It’s wonderful to be able to finally attend jiu jitsu seminars again, in this time of Covid-19 insanity. It’s been almost a year since I attended my last seminar. “Unprecedented times” is now a cliche, but it’s true. Sonny Brown is a Lange’s MMA Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt first degree and MMA titleholder. He…
Category: Jiu Jitsu
Machado NSW Brown and Black Belt Day 9 Feb 2020
The day was held at Lange’s MMA at North Manly. There were extremely wild storms in the Sydney region that day, and I was the only attendee that didn’t live on the Northern Beaches. As it was, I had to contend with multiple road closures and traffic jams going to and from the seminar, and…
Anti-Corona Drills
A few simple drills to give you a short no-touch no-partner grappling oriented workout, essential during the COVID19 Cora Virus pandemic and related toilet paper apocalypse. Spur of the moment thing while working out in the park. I never pretended to be a videographer. A few sets of each of these, plus a run beforehand…
Birthday Fundraiser – 65 Minutes for 65 Years
My sixty-fifth birthday happened to fall on a Sunday, December 8, in 2019. That’s a Jiu Jitsu training day for me. I had some vague ideas about rolling (wrestling) for sixty-five minutes straight as a birthday challenge, but without any real plan or motivation. Will I? Won’t I? Will anyone care? Do I really care?…
Pedro Sauer Seminar 30 Oct 2019
The seminar was held at Higher Jiu Jitsu in Woolloomooloo PCYC, hosted by Head Coach and new black belt, John Smallios. Thanks to John and the HJJ crew for their hospitality. Thanks also to Michael Hoffman for graciously sharing with me some videos he took of the seminar, without which I would have been seriously…
John Will seminar 20 October 2019 – de la Riva Guard
The seminar was held at Rick’s Spain’s Red Boat Wing Chun Academy in Redfern. Congratulations to March D’altilia for his promotion to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt today. The belt presented to March by John himself. Why de la Riva guard? In a nutshell – as a counter to a knee cut pass. You are…
Will/Machado Terminology Clarification
Some students found the terminology of the old Will-Machado Blue to Purple Belt grading sheet confusing in class today. Part of this is due to a name change for two guards, and related sweeps, that happened over time. The guard where our opponent is kneeling, with our feet between and hooked inside their thighs, was…
Secrets
In some traditional martial arts, there are secret techniques too deadly to spar with. There may also be kata or forms, containing such techniques, which must never be shown to anyone outside the particular lineage of the dojo or kwoon. Such techniques are usually reserved for the highest student levels, those who have proven themselves…
Restringing your Gi Pants or Fight Shorts
Sick of mucking around with safety pins or pens and taking ten or fifteen minutes to do this? Get it done easily on a minute or two. All you need is pants, drawstring, a slim piece of dowel or equivalent longer than your gi pants are wide, some tape, and you can do it easily…
John Will Seminar in England; blog by Meerkatsu
The Jiu Jitsu black belt and fabulous artist Seymour Yang, known online as Meerkatsu, wrote up a seminar by John he attended in Leicester, U.K. A number of comprehensive videos are included. It is interesting to see how first time seminar attendees find John, considering he was the person who introduced me to Jiu Jitsu…