Eddie or Royler??

Rafa or Gracie??

Memory Lane............

Came across some old discs gathering dust, with pix from my days as an ADCC reporter from 2001 and 2002; back then I was away every weekend reporting on BJJ and MMA events in the UK, Europe and Scandinavia and I had the pleasure of meeting, training with and interviewing some of the best grapplers and fighters on the planet.

With Ricardo Morais - ADCC 2001

Now I've blown the dust off the discs, I thought I'd share some of the photos and memories from many years ago, when I was just a humble white belt, starting off on my own Jitsu Jitsu path.................

Sean Alvarez - ADCC 2001

Royler Gracie and Saulo Ribeiro - ADCC 2001

Kid Peligro - ADCC 2001

 

With Mark Kerr - ADCC 2001






 

 

Old Skool Submission String!

One of my favourite closed guard attack combos, been teaching this at the gym over the last few months; very high percentage subs from this position, so get onto the mats and drill, drill, drill!!

BJJ is Bullshit!!

Jeez, I wish I'd have been told this way back in 1999...............

New Purple Belt @ Combat Base Bolton!

Yesterday was an extremely proud day for myself as a coach, as well as a very emotional one; at the end of the seminar Darren and Helen promoted Lee 'Demolition Man' James to purple belt, making him the first purple belt for Combat Base Bolton.

Many other blue belts have been in line for this belt at the club, only for them to move to pastures new or stop training for good, something that happens at every jiu jitsu club. Lee was given an iron man at the end of the seminar and after rolling with all the blue belts, Lee had to face Helen for one last roll whilst blindfolded.  As he was rolling with Helen, Darren and myself managed to get the purple belt tied around his waist, as Lee carried on rolling oblivious to what was happening.

The look on his face when he realised what was around his waist was priceless! 

In front of all of his training partners from Bolton and Heywood, this was a fitting way to get promoted; on the mats with the very people who have pushed him week in week out, helping him prepare for competition against some serious talent and giving him a hard time every session.  This was a real team effort from all concerned, not just with Lee, but with all the other promoted students; having good training partners you can drill and spar with is half the job done, the rest is down to hard work, discipline, commitment and most of all, showing up to class!

Lee with his Heywood based training partner, Ed 'The Snake' Kelly

It's fair to say that Lee is still in shock as I type this report and rightly so; I remember receiving my purple belt, it was a shock when it happened and I couldn't stop shaking when the belt was around my waist.  Purple belt is a big belt and the phrase 'must smash' will no doubt be echoing around his head - time to step up a gear or three!

HUGE congratulations to Lee on such a joyous and momentous occasion for himself, as well as an historic occasion for the club; we've already spoke together and Lee is itching to compete in the Ultra Heavy weight bracket.

So beware all you purple Ultra Heavies - there's a new beast in town!

Kimura Pt Deux Seminar!

What better way to kick start a new month off than with a seminar with your chief instructors?! Darren and Helen Currie made their first trip over of the new year to deliver what was to be an awesome follow up seminar on my favourite submission, the kimura.

The seminar usually starts with one of Helen's legendary brutal warm ups, but yesterday Darren had other ideas and ushered us all onto the large mats at the end of the gym.  With us all lined up in a long row, Darren demo'd four BJJ related movements and had us repeat the sequence four times and after the first set of four, lungs were opening and everyone was starting to get warm; five different sets of exercises were all repeated for four sets, which tested everyone's stamina and lung function.  This was a great way to warm up and build up one's cardio as well as strength and endurance and I will certainly using these in my warm ups and cardio sessions in the sparring classes.

From the warm up, it was straight onto the nitty gritty, as Darren kicked off with a quick recap of the first seminar on the kimura, as there were a few guys and gals that weren't present at the the first one; it was a great start to the seminar, as it refreshed the techniques previously learned and acted as a starting point for all the new material that was to follow.  And what material it was!

Darren left nothing out over the next two hours, covering this killer submission with a fine toothcomb, pulling off kimura's and it's close cousin the Americana from all positions, quite a lot of stuff I hadn't seen before.  There were submissions and brutal shoulder locks from the back position, with crucifix tie ups, designed to keep your opponent twisted up long enough for you to add insult to injury and finish them off with a kimura.

There were many 'what if?' scenarios from certain positions, with Darren giving the students and myself many options and go to positions and techniques that will be giving myself and the lads hours and hours of fun in drill time.  My two personal favourites were a sneaky omoplata style attack from the back position, that lands you in the bicep slicer position, ready to attack the opposite arm and an awesome shoulder lock set up from the reverse omoplata position, together with a 'what if?' scenario that I ain't disclosing just yet.  Looking forward to testing this on my poor unsuspecting students (they love it really).

Darren ended the seminar with a lengthy Q+A session on all things BJJ related and ended up showing a whole other bunch of stuff to really help overflow our Jiu Jitsu knowledge stores.

As always, an awesome seminar from Darren and Helen, packed with drills, techniques, counters, counters to counters and lots of fun at the same time; the mats were packed with my students from Bolton and Heywood, had a great turnout and support from all the lads and ladies, massive thanks to all who attended.

Running over the seminar notes with Darren, he noticed he'd miss out one area of techniques and positions, so it's highly likely that the next seminar at the club will be Kimura Pt Trois - watch this space guys!

Massive thanks to Darren and Helen for kick starting February off in style!