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BJJ

A solid warm up started the night, with our legs and arms getting a good work out.

Tonight Warren explained that we have been working through the blue belt syllabus on Tuesdays for the last couple of months and that soon we would have completed it and there will be training reviewing it all.

With that in mind tonight we did knee ride position, near arm bar from knee ride and then setting up a situation where you can apply a choke or a near side arm bar depending on the response of your opponent.

We started in short base side control. We then made a bit of space between our knee closest to our opponent’s head, which allowed us to slide our left hand in and grip the opponent’s gi just above the elbow. Then we moved our right hand and put it on the floor next to our opponent’s hip and used it to post up and slide our knee into position on the centre of their stomach. As we did this we were popping up, putting our full weight on our knee, sliding our left leg out to post lightly and keeping the toes of our right leg off the floor. We maintain the grip on our opponent’s near arm pulling up, lifting their shoulder off the ground. The other hand grips their pants at the far knee, again pulling up, lifting their leg off the floor and adding our weight down. Warren pointed out that, in this position it’s important to look up keeping your back straight and your weight focused down on your opponent. After explaining this he channelled Cath and Kim and repeated “look at moi, look at moi, look at moi” over and over again.

After drilling us through getting and holding the position, Warren demonstrated the near side arm bar from the knee ride. From the knee ride position we stepped our leg closest to their head over their head and then slid our other leg up so our lower leg is against their arm, while still kneeling on our opponent. Then, squeezing our legs together, we slid down their arm and moved back into the arm bar. Keeping our opponent’s arm with the thumb pointed at the ceiling, we lifted our hips and applied the arm bar.

Here’s  Nick Ovens using a version of it to win a fight in a Gi comp last year. Yes, you did just see that pure awesomeness.  credit to Mel for the music (or is that a disclaimer from me….).

We also drilled the no-gi version of this, where you get a hold on your opponent’s wrist instead of gi and then control the elbow of the raised arm with the other hand.

For the last setup, we worked on creating reaction from our opponent that would allow us to arm bar or apply a choke.

We set up the knee ride but then use our rear hand to insert a grip deep in the near side collar of our opponent, while still maintaining a strong knee ride. If our opponent turns away from us we apply the near side arm bar. If he turns toward us we let go of the arm and quickly slap our hand on their far shoulder, grabbing a hand full of gi. We then sprawl down hard, bringing the same arm back across the neck of the opponent and complete a cross lapel choke.

We drilled this thoroughly and then moved to rolling.

There are 10 members from the club looking to enter ICNZ’s Contender submission wrestling tournament this weekend so there were a lot of people working on the No Gi technique in rolling.

Another very full Tuesday mat which is great!

MMA

Sorry, I didn’t make it to this class. I am sure it was awesome, because it always is when I am not there. I may attempt to interview someone that did make it and enlighten you as to the awesomeness that happened. Watch this space.

If you’ve been watching this space, sorry,  no one  will talk….. because it was so awesome…..(or maybe i haven’t asked?). Either way, we’re all missing out!  The lesson is… go to training.

Cam D

BJJ

Tonight we started by rolling lightly just doing positional work to warm up, swapping partners several times.

Warren introduced  the crucifix position in this class.

Starting from turtle and side back control, we first learnt and drilled three ways to snag the near arm and drag it back to being locked between our legs.

First, we placed our right leg out to tempt them into grabbing it, then dragging the arm back with the same leg. Then our opponent left this arm exposed so we snagged with our right hand, hooked it with the right leg and dragged it back into position. Finally we drove our left knee (that was floating under the opponent’s body in side back control) forward towards the head and under their arm, bumping it out and allowing us to then hook with leg again.

We learnt and drilled these one at a time and then finished by drilling in our own time trying all three alternately.

Warren then showed us the first transition into the crucifix position, the Rollover. Having snagged and dragged the near arm we under hooked the opponent’s far arm and gripped their shoulder or forearm. Next we posted our right hand out forwards, and then stood up, keeping our knees and legs squeezed together. Then we hopped our weight forward into our opponent moving our feet closer and then tucked our head and rolled forward, bring our partner over with us. As we landed, we made sure to slide our left arm up our opponent’s arm and tuck our hand behind our head, locking their arm in the crucifix.

