked away with the gold medal - well done Jim!

With Jim Mc Sherry

Another nice surprise came in the shape of black belt Henrique Santana, who I met when I was out in Abu Dhabi, in fact we sat next to each other on the flight out there; Henrique was reffing and also competing, winning his match in quick time via submission.  Parabens!

 

It was another competition with medals for the lads, with a bronze for Will Aston, who delivered on his promise of a leg lock, winning his bronze medal fight with a leg lock submission, something we've been drilling in class.  Tim Wilson walked away with a silver medal and fight of the day in my opinion (albeit biased but I'm sure other non CB guys would agree) was an epic blue belt Rooster weight clash with Lee Jones and George Higgins from Checkmat in London.

 

Lee has competed all through white belt and blue and has never, until yesterday, competed against anyone in his weight bracket; Lee's had to fight two brackets higher and has never once complained, but yesterday he had the chance to showcase his skills against an opponent his weight.  And boy what a match!

 

Lee took the fight to George and within two minutes was 11-0 up on George and then it turned into a Rocky match! Up on points, George managed to get a foot lock on Lee and looked sunk in tight, but Lee managed to escape and fought on.  George picked up the pace and attacked again with an arm bar and I was screaming at Lee 'don't tap!!' as were all his team mates and the Checkmat guys were screaming at George to finish the fight.  As Lee's coach it was stomach churning to watch, I'm thinking 'don't fucking tap, don't fucking tap!'

 

Lee defended the attack and pressed on and at one point George stood up in Lee's guard with Lee wrapped round his waist and Lee dropped his feet on the mats and took him down with a sweet takedown/guard pass combo that drove the crowd wild, the atmosphere was electric.

 

With a minute to go, my heart was in my mouth, shouting at Lee to remain calm, urging the time to go faster, George trying his best to submit Lee and thankfully time ran out and Lee was the winner.  It was an awesome fight, one of the best I've seen, a real rollercoaster ride, my mouth was dry from adrenaline and shouting, a really proud moment for me as a coach and was buzzing for Lee, he really fought with a maturity beyond his teenage years.

George and Lee

After the fight George and Lee shook hands and as such with BJJ, they will no doubt become great friends, something that all BJJ competitors can share with each other. I've fought all round the world and win or lose, I've made some great friends and all through competing against each other. It's a feeling that can only be gained through actual competition, after the fight that's it, friends for life.

 

Both lads showed great sportsmanship and a real passion for competition, they both gave it 100% and are a credit to both their teams and themselves.

 

All my students that competed win or lose, all managed to pull something off that they'd been working on personally and what they've been drilling in class, you can't ask for more than that as a coach.  Medals for Voodoo and Factory BJJ swelled the bling tally for Combat Base UK, with some superb matches from both camps

With Gus Oliviera

Massive thanks to Gus for putting on a great show and shouts out to the following people I met on the day, as well as all the guys from Checkmat I spoke to, hope to see you all again soon - Jim Mc Sherry, Gary Savage, Henrique Santana, Adam Adshead, James Nardone, Tony Riley, Dave Kari, Aggie Semtex Drozdzik, George Higgins, Scott Pickering, Karl Etherington, Kathryn Pelling and Dario Bastos.

 

www.grabandpull.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock Star Guard Pass

Drill this really cool guard pass in class and let me know if you hit it off when rolling; thanks to my good friend Jeremy Arel, who showed me this move in Rio in 2010, back when I was a purple belt.

Great Grappling Documentary - Chapter 1

This awesome five part documentary takes an in depth look inside Jeremy Arel's successful BJJ academy in Fort Mill, South Carolina in the US of A.  I first met Jeremy in Rio back in 2010 when I was a purple and he was a brown belt and we became good friend.

 

Jeremy now holds the rank of black belt, graded by Gordo and has had Gordo over at his academy and continues to expand his academy and pass on his extensive knowledge to his students.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Monday Motivation!

Something to fire you up on this cold, miserable Monday afternoon; an awesome film by Stuart Cooper on the ADCC 2013 Championship, held in Beijing, China.

Vintage Osiander!

In this classic video, Kurt Osiander demonstrates the correct posture required for passing open guard; this dude should really team up with Chris Haueter and go on a seminar tour..............

 

 

 



Never give up!

More seminar pix

With Ross Hudson - two fine specimens

Helio Perdigao Seminar!

As most of you will be aware, I have the pleasure of teaching the Arte Suave at a number of venues outside of Bolton and the bustling metropolis of Ormskirk is one such destination and is home to Ross 'Hoss' Hudson's Forca Academy.

 

Ross's academy is part of the Royce Gracie network and Ross is a very open minded coach, wanting the best for himself and his students and adopts an open door policy at the gym.

 

Back in October, Ross invited over black belt Helio Perdigao for a three day training camp and I was able to attend the final Sunday evening class; Helio is from Portugal and a black belt with the Royce Gracie Association and is a medallist at the Europeans.

 

After a thorough warm up, Helio taught the Judo throw Yoko Tomoe Nage, the side stomach throw, adding plenty of tips and pointers on foot positioning and making the throw smoother and more controlled.

 

Standing up in guard came next, with a neat way of opening the closed guard, which culminated in getting into the right position for the straight foot lock and plenty of advice on hand positioning to finish the sub every time.  A really cool sequence to drill over and over, looking forward to seeing one of my students pull this off in a comp.

 

Escaping back control rounded off the technical part of the class and it was time for free rolling and I was fortunate enough to have a roll with Helio; Helio fights at light and feather weight and was really technical and let the action flow, full of sweeps, passes and positions. A really fun and enjoyable five minutes.

 

Massive thanks to Ross for inviting myself and two of my students to the event and to Helio for being such a welcoming individual and a really cool guy.

Haueter Factory Seminar Pix!

Haueter Bradford Seminar Pix!

With Roberto Barbiero

With Aggie

Rich Cadden in white

Chris teaching

Team shot