Combat Base North East Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Technique of the Week No. 22 - Triangle into Sickle Sweep from Open Guard

2012-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Triangle into Sickle Sweep combination from Open Guard.

Steve

Europeans 2012 Highlights

2012-02-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

There's a great highlights movie of the Europeans from Portugal on You Tube. There's also some great movies from matches involving the heavyweight and absolute champion, Rodolfo Vieira of Grappling Fight Team.

I did promise a second homework from GFT. I think I'll do a one around Rodolfo at the Europeans first. He looked to be in awesome form. It should be on here in a couple of days.

Steve

IBJJF Europeans 2012 - Full Results

2012-01-29T10:58:00.001-08:00

Hey Guys,

The IBJJF have now posted the full results of this year's Europeans from Lisbon, Portugal.

Rodolfo Vieira of Grappling Fight Team continued where he left off in 2011 by winning both the heavyweight and absolute divisions, once again defeating Bernardo Faria in the absolute.

The other notable winners were Michelle Nicolini of Checkmat who won the women's absolute and the great Saulo Ribeiro who won the senior 1 super heavyweight and absolute.

A huge congratulations to Combat Base UK's Adam Adshead for winning a silver medal in the brown belt light featherweight.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 21 - Arm Bar from Mount

2012-01-25T14:32:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Arm Bar from Mount.

Steve

Europeans 2012

2012-01-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This weekend is the Europeans in Portugal. There's some big names competing including Bruno Frazzato of Atos, JT Torres of Lloyd Irvin, Rafael Lovato Jnr of Ribeiro Jiu-Jitsu, Rodolfo Vieira and Igor "Igorilla" Silva of Grappling Fight Team, Felipe Costa of Brasa, Ida Hansson and Michelle Nicolini of Checkmat in the women's.

And there are also a few members of Combat Base UK competing. I'm sure you'll join me in sending them all our very best wishes.

The brackets have now been published.

Steve

The Greatest BJJ Fighters of All-Time

2012-01-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

BJJ Heroes has updated its top ten BJJ fighters of all-time. If you haven't seen it, it's an interesting list.

BJJ Heroes:- Top Ten BJJ Fighters of All-Time

I've attached a You Tube highlight reel of the two all-time greatest fighters.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 20 - Open Guard Underpass

2012-01-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Underpass from Open Guard.

Steve

Rodolfo Vieira

2012-01-20T07:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

There's an excellent Rodolfo Vieira documentary on You Tube, split into three parts. Rodolfo is the current Mundials (World), Pan-BJJ and ADCC World Jiu-Jitsu Cup heavyweight and absolute champions. Enjoy...

Steve

Homework - Grappling Fight Team

2012-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

I think this week's homework will lead nicely into an upcoming blog post. You'll have seen over Christmas / New Year I posted a You Tube link to a documentary on Grappling Fight Team (GFT). I promised a homework on GFT and this is the first part of that.

GFT are certainly neither the largest or most successful BJJ team, at least in terms of competition, but are worthy of closer look for a few reasons.

The first reason is that they have a very interesting history. I won't labour it here, especially as I've covered parts of their history elsewhere.

But basically GFT are fairly unique in BJJ in that their lineage does not trace back to Carlos Gracie as almost every other team / fighter in BJJ does. As well as giving a black belt to Carlos, Mitsuyo Maeda also gave one to Luis Franca. Franca in turn awarded a black belt to Oswaldo Fadda, who awarded one to Monir Salomao who awarded one to Julio Cesar Pereira, head coach of GFT.

Fadda, you may remember, is interesting as bringing Jiu-Jitsu to the poorer residents of Rio de Janeiro, coaching free of charge in public parks and on beaches, until he could open his own academy in 1950. He challenged the Gracie Academy and in 1951 his students defeated them, partly by their use of Ankle Locks, which were Fadda's specialism and which at the time the Gracie family considered a "suburban" technique.

Helio awarded Fadda a 9th grau (dan) black belt, which is the highest rank anyone outside the Gracie family may receive.

Julio Cesar also has an interesting history. He was instrumental in coaching the Universidade Gama Filho BJJ team. Gama Filho is the Brazilian equivalent of Loughborough University in the UK. The Gama Filho team was started in 1996 and was immediately successful. However, in 2004 it lost its University sponsorship following the death of Pedro Gama Filho. The BJJ team retained the name until 2007, by which time some of the team were competing in MMA. The University did not want association with MMA, so Julio Cesar founded Grappling Fight Team.

The second reason why GFT should be of interest is the quality of fighters they have produced. There is of course Rodolfo Vieira, the current Mundials and Pan-BJJ heavyweight and absolute champion, but there are other fighters too. Until 2008, a subject of previous homeworks, Bruno Malfacine was with GFT. Malfacine's competition record is pretty incredible. He was Mundials champion at roosterweight in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

There is also the subjects of this week's homework, Theodoro Canal and Ricardo Evangelista, and of the next homework (with Rodolfo), Vinicius Marinho.

The third reason is the style of the GFT fighters. Malfacine has certainly enjoyed most of his success since he started training with Fabio Gurgel and Alliance, but if you study his style, he's not unlike Rodolfo Vieira, on the ground at least. This suggests that his formative years with Gama Filho have very much influenced his game.

Both Canal and Evangelista also reflect very strong Guard passing. As I've said many times in class, everyone needs to develop an unpassable Guard. However, I strongly believe that BJJ should be takedown > pass the Guard > Mount > submit, and that bottom Guard should be there when you need it, rather than a goto position.

The fourth reason is Julio Cesar himself. His own style is undoubtedly reflected in his students. He is a respected 6th grau black belt and there is little on You Tube of him competing. But there a few movies of his rolling. His game seems to be built around Hook Sweep and Guard Passing, hence my own personal interest in his game. Again, they’re strong basics which translate well to self-defence and MMA equally.

So, to this week's homework. We've already studied Rodolfo Vieira and Bruno Malfacine in previous homeworks. 2012 promises to be an interesting year for Rodolfo. There were few notable absentees from last year's Mundials, including Xande Ribeiro (Gracie Humaita), Braulio Estima and Roger Gracie (Gracie Barra). While these don't in anyway diminish what Rodolfo achieved, there are some mouth-watering matches in prospect at heavyweight and absolute in this year's competition. With that in mind, I'll return to Rodolfo next time.

This first part of our homework on GFT is on 2 fighters you may be less familiar with. It's true that neither have achieved the sort of success Vieira or Malfacine have achieved, and both Canal and Evangelista compete on the masters category, which may be one reason why you are less familiar with them. However, they have both enjoyed considerable competition success and it is their Guard passing that I'm interested in.

Let's be honest, you don't have to look very far on You Tube to see Rafael Mendes (Atos) dominate and submit Canal in under 2 minutes, using a very different style. I'm personally not the right age or body type for Mendes' game, plus I like a style which is can more easily translate to self-defence if necessary.

But the great thing about BJJ is that people can express themselves through entirely individual styles. The Mendes brothers, Rafael and Guilherme are starting to dominate some very good divisions (featherweight and light featherweight respectively) at the moment, and have some very innovative techniques.

While their style may not sit comfortably with my own, you absolutely should be familiar with it, firstly because they, and others of a similar style such as Michael Langhi (Alliance), are highly successful with it in BJJ competition, and secondly because even if you don't employ a similar gameplan, the likes of the Mendes brothers are highly influential on BJJ competitors at the moment, and your opponents may well employ a similar gameplan.

To that end, I will do a homework on the Mendes brothers very soon. I suppose what I'm saying regarding Canal and Evangelista is that while I like their style, it isn't the only style and you need to expose yourself to as many different gameplans as you are able to. At the end of the day, within the context of BJJ competition, what will determine how successful you are is how good you are. Your gameplan is only a part of that.

The first movie I've chosen is Canal’s ADCC World Jiu-Jitsu Cup Trials match with Bruno Malfacine. I think most people would've expected Malfacine to win this one and I think at least Bruno might've believed he did.

Canal is in the black gi. I include this match because it is interesting rather than exciting! It’s seriously for BJJ anoraks and probably indicates why it will be difficult to sell BJJ as an Olympic sport.

The key moments are as follows:-

From the outset Bruno's gameplan is clear. Have a look at both of their postures, but especially Bruno. His legs are fairly straight and his back is rounded. There is a good chance if someone approaches like this that they want the fight in Guard.

Bruno’s gameplan is to sit to Guard, grip his opponent’s pants leg, stand-up and take down his opponents with a High Single. He then employs relentless Guard passing. As successful as he is with this gameplan, he is a very well known fighter. Therefore, his gameplan is well known. I think there is a lesson for our competition team in having a Plan B.

He starts this process at 0:45 by grabbing Canal's lapel and sitting to Guard. Theodoro uses an Underhook on Malfacine's left arm to counter the grip on his right pants leg. If Canal doesn't do this, Malfacine will stand up and drive him to the mat.

He tries this tactic at 2:06, but Canal again uses the Underhook and getting his hips back to stop the takedown / sweep. The more Canal can sprawl his hips back, the more Malfacine's arms are extended and the weaker his grip becomes.

At 2:46, there is an interesting rules point. I don't know what Canal was complaining about. Malfacine is allowed to sit to Guard provided he has a hold on Canal's gi, which he does. IBJJF competition rule 6.4.1, states the following as a serious penalty “When an athlete kneels or sits without having a grip of any kind on the opponent.”

At 2:58, Canal shows how he wants to pass Malfacine's Guard. He will try and post with his left leg while driving Malfacine's right pants leg at the knee to the mat. Then he will slide his right shin over to Malfacine's right hand side, dropping his own right hip to the mat. This same approach is used by Vieira, who is the current master of Guard passing.

At the restart at 2:58, Malfacine tries the sweep again. Again Theodoro uses the right Underhook to stop it. He tries it again at 4:21, but this time he stands before he grabs so he doesn't announce the sweep. Canal's hips are back to quickly for Malfacine to complete the sweep.

Malfacine tries again at 5:10. Again, it's the same sweep on the same side. Canal uses his head to block Malfacine from getting to his feet and to extend him out, and Malfacine pulls Closed Guard.

At 6:01, Canal is again trying to force Malfacine's right leg to the mat. Malfacine sets up the sweep again but this time he has a chance of more success as Canal doesn't have an Underhook on his left arm which is gripping Theodoro's pants. Instead Canal drives into Malfacine to flat-back him and stop him climbing to his feet.

Bruno uses his left foot on Canal's right hip to push his opponent away and give him the space to stand up. This is a dangerous moment for Canal. At this stage, points are even and one sweep will win Bruno the match. Theodoro breaks his knee free of Malfacine's grip and tries a High Single of his own. Malfacine, realising the danger, bails to Closed Guard again.

At 6:51 Malfacine tries the sweep again. At this point I think Malfacine would've surely won a judges decision. Perhaps Canal realises this or perhaps Bruno is becoming frustrated and leaving more opportunity. Theodoro tries the knee slice pass again. His left leg is posted and his right will cut across Malfacine's belly.

He breaks Bruno's grip on his pants and tries to cut across. Bruno again pulls Closed Guard. Canal gets posture. Note all the details, the straight back so Bruno's Guard is under pressure, he's up his toes for mobility, the double grip on the lapel with his elbow turned outwards so it's difficult for Bruno to sit up or pull him in. He tries again to push down Bruno's right leg.

At 7:57 he tries to lift Bruno to open his Guard and the referee calls time. What follows is a common tactic in sports, such as Boxing, where judges and / or referees can decide the outcome of matches without a clear points winner. Both fighters are tying to convince the judges that they won by celebrating. In the end, the decision goes to Canal. I couldn't call the result to be honest, but there is an interesting point in Bruno's tactics.

Bruno has a great Plan A, but at some point it must've become clear that it probably wasnt going to work. I suggest you have a Plan B and that you know when you'll be prepared to put it into effect. While Malfacine didn't agree with the result, to repeat a point from an earlier blog post, if you don't put it beyond doubt with a submission or points, you leave it in the hands of people who may not see it the way you did.

The Ricardo Evangelista match I’ve chosen is from his Copa Do Mundo match with Rafael Celestino of Nova Uniao in 2010.

Evangelista is in the green and yellow belt.

At the start of the match there is a lot of fighting for grips. At 1:09, Celestino jumps to Closed Guard. Note his set-up. He grips Evangelista’s lapel then he sits his hips back before he jumps. If you’re looking for it, this is a clue that your opponent is going to jump to Closed Guard.

Evangelista stands up with the Guard still closed. Note 2 things, he continues to hold Celestino’s cuffs. Celestino may be using the jump as a set up to drop straight into a Double Ankle Sweep or Handstand Sweep. By holding his cuffs, Ricardo denies him that. Also note, as soon as Celestino’s Guard opens, Evangelista tries to shin across it with his right leg. The pass is one thing, but he’s tries to bring Celestino under control and stifle his movement.

Again there is much grip-fighting standing. Evangelista is not as skillful as Vieira on his feet but at 1:16 he attempts the Foot Sweep , which is a trademark of Rodolfo and a technique we’ve worked recently. He tries it again at 2:45.

At 2:59 Celestino jumps to Closed Guard and brings Ricardo down inside of it. Note the grip-fighting that follows. Ricardo has good posture, his back is straight, his right arm has that double lapel grip on Rafael’s chest, his left arm is pistol gripping Celestino’s sleeve.

At 3:33, Ricardo stands-up (first with the left leg where Rafael’s sleeve is controlled). There is now a lot of pressure on Celestino’s ankles to open. As Rafael’s back touches the mat, Rafael pushes his left leg into Celestino’s right to reduce his opponent’s hip movement. He’s trying to break his own right hand free of Rafael’s grip so he can push Rafael’s left leg to the mat and pass over it, but Celestino recovers nicely.

Again, more standing grip work follows until Celestino jumps to Guard again at 4:30. Again, Ricardo stands up with Celestino’s Closed Guard, but note the way Rafael uncrosses his ankles and tries a Double Ankle Sweep. This happened because this time Ricardo didn’t control his opponent’s sleeves. Ricardo sees the danger and drops his hips to stop the sweep attempt to secure double underhooks on Rafael’s legs.

Again note that Ricardo’s left leg is always penetrating to strengthen his grip. At he passes to Rafael’s left, Celestino turns to Turtle. IBJJF competition rules are that 3 points are awarded for a Guard Pass (4.2) “When the athlete in top position manages to surmount the legs of the opponent in bottom position (pass guard or half- guard) and maintain side-control or north-south position over him/her for 3 (three) seconds.”

In other words, Ricardo doesn’t get the points for his pass attempt, but he will score an advantage because Rafael avoided the pass by turning to his knees. Note the use of his shins to reduce Rafael’s movement from first open Guard then Turtle.

At 6:25, Rafael tries to roll back to Guard. However, Ricardo has good controls on his. He’s shinning Celestino’s right leg and has an over / under control, which means he is able to ride the roll and end up on Celestino’s back. He isn’t scoring yet, he needs two hooks in to score. At 6:32 he gets them.

Celestino starts to escape his hips, Rocardo is slow in his transition to Mount and ends up with Closed Guard. Now watch his Guard.

