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…
BJJ Black Belt 4th December 2013
I am nearly fifty-nine. About to start my sixtieth trip around the sun on this pale blue dot. My goal was to achieve a Jiu Jitsu black belt before I was sixty. I have been fortunate beyond all expectation to have achieved that goal ahead of time. In realising my good fortune, I also realise…
John Will Seminar 29th September 2013 – Crucifix Control
Held at Rick Spain’s gym in Surry Hills. Osotogari (done as a warm up rather than in depth technical analysis) Major outer reaping throw from Judo Step You both have judo grips (R hand on his L collar, L hand on the gi seam under his R elbow). Pull his collar to your R…
Carlos Machado seminar 16 May 2013
At Langes MMA Artarmon. Guardwork You have your R hand in his R collar. Stiff arm. You are up on your L elbow. Guard is not closed but you are “setting the stirrups”, holding onto and controlling him with your heels. You “swim” clockwise, moving around to his R on your elbow, getting an angle…
John Will seminar 24 March 2013 – X Guard
George Adams and I were wrestling before the seminar. John stopped us and gave us a brief lesson on getting the necessary arm controls for effective use of our hooks – the double hook sweep is much more about arm controls than about the hooks themselves. It can be very hard to get those arm…