* I should get paid for this shit!!! :) Google has grabed the links below and run with them. Many of the keyword sets that I used have given top ten listings and several are number one!!. Some of the information needs to be adjusted and tweaked a bit, which is a bit freaky really considering how high some of these domain extentions have placed with minimal meta tag work.

Some of the best are:

BJJ Teachers

BJJ Curriculum

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Tapes

BJJ DVD

So all in all pretty sucssesful again with google. Anyone got any ideas how to convert this skill into money? :)*

I spent some time working with Dave Meyer yesterday on the new Grappling.us site.

Basically it's had a ground up rebuild and a new more effecent shopping cart added.

www.grappling.us

So if your looking for a grappling BJJ syllabus to add some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills to your classes then take a look at the new site and check out what Dave and John Will have to offer.

BJJ Teachers / schools
BJJ video Tapes
BJJ seminars
BJJ schools / clubs
BJJ curriculum syllabus
BJJ classes
BJJ books
BJJ dvd 's tapes video samples
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu books
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu curriculum
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu DVD 's
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructors
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Schools
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seminars
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tapes
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teachers
Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques

Hello everyone.

Now I know I've been slack on posting and it's been made worse by the fact that Ko has been posting 6 times a week but I promise I'll do better next year. :)

Anyway to the 100's of you that read this blog on a daily basis I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and I hope you have a special time with your loved ones.

Classes have officially ceased for 2005 and will start again on Monday the 9th of January 2006. Have a safe holiday season and I hope to see you on the mat again next year.

I want to give special thanks to the boys and girls that train at G.S.W. It's you that make our club such a special place to train and grow. Thanks for backing up my dream with your dedication and enthusiasm.

Look for big things from the G.S.W. crew in 2006 as we consolidate on the gains we made this year and forge ahead with our bold plans next year.

Stay safe

Geoff
G.S.W.

A fairly low key session today due to Shano's injured hand, we kicked off by practicing the counter to the spinning choke, which was covered in last nights FMA class, we then did some rounds of guard, where the guard player is not allowed to use there hands, very similar to what John Jensen covered in his seminar last month. To finish off our guard work we covered a technique where we go from our long range open guard to our opponents back, we then choke them out with the rear naked. We also covered the omoplata sweep from the long range open guard. We then spent sometime focussing on the guard pass, repping out a version of the bullfighters pass. To finish we covered a version of the armless triangle choke, a very simple finish to slap on from open guard.

All the best to Shano who leaves for sunny Aloha land on boxing day !

This morning we kicked off by rolling rounds of guard, the ideas here is to build an agressive guard game that will either finish or lead to a sweep, we did rounds of this until we were knackered, we then drilled the double leg hook sweep, which is a sweep that i dreamt up whilst doing the rounds of guard training. We then spent some time drilling a sitting half guard sweep that can be used to sweep yr opponent and then obtain yr opponent s back, from there we took the back and finished with the rear-naked as John covered in his last seminar. To finish off we spent sometime fine tuning our switchbase sidecontrols, understanding the role of each limb, our head and our hips, we then executed a simple armbar from that position.

A fairly hot afternoon, even hotter at the club, so we just rolled and worked our games looking for the tap, we then worked some of our hook sweeps playing around with the controls focussing on blocking off one side so the sweep becomes easier, also worked on scooting the ass to develop some power for the hook, finally we worked the x-guard again, it was as lame as this morning !...but we will continue with it till it starts to feel good.

This morning we worked an entry into the x-guard from standing up, it was pretty lame so we will have to continue working this until we become more fluid with the entry. We then did rounds of rollin focussing on our escpes, we then drilled some finishes before rollin some more rounds this time focussing on our defence, as an aside we began to discuss the reverse butterfly sweep as the situation is now cropping up. Finally we drilled some more finishes before rollin a few more rounds, we finished the session off by working our favourite sweep.

I noticed that everyones sidecontrol was about 3 times tighter than usual....good stuff the training is starting to pay dividends !!

There will be no womens class for the next two Sundays (25th Dec, and 1st Jan). The womens class will start again 8th January.

Yesterday there were 7 of us on the mat in the womens class. We had 3 new people that all promise to come back in the new year! We practiced hip-outs, “the butt-scoot walk”, technical stand-up, escape from side control to guard, off balancing your partner in your guard and even finished with the basic arm bar from guard. Then we turned it into a bit of a game, moving around and giving our partners a little resistance. Homework over the holidays is to practice hip-outs and technical stand-ups. See you all on the 8th of January. Happy holidays.

This morning we kept it light as the boys had a hard MMA session last night, we kicked off by working two sideback control escape, one for when yr opponent has his weight on you and the second when they do not have their weight on you, we then rolled as per usual focussing on using thoase escapes, finally we combined the two escapes to form an escape combination, if escape A does not work then we go straight into escape B.

Next we went over an armless triangle choke from guard and we continued to drill the rev choke, before spending some time fixing up the cutting armbar, today we just focussed on killing the head, tightening the grip on the arm and doing the commando walk.