At 6:52, note he’s now working to release Celestino’s grip on his chest. Note as Rafael starts to stand, Evangelista is already hooking his leg with his right arm. This prevents Celestino from lifting him and sets up a number of attacks, most obviously the Handstand Sweep.

This is repeated again at 7:45 and Ricardo attempts that sweep. However, Rafael is able to maintain his balance and drops his hips. Rafael again tries to stand when Ricardo has an underhook on his leg. And a couple more times.

Note a few times that Ricardo grabs Rafael’s gi pants at the knee with an outside grip. It looks as if he likes Flower Sweep and at 9:24 he does sweep Ricardo with it. Ricardo recognises the danger in the pants leg grip. I think he probably makes Ricardo’s sweep a little easier by pulling up on Evangelista’s wrist to break the grip. Note his whole base comes up which gives Ricardo the sweep.

Evangelista secures the Mount and wins on points.

So, as always what have we learned? I think there is a lot of detail in both matches, particularly regarding Guard passing, we can study and learn from and this homework was to emphasise that detail.

Both Canal and Evangelista showed good Guard postures which stifled the gameplans of two very good Guard players, especially Malfacine. Both of their Guard passing was basic and relentless, Canal with the Knee Slice and Evangelista with the Underpass.

Ultimately, they both imposed their gameplans on their opponents. If there is a lesson from either of their opponent’s I think it’s probably from Malfacine. Canal didn’t allow him his sweep, but Malfacine, perhaps understandably given the absence of points, pursued the same gameplan until the end of the match and ultimately lost. Again, the question is, and it is a question for you, at which point do you change to plan B?

Of course you have to have a plan B, which means working all aspects of Jiu-Jitsu.

Steve

Eduardo Telles - Turtle Master

2012-01-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

As we were working bottom Turtle this morning, here's a You Tube movie of the undisputed master of "Turtle Guard", Eduardo Telles.

Telles was a training partner of Fernando Terere and the two formed TT together (the TT being Terere and Telles), developing many great fighters including Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles, Rafael and Guilherme Mendes, Michael and Michel Langhi, etc. Now he has his own team called 99. Telles is an accomplished fighter in his own right and won the medium heavyweight bronze medal at the Mundials in 2010.

Telles has developed bottom Turtle into a goto position. I wouldn't recommend that. I regard it very much as a neutral position, but if you do end up there, you'll want to be able to improve your position and Telles has some very good sweeps so enjoy...

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 19 - Turtle Escape to Back Mount

2012-01-13T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is a Turtle Escape (Across Side) to Back Mount.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 18 - Kimura from North-South

2012-01-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Kimura from North-South (transitioning from Side Control / 100 Kilos).

IBJJF Rules on Leg Lock and Reaping the Knee

2012-01-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

To confirm our conversation tonight, under IBJJF rules:-

straight Ankle Locks are now allowed at all adult grades (and 16 and 17 years old),
Toe Holds (twisting the ankle), Knee Bars are only allowed at adult black / brown belt, and
Heel Hooks are banned at all grades and ages.

You are not allowed to reap the knee on an Ankle Lock at any grade or age. The best explanation of reaping the knee is contained at the attached link.

Reaping the knee.

There is also a very informative IBJJF movie on You Tube.

Applying a technique which is banned at your grade and age is known as a Severe Penalty, which results in a disqualification.

Steve

BJJ and No-Gi Competition Schedule 2012

2012-01-04T07:47:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

The following are the known and likely dates of competitions in 2012.

January

26th-29th IBJJF European Open Jiu-Jitsu, Lisbon, Portugal

February

12th Scottish BJJ Open, Edinburgh

March

4th Abu Dhabi Pro UK Trials, Birmingham

April

21st Manchester BJJ Open (Grab & Pull)

French BJJ Open

May

19th-20th British Open, Birmingham

20 North West BJJ Open, Blackpool (Grab & Pull)

August

18th Blackpool BJJ Open(Grab & Pull)

25th UMA UK Open BJJ Championships (www.umauk.co.uk)

October

7th No-Gi British Open

Glasgow BJJ Open

Irish BJJ Open (www.bjj.ie)

Amsterdam BJJ Open (www.bjjholland.com)

Scandinavia BJJ Open, Malmo, Sweden (www.sobjj.se)

Mediterranean Open Gi and No-Gi, Malaga, Spain (www.bjjmediterraneanopen.com)

November

Portugal National BJJ Open, Lisbon

December

1st British Open Grappling Championships (www.umauk.co.uk)

Steve

Hello to 2012

2011-12-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

2011 is nearly finished and 2012 is almost upon us. As I do every New Year’s Eve, I think it’s worth reflecting on the outgoing year and setting some goals for the incoming year.

In February, Graeme Allsopp and Brett Smart fought MMA at the Inferno Fighting Championships in Ashington. Graeme submitted Scott “The Misery” Oliver (Independent) with an Arm Triangle at 1:30 of round 1, Brett submitted Michael “Cold Blooded” Wightman (Moi Fa) with an Arm Triangle at 1:40 of round 1.

In April, we took a mini bus to the Scotia BJJ Cup in Glasgow. Five of you were competing. The first shock of the day was that Adam Lowes announced he hadn’t eaten for three days in an attempt to reach super heavyweight...and he was driving the bus. At Kelvin Hall, Adam and Brett used the sauna to try and reach their weights, which they successfully did, but not without depleting themselves. However, it was to turn out as one of our most successful days. Adam won the white belt super heavyweight gold medal in style. Barry Blackburn put in an awesome performance to dominate the white belt medium heavyweight, winning the gold medal. Dan Boyle won a bronze in the blue belt featherweight. And in the blue belt medium heavyweight, Simon Ball and Brett both reached the final. Brett won probably the most exciting rock, paper, scissors of all time to decide who won gold and silver.

In June, Lee Carr made his MMA debut, as he and Dan fought at Collision Course 2 at Loose Cannons. Lee submitted his opponent, Kark “Lights Out” Latcham of Shotai Kai with an Arm Bar in round 3. Dan outpointed Latcham’s teammate Matt “Trooper” Johnson.

In August, Si competed in the North West Open BJJ in Blackpool. He won a bronze in the blue belt medium heavyweight and almost added a bronze in the absolute. He had his opponent inside his Triangle when Si’s own ankle popped.

In September, I received my black belt from Darren and Helen Currie. It’s a great honour for me, and I was particularly happy to receive it from two people who’ve meant such a lot to me for about ten years. But it also meant I could promote some of you to the grades you’ve earned. Si received his purple belt from Darren and Helen, and Adam received his blue belt. I immediately promoted Dan to purple, Dave Vincent to purple and Chris McIntyre to brown, where he needs to be for his return to competition this year.

While we were at the Combat Base UK Training Day, Freddy Wykes was making his MMA debut at the Inferno Fighting Championships in Ashington. Freddy submitted his opponent, Andy Collins of Shotai Kai by Lion Kill in round 2.

The same day that Si, Adam and I were being promoted and Freddy was winning his MMA debut, Combat Base North East celebrated its seventh birthday.

In October, I gave Laurie Major his purple belt. Laurie has been with us since the very beginning so it was a particular pleasure for me.

Also in October, Adam and Drew Christie competed in the Glasgow Open BJJ. Drew stormed through the purple belt middleweight division, winning gold. He lost in the semi finals of the absolute by a single advantage. Adam was fighting at blue belt for the first time and his own division, super heavyweight was merged with ultra heavyweight to create a round robin of three competitors. Adam won his first match on points and then lost his second on a single advantage, but won a silver medal.

At the end of the month, Brett and Dan fought at Battle Ground MMA in Alnwick. Dan dominated and submitted his opponent, Andy Collins of Shotai Kai, submitting him with a Triangle 2:15 of round 1. Brett forced the referee to stop his fight with Dave Brown of Northern Free Fighters in round 1 after landing 38 unanswered punches to his opponent’s head.

Brett and Dan’s wins pushes our club record to 24 MMA fights, 22 wins, 1 draw, 1 no contest and 0 losses. We’re still unbeaten since Chris Campbell’s MMA debut (for him and the team) in 2007.

In November, I gave Barry his blue belt. He’s struggled with injury almost since the Scotia BJJ Cup so it was nice to be able to reward him. I also gave Gary Tasker his blue belt. Again, Gary has been with us a long time, he’s actually responsible for introducing Drew to the team, so it was very satisfying to be able to reward his efforts.

Aside from that, Si got married; Kris Brotherton’s partner had a little girl, Lexie; Adam’s wife had a little boy, Spencer; and most recently, Graeme’s found out he’s going to become a dad.

So, some great stuff. But 2011 was also difficult. Some of the hard core struggled with injuries. I had another bad year, coming off a spine injury at the start of the year I’ve struggled with a shoulder injury for the whole year, added an MCL sprain in September and again in November and finished the year by straining the ligaments in my lower back. Ed Drysdale has also struggled with overtraining; Chris Mc has an operation on the shoulder dislocation he incurred winning the London Open BJJ in 2010 and Steve Paynter has had another operation to try and sort his knee.

It left classes very light for a significant part of the year and I even had to contemplate reducing the number of classes at one point.

Still 2012 is a new year, so let’s try and make it our best ever.

We need more people in the club. That means two things and both require something of you.

First of all, we need new members. We managed to have recruited a few in 2012 who are the sort of people we really want in the team, but we need more. That means you posting our flyer to your Facebook wall each week and it means each of you hanging posters up in libraries, shops, colleges, anywhere you can (legally!).

Secondly, we need greater consistency of existing members too. If the team is to survive and hopefully grow, it’s not just down to me. We need everyone to show their commitment to it by training regularly.

On a personal level, I want to put my injuries behind me and I’d like to see people like Ed, Chris and Steve, who love BJJ, be able to get back to where they were.

This year, we’ll concentrate our efforts, as always, on training BJJ the way I think it should be trained. That is, ensuring we develop both stand-up and ground games. That we build our games on solid foundations of fundamentals and movement, while allowing for personal expression. And most of all that we maintain the friendly atmosphere that makes Combat Base North East a great place to train.

I’m planning in my coaching for 2012. If there’s anything you want classes to cover, please let me know as soon as possible.

Steve

New Year's Quiz 2011-12

2011-12-31T04:40:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

Here’s the annual New Year’s quiz to test how much you know about BJJ.

1.Gracie Barra UK’s Victor Estima, brother of Braulio, won the No-Gi Mundials at middleweight. What was unusual (or rather impressive) about the way he defeated his opponents?

2.The same two fighters contested both the heavyweight and absolute finals at both the Mundials and the Pan-BJJ (formerly Pan-American). Who were they?

3.Which fighter won gold medals in the Europeans at both heavyweight and absolute, the Pan-BJJ at heavyweight, the Mundials at both heavyweight and absolute, the ADCC World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Cup at heavyweight and the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships at heavyweight?

4.Who won the men’s team title at the Mundials and what happened for the first time?

5.Claudio Calasans of Atos defeated Lucal Leite of Checkmat in the Pan-BJJ middleweight final in 53 seconds. What first did Calasans register?

6.Which husband and wife team won medals at the Pan BJJ and which team did they represent?

7.Which 3 members of the Gracie family won medals at the Mundials?

8.Who was the only non-Brazilian to reach a mens final in the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships?

9.Which celebrity was pictured in a photo with BJJ legend, Ricardo De La Riva in June, wearing a black belt and an Atama gi?

10.Finally, which BJJ legend...I mean LEGEND...received his red / black belt (7th degree black belt belt) from Rickson Gracie this year?

Answers (no looking):-

1.He won every match by ankle lock.

2.Rodolfo Vieira of GF Team and Bernardo Faria on Alliance. Vieira won all 4 gold medals.

3.Gabi (Gabrielle) Garcia in the women's. She also reached the final of the Pan-BJJ absolute but did a rock, paper, scissors with Alliance team mate Luanna Moraes (who won the middleweight gold medal). There were no absolutes in either the ADCC World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Cup or the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships. If you said Rodolfo Vieira you weren't far off, but you’re still not getting any points. He won heavyweight and absolute at the Pan-BJJ, Mundials and ADCC World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Cup, but didn't compete at the Europeans and lost to Dean Lister in the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships.

4.Alliance won for the fourth year in a row. Gracie Barra finished without a medal in the men’s team competition for the first time.

5.It was the first ever Pan BJJ gold medal to be won by a wrist lock.

6.Honestly, shame on you if you didn't get this one. Head of Combat Base USA, Chris Haueter won gold in the black belt senior 3 lightweight division. His wife Melissa won a bronze in the black / brown belt light featherweight division.

7.Not Roger, he was injured. Rickson’s son Kron, representing Gracie Humaita, won a bronze at lightweight. Carley's son Clark, representing BJJ Revolution Team, won a bronze at middleweight. And of course, Kyra, representing Gracie Elite, won a silver in the women’s brown / black belt at featherweight.

8.Dean lister who defeated Joao Assis in the under 99 kg final. The only other non-Brazilian medal winners were Jeff Glover (USA) in the under 66 kg and Ida Hansson (Sweden) in the women’s over 60 kg, who both won bronze medals.

9.Ashton kitchen of comedy series Two And A Half Men.

10.Jean-Jacques Machado.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 17 - Advanced Foot Sweep

2011-12-31T04:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Advanced Foot Sweep or De-Ashi-Barai. This is a real favourite of Roger Gracie and Rodolfo Vieira.

Steve

Happy Christmas News

2011-12-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

Congratulations to Graeme Allsopp and partner Stephanie who announced yesterday that they are expecting a new arrival. It's great news and I'm sure everyone in the team is made up for them.

Steve

Grappling Fight Team

2011-12-26T13:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

I'm going to do a homework on Grappling Fight Team soon, including Master Julio Cesar Pereira (I've already done one on Rodolfo Vieira. In the meantime, here's a great short documentary I found on You Tube.

I love everything these guys stand for. Master Pereira embodies everything that's right in a Jiu-Jitsu coach and Vieira, in particular, has a style that I hugely admire, built on a foundation of good takedowns, the best Guard passing I've watched since Terere was at his peak and a crushing top game. Rodolfo is the current Mundials, Pan-BJJ and World Pro Jiu-Jitsu Cup heavyweight and absolute champion.

If you're interested in Rodolfo's Guard passing game, the following are a couple of links to an analysis on The Jiu Jitsu Laboratory.

Rodolfo Vieira Guard Passing:-

Part 1

Part 2

Steve

Homework - Roberto Cyborg

2011-12-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

One of the fighters at this year’s ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships who most impressed me, and probably everyone else, was Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu of The Avengers (!).

Cyborg didn’t win. He won his round one match in his weight division against Sekine Hideki (Bonsai Jiu-Jitsu) with an Arm Bar, advanced to the quarter finals where he outpointed Glover Teixeira (The Pit), but then lost to Fabricio Werdum on point in the semi-final. Cyborg won a bronze medal by outpointing Gerardi Rinaldi, a former Cornell University Wrestler and Renzo Gracie black belt, in the 3rd / 4th place match. So, why was he so impressive?

Cyborg was fighting in the under 99 kg division. In a gi, he fights at ultra heavyweight, yet his movement was unbelievable, especially, but not only, from bottom Guard.