The second entry was the 7-11. Getting to the same under-hook position, we then shift our legs towards our opponent’s head (7 o’clock) and then sit back onto our left hip shifting our weight back to 11 o’clock, pulling our opponent over and back into the crucifix.

Finally we did 11-7 where we reversed the former technique: moving our legs to 11 down our opponent’s body and shifting our weight back to 7 o’clock. As you did this you needed to create cylinder with your body, extending your legs to allow the opponent to roll over you with minimal effort.

We were also shown how to apply a single side cross lapel choke while in crucifix. We began by reaching with our free right arm around the far side of the opponent’s head and back deep into their near collar. Then we moved our body in close to our opponent and under a bit as well. From there, we stretched our opponent out while pulling our choking arm (and our opponent) back and down to the floor, bringing the choke on across the windpipe.

We drilled for the whole class switching one for one with our partner and running through all the variations we had learnt, getting used to moving through the whole process. When it was our turn to be practiced on we were thinking of and trying ways to make it difficult for our opponent and attempting to escape from the transition or position.

MMA

Mark decided tonight was going to be a spin class. No, not that kind of spin class, we’re talking about spinning back kick, spinning elbow and spinning back fist. Now you wish you were there, don’t you?

Personally, I had nil experience in martial arts before I joined this club last year and spinning back kick is one of the most awkward techniques to initially learn that I have come across. However even doing my basic and slowly improving attempts I could feel the power you could generate in your strike.

Mark broke it down slowly for us. He started us in our fighting stance. From there we stepped our front foot across the tracks and pivoted on both feet to face away from our opponent with our weight low and posture straight. Then we looked back across our right shoulder, lifted our knee up and forward and then delivered the kick straight back, keeping our toes pointed down and heel forward. Finally, we retracted the kick all the way back, swivelling into our fighting stance again.

We drilled this solo and then with a partner holding a kick pad.

Then we learned the spinning back elbow, using the same foot work to swivel around and look for our target but then stepping our front foot all the way back into our original fighting stance and striking either with point or back of the elbow depending on where our opponent was. Our partner held the kick pad horizontally and perpendicular to their body at head height as we drilled. This drill was the most memorable for me as we all learnt why you have to keep good space between you and be careful where you roam while drilling, as I stepped through my strike, felt my elbow hit the pad and then collide with a much more solid object. It turned out that Mike had drifted into my blind spot and within my range as I drilled, and I caught him on the side of the head. It was a moment that was a bit funny (in a relieved way) in retrospect, but a shock in the moment. He was fine and we all chalked the lesson up for the future.

We next drilled spinning back fist, using the same foot work and aiming to connect with our opponent with the knuckles of the hand, being very careful not to straighten our striking arm. This was after Mark explained what would happen to your arm if your opponent closed the distance and you connected with your elbow joint on a straight arm (my mind saw images of a broken, dislocated and flailing around arm). Not Good!

We finished the class strongly by rolling though all three strikes in sequence with our partner as fast as we could for a three minute round. This was aimed at getting us used to the movement and starting to relax into the technique.

Wow! Looking back on this blog, I see that I learnt a lot tonight! It was a very cool class and interesting to learn some very different and new techniques.

Cam D

BJJ

The warm-up was taken by Howie tonight and he got us working on basic movements both on the ground, shooting and recovering to standing.
Mark worked us through escape from north-south position. We drilled bridging and straightening the arms to escape out. Then changing our grip and swinging our legs to gain momentum for switching out to our front. As we retracted we had to gauge the distance and decide whether to go all the way out or to shoot for the leg.
We then worked on variation where our opponent sprawled hard. We were unable to switch to our front so we swung our legs horizontally back and forth until we had momentum to come all the way around sideways and hook the leg. This left us posting out on our outside arm and moving to the back or escaping out.
We rolled for 45 minutes and then finished the class with more stripes being awarded. Congratulations again to everyone who graded.

