Integrated Combat Systems Blog

On Your Back

2010-07-28T10:02:00.000+01:00

This may not be obvious to you right away but I spotted Peter doing this to great effect on Monday night when I was rolling with him in BJJ. What was it that he did? Well he was in guard and he simply decided to stand up.

If you ask most beginners to grappling what you can do in the guard you will often get the answer 'Sweep or Submit.' This is true but there is more. There are in fact five things you can do but not all of them are applicable to Sport BJJ.
1. Survival
2. Strike
3. Sweep
4. Submit
5. Stand-up

So on Monday Peter was in guard with Matt and they were fighting away and Matt was defending well so Peter moved out to spider guard and then suddenly jumped up, snapped Matt forward and took his back!! This is a great example of thinking outside the BJJ box, where you often see guys struggling away trying their various sweeps and submissions to no great effect and slowly sapping their strength and increasing their frustration. You don't have to stay there. Why not learn and drill ways to get from being in guard to standing up and changing the game??

Keep Training!!

New Black Belt

2010-07-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

After 13 years of training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Tatiana receives her Black Belt!!
If the girls (and the guys for that matter) ever need any inspiration Tatiana is it!!
Congratulations Tatiana.

New website for Team Rey Diogo Scotland

2010-07-04T00:04:00.001+01:00

Hey guys here is the link to the new website for Team Rey Diogo Scotland.
You can get the membership form here. See the link to the right. Keep up with cool vid links, training news and competition news.

Staying Alive!!

2010-07-01T17:15:00.000+01:00

This article was written by Erik Paulson and is the end part of an article about tricky unusual moves. He explains where they come from and how he got round to them but more importantly he talks about his training and I think he makes some really good points about stuff that happens in the gym. Like the guys who don't compete and therefore think the fights in the gym.

Take a read.

"A lot of people just start playing. I played with it a lot on that bag (motion master), so a lot of this stuff just comes from playing on the ground. Just be creative. That’s the biggest thing. If you’re on the mat it’s all experimental. Who cares if you get caught in practice? That’s what practice is for. It’s like boxing & wrestling. They don’t say, "Hey did you get punched in the face today?", of course you did! You’re boxing! That’s part of the game. "Hey, did you get taken down today?", of course you did! It’s wrestling! That’s part of practice. A lot of guys have that mentality because they are gym fighters and they don’t fight or compete outside of the gym, so their whole objective is to catch other people in class and say "I’m the best guy in the gym". Big deal! That’s your gym.

What level are you? Let’s say you fight in tournaments (State, National, Worldwide, Olympics), there are so many different levels of competition that the main thing is just to be humble and train. Learn and have fun. When you start losing the fun, you don’t want to train anymore.

The worst thing is when you’re on the mat and looking at the same spot. I rembember wrestling and having guys trying to get me and I’m looking at this little cut in the mat. It’s like I’m sleeping all night long and dreaming about this little cut in the mat and the next day, it seems like five hours later, I’m looking at the cut in the mat. You put your wrestling shoes on and they haven’t dried from the night before. Five straight days, etc. That gets old. It becomes a job and it’s not fun. You have to rekindle your passion. Step away from it for a while and just say "This is too much". You actually learn a lot more when you step away from what you are doing. Except for Guro Dan. LOL. He never decreases. He looks younger now than he did ten years ago!

A loss can be a win and a win can be a loss. A loss is a loss if you quit and don’t learn. A loss is a win if you become Leonard Nimoy and go "In Search Of" and find out where the holes are in your game. A win is a loss if you say "I’m the best!" and quit.

"You were a champion yesterday, today is a different day" – George Kerr

The main thing is to have fun. Get on the mat, roll, and have fun.

If you are on the mat, there are no secrets. The secret is training."

By Erik Paulson

Respect

2010-07-01T16:38:00.001+01:00

A lot of guys never bow in and out of class. They walk in late, mouth off, their manners are poor, their moral ethics are poor, their discipline is piss poor. The respect part, (Wai, Shaking Hands, High Five, Telling Your Name), is important. You guys are sweating together. I want to know who I’m sweating with!

The respect factor is whe Wai and the bowing. The bowing is more traditional Japanese, but I try to keep that for all my guys so they at least have the respect factor. We don’t have belts, we wear shorts & sweats, we play loud music and train hard, ubut we must keep the respect and pass it on to the new generation.

I used to be the new generation, but now I’m old. It’s weird. When I go to Japan, the place where all of the respect is, you walk in the door, stop and bow. Now some walk in and wave their hand and keep talking. For some, the respect factor has really changed.

I see a lot of this in mixed martial arts because they see Tito Ortiz and some other guys with the Bad Boy image. If you really get to know Tito, he’s not really like that. He’s a little cocky, but it’s for the hype of the media, and that’s what they need. Phil Baroni is the same way. He’s kind of crazy, lol, but, once you sit down and talk to him, he’s not really that way. People see the image on TV and love pro wrestling and that kind of attitude, so it tends to come out and the young people see this and that’s how they act. That’s not what it’s about.

It’s about respect, and it’s very important!

By Erik Paulson
Combat Submission Wrestling

I must add to this the respect goes as far as the uniform too. Some arts are more traditional than others and some arts have elaborate uniforms that here at AMAG we don't wear. But one system that I feel strongly about is
Muay Thai Boxing.

The uniform at its most basic costs you about twenty quid for a pair of Thai Shorts off of Ebay or out of our ProShop. MMA has become popular these days and maybe the reason some of you have started training. Some of you really like wearing the MMA uniform of rash guard or Hayabusa t-shirt and MMA shorts and have the little gloves that they wear. You might feel ace and not want to wear the traditional uniform but this shows a real ignorance on your part and you should address it. It's not a good attitude at all to say you'll take the push-ups punishment rather than train in the correct uniform. Show some respect for the art you train in and the instructors that teach or maybe it's time to look elsewhere!?

As good as it gets?

2010-06-04T11:41:00.000+01:00

I was having a conversation with a good friend of mine last night about training and in particular getting high level, world class coaching.
He'd been on a recent visit to London and amongst other things had visited one of the training academies down there. He had been thinking and was articulating this to me in his usual way! How could we ever compete on their level when they have so many high level coaches and competitors? He also mentioned how formal and professional their class structure was compared to ours.

Well of course this got me thinking and although on first thoughts I thought he was right I reconsidered. At AMAG we get a lot of world class and high level coaches and instructors coming to visit us and teaching for perhaps one or two days. The way they teach us is that they pass down techniques, drills, training methods and bad jokes for all the students to take away and practise. But one thing may have been overlooked on the first pass, so to speak. AMAG has a unique approach in that it has some good level instructors and coaches teaching there all the time. These instructors also take part in the seminars and training sessions of the high level guys and learn the material, often quicker and more effectively than the students. This new material then becomes the basis of the classes taught at AMAG and before you know it the students are able to do and use the material taught at the seminar to much better use than if they had just attended on their own and had only taken notes for example.

I know that what I have just described is not the same as being taught on a daily basis by Marc McFann or Erik Paulson or Guro Inosanto or Daniel Lonero or Rey Diogo or Ajarn Chai or Toco but with AMAG's unique approach we can maybe reach 85%?? I think this puts us on the level with students who have these guys on their back door step. Even if we do have to perhaps train and think harder.

Also when you reach a certain stage in your martial arts career, you start to travel to these guys to train with them and improve even more. For example, some of us travel to LA or Brazil for weeks at a time to get exposure to the best in the world and then we bring that back to the gym for others to benefit from too!!

This

brings me onto my final point about class environment. I personally don't like a too formal class approach because basically I don't think it is conjugative to learning. The best approach that I have seen from all over in the different places I've trained is a light hearted semi formal environment, where there is a lot of respect going around for one another and the instructor, but light hearted enough for people to talk and discuss what they are doing. I think this is the best way to learn and if there is an element of play in there then I think that is where you see the best results.

Such as sparring or rolling for instance. You need to take things easy to learn the stuff as well as hard to see what you've got. But as far as sparring goes the fight is in the ring or on the mat, not in the gym with your training partners. There are a lot of people that won't ever have the courage to go and compete and they are the worst for trying to kick everyones ass in the gym. I know that was slightly off subject but a good point all the same.

I'm glad in had the conversation with my friend because it reminded me of just how good our gym is and how far we have come.

Keep training :-)

Scotia BJJ Competition - Neil Cushnie going Laldy

2010-05-31T20:13:00.001+01:00

I asked Neil to go a bit laldy on this one and lo and behold we got a good result!!
You can't be too timid or overly technical when you enter these competitions. Get in there and get what you want out of it. Like Neil did. This guy was 82.5kg and Neil was 71kg.

Awesome!!

Active Learning Zone

2010-05-05T08:27:00.001+01:00

If you're just coming onto the mat and rolling and not drilling your moves then good luck!!

The problem with BJJ is it's just so much fun rolling. Yes there are hard rolls that tax you and push you to your limits but most of the time we don't roll like that (or at least you shouldn't be). However, unless you are drilling your GoTo moves or the techniques you're struggling with, then rolling alone is going to be a long slow process to getting better.

I recently read an article that said that it takes 10,000 hours of training to become a master of anything. Ice skating, golf, etc. A know exception to this rule is BJ Penn. He took just four years to achieve his black belt and not only that he became the first non-Brazilian to win the black-belt division of the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He said he used to train twice a day for a couple of hours most days. That's only enough to get half way to the 10,000 hour mark. However, what he is reported to have done was to drill each technique he was shown 500 times. By that point he could include the move into his game and further develop it within rolling.

How Come??
Well sports psychology tells us that when you first begin to learn a new sport there is a period of time where you learn and practise intensely. This is to get you off the ground so to speak and this is where you pick up all the basic skills to get you to be able to take part. Beginners often seem to progress rapidly in the beginning learning new moves and being able to put a few things together quite rapidly. Sometimes even doing things better than someone who has been doing the sport longer and it’s put down to beginners luck!! Only it’s not beginners luck really it’s the fact that the beginner is in the Active Learning Zone.

The Active Learning Zone is where one practises a move with high levels of both concentration and repetition.

The Active Learning Zone is where one practises a move with high levels of both concentration and repetition. As an example, take your average golfer who learns to play golf as a hobby. He goes round the course with his friends and struggles to hit the ball properly and in essence barley keeps up with them. So over the next year or two he regularly goes out to the playing fields and practises driving dozens of balls, he practises putting in the back garden and goes down to the beach to practise his bunker shots. What he is doing is isolating all the various strokes he will need to play his game. Eventually, he gets good enough to play a round with his friends. Now he leaves the Active Learning Zone and carries on playing the same game of golf for the next ten years. Never really practising like he used to do - isolating certain areas of his game - and hence his progress slows right down and he may wonder why his handicap just fluctuates around the same number over the years.

