Matt Thornton Recent Interview

Please take the time to read this interview. I always find Matt Thorton a thought provoking individual who has an amazing training philosophy.

The Greatest

Every now and again you come across a little treasure on youtube. This is footage of Ali and Cus D'mato having an exchange to promo the upcoming Joe Frazier fight in 1970. Cus was a legend in boxing and mentored Tyson to his early success but never lived to see the first title fight or the fall from grace. Still moves good, gives Ali a suprise. Great footage and dialogue between two legends. So many wrote Ali off after his prolonged absence from the ring.

MMA Live ESPN

Playing the Percentages...

I have been lucky enough in my life to study some kind of Martial Arts since seven years of age, most of that time spent doing traditional karate, so I know heaps about Classical Japanese Combat systems and their modern counterparts and there is much to be admired and if you truly understand how these systems are structured they are about making you a better human being and member of society first and being a effective fighter second. There is a hierarchy, syllabus, protocols and discipline, doctrines that need to be followed. Forms are pre-arranged and there is a right way and a wrong way. Now, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to karate because it has in many ways made me who I am, but my first and only goal that I set for myself as a teenager training was to develop real skills in all ranges of one on one fighting. And it was during this time that I first started cross training, with kick boxers, tae-kwon do guys and wing chun guys. We’d stick gloves on and have a crack. Try and figure out what worked and what didn’t. I found that only 10% of the karate I had learnt was useful