Holiday time!

I'm off today for a week in the sunshine, so probably won't be able to post on here until my return.  I'll be thinking of you all as I'm drinking a cold beer poolside...........

Ooossss!

Monday Motivation!

Thomas Hanlon - black belt!

Great to see one of my good friends from up North receive his black belt today from Mario Sukata; Tom was a regular face at my old club in Bolton and we faced each other on the mats at brown belt back in 2012.

Thomas with Mario Sukata and Gary Savage

Huge achievement and thoroughly well deserved!

One punch KO!!

One of the hardest punches you'll ever see in MMA!!

 

Triple gold at NAGA Germany!!

Massive congrats to Thiago and Matheos Ferreira and Abbi Rae on their awesome achievement at NAGA Germany today, all winning gold medals!

Karate meets BJJ!

Had a very enjoyable session last night, taking a class for one of my students at his Karate club in Kingston upon Thames.  My student has been with me almost a year and he kindly invited me over to his club at the local YMCA centre, where I showed the guys all the fun you can have with your own gi jackets and your partners jackets. 

All the students enjoyed the class and I ended the session with the one and only Choke Conga, which always goes down great and is a great ice breaker too.

 

Group  photo with Satinder next to me on my left

Hopefully there will be a few extra bodies at Checkmat Wimbledon after last night's class, which is always a good thing and I look forward to returning in the near future.

Why women should train Jiu Jitsu - Part 2

http://www.bjjee.com/featured/uk-woman-puts-sexual-attacker-to-sleep-with-triangle-choke-learned-at-self-defense-class/

Enough said!

Why women should train Jiu Jitsu............

New female member!

I'm very pleased to announce that Checkmat Wimbledon welcomed its first female student last night; I've had a number of tentative enquiries from women over the last few months, that have fallen through when they enquire about other women at the club and find out that it's an all male class.

Jiu Jitsu is for everyone, not just for men.  It's for men and women young and old, adults and children and all points in between and now that the club has its first female student, hopefully this will inspire more women to come down and join the club.

Welcome aboard Emily.

Get motivated!

NO EXCUSES!!!

Take a few minutes wherever you are in the world and watch this video; let it get motivated to train tonight, tomorrow, the day after and the day after ad nauseum.

Drilling v Sparring

Ahhhhhh that age old question rears its head once again - to drill or spar? 

Some people prefer to drill and some prefer sparring over drilling; as long as the job gets done, does it matter if you prefer one or the other?  You've heard the saying 'drillers make killers', surely there must be some truth in this bold statement? Andre Galvao has a boook out titled 'Drill to Win' and who are we to argue with a multiple time World champion? Kit Dale and Nic Gregoriades would tend to disagree with Andre and offer conceptual teaching methodologies, so who's right and who's wrong?

Check out this latest article from the BJJEE.com website and make your own mind up.

http://www.bjjee.com/articles/the-case-drilling-versus-sparring-in-bjj/ 

Jiu Jitsu Roadmap!

A very interesting article from the BJJEE.com website, pay close attention to the white belt section :)

http://www.bjjee.com/articles/a-roadmap-for-progression-through-the-bjj-belt-system/ 

Arm bar to omoplata transition with Clark Gracie and Ricardo Cavalcanti

Last night's class

Another big class last night, as we get ready for competition in July :)

Thanks to blue belts Kamran and James for coming down and joining in the class and giving out help and advice to the students, they really appreciated it; as always, had a great class covering a pass from DLR into taking the back and plenty of sparring and specifics as per usual.

Next class Wednesday, make sure you don't miss it!

Scott Caldwell - REAL Fighting!

As many of you know, I come from a Traditional Martial Arts background of Karate and Applied Jiu Jitsu and I still throw in the odd bit of Trad JJ in my BJJ classes. I have been fortunate in pressure testing my Jiu Jitsu on a weekly basis whilst at work and I still keep in touch with my old coaches and always welcome to make new friends amongst the self defence fraternity.

Scott Caldwell is one such individual.  I recently updated my website courtesy of Scott's wife and we have become friends over the internet through our combined interest in martial arts and self defence. 

In addition to teaching, Scott is part of the Martial Arts Guardian online multimedia magazine and as such, my interest in all things self defence has been re ignited and I am now a subscriber to the magazine.

Scott has a great website with a very inspiring video of his REAL fighting system, so I'm sharing his site and his teachings on my Blog, as well as giving regular updates on everything Scott gets up to.

As always, keep an open mind regards to your training and always be open to new ideas and concepts.  Oossss!

www.realfight.training 

How NOT to coach kids...............

Medals for Thiago's team @ the British Open!