In order to continue progressing as rapidly as possible in a sport, considerable amounts of time must be spent in the Active Learning Zone (Remember: High levels of concentration and Repetition). Going back to the BJJ, the rolling you do is an essential part of your games development but an often over looked part of your game is time in the Active Learning Zone.

If you want to improve considerably, schedule some time in the Active Learning Zone, by setting yourself up with training projects.

If you want to improve considerably, schedule some time in the Active Learning Zones, by setting yourself up with training projects. Be specific too. Don't just say that you want to get good at arm bars for instance. Look at particular techniques and learn to do them from multiple positions. My instructors always tell me that it is better to be able to do one arm bar from twenty positions rather than twenty different armbars from only one position each.

The Balance.
It is best to aim for a 50:50 balance between sparring and drilling in the Active Learning Zone. This way the techniques you are drilling can be introduced to your game and you can start having success with them. The reason the balance exisits is because the reverse is also tue. Not enough time spent sparring and doing too much drilling will also stunt your growth in the sport/martial art.

I hope this article will prove useful to you and although I have used BJJ throughout the article it can apply to any sport or art such as Boxing, Kali, Muay Thai or Tennis!!

Reducing the Importance of Winning

2010-04-22T16:10:00.001+01:00

The title of this post may conger up thoughts of some Liberal New Age Tree hugging commentary on competing and maybe dismissed immediately by some of you but I urge you to read on!! Thanks to the development of Sports Psychology methods for both individuals and coaches understanding how to achieve better results in your chosen discipline is having a valuable light shone on it.

Athletes cannot always control whether or not they win. A team may perform almost flawlessly and still lose a match therefore, encouraging athletes to differentiate between playing well and winning by stressing the importance of improvement and playing to the best of their ability is crucial. For example Peter is our highest ranking member of the BJJ classes. He is a brown belt under Rey Diogo and very competitive in his approach to BJJ. However, if he were to compete against someone like Roger Gracie we all know the outcome even before the match started. With the emphasis shifted from winning to performing as best you can, this match could end up being one of Peter’s best rolls ever.

If we take this idea a step closer to day to day training. When you roll with someone in BJJ, you should shift the emphasis to your own personal performance being your best, rather than that of not wanting to tap to someone or getting them to tap. The nature of the roll itself will lead to a submission/winner, therefore the emphasis should be on your performance. This shift has been found to remove the pressure of winning on the athlete and those athletes that have used this approach have achieved consistently better results. This idea is similar to what Guro Inosanto was talking about at the Instructors camp when he talked about the 70% rule.

Motivating and Guiding Your Students

2010-04-22T14:12:00.058+01:00

I've been investigating Sports Psychology recently in an effort to help me improve my own performance and help improve my coaching/teaching skills. Below is an article I think will server any coach well even though it is aimed at new or young students. I'm beginning to realise that taking the psychology of sport more seriously and understanding how it effects performance can seriously help individuals and teams improve and develop quicker.

Motivating and Guiding Your Students
Every one wants to feel skilled and valued. The best way to motivate some one is to make them feel skilled and valued. This is especially important for young/new athletes who are just learning the skills and strategies of a sport.

The key to motivating athletes is to point out their successes, encourage them to improve, and teach them needed skills. The following are strategies coaches can use to create an ideal atmosphere to motivate athletes:
1. Monitor your feedback to athletes

Let athletes know what they do well as well as what needs improvement (e.g., good hustle, nice effort, good catch, way to be in the right place).
Minimize punishment or criticism – this does not mean to ignore mistakes; rather use instruction and encouragement to help athletes improve.

2. Individualise athlete feedback

Respond to mistakes based on the athlete’s current ability. With new students, skills may vary widely. Not all athletes should be held to the same standard. Instead, expect all athletes to show effort and improvement.
Reward athletes when you see improvement
Reward athletes who are trying hard and who are hustling
When giving feedback use what is referred to as the Sandwich method:

Provide some positive feedback about the athlete
Highlight the area you want them to improve in
Give the athlete a solution / method to improve in this area. i.e what you want them to do
Then provide some further good feedback and speculation of what their performance will become should they do what you've asked of them.
This method has been proven to work incredibly well in individual based sports such as golf, tennis, boxing and athletics, simply by starting positively and ending positively.

3. Encourage teamwork.

Use drills where athletes have to work together to meet your goals.
Reward athletes for encouraging and helping each other.

Benefits of using these Strategies

Athletes will be motivated to continue improving and trying hard - particularly when the Sandwich method is used.
Athletes will be more confident as the coach points out their improvements and successes
Team cohesion will improve
Athletes won’t be afraid of making mistakes (which may make them tentative or lead to making mistakes or quitting altogether)
Practices and games will be more fun
Athletes’ skills will improve as they get more instruction

The Lair of the Fox

2010-04-11T19:03:00.002+01:00

When the pupil is ready, the master will appear.

Daniel Lonero Seminar.

2010-04-07T09:16:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to say thanks to Daniel and Marie for a fantastic seminar!! We covered some great drills and training methods to teach us mobility and timing in the stand-up range. You might not fully appreciate what was taught last night but I have a feeling that it will benefit you for years to come and hopefully we can build up on it in the future.

Also it was great to see Marie show the girls the level that can be achieved. This isn't always appreciated by the guys but it's important for the girls to see high level women too. Marie checked that box brilliantly!!

Finally, I want to thank everyone who turned up and supported the seminar. I really hope you enjoyed yourselves and got a lot out of it. Without the support there is no point in doing these seminars and everyone misses out.

Last night's seminar was a huge success all round as far as I was concerned and I personally had huge fun and have a lot to practise.

Thanks

Daniel Lonero MMA & Grappling Seminar

2010-03-29T13:40:00.003+01:00

Daniel Lonero will be returning to AMAG on the 6th April 2010 to teach a Mixed Martial Arts and Grappling seminar.

Once again Daniel will be delving into the different arts to give us a unique perspective on Mixed Martial Arts and Grappling. As a full instructor under Guro Dan Inosanto as well as many other instructors such as Ajarn Chai and Erik Paulson, Daniel will draw upon his vast experience to give another great seminar.

This seminar is for all AMAG students and is a fantastic first seminar to experience, everyone is welcome.

Tuesday 6th April
6pm - 9:30pm (approx)
£35

*Please note. We put these seminars on for the students at the risk of our own expense. If no one turns up then we will stop asking these guys to visit, so please make every effort. Thanks.

Life in the City is Full of Hidden Dangers....

2010-03-29T00:50:00.002+01:00

"I don't wanna see any Jackie Chan bollocks."

Missing Windows 98??

2010-03-25T08:43:00.003Z

I couldn't help but laugh as I read the title of this forum post on Geeks. At first, I thought the original poster had lost their mind. With all of the advances in operating systems over the years, why on Earth would we miss Windows 98? However, the chuckles faded away as I read one of the follow-up comments in the thread, which stated "I miss the simplicity, but not the lack of reliability". How true that statement is.

Back then, things were much simpler. Sure, we couldn't DO as much as we can now, but is that always a bad thing? We are much more stressed out these days, more overworked. We try to do too much at once, and leave other aspects of our life untended. All of this is accomplished with the help of our powerful computers and uber-awesome operating systems that run on those pieces of hardware.

I can completely understand the sentiment about missing the simplicity. It makes me remember that I need to slow down a bit at times, and appreciate the world around me more. No one will pass out if I don't reply to their email the instant it hits my inbox. The World isn't going to come to a screeching halt if I don't get this blog post written in the next five minutes. I might, however, break out in spots if I don't take a break for a few minutes right NOW.

LA Here We Come

2010-03-08T22:28:00.002Z

Peter and I are off to LA this week to train with Guro Inosanto at his academy in Los Angeles. This camp is great and I'm excited to be going again. On top of that we are also going to visit Rey Diogo our Jiu Jitsu Instructor.

Can't wait....

Welcome to Aberdeen Martial Arts Group

2010-03-03T12:58:00.002Z

Welcome to Aberdeen Martial Arts Group. This is where Peter and I train and teach from.

UFA Instructors Camp

2010-03-02T23:05:00.005Z

Here is a short clip of Peter teaching at the UFA Instructors Camp in the grappling section.
The camp was great fun and we all had a great time. I'll talk more about that later on but enjoy the clip in the meantime.

Marc McFann Seminar

2010-02-24T10:49:00.013Z

Last night saw Sifu Marc McFann teach a two part seminar to a packed gym. The first half was all about leg locks with Marc showing us how to handle or defend mediocre techniques, that are all too common, whilst learning how to attack with higher percentage techniques. It adds a whole new dimension to your grappling game when you introduce leg locks but I think the key is to learn how to defend them first. On a note of safety, it was also mentioned that when rolling with leg locks included, you can be more susceptible to injury. The legs don't seem to have the same sort of pain receptors as other parts of your body and consequently people tend to tap much later or not at all - then SNAP! Something goes. So when rolling with leg locks you must not let your ego or pride cause you an injury that might see you out of training for 3 months. Tap and roll another day!!

The second part of the seminar covered the Knife. We first of all looked at a drill that allowed us to understand the importance of closing the gap and controlling the space and the knife. Then we went on to a variety of different disarms and controls. One thing that Marc pointed out was that the knife gives your assailant a technological advantage over you if you are unarmed and as a result of physically confronting that person you are more than likely going to get cut. Therefore avoid the situation if you can simply by running away or if that is not possible look at arming yourself with something - a stick, a chair, a rolled up magazine, a jacket - anything that will reset the balance. Then if you have to engage do so with intent. Morally that person has forfeit any leniency when they drew the knife upon you - some may argue.

Further to that, Pat and the other Kali instructors at the gym often mention the fact that training in our club for even as long as a year doing Kali and stick fighting does not give you the skills to take on an armed assailant. Get away as quickly and as soon as you can. A lot of the time you can even get stabbed or cut and not even know you have been seriously injured.

Any ways not to dwell too much on the seriousness of knife attacks, the second part of the seminar was brilliant too and lots of good drills for our development can be taken away and practised.

Peter and I got some good detail off Marc regarding the Palasut drills. What I tend to find with Kali in particular but also in other arts as well, is that as you progress through the system, you can be shown the same stuff over and over again. The difference is that every time you are shown, you seem to pick up more detail than you did the last time. There needs to be a period of growth i.e. practise and development in between times but the next time round it seems that there are always glaringly obvious mistakes. That's why I think I like Kali so much as it never seems to end, there's always something you can be doing better.

Overall a great night. Marc continues his tour around the UK visiting his UK instructors and ends the tour with the UFA Instructors camp this coming weekend at Northampton.