Cyborg has an impressive competition record. He won a silver medal at the 2010 Mundials, losing to an also very impressive big guy, Rodrigo Cavaca of Checkmat, by ankle lock in the final. He was No-Gi Mundials champion at both ultra heavyweight and absolute in 2010, and ultra heavyweight champion in 2011. He won a silver medal at the 2009 Pan-BJJ in the super heavyweight division, losing the final to Antonio Braga Neto of Gordo JJ 2009, having been champion in 2008. He is now based in Florida and has been Miami Open ultra heavyweight and absolute champion in 2010 and 2011.

But though I’ve seen Cyborg many, it hasn’t registered how impressive his Guard in particular was. In his ADCC quarter final, he almost toyed with Glover, almost allowing his Guard to be passed, then recovering it. In the end, his semi final with Werdum was very close, Cyborg only losing it with negative points I seem to remember.

You Tube isn’t full of movies of Cyborg and a few of those on their, like those from the Miami Opens, are very quick! But July 2011 saw 16 of the World’s greatest no-gi fighters line up in the first ever Ultimate Absolute NYC. Cyborg was one of the favourites for a competition that also included Braga Neto, Daniel Gracie (Renzo Gracie) and Vinny Magalhaes, but which was won by the wonderful Andre Galvao of Atos Jiu-Jitsu. The quality of movies is very good, so I’ve used a couple of them for this week’s homework. Galvao’s performance was so impressive, his movies are also well worth watching.

I’ve bigged up Cyborg’s Guard, so the right place to start is probably his quarter final match with Jerry Rinaldi.

I don’t want to over-analyse this match. The whole point is that you watch Cyborg’s Guard movement. However, I’ve highlighted some key moments below.

At the very start of the match Cyborg sits to Guard. In his round 1 match, he hit 5 Single / Double Legs on Shohin Ghaffar of Renzo Gracie. Cyborg has also Wrestled for Brazil, but he is clearly avoiding Rinaldi’s Wrestling game.

The first half of this match illustrates Cyborg’s Guard game, especially his Half Guard game, very well. Note how confident in his ability to recover his Guard. Also note how he moves, for example at 3:37 / 5:12 how he circles his legs so Rinaldi never gains control of them and at 3:47 (and many other times) how he shoulder rolls to ensure retain his Guard or ensure Rinaldi doesn’t get an angle on him. At 2:19, he attempts what the commentator describes as a Kiss of the Dragon Sweep. If you want to know more about this sweep it’s well demonstrated on You Tube, but essentially Cyborg is trying to take Rinaldi’s back.

If you’ve ever found the Knee Through difficult to deal while playing Half Guard, look at the ease with which Cyborg deals with Rinaldi’s attempt on 3:05.

At 5:29 Rinaldi attempts and Ankle Lock on Cyborg. It’s a key moment. CYborg does a backstep to almost pass Rinaldi’s Guard and starts working a Kimura. These are very much trademark techniques for Cyborg. As Rinaldi tries to reverse the position, Cyborg uses the control he already has to attempt an Omoplata. As Rinaldi tries to forward roll to escape, Cyborg abandons the submission to gain Side Control.

At 6:57 Rinaldi escapes to his feet. Cyborg again sits to Guard. Again, the same assured Guard play follows. At 8:18 and again at 8:43, there is an illustration of the sort of movement I saw in Cyborg’s match with Glover. He almost allows Rinaldi to get all of the way to the side then shoulder rolls to recover his Guard.

At 9:07, with both fighters again on their feet, Rinaldi attempts a Double Leg as Cyborg is sitting to Guard. Cyborg rolls for an Arm Bar and then Kimura. The match ends with Cyborg working his submission.

The second movie is Cyborg’s round one match with Ghaffar, which shows how well rounded he is.

This match is almost completely one-sided, with Cyborg attacking and Ghaffar defending. However, I think it’s worth saying how well Ghaffar does in being able to hold Cyborg to a points win. He constantly recovers his Guard when he could’ve easily lost heart.

Almost immediately Cyborg shoots for a Double Leg. I think he telegraphs it a little, watch how he goes backwards to clear Ghaffar’s arms before shooting in. But he gets the takedown and seamlessly transitions to the Guard Pass and Knee Ride.

Ghaffar recovers and the two start on their feet again. At 1:15 Ghaffar sees Cyborg’s Double Leg attempt, so it ends with some patient hand-fighting. At 2:08, Cyborg pops Ghaffar’s wrists and shoots the Double Leg underneath them. Again, he immediately backsteps to pass Ghaffar’s Guard, transitions to Knee Ride then Mount. It’s very fluid, skillful Jiu-Jitsu. Then Cyborg works for a Back Triangle, my favourite position, but Ghaffar once again recovers.

Cyborg’s blue print for winning a Jiu-Jitsu match from top should be pretty clear now, but again at 3:24 he passes to Knee Ride. Again, Ghaffar recovers but at 4:18 Cyborg again backsteps to pass his Guard, then transitions to Knee Ride. The Backstep Pass is very effective because your hip immediately blocks his Guard recovery. Many newer students try and pass the Guard with speed, but they should be trying to take away the Guard players space as much as possible. Again, look as Ghaffar attempts to Kimura Cyborg, how Cyborg again backsteps to Side Control.

At 4:58 it’s worth looking at the faces of the two fighters. Ghaffar is tired, probably because of how hard he’s been working on the bottom. At 5:22, Cyborg passes Ghaffar’s Guard again with a beautiful Leg Spin Pass, but again, Ghaffar recovers.

At 6:34 Cyborg attempts a Single Leg and switches it to a Double to score another takedown. Again, he backsteps past Ghaffar’s Guard. I like Cyborg’s pass attempt at 6:58, he sits on Ghaffar’s hooks and attempts a backstep, but they end up on their feet again. Again, he switches a Single Leg to Double Leg at 8:11 and is successful with it at 8:44.

At 9:12 Ghaffar tries a Heel Hook. It looked as if it was on, but once Cyborg has removed Ghaffar’s leg foot from his hip, he uses the momentum Ghaffar is giving him to his left to hit another Leg Spin Pass. Cyborg then transitions to Knee Ride to Mount. Again, Ghaffar recovers and the match ends with Cyborg shooting another successful Single Leg to Double Leg.

As a matter of interest, Cyborg retired injured from his semi final with Rustam Chsiev.

So, what have we learned from Roberto Cyborg? As always, that’s for you to decide. What I note is this. His bottom Guard game is superb. Why? I think his confidence is the most notable thing. Cyborg knows his Guard in incredible. He knows no matter how close his opponents come to passing it, he will recover. That gives him the confidence to attempt sweeps and submissions.

He’s able to recover his Guard so well because for a big guy, his movement is a thing of beauty, particularly his shoulder rolls. I remember a BJJ black belt told me I shouldn’t try and pass Guard on my feet as I was too big. It was bad advice of course, but I followed it for quite a while. I suppose what I’m saying is that, within the bounds of common sense, Cyborg shows that you shouldn’t impose limitations on your own game by, thinking you’re too big to be so mobile, for example.

With regards to his top game, I love the Backstep Pass for the reason I’ve given above. Often students try and pass Guard with their hips square to the mat. All the Guard player has to do is get a toe hold, then he or she can recover Guard. The backstep allows you to drop your hips into the “hole” as it appears and it becomes difficult for the Guard player to recover, provided of course you don’t mess it up by then transitioning to Side Control without blocking our his or her Guard with your hand. We’ll work some of this early in the new year.

I also like Cyborg’s use of Knee Ride.He uses it to get to Mount, but it gives him another two points on the way, plus it’s a great position for attacking the neck and arms.

Steve

Fernando "Terere" Augusto - Return of a Champion

2011-12-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

Everyone knows just how much of a legend Terere is and how highly I regard him. Gareth Dummer and Lee Jones at Tatami Fightwear have made this short documentary. It's well worth a watch.

Terere is now UK based, so who knows, we may be able to get him back here for a seminar sometime in the new year.

Steve

New IBJJF English Rules

2011-12-23T02:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) have released their new rules in English. If you're thinking about competing, you need to read them.

IBB Rules.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 16 - Elbow Escape from Back Mount (Flattened)

2011-12-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Elbow Escape to Turtle from Back Mount when you're flattened.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 15 - Triangle from Closed Guard

2011-12-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Triangle from Closed Guard.

Steve

Christmas Night Out 2011

2011-12-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

A great turnout for the 2011 Christmas Night Out 2011. Thanks to everyone for the very thoughtful present. It really means a lot. I haven't decided whether I'll wear it or just keep it, but either way it's a reminder that I'm lucky enough to know and train with a really great bunch of people.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 14 - Hook Sweep from Butterfly Guard (Overhook)

2011-12-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Hook Sweep from Butterfly using Single Overhook.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 13 - Over / Under Pass from Open Guard

2011-12-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Over / Under Pass from Open Guard.

Steve

The Direction of Travel

2011-11-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

“I believe folks have adopted a flawed perspective on championships. Instead of competing to gauge the quality of their Jiu-Jitsu, they train to win championships. If a fighter’s only concern is to be a better competitor, he’ll tend not to practice fundamental techniques and specific positions. Training ends up playing out entirely in the guard, which is the position that appears most at tournaments. So they train to keep from having points scored against them - not to finish. They kind of forget that Jiu-Jitsu consists of passing, mounting and finishing.” Roger Gracie, GracieMag 165, January 2011

“I still play the basic style...Many of these guys (competition fighters), they have a very good, beautiful game, but in the foundations they’re not too strong. Their style is just good for Jiu-Jitsu. Put it in MMA, it doesn’t work.” Carlson Gracie Jnr, Jiu-Jitsu Style, No.3, July / August 2011

Let’s follow those quotes with a very selected history of Judo, particularly competition Judo.

In 1882, Judo was formed by Jigoro Kano, a student of Tenjin Shin’yo-ryu and Kito ryu Jiu-Jitsu (or more correctly Jujutsu).

At the time the samurai caste had been abolished and the old Jiu-Jitsu systems had lost popularity. When Kano formed Kodokan Judo, he chose the name to reflect, certainly the times, that the arts were no longer techniques for warfare (Jitsu / Jutsu) but instead were paths to a better person (Do).

Kodokan Judo placed emphasis on randori, which is sparring, as opposed to practicing techniques in kata, or pre-arranged sequences. To enable safety, Kano prohibited the most dangerous techniques from randori, preserving them in kata.

1904 is a significant year for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) fighters. It is the year Mitsuyo Maeda left Japan, initially for the USA, to popularise Kodokan Judo. Remember that year for later in this post.

For competition Judo, finger, toe and ankle locks were always prohibited. In 1900, wrist locks were prohibited for black belts and all joint locks for coloured belts.

In 1916, leg locks and, what we would call neck cranks, were prohibited as was Do Jime. Do Jime is strangling someone by squeezing them around the diaphragm with the legs in the position we know as Guard.

In 1925, further rules were added to limit Kosen Judo. Kosen Judo concentrated on ne waza, or groundwork and favoured bringing the match to the mat by what we would call jumping to Guard. This dragging an opponent to the mat was prohibited.

Remember, the prohibited techniques were still practiced in kata, including atemi or striking.

In 1964, Judo became an Olympic sport. Since then a number of other rules have been implemented, both for safety and to ensure Judo is appealing to the spectator. Ne waza, groundwork, has been severely restricted to a few seconds. Grips are limited to ensure there are throws. There have even been further prohibited techniques, such as Kani Basami, or the Scissors Throw in 1980.

I suppose I have 2 questions on competition Judo.

The first is this, do Judo schools still practice leg locks, wrist locks, atemi, etc, in kata? Not any of the schools I’ve walked into.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way criticising Judo. Quite the opposite actually. But what I’m proposing is that once you introduce a competitive side to an art, which I think is a good thing, you introduce rules. Because people only have limited training time and because those who want to compete, want to do everything they can to be successful, they will do two things.

They’ll only work on those aspects of their art which will help their competitive career. Why would a top level Judo player spend even an hour per week practicing leg locks that he or she can’t use in competition, when his or her opponent is using that time to practice techniques that competitive Judo allows.

They’ll start to develop ways of legally exploiting the rules. I’ll return to this point later.

My second question is, is Judo as effective as a fighting or self-defence system now as it was 100 years ago? We need a reality check here. I still think Judo is a highly effective means of self-defence. If a Judo player throws someone with an Uchi Mata in a self-defence situation, that person is going to be injured...or dead.

I do believe Judo is effective, but I think it’s hard to argue that it is as effective.

So, what’s my point. There’s a phrase I’ve picked up from somewhere, I’m unsure where, “study the old, understand the new”. I hope it’s not from Captain Kirk or I’ll be embarassed.

Judo is clearly the art BJJ was developed from. Mitsuyo Maeda was a Kodokan Judo fighter, rather than a Jiu-Jitsu fighter, but in reality, as you see from the year I asked you to remember, when Maeda left Japan, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu were pretty much different names for the same art. In fact, Judo was often known as Kano’s Jiu-Jitsu.

Therefore I think it’s useful to understand where we currently are in Judo and how we got here, to understand where we’re heading in BJJ. At this point in time, I think Judo has become competitive Judo. There is no other aspect to it, perhaps I’m wrong.

But can we say BJJ is any different? Here’s a few thoughts.

In 1993, Royce Gracie won the first Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and brought BJJ to the World.

How many BJJ schools now practice throws and takedowns? It seems to me that many schools do no stand-up at all and rely only on jumping to Guard. Or will practice a throw or takedown each class, but never spar from stand-up.

If they practice those skills, do they still practice O Goshi (Hip Throw), O Soto Gari (Major Outer Reap), etc, as Royce probably did, or is it now completely Wrestling based?

We very much emphases Wrestling in both our stand-up and groundwork. But the point I’m making is that many of those Jiu-Jitsu / Judo throws are being either forgotten or de-emphasised. And let’s be honest, in a street fight I’d rather attempt an Uchi Mata than a Double Leg.

How many schools practice the self-defence side? I think any BJJ fighter should know how to escape a Guillotine, (standing) Headlock, Full Nelson, etc.

What about the competition BJJ mentality? As I said above, once you establish a set of rules, competitors will start to base their training and games around them, and will start to exploit them. BJJ competitors have always gained a points advantage and defended it until time is called. Over the last few years, there has definitely been an increase in competitors applying the same mentality to advantages.

I will wholly accept that jumping to Guard, then attempting a submission you know you won’t pull off to score an advantage might be enough to give you a competition win, but what does it actually do for you if you want to use your BJJ to defend yourself or in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Also a number of positions have arisen, such as Deep Half Guard and 50-50 Guard, particularly the latter, which many competitors use effectively in competition BJJ. But again, how well does 50-50 Guard translate to a self-defence situation or an MMA match?

My worry is that I don’t think we could honestly say that BJJ the way it is practiced now is as effective as a fighting art as it was when Carlson Gracie or Rolls Gracie were fighting Vale Tudo, or even when Royce fought in that first UFC. And where will it be in 10, 50 or 100 years time?

Clearly both Roger Gracie and Carlson Gracie Jnr have the same concerns.

Don’t get me wrong, I think competition BJJ is very important. Nothing, but nothing, focuses your development like competition. You just have to be sure your focus is right.