Thiago Ferreira's band of junior Jiu Jitsu warriors continue their winning streak over the weekend at the British Open; maintaining their 100% record, Abbi Rae and Matheos Ferreira took the gold medal slot once again, Owen Wood, Cody Leighton and Thiago all took bronze and Jevon Leighton and Seb Cooper both lost in the quarter finals.

Win or lose, medals or not, everyone's a winner for stepping up to compete, respect to everyone who fought on the day, onto the next one!

Club rashguard!

I am very excited to say the least that Checkmat Wimbledon has a new club rash guard exclusively designed by Subguards.com.

In the past I have had tshirts designed but never a rash guard and to say I am pleased with the end result is an understatement.  I was a child of the Seventies and I never would have dreamed back then, that I would ever see a Womble wearing a gi and black belt.

I will be ordering the rash guards this week and cannot wait until all my students are on the mats wearing them with pride.  Huge thanks to Gareth Baxendale, aka Gartista for the original Womble creation and to Subguards.com in designing the rash guard.

www,subguards.com 

London Fight Factory!

As most of you know, I've been suffering with a back spasm since early last year and to say it's hampered my training is an understatement; I've been able to teach and hobble round the mats, but not been able to train properly for over a year and it's been one of the hardest and darkest times of my Jiu Jitsu career.

Add to this having to work long hours at work at the weekend on my feet all night, I seriously thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel. 

Well, I'm pleased to say that enough is enough and I've left the security work for the time being and after six weeks of relaxing, my back is back to as normal as it can be, but more importantly spasm and pain free.

So what better way to celebrate this new state of affairs, than with a trip to London Fight Factory today for the afternoon class.  And what a class!

Tough. Relentless. Challenging. Fun.

After a quick warm up, we covered specific drills then went into three seven minute rounds of rolling and finished with an epic twelve minute round.  In at the deep end and I'm happy to say I had no trouble with my back whatsoever.  Typing this now, after a few hours I'm still in one piece walking upright for the first time in months, to say I'm happy is an understatment.  It was a tough session, my timing and cardio are all out, but that's to be expected, the main thing I finished the whole class and am pain free.

Thanks to Luiz for a great class, Ashley, Dan, Ron, Ennrique for the rolls and to all the LFF crew for an awesome session and to my student Ron Roy for coming down and joining in the fun.

Onward and upward!

Wanna fight??!!

Awesome artilce on the BJJEE.com website, listing the top 5 techniques used in street fights; should you find yourself up against it in the kebab shop at 4am with some drunken idiot, fear not for you now have a few option to silence the crazy fool........

http://www.bjjee.com/articles/top-5-submissions-used-in-street-fights/

Martial Arts Guardian - Seal of Approval!

I've really hit the big time now...............

Two of my good friends Scott Caldwell and Russell Jarmesty are involved in a new multi media magazine, Martial Arts Guardian and in their own words from their website, this is what it's all about.............

'Martial Arts Guardian is a FREE online martial arts magazine with news, reviews, reports, events and videos from the martial arts world.  There are 12 issues a year, with a new issue out on the middle Sunday of every month.

The magazine was started because The Guardians, Steve Rowe, Russell Jarmesty, Scott Caldwell and Simon Keegan, want to put an end to the corruption and unethical marketing within the martial arts world and get back to good old honest martial arts.  It’s a magazine for anyone in the martial arts community to share good training and ethical business, attend each others events and read about the true community heroes practicing martial arts as well as the more famous fighters and teachers.  It’s a magazine by martial arts people, for martial arts people!

The revolution is here.  Power to the people!'

On the website is a section titled Recommended Clubs, where the Guardians list clubs that meet their criteria, giving them their Seal of Approval and yes, you've guessed it, Checkmat Wimbledon is on the list and the first BJJ club to be added no less.

So fame and fortune to follow, what more can you ask for on a rainy Thursday in London?

www.martialartsguardian.com 

Last night's class

Proper session last night, the momentum is really picking up at the club, after the success of the lads at the Interclub at the weekend.  Good numbers once again and it was a hard session last night, as we train after the kickboxing class, so the gym is already very warm before we even start to warm up.

Took the lads through ten minutes of hell with two minute rounds of bodyweight flow exercises, all specific to BJJ, which had the desired effect.  Lots of sweat.

After a few drills, we covered the leg drag pass from DLR and from the pass, taking the back, with plenty of pointers on how to control your opponent once in this commanding position.

Invisible Jiu Jitsu followed, with a demonstration about the concept of connection with your opponent and we had lots of fun at this point, as I showed the concept on a 'street' level, something which I've been using on the doors for years and I think the lads really understood the concept from this position and from here, we can apply this concept to the groundwork.

Rolling ended the class and I'm sure everyone had a thoroughly good time, I know I did, I really enjoyed the class and am really looking forward to Monday's class.