20 Tips for better Jits

2010-02-23T13:59:00.005Z

1. Make every roll feel like the finals at Mundial. ALWAYS bring your A game. Unless you roll hard all the time you aren’t progressing.

2. Don’t bother washing your gi. In fact, keep it in a ball in your bag. That way when you put it on it’s already wet. Nothing like grabbing a guy with a cold wet gi.

3. Always leave your gi pants at home. Grapple in your top and shorts. Sambo style! When you do that don’t forget to grab the other guys pants legs for all your passes.

4. Always beat down new guys. That way they know the power of BJJ right away. They need to know how effective it is.

5. If you know a cool counter to what the teacher is showing be sure to show it RIGHT AWAY. Especially when the instructor is talking. That way you can look cool. By the way, every technique has a counter.

6. Always use full resistance in class. Especially when in learning stage. If your partner is learning an armbar for the first time you need to give them full resistance so that they know how that feels. Don’t let them get it!

7. If you are about to get subbed switch into coach mode. Coach your partner through the rest of the technique. That way you get credit for HIS sub.

8. If you get tired in a roll wait until you are in a bad position to stop.

9. When you get tapped by a bigger guy always tell them after the roll “Dang, you are strong!” That way you can blame their win on their strength instead of their technique.

10. Keep track of everyone you’ve tapped, what you used to tap them, and when it happened. Relive those moment with your classmates before every class.

11. Gun after everyone who is higher rank than you. That way you can put a notch on your belt for tapping out a higher belt.

12. When you get a tap immediately jump up and do a victory dance. Make sure everyone in the room knows.

13. Drop in and out of class as you see fit. Don’t bother to do the warm ups. If the material doesn’t look cool to you be sure to pull your buddy out of class and grapple on the side of the mat while class is going on. ALWAYS do this if class is covering something you’ve learned already. Review is for white belts.

14. Along those same lines, always show up late. That way you don’t have to even bother with warm ups.

15. When you have a visitor in from another gym you MUST put a beat down on them. That’s the only way they will know how good your gym is. It is your job to uphold the reputation of your gym.

16. Nobody minds if you roll with open sores. Go ahead and grind that scab in my face. I don’t mind at all.

17. Long fingernails are a great sparring weapon. Don’t cut them. Toenails either.

18. Small joint locks are your secret weapon. Grab and twist fingers. Do it hard and fast.

19. Don’t tap! Doesn’t matter that the arm is totally straight and you can hear the tendons ripping. You might still get out! Your pride is worth it.

20. Slam on all submissions hard and fast! That way you get twice as many. Doesn’t matter that your partner won’t have time to tap until it’s too late. This is BJJ. If you don’t want to get hurt then take up yoga or TKD.

Marc McFann

2010-02-21T17:44:00.011Z

Marc McFann returns to Aberdeen this week to hold a seminar before continuing on down to Northampton to teach the UFA Instructors that weekend.

I first met Marc way back in 1996 and immediately knew I wanted to train more with him. Pat had got Marc up to do a seminar and this is where I first met Ewen Campbell as well. Both Ewen and Marc showed me a fun but effective side to Jeet Kune Do that I had not really seen until that point.

After a few years of attending Marc's seminars and Marc and the UFA getting more and more involved with Pat and AMAG, I found out I could become an instructor under Marc but I would have to sit a test. This test is called the UFA Instructors Test and every candidate instructor has to sit and pass this test. However, this test is like no other test I have ever sat in my life up until that point or since!! It is a test of heart and is unique to every individual sitting it. Marc and Ewen test the candidates (using their considerable experience) by taking them to the point where they almost 'fail' - as individuals - and watch them to see if they can rise to the challenge. The vehicle of the test is Boxing, Muay Thai, Kali, Silat, Ground fighting and physical capacity. If you pass the test the feeling of achievement is like nothing else you'll ever experience.

We have three candidates at AMAG, who are preparing to test and this year at camp we might see it.

BJJ is gay

2010-02-15T11:46:00.000Z

Watching Yourself

2010-02-15T09:04:00.006Z

I can remember years ago when camcorders came out, that it was the big thing to video yourself taking a swing. Then you would watch yourself later, on the TV and see if you could spot any mistakes, like lifting the head too soon or not bringing the club up at the right angle.

In this day and age, it's so simple to video yourself training because everyone's mobile phone has a video recorder on it, just about. Even if it isn't hi-def, 1080p the subsequent footage could reveal a lot about your technique and possibly help you correct some really obvious mistakes.

As an instructor, I'm used to looking at people and watching them to see if I can help them improve their technique. However, on Saturday I was making some video notes with my brother reviewing some of the Kali we did at Guro Inosanto's seminar the previous weekend.

It's now a lot easier to film what you do at a seminar than take notes and try and describe the complex movements on paper. Have you noticed that the descriptions hardly ever make much sense 6 months later unless you are continuously practising the drills. (In which case the notes aren't needed!!)

So I was looking back on the video clips and putting some video titles on the clips when I noticed some mistakes I was making during the drills. I then went back and watched the clips casting my eye as an instructor upon myself and my brother. Now I have some finer details I need to improve upon.

So my advice is: Film yourself frequently and look at yourself afterwards with a view to spotting any mistakes, just like the golfing guys did back in the day when the camcorder first came out. You might learn something about yourself.

Guro Inosanto Seminar pt2

2010-02-08T09:06:00.007Z

Well the seminar was great!! As usual we managed to have our minds blown by Guro and his assistant Joel. The way Inosanto can move and respond to slight differences in Joel's feed is quite honestly amazing. At one point they were both doing a stick trapping drill and it just looked so fast and complex and natural, when they finished everyone just clapped.Then after the applause Guro invited us to try it haha.

The other wonderful thing about this seminar is that it brings loads of different people into the one room for two days and you get to catch up with the friends you've made over the years (all of them great martial artists in their own right) from all over the UK and Europe.

This year saw me have two of my students come down to the seminar for the first time on the Saturday. They both thoroughly enjoyed it and were of course blown away by Guro and Joel. They both claimed they're doing two days next year. I'm glad they manage to make it. It's a repeat of when Pat encouraged me and Peter to come down to the seminar for the first time only a few years earlier (1994 haha). So the cycle continues.

It was great to see Pat there too as he had been to the hospital on the Friday and it looks like good news for him hopefully. He will keep you up to date here though.

Ewen (our senior instructor in the UFA-UK) had broken his foot and was sitting with crutches on the side lines all weekend getting frustrated that he couldn't take part. He hurt his foot when he fell off the third ball in the Total Wipeout TV show trials....

Guro Inosanto Seminar

2010-02-05T13:08:00.002Z

A number of us are preparing to go to the Guro Inosanto Seminar this weekend. Guro is only managing one UK seminar this year and Sifu Rick Young is hosting it in his home town of Edinburgh.

The Disease of Instructorship

2010-01-31T22:32:00.015Z

I received an interesting article this week from a friend of mine. The article was about Brazillian Jiu Jitsu and in particular how belts and the expectations of performance associated with them, can cause you 'difficulties'. Essentially, the problem being that a higher grade belt should not tap or struggle with a lower grade belt. Or in fact if your surname is Gracie, you should automatically be better than everyone else. Of course this isn’t true, because we all develop at different stages and within the complexities of BJJ different parts of our game are at different levels. For example, you maybe a blue belt but there will be aspects of your game that are perhaps better than blue belt and other aspects that are at the level of white belt. Overtime as you head towards your black belt these tend to level out. But if you are rolling as a blue belt against a white belt and your guard game is only as good as a white belt and the white belt has passes as good as a blue belt. Then you will probably get passed. If you were playing the guard pass game for instance then you’ve just lost to a white belt. You will then proceed to beat yourself up and others might comment that a white beat a blue on the mat. Should this lead to the blue belt giving up and not return to training. Of course not. The explanation above should help you understand what may have happened, with the lesson being the blue belt needs to work a certain area more. In other words every defeat is an indication of an area that you must work harder on to improve. This is one of the great values of contesting your martial arts skills and you should also understand that just because you are a higher grade belt doesn’t mean you will automatically beat any lower grade belts.

So after reading the article it got me thinking that this problem is not restricted to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu alone. As a Jeet Kune Do student I cross train many different systems and I can see the 'difficulties' associated with achievement in any system. In particular, when you get promoted to an instructor level, be it apprentice, assistant, stand-in or whatever, you gain this usually because of personal achievement and merit. Whatever the reason, you are now thrust in front of the rest of your peers and students to lead the way for a particular class or session. Here is where the problem can begin though, as there are two types of instructor. Those that instruct the entire class and those that set drills and also take part. In my experience, the best results for students is when the instructor chooses to only instruct, demonstrate and assist and most instructors tend to do this. Thus choosing to train at other times. The problem manifests itself however, the more you teach because this normally leads to training less. Over time this has a detrimental affect on the instructor, whom if you remember got his instructorship through merit. The effect on the instructor is that his skills becomes rusty, his fitness and strength slowly evaporate and he becomes a shadow of his former self. Now the instructor avoids sparring and any contested training because he can no longer deliver the results he once did and his students can get the better of him. Thus the instructor begins to avoid all contested training and only teaches, often supplementing his knowledge through DVDs, youTube and the like but not actually training and contesting his abilities, to develop his knowledge and experience.

This to me is the Disease of Instructorship and is something that is far worse than a higher grade being tapped by a lower grade. It is something that every instructor should carefully guard against. Wearing your jeans whilst your students start to roll is not the way to grow and become better!

I particularly like BJJ and the way it works because the black belts can do and teach, due to the fact belts are not generally given unless there is competitive merit as well as teaching ability and knowledge of the art. Of course, BJJ is not the only art that takes this approach but for me it was one art that springs to mind.

My instructor, Sifu Marc McFann is one of the best examples I know, of someone who has great teaching abilities yet still contests his skills with his students and through competing after more than thirty years training and learning within the arts.

Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Appeal

2010-01-15T14:08:00.001Z

Muay Thai Round Kick

2010-01-10T23:41:00.002Z

This linked video shows you the devastating effectiveness of the Muay Thai leg kick. The guy showing you has never been to a gym to learn. This is all very impressive self-taught Muay Thai.

The Legends Gym Hollywood

2010-01-07T16:18:00.001Z

Early Christmas Present

2009-12-30T22:19:00.003Z

Erik Paulson awarded Josh Barnett his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on 19th December, based on technical understanding and competition merit. Josh teaches at Erik's CSW Training Center in Fullerton, California. Erik himself is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under Rigan Machado.

Recently Josh entered in the ultra-heavyweight division of the black belt category and won the gold medal at the No-Gi World Championships.