Has anyone ever seen the Disney movie, the Sword and the Stone? Merlin and Min are doing battle. Min becomes a crocodile and tries to eat Merlin. Merlin becomes a turtle and escapes her grasp. She chases but he becomes a hare and outpaces her. She becomes a cat so she can keep pace. The two enter a log, he becomes a caterpillar and crawls out. She becomes a chicken and tries to eat him. He becomes a walrus and sits on her. She becomes and elephant. He becomes a mouse, so she becomes a...yip a cat. He tries to bite her tail so she becomes a rattle snake. He becomes a crab and tries to chop her in two. She obviously becomes a rhinoceroses, but she gets stuck in a tree. He becomes a goat and buts her into the sea. She becomes a dragon. Then he becomes a germ and she becomes ill!

It’s actually based on the supposed life of the Welsh poet Taliesin, but I know your level!

The point is that when you first train, your Closed Guard may gain you all the sweeps and submissions you need. As people get used to it and start countering your techniques, you start using Open Guard. As people get used to your Open Guard, you start using Spider Guard, then Upside Down Guard, then 50-50 Guard, then Deep Half Guard. Each time your new Guard brings you gold medals, but each time your competitors get wise to it. Eventually you develop your own Guard.

The point is that your Closed Guard will still work in a self-defence or MMA situation, as will Closed Guard, Spider Guard to an extent. But as you get deeper and deeper into trying to gain the upper hand in competition, you get further and further away from what’s practical. It always reminds me of Merlin and Min’s duel.

Again, why bother practising throws and takedowns when you’re opponent is only going to jump to Guard? Why waste time practising self-defence when your opponent is working his or her new ground techniques? Why waste time practising leg locks when you won’t be able to use them until brown belt. Do those sort of questions ring any bells?

I think Roger Gracie is an example to us and to everyone else in BJJ. Roger’s game is basic. He takes his opponent down with a foot sweep, he passes Guard, he mounts, he strangles. I would expect every blue belt to know every technique I've ever seen Roger use in competition. He has managed to reach the highest levels of competition BJJ (he has more Mundials / World titles than anyone else) and yet his game will readily translate to reality.

So what’s the point of this post? As a coach it’s actually difficult balancing the need to preserve the effectiveness of the art with the needs of those who wish to compete. I suppose this post is to explain my coaching philosophy.

I believe wholly in a balance of stand-up and ground techniques. Not an equal balance, but I do think we should work a stand-up technique and spar to takedown every class.

While I think everyone needs to know the latest competition techniques and positions, I believe in emphasising the basics and that strategy of passing, mounting and finishing. As Roger says, competition should be a measure of your BJJ. It shouldn’t distort your BJJ into something that is only effective within the rules of competition.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 12 - Scissor Sweep from Closed Guard

2011-11-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Scissor Sweep from Closed Guard.

Steve

New Belt Promotions

2011-11-19T06:27:00.000-08:00

Guys,

I gave Gary Tasker his blue belt this morning. Gary's been with us for a long time and is a really nice guy, so it gave me a lot of pleasure to be able to give him his well deserved promotion.

Steve

Homework - Joao Assis

2011-11-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

The name Joao Assis may not mean a lot to some of you. I have to be honest, it wouldn’t had meant a lot to me a few months ago.

But the Checkmat fighter had an impressive ADCC World Submission Championship in Nottingham in September. He finished with a silver medal in the under 99 kg category, losing in the final to a Dean Lister Heel Hook. That was after defeating the great Xande Ribeiro (Ribeiro JJ) in the semi-final. Assis also won a super heavyweight bronze medal in the Mundials (BJJ World Championship) this year, despite only receiving his black belt (from Leo Vieira) in 2009.

Assis may not quite have reached be at the level of, for example, Marcelo Garcia (Alliance) or Andre Galvao (Atos), but he must have left the ADCC feeling a lot happier with his work than a lot of more well known fighters. Remember, Romulo Barral (Gracie Barra), Bruno Frazzato (Atos), Victor Estima (Gracie Barra), Sergio Moraes (Alliance), Robson Moura (Nova Uniao) and Antonio Braga Neto (Gracie Elite) all left without a medal.

In fact, Assis’ no-gi record is excellent. He won the super heavyweight black belt gold medal at the 2010 No-Gi Mundials and won a silver in this year’s absolute division, after a rock, paper, scissors with teammate Marcus Almeida to decide the gold and silver.

But it’s in Grapplers Quest where Assis has made his name. As a matter of interest, he also defeated Xande in the 32 man, Grapplers Quest World's Best Tournament in 2010, but the first two movies are from the Grapplers Quest UFC Fan Expo Las Vegas, also last year.

So what is it that makes Assis such a good no-gi grappler? I’ve given my thoughts below, but as always, the watching the movies is the easy bit. If you really want to answer that qestion, you’re going to have to give it some thought yourself.

The first movie is Assis’ advanced absolute with Bill “The Grill” Cooper of Paragon BJJ. The Grill is an exciting, young American black belt. At the time he first received his black belt, he was the youngest American ever to do so.

Let’s be honest from the start, Cooper is a lightweight and you’d have backed Assis to win this one, but the Grill’s a tough, tough fighter. This is the semi-final in the aforementioned competition.

Joao Assis Vs Bill Cooper.

From the start, Assis shows some good Wrestling skills. The Grill tries to jump into a Guillotine but Assis blocks it. Notice that Assis patiently works his grips and waits for the entry.

At 1:24, he gets it. Cooper tries the Guillotine again, Assis blocks it, “pops” the Grill’s elbow and shoots for a Double Leg. It’s worth noting their relative positions. Cooper has his hands, clinched on Assis’ neck, and is almost upright. Assis isn’t pushing Cooper’s elbows upwards, he’s holding them where they are and changing levels and penetrating underneath.

Assis lands in Cooper’s Guillotine with his left arm trapped. He doesn’t panic. Instead, note how he patiently works on weakening Cooper’s grip with his left hand to escape the submission attempt.

At 2:37 he escapes. Cooper attempts a Hip Heist Sweep (I think) and Assis passes straight to Back Mount. We’ve worked this pass in class before, it’s an excellent technique but the underlying basic movement is what’s important.

When John Will first visited us he used a metaphor of “hunting the rabbit shit”. John said that if you want to hunt rabbits, you don’t look for rabbits, you look for rabbit droppings. There’s just a lot more rabbit droppings than rabbits, so it’s easier to find and if you find rabbit droppings, you know rabbits are about. Hey, that works for me and I’m a veggie.

John applied the rabbit shit theory to Omoplata for us. And it works. Sometimes you can’t see the Omoplata, but you know if you can get a shallow Overhook, you can get an Omoplata. And a shallow Overhook is always there.

Here, the rabbit shit is someone posting on their elbow. If you see that, and you have your legs free, there should be a transition to Back Mount. It works from Mount, Side Control, counter to Hip Heist Sweep...

At 3:09, note how Assis maintains Back Mount. The Over / Under Grip or Harness is very effective, particularly for no-gi, where you can’t use the gi to strengthen your hold. Assis changes sides to ensure his Overhook arm is nearest the mat. This makes the Elbow Escape more difficult. For the Elbow Escape, Cooper would push Assis’ bottom leg to the mat, drop his own hip on it and Shrimp away from his opponent. The Underhook on the side furthest the mat means, as you see here, Assis is pulled with Cooper if the Grill tries to turn to his knees.

At 4:50, I think Assis tries to transition to an Arm Triangle as Cooper attempts and escape. He misses both the Arm Triangle and the transition to Mount and pulls Guard.

At 5:29, Assis sweeps Cooper with a Double Ankle Sweep. This is a day one technique, an absolute basic. Cooper attempts the Heel Hook but Assis is quick to smother the attempt, gripping the Grill’s head.

Knowing he’s losing the match and time is running out, Cooper attempts a leg lock, but Assis defends it nicely and almost gets another Back Mount.

The second movie is Assis’ final with Jeff “The Snowman” Monson of American Top Team. We all know Monson, he’s a powerful guy, so this was a real test for Assis.

Joao Assis Vs Jeff Monson.

Again, note Assis’ Wrestling. Monson has a strong Double Leg, but Assis has a solid posture. His lead hand is low to protect his lead leg, his back is straight and his legs are bent. Notice Monson brings his feet almost together as he steps, which leaves his vulnerable to the Double Leg, Assis’ footwork is much better.

Effective Wrestling starts with a good posture and good footwork.

At 1:12, note how Assis takes the Snowman to the mat. It’s that popping of the elbows to the Double Leg again. If you’re fighting someone like Monson, you can’t afford to allow him to regain his feet. Assis drives and drives until he takes the Snowman down.

At 1:27, note the grips. Monson is attempting a Single Leg, then a sweep from Half Guard. Assis stuffs his Underhook by using a “Whizzer”, and Overhook. If he doesn’t use a Whizzer, Monson would be able to climb to his knees. Assis also pushes Monson’s head into the mat to weaken the grip on his leg.

At 2:14 he transitions around Monson. Note the grip inside of Monson’s arms. Again, he is weakening any attempt from Monson to transition to his knees. This allows Assis to break Monson’s grip by kicking his wrapped leg backwards at 2:50.

At 2:56, Assis wraps Monson in that Over / Under grip again. Note the rabbit shit again at 3:36 as Assis steps over Monson and inserts his right knee under the Snowman’s right arm pit. Monson exposed his back and Assis transitions to the Back Mount and applies the Lion Kill to end it.

So, what have we learned about Joao Assis? The answer to me is different discipline (no-gi as opposed to gi), same lesson.

Assis’s Wrestling is very good. He has sound basics like stance, footwork and grips. He patiently works for his opportunity. When it comes, there’s nothing flashy about his set-up (the elbow pop) or takedown (the Double Leg).

Have a look at his matches on You Tube with Wilson Reis, Pat Begin and Bruce Hoyer. Assis doesn’t always shoot the Double Leg, sometimes he pulls Guard. But if you reach your arms out to him, he doesn’t miss the moment. And when he has the position, he drives until he gets the takedown.

The lessons on the ground are the same. Assis uses basic techniques, Double Ankle Sweep, Lion Kill, and that transition to Back Mount, but when the opportunity comes, he doesn’t miss them. That’s mat time and working techniques that work.

He also uses his no-gi grips like the Over / Under and Whizzer well. It’s this grip work that keeps Cooper in his Back Mount and Monson underneath him. What I’m saying is that it’s his grips that win Assis this title more than anything else.

Again, doing the basic stuff well is what elevates fighters to this level.

Let me put it another way, Assis doesn't win these matches or the competition because he's doing a technique or playing from a Guard that his opponents haven't seen before. The key moments I've outlined above involve fundamentals such as grips and real day-one techniques. Assis wins because he does these better than his opponents. In other words, it's not because he knows things Monson and Cooper don't know, it's because he's better at the things they do know.

That's a hard lesson, because it means hard work and mat time are required if you want to be a successful competitor or just a very good grappler. That's the only way you can ensure your fundamentals are better than your opponent's.

Of course, he or she might help you by devoting his or her time to constantly pursuing that new submission or new Guard that no-one else has seen yet instead of trying to match your fundamentals.

The last movie is just for fun. This is Assis versus Cooper again in a gi match at the same competition. I came across it while preparing this homework and just thought it was a great tussle.

Joao Assis Vs Bill Cooper.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 11 - High Single into Running the Pipe

2011-11-16T14:50:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Arm Drag into High Single into Running the Pipe.

Steve

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

2011-11-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

I haven't done any martial art before, what do I need to start training?

Some people feel better if they watch a class first and it's fine if you want to do that. However, you’ll never really know whether you like a martial art or the team you’re training with until you take the plunge and do your first class.

It’s important that you feel you like and trust the people you train with you’re want to keep coming. At Combat Base North East we have a great bunch of regulars. They’ll look after you and show you what to do.

In terms of equipment, a t-shirt and shorts, standard gym-wear is fine.

Is there a beginners class?

There isn't a class specifically for beginners at the moment. However, beginners are welcome on any of the classes and there will always be people willing to work with you.

If we start to get more demand for beginners classes, I would consider starting one.

How much to classes cost?

We actually coach for nothing. However, the gym we train at, Loose Cannons, charges £3 per class, but also has very reasonable weekly and monthly rates.

How old do I have to be?

At the moment I don't train under 16 years olds.

However, still contact us if you are under 16 as if there is sufficient demand I may consider a juniors class.

What are the training times?

The training times on the blog site (www.combatbasene.blogspot.com) are always kept up-to-date. The classes are 7-9 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 10-12 on Saturdays. There is also an open mat on Mondays from 7-9 pm.

I want to train on the gi class, but I don't have a gi.

Don't let not owning a gi stop you from training on a gi class. I’m always happy to adapt the techniques for those newer members of the team who don't yet have a gi. I would hope that you get a gi when you're ready, but you don't need one at first.

However, if you have a gi, you should wear it for gi classes even if you're personally more interested in no-gi. Remember, if you don't wear a gi, it's your training partner who is doing a no-gi session, not you.

What sort of gi should I buy and where would I get one from?

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gis are slightly different to Judo gis. Tatami Fightwear (www.tatamifightwear.com) make excellent gis at reasonable prices, and being a British company, postage is quick and relatively cheap.

I’m a distributor for Tatami Fightwear which means that I can get you a sizeable reduction on the website prices and pass it onto you at cost price. Have a look on Tatami's website and then speak to me (Steve) for further information.

What is Monday's session and when will I be able to train on it?

Monday is a Loose Cannons open mat.

A number of Combat Base North East members train on the open mat and they’re an excellent opportunity to try out a new technique (or build repetitions on the ones you know) or to get in some additional sparring, and there is usually a mixture of people who want to work gi and no-gi.

How do the gratings work?

My coach (Darren Currie) has an article on gradings at www.CombatSport.co.uk. Follow the link for Grading Requirements.

All I would say is don’t get hung up on gradings. Progression in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is slow, but that’s good because the belts are worth something. Make getting better your goal, not getting your next belt. At the end of the day, it will be your skill that wins you a fight or a competition, or saves you in a real situation. The colour of your belt won’t matter.

I want to have an MMA fight. Can I represent Combat Base North East?

As you would be representing a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu team, I think it’s reasonable to expect that you would have a certain level of knowledge and skill in the art before you put your team name down as Combat Base North East.

I’m not saying you necessarily have to be a blue or even purple belt. We have been very well represented in the cage by white belts. But I would expect you to have a good level of skill, a grounding in the basic techniques and an understanding of what you’re working towards.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 10 - Elbow Escape from Mount

2011-11-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is Elbow Escape from Mount.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 9

2011-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Knee-In Closed Guard Pass.

Steve

Homework

2011-10-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

For those who don’t train on Wednesdays, we usually too many of us to stand-up wrestle at the same time, so I divide everyone into 3 groups and have 2 groups on the mat at the same time. So everyone wrestles 2 rounds in every 3. Guys didn’t always remember their numbers, so stealing an idea from Ed Drysdale, I started naming each group after famous fighters a little while ago.

On Wednesday, for whatever reason, I decided the groups would be named after legends of college Wrestling. Kurt Angles wrestled Cael Sandersons wrestled Dan Gables.