We finished off by doing some rounds of guard training, bascially one person takes an open guard he has to then deal with every situation his partner throws at him, eg the guard player has to do something when the opponent is on a hook, gets off a hook, stands up, moves to the left, moves to the right, postures up, grabs your head, etc etc...idea here was that the guard player has to attack everything his partner throws at him, for the guard passer, although we were training our partners to improve there guards, by rapidly moving up, down, left right, chnaging our grips and posture etc, we were working our agaility and also the basic fundamental movements that are needed to be a good guard passer.

This morning was a good session, we started off by rollin, once again focussing on the timing of our escapes, we do each and every session to improve our defence. We then continued with the pummelling drill, repping out a good 100 on each other, we then spent some time lookin at improving our sidecontrol tightness, we did this by applying the principals of what is each limb doing and how do we add potency to each component, once that was down we then just, pass the guard to sidecontrol, we then expanded the above to pass the guard to sidecontrol and finish.

WAe then spent sometime lookin at the finer points of the pass that everyone was workin and then we looked at some problems that people were having with the cutting armbar, to finish the session we did rounds of pass-sweep or finish, the idea here is that one side wants to pass and obtain sidecontrol with potency, whilst the otherside wants to just finish their oppoent in guard.

Finally we drilled some sprawls, one side came in for the takedown and the otherside sprawled, the idea here was to get used to the sprawl and get a sense of timing before we really start to rep these out in future sessions. The last thing for the day was to drill the basic sidecontrol escape to the knees, once i partner did this we once again sprawled and gettin ready to attack, once again we will be repping these out in future sessions to improve our sprawling skills and also our sidecontrol escape to the knees.

This arvo we just rolled looking for the sub as per our games, we also spent some time covering a few methods of making your opponent go to all fours and turtle up, where we will finish them with a choke. To finish off we drilled the Geoff mount escape a few more times, and also covered off a second version of the hook sweep from (1) double underhooks control and (2) the tango death grip.

A great session to kick off the week, we got started by rollin, once again focussing on the timing of our escapes, from there we drilled the pummeling drill banging out a good 100 reps on each other, we then spent a small amount of time looking at how it improves our controls on the mat. We then drilled our favourite finish before rollin some more, this time one partner was just lookin for a particular finish. Finally we did some work on the mount escape that Geoff covered in sundays 'fundamentals my ass' class, we worked rounds of one partner starting in guard and executing their guard pass, the other side defends the pass, we continue until one partner gets sidecontrol and mounts, as soon as they mount, we execute the Geoff Mount escape and set up our sweep and finish from the double underhooks.

Today we rolled a few rounds to warm up, but due to the warm weather we were actually sweating like pigs, we then drilled our favourite finish before rolling a few more rounds.

For the remainder of the session we worked on the omoplata, studying the entry from the guard, contolling the arm, using our cutting leg correctly and drilling how to move our body into position, we then rolled a few rounds where one partner just tried to give us problems whilst we looked for the omoplata from our open guard.

We finished off by looking at ways to apply the omoplata from a failed takedown, from the sprawl position, from switchbase sidecontrol, from head to head and finally from the mount.

This morning we all rolled some rounds focussing on escapes, we spent some time fixing up our sideback control escapes, this included conrolling our opponents legs as we roll them over, if we do this then it means that they cannot setup their defence once they hit their backs on the mat, we also focussed on our posting leg, so we cannot be countered by the bridge-rollover sweep, this stuff really emphasises the importance of our fundamentals. Next we drilled some back controls, looking to finish with the good old backchoke. Finally we spent some time working on the double overhook sweep that John Will covered in his seminar last week, we extended the theme by rolling a few rounds where one partner worked their guard, with the focuss bring on ensuring that our opponent never establishes a base, once this is achieved the sweep, or finish came a lot easier.

Today it was back to business after a huge week last week. Today we warmed up by wrestling a few rounds before working a choke from the mount, we then worked on clearing out our opponents hand when they attempt to block our choke. From there we wrestled for the remainder of the session, focussing on keeping up the intensity of our attacks. We warmed down by drilling the rear naked choke from the back.

Finally, it's happening. You should start to see the new look Post Hast Vans about this week. Here's what they look like.

Promotions Bring Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club to the Top.

Geoff Grant, instructor of Wellington’s specialist grappling school, G.S.W, recently became the regions highest ranked Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) instructor.

Wellington November 30th 2005 – The Grappling Specialists Wellington (GSW) recently hosted Australian BJJ legend, John Will. Mr. Will was in New Zealand on a seminar tour teaching at his affiliate schools in Auckland, Hamilton, Napier, Wellington and Christchurch. At a packed session at the GSW club in Wellington Mr. Will took the opportunity to promote Geoff Grant, his long time student, to the rank of Brown Belt.

In the world of BJJ, Brown Belt signals a significant promotion and there is only one other BJJ Brown Belt in New Zealand. In Mr. Grant’s case the promotion represents 10 years of training and association with Mr. Will. Mr. Grant also holds a 5th Dan Black Belt in the Martial Art of Zen Do Kai.

