WOW. What a great day.
Got to the show early (well before the crowds) and had a really good look around inside and took a bunch of pictures:
http://www.gsw.net.nz/images/2_hot_2_handle/

Then we went around again and I had a better look without the camera, but there were a lot more people about so the going was slow. We then headed outside for a look at the drags. Very cool stuff, there was a huge crossection of cars running the track. From comp cars to BMW's, Merc's, Holdens, Mopars and even a Jet Car.

The Jet was amazing!! I've got a couple of clips but they're too big to host but you can have a peek at this one. (Turn your sound DOWN: it's really loud!!!!)

http://www.gsw.net.nz/images/2_hot_2_handle/war_hawk.mov

Watch the people in the background holding their ears and getting away from the fence. These people have just run there from the stands to get a better look!! :)

And then it leaves!!!!!!

hhttp://www.gsw.net.nz/images/2_hot_2_handle/Picture%20166.mov


You'll see from the bad footage that I quickly had to put my hands on my ears as it was insanely LOUD. People were fleeing the fence line and falling over in the stands trying to get away. Where I was standing on the concourse a couple of people fell over as they jumped back from the fence. :)

After that we went back inside for one last look. and I'm glad we did as I saw one of the organisers, NZ's Mothers Polish rep, Peter Ellmers. Pete used to train Zen Do Kai with me so I took the opportunity to go up and reaquaint myself with him. He introduced me to the Mothers owner from the states and also to Chip Foose. I also managed to grab a copy of a DVD that he had of a Chip Foose show in the US called Over Haulin'. 1 of only 5 in the country.
It's like Pimp my Ride for rodders!

Sat up last night and watched about 3 episodes. Damn cool show! Pete said he had just returned from the states after helping with one of the cars on the show for season 2. Can't wait to see that.

But here's were it gets weird, Pete asked how training was and I gave him my card and explained what we do, he mentioned that the producer for the Over Haulin' show was into "stuff like that". Long story short, producers name is Bud and he produced the JJ Machado DVD I all love! (in JJ's fav's section he even rolls with Bud!) and he's coming to NZ in a while and Pete will let me know when he gets here so we might hook up!?!?!
www.overhaulin.com

Very glad I made the effort! Anyway we stayed for about 5 hours and now Dorothie wants to go back for the racing.

Here's a gallery address again.

http://www.gsw.net.nz/images/2_hot_2_handle/

BJJ Fundamentals 17 in class.

Tonight, as there were several new people in the class, we covered a few of the basic figure 4's from the Blue Belt syllabus.

• Figure four from mount
• Figure four from top control
• figure four from guard
  

I've changed a couple of things over at the online store. Just the image I was using for the CDS tee-shirts.



So hop on over and take a look. Click the "GSW Online Store" link to the right (another small change today)

Competition DVD at Diva.

Well after a few slight technical issues, that were quickly sorted by Jonny, at good size group of us sat down to watch our way throughout he footage from the recent BJJ NZ nationals held at GSW in February.

While it was a long night for some of us it was certainly a good laugh and great to see the fights without the inbuilt stress of the day. I hope everyone had a good time and got some good ideas and feedback from seeing their performance on the big screen??

I'd like to thank the Diva crew for being so helpful and friendly on the night, and for allowing us to use the whole space for ourselves. I'd also like to thank Jonny for handling the equipment and spotting the venue in the first place. But mostly I'd like to thank my bro Matty for the footage. As always Matty's skills behind the camera were exactly as I expected and he has delivered another great set of tapes for me to work with.

Thanks

45 Split 21 in class.
Again we quickly covered the Guard disengage and standing pass stuff from Sunday.
Then followed with about 30 min's of rolling.

Had a bit of a rant about "dirty" tactics during the class. Basically the way I see it is this. Anyone can bite, scratch, punch, gouge, slam, etc etc etc so that naturally includes everyone in class. So why bother training these things that are easy for everyone??? I'm more interested in learning and teaching new skills.

That isn't to say that all those things are pointless, just that they are easy and natural reactions and therefore will just be part of a dirty fight without needing to drill them.

BJJ Fundamentals 18 in class.

Today we started with a basic standing guard pass from the syllabus but as many were clearly struggling I changed tack and did a few things I'm been wanting to do since Elvis was here.