One or two of you asked who Dan Gable was, so I’ve decided to make him the focus of this week’s homework. That means the homework’s a little different this week.

You’ll see what I mean, but first let’s talk about Dan Gable. Gable wrestled for Waterloo West High School and the Iowa State University. His collegiate record was 181 straight wins without defeat, yes 181, until he lost his to Larry Owings of the University of Washington in his last match.

In 1972, Gable represented his country at the Munich Olympics. Not only did he win the gold medal, he did so without anyone scoring a point on him in the whole games.

Impressed yet?

in 1976 Gable became head coach of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

Prior to than the Hawkeyes had only won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Wrestling Team Championship in 1975 and 1976 when Gable was assistant coach. They weren’t even the dominant University side in Iowa. Iowa State University, the Cyclones, had won the NCAA 6 times, 2 of them when Gable was wrestling for them.

Gable’s Hawkeyes went onto win the NCAA title every year from 1978 to 1986, 9 times in succession! He coached the Hawkeyes to a further 6 NCAA titles in 1991 to 1993 and 1995 to 1997, when he resigned as head coach. In that time, Gable also won 21 straight Big Ten titles. Again, the Hawkeyes won the title every single year he coached.

So Dan Gable is an absolute legend in grappling. I would recommend the book “A Season on the Mat: Dan Gable and the Pursuit of Perfection” by Nolan Zavoral to anyone who wants to learn more about Gable and the University of Iowa’s Wrestling team. It chronicles the story of the 1997 season when the Hawkeyes were expected to lose the NCAA to Oklahoma State University.

Gable’s legacy is still felt in University of Iowa. The Hawkeyes have won the NCAA 1999-2000 and 2008-2010, the latter under one of Gable’s most famous Hawkeyes, Tom Brands.

So why did I choose Dan Gable as the subject of this week’s homework? I think the movies will illustrate that perfectly, as will the above book if you’re interested. Gable was obsessed with perfection, as both a wrestler and a coach. His book “Coaching Wrestling Successfully” was a huge influence on my own coaching style.

I underlined a number of paragraphs in that book when I read it, one of them was “My approach is to allow athletes to use the style that works best for them. That doesn’t mean that I’ll permit them to use poor fundamentals or use a lot of high-risk moves that rarely work.” I think that 1 paragraph has probably shaped my own training philosophy more than anything else.

Also, note the Gable quote that has been at the top of our blog site, I think since I first posted. “Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” I think that also encapsulates what Gable was about, again both as a competitor and coach, a fierce determination to win.

One of the things that have always made me proud of everyone who has competed for us, whether it is in BJJ, Submission Wrestling or MMA, is how hard they’ve worked in training and how much guts they have shown on the day, win or lose. That’s why I’ve never changed that quote, which was my intention when I first posted it.

Anyway to the movies. I said the homework would be a little different this week. You may pick up the odd technique you want to work just be watching the movies, but what I really want is to give an insight into a legend of grappling, let you hear from his own lips how he approached his own training and then see his legacy on the University of Iowa Hawkeyes.

The first movie was a short article on Gable prior to his legendary win at the 1972 Olympics.

Dan Gable 1972 Olympic Special.

What particularly resonated with me in this movie was Gable’s determination not to finish seconds again after the Owings loss, and how it made him work even harder and ensure he was better mentally prepared.

The second movie is a highlight reel of the Hawkeyes today, including current coach Tom Brands when he was Wrestling under Gable (as did his twin brother Terry). Wrestling is obviously a big influence on our training at Combat Base North East, particularly our no-gi training, so I hope the movie inspires you to watch a bit more college or Olympic Wrestling.

Hawkeye’s Wrestling Highlight.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 8

2011-10-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Guys,

This week's technique of the week is a Gi Strangle from Side Control.

Steve

Pressing the Advantage

2011-10-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Adam and Drew's performances at the Glasgow Open were reward for their technical skills and also their hearts.

Drew missed adding the purple belt Absolute gold medal to his Middleweight gold and Adam missed the Blue Belt Super / Ultra Heavyweight gold medal, both by a whisker. An advantage may well have put Drew in the final and given Adam the edge in a very tight round-robin. It was that close.

The purpose of this post is not to complain about the rules or about the application of them by the referees. The rules are what they are. It's more to learn, as we always should, from a test of our team's tactics and technique.

We certainly passed any test of skill, but there are a couple of things we as a team can prepare for tactically so we have an even better day next time.

The message of ensuring you clearly win the fight was hammered home to me in a couple of previous competitions. They ways to win a BJJ match as stated in International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) rules are:-

1.Submission

2.Disqualification

3.Unconsciousness

4.Points

5.Advantages

But when there are no submissions, and points and advantages are equal, the match is decided on a referee's decision. What was reinforced in those earlier competitions was that if you don't achieve a submission or a points advantage over your opponent, you leave the outcome of the match to the referee's subjective impression of what happened. It doesn't really matter how well you think you've done at the point or how dominant you think you were. All that matters is how the referee thinks you've done.

Referees are human. Sometimes they get it wrong. Referees are also usually BJJ players themselves. Sometimes team loyalties can reflect in their decisions. Sometimes their decision can even be coloured by their own games. If a referee’s own game is built around pulling Guard and trying to sweep or submit from there, they could, even if subconsciously, favour the Guard player in arriving at their decision.

Again you can complain about the poor decision all you want, you're still not leaving with the gold medal that day. The message is clear, you must win by submission or by points and not leave the decision to the referee.

I've also witnessed a number of fighters who may have dominated the match and worked for a submission almost from start to finish, but don't score any points. They may have several advantages for near submission attempts, but they didn't achieve the finish and even worse didn't achieve any points for advancing their positions. Their opponents get a takedown or a sweep and wins on points.

Again, if you worked the submission for the whole match and then lost on a couple of points scored late or for a takedown at the start, you may well think you've fought the better match, but you got your tactics wrong.

I'm not suggesting that Competitors should concentrate on points in preference to submission, I suppose what I'm saying is two things:-

Get your points on the board, then work the submission. At least don’t pass up an opportunity to score points.
There has to be a point when you recognise the danger in continually trying for the Americana that your opponent has defended for four minutes if you are 2-0 down on points. If you bag the points for Kneeride or Mount, you can happily work the submission, otherwise you’re only going to lose and be frustrated.

If you're ahead of points, why chance a win for a risky submission. If you're 4-0 in front with a minute remaining of the match and in Mount your opponent should be going for it. He or she will recognise that they need to escape and having achieved that, will know they either need to submit you or maybe get a Guard pass and a Mount or Knee on Stomach to win the match.

Believe me, you should be facing an onslaught. I say should as it always amazes me how some fighters, knowing they're behind on points or advantages will allow the time to run out rather than throwing everything at their opponents. So what if they get submitted, they were going to lose on points anyway.

So, you're in Mount and 4-0 up with 1 minute to go. Why risk everything on a submission that may allow your opponent a lifeline? Cross Strangles, Ezekials, Americanas all carry a low risk of losing positions.

So at the Glasgow Open it was advantages that stopped us from turning a fantastic day into...whatever's better than fantastic. Essentially, if there are no submissions, the fighter who is ahead of points wins the match. You accumulate points for Back Mount (4), Mount (4) and Kneeride (Knee on Stomach) (2). You also score points for takedowns (2), Guard passes (3) and sweeps (2).

There are general criteria for scoring and specific criteria for each of the above. You should familiarise yourself with this criteria if you're going to compete.

Advantages are awarded for attempted techniques. They don't count unless there are no submissions and points are equal. Therefore, if the fighter A has 2 points and 2 advantages, and fighter B has 0 points and 6 advantages, fighter A wins. This is because advantages only matter if points are even.

So what are advantages awarded for? IBJJF rules state the following (please excuse the spelling and grammer, they’re in the rules as opposed to my blog):-

V- ADVANTAGES:

It is considered an advantage when the athlete attempts but does not complete any of the fundamental moves of the fight; i.e. sweep, take down, submission etc.;

• Advantages through takedowns: When there is a visible loss of balance in which the adversary nearly completes the takedown. A visible loss of balance durring an attempted throw will also result in an advantage.

• During closed guard (when the athlete on the bottom has his legs wrapped around his opponent’s waist):

A-) The one on top will earn the advantage by being on the offensive, trying to dominate his adversary’s guard (pass the guard). For the referee to consider it an advantage, the athlete that is on top must come close to passing the guard, forcing his adversary to exert energy to regain position e.g. half guard, almost immobilizing, etc.

B-) The one underneath will earn the advantage if he almost sweeps his opponent, putting him in a dangerous position, as well as when he attempts a lock that forces his opponent to defend. NOTE: for the sweep attempt to be considered worthy of an advantage the athlete underneath must open his legs.

When there is a tie situation on the scoreboard, it is up to the referee to decide if he will award an advantage, using the following judgments:

•Advantages will be awarded during standing fights or on the ground if the athlete attempts a technique with more aggressiveness and initiative, trying takedowns , other finalizing moves during the fight. Or showing that he dominate the fight most of the time by putting the opponent on the defensive

• Advantages through takedowns: When there is a visible loss of balance in which the adversary nearly completes the takedown. A visible loss of balance during an attempted throw will also result in an advantage.

•Advantages will be awarded during ground fighting if the athlete attempts a technique and puts his adversary on the defensive.

In a nutshell, advantages are awarded for attempts to either submit your opponent, or to score points on him or her. Note the wording above. Essentially advantages are awarded for submission attempts (it doesn't say they have to be close, although it is implied that they should be a good attempt) or near Guard passes or sweeps, and takedowns which almost succeed. I have to say I think Drew should have had 2 advantages in his Absolute semi final for takedowns which almost succeeded, but I said I wasn’t going to complain.

But it's the submissions that you should note. The rules don't indicate the submission attempt has to have you in trouble. It just says your opponent has to attempt a submission. So if your opponent locks his or her legs into a Triangle position, the referee might legitimately award an advantage for a submission attempt.

Advantages are there to ensure the match reaches a conclusion and to try and ensure the win is awarded to the fighter trying to finish the match with a submission (or on points, which are themselves awarded as being progress to a submission).

We could debate all day whether advantages actually achieve that. A counter argument is that it may breed caution in the fighters if they know that all their opponent has to do is score an advantage for a submission that never really causes any trouble, and then defend that advantage until the end of the match.

Of course, advantages are to a degree subjective. A submission is a submission, your opponent taps-out and you've won the match. Points should be equally straightforward, although in practice there is some subjectivity.

You must have control in a position for about 3 seconds before you score points, but the referee has to make a judgement of how much under control her or she thinks your opponent is. Only you and your opponent really know.

But points should generally be fairly clear. Advantages on the other hand, can be fairly subjective. The referee doesn't know if you were in any trouble from a submission attempt...but then the rules don't require a submission attempt to have you in trouble, they only require your opponent to attempt it.

So if he or she throws his or her legs around you in a Triangle attempt, you need to, preferably prevent it happening in the first place, otherwise you need to escape his or her legs straight away. Using your opponent’s Triangle attempt to pass the Guard probably isn't the best idea unless you're behind on points or advantages at least, and need the pass to win. The referee will probably award an advantage for the Triangle attempt.

The referee doesn't know how close your opponent was to losing his or her balance from your opponent's takedown attempt. The rules actually say there must be a "visible loss of balance" but the argument would be as to what constitutes you losing your balance. It’s equally subjective what constitutes a near Guard pass or sweep.

Accepting that there is some subjectivity in the awarding of advantages, sometimes wrong or at least dubious decisions will benefit you and sometimes they will benefit your opponent. The advantage of advantages, if you excuse the repetition, is that they are displayed for you and your coach to see on the scoreboard, unless, as happened at the Glasgow Open, they are awarded after time has been called. This allows you to treat them like points.

And fighters do treat them like points. The Mundials finals are full of matches won by a single advantage. There is so little between the top fighters that the likes of Michael Langhi of Alliance and Rafael Mendes of Atos have become adept at gaining an advantage and defending it for the win. And few in BJJ sport are as successful as Michael Langhi and Rafael Mendes.

In Judo, a score of ippon represents total victory and is achieved in various ways, for example a a throw with impetus and control that lands an opponent on his or her back, a pin for 25 seconds or a submission. A waza-ari is scored for lesser throws and pins of 20-24 seconds. Two waza-aris aggregate to total victory, known as waza-ari awasete ippon.

Yuko is awarded for throws which land the opponent on his or her side and pins of between 15 and 19 seconds. Yukos don't aggregate in any way. For example, a fighter with 1 waza-ari will score a win versus a fighter with 0 waza-aris and 10 yukos.

In that regard yukos are like advantages and my recommendation is to treat advantages is the same way Judoka treat yukos. That is if you're ahead on points, you don't have to worry too much about advantages. If it's all square, you need to ensure you're ahead on advantages or get some points on the board.

Again, if you're approaching the end of the match, no matter how much you think you've dominated your opponent, if he or she is an advantage up, you need to recognise that you're about to lose and go for it. As soon as you're ahead on points, those advantages, no matter how many you're down, won’t defeat your points.

And why wouldn't you go for it? If you're an advantage down, you're going to lose the match if it stays that way, so does it matter if your escape attempt loses you points or worse, lands you in a submission? Of course, you have to time it right in terms of when to throw caution to the wind, as above, a single points score wins regardless how many advantages your opponent has.

As I said earlier, I took a load of pleasure in Adam and Drew's performances and they both got the success they deserved for the hours they put into training and for the heart they both showed. But even on successful days we need to always keep learning, improving our technique and tactics.

It was useful to me to gather my thoughts on advantages and how to treat the tactically. If you are already or thinking of, competing in BJJ, I hope the above is in some way useful to you too.

Above all, if there is one piece of advice I can give anyone it's read and understand the rules. BJJ isn't cricket, the rules book is a few pages long instead of the size of a house brick, and are very straightforward. At every competition there seems to be at least one or two competitors who don’t appear to be fully aware of the rules of the sport they’re competing in and usually pay the price for it. I wouldn’t be fulfilling my responsibilities as a coach if that was ever our team.

Steve

Well Done Brett and Dan

2011-10-22T07:27:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

We’ve had some great nights since Combat Base North East Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came into being 7 years ago.

Last night was another. Dan Boyle and Brett Smart were once again represented us in MMA at Battle Ground MMA / K1 at Alnwick, here in Northumberland. We started the night as unbeaten in 22 MMA fights since Chris Campbell represented us in our first MMA fight in December 2007. While I know we lose that unbeaten record sooner or later, we’d all rather it was later.

Dan and Brett have been huge in building up that record. Before last night they’d had 11 fights between them, resulting in 10 wins and 1 no contest.

We had the difficulty that Dan was in the red corner and Brett was in the blue corner, which meant that while Ed Drysdale did both fighters final warm-ups and cornered them both, for most of the preparation, Ed and Simon Ball warmed Dan up, and Graeme Allsopp and me warmed Brett up.

Dan’s training camp was perfect. He’s worked hard on his Boxing skills and his Wrestling and BJJ have got better and better, which is the reason why I gave him his purple belt as soon as I received my black belt in September.