Season Greetings

2009-12-21T12:22:00.004Z

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Peter, Dan & I will be training during the holiday season as we have the BJJ competitions coming up. I'll still get in plenty of food n drink though but in moderation of course - hahah

Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Belts

2009-12-18T13:50:00.008Z

Guys I wanted to post this article I came across on the web its worth a read and may answer some of your thoughts on the recent grading etc.
There is another point I want to make, there is a difference between a purple belt and an instructor in BJJ I remember I was promoted to purple 5 years ago
And received my instructor certificate a year later, I see some purple belts teaching and thinking what? Huh? They are teaching the fundamentals completely wrong
But this is not the case with Ben and Leigh and they will be receiving there coaching certs along with there new belt certs so well done.

Peter

There are a lot of differing perspectives out there, each with their own merit. The single common theme that I see is that because of the nature of training and learning Jiu-Jitsu, in that the belts are strictly performance based, one would be hard pressed to maintain the illusion that they were at a certain belt level in Jiu-Jitsu, if they actually were not.

I recently read a post by Sam Sojourner in his blog, Diary of an Angry Grappler <http://angrygrappler.livejournal.com/26326.html> . He writes as a purple belt about his perspective on the path to black belt, and how he sees the different belts.

White Belt - At white you are learning the basics of positions and submissions and the idea of positions before submissions. Learning 2-3 basic passes. Learning to mount. Learning to armbar, choke, or triangle. As a white belt all you want to do is pass, mount finish, or finish from your closed guard. That's it. For you, you feel like the mount is huge! And in your closed guard, your only choice is finish.

Blue Belt - At blue you know most of the moves, but you can't chain it all together into a full game yet, but you have some moves you are great at. Here it's all about smashing and scrambling. Either you and the other blue are both scrambling to stay on top, or trying to smash the hell out of the other guy while you pass and you are experimenting with a lot of the advanced moves.

Purple Belt - At purple, doesn't matter what kind of purple you are, it seems like all roads lead to the back, all you care about is taking the back, all you want is the back. You mount but still think about somehow getting the back, you do all these flashy moves to get to the back or set up a move that will somehow lead to their back. This is where your game is at its most flashy.

Brown Belt - Almost a black. Now your game is more defined, your signature moves are just that much better. You can teach concepts and convey ideas, what works and why it works. The difference between a brown and a black is really mat time and experience. Everything else should be all dialed in, they just need patience.

Black Belt - The black belt becomes the white belt again. Position before submission. Passing, mounting, finishing. No more sidemount as the holding position. They want to mount you and choke you, or from their back, finish with armbar or triangle. They have their white belt game back and mount is the holy grail again, and your closed guard is your sniper rifle, just this time around it's that much tighter and better.

Older Black Belt - No matter how flashy and fast you were as a black belt, eventually all the black belts' games look the same. Pressure pressure pressure, passing, smothering, suffocating. They just ooze on you until they finish you. I have rolled with a lot of older black belts and they all had that same game. Eliminate the gaps and the spaces. Truest form of jiu jitsu and I know the black belts I like now who are still flashy, eventually they will make their game so economic and efficient, it will also be that oozing game. All roads, no matter how different they were at the beginning, all end the same way. You end up having Helio's game.

With our belt testing just around the corner, there’s been a lot of talk amongst members of the class about where they think they are in their evolution. With that thought and conversation sometimes comes the accompanying doubt and second guessing about one’s ability. We must remember that we are always the most critical of ourselves, but you must believe in yourself.

I still clearly remember my thoughts and feelings upon my promotion to black belt. It was definitely one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Taking from the words from one of my earlier posts, it was somewhat unexpected and I was extremely honored. I vowed to wear it proudly, as it is a symbol of our dojo and an honor to be the first student that Shihan had ever promoted to black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. But mostly, I was struck with the awesome responsibility one has to wear that belt and the long journey ahead as a student to continue learning. Although my first journey started years ago, a new journey began for me.

Georgette Oden recently wrote in her blog, Georgette’s World <http://georgetteoden.blogspot.com/2009/01/made-blue.html> , about her early promotion to blue belt. She commented on her own doubts that she was at that level, as well as her “incredible feeling of awe, humility, and motivation to work harder.” I could totally relate. As a matter of fact, I remember after my promotion to blue belt how I felt a responsibility to be better than I was the day before, as if the color of my belt provided me with some intrinsic super learning powers. Of course it didn’t, but I did find myself working even harder to meet my own expectations about where I thought I should be. To me it seemed like my progression began to move forward in leaps and bounds.

Some time ago I wrote about the Psychology of Jiu-Jitsu <http://www.thejiujitsufighter.com/2008/08/psychology-of-jiu-jitsu.html> with a brief overview of my perspective on the stages of development. What I’ve come to realize is that at each turning point, there is a grey area. One can easily see the differences between a white belt, a purple belt and a black belt, but what about the differences between a high-level yellow belt (white belt) and a low-level blue belt, or between a high-level purple belt and a new brown belt? What are the differences between various academies? Is our system of progression the same as every other school? In my opinion, the whole notion of attaining validation from any source outside our own selves runs contrary to the philosophies of Sho-Rei-Shobu-Kan.

Realizing of course that this in and of itself is a contradiction of ideas about belt progression in Jiu-Jitsu. There is a fine line between keeping our belt promotions in line with the Jiu-Jitsu community at large, and not adhering to some arbitrary, external standard of measurement.

Awhile back, I had a handful of students who refused to take part in belt testing. They had it in their mind that it should take exactly ten years to obtain a black belt, regardless of performance. They were simply focused on that time frame. I think they believed they were adhering to the concept that the belt didn’t matter. Ultimately what I ended up with was a handful of blue and purple belt-level folks who were wearing white belts. One of them, even after being promoted to a higher belt level, refused to wear the belt. Another student had been training at another academy and talked with me about how good a couple of their blue belts were, as if that was now the standard for promotion to blue belt. The irony of all of this is the contradiction of ideas about the belt system. They were so strongly opposed to the use of belts as a means of measurement, but at the same time were so attached to their own ideas about how progress should be measured.

Bakari Akil, PhD posted on his blog, Jiu-Jitsu 365, What Army rank would a BJJ belt equal <http://jiujitsu365.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/what-army-rank-would-a-bjj-belt-equal/> ? I found this to be an interesting approach and that his analogies were rather intriguing.

One of my favorite perspectives comes from Roy Harris. If you’ve not clicked on a single link up to this point, I highly recommend that you do so now. Mr. Harris’ article on Progression in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu <http://www.onthemat.com/articles/Progression_in_Brazilian_JiuJitsu_10_13_2005.html> is a must read and should shed some light on the subject for my senior students.

The bottom line is that everyone has their own perspective on belt levels and each one has their merit. My final words come from Saulo Ribeiro.

“There is no sense in chasing a belt and getting it as fast as possible. Often, people do not see that black belt will be their longest belt. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you get it in four years or fifteen. Either way, you will have the rest of your life with a black belt around your waist. Building the black belt is what matters.”

Friends afar

2009-12-18T08:31:00.002Z

I think this is awesome!! We have really made good friends with Toco and his students and look what he has done now.

Guro Daniel Lonero Clip

2009-12-16T09:13:00.002Z

I've been waiting for this clip for ages, since I saw it earlier in the year.
Enjoy...

Bjj Gradings

2009-12-15T13:01:00.011Z

Well last night was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu grading night at AMAG/Jitsudo. Peter handed out stripes and belts to those of us that had showed significant improvement in the areas he looks out for. Some of these are:

Attendance
Attitude
Work Ethic
Skill in techniques
Performance in the club on the mat
Performance in competition

It was a great night with lots of people in attendance. We managed to get some of the information we need to keep the gradings database, as the club has grown so much, it's difficult to remember everyone's grade consistently. The information will be kept by Peter and not made available to anyone else regardless of their request.

The people who received a new level are as follows:

White Belt 1 Stripe
Roy Smart
Scott 'evil' Brown
Alan 'big spender' Purse
Ivan Mesjar
Amir 'Doc' Iqbal
Lou Campbell
Chris Moir

White Belt 2 Stripes
Ryan Cardno
Niall 'Neil' Campbell
Kris Malcolm
Ryan 'Bru' Foreir
Charles 'Fu' Okboke
Ryan 'Riser' Pressley

White Belt 3 Stripes
Neil 'The Knee' Cushnie
Vern fae Montrose

White Belt 4 Stripes
Mike Baxter
Willie McVey
John 'Powderpuff' Psyllas

Blue Belt
Dan 'Eddie Glover' Tan

Blue Belt 3 Stripes
Scott 'san' Pressley

Blue Belt 4 Stripes
Matt 'Rooster' Russell

Purple Belt
Ben 'The Legend' Randall
Leigh 'Oscar' Richardson

Keep training hard guys n' girls it's been a great year for us. We have competitions starting as early as January 2010, that some of you are already training for.

**If I've spelt any names wrong then it's because you can't write properly and I couldn't translate the scrawls into letters of the English alphabet. Have a nice day....:-)

Escaping Side 4 Position to Guard

2009-12-14T12:03:00.003Z

Listen to the start of the video as there is a bit of common mistake highlighted, that might help you in the future. :-)

Sorry for low level on the sound but I think I was covering the mic slightly on my iPhone.

Brazillian Jiu Jitsu Basics

2009-12-10T16:25:00.005Z

I have been meaning to write up an article on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics for my students for some time now. I often go on and on about the basics in my classes every week
and i'm sure sometimes the students wonder what im talking about half the time. So I am going to attempt to put this down in words with some examples and analogies.

I always use the examples of the great Roger Gracie when watching him compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournaments and more recently in the MMA arena, his execution of what people would class as "basics Brazilian Jiu Jitsu" are flawless he uses the basics so well and 95% of the time submits his opponent, I met his Dad again the awesome Mauricio Gomes coming back on the flight from Rio de Janiro as I returned from my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training trip and commented on this.

When I teach some technique in class, a common mistake that most people will make is they focus on the complicated part or the "fancy" part which 9 times out of 10 is the submission. For example, if I taught a guard pass to side control to mount to an arm bar, I could almost guarantee that when I look round most people are doing the arm bar part!! Now if you get amazingly good at the arm bar but cant ever get the basics i.e. the guard pass to the side control to the mount (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics) then you will never get the chance to put the arm bar on and your skill at the arm bar will never be realised because you will never get ther!! Another example I use that I picked up from one of my BJJ instructors is if using the same analogy as before, if the armbar was the cherry on the cake but your basics like your mount control was rubbish you might get one shot at the cherry, but if your basic mount control is substantial you could have many go's at the cherry! maybe miss it but you have not lost position and can set this up again, another use of the basics.