Well done to all the lads for working hard and for their loyalty and support, can't do this without you :)

Ooosssss!

 

2nd Interclub HL reel

Check out this awesome video from Dan Lewis of Eat Films of the second Interclub at London Fight Factory.............



 

Double figures!

Last night's class finally hit the double figures mark, with two other regulars missing from class, so up to now it's the dirty dozen on the mats at Checkmat Wimbledon.

It's been a long hard slog, dealing with two's and three's for many weeks, that's when the nagging doubts start to get a hold and you start to think this isn't going to work out.  Lesser people would have thrown in the towel long ago and made excuses, starting to feel sorry for themselves, but not me.

With a bit of hard work and a belief that I can do this, the numbers slowly started to pick up until last night's attendance; a proper club is now taking shape in South West London and we're all fired up and ready to hit the competition circuit, after the lads success at the Interclub at the weekend.

Not bad going for an old brown belt..................

Bullshido Master!

Check out this link on the BJJEE.com website about the craziest martial artist on the planet!

This guy gets dragged out every few months and it always make hilarious reading, especially his crazy white belt with all the stripes :)

http://www.bjjee.com/articles/bullshido-meet-gilberto-pauciullo-10th-degree-black-belt-master-in-mexed-martial-arts/ 

 

Mount attacks with Kris Kim

Technique video of the week with black belt Kris Kim, pay attention to the detail with the arm bars :)

 

Fun with Jiu Jitsu

Some Monday inspiration, before you hit the mats tonight!

Listen to the commentary about tapping out.....................

 

Gold and silver at the Interclub!

Yesterday was a big day for Checkmat Wimbledon.

After weeks of hard training from all the lads, I took two students down to London Fight Factory for the second Interclub; I don't think who was the more nervous the lads or myself, knowing it was their first comp and all the feelings and emotions that come with competing. My mouth was dry all day and my heart was pounding in my chest, even more so when they stepped up to compete.

Luiz Ribeiro and his team put on a great event, well run and organised and I'm pleased to say that the lads walked away with silver and gold medals.  Massive achievement as the level of Jiu Jitsu was very high across all the belt colours and there were some epic matches from borth male and female, kids and adults.

Farhaz (l) and Nayden (r)

These events are great for first timers, as it gives them a taste of what the big events are like and gives them some competitive mat time amongst team mates and both students really enjoyed the day and want to compete in a big event, as do the three lads that came down to support the event, so lots to work on this year.  Exciting times ahead.

Massive well done to Farhaz (silver) and Nayden (gold) and to all the lads back at the club, that have worked hard over the last few months, pushing everybody hard. This is the result and reward for all the hard work and commitment and everyone's Jiu Jitsu improves along the way, so everyone's a winner.

Looking forward to class this evening, let's get ready for the next competition! 

(Credit for the team photo to Dan Fryer)

REAL Fighting promo video!

A cool promo video from my good friend Scott Caldwell, showcasing Scott's REAL Fighting system; some of the techniques in the video I've happily dished out over the last twenty years on the doors, this shit really works.

You ain't ever gonna pull guard when it kicks off, it's shit like this on the video that you need, so always be open minded and seek out the best of the best, step outside your comfort zone and you'll be in for a big surprise!

 

Here's the full version of the REAL Fighting promotional video. Please like and share.

Posted by Scott Caldwell's REAL Fighting on Thursday, 30 April 2015

New UK BJJ Youth Team members!

 I'm pleased to announce that my good friend Thiago Ferreira has two new recruits on the elite UK BJJ Youth Team.

Thiago's son Matheos, aged six and Abbi Rae, aged twelve were recently selected to the squad after winning identical competitions, namley three times Southend champion, GFT Open, Manchester Open and National junior champion and both fighters have never lost in competition.

Both Checkmat fighters are set to compete in Germany in three weeks at the NAGA competition, so best of luck to them both, bring back the gold :)

Martial Arts fails............

Something to put a smile on your face.............

 

Last night's class

Another tip top session, lots of hard work and training going down, as the lads prepare for the Interclub this weekend; went through a collection of takedowns from Judo and Sambo and finished off with rolling chokes and one long rolling session.

All the lads have gi's now and we're starting to look like a proper club, soon be ordering some club patches and in possession of an awesome rash guard design for the club from Subguards.com, can't wait to show this off!

Keep up the hard work guys and see you on the mats tomorrow. 

Inside BJJ with Lloyd Irvin

In this video, Lloyd Irvin gives his side of the story to Inside BJJ...........



 

WTF???!!!

This pile of complete shit is doing the rounds at the minute; it's a minute of your life you'll never get back, but it has to be seen to be believed. I wish this video was around when I was a white belt, I'd have gotten my blue belt in no time!

Can't wait for the purple belt requirements video.........