He was fighting Andy Collins of Shotai Kai. As soon as the fight started Dan clinched and took collins to the floor. Dan looked in excellent form as he passed his opponent’s Guard straight to Mount and then submitted him with a Triangle Mount at 2:15 of round 1.

Dan pushed his record to 5 wins from 5, but has probably never looked so dominant.

We were worried about Brett’s weight-in. He’s worked hard to make the weight, and as a professional he should have weighed in on Thursday. After recent experiences, when there are circumstances which prevent the fighters from weighing in together, I always wonder whether one of them is over weight.

As it happens, Brett’s opponent, Dave Brown of Northern Free Fighters in Alnwick was over weight. However, in the end, it didn’t matter. I used to worry about Brett being too relaxed before a fight but I’m used the way he switches his focus on like a light as his name is called.

It took 2 seconds to take his opponent down with the Double Leg. Brown attempted a sweep as Brett tried to pass his Guard, but Brett’s Wrestling is superb and he turns his hips as well as anyone I’ve trained with. The two ended up back on their feet with Brett clinched behind his opponent.

What followed was that Brett delivered I count (having watched the DVD) as 38 unanswered punches to his opponent in the clinch. While Brown held his hand against his face to save himself, the referee warned him that he needed to “intelligently” defend himself and then stopped the fight.

Brown was clearly unhappy with the stoppage but had the class to come into Brett’s corner and shake his hand afterwards.

With the result, Brett pushed his record (in amateur, semi-pro and pro) to 7 wins, and 1 no-contest. Again, it was a fantastic performance and I thought the referee called the TKO right.

The 2 wins push our MMA record to 24 fights, 22 wins, 1 draw, 1 no contest and still 0 losses. As always, we’ll suffer a loss at some point and we shouldn’t be afraid of it. However, I’m always impressed with skill and heart of everyone who fights for us, or who competes for us in BJJ. Freddy Wykes said this morning that he was fighting next month so the hard work of getting Freddy ready starts straight away.

Thanks as always to Ed for wrapping hands, warming-up and cornering; Graeme and Simon for warming-up; Gary Brooks and Kris Brotherton, plus Wayne and Mick Riggs from Loose Cannons Boxing and Martial Arts Training Camp, for being there to support the fighters; and to everyone who has given up their own training time for the last 8 weeks to prepare Dan and Brett, and also Drew and Adam who competed at the Glasgow Open BJJ last week.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 7

2011-10-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Sit-Out Escape from Turtle.

Steve

Well Done Adam and Drew

2011-10-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

Adam Lowes and Drew Christie represented Combat Base North East at the Glasgow Open BJJ yesterday.

Adam fought in a round robin of 3 in the Masters Blue Belt Super Heavyweight / Ultra Heavyweight.

2011 has been a big year for Adam. Since he won the White Belt Super Heavyweight gold medal at the Scotia Cup BJJ earlier this year, everyone has felt the improvement in his game. This was recognised by my coaches, Darren and Helen Currie of Combat Base UK, who awarded Adam his blue belt in September.

Adam won his first match against Gary Greenman from Checkmat, Sunderland on points. Gary had already won his other match by submission, so it we knew that if Adam won his second match, he’d win a gold in his first blue belt competition.

Unfortunately, he lost by a single advantage. As each of the fighters had won a match each, Gary won the gold medal as he won by submission and Adam won silver for his points win.

It was an excellent performance, particularly as Adam had some difficult moments, particularly in his first match, but he overcame them and fought with lots of heart to earn the win. Silver at a prestigious competition such as the Glasgow Open is very impressive.

Drew received his purple belt from Darren and Helen last year, but this was also his first competition in his new grade and he fought in both the Purple Belt Middleweight and Absolute.

He won his first Middleweight fight in impressive style, submitting his opponent with a Clock Choke. He then followed it up by defeating Rob McCrumb of BJJ Scotland by referee’s decision to win the gold medal. It was a tight match, but I don’t think the decision could’ve went any other way.

Drew then fought in the absolute. His first match was against Marty Young of Carlson Gracie, who I thought was impressive. But Drew overcame his opponent on point and I have to say looked very assured.

Unfortunately, I think he suffered, like Adam, from a tough previous fight when he met his semi-final opponent. Again, a single advantage lost Drew the match. If I’m honest I don’t think the referee called it right, but there’s a learning point there which I’ll cover in a blog post this week.

Drew shared bronze with our friend Harry Lowes of Checkmat, Sunderland. The Absolute gold medal went to the opponent Drew submitted in his first Middleweight match.

Again, an excellent performance from Drew. I was really impressed with his skill level and his gold and a bronze were greatly deserved.

Thanks to Dave Vincent who came to Glasgow and warmed the guys up and to everyone in the team who has helped them prepare during the last few weeks.

There’s a couple of things we can learn from as a team particularly around competition tactics, but it was yet another very successful day and I’m personally over the moon for the two guys who I’ve known a long time now. Drew has been with us almost since the beginning, and I’ve known Adam since he was a junior in my traditional Ju-Jitsu and Judo days.

I’ll have some DVDs ready over the next few days.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 6

2011-10-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Choke from Leg-On-Shoulder Guard Pass.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 5

2011-10-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Trip Sweep from Open Guard.

Steve

Homework

2011-10-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

There were a number of stand-out fighters at this year’s ADCC in Nottingham. I could’ve either chose under 88 kg and absolute champion Andre Galvao or under 77 kg Marcelo Garcia as the subject of this week’s homework. I could perhaps have alternatively chosen women’s under 60 kg champion Kyra Gracie, who won her third ADCC title. But it’s another member of the Gracie family who really impressed me.

Kron Gracie is the youngest son of perhaps the greatest even BJJ fighter, Rickson Gracie. Rickson’s other son, Rockson, tragically died in a motor bike accident in 2005, when he had already established himself as a highly promising Jiu-Jitsu fighter.

The first match was a Mundials warm up, the Italian Professional BJJ cup. Kron’s opponent was Gilbert “Durinho” Burns of Atos (Galvao’s team). Durinho is one of the top lightweights in the World and beat Kron in their Mundials final in June / July. But Kron wins this one.

Kron Gracie Vs Gilbert “Durinho” Burns.

It’s really Kron’s Guard that I want you to note. He holds and recovers it superbly, but he’s also dangerous from it. At ADCC he caught Marcelo Garcia in a Guillotine. Marcelo held on until time ran out, but appeared to be unable to escape.

Here, Kron gets caught with an Ippon Seio Nage after only a few seconds. If this was a Judo match, Burns would have just won it on an ippon! But Kron’s recovery is impressive as he shoulder rolls into Guard.

At 0:44, Kron sweeps Durinho. He wraps one of Burns’ arms. Durinho’s weight is pushing into Kron, so Gracie uses his hook to roll his over his wrapped arm. Unfortunately for Kron he doesn’t get top position. Instead the two end up on their feet again.

This time Kron isn’t risking the takedown and jumps to Guard. Around 1:00, Kron has Closed Guard on Durinho.

We drilled how to retain Closed Guard a couple of weeks ago. What I said then was that if you give your training partner or opponent his posture and grips, he or she will pass your Guard. Note how Kron denies Durinho his posture. He uses both the Arm Wrap and collar grip to keep Durinho under control. And critically, Kron is attacking the whole time. But Durinho is a very good fighter and manages to get his posture.

Remember what I said was the golden rule? You can’t allow your training partner or opponent to open your Guard. If he or she does open your Guard, they will have your legs, and therefore your hips, under control. If you feel like your training partner or opponent is about to open your Closed Guard, you should choose to open it yourself. That will enable you to put your legs in a better position.

When Durinho gets his upright posture at around 1:25, Kron’s Closed Guard is partially compromised and so he opens it. Note all of the good habits we’ve discussed while playing Open Guard.

Kron always keeps his shape. If he’s on his back, or rather on his side, his knees are up to his chest. When he sits up, his back comes off the mat to maintain that shape. Note he never chases Durinho with his feet, stretching out his legs and making it easy for Burns to pin them to the mat. When Durinho backs away, Kron lets him go and sits up in that good shape as above.

Note, particularly at 2:10, that Kron is playing off his side rather than his back. This has two advantages. Kron can move more fluidly because he has less friction with the mat. Also, Kron makes it more difficult for Durinho to pass to one side. If you know which side your training partner or opponent is passing to, it will be a little easier to retain your Guard.

Note that Kron is using both hands and feet in the fight for dominant grips, and is always moving and always pressuring Durinho.

At 1:50 Durinho almost passes. Note how Kron uses his hip movement to recover his Guard. At 2:55 Durinho almost passes again. Kron recovers his Guard by coming to his knees. Note how he uses that spinning movement from Turtle to Guard we practice in the warm-ups. If he does that badly, Durinho will pass his Guard, which is why we drill it so much. Not only does Kron recover his Guard, he uses his position for a gi choke that Durinho submits to.

The second movie is Kron’s Mundials semi-final versus Michael Langhi of Alliance. I haven’t chosen this match because of its excitement or because it reinforces the points I’ve made above, although it does so.

Rather I’ve chosen it because it announced Kron in the Mundials. Langhi must have been the favourite for this after winning the lightweight titles in 2009 and 2010. He was also both Pan BJJ and European champion in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (in this year’s Pan BJJ he lost a rock, paper, scissors to Alliance team mate, Luca Lepri in the final) and beat Marcelo Garcia to win the ADCC World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup in 2009.

Kron actually wins by referee’s decision, so this was not without its controversy. And in all honesty, it was very close.

Kron Gracie Vs Michael Langhi.

I won’t labour the same points as above, but there are a couple of additional points I want you to note. (Kron shaved his head for the Mundials and is in the white gi.)

At the start of the match, Langhi pulls Guard. Langhi has one of the very best Spider Guards in Jiu-Jitsu and at 1:55 he catches Kron in a probably the first Spider Guard sweep anyone learns.

Kron starts working his Open Guard. At around 2:30, look what he’s doing with his feet. I think he’s actually looking to get control on Langhi with the collar grip. However, his legs are circling, trying to get controls on Langhi, while ensuring that Langhi doesn’t gain control of his legs and therefore hips.

Remember, you don’t want your training partner or opponent to gain control on one of your legs, but he or she must never be allowed to gain control of both of them at the same time.

At 4:11, with Langhi trying to pull away from Kron’s grips, Gracie uses the motion to sweep his opponent. Kron then starts trying to pass. Note that Langhi again employs all of those good tactics as above and note how Kron is trying to take away his opponent’s space to stiffle his Guard movement as we saw Rodolfo Vieira do in the last two homework's (and Bruno Malfacine before that).

At 8:45, Langhi almost sweeps Kron from Spider Guard, but Gracie avoids it.

So what have we learned from Kron Gracie? Here's what I think are the learning points.

In Closed Guard:-

you can’t allow your training partner or opponent to get his posture, or your Guard will be under pressure,
you need to dominate the grips. Arm Wraps and collar grips will control his or her posture, and allow you to set-up a sweep or submission,
the best way to stop your training partner or opponent from passing your Guard, Closed or Open, is to put him or her under pressure to defend your sweeps or submissions, and
you can never, ever allow your training partner or opponent to open your Guard. If you feel he or she is about to open your legs, you should choose to do so, and get your legs into a good position.

In Open Guard, all of the above, plus:-

keep your shape. If your back is on the mat at the same time that your feet are on the mat, you’re probably going to get your Guard passed. If your back is on the mat your knees need to be close to your chest. If your feet are on the mat you should be sitting up with your knees, again, close to your chest,
if your training partner or opponent backs away from your, reaching with your legs is only going to allow him or her to pin them to the mat. Instead, sit up...in that good shape of course,
your need space to work in. For that reason, you need to win the fight for grips. Also, don’t point both of your lower legs to the ceiling, your training partner or opponent will bring both his or her hips forward and take away that space you need,
never allow your training partner or opponent control of both of your legs at the same time, and
drill those basic movements, leg circles, shrimps, shoulder rolls. If you want to have a great Guard, you have to be able to move well.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 4

2011-09-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Flower Sweep (Inside Grip) from Closed Guard.

Steve

Learning from ADCC 2011

2011-09-26T08:09:00.001-07:00

Guys,

The ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships in Nottingham was fantastic.

It was a great weekend away with Combat Base North East teammates Simon Ball, Dan Boyle and Steve Handford. I saw my coaches Darren and Helen Currie, Combat Base UK teammates including coaches Adam Adshead, Anthony "Griff" Griffiths and Danny Mitchell, and a host of other people I've trained with or otherwise known in BJJ including Trevor Mitchell, Aaron Naisbitt and Sam Howey from Checkmat at Sunderland. Congratulations to Aaron on his recent promotion to black belt and to Sam on his to brown belt.

I also got to see Nottingham Forest and Notts County's football grounds and a whole who's who of BJJ. Aside from those competing in the Championships, there were Jiu-Jitsu legends Rickson Gracie, Fabio Gurgel, Murilo Bustamante, Roger Gracie...

On the mats the ADCC delivered some fantastic grappling. I won't review the matches or the championships here, you can watch for yourselves at some point, but I have linked the results below. Instead this post is more about what I learned from ADCC 2011. If you weren't there and didn't watch the live stream from Budo Videos, you'll need to accept my word until the DVDs are released.

ADCC 2011 had everything. Incredible Wresting from Andre Galvao; decisive finishing from Marcelo Garcia and Dean Lister; wonderful Guard movement from Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu; upsets as Romulo Barral went out in round 1 and Mundials heavyweight and absolute champion Rodolfo Vieira tapped to Dean Lister in the quarter-finals; controversy as Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles lost a final he thought he'd won against his rival Rafael Mendes, who defeated him in the Barcelona final two years ago; bravery as Vinny Magalheas resisted tapping to Fabricio Werdum and escaped after what seem like a minute or more of having his arm fully extended in an Arm Bar, and as Rafael Lovato Jr, not the only fighter to be injured by Rousimar Palhares' leg locks, hobbled to the mat to fight in the bronze medal match with Pablo Popovich; sportsmanship as Popovich fought him at half pace when he could've exploited the injury; and humour as a steward, evidently failing to recognise one of BJJ's greatest ever competitors, told Roger Gracie to get down from a serving counter he was sitting on. And then of course there was a man in a morph suit.

But what did I learn? I'm probably going to sound as if I'm repeating homeworks, but I'd rather that then find ADCC challenging what I though I knew. These are personal learning points. It'd be great if others posted theirs on here.

Leg locks - You need to know them
So many of the submissions at ADCC 2011 were leg locks. There were a couple of Knee Bars, but Heel Hooks were the the submission of choice for many fighters, most notably Rousimar Palhares and of course Dean Lister.
Many BJJ fighters used to look down their noses at leg locks and a few paid the price as Lister tore through the field to win the absolute at ADCC 2003. It's refreshing to see that leg locks are now being used so effectively.
Even if leg locks, and in particular Heel Hooks, aren't your thing, you need to know them. If you don't recognise the set-ups, you won't see them coming. By the time you feel the Heel Hook, you're probably going to be walking with a limp.
It's worth restating my policy on Heel Hooks. I don't mind anyone working them into their rolling, but you should never apply the finish in training. Get the control and let it go, we don't want knee injuries. If your training partner gets the Heel Hook control on you, tap. I don't mind if you agree with your training partner that if he or she gets the control you'll try and escape, but you need to know that he or she isn't going to put the submission on.