“The promotion came as a huge surprise, at the time I was focusing on the seminar and the promotion of my own students. I have trained in the Martial Arts for over 20 years and this promotion would be one of my best moments.” Mr. Grant said

On the same day John Will and Geoff Grant also promoted two other members of the GSW club. Koshick Ranchhod was graded to Purple belt and Alex Richardson to Blue Belt. The clubs promotions make it one of the biggest in the country. The promotions come at the end of an extremely successful year at GSW.

Mr. Grant went on to say: “Koshick’s promotion is a very special one for me, as I have known him for a very long time, since we started training Zen Do Kai together in the late 80’s. After a successful year for Alex Richardson his promotion was “the icing on the cake”. Alex has trained long and hard this year and combined with his tournament success and winning his Mixed Martial Arts fight, his promotion was inevitable”

GSW is one of the biggest Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools in the country and Mr. Will describes it as “one of the best Mats anywhere.” With the promotions GSW expects to make several changes to its format next year. Mr. Grant say’s the club will expand to accommodate the new growth expected in 2006 but will continue to bring quality BJJ and Grappling training to Wellingtons community.

For more information visit www.gsw.co.nz

Ok a few things to get through in this post so please bare with me.

Firstly thanks to John Will for once again showing us why we're so lucky to be part of his global organisation. John's skills are unmatched and always inspire.

I had the opportunity to watch John in action helping the NZP develop a safe program for vehicle entry. What made this special for me was watching John analyse something he has virtually no experience with, and then proceed to break it down and develop a solid usable method for instant use.

But that's not all, John then went on to show the people present how to go on and teach the new system in a structured and straightforward manner. It was fantastic to see John at work in this way and once again confirmed my complete admiration of the guy!

Wednesday 30th November 2005 John Will BJJ Seminar:
The seminar was absolutely packed!! Seriously at this rate next time we may need to limit the numbers on the mat!? The content was gold, with John covering Potency or how to maximise the use and potency of each and every limb/action/movement and apply it to moves you know currently. This leads to going back over moves you currently have success with and applying the same potency principals to each move.

Although the content was advanced John once again taught it in a way that even the newest members of GSW could follow. Even if they didnt understand the purpose of the potency application, they came away with a Killer Hooking Sweep. :)

On the night there were a couple of surprises in store for some of the crew. Alex was awarded his Blue Belt, as you all know Alex has been a force on the GSW mat since his first day. I have a great deal of respect for Alex and the way he conducts himself on and off the mat. His work ethic is astounding and with the help of Johnny, Alex has accelerated his learning by getting on the mats at every opportunity. Well-done buddy.



My good friend Ko was also surprised and awarded his Purple Belt. This was a very special moment for me as Ko and I have been in this journey together from the beginning. I first met Ko it so long ago I cannot recall exactly when it was. I do know it was in the late 80's at a Zen Do Kai Grading held in New Plymouth. Ko had just passed his green belt (Green is a belt that comes with special powers, at Green belt Martial Artists become bullet proof), Ko had been awarded the top Green belt prize.

Needless to say I took an instant dislike to this skinny, loud mouthed, Indian boy! Several months after this Ko started attending classes with me under Bret Kimmins and very slowly we became friends. Pretty soon we were good mates and everything we did, we did together. We both took up Japanese Jujitsu under John Hanstra, we took to Shoot Wrestling under Steve Nedelkos and when it came time to shift to BJJ training, well we did it as a team.

Ko traveled to Australia with me to train with John Will in 1995, we were actually traveling to Melbourne for a Zen Do Kai function but took the opportunity to travel to Geelong to do a private with John. We then went to Aus again the next year to train with John Will and Jean Jacques Machado. Since then we have been virtually inseparable, traveling to seminars and competitions whenever we were able.

Over the last couple of years Ko has suffered some injuries that have kept him for the GSW mat and I personally have felt that absence deeply. Now Ko's life has taken another turn with the arrival of his children thankfully this is a turn for the better. Ko has been and will always be a huge part of my life and awarding him his Purple Belt was a very special moment. Well done buddy, I hope we can continue our journey to Black together.



The last big surprise of the night was John awarding me my Brown Belt. Total shock is all I can say. This belt means so many things to me personally and trying to explain it to people who don't know what BJJ is, is beyond a joke.

"Brown Belt??!! I thought you were a Black Belt?"

When you tell people your 5th Dan Black Belt means less to you than the new Brown Belt they just give you a funny look and say things like:

"You're a 5th Dan?!?!?"

Too hard to explain. But yes, that's how I feel, the Brown Belt represents 10 years of BJJ training, some good some not so good, but 10 years it is. I got my Brown Belt in Zen Do Kai in 4 months! And My Black in 12 months and my second Dan in 18 months.. So yes I'm proud of the BJJ Brown Belt. I still don't think I deserve it but who am I to question this regions premier BJJ coach?

So thank you John for your continued faith in my skills, thanks to all the guys and girls at GSW for their support and dedication. Without the club there would be no ranks, no advancement and no BJJ community in Wellington.

A few people hitting the mat today, which is great to see. We did some general rounds of wrestling, had a chat re the seminar content, wrestled some more, worked on the finer points of side control, drilled a few escapes and then meandered back to the office.