Last night's class

A quiet session to end the year, but plenty of fun, lots of rolling and an early finish for a quick end of year pint in the local Spoons, so can't complain.

It's been a great year for the club and for Fight Sports London, it's been an action packed 2019, lots of competition success, seminars at the club and LFF, teaching at seminars, my first comp at black belt, Cyborg's Summer camp, visiting guests, black belt classes with Sharpey, four new blue belts and much more.

Going into 2020 with a very positive frame of mind, competitions to start preparing for on our first class of the year on the 6th January, so looking forward to competition training for our first class of the new year.

Huge thanks to Luiz for all his support and the support from the other Fight Sports London clubs throughout the year, it's an honour and privilege to be a part of such a great group of clubs.

Happy New Year to you all, see you on the mats throughout 2020 :)

Oooosss

Last class of 2019 tonight...

Looking forward to the last class of the year at Wimbledon BJJ tonight, starting at the earlier time of 730pm; if your BJJ club is closed and you're near to Wimbledon, then you'll be most welcome to come down and join in the class :)

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my students, training partners, striking and grappling friends all around the world a very Merry Christmas!

Last night's class

Last night was our last class before Christmas and I was thinking I'd be happy with six people on the mats, what with many of my students away for the holidays and then twelve people turn up to train!

Really pleased with the numbers, we had a great session and finished early so we could head down to the local Spoons for a quick festive drink with the Monkeys.

So, a Merry Christmas to all my Monkeys, the Fight Sports London crew, the Fight Sports worldwide family and to all my grappling and striking friends around the world.  

Have a great day, eat and drink well and will see my guys on the 30th, so we can start burning off all the extra calories :)

Oooosss

Wednesday class with the Monkeys

Great session last Wednesday with the Monkeys, decent numbers as well considering a lot of my students are back in their home countries for the Christmas period.  Only two more sessions at the club before the New Year so ample time to twist up some more festive fools...

Monday night with the Monkeys

Had a great session last night with the Monkeys, very surprised at having double figures, as a large portion of my students go to their home countries for the Christmas break, but I ain't complaining :)

Wednesday night at Wimbledon BJJ

Very impressed at the turn out last night, as a large number of my students start returning  to their home countries this week for their Christmas break with family; that said we had a great class, went over a few key points Gary and I made on the Monday night PSP session and covered four key throws that will be in our syllabus, all of which I've used in live situations over the years.

We're only closed on Christmas Day, so a few more sessions to get some festive twisting up  done :)

Lunchtime at London Fight Factory

Gary Hilton rounded off his whirlwind visit this lunchtime with a BJJ session over at London Fight Factory with Sharpey at the helm...a killer warm up, some cool drills and a good few rolls before heading off early to catch his ride home...a great way to spend a Tuesday lunchtime and I look forward to seeing Gary again in the New Year.

Precision Self Protection taster class at Wimbledon BJJ...

Both myself and Gary Hilton rolled out our first Precision Self Protection taster class to my students at Wimbledon BJJ last night...after a through warm, I covered a few pummelling drills and then Gary showed some Combatives striking padwork.

Gary started off showing the correct way to handle the pads and how to feed the pads to the striker and covered a number of drills including random strike drill, continuous attack drill and a cover, crash counter drill.

I showed a defence against an over hand right, adding strikes and a quarter nelson takedown and finished them off a couple of pressure drills for the last ten minutes of the class.

This was the first time my students had done the drills and both myself and Gary were very impressed with how they performed and we both received some very positive feedback from the students.

We are now working hard on completing our syllabus and will be running our first seminar in the New Year, more details to follow...

Saturday class

This was the last Saturday class of 2019 for the Monkeys, which was stuffed fatter than a Christmas turkey, with techniques galore for everyone to play around with, then we headed off for a little Christmas drink or three at the local Spoons, with plenty of tall tales, cheap beer and great food.

Looking forward to class tomorrow, with a very special guest coming down....

Fight Sports London - the full line up

Was great to catch up today with all the coaches that make up Fight Sports London at LFF, reflecting on a very successful year and discussing making 2020 an even more successful year.

Lots of hard work from everyone this year and all are focussed on the new year, lots of great things to come throughout the year.

New blue belt

Introducing blue belt number twelve at Wimbledon BJJ...HUGE congrats to young Rob on his well deserved blue belt last night; he missed the Grading Day due to work commitments, so was promoted last night in front of his fellow team mates.

Congrats Rob from everyone at Wimbledon BJJ!

Last night's class

Great session last night with the Monkeys, as always...

Monday night session

Huge thanks to young George for taking Monday's class in my absence; I'm back at Wimbledon BJJ tonight and looking forward to twisting up my lovely students :)

Lucas Leite at London Fight Factory

Awesome lunchtime session in the bag this afternoon over at LFF, enjoying a masterclass on the half and deep half guard from the legendary Lucas Leite...massive thanks to Luiz as always, for bringing the very best to the club and looking forward to class tonight at Wimbledon BJJ, lots to drill out tonight!