Never get into a p*** fight with a skunk
There was a moment in ADCC 2011 when I became psychic. It happened as Joao Assis locked up Dean Lister in a Heel Hook. I turned to Dan and Si at that moment and said "What's that phrase Ed (Drysdale) uses, never get into a p*** fight with a skunk!" Almost immediately, Lister grabbed Assis' foot and put on a Heel Hook of his own.
Assis had a great Championships. He defeated the great Xande Ribeiro to reach the final with Lister and Antonio Braga Neto the previous round. But Lister is great at Heel Hooks. Great, not just good. If you show him your ankle, you're tapping out. A lesson in dealing with a good Heel Hook-er was delivered by Andre Galvao who never gave Rousimar Palhares a chance to get hold of his ankle in their whole match.
Of course, the lesson isn't about Heel Hooks. It's about not playing into the hands of an opponent who has mastery in a particular position or submission. I might equally use the example of the way Cobrinha didn't allow Jeff Glover his Deep Half Guard.

If all you have is a jump (or a sit) to Guard, you'd better have an amazing Guard
Andre Galvao has an amazing Guard. His toughest fight was against Palhares. Palhares had left a trail of injured fighters at that point, including Rafael Lovato Jr whose Guard is exceptional. He also looked as if he should be at least one weight division heavier than Galvao. Galvao played Guard well, as above, he didn't allow Palhares any grip on his legs. Let's be honest, Galvao is a great fighter, Palhares isn't in that quality, but he is very strong and has lethal Heel Hooks. So he was a challenge for Andre.
Several times the match was restarted standing. What impressed me most with Galvao, and what I think won him the match, wasn't his Guard. I think it was his takedowns and takedown defence.
He could have easily been a Wrestler. He switched between takedowns nicely and at one point countered Palhares' pick-up with a hand stand.
I've said it a few times, if you want to be successful, you need to do a lot of stand-up wrestling, both to develop the timing and set-up for takedowns, and to enable you to counter them like Galvao. He was caught in a few High Singles, particularly by Palhares, but I think he escaped virtually all with technique, timing and balance you can only develop by sparring.

There is no excuse for not having a great Guard
I loved the way Robson Moura attacked from the Guard in his first match with Greger Forsel. Robson transitioned between sweep and submission attempts in what was a masterclass of attacking Guard.
That's probably not a surprise to anyone. Robson fought in the under 66 kg category and is well known for his incredible movement. Was his the Guard everyone was talking about afterwards? Actually no. Everyone I met commented on Cyborg's Guard and his incredible movement.
From his first match with Sekine Hideki through his quarter-final with Glover Teixeira, it looked as if he was almost allowing his opponents to pass before shoulder rolling and recovering.
Absolutely incredible movement and he was in the under 99 kg division, where he took a bronze. What I was most impressed about was how comfortable he looked. He looked as if he knew his opponents couldn't pass his Guard.
So, if Cyborg can move that well at 99 kg or thereabouts, it is achievable for anyone.

Submissions or points?
This is interesting.
Marcelo Garcia has fantastic submissions. He fought some very good fighters at ADCC 2011. Fighters like David Hart (round 1) and Victor Estima (quarter-final) both of whom he Guillotined in seconds. Marcelo is a finisher. When he gets his opportunity, his submissions are tight and few escape from them.
Kron Gracie's performance was pretty special. He's son of BJJ's greatest Rickson Gracie. In his semi-final with Marcelo, Kron had the same Guillotine he finished Jason Manly with, locked in tight. Garcia looked as if he might tap-out as Kron tried to finish it, but time ran out. Unfortunately for Kron, Garcia was ahead on points and won.
It's always the issue. We all like to win with a submission, but Kron must've had Garcia for a minute and his decision to try and finish Marcelo may possibly have cost him the match. I'm not suggesting that we should try and get points and defend them, far from it.
I think Xande Ribeiro's technique is superb, but he playing for points didn't work for him as he was beaten by Joao Assis in the under 99 kg semi-final and Pablo Popovich in the absolute semi (I'm sure it was a judges' decision and if it was I didn't think they called it right).
I think what I'm saying is that you should develop tight submissions like Garcia's Guillotine and Lister's Heel Hook, but there will always be that decision when you're nearing the end of a fight and you've got the submission on your opponent of whether you go all out for the tap-out and when you let go and try and score some points. Your opponent will / should know he or she is ahead and that time is ticking away. They may just choose to risk hanging on.
Mind you, I think if Garcia had the Guillotine, I doubt anyone would have held on.

50/50 Guard isn't for me
Sorry, but it isn't. Once points and rules get introduced into a sport, people start developing games around them, why wouldn't they?
But I struggle with some of the newer Guards. It was Royce Gracie's performances in the early Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) that drew me into Ju-Jitsu then Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Royce represented BJJ other styles and won UFCs 1, 2 and 4, retiring injured but undefeated in UFC 3.
So my interest in BJJ was born in reality. I struggle with techniques and positions that clearly work well in competition, but are a little more removed from reality, like jumping and even worse, sitting to Guard, and I'm really struggling with 50 / 50 Guard. Don't get me wrong, I love BJJ sport and Submission Wrestling, but What Garcia, Galvao, Rodolfo Vieira, etc, were doing was still BJJ that looked like Royce's BJJ.
Much as I know I should, I just don't think I can bring myself to work 50 / 50 Guard, despite Rafael Mendes' success with it.

Results.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 3

2011-09-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is a Half Guard Sweep using the Gi.

Steve

Technique of the Week No. 2

2011-09-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique of the week is the Knee Ride Parallel Strangle.

Steve

Homework

2011-09-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This week's homework is again Rodolfo Vieira of Grapple Fighting Team (GFT). GFT, as the commentators say was Gama Filho University's Jiu-Jitsu team. I believe when Jiu-Jitsu was dropped from the University’s syllabus, the remnants of Gama Filho Jiu-Jitsu formed Grappling Fight Team.

The two matches below are Rodolfo's wars with Bernardo Faria of Alliance at this year's Mundials. Last year, Bernardo burst onto the scene winning both heavyweight and the absolute at the Pan-BJJ Championships and defeating the great Xande Ribeiro of Gracie Humaita to win the gold at heavyweight in the Mundials.

This year, Rodolfo defeated Bernardo in the heavyweight and absolute fInals at both the Pan-BJJ and the Mundials. The matches below are the two finals from the Mundials. Of course, Roger Gracie of Gracie Barra wasn't at this year's Mundials so there will always be the question of whether Rodolfo would have still won the absolute, but either way, it would have been an epic contest.

Before we get into Rodolfo, the first, very short, movie shows what he's trying to defeat. It's Bernard's famous Deep Half Guard and Sweep from it. I'm not a fan of Deep Half Guard, I know some of you like it and are better than I am at it. But there is a lesson he. Only if you understand a position or a technique, how it is set-up and used, can you hope to defeat it.

Bernardo Faria Deep Half Guard Sweep.

The first match is the heavyweight final. So at this point, Rodolfo has defeated Bernardo twice for the gold medals at the Pan-BJJ. Bernardo's tactics are to pull Half Guard and the Deep Half Guard Sweep. We now know Rodolfo's tactics are to try and takedown, particularly with the Foot Sweep and to pass Guard.

Rodolfo Vieira Vs Bernardo Faria, Mundials 2011, Heavyweight Final.

Almost immediately, Rodolfo attempts the Foot Sweep. Bernado keeps his legs out of the way and jumps to Half Guard. What follows for the remainder of the match is Rodolfo trying to pass Bernardo's Half Guard.

All of the time he has to be careful to stifle Bernardo's sweeps. Note the controls. At 1:20 Rodolfo puts Bernardo's Deep Half Guard under pressure with the Tripod Pass attempt. He uses his head and underhook to keep Bernardo flat while he tries to drag his leg free of his opponent's. By 3:40, I think Faria's priority has shifted to trying to maintain his Half Guard rather than sweeping Rodolfo. He's fighting to hang onto Vieira's leg.

Rodolfo finally passes at 6:55. Note his controls from the side. At 7:45 he's using that between the legs grip I like to stifle Bernardo's escape. Rodolfo's in no hurry now, he's ahead on point from the Guard Pass.

At 8:25, Faria recovers his Half Guard as Rodolfo gave him the space he was looking for since the start of the match. However, now he's behind on point and he has to go for the takedown. Note how Rodolfo stuffs his High Single attempts by turning in his hip on the side Bernardo is attacking and denying Faria two arms on his leg. Rodolfo shows the balance and the confidence n his ability of someone who knows he has the edge of his feet.

Rodolfo Vieira Vs Bernardo Faria, Mundials 2011, Absolute Final.

The absolute final must've presented Bernardo with a problem. He had lost 3 finals in a row to Rodolfo, one earlier the same day. So how does he deal with that?

The match stars with Rodolfo nicely Inside Hook throwing Bernardo. Bernardo tries with the High Single but Rodolfo Sprawls on the hip Faria is trying to control. At 1:15, Rodolfo Ankle Picks Bernardo from the Sprawl and the match becomes the same battle of Vieira's Guard Pass versus Faria's Deep Half Guard Sweep as above.

Again note that Bernardo is trying to use Rodolfo's gi to pull off the sweep and note how Rodolfo is countering the control. His head is always blocking Bernardo's movement and he is always underhooking so Faria can't get underneath him.

At 7:15, Rodolfo uses the Foot Prise Pass to get to Mount. At that stage he was 9 - 0 up on points, so it was Bernardo who had to chase the points. Bernardo does recover his Half Guard, but the time runs out before he can achieve anything.

So what have we learned from this week's homework?

I would say again the importance of takedowns cannot be over-stated or of sparring to takedown. Rodolfo is comfortable on his feet, you can see that in the way he is able to stiffle Bernardo’s High Single and Low Single attempts. He shows the sort of timing and balance that only comes from doing many hours of sparring. His timing on both the Foot Sweeps and the Ankle Pick is superb.

I would also emphasise again the importance of that slow, tight Guard Passing game as I did on the homeworks on Bruno Malfacine, Bernardo’s team mate. Bernardo is so good at what he does, that if Rodolfo gave him any space at all, he would probably have been swept. So Rodolfo concentrates on tightness and killing Bernardo’s movement.

I won’t labour the point as I made it last week, but look at the techniques the reigning Pan-BJJ and Mundials heavyweight and absolute champion wins with. There’s nothing particularly advanced. He wins as he’s the product of hard work, of putting in the hours drilling techniques and positions we all know, and rolling, not because he has a new technique or position no-one’s ever seen before.

Steve

Our Seventh Birthday

2011-09-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

The first class of Combat Base North East was on Saturday 11th September 2011. That means yesterday was our 7th birthday.

You may remember, we celebrated our 6th birthday with a seminar by Fernando "Terere" Augusto. I promise I won't go into more reminiscing but it was incredible for me that someone who was one of BJJ's greatest competitors when I first started watching the sport was at our gym, and that I got to roll with him.

It certainly takes a bit of topping but I think we achieved it for our 7th birthday. Simon Ball, Norman Campbell, Steve Handford, Adam Lowes and I represented our team at the Combat Base UK Training Day, hosted by Carl Fisher's Combat Base Bolton. While we were at the training day, Freddie Wykes was making his MMA debut at the Inferno Fighting Championships 2 in Ashington. Freddie was cornered by Ed Drysdale.

The day started with heads of Combat Base UK, my coaches Darren and Helen Currie handing out brown belts to coaches Carl Fisher, Antony "Griff" Griffiths and James Nardone, then to my surprise a black belt to me. I'm absolutely made up with the black belt and even more so to receive it from Darren. It seems like a long time since I first walked into his class in Knottingly, West Yorkshire. He was a blue belt then, one of the few in the UK, and I was a white belt.

My black belt also means I can promote a few people who are overdue but who couldn't make it to the training day.

The day started with a session on Throwing Guard from Griff who is coach at Evade Martial Arts and Performance Centre in Hyde, Cheshire. This was followed by Guard Passing from James Nardone, coach at Combat Base Cheshire. Both sessions were excellent and I at least took away some great stuff. In particular I liked James' Z Guard Pass.

I followed with a session on Butterfly Guard (what else!) using Single Overhook. It was great for me because I got to meet and talk to a lot of really nice people. In between the sessions I managed a couple of rolls, one with my old friend Chris Eastwood who was one of my main training partners at Darren's in the old days. I also trained with Chris up here in the North East while he was undergoing his police training so it was nice that my first roll in a black belt was with him. We were graded to blue belt on the same night by Matt Thornton in February 2003. My second roll was with our own Adam Lowes who I first started training with in the mid-90s in traditional Ju-Jitsu.

The final session was from Darren who gave us all some great concepts for defeating Half Guard.

All through the day I think the 5 of us in Bolton were waiting for news of Freddie's fight so it was great when the text came through from Ed to say he'd won by Lion Kill in round 2. It's great for Freddie. He's come a long way in no time at all and is such a nice guy.

I'll get the full story later, but thanks to Ed and everyone else who supported him. Also thanks to everyone who has worked with Freddie in class

Of course the day wasn't quite finished. Darren handed out some further grades, including a purple to Simon and a blue to Adam. The tracings reflect the rate at which both are improving and how good they've become. Again, they're both really nice guys and it was nice to see them rewarded for being there every session they can.

There are couple of events before the end of the year it would be great if everyone could support. One is another Combat Base Inter-Club which we expect in November. The other is a seminar with head of Combat Base, Chris Haueter, hopefully at Loose Cannons.

Steve

Review:-Jiu Jitsu Style

2011-09-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

I’m probably going to sound a little like Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses (younger guys, Google it) here with my reminiscing, "During the war..."

Or rather during 1993, I was doing Aikido when the first Ultimate Fighting Championship was reported in the Mirror. It said a Jiu-Jitsu fighter known as Royce Gracie had beaten stylists from other martial arts. A few months later, the Mirror reported that Royce won the follow-up UFC. In about 2005, I decided it was time to change to Jiu-Jitsu.

I was already a brown belt in traditional Jiu-Jitsu when I saw a tape of UFC 4. I hadn’t expected to like it, but a guy from work had leant me the video tape (again, younger guys, Google it) and he kept pestering me to watch it so we could talk about it. When I eventually put in on, I was completely blown away by the UFC in general, but especially Royce.

The problem was, I also recognised that what he was doing wasn’t what I was doing, but Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was completely unheard of in the UK. Within a few months I heard Carley Gracie, Royce’s cousin was doing a seminar in Droitwich Spa near Worcester. I went down for the seminar and loved every minute. I think I was buzzing for the first half of the journey home. Then reality started to dawn on me that there was nowhere for me to train BJJ.

I attended two of Carley’s seminars the following year, in Workington and Perth. I was accompanied by Adam Lowes on the Perth seminar, yeah that’s how long I’ve known him.