Again I know a lot of people whom are using DVD clips as a learning/teaching method but not understanding the basics or actually getting down and dirty and training it either on the matt or just in the form of drilling. These people are only getting a small percentage of what's being taught even if they think they are getting more (they're NOT). DVD's are an excellent way of learning and finding solutions if used correctly. Ok bringing this back to specifically Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics I see some of the students watching and learning some techniques from the latest grappling stars on the mats pulling off some spectacular submissions and positional movements that are truely awesome BUT I can 100% guarantee that these super stars on the mats and ring/cage etc have a 100% grasp of the basics and in between the flash signature moves you see are Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics.

Another point I want to briefly touch on is something I am studying in more detail and that's the use of Invisible Jiu Jitsu!! No this isn't some form of magical martial arts power hahaha although it may be seen as this if you are that way inclined, but one of the greatest parts of invisible Jiu Jitsu is the use of your weight, I have trained and rolled with many many black belts now and I can tell you they all have this no matter if they are 60kg or 100kg they ALL feel about 1000kg, this is so important in your BJJ and is of course Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics.

I will conclude this article now with some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu basics in the form of a list, please read and use/practice drill I have my Blue Belt and Purple Belt requirements under me documents that anyone can ask for regardless if you have just started or a seasoned grappler in the club they are there for your reference.

1. Vertical hip movement (bridge and roll techniques)
2. Horizontal hip movement (elbow/knee and shrimp movements)
3. Going to your knees (bridge over left shoulder, drive with right leg)
4. Going to your knees (bridge over left shoulder, pull left leg under)
5. Sit up
6. Stand up
7. Roll over shoulder
8. Basic fall (on back)
9. Basic fall (on side)
10. Basic fall (on chest)
11. Upa (hands on mats)
12. Upa (forearm under neck)
13. Elbow/knee (basic)
14. Elbow/knee (foot lift)
15. Elbow/knee (foot drag)
16. Place in guard (from side mount)
17. Go to knees (from side mount)
18. Pass under the legs (from guard)
19. Pass over the legs (from guard)
20. Frame the arms (head lock escape)
21. Hook the leg (head lock escape)
22. Bridge and roll (head lock escape)
23. Bridge and roll (kesa gatame escape)
24. Go to your knees (knee on stomach escape)
25. Go to your knees (both and south escape)
26. Replace guard (wrestler's cradle escape)
27. Mechanics of scissor sweep (from guard)
28. Mechanics of elevator sweep (from guard)
29. Mechanics of straight arm lock
30. Mechanics of bent arm lock (kimura)
31. Mechanics of rear choke
32. Mechanics of guillotine choke
33. Mechanics of triangle choke with legs
34. Mechanics of triangle choke with arms
35. Mechanics of foot lock
36. Two entries into each submission or sweep from the guard
37. Mechanics of the paintbrush technique (from mount or side)
38. Arm drag (go to the back from guard)
39. Single leg takedown
40. Double leg takedown
41. Hold down one from side mount
42. Hold down two from side mount
43. Hold down one from mount
44. Hold down two from mount
45. Open guard control (using soles of the feet, insteps, knees, hands, elbows)

Thanks for reading
See you at class

Peter Richardson

Realistic Knife Sparring

2009-12-08T12:30:00.002Z

Here is a nice demonstration by Burton Richardson looking at realistic knife sparring.
Sifu McFann mentioned these tools sometime ago but this video gives you a proper look at them.

Erik Paulson

2009-12-08T11:17:00.004Z

Erik arrives at AMAG tonight to give a seminar. We've been looking forward to this one for sometime. Erik's seminars are always great and because he is coaching some of the top UFC guys, along with Greg Nelson, we will be getting cutting edge MMA training methods and drills.

Kimura from side plus more

2009-12-04T12:34:00.002Z

Getting Ready for Battle

2009-12-01T10:46:00.002Z

This article explores a program for preparing for competition in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). It is easily adapted for other martial arts and sports competition. Competition training starts long ahead of the competition with goal setting and consistent training.

Build a Core Program Around Your Competitive Nucleus

Build a program of cross training to support your chosen competitive sport. The nucleus of your training is your chosen sport. Cross training is geared to improve performance in your nucleus sport. Together, these work together to create a core program. Over time, be prepared to modify this core program as your needs change or you discover other types of training that better complement your nucleus.

Great Core Sports

These come and go over time, but I have discovered a handful that are very complimentary with BJJ. They are:

Swimming. Like the other parts of the sports triad, running and biking, swimming can be tuned for endurance or sprint work. I personally like swimming the best because my knees can't handle running and I find swimming a better "full body" workout.
Spinning. This is one of the few "fad" sports that I have ever enjoyed. Yes, it's gerbil exercise in that you sit in a room with a bunch of other people and sweat your butt off on a machine that isn't taking you anywhere. But, for 60 minutes of targeted cardio, there isn't much that beats this. You wear a heart monitor and pound away. If you gas out too fast on the mats, go spin for a few months and I guarantee you will last longer.
Weight training. Look at the data. This is key for building bone density, strength, and connective tissue. I go with lower weight and high reps over heavy weights because I'm a featherweight who isn't interested in bulking up. I just want to be strong.
Mountain biking. Great cardio workout that also works on balance. Besides, it gets you outside! Pick a course that has some good hills so you really have to work.
Yoga. Nope, I've never done it, but from what I can tell, this would complement BJJ very well.

Avoid the Overlap

When creating your core program, be careful to not choose types of training that overlap too much. For example, in 2000, I was cross training with rock climbing. I knew the extra strength I developed would help my BJJ training. After 6 months of training, I decided to dump climbing after it became clear that my hands and arms did not have enough recovery time after climbing to be strong in BJJ. If your core sport's recovery time interferes with your competitive nucleus, it's not complementary. As fun as climbing is for me, its dramatic overlap with BJJ makes it incompatible for my core program.

Beyond the Core

Outside this core are other extraneous activities that don't make up your regular schedule. It's important that you distinguish the core program from the extraneous activities in the weeks leading to your competition. Extraneous activities are "weekend warrior" deviations from your schedule. They are fun, but come competition prep time, they are noise.

Get Organized: Keep a Training Schedule

Make a training schedule and be prepared to change it as seasons and situations change. If you have to deviate from your schedule in a given week, try to have enough flexibility to have a make-up workout later. As I get closer to competition, the only thing I change is the intensity of my training.

Be prepared year-round for competition. This means keeping your training schedule intense at all times.

Making Weight

Most BJJ competitors have a fighting weight. For me, it's about 145, well below the featherweight cutoff of 147. This is to allow me to stay hydrated and not worry about differences between scales. When I'm not planning competition, I'll let myself get to about 155, knowing I can shave off 7 pounds easily when I decide to compete. Everyone has a different metabolism, and I seem to be blessed with a stratospheric one, so I'm not going to get into how to lose pounds here. Just try not to cut more than a pound or two per week.

Countdown to Battle

This countdown will take you from 2 months before competition to the moment of battle itself. It is equal parts mental and physical commitment.

8 Weeks Before

Commit to yourself that you will compete. This is a personal promise that you make: an internal decision point that you will not back down from. Share this news with your coach and training partners so they can kick it up a notch in your training. Tell your family so they will understand why you are suddenly obsessed with the scale in your bathroom! Behind every successful competitor is a supportive family.

4 Weeks Before

As a form of insurance, you should stop any non-core activities that could lead to serious injury. For example, I stop mountain biking at this point, since a nasty "endo" could put you out of commission for a week, which will ruin your preparations. This is your last chance to make any impact on your cardiovascular capacity. Start to improve your short-term, explosive power by interval training with longer, more intense bursts of activity.

All training should be started from standup now. Generally BJJ sparring is started from the knees when in routine training mode. To get ready for competition, make sure you get all of your opponents off their knees to start from standing.

Before you start to drill the tactics you intend to employ in a match, make sure you know the rules. For the Pan American 2003 competition, I drilled a terrific opening move to knee-bar and a killer snake in the grass foot-lock, only to find that both moves were disallowed in my division the day of the event! That took the wind out of my sails!

Specific Drills

Competition opening moves: first point wins
Endurance mode: bull in the ring
Survival mode: lamb in the ring
Escaping drills
Finishing drills

2 Weeks Before

Stop weight training. You won't get any stronger at this point and your muscles need a couple of weeks to completely repair if you are in a lifting schedule. If this sounds unbelievable, don't take my word for it; do your own research. The micro-tearing that is integral to the success of weight training requires 2 weeks to completely heal (for a guy my age). These micro-tears will prevent you from performing at 100%.

1 Week Before

Roll hard the beginning of the week, but tone it down to gentle rolling by the end of the week. All exercise ends 2 days before the match to completely recover any muscle damage, cuts, and bruises you suffered in the constant barrage of mat time you subjected yourself to over the past several weeks.

The Day before

Packing. Make sure you bring Everything You Need.

Rest. If you have to travel to get to the competition, have someone else do the driving, if possible. Holding a steering wheel for hours on end will sap your hand strength. If you have heavy luggage, check it to have someone else lug it around if possible. If you must drive a long distance on competition day, focus on a gentle grip on the wheel and use cruise control as much as possible.

Competition Day

BJJ competition is gets you closer to the glory and challenge of hand-to-hand battle than most things in life. This is perhaps why I enjoy it so much. It is also one of the more boring tests of endurance and mental focus you will find. As the day wears on, you have many challenges to face:

Food. Everyone has different requirements for their particular tummies. I prefer a big breakfast, then tiny snacks spaced through the day including nuts and dried fruit. As competition closes in, I use "power gel" type products.
Hydration. Keep drinking water all day. Lots.
Comfort. This is one of the biggest challenges. Hard bleachers are the best you can expect at most competitions. Bring a pillow, blanket, and comfortable folding chair. Find a nice corner where you can relax, prepare, nap, recover, etc.
Communicate. Make sure your team mates and coach have your cell phone number. Text messaging is a great way to stay coordinated on the typically glacial progress of these events.
Nerves. This gets easier the more you compete. Breathe deep, enjoy the matches, and treat it just like any other day of training, except crank it up!
Injuries. Nothing you can do about this. Don't compete if you are injured. Train smart to avoid injuries.
Travel issues. Plan ahead.
Rest. For years I averaged about 2-4 hours sleep the night before competition. Forget it. I take a sleeping pill and hit the sack now. Modern medicine is wonderful.
Muscle preparation (includes warmth, flexibility, glucose availability, and hydration). Don't forget socks and a warm-up suit, even in the summer
Officiating. As you watch other matches run, you will see errors made by officials refereeing matches.
Understand the rules. Every competition is a little different. I can't tell you how surprised I was when I found out I couldn't use knee bars or foot locks at the Pan American competition. I felt robbed. It was hard to find this information in the rules, so confer with your coach, officials, and team mates to make sure you understand what you can and can't do.
Competition coordination. You really never know exactly when or on what mat you will be competing. They never go in the right order. I have registered in 2 divisions that were called at the same time. Talk to the competition coordinator with any concerns.
Intimidation. Experience will quell this fear. There is always someone who can kick your butt out there, but you'll find that they are the ones you least expect. Some competitors look pretty tough. The scarier their packaging, the less substance you'll find. The stealth competitors are the ones who have the confidence to ignore the packaging BS.
Know your division. Know who you are fighting, how many matches you might have, and think about how the bracketing affects who you fight. Collect intelligence on your opponents. Watch the guys you may get in the up-coming brackets to see their strengths and weaknesses.

