What a fantastic turnout for The Rev's seminar. John Jensen teaches Kids Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Adults Mixed Martial Arts classes at Dominance Jiu Jitsu in Richmond Melbourne and we were extremely luck to be able to host him for a seminar at GSW last Sunday.

John has a blog (reverendjohn.blogspot.com)where his posts his thoughts on life, training and the church, it's through this blog that I got to know John a little better and decided to bring him over for a session. I had previously seen him on Jeremy Takody's Masters Of Grappling DVD http://www.blackbeltdigitalvideo.com/doing a small segment on leg locks. I liked what he was doing and the way he explained it all. Since then he has worked with Jeremy to produce a set of DVD's called "Forbidden Locks"

The Rev arrived in Wellington with his lovely wife on Friday morning at about 1am and I took them to their hotel. Then picked up the rev at 9am for a private lesson with on of the GSW crew who couldn't make the seminar. From there we pretty much allowed John and his wife free reign to do whatever they liked and rove our city and countryside for a couple of days. You can read more about what they did on Johns blog.

Sunday morning due to a slight communication breakdown The Rev had already left the hotel when I turned up to pick him up... So I headed to the club where he was waiting outside sitting in the sun. :) John took 2 private lessons both covered takedowns and MMA style grappling. We then had a short break and a quick bite before getting into the seminar.

As always with events at GSW the mat was packed.. There were over 30 on the mat for Johns session with people coming from, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Auckland. It was really cool to have a couple of the Gracie Barra New Plymouth guys on the mat and also Hamish from Infinite MMA as well.

After introducing himself and giving us a bit of his background The Rev covered a set of takedowns to begin the session. Then we moved into several Guard drills and techniques and finished with his trademark foot locks. The session went for just over 3 hours and everyone had worked hard by the end of it. A great set of skills and drills and The Rev was thorough and thoughtful in his delivery, allowing everyone plenty of time to get a grip of what was being covered.

I was extremely pleased with the turnout, especially considering we have John Will at the club in a couple of weeks. I was also glad I got to spend some time with The Rev and his wife. They're great people and will be lifelong friends, of that I have no doubt. I hope they will do as they said and bring their girls back with them for a holiday soon.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the mat for the day and thanks to John "The Rev" Jensen for sharing his passion for grappling with us at GSW.

Pictures from the session can be found here>>