• First we covered simply opening the closed guard and completely disengaging by standing up and backing away.
• Next we covered a simple knee through pass from the standing position. When we disengaged from our opponents guard we ended up with our right leg between their feet, as they sit up to follow us and try and regain control we grab their arm/leg/collar or whatever is nearest and drive our knee to the mat through their guard.
• As a variation of the above, instead of driving our knee to the mat, we place our knee on their stomach, and flick to knee ride then to sidecontrol.
• We then did the same drill from within their guard instead of disengaging we simply placed one shin between their legs and sat on our bottom leg. Then as they moved to regain control we did the same knee through pass.

Points to remember:

• Don't play their game!
• Drive the knee through and knee ride their leg.
• As they sit up to regain control grab their lapel and sleeve but keep you weight to yourself until you establish sidecontrol.

Competition viewing at Diva Bar in Dixon st.
From 7.30pm we'll have the DVD from the comp on a big screen where we can sit and eat and drink in a relaxed envronment. There will be food avaliable to buy and we will be in a seperate part of the bar from the general public.

Please note this event is in place of Wed's class, so there will be no-one there if your turn up to train, So please everyone come along and watch the Competition without the pressure of the day.

Physical Address
Diva Bar, front room
37 Dixon Street Wellington
Phone Number 04 385 2987
Fax Number 04 802 5781

BJJ Fundamentals 16 in class.

Tonight we covered some of the basic headlock control escapes from the syllabus.

• Basic escape to the back, when our opponents base is weak and we have our arms free
• Rolling escape, when our opponents base is strong and they have our arm trapped.
• Escape to our knees, when our opponents base is strong but they do not have our arms.

45 split 18 in class.

For the technical part of class we covered several half Guard escapes.

Starting with the basic pass where we have control of our opponents upper body and can pin him to the mat. From there we base our free leg out at 90 degrees to their body and bring our trapped leg up so our foot is close to the spine. We then push off their knee and place our trapped knee on the floor to secure mount.

Next was a more advanced switch base pass, where we secure our opponents head with the arm on the same side as our trapped leg. We then switch our base to take our body across our opponent. We must make sure that as much pressure as possible goes on our opponents cheek/jaw to control them and stop them turning towards us and escaping. From there we move our hips up towards their armpit and use our free arm and leg to help extract our trapped leg.

Finally we used the knee through pass. Our opponent has our leg but we have secured the under hook, from there we place our head on the mat on the oppersite side to the underhook arm and tripod up to attempt to free our leg, if necessary we can bounce on our toes until our knee slips between their legs. From there we switch our hips and put our knee on the ground, then slid out leg forward until our hip is on the mat and we can free our leg and take a switch base sidecontrol position.

Fundamentals 14 in the class.

Today we covered the basic armbars from the blue Belt syllabus.

Basic armbar from mount, we smother our partner who reacts by pushing us away, or simply reaches for our throat / eyes. We place our hands on their chest encircling one arm. Placing our weight on our hands we swing our legs out and around, with our top leg covering our opponents face/head, and capturing their arm between our legs.

4 points to remember are.

1. Hip penetration, our hips should be deep under the arm/shoulder
2. Our top leg should be bent, to allow us to bridge our hips if needed
3. Squeeze our knees, helps control lateral movement
4. Thumb up / little finger on our chest. Points the elbow in the right direction for hyper-extension

Next was armbar from knee ride. From knee ride we claim the near arm and pull it high to control it, from there we put all our weight on their belly and swing our top leg over their head/face and apply the arm bar.

Far Armbar from knee ride. This time our opponent pushes on our knee on their stomach. We push our free hand into the gap between their arm and ribs, stand up and drag them onto their side. We then spin around and sit down in the hole we've made, and apply the armbar.

From guard. Claim the arm, slide our knee up the outside of their body to back up our hands control. Situp, move our shoulders in the direction of their hand, and at the same time cut hard ,with our other leg, on the back/armpit to keep them close. Swing our top leg over their head, and bridge our hips for the tap.

OH. MY. GOD.

SO I went to the crusty show tonight, and all was going cool, music blaring, fireworks, babes, and announcers spouting their shit. The shows getting underway, when all of a sudden a chopper that was in the air around the stadium does a slow low fly by.

It's then followed by 2 more that we haven’t seen. They skim the stadium and head north, only to appear again and this time LAND ON THE PITCH!! Un-fucknbelievable!!!!

They dropped the riders and then left, with a flourish. It was the Heli-pro crew and I can almost guarantee Harry was flying one of them. It’s got to be one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen in my quiet sheltered life. J

The show rocked! Great action, the crowd was pretty cool, although it was 90% bogans and skanks. Blindspott sucked lots, which was a shame as I’d gone to see them as much as the show. All in all a great night out.
Harry is a legend