MMA

We started off doing focus pad work where we tried to put everything together, trying out our combinations, kicks, clinches and takedowns on the person holding the pads while they threw the kicks for us to check and made sure we kept our hands up.
We stayed on the same sides and swapped partners four times before changing to holding the pads for the other side.
At the end of this we geared up fully and did medium level sparring, changing partners between rounds.
Round one: Hands only. Mike taught me the hard way to keep my shell closed in order to avoid getting an uppercut on the jaw.
Round two: Hands and kicks. Tom showed me I was dropping my hands when I kicked by jabbing me in the face.
Round three: Hands, kicks, clinches and takedowns, but straight back up from the ground. Jack showed me to keep my left hand up when I cross to protect the side of my head from his right hook.
Round four, five and Six: Everything including ground work, using punches as well as submissions. It was great putting it all together and thinking about where to strike on the ground and how to use it to set up the submission.
We all learnt a lot and everyone was tired and happy at the end.

CamD

Congrats to all our guys that competed on Saturday at the BJJNZ No-Gi Competition.

Nick Ovens – First

Amanda Tuarau – First

Bevan Brooking – First

Serina Cole – Second

Cameron Dickson – Second

Scott Sherer – Second

Congrats to all others that Competed on the Day.

Will/Machado took out Second in the Team trophy!

With John Will back in town, Submission Porirua was once again able to crash the GSW Seminars. With the growth of Will / Machado BJJ in Wellington, Geoff Grant was hosting two seminars back to back. First one was catering for the white belts followed directly by the coloured belts seminar.

The white belt seminar finished on a high for the Submission crew with its first ever Blue Belt being awarded. Andrew Douglas joined us not long after we first opened the doors in March 2008. His dedication and passion is obvious in every class.

It was a well deserved promotion and I would be confident in saying that the rest of the 3 & 4 stripes will be breathing a big sigh of relief.

Well done to Andrew.

With Submission Porirua knocking on the door of its second birthday, I decided it was time (Mel pressured me) to write a quick note.

This being the third time I have started a club from scratch, the plan from day one was to grow slowly and more by osmosis than anything else. Although it would be fair to say that all the hard work put in by Geoff Grant on the net and my great wife with ensuring Submission posters are in all the right places has been a tremendous help and without these people it would have been a-lot harder.

With a retention rate just shy of 100% from signed up members, this is proof that what we at Submission and Will / Machado have on offer is second to none.

With the two year mark approaching, it was time for a number of well deserved promotions to be handed out.

A number of the key members have been there from month one and continue to offer support and help within the club ensuring its growth will continue.

Below are a few photos of the club members from Wednesday’s class.

Before I sign off I would like to thank the following people for their help and support behind the scenes in Porirua.

My wife Angela, Geoff Grant for his continued support, two of my closest friends Mark & Warren and my second wife, Melodie or Purple Girl as she likes to be called.

Without you guys, it simply wouldn’t be as much fun.

ICNZ MMA have just released a highlight clip which features two of our students.  Simo Postings and Vince Lowe.  ICNZ 9 is scheduled to be on the 27th February 2010.  Tickets are available through the ICNZ Website.

In the last few seconds of the last round on the Saturday 12^th December, Haydn Clasby from Submission Martial Arts (NZ) suffered a serious injury to his neck. This injury was sustained in a controlled BJJ environment and was a freak accident.

Haydn broke one of his vertebrae in his neck and damaged his C5, C6, C7, he is paralysed from the shoulders down at present. At the end of this week they will operate and put a plate into his neck.

At the moment the Doctors are providing worst-case scenario information to us, but due to the complexity of the injury it is going to be a wait and see. So as we all sit here with all our fingers and toes crossed, the initiative has been taken and an account has been opened in Haydn’s name at Kiwi Bank.

The aim of this account is to provide funds towards the costs of Haydn’s recovery and to help his partner Gen and family as they take extensive time off work to support Haydn during his recovery.

Any contribution no matter how small would be greatly appreciated.

Following are the account details for anyone wanting to contribute.

Haydn Recovery – M E McDonald
38 9000 0109787 02

Submission Takapuna last class for the year will be the 17th December.  We resume again on the 12th January 2010.

Group Pic 08/12/2009

Simo and Vince from Submission Takapuna fought on the recent ICNZ promotion.