Soon Mauricio Motta Gomes opened the first Gracie Barra in the UK in Birmingham. Mauricio is Roger Gracie’s father. I attended a seminar with him a few years ago in Mansfield, so I know how lucky the guys in Birmingham were. Mauricio brought BJJ to the UK, but so did those guys who acquired their blue belts on seminars or by visiting the USA or Brazil. People like Dean Taylor of Rickson Gracie, Mark Walder of Gracie Barra. Those of us who’ve been around BJJ since its beginning in the UK know how much we all owe these guys. Two of these pioneers were our own Darren and Helen Currie.

I did a little Goshin Ryu Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Sambo, Wrestling and went to every seminar I could attend. At the time there were no BJJ competitions so I competed in Judo and Sambo. There were only 3 sets of video tapes you could really buy in the UK:- Royce and Rorion’s, Kazeka Muniz’s, Joe Moreira’s and later Carlson Gracie jnr’s came along. There were no books. The first one I bought was from the USA and written by Gene Simco. At the time, I think he was a blue belt.

If you wanted a gi you paid a fortune for it from the USA or Brazil. Initially it seemed only to be Atama and Krugans, either double weave or single weave. Then gold weave was invented and other brands such as KF Fighter and Machado started appearing.

In December 2000 I started travelling 270 miles every Saturday to train with Darren, who was a blue belt at the time. You might gather, I have huge respect for Darren. It is because of him that we have a club today.

The face of BJJ in this country has changed much. You have no idea how good it feels to me that I can walk on the mats 5 miles away from where I live and be surrounded by brown, purple and blue belts. And to be frank, white belts of real quality.

We have some of the World’s greatest black belts, here in the UK. Roger Gracie, Braulio Estima, and we have UK black belts like Darren and Helen. There is also a wealth of information on the internet, even online tutorials by the likes of Jean-Jacques Machado and Marcelo Garcie. DVDs and books by everyone you can name.

There are regular competitions across the country. Even the ADCC World Submission Wrestling Championships are in this country in a couple of weeks.

Why the reminiscing? Well, it’s like this. I probably get real buzz out of some things the newer guys in the team may not. Tatami Fightwear was a big one for me. My first gi was an Atama double weave. I bought it from the USA. It cost me about £150 and another £50 in import tax, and I wore it every time I trained because I couldn’t afford another!

Now Tatami, a British company, produce World class gis and they sell them at an excellent price. I’m a distributer for Tatami so you can get gis at a lot less than what I used to pay, but also to support a British company who are doing something great for our sport.

This post started life as a review of Jiu-Jitsu Style magazine. It’s up to 4 issues now and I have to say I’m impressed. It sells at £3.95 or by subscription in either hard copy or in an e-format for iPads, etc. Again, the review is to support a British company, because they’re bringing something to us we haven’t had before.

How good is Jiu-Jitsu Style? I think it’s fair to say its getting better with each issue and is now very good. I’ve bought a few issues of Gracie Magazine since it started publishing in English, but I think I prefer Jiu-Jitsu Style.

For example, in this month’s issue there are interviews with BJJ legends, Ricardo De La Riva, Robson Moura and Roberto “Gordo” Correa, and with Mundials champion Caio Terra. De La Riva is incredible. He popularised the Guard of the same name. Robson Moura is one of the most successful competitors ever and Gordo, well he invented Half Guard as a position. When I started training, there was no Half Guard. Depending on which way you look at it, you were either half way to passing Guard or still hanging onto it.

It’s great to read what make these great fighter tick. What made them specialise, how they approach training, their views on “new” competitions techniques and positions. You can learn so much from what I think are very clever interviews. In previous issues there have been issues with Carlson Gracie jnr, Romulo Barral, etc.

There is a bit of history, this month of Alliance team, techniques with Gracie Barra UK’s Nick Brooks, Leo Negao, Claudio Silva and even a kind of agony aunt column from Braulio Estima, where you put difficulties you’re having on the mat to the Mundials champion and he helps you with the answers. There’s also competition reports, reviews of gis, iPhone apps, etc.

While I believe in supporting what Jiu-Jitsu Style are doing for BJJ in the UK, I did fear it would be a really insignificant publication on a World scale. In other words it would focus solely on UK fighter and coaches. There’s nothing wrong with that, it would still have been a worthwhile magazine. But Jiu-Jitsu style is really shaping up nicely and I'm increasingly impressed with it.

Check out the website for more information.

Steve

Sinbad Update

2011-09-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

I’ve sponsored Sinbad in our name for another year. And I received the latest newsletter from the Born Free Foundation today, so here’s a brief update on our lion! The text is from Tricia Holford, Born Free’s Big Cat Rescue Co-ordinator:-

“I’m sorry to have to tell you that little Sinbad gave everyone a fright in April. We found him collapsed in his enclosure - you can imagine how worrying this was.

The weather that day was humid and hot, about 30 degrees. This was the hottest it had been for some months, looking at our records. Sinbad had collapsed with the heat in the past before, shortly after arrival, but there had been no sign of problems since then.

Your little lion was darted and taken to Shamwari’s veterinary hospital. Here blood tests were taken and thankfully nothing significant was found. Shamwari’s vet did discover Sinbad seems to be deaf though! If he was asleep you could stand next to him and call and call and there would be no response - but tickle his ears and he would wake up straight away!

Sinbad is a very gentle-natured little lion and seemed to enjoy all the attention he got in the vet centre. He didn’t need darting to sedate him, to get him into his crate to go back to his enclosure. Once home he went back to his normal routine. He is always very friendly until food is around. Then he becomes very possessive and will issue warning growls.”

Steve

Technique of the Week No.1

2011-09-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

This week's technique is the North-South Bread Cutter Choke.

Steve

Homework

2011-08-31T05:12:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

After yesterday's straw pole, homework is back. The DVDs were a pain to do, so we’re back on You Tube.

This week the homework is on Rodolfo Vieira of the Grappling Fight Team (GF Team). You may remember, Vieira announced himself a couple of years ago when as a brown belt he defeated Braulio Estima of Gracie Barra at the ADCC World Pro BJJ Cup.

This year he’s made an even bigger statement. Now a black belt, he won both heavyweight and the absolute at the Pan BJJ and the Mundials.

Vieira’s lineage is interesting. Mitsuyo Maeda didn’t only award a black belt to Carlos Gracie. He also awarded one to a man called Luis Franca, who not much is known about. Franca in turn awarded a black belt to Oswaldo Fadda.

Fadda started teaching Jiu-Jitsu free of charge in parks and beaches to spread the art to the poorer people of Rio de Janeiro. In 1950, he managed to open his own academy and his students began specialising in the use of footlocks. The next year, Fadda issued a challenge to the Gracies, "We wish to challenge the Gracies, we respect them like the formidable adversaries they are but we do not fear them. We have 20 pupils ready for the dispute". Helio Gracie accepted the challenge and the two teams fought with Fadda's team defeating the Gracie Academy.

Rodolfo Vieira is the product of the Franca / Fadda lineage. Why have I chosen Vieira as a subject of the homework? Yes he’s current and it would be worthwhile choosing him for that alone. But the reason why I chose him is because I like his style. I really like competition BJJ, but as you’ll have undoubtedly gathered from training if not from these blogs, I don’t like it when competition drives BJJ fighters to develop techniques and games that are too far removed from reality. I don’t want BJJ to lose its effectiveness as a self-defence system.

Rodolfo, like Roger Gracie, like Saulo Ribeiro, has a style that could translate to MMA or self-defence.

The first movie is his Mundials heavyweight fight with Rafael Lovato Jr of Gracie Humaita, a student of the great Saulo Ribeiro. When you watch it bear in mind that Lovato has one of the very best Guards in Jiu-Jitsu.

Rodolfo Vieira Vs Rafael Lovato Jr.

Rodolfo Foot Sweeps Lovato almost immediately. The Foot Sweep is highly effective go, no-gi and MMA. It’s been a while since we worked it in training, so we’ll be doing so again...very soon. Note what Rodolfo is doing with Rafael’s arms as he sweeps him. That off-balancing is known as Kuzushi in Judo and is absolutely essential to throws.

Note the throws again around 2 minutes. I think Vieira actually attempts an Uchi Mata before this, but is out of camera shot. At 2:05 he pulls off the Ippon Seio Nage or Flying Mare in Wrestling. If you’re up against a Guard player like Lovato, it’s good to be so effective in your takedowns.

What follows is Vieira trying to Toreana pass by pushing Lovato’s legs to one side and passing to the other, but Lovato recovers well. Note that Vieira is overdoing the pushes. He’s trying to create only the space he needs to pass. Any more would enable Lovato to recover his Guard.

At 2:51 he passes and immediately tries to kill Lovato’s movement. Note the grips he’s using. If you pass a Guard like Lovato’s you can’t afford to allow him to recover it easily. Besides, while stalling doesn’t appear to be in Rodolfo’s nature, he knows he’s 5 points up, so Lovato is the one who needs to move. and slowly he does recover his Guard.

Note how Rodolfo passes again on 7:09. He controls Lovato’s trousers at the knee while he backsteps out of Half Guard with the Ballerina Pass. Again, Rodolfo controls Rafael nicely but the Guard recovery at 8:04 is absolutely awesome. At 8:24, Lovato is becoming desperate and tries to sit to a Tomoe Nage or sweep, I’m unsure which. Again, Rodolfo pressurises with the Guard passing. Right at the end, Rafael sweeps Rodolfo with a Double Ankle Sweep.

Rodolfo’s semi-final with Braulio Estima at the World Pro BJJ Cup in 2009 is for anoraks only.

Rodolfo Vieira Vs Braulio Estima.

I’ve posted this one mainly as it was Rodolfo’s big entrance onto the World scene, but also because it shows his style against one of the greatest ever BJJ competitors. We all know how good Braulio’s Guard is. Rodolfo pressurises it from the start, denying Braulio the grips he needs to set up his sweeps and the space for his hips to work in.

It’s a point I’ve made many times. Inexperienced guys in the gym often try and keep their hips back and beat their opponent with speed. That only allows the Guard player the space he needs to work in.

At 3:45, Rodolfo passes to Kneeride using Toreana but if you remember Braulio sweeps from there. Vieira avoids the sweep and wins on an advantage for the near Guard pass.

More from Rodolfo next time. There’s some wonderful fights with Antonio Braga Neto, Rubens Charles, Andre Galvao, etc, on You Tube.

In the meantime, what have we learned. Have a think about what techniques Vieira used to defeat 2 of the greatest Guard players ever in competition BJJ. A couple of basic throws and Toreana passing, a good Side Control pin.

I could easily be writing on Roger Gracie, but Vieira uses nothing flash. He has a very straightfoward game based on basic techniques. Toreana is all about spending hours and hours passing your training partners’ Guards, while he tries to stop you. It’s only through drills like that you develop the timing and the control. So again, we’ll work some Toreana very soon.

Steve

Well Done Simon

2011-08-31T03:29:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

The second part of the catch-up is on the North West Open BJJ Championships in Blackpool on 20th August 2011.

Simon Ball was our sole representative in the blue belt medium heavyweight category. Si lost his first fight to Mark Innes (pictured with Si) of Checkmat, Sunderland (coached by our friends Trev Mitchell and Aaron Naisbett) by Ezequiel Strangle. But Si came back to defeat his second opponent by Triangle and claim the bronze medal.

Si decided to compete in the absolute and won a hard-fought first fight on points. Unfortunately the draws weren’t communicated very well so we were unware his second fight was the semi-final. As it happened, Si was caught quickly by Alex Enlund of South Shields Fight Factory with one of the techniques from the Robson Moura seminar Laurie Major, Steve Handford and I attended a few weeks ago.

Thinking his fights were finished Si got changed and ate, only to be called to the mat for the bronze medal match. Despite this, he quickly secured his huge opponent in a triangle, but somehow injured his own ankle, meaning he couldn’t finish the fight.

Si, as always, did us all proud and was unlucky not to finish with 2 bronze medals.

It was also good seeing our friend and Combat Base Bolton coach Carl Fisher there and meeting some of his team.

Steve

Congratulations Simon, Kris and Adam

2011-08-31T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys,

It’s catch-up time again and we start with 3 happy events.

First of all on 16th July 2011, Simon Ball married his new wife Joanne in Ashington.

Kris Brotherton’s partner gave birth to a baby girl, Lexie Patricia on 27th July. Lexie weighed in at 6lbs. And that was followed by the arrival of Adam Lowes’ first child, a baby boy Spencer on 16th August.

Steve

Well Done Dan and Lee

2011-06-26T11:39:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys,

It was yet another great night for Combat Base North East last night.

A few weeks ago, Brett Smart took a professional bout at Ikon 7 against the experienced Marcin Zontek of Salford MMA with only a few days notice. Brett fought at light heavyweight despite being a middleweight. An illegal knee to Brett’s head in the first round ended the fight in a “no contest”.

Brett was unfortunate again yesterday as his fight against Michael Howe of Felling Warriors was called-off only a few hours before the event started, due to Howe being unwell.

In the cage, I was very happy that Lee Carr chose to represent our team in his MMA debut. Lee’s worked very hard over the last few weeks, and has developed an impressive all-round game. Following his planned under 84kg opponent’s withdrawal earlier in the week, Lee had to quickly cut weight to under 80kg and also changed rules from amateur to semi-pro.

None of it seemed to trouble Lee. His opponent, Karl “Lights-Out” Latcham of Team Shotai Kai, gave Lee a hard debut opponent, but Lee took him down twice in round 1, once in round 2 and once in round 3 before submitting Latcham with an unescapable Arm Bar.

Straight afterwards, Dan Boyle was called for his semi-pro under 65kg bout versus another Team Shotai Kai fighter, Matt "Trooper" Johnson.

Again, the fight was a war. I thought Johnson was impressive, but as I’ve said before, there’s few out there with Dan’s heart and skill. His fight started with a ferocious Double Leg from Dan and a Guillotine attempt from Johnson, which Dan used to pass the Guard. Dan repeated the takedown following a restart.

Round 2 went much the same way, a big Double Leg from Dan was followed by a Guillotine attempt from Johnson and then Dan working his way from Guard to Mount. Dan shot another Double Leg (from a High Single) at the start of round 3 and a High Single following a restart.

Dan won on point to push his own record to 4 fights and 4 wins and Combat Base North East’s to 21 fights, 19 wins, 1 draw, 1 no contest and, still, 0 losses.

Thanks to Lee and Dan for representing the team so well with your skills, your heart and with the humility you show towards your opponents and their corners; to Ed Drysdale for wrapping and cornering them; Graeme Allsopp, Simon Ball, Chris McIntyre and Dave Vincent for warming them up; Gary Brooks, Kris Brotherton, Norman Campbell, Johnny Chatt, Steve Handford, Adam Lowes, Freddie and Ben (sorry I don’t know your surnames) for cheering them on too; and of course to Brett Smart, who although he was disappointed at not fighting himself, put that aside to turn up and support his team mates.

Congratulations also to Loose Cannons MMA’s John Ferguson for his round 1 knock-out of David Bailey in his under 77kg semi-pro bout. And thanks to Wayne Rigg for the unexpected gift afterwards. It’s really appreciated.

As always, our unbeaten record will fall sooner or later and I'm comfortable with that. But it's always nice to hold onto it just a little longer. The two guys did fantastic last night, but there's always things we can learn from every fight, win or lose. The hard work starts this week.

Steve