Monday night class

Lots of fun with the Monkeys on Monday night, mixing things up with the good old clock choke and a little dashing of Catch, keeping everyone on their toes...looking forward to class this evening, after my training session with Lucas Leite earlier this lunch time, got some nice things to show everyone :)

Multi style Saturday session

I had the immense pleasure of sharing the mats with two high ranking traditional martial artists on my monthly Saturday session at Wimbledon BJJ; representing Traditional Jiu Jitsu and Shorinji Kempo, Colin Foster and Adrian Starr travelled up from Southampton to train with the Monkeys, sharing techniques and having plenty of fun.

Adrian showed some seriously brutal wrist locks and I took the class over some old school Catch wrestling techniques, with lots of nelsons, crucifixes, grovits, face bars, half alch and full alch and lots more.

An awesome session rounded off by a few beers in the local Spoons round the corner from the gym, the cheapest beer in London :)

Looking forward to seeing them back in the New Year.

UK Coaching course

Myself and two other colleagues from MMARAP attended a Safeguarding and Child Protection course last night at Padding Recreation Centre, which will enable us to deliver martial arts sessions to the under 18's in the local borough, able and disabled, as well as adult sessions.

All that is needed now is the UK Coaching First Aid course to be completed and then we are all good to go; huge thanks to MMARAP Bossman Jonny Buffong for all his hard behind the scenes work in getting these courses arranged for us.  

Really looking forward to spreading the good work of MMARAP to a wider London audience.

Ooos!

Last night's class

Rather quiet session night in my absence, as I was away on a coaching course, absent fools will be shark tanked to within inches of their lives next class...no excuses!

Thanks to the blue belts for taking the session and working everyone hard :)

Last night's class...

Another solid session in the bag on Monday night at Wimbledon BJJ; threw in some good old Catch wrassling for a change and as a warm up for the upcoming Saturday session this weekend, with invited martial artists from Southampton joining in the fun, looking forward to it...

MMARAP patches for sale

Very proud to be a part of the Mixed Martial Arts for Reform and Progression association as a martial arts coach; MMARAP deliver martial arts classes to wheelchair users, deaf, blind, visually impaired and all points in between!

New patches are available from the head of MMARAP Jonny Buffong, on his Facebook group (Mixed Martial Arts for Reform and Progression) or via Instagram (@mmarap_official) all sales go directly to MMARAP, to help Jonny and the team spread out and deliver more much needed community classes in the London area.

Ooooss!

Last night's class

Another busy session last night, with thirteen nationalities represented on the mats...as the old saying goes, 'we are all one...'

The Northern Monkey at LFF...

Thursday lunchtime session in the bag today over at LFF; no easy rolls down here but lots of fun drilling and rolling with the lads and ladies, enjoying a run of good training fortune both here and at Wimbledon BJJ, long may it continue :)

Last night's class

Another busy class last night at Wimbledon BJJ, with four new starters taking their first steps on the Jiu Jitsu journey and getting stuck right into the training with the rest of the Monkeys.

Next class tomorrow night...

New blue belts at Wimbledon BJJ!

Super proud to promote three of my monkeys to blue belt yesterday at the annual Grading Day at London Fight Factory...all very well deserved promotions to three very hard working students, rarely miss a class and have competed and tested their skills in both BJJ and MMA.

Huge well done from myself ad everyone at Wimbledon BJJ and Fight Sports London...

Sweep from a Lasso video

Here's the latest You Tube filmed on location at Wimbledon BJJ...please click the poll link in the video and let me know what other sweeps you'd like to see from the Northern Monkey :)

New Fight Sports T-shirt

I'm now a proud owner of the new Fight Sports T-shirt, thanks Luiz!!

Tom Halpin at LFF!

Fight Sports black belt Tom Halpin has been at London Fight Factory this week and I was able to get down to the lunchtime class yesterday and join in the fun with one of my students.  

Huge thanks to Luiz once again for making this happen, you never know who's going to be on thetas at LFF, there's aways a surprise in store, with a few more special guests lined up before the end of the year...

Oooss

Wednesday night Halloween class

A spooktacular session last night at Wimbledon BJJ, packed with ghoulish guard passes and spooky submissions....

Monday night class

A busy session on Monday night with the Monkeys, going over three high percentage lapel chokes from closed guard; using the lapel whether it's yours or theirs is one of my favourite parts of Jiu Jitsu, there are some very creative submissions out there and there's nothing more satisfying than getting that lapel around someone's neck and squeezing tight!

Last night's class

Another busy session last night with the Monkeys, covering three high percentage lapel chokes from the closed guard...