I did Bikram for about three months, twice a week, at a place close to home. Bikram is done in a room heated to over 40 degrees. Every session lasts 90 minutes. Every session does the same set of postures in exactly the same sequence. Officially the instructor is supposed to read and not deviate…
Author: Andrew Nerlich
John Will Seminar 22 Feb 2015 – Snatch Single, Vale Tudo Guard, Darce/Anaconda
Snatch Single Leg Takedown / Street Finish He is standing with his L foot forward. Step in with your R leg as you push his R shoulder with your L hand and the L side of his chest/shoulder with your head (around the hairline). Ensure your head is not too low or back rounded –…
Holiday listening/reading 2014
If you are taking time off to let the chronic injuries heal over Christmas, but looking for some brain food as well as the usual heart-attack-producing fare, may I suggest: Daniele Bolelli’s Lectures on Taoism Daniele Bolelli is a university professor ,teaching comparative religion and a number of other subjects. He also trains in jiu…
John Will Seminar 24 August 2014 – a Spider Guard Plan
Spider Sweep The brain has a tendency to equate things based on similarities. Look instead for what is different. A hyena is not a dog. This sweep looks similar, superficially, to the basic scissor sweep. But if you try to do it like a scissor sweep, it won’t work. To do it properly, the mechanics…
Perce the Pelican
The mind and memory never cease to amaze me. Just occasionally, a fragment of something bubbles up from the depths, years ago, and somehow dovetails into your current interests or obsessions. In my case, this was a vague memory of a magazine or newspaper article mentioning someone – I couldn’t even remember the person’s name…
Carlos Machado seminar – 8th May 2014
Held at Langes MMA, North Manly. Passing open guard You are standing, he is controlling both your sleeves. Bring elbows in to your thighs and rotate the palms up – as if holding a tray. This should stop him getting his feet in your hips. Squat and go heavy on him with your hips, pressure…
More Advanced Spider Guard exploration
I went to Rick Spain’s gym this morning to train Jiu Jitsu with Henry, March, Matt, Barwin, and Leeroy this morning. Something I plan to do a lot more often. We were running through the stuff John Will taught us at his last seminar on Advanced Spider Guard. We managed to come up with a…
John Will seminar 23 Feb 2014 – Advanced Spider Guard
THE “ROYAL” SPIDER GUARD In every BJJ position there are numerous small details that can lead to the position alone becoming much easier for you to keep. At the same time, the position becomes more threatening to your opponent and opens up additional opportunities for submissions. The position itself when properly applied can make him…
The Transmission and Evolution Models of Martial Arts Instruction
The big problem here is that too many people believe, because they have been so told, that martial arts skill development only comes from a teacher (Sifu/Sensei/Guro/Guru/Kru etc.) transmitting the information to the student. The passage of real info only occurs once per generation, and only one real successor is chosen. The transmission of the…
So you’ve done Kung Fu and want to learn BJJ, huh?
I started BJJ after doing Kung Fu for about 15 years, including reaching an instructor level in Wing Chun under Rick Spain. At first, it seemed that the Wing Chun principles I had learned in my previous training were applicable to everything in BJJ. After a long time (IIRC after I got my blue belt) I found…