1 Hour Before

I was at a seminar held by Carlos Machado in 2002 when he shared his experiences preparing for world-class BJJ black belt competition. I want to thank him for sharing this because I adapted it to my program and have found it works incredibly well. His was a simple message: isolate yourself, drink plenty of water, and keep your body warm. Upon closer inspection, these are excellent tactics for numerous reasons I'll dive into in some detail in the following areas:

Physical preparation (warm-up)
Mental preparation (focus)

I have adopted his preparation plan in my own competitions over the past year and continue to fine-tune it for each new challenge.

Warming up has been known to improve sports performance and reduce risk of injury for years. Yet often athletes don't warm up enough because they are afraid of wasting energy or can't accurately predict when their match will be called. They don't want to get into a warm-up and have to cool down. Both of these concerns are easily removed with some simple facts.

Research has shown that cold muscles, which have a low blood saturation, are more susceptible to damage than warm muscles. In addition, the flexibility of the tendons and ligaments benefits from a warm-up. Warming up improves performance and does not waste energy! A 15-45 minute warm up has the following performance benefit of increased blood flow and muscle temperature, which increases speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles. This provides numerous benefits:

Warmed muscle contracts more forcefully and relaxes more quickly, enhancing strength and speed.
Injury risk is lowered by improved muscle elasticity.
Specific to submission grappling competition, increased muscle elasticity improves flexibility, improving chances of escaping joint locks.
More efficient use of energy because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles. This means your blood vessels dilate, thus reducing the resistance to blood flow and lowering stress on the heart.
More efficient cardiovascular transferal of oxygen from blood hemoglobin at higher temperatures. This is a beneficial cycle, since the more oxygen available, the more glucose can be metabolized in the muscle tissue.
Faster response time due to facilitated nerve transmission at higher temperatures.
More efficient body cooling. By activating the heat-dissipation mechanisms in the body an athlete can cool efficiently and help prevent overheating. In other words, if you are already sweating when you get on the mats, your body won't overheat in the intensity of the first minutes of battle.
Hormonal changes. Your body increases its production of various hormones responsible for regulating energy production. During warm-up this balance of hormones makes more carbohydrates and fatty acids available for energy production.

If you can target the time of your fight within an hour, (with a little prediction and tracking of the event progress), a warm-up lasting 15-45 minutes can get you ready for a match with an ambiguous start time. The warm-up should proceed in this order:

Unrelated activity
Stretching
Related activity

Unrelated activity is anything that increases your heart rate and body temperature. Get your sweat moving for 15 to 30 minutes, but don't go hard enough to fatigue. Each athlete should know their limits. Once your muscles are warm, stretch thoroughly. Once your division is called, you should have at least 5 minutes before your match starts. At this point, begin more directly related activity, such as gentle rolling on the mats with a partner or solo. The key to related activity is that it focuses on the actual muscles you use in your sport. Many jiu-jitsu athletes forget to warm up their hands! Your forearm muscles control your hands. Warm your hands and forearms up completely with light to medium-intensity gripping and flexing exercises. At the 2003 Pan American competition, my whole body was warm and I forgot to warm my hands. They seized up on me after my first match! It took forearm massage and 20 minutes of recovery time to get the waste products moving out of there. If you've ever gone rock climbing, you know the feeling.

Don't let your warm-up reveal your game plan. It's amazing how many people jump out on the warm-up mat and start practicing their secret moves and opening moves. Want to know if your opponent is a take-down expert? Watch them warm up. They'll find it nearly irresistable to start working their duckwalk, single legs, and fireman carries. Don't make this mistake.

While you will benefit more from a warm-up immediately prior to an event, the effects last for 30-45 minutes. In a perfect situation, taper your warm-up 10 minutes before your match and stop 5 minutes before hand, resorting to stretching and last minute mental preparation. Get your game face on!

Don't sit on the bench after you warm up! The American College of Sports Medicine released results of a study conducted on athletes who warm up then sit on the bench for 30 minutes afterward. They discovered that back flexibility was adversely affected leading to potentially reduced sports performance and increased injury risk. Alternatives included not sitting on the bench or bringing a chair with back support. I'm going to start bringing a folding canvas chair to these events!

Mental preparation starts weeks before you step on the mats for your match, but the last couple of hours are crucial to pulling it all together.

Different athletes prepare in different ways. Some like to keep near their friends as a source of mental energy. I have a different plan. You are alone on the mats, and need to isolate yourself, if not physically, at least mentally from other people as you begin to clear your mind for the fight. Don't worry about opening moves, there is no cramming for this exam. The more you relax your mind, the more you will respond reflexively to the dynamic situation during battle. Having a restrictive game plan will cause you mental conflict and delay your responses if things don't go exactly as planned (and they almost never do).

Anger doesn't help. Clear your mind of emotion. Some folks think that getting mad at their opponent will help, but surprisingly, anger has been shown to negatively impact sports performance. Emotion takes you away from your instinctive game. Anger will get in the way.

Your physical and mental warm-up are inextricably linked. Warming up causes complex hormonal changes in your body. Ultimately, this cocktail of hormones is what puts you in battle mode. Many fighting athletes get a benefit from this.

Don't choke! Choking is not just a submission hold. Choking happens when an athlete performs poorly due to mental distractions during a competition. Research has shown that most athletes choke when their goals are unrealistic or when they are performing to impress their coaches, friends or family rather than for themselves. Your competition is for you. Your goals are your own. Your mental preparation should be centred around realistic goals you have for yourself.

Just When You Think It's Over

The only constant is change. I've been in 2 man divisions where a 3rd man showed up mysteriously after the first fight. I've been in single-elimination tournaments that suddenly changed to double elimination at the whim of the division referee. I've been showered and changed into street clothes only to find that I had one more fight to determine 3rd place. Stay mentally flexible, stay in your competition clothes, and stay warm until you are positive the results are final.

You Did It!

Win or lose, it takes courage, hard training, and commitment to compete. Treat yourself to a big meal with your team, then get some R&R.

Learn from the Experience

Scrutinize. In the days following the match, watch your video if you have one and carefully scrutinize it (with your coach if you can).

Listen to your body. If you have more than a couple of fights, you're likely to be sore in the days after the competition. Think about what parts of you are sore and how your warm up and stretching can change next time to reduce the after-effects.

Everything You Need

Here's what I pack when going to a competition

Gi, mouthpiece, protective cup
bottle for water
Warm-up suit with socks and sandals
A balance of carb and protein snacks like nuts, dried fruit, and granola bars.
Minimal first aid kit including pain killers, bandages, and antiseptic gel
Towel and toiletries. I like to shower after my last match before the trip home.
A folding camping chair so you can get some back support while you wait endlessly for your match.
A pillow and blanket. Seriously, after 10 hours waiting for your match to be called, you'll need a nap.
A book! Remember the boredom part?
A video camera (and a friend who can record your fights). There is nothing more useful than seeing your performance to improve for the next time.

Getting Better at Martial Arts

2009-12-01T00:57:00.004Z

Watch this video, it's my favourite guitarist talking about how to get better at guitar. But when I watched it I related it to martial arts. He points out how to be honest with yourself and ask yourself the questions. I could go on and on explaining but just watch and see if you can translate his advice for becoming a better musician to becoming a better martial artist. (Hint: Writing music and performing it in front of an audience translates - to me - as fighting/competing)

Little Victories

2009-11-25T13:45:00.003Z

As you may already know I’m going through a big grappling phase at the moment. I’ve been to Rio and off the back of that, I’ve started my competition phase. I took a NoGi bout – which I didn’t perform too well in. The event got the better of me more than anything else. I never took time to consider the arena I was going to be fighting in. So consequently when I walked through the doors and into the main hall BOOM!! it hit me and I never really recovered from it. My head was out of step with my body and my game quickly fell apart. The mind and body do need to be in sync and that was proof. But hey you live and learn and that is why I compete, so I can get better. I will win far more fights than I loose so I don’t care about one loss other than to pick up the valuable lessons that can be learned from my mistakes.

SO!! this got me thinking back to something Ben said to me when I was in Rio –little Victories - and I think it’s really valid. Not so much when you compete because in that case you want big Victories but during your training in BJJ or any other system for that matter. When you are learning new drills and techniques you can’t always do them right away. You need to train your body to do what it is you are being shown and as we all know, at times, our bodies have a mind of their own!! This is where small Victories come in to play. Specifically, Ben was helping me and the rest of the crew with our BJJ sparring/rolling. We were rolling with extremely good BJJ guys and we were getting submitted - often. What Ben started to help us do was not look so much at the bout as whole because quite often we lost on points or submission, but at us doing certain moves successfully. For example, he managed to pull of returning to guard from a bad position or he swept a brown belt or even just managed to get into the correct position for a submission attempt. With this new view on the roll with the high level guys, we were coming out of the roll (after tapping twenty times!!) with little Victories of our own and feeling great for it. “Hey Ben I did the Godfather sweep on Tocco and he said good!! HAHAH”

When you train, whether that’s in Jiu Jitsu or Muay Thai sometimes it’s best to work for the little Victories and make them happen more and more often. Remember to pivot that foot on the Thai round kick, keep your hands up, keep your chin down, don’t put your hands on the mat in the guard…… Come out of training session or a sparring session knowing that you may have tapped or been tagged but at least your hands were up this time, all the time. Now you can move on to the next little Victory.

So when all the little Victories are in place – that’s when the BIG VICTORIES come!!

Good Luck
Keep training hard, safe and use your head!!

Roger Gracie using Chill Dog

2009-11-23T12:32:00.001Z

Roger using chill dog. Around about 2:15 into the video.

10th Planet JJ in UFC

2009-11-23T00:00:00.002Z

George Sotiropoulos' awesome UFC submission yesterday! George trains his Jits with Eddie at 10th Planet HQ. This is great for 10th Planet but also jiu jitsu as were not seeing that many submissions in UFC at the moment.

swim-move to spiderweb to armcrush to armbar from noone on Vimeo.

