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.

Review of Back Attacks (enter the system) from John Danaher and how we implemented the system at Auckland BJJ

For the year 2019, we decided to stray from our normal 12 guards system that we teach to our advanced students.

I wanted to look into new BJJ instructional material but mostly because I was curious about John Danaher teaching products and wanted to this what was the fuss all about.

Everyone by now has heard that he is the head coach at Renzo Gracie Academy and his latest students are having massive success in nogi submission competition to the point that they call themselves the DDS (Danaher Death Squad).

To start with, John has a very slow and repetitive style of teaching.
It is not for everyone and I did get a bit bored in some of parts.

However, the information and the system is brilliant.
It does challenge some of the preconceived ideas and principles that we taught as white belts but it does make sense.

I guess that the concept of isolating one arm in order to improve your chances of strangling your training partner is not a new concept but John managed to create a well planned, detailed program detailed system.

But he does not stop at only covering the back position.
He also teach and demonstrate how to achieve similar results from different entries (like turtle to back take).

There is a lot of information to absorb and it took about 2 months to diffuse and implement the system to our advanced students.

So it was our topic for month of January & February for the advanced students.
I also started to teach some of the system to our fundamental program.

I was planning to teach the leg lock system for months of March & April but changed my mind and went for the front headlock system instead.
As we strictly follow IBJJF & SJJF rules, I felt it would be better to concentrate on a system that we can use.
I am kind of assuming that the leg lock system is full of knee reaping and heelhook and I just wanted to concentrate on techniques that our students can use for the NZ grappler National Nogi competition which on Saturday 06 April 2019.

Please note we will be train Gi Only from Monday 08 April 2019.

Also, we are still taking new members at our Sandringham location:
681 Sandringham Road,
Sandringham

Please come down for a free class or email us for more information.

Beginners and all level welcome.

$20 per week on automatic payment (no contract and no joining fee).

Training and Competition Report

Last week, we covered guard passes for fundamental and started on our new Front Headlock program
for the advanced students.

On Saturday, Adam and Wes competed at the NZ grappler regional event and both won the bronze model.
Adam won the 100 dollars cash prize from the club for the most submissions.

The NZ grappler NOGI National competition is on Saturday 06 April 2019.

Due to low number of competitors yesterday, I am not sure if it is a good idea to host an inter club to prepare for the Nationals which will in 5 weeks time anyway.

We will switch to gi only from the 08  April to prepare for the GI Auckland Regionals on the 15th June.

Please note that we are still taking students at our location at 681 Sandringham road, Sandringham.
Beginners welcome, $20 per week on AP and no contract.
Please come down for a free class or email us for more information.

info@aucklandbjj.com