I commented (favourably!) on a video by James O’Connor who runs the “Free Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Skills And Drills” Facebook Group. His video was about the Armbar from Guard (I can only use the link, WordPress seemingly won’t allow the embed). https://www.facebook.com/james.oconnor.9081/videos/3362927973732799/?fref=nf James asked about the sequence I use to teach the armbar. I made this…
Imperfect Creations
We are imperfect creations. We are works in progress. We all make mistakes. If we accept and recognise our imperfections, we must then similarly expect and permit our fellow humans to make the occasional honest mistake. We should make pre-emptive allowances for that in our interactions with them, and forgive them, as we would ourselves,…
Grandmaster at Note-Taking
I recently put up a blog post detailing an excellent seminar I took with John Will, on the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Front Headlock. John is a fifth degree black belt, Australian Jiu Jitsu pioneer, and extraordinarily skilled coach. John commented on my blog post, on Facebook, referring to me as a “grandmaster at note-taking”. High…
Phil Grapsas Seminar 18 May 2019
Phil Grapsas is a first degree black belt, who runs Leverage Jiu Jitsu in Melbourne. He was Pedro Sauer’s second Australian black belt. The seminar was held at Higher Jiu Jitsu, in the City of Sydney Police/Citizens’ Youth Centre (PCYC). Hosted by the excellent John Smallios. Grips, Base and a Simple Takedown We start from…
John Will Seminar 27 April 2019 – Front Headlock
Front Headlock – guillotine, Darce, Anaconda, Kata Game The seminar was held at a training centre belonging to the awesome Felipe Grez, in St Peters. Winning the tie up He goes for a R collar tie. We do not want to let him get it, and only then lock up our own R collar tie….
Health is a Martial Art
I’m seeing too many male friends and acquaintances dying suddenly and unexpectedly in their forties and fifties. A former workmate of mine had a massive heart attack earlier this week. At time of writing he was on life support, awaiting his final act of selflessness as an organ donor.He was only fifty years old. Way…
Short Jiu Jitsu Demonstration
Each black belt at Lange’s MMA was asked to perform a short technique demonstration. Mine was low ankle shoot, to leg drag, to cross ashi garami, to Texas Cloverleaf. Uke is Joel Glassman. Video by Will Spillane of Jack Rabbit Studios. Andrew Nerlich presents; The Lange’s MMA Black Belt Series. Thanks Jedi, and Joel Glassman…
My Interview on the Higher Jiu Jitsu Stories Podcast
Brad Hampson of Higher Jiu Jitsu kindly invited me to sit down with him for a podcast interview. I have spent over forty years in martial arts, and had a few stories to tell. We talked for more than three hours. The first podcast discusses my introduction to martial arts and Kung Fu, with Sifu…
Ip Man – The Stuff of Legend (Humour)
A strange article I found on a Wing Chun forum, perhaps Kung Fu Online, way back in the early 2000s. Needless to say (hopefully), I did not write the article, and have some issues with its veracity, to put it mildly. Pretty funny, though. According to the Hong Kong newspapers, Yip Man broke a stack…
Traditional Wing Chun Ground Fighting
Traditional Wing Chun, William Cheung’s system, has always contained ground fighting techniques and concepts. I had my first ground fighting lesson in 1977, from David Crook, who studied with William Cheung in the late 1960s. Edit: I got a message from David after I first published this saying that back in the day William Cheung…