Spent a bit of time in front of the PC today. Here's what I've done.

First, congrats to Dr Geoff Aitken (CHCH) promoted to Brown Belt by John Will on Friday. BJJ NZ's first Brown Belt. Things are really starting to pick up momentum now. Geoff's promotion opens the bottle neck and paves the way for everyone. Congrats.
So web related...
News at BJJ.co.nz
News at BJJ.com.au
Geoff's profile @ BJJ.com.au

Other Brown Belt profiles @ BJJ.com.au

Profile for Glen Tarrant @ BJJ.co.nz Anyone from my Zen Do Kai days will understand the irony of this...!

News and a new BJJ site images @ the MVD and Martial Arts Wellington Sites.

Renewed the www.kidsmartialarts.co.nz site for Jill and Chris to use now that Richard has moved away.

And that's pretty much it, I think?
Did a quick private with Alex today covered some of the small issues he's been having and hopefully solved all his problems. :)

So here are some images worth about 72,000 words.

John Will Seminar images November 2004: >>

Damnit!! Every time he goes it leaves me feeling lost and inadequate. I know I should be on top of the world but it makes me sadder than hell to say goodbye.

This time was worse than most. John’s father passed away on Monday night, so he shouldn’t have even been here!! I could barely get myself out of bad after my parents died, but here’s John running seminars for the whole of NZ and the police as well.

To make it ever funnier he’s worried that we’re getting a good deal cause his mind isn’t always on the job???? How’s that for commitment to BJJ NZ. John my hat goes of to and my heart goes out to you.

I’ll try and post some info about the seminars this weekend. Stay safe all.!

Geoff

Yes finally it's finished.!!
$15.00 for 37 Matches and presentations.
Here are some images: for more check
G.S.W Comp>>

I've spoken to John today and he is in New Zealand now. He'll be in Wellington on Wed the 24th and is doing another session with the Police at the College in Porirua.

The we have him until Friday morning when he flys to Cristchurch. As I've mentioned before the session this time will be spread over 2 nights, Wed the 24th and Thur the 25th. Cost is $35.00 each night or $60 for both.

Here is a flyer for the event. See you at class.
http://www.gsw.co.nz/seminar_11_04.pdf

15 in the BJJ Fundamentals class tonight.

Another non "Fundamentals" Class. Tonight we covered the Cutting armbar. Starting from our feet to get the feel of using our trap and neck to control the wrist and progressing to an open guard situation to facilitate the application of the arm bar.

From the guard we used a hand clasping grip under our opponents shoulder to create a shoulder lock. Forcing them to extract their arm by bringing it across our shoulder therefore allowing us to lock the wrist and control the arm.

From there we make space with our hips to create a gap between their arm and our body, then applying pressure to the elbow for the tap.

The variation is when we force our opponent to extract their arm from the shoulder lock, they move to fast and we do not gain control of the wrist. Then the plan is to let the arm pass our face and sit up controlling their lat and applying my favorite sweep.

11 in class tonight, I was in a much better frame of mind today and class went down well.

We covered some concepts and attacks from side-back control, including

• Establishing the position
• Basic rolling escape from submissive position
• Clock Choke
• Cuff choke
• Rear Naked
• Switch base roll over to open up the turtle position
• Jumping pass to defeat the rolling escape.

14 in class tonight. I personally really could not be bothered tonight and that was obviously conveyed to the class, as everyone was not at their best tonight. Just let everyone grapple tonight.

Geez I'm a slacker. John is coming Next Week!! Wed 24th and Thur 25th. He will be here for both our classes.

I have yet to formalise the format for the session but it will likley be two sessions of 2 hours each night. 8pm till 10pm on both nights. Cost will be $35 per night or $60 for both!

More to follow.

Hot, humid BJJ Fundamentals. 22 In class today including a visit from Darren. :)

Again we worked guard passes, Knee through, Leg hug, and other shit that I can't remember.

Small BJJ Fundamentals, 15 in the class.

Played around with opening the closed guard and then working to knee through pass onto far armbar from side control.

Only 9 in class tonight. Grappled all night, I rolled with Alex again tonight and cracked the rib further, that should put me out till John gets here. :(

15 in class tonight. Started with lite rolling followed by 1 step sparing.
Played pass or sweep with no gripping of the gi’s, quite funny to watch everyone come to terms with not grabbing.

We then grappled for the rest of the night, started with everyone on the mat but then scaled it down to 5 pairs with 5 floating and changing at will. Had my first grapple for a long time, I had to make sure that I didn’t end up underneath, so I was pretty ruthless.

Rolled with Dion, Cain, Alex, Melissa, Jason and finished the night rolling with Matt M. Tonight was Matts last night and we also said goodbye to Chris. Looks like the club is slowly shrinking as everyone moves on. We wish you the best of luck guys.

Gave a few well earnt stripes tonight, including the open champ Alex. Also gave stripes to Cain and my mate Sacha, top effort on the weekend boys, well done.