Responsible for your Thoughts

2009-11-18T11:13:00.001Z

Here's a cool video of Robert Drysdale talking about mental aspects of competing and training.

Competing

2009-11-13T21:33:00.002Z

Last week I had a nogi bout in the ring. I lost. Consider your environment.....

Tomorrow I travel down to Kent to compete in the Kent BJJ Open. I can't wait.

Around about way

2009-10-26T15:58:00.005Z

So you've cut your finger on your right hand quite badly and you're right handed too. It's been healing up nicely and you're now at the stage where you've taken the plaster off but it's still quite raw.

One of your mates offers you some of their salt n vinegar crisps. Salt n vinegar is your favourite flavour of crisps and you decide to accept their offer. Only the problem is your cut will sting like crazy if you take any. So what do you do? Well you use your other hand of course. Your left hand, the one minus the cut.

This daft story is a way of me illustrating training around injuries. Many people stop training when they get injured because their sore arm or leg or whatever will hurt. But like I pointed out with the crisps, if you really want to do something then you will always find an alternative way to do it, if you *really* want to.

For instance you might not be able to roll in bjj because of an injury, but there is nothing stopping you drilling an area that uses a part of your body that isn't injured. Of course the same can be said about any other system you train too.

Good training.....

Sorry....!!

2009-10-25T23:11:00.002Z

The deep half guard is presented here by Homer Simpson.

And a preview.....

Gi or NoGi

2009-10-25T11:24:00.009Z

I know my recent posts are all around grappling at the moment but bear with me as I'm going through a bit of a grappling phase. Of course I've just come back from Brasil and I'm a bit BJJ mad at the mo.

So my post today comes from recent discussions on the on going argument around Gi and NoGi and I just thought I'd give you my take on the whole discussion.

To me I see the Gi and the NoGi as two separate but related systems, similar to say badminton and tennis or more closely related to grappling, Judo and Greco Roman Wrestling. In this instance they are both trying to throw their opponent on to their back to score the points, but one uses a gi and the other does not.

However, in the case of the Gi and NoGi argument there are some more closely related basics that need to be learned and I think this is where the basic argument starts from. Practically speaking there are probably more Gi or BJJ schools than there are NoGi gyms, so it would make sense to start at a Gi school simply because you will have more chance to find a place to start training. Occasionally, the professor may well be experienced in both Gi and NoGi.

The fundamentals of pinning and moving and the basic submissions will keep you occupied for a some time and therefore I see no basic difference if you are in Gi or a NoGi school. However, there are some obvious differences between the two systems. The Gi student will be taught how to use the Gi for grips and submissions whilst the NoGi student will be taught how to develop their hooks, squeezes and curls.

There is a view that you should learn the Gi first because it makes escapes more difficult and that the friction of the Gi teaches you to move more methodically and leave less to chance. But I think the reverse can be true as well, in that, if you can learn to pin successfully in NoGi then your pin is ultimately better because you are not relying on the friction of the Gi to provide you with part of your pin.

I think the argument can go on and on using various examples like the one above, but I think what you have to realise from a holistic point of view, is that they are two separate systems with the same fundamentals and the same goals in mind. Only one uses a Gi and the other doesn't. The two systems use different means to achieve the same goals, just like Judo and Greco Roman do, only in the case of Gi and NoGi they have a very close starting point. If you want to be good at NoGi I think, to begin with, even to the level of blue belt, it will do you no harm to study only Gi. However, there comes a point when you will need to start looking at the unique elements of NoGI and that is when you will have to search out a NoGi school. Plus you could enter NoGi comps to get a good understanding on how things work and you may find you do pretty well. This shouldn't be a surprise either as your fundamental technique should be good from your Gi classes.

On the other hand if you only managed to find a NoGi school and you want to be proficient at Gi you will not have suffered any real harm here either. Your ability to pin and control maybe pretty good at this stage but you maybe surprised how difficult it is to escape when you are wearing a Gi.

However, if you wish to be good at both - and this is where I disagree with one of the main arguments in Gi versus NoGi - you cannot expect to be brilliant (read black belt level) in NoGi if you only train Gi. There will be some major aspects of your game that will be under developed if you have only trained Gi to black belt then compete against a NoGi black belt!! Similarly, the reverse is true - no surprises!!

So what is the solution?

I think it is obvious really. If you want to be good at both then once you get past say blue belt level then you really need to train equally in both systems otherwise your growth in the system you neglect will suffer.

There are of course exceptions to this but in the main, for most normal people I believe this to be true.

.
.

Force of the Spirit

2009-10-19T11:25:00.004+01:00

Just been watching the documentary "Force of the Spirit". It's a film about Jean Jacques Machado and his rise in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Jean Jacques is one of five brothers and is one of Guru Inosanto's BJJ instructors. We are lucky enough to train with him for four days when Pat, Peter and I attend the instructors camp in LA.

Here is a clip of the documentary.

Rio Trip

2009-10-12T11:49:00.008+01:00

Well, I've been back a week now and I've finally set about trying to write up a wee review of the trip. The problem is how do you write up something as cool as that?? It was my first time in Rio so my eyes were wide open always looking at the new and different things. Always in the back of my mind I was thinking this is where BJJ was developed. The city is filled with historical BJJ places everywhere. On the surface you see alot of beach and football as I guess that is the main sport in Brasil. However, when you start looking for BJJ you soon see that it's also everywhere!!

We were lucky enough to meet this cool guy in a designer clothes shop called Phillipe. He turned out to be a 2nd degree black belt training out of the famous Carlson Gracie gym. So he arranged one night, for us to be guests at the gym and train there and meet the guys. We were made very very welcome there and once they knew we were students of Rey Diogo we got shown all these old photographs by the lady that ran the reception. She remembered Rey and Toco when they were just starting out as white belts!! After the tour around the city by Phillipe showing us all the different BJJ places we hit the mats and trained (their term for rolling) with all the students. It was very hard and they were trying to smash us but we did ourselves proud. That was just one of the episodes on this trip.

Training at Toco's was amazing though! We were made so welcome there and because Ben had been there before and he was returning with friends I think even more so. Training at Toco's is hard hard work and every session you train(roll) hard. But the rewards are immeasurable to your game. Plus you always feel fantastic when you're finished and walking back to the hotel along the beach front, to get cleaned up. (And have second breakfast if you're Ben). We trained twice a day most days and once on Saturday. 7am was the first session and the second session was at 4pm. You needed that time to recover!! Quite often me and Ben were the lowest grade on the mats and there would be like three or four black belts and they were all willing to tap you out then show you what they did and sometimes ways to defend the attack.

I'll put up some videos of us rolling and some training pictures when I get more time but this was an awesome trip that let us see grassroots Brasillian Jiu Jitsu. We are trying to integrate some of the new experiences into the BJJ club at AMAG because we feel they will give everyone a feel for what it's like out there and there are huge benefits to the way in which they train. Between our massive influence of Rey's teachings and now this the AMAG BJJ club is set to make a real difference to Scottish BJJ and I hope we can all benefit from our experience and continue to train hard, safe and intelligently ;-)

Sunday Sesh

2009-10-12T09:48:00.003+01:00

Well I did a good hard session yesterday with my Grappling coach (Peter) with more to come today. I'm looking forward to my match and I'm enjoying all the training. I do love competeing and it's fun because it let's me test out where I'm at with my game.

Rio was a real eye opener with the training levels and we have started to match that back at home now and in the classes. The only problem now of course is that it's starting to get cold.

Back from Rio

2009-10-05T12:52:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone.

We're just back from Rio and had an awesome time training. I'll post more later. Thanks to everyone who covered our classes while we were away.

Peter Preparing for Rio

2009-09-18T13:55:00.002+01:00

I don't know what to say really....

Last Week Before Rio

2009-09-14T10:02:00.003+01:00

Well it's the last week before the Rio trip and things are going good. The bjj competitors are all getting ready for the comp too and they are all looking good and should do well.

Classes will be covered by stand in instructors whilst we are away and will carry on the training programs you've been following over the past months. So turn up and train hard and see if you can improve.

August Highlights

2009-09-07T10:47:00.002+01:00

Here is the August highlights reel. Hope you enjoy it.

Past few weeks

2009-09-03T10:27:00.007+01:00

Training and teaching this past few weeks has been great. The stick class last night was good fun with some of the class working towards the circling spinning drill based on a 22 count sinawali drill. The others were also working two sticks in a long sumbrada drill to start with but we swapped out the left hand side for a thai pad and then a large dagger. Caz even had two daggers in heaven and earth grips and was alternately receiving shots, whilst moving around pads (spacial awareness).

Peter, The Legend and I are preparing for our trip to Brasil later this month. I've been rolling around 6 days a week now for the past few weeks and I have to say, I can see the improvements. Peter as ever, along with The Legend have been working out hard too, although Peter has an injured neck so he is having to train around that a bit. Doesn't stop him training though he just trains 'intelligently'.

Pat's Jun Fan class is always good for keeping the hands sharp and this has been a pretty good session for me and Peter. Our emphasis at the moment is BJJ because of our trip but you should always train all the systems because there are huge benefits in the cross training aspect of this. I'll talk more on cross training in the future as there is sometimes the misconception that it means training in loads of different systems.

Roll on Rio!!

Fight Team

2009-08-28T09:11:00.012+01:00

Aberdeen Martial Arts Group has been producing fighters in the local area and nationals for many years now. We have always done well, usually winning or getting medals. We've had Scottish champions too.

Although it might seem cool to be able to take part in the competitions and fights that are arranged, it requires a lot of hard work and commitment to both yourself and the fight team. This is the part that may not always be seen. For example, as part of the BJJ Competition Team it is not just the case of doing an extra bit of cardio at the back of the gym. Instead it requires you to commit far more than that. I'd expect to see a competitor turn up to all the classes without fail for a start. Then he/she would need to turn up to all the additional competition training and yes I do expect them to re-arrange their life around that training. This is important remember!! Now there are obvious things like going offshore to work or being at work during the normal working day. But your mums birthday or worse still you needed to go for a run(!!) are not really acceptable reasons to miss the training. You are basically at the coaches beck and call. They will of course put the training on at a reasonable time to try and suit everyone but they are doing this to help you achieve and they do it out of their own time - for you.

In the Jitsudo competition training you get one strike. If you miss the training after that without a suitable reason then your off the team. It's as simple as that. If you need to miss a session then you need to arrange it with the coaches and if its bollocks then you need to ask yourself why your doing this and if you are committing to yourself.

So the bottom line: Don't ask to compete unless you have the time to do the training and fully commit to the training. Train hard fight easy isn't just a cool saying - it's a reality!!

