Northern Monkey Seminar @ Submission Scoundrels!

 Had a very enjoyable evening last night in Andover, delivering a seminar to my Northern Monkey affiliate club Submission Scoundrels, run by brown belt Chris Petherwick; the event was held at Scorpion Judo Club and seven clubs were on the mat, joined together by their passion for Jiu Jitsu, namely...

Wimbledon BJJ

Submission Scoundrels

Scorpion Judo Club

Kyouken MMA

Gracie Barra Marlborough

Impact MMA Salisbury

URSO BJJ Basingstoke

All belt colours were on the mats, male and female, young and old and all got to grips with some competitive Jiu Jitsu, starting with an old school takedown with a few what if options and some of the gold left behind by Demian Maia when he was at London Fight Factory last December.

It was very humbling to receive such a great turn out, despite the torrential rain on the way there and back, it felt like I was back up North :)

HUGE thanks to Chris for his hard work in promoting the event and getting so many clubs together to train and to Tim Byrne, who runs Scorpion Judo Club, for supporting Chris with his classes and supporting the seminar and to everyone else who attended, I had a really great time and have made new friends and got some great memories of the event and look forward to coming back later in the year :)

Last night's class

 Ended the month's training in style with a killer No Gi session at SW19...took the monkeys through some medieval neck crank submissions from the half guard, trying to sell one of the subs as a choke, but they weren't having any of it!

Plenty of specifics and sparring left the room like a Turkish steam room, I managed to get some good rolls in as well, so can't complain :)

Looking forward to going to Andover tonight to do a seminar for NM affiliate club Submission Scoundrels, run by Chris Petherwick, which will be held at Scorpion Judo Club, where we will be training on proper Judo mats, cannot wait!

Northern Monkey interview with Matt Stait!

 I'm very pleased to announce I'll be one of the instructors at the Festival of Martial Arts in June, organised by Lucci Del Gaudio and Matt Stait.

In order to promote the event Matt Stait is interviewing the instructors that will be teaching there and a few days ago we had a little chat about what I'll be teaching and about martial arts in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNJFSg0lbPY

Last night's class

 Another hot and sweaty session last night at Northern Monkey HQ, lots of hard work from everyone, exploring back hammers and bicep slicers before getting stuck into specifics and rolling :)

More of the same tomorrow :)

Last night's class

 A busy night on the mats last night at SW19; went over a tried and tested competition style takedown, with two options if the opponent defends the takedown...over an hour of specifics and rolling finished off the class looking like a steam room, proving hard work was the order of the evening :)

Ooos!

Stripes for the lads!

 HUGE congrats to Lewis and Ahn who were the proud recipients of another stripe on their belts, thoroughly well deserved :)

Last night's class

 Back in the Gi this week at Northern Monkey HQ, as always a killer session with the monkeys...went over the Lasso guard with a sweep and a few submissions to play around with and over an hour of specifics and rolling to finish off the class.

Lots of hard work from everyone, more of the same tomorrow :)

Super Saturday Session!

 Had a great session yesterday with the monkeys, went deep into old school territory, showing techs from my Trad Jiu Jitsu days way back in the 1990's, which I still use today, much to the displeasure of my monkeys :)

As befits a Saturday session, essential post training rehydration was held at the local Spoons, all beers well earned :)

Back in the pyjamas next week :)

Northern Monkey World Tour of the UK - Andover!

 Very pleased to announce that the next stop on my world tour of the UK will be at Northern Monkey Jiu Jitsu affiliate club Submission Scoundrels over in Andover; the club is run by head Scoundrel and brown belt Chris Petherwick and will be a Gi session and the first of many this year and beyond.

It's open to all all clubs and all levels, to book a space on the night email wimbledonbjj@yahoo.com 

Last night's class

Killer No Gi session last night, took the class through a side control fundamentals session, after a few of the newbies had told me they'd been struggling with the position both on bottom and on top.

Twenty minutes later, questions were answered and theory was put into practice with an hour of specifics and rolling, lots of hard work from everyone :)

Back in the Gi next week!

Bank Holiday session!

 An excellent turn out last night for a Bank Holiday, was great to have Chris, Mike and Hayden coming from Andover to join the class, always a pleasure having them on the mats :)

More of the same tomorrow :)

Stripe #4 for the lads!

 HUGE congrats to Mike, Alex and Jun on their thoroughly well deserved fourth stripe on Monday night, all the hard work is paying off, next stop faux azul :)

Last night's class

 Another busy session last night, the monkeys took the blue pill and went down a deep half guard rabbit hole, together with a three sweep combo to challenge the grey matter :)

Monday night's class

 Kick started the month off in fine style with a busy mat and having the pleasure of Kyle Isitt from Photographs Matter, who was back filming the session.

Back in the Gi this week and with being filmed, I rattled off a handful of techniques to give me plenty of new promotional material for my social media :)

Gold and silver for Mike!

 A great day at the office yesterday in sunny Wales, as Mike Cutting bagged a gold and silver medal at the GBJJ UK Championships :)

Gold medal in the BJJ section and a silver in the stand up section, a great start to the year for Mike and NMBJJ, many more medals to come from Mike this year :)