Got a cool article in the Wellingtonian this week. Ester, a journalism student came along a last week and asked a whole bunch of questions, then last Sunday Callum came down and took a heap of photos.

This is what they printed.

WHEN BRAZILIAN Jiu Jitsu teacher Geoff Grant arrived at the Mt Victoria Dojo to take a class on Father's Day recently, he expected numbers to be a bit lower than usual. So he was a bit surprised when 32 people turned up.

When he asked the students why they weren't spending the day with their dads, some offered vague excuses about having rang or sent text messages; others just looked sheepish.

It seems these guys have been "bitten by the bug", as Grant puts it. The G.S.W. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) club is the only one of its kind in Wellington and membership is steadily growing. This is despite the fact that martial arts often tend to be outside the comfort zone of the everyday person.

"With BJJ it can be difficult to get new students in the door" says Grant.
"It's a very confrontational sport. It might be a bit intimidating at first, but once people get involved they're usually hooked."

To a layperson, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) looks like a mixture of martial arts and wrestling. It's an offshoot of judo, which originated when a Japanese prize-fighter emigrated to Brazil in the late 1910s and taught his craft to a family called the Grades. The Grade sons developed what they learned into a new sport in its own right, with a distinct slant towards wrestling, and a focus on practical application rather than ritualised movements.

While Grant resists the notion that BJJ is superior to other martial arts, he says what makes BJJ so popular is its flexibility.
"BJJ has guidelines, but everything can be adapted. Whether you're tall, short, overweight, underweight you can learn things that work for you in the real world. In your first session of BJJ you can learn things instantly that will be relevant in everyday life."

When he's not teaching or working full-time as courier. Grant also maintains the G.S.W. website, which is packed with information about BJJ, class schedules, photos and a web log.

Hey All,

A good friend of mine sells good used computer equipment. He's really big on second hand sales and has gone way over the top purchasing a heap of stuff. Anyway his warehouse is full and hes trying to shift a lot of gear.

So they've rented one of the vacant shops in Courtney Central (in Welly) and have a tonne of cheap PC's and related goodies.

If you know of anyone who needs a PC or parts or anything please let them know this is happening.

Second hand PC's
Second Hand Laptops
Graphic cards
DVD writers
Cd writers
etc

http://www.gsw.co.nz/images/computerlink.pdf

Sorry I know I've been slack. There really is no time in the day for all the fun things in life. :)

A couple of things I need to share with you all.

Firstly Ko and his wife had their triplets last week!! Everyone is doing well and things are really looking rosy for the family. Huge congrats to you my buddy and I wish you all the luck you can get. You'll need it!

Secondly, I've received my shipment of DVD's from Jeremy Ta'Kody. The Masters of Grappling DVD Rocks!! It's got far too much stuff on it and it just goes on forever. Seriously the best money I've spent in a very long time. Check out Jeremy's site
http://www.blackbeltdigitalvideo.com/

It's just gone live and has a couple of great DVD's listed, as well as the MOG DVD he has one by the John "The Rev" Jensen. The rev is on MOG and he's one cool dude. Nice explanation of some simple leg attacks and locks. Check the revs blog here>>
http://reverendjohn.blogspot.com/

Finally I'm expecting copies of Jean Jacques Machados "Becoming a Champion" DVD in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned, it rocks!!

If you live in NZ and want to get your hands on the Masters Of Grappling DVD, John Will's Books or the JJM DVD then check my listings on Trade Me


Stay tuned…

No one has posted for a bit so io thought i would catch up on the week so far.

Wednesday 7th Sept

Geoff was caught up at work so Dion Mellisa and I took the class. Mellisa kicked off with a fairly intensive warm up, i am sure that a few of us were pretty tired at the end of it. Next we covered the basic hook sweep, focussing on getting the correct angle to execute the sweep and baiting our opponent to committ their weight forward. Following that we looked at a variation on what to do if our opponent posts out on their leg to stop the sweep, this move looks difficult but was picked up pretty well by everybody. Finally we looked at what to do if your opponent is really big and heavy and you cannot pull them off their base, we had 2 options here, one was to abort the sweep and drive into them, whilst passing their guard, once again the angle was the key to getting this one right and our second option was to take advantage of our underrhook control and go straight to side back control. We finished the night off playin pass and sweep, before rollin some rounds.

Thursday 8th September

Dion took the MMA class, i watched the last 10 mins and it looked like it had beena hard class.

The Fundamentals Gi class was pretty packed and we had a visitor from the USA aswell which was great. Geoff spent most the class talking to a reporter from the Wellingtonian, a local newspaper, so that will be great article when its printed. Dion warmed the class up, and then took us through a couple of his triangle choke setups, we followed this up by going through the hook sweep once again that was taught on Wednesday night...hopefully it will add to everyones game in some way. We finished the night off with sweep or pass, and then some of the crew stayed on for some rollin. Geoff also awarded some blue stripes, so well done once again.

Friday 9th September

Friday's an informal class, Matt Morris got this class going and who ever wants to can show up to the club generally around midday to do some drills or just roll some rounds. Once again we could not do this session without the generosity of Jill and Chris, so a big thanks to you both.

Today Matt, Brendon, Shano and i had a pretty good session, we did some good rounds, worked on the underhook escape and its timing, a few mount escapes,a few options for escaping kneeride, a bit of work on the hook sweep, the clock choke and the sidearm choke.

The only downside to fridays session is that u go back to worked knackered !

Geoff away, so Dion took class again with help from Melissa.
Continuing on from Monday's class, the theme was again attacking the turtle position, but this time drilling this phase of the game to gain fluency. After a quick warm-up, the two techniques from Monday were quickly revised.
Then these techniques were drilled to increase speed and fluency.
Before proceeding towards sparring the class practised two 'attacking turtle' games.

(1) Our partners try to stay in turtle, defending the clock choke grip and space between knee and elbow, effectively 'shutting up shop.' This dictates which of the two (or other) techniques we use to disrupt their turtle defence.

(2) Building on the first game, our partner does not stay rigidly in turtle position, but actively defends our attacks. However, if the attacks fail the attacker has to manipulate the partner back into turtle position and keep attacking. Our defending partners are working with us and escaping but returning towards turtle position each time. The game is continuous, starting slowly and working up to sparring speed.

Next we did some rounds of sparring. First round, no subs. We then did some 5 min and some 2 min rounds with submissions.
Finally, we did "Iwama's cheeky leg lock" from single hook position. This leg lock is MEAN, and only for MMA, or people you really don't like. As with all leg locks, not to be used on a regular basis or in sparring below blue belt. Sssshhhh! Don't tell Geoff we did this one.....
Good class, everyone getting the main techniques down, trying variations, and working them effectively into their game.

Kia ora team.