IBJJF Referee Seminar - Sydney 2019

Stu and myself went to the referee seminar which was held at Gracie Barre in Manly.

The location of the seminar (the Gracie Barra gym) was very nice and their staff were very friendly and professional.

I am impress with the set up in terms of size and cleanliness.

The course was held by the same instructor (Gabriel) that we met in Melbourne during our last Seminar.

The course was 4 hours long and also included a written exam which stu and myself with a 95 % pass.

The funny story is that we both failed the same question but we gave the a different wrong answer as well.

Gabriel also used lot of videos as teaching help which can be found on their you tube account.

Having a visual aid is big improvement compare to the previous but you now also access on you tube.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUhrE6CnIi8&list=PLndFOMjO-W27bcQWzJbHMhul7llTclJpB

Training and competition Report

We went to support our competitors on Saturday 06 April at the NZ National NOGI competition.

Stu won silver at the black belt division and Kane won silver at the white belt division.

The competitors from our Kids club also had their share of medals.

The event conclude our nogi season which started from 13 October 2018.

So about 6 months of no gi training.

From now on, we will be training GI only at both locations (Epsom & Sandringham).

We are still taking new students at our Sandringham location.

Please note that competition is not compulsory at our clubs and most of our members train for fitness and self defense among other reasons which I cannot think off at the moment.

If you are interested in kids classes, please contact directly Adam.

 I understand he has a waiting list but he might have take new students in April

https://www.aucklandkidsbjj.com/

https://www.aucklandkidsbjj.com/p/contact.html

Meanwhile, the next competition is the Auckland NZ grappler GI competition on Saturday 15 June 2019

Last week, we cover the topic of Mount and we will teaching the topic of back for fundamental this week.

Keep scrolling down for more pictures and technical videos.

Blue belt turns full time BJJ Athlete after submitting a black belt via heelhook during sparring session

After submitting a visiting black belt last Saturday in Whanganui, Jack decided to turn pro.

He admits that he took advantage of the black belt that stopped sparring by pointing out to him that he was knee reaping: "I cannot believe that he took the time to explain that I was doing something illegal, I just heel hooked while he was still talking. I guess you should be ready at all time...just like a fight...right?".

Since this event that he described as pinnacle in his career, Jack has quit his job working at the local bank to concentrate on training full time: "I need to reach my full potential, I just realize that I had insane talent that I cannot waste it working an 8 to 5 job, I could make heaps of money fighting in nogi competition and doing seminars, I heard of this Aussie that went from purple to like ADCC competitor high level over two years, I even downloaded his DVD..it is the bomb..that how I learned to heel hook people, it has been my favorite submission...especially on the sparring partner that are not aware that I will attack them with this IBJJF illegall submission".

Jack has no remorse as he is convinced that he is a modern samurai and samurais do not follow IBJJF rules: "Back in the days, samurais will knee reap and heel hook all day every day..bro #porrada!"

Admittedly, his dad was not very supportive of his new choice but he got convinced after Jake showed him the instragam of the famous Gordan "the king" Ryan.
Dad was very impressed of the hespect that Gordan showed to his dad "big gord" but mostly he really liked the pictures of Ryan's sister.

Jack took the initiate to  create a facebook athlete page which has reached 23 likes overnight: "I guess that things are getting pretty serious now I am an official athlete. I need a presence on social platform for my fans. I even reached out to Future Kimono for sponsorship. I heard heaps of sponsored athlete are getting free gear like one BJJ gi per year to rep their brand. I might even get a special edition with my name on it later on if I can increase my rep. who knows?" says the overnight born athlete.

Meanwhile, Jack also created an instragram account which consists of several pictures of bowl of acai, coconut water, water melon juice and motivational post such as "success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out"

I tried to contact the black belt for this side of the story.
Unfortunately, he did not want to elaborate any further on the incident.
I just heard that he might have purchased the DVDs from John Danaher: leg lock system.
We hope that only his self ego was injured and not his ACL & CCL.

In the month time, Jack will be moving to Auckland with the worst traffic and real estate problem in New Zealand to join a club that is affiliated to 5 times world time champion: "I know he only comes once every 2 years for a three hours seminar but to be the best, you have to train with the best. I will make the most of the 3 hours seminar by taking notes and drill the techniques later on. It is not just an occasion to take a picture with someone famous, you know!"

To conclude, the Jack's girlfriend did not approve of his new plan. Jack broke up with her and he described as a hater (just like the rest of them), no one should stop him to achieve his full potential and live the life of a full time of a pro athlete.

Training report: Bottom half gaurd

We are now completed our week 10 which covers bottom half guard for fundamentals.

For advanced program, we took a break from the front head lock system on Tuesday and did a quick review for de La Riva and transition to Sit up guard.

Next week is the turtle position for fundamentals.

We are 3 weeks away from the National NOGI competition (on Saturday 06 April).

Please note we will stop training nogi after the nationals competitions.

Also, Adam Wilson competed at the Wellington Nogi Regional on Saturday 16/03/19.
He posted some of the videos on facebook.
He had several matches and gains more experience.

We are still taking new members at the Sandringham Dojo:
681 Sandringham Road,

Sandringham

All level welcome.

If you have train before or not, please come down for a free class or email us for more information.

We have a fundamental programs for our beginners which was created, tested and improved for the past 7 years.

If you have trained before but have stopped for a while, you will enjoy getting back into it via attending our fundamental program.

While our dojo in Sandringham has been only opened since June 2018, we still have lot of seniors students (blue, purple and brown belt level) that come and train from our Epsom Dojo (opened since 2011).

Our fees are $20 per week with no contract or extra sign up fee.

What to expect from Auckland BJJ?

We train for sport competition but we do not force our students to compete.

Our competitors make a small percentage of our members.

Lot of members are doing it to stay in shape.

Do we focus on self defense?

Not really, we feel that you will become better at using your skills against an agressor if required by training with resistance against an experience sparring partner


Do you teach kids?

Yes and no.

We have an affiliate program in Grey Lynn which is run by our students Adam Evans.
He teaches kids from 5 to 12 years.
They have 4 classes per week (split into 2 format: Junior and Senior)
Please check out his website for more information.
https://www.aucklandkidsbjj.com/

Training report: top half guard and the front head lock system

This week,
For fundamental program, we covered the top half guard.
We always cover the top half guard topic before teaching the bottom half guard.
As usual, we usually teach positions that reward more points
Basically, passing top half is rewarded by 3 points while sweeping from bottom half guard.

While originally, half guard was look at a transition  which your closed guard got opened and your opponent will eventually get a more dominant position like side control, north south, knee on the belly, mount etc.

However, half guard is no longer considered a weak guard and lot of competitors are having lot of success with half guard.

Half guard is probably the guard we covered the most in our fundamental program: 1 week of top half guard followed by one week of bottom half guard.

Which we repeat twice per semester and therefore 4 times of years: 8 weeks of half guard (two months).

Regarding the advanced program, we continued on the new front head lock system and we look at seated position and how to set up submissions.

Stu and myself will be flying to Sydney to do referee seminar run by the IBJJF at the end of month.

NZ grappler will be running their national nogi competition on Saturday 06 april.

The event will conclude our nogi season as well and we will be training gi only after this competition.

Also, we are still taking new students at our Sandringham location: 681 Sandringham road, Sandringham.

All level welcome.

$20 per week: no contract and sign up fee.