Head Stop Drill

2009-08-20T12:01:00.005+01:00

Tuesday class saw us doing a pretty good warm-up on the pads. We call it 'Fifteens' and guess what?? We have to do each drill fifteen times.
After that we did some of our standard drills then we looked at a new drill called the Head Stop Drill. See the video below.
Here's the moves:

Jab
Jab, cross
Criss-cross
Head Stop
Rear upper-cut
Lead hook
Cross
Nao Tek

Drifting into danger

2009-08-18T09:41:00.015+01:00

One of the great things contested martial arts does for someone is allow them to see their weaknesses and address them. Too often people have the attitude it will never happen to me and for that reason alone will allow themselves to drift into danger, one way or another. Walking through a city park at night on their own or thinking that their martial arts training will save them in a confrontation - when they have never tried to apply any of their 'killer' moves on people that don't want it done on them. Also, contested martial arts is more than just physical, you have to contest your beliefs and fears too. That's the hard part and that's why most of us claim to ourselves; "it'll never happen to me!!"
Why am I saying this today?? Well I just watched this video and I'm mindful of a few things Bob Spour and Marc McFann said at the weekend. The root of the problem with the events in this video, I believe, is the thought that 'it will never happen to me'. The video is part of a campaign to stop people texting while driving and whilst this is a crucial message that you should listen to and follow, it seems to me only part of a much bigger problem with people thinking that nothing bad will happen to them even when they don't heed the danger.
So back to the texting - and the realisation that texting and mobile phones, like the iPhone, have become a big part of our lives. We text all the time even when we're out with friends we will still be texting others that couldn't make it. However, there is one activity that you should not mix texting with and that is driving. Driving requires our full and undivided attention doesn’t it?? But you already know that!?
Well here's why. But it'll never happen to you, right!? (Watch all of it!!)

UFA and TBA-UK Camp 2009

2009-08-17T22:37:00.009+01:00

Well I'm just back from another awesome UFA and TBA-UK camp. The turn out was pretty good and we all took part in some great training. The Saturday started with Marc taking us through some of the focus mitt drills he and his fighters use for MMA training over in his school. Then we went on to some take-downs and a closer look at how he incorporates some aspects of silat into the MMA game.
Next up was Ajarn Chai. He traditionally looks at boxing with a view to Muay Thai boxing first and Saturday was no exception. The best part of this part of the seminar is when you get a chance to go up on the pads with Ajarn. A few of the Aberdeen people went up including Bill and Hayden, who were both testing. The funniest part was when Ajarn asked Ray his name and Ray dropped his guard, leaned forward to tell him his name and POW!! Ajarn slapped Ray across the face for dropping his guard. Most people gasped but one or two of us laughed our asses off. Ray man that was so funny!!
We had a great meal and drinks that night then we all went our separate ways, with some of them going off to Ewen's local for more drinking.
Sunday brought us our special guest, Ajarn Spour. He took us through some Muay Thai clinch work and a then let us apply it (loosely) in a self-protection sort of format.
Marc then took us through some double stick kali which we all enjoyed even if it did perplex a few folk and this led into Ajarn Chai coming back in to take us through some Muay Thai Boxing this time.
Peter and I had to leave early so we never got to hold pads or watch Bill and Hayden testing. Suffice to say they both past and are now Krus under Ajarn Chai within the TBA-UK. I'll leave the story of the testing to be picked up by the AMAG Blog.
Overall - AWESOME!!

Sifu McFann Seminar

2009-08-12T10:24:00.008+01:00

Last night saw the return of Marc McFann to AMAG, after a long while and a tough year. He was looking great and was buzzing with his usual humour, stories and passion for the arts. Marc is a real inspiration to me and many others including Pat and my brother and manages to mix hardcore/hardwork with the art aspect of the Martial Arts.
The seminar was split into two parts. The first part was Silat and an area that Marc has studied a lot. He has taken the art and applied its application to the West. The art tradionally is a weapons based system that comes from a culture where everyone carries one or more blades. This causes the system to sometimes look a bit poor when shown without that context (blade). Marc applies the art to the way we behave and fight in the West and blends and shows routes into other systems such as BJJ, wrestling, CSW etc.
Last night was no exception - he showed us several take downs from a cross entry and several finishes including a type of juji submission/break with strikes and a crussifix stock applied from a Hari Mau kneeling position.
The second part of the seminar then went into an area of Kali that had no weapons. Here we applied sectoring to understand the different options we have. Then from those sectors we learned to employ some striking and du mong (Kali grappling techniques) to chokes and take downs.
Everyone left with a big smile on their face and some will be looking forward to the weekend where we will continue the training with Marc at the UFA Instuctors camp. Ajarn Chai our Muay Thai instructor will be there too and several people will be testing under him. So good luck to them!!

Sifu McFann @ AMAG

2009-08-11T12:45:00.001+01:00

Classes

2009-08-06T10:31:00.002+01:00

Next week my Tuesday class and Pat's Jun Fan classes won't be on because we have Sifu Marc McFann up to teach a seminar. The seminar will be in two phases:

6:30pm - 8pm will be looking at Silat Ground Fighting
8pm - 9:30ish will be looking at Kali

See AMAG Site for details

Then at the weekend we have the UFA Instructors camp. Ajarn Chai is going to be testing Bill and Chris too so that will be fun ;-)

July Highlights Reel

2009-08-01T23:43:00.006+01:00

Just uploaded the July Highlights Reel. Didn't have a lot of video footage this month because I only had the idea a couple of weeks ago.
Enjoy....

See it on youtube too in better quality.
July Highlights Reel

70 Percent

2009-07-31T09:46:00.010+01:00

Seventy percent of you reading this won't do it but for the remaining thirty percent consider this.
When you train and you want to bring up your level of intensity in order to maximise your performance you might notice that when you get to 100% full out you may well not perform as well as you'd hoped. Take for example all the guys trying to smash the boxing pad at the amusements park. The harder they try and hit this the lower their scores are compared to the guy that just hits hard for a bit of fun.
Why does this happen? Well it's quite easy to explain really if you think about it. The harder you try the more tense and fatigued you become and this ends up acting like a big brake on your performance. The secret is to go at 70% and you will find you will perform much better. In fact that is probably where you start to peak out.
This can also be applied to rolling as well as striking. Next time you roll hard, go 70% even if the other guy is trying to monster you. You will find you will move more fluidly and will respond and see things quicker.
How do I know this?? Well apart from trying it for myself, Guru Dan Inosanto gets us to do it all the time. He will shout, "Do it at 70%!!" Why?? Well it's not because he doesn't want us to get too tired in his class or seminar but because he wants to get the best out of us.

Jun Fan Class

2009-07-29T09:43:00.011+01:00

It was a pretty cool Jun Fan Gung Fu class last night. We moved the split entry drill from taking it off the jab to split entry off the jab, cross. This allowed us to change sides without changing stances and threw in a couple more dynamics too.
We've been training this series over a good few weeks now and this has really helped the students recognise and get familiar with it. A good teaching method, I think, is to keep on doing the same techniques in class over several weeks, with only a few variations.

Pat then went on into some kali entries and take downs off the jab cross and incorporated some neck tie up drills as well. We finally went on to look at the various finishing locks once the person was down but with a view to getting up quickly since there is always the possibility of multiple opponents. Pat was looking good whilst he was teaching and demonstrating - you wouldn't think he was in the process of destroying little c as well.

Kids Thai Boxing & Brazillian Jiu Jitsu

2009-07-28T10:06:00.003+01:00

Matt has been running the kids Thai Boxing School for probably close to a year now if not over a year. The classes are great for all the kids and now they can even learn BJJ!!
Two of the older students (14 & 15) even took part in the recent Rodrego Antunes BJJ seminar and I had the pleasure of pairing up with them for part of it. They were both very keen and showed the required respects throughout the seminar. This is testament to themselves and Matt's teaching.

Check out the website below and the blog in the blog roll.

http://thaiboxingkidsacademy.com

UFA Instructors Camp - August 2009

2009-07-24T12:05:00.005+01:00

Sat/Sun 8/9th London. Paul Finn www.karasackali.co.uk
10th Bournmouth
11th Aberdeen
12th Newcastle
13th Shildon
14th tbc Krishna Privates
15/16th TBA Camp Northampton

Pre pay price £100. £120 on the door.

Saturday
12 -2pm Bob Spour Ultimate Self Protection
2 - 4pm Marc McFann
4 - 7pm Ajarn Chai

Sunday
10 - 12 Bob Spour Ultimate Self Protection
12 - 2pm Marc McFann
2 - 6pm Ajarn Chai
Any testing requests must be made as per Association requirements.

Rough n Ready Gym, Spring Lane, Northampton.
Nearest Hotel: Ibis

BJJ Gradings

2009-07-24T07:41:00.007+01:00

Last night our BJJ Coach Peter Richardson (Brown Belt) gave out some stripes and a blue belt.
Names to follow but the surprise of the night was Stevie 'Headlock'. He has been training consistently with the group for over 3 years now and has competed on a number of occasions. He takes regular privates with Pete and puts in solid work. His blue belt is well deserved and hopefully he will pickup his game further.
Pete mentioned that there are a number of different reasons why he gives out gradings and here are a few of them. Plus he also said that it if you didn't get graded last night not to worry because he is continually watching and will grade you when he thinks it will best benefit you as an individual.

Attendance at the club
Attitude on and around the mat
Rolling ability
Technical ability
Ability to help others (teaching/coaching/assisting)

He also mentions that there will be a register for the Jitsudo guys so that he can keep track of grades. Attendance will continue to be logged on the AMAG system. The info you will be asked to provide will be.

Name
Email Address
A Picture of your face
Grade
Contact Number

This information will not be available to anyone else except yourself so don't ask for others phone numbers etc. (Data Protection Act)

Marc McFann

2009-07-23T08:56:00.002+01:00

Sifu McFann is set to come over to the UK for his fall tour. He visits all his UK instructors at their gym then we end the show with a big training camp down in Northhampton, where we are joined also with Ajarn Chai. Head of the Thai Boxing Association USA.
As many of you know, Marc always gives a really great seminar and will teach you cool stuff and crack you up along the way.

Really looking forward to seeing Marc again - this should be a great tour.

Marc McFann Academy of Martial Arts USA

Antunes Seminar

2009-07-19T03:30:00.000+01:00

Rodregos Antunes from Brazillian Top Team came up to Aberdeen to hold a seminar for the Jitsudo boys and girls. It was a 3 hour seminar and it was brilliant. We started with some take downs and then went on to some sweeps and attacks from various positions on the ground. The cool thing is the way Rodregos teaches. All the stuff he shows you relates as options in certain senarios and therefore he shows you attacks and then how to defend and finally how to counter the defence. It's fantastic and really helps you to remember what he has shown you.