BJJ Fundamentals 20 in class.

The day after the comp, pretty low key with everyone working syllabus stuff or working through problems they experienced in the competition. We had some visitors from Napier come in for the class and Melissa had 7 in the women's only class that followed.

What a fantastic day! After several weeks of planning and scheming the day finally arrived and what a day it was. I want to start by saying thank you to the following people.

• Shayne Cox for bringing down his crew for a roll.
• Dion and Melissa for their tireless efforts both in front and behind the scenes.
• Jonny Bares and his parents for the food, it was beyond fantastic!!! Everyone was staggered by it!
• Jill and Chris Gower for letting us use the Dojo and for presenting it so perfectly.
• Matty G for always being there to back me up and give support to everything I do, thanks Bro!

Well, as this was the first comp we’d ever attempted there were always going to be some mistakes and a lot of learning going on. The biggest headache was without doubt the draws. Trying to be fair to everyone was an effort but in the end it worked pretty well.

On the day the absolute was abandoned for a White belt open, as time restrictions would have made anything else impossible. To help things along we shortened the rounds to 3 minutes, and as it was we finished just in time.

28 competitors from G.S.W and Twin City Martial Arts fought it out in 6 Divisions for fabulous prises supplied by sponsors: Digital cameras from, Computer Link Wellington >http://www.computerlink.co.nz/ and Gi’s from, http://www.bjjtapes.com. Every competitor was also given a certificate and GSW competitor patch so no one left empty handed.

Here are the results:

Under 1 year training - Under 90kg
1st Jonny Bares (GSW)
2nd Jarred Van Der Munckhof (TCMA)
3rd Wayne Perry (TCMA)

Under 1 year training - Over 90kg
1st Alex Richardson (GSW)
2nd Mat McIntosh (GSW)
3rd John Kingi (GSW)

1 – 2 years training - Open weight
1st Matt Paul (GSW)
2nd Phil Stenhouse (GSW)

2 years + training - Open Weight
1st Toby Allen (GSW)
2nd Richard Wood (GSW/TCMA)

Blue Belt - Open Weight
1st Shayne Cox (TCMA)
2nd Dion Burns (GSW)
3rd Jeremy Roger (GSW)

White Belt open - Open Weight
1st Alex Richardson (GSW)
2nd Daniel Digby (TCMA)
3rd Matt Paul (GSW)

Women’s exhibition match
1st Melissa Wyman (GSW)
2nd Sarah Digby (TCMA)

There are a few images on the GSW site which will grow as more become available and a DVD and video collection will be made available latter. Check the images here http://www.gsw.co.nz/media_gsw_comp.htm

Thanks to all the competitors without your involvement and good sportsmanship this event would not have been such a great success. See you next year. Geoff

PS please use the comments function below (Click on ‘0 Comments’) and add your comments or thoughts on the day as I’ve sure everyone has something to add. I know Ichi will be hanging out to read all about it!! :)

Fundamentals 15 in the class, including 3 new students.

Tonight we covered an advanced sweep in very small pieces, with each little bit contributing to the whole guard concept. The sweep covered aspects of open and closed guard skills and hip movement and of balancing skills.

After Weds class it was clear a lot of people needed to understand how to use their guard to control and affect their opponents actions and balance.

18 in Class tonight.

With the comp this weekend class was very low key. Students had the options of drilling a specific move, one step sparing or lite rolling. I made it clear that I wanted no grappling, to avoid the chance of injury. As always several people failed to hear that and just went hell for leather! :)

Quite night with a lot of different aspects covered by everyone.

15 in class tonight.

With the competition so close tonight we concerntrated on how the day would run for the contestants. Class consisted of grappling for several rounds then we put a few people under pressure by running a few grappling rounds in a competition like environment.

As expected everyone put far too much pressure on themselves and stressed out. Hopefully this has given them some idea of what to expect on the day!

Sorry for not making it I was just too damn sick. Thanks to Dion for stepping in.
In Sunday's class we covered:

• Warm-up using shrimping and rolling.
• Passing the open guard controlling gi pants at the knees, pinning knees to floor, applying weight by pushing shoulder into opponents hips, moving around to side control and releasing gi pants once knee as been brought in to prevent return to guard.
• Passing the open guard by controlling gi pants at the knees, opponent grabs our sleeve, change grips to grab opponents gi pants and sleeve on the same side, step back and pull knee and sleeve upward into knee ride position.
• LIGHT sparring (50% speed, 50% energy, no closed guards, no grabbing)
• Pass or sweep from standing in open guard. Must use either of the techniques above, opponent on ground can only grab with one hand at a time.
• SLOW step-by-step practice of basic armbar from inside the guard.

Class had about 18 people. Good energy from the class. Good fun. No injuries. Reminded all about Saturday tournament. Good to see Ko back on the mat, and to have his help in teaching. (He has a deeper understanding of many techniques and a practical teaching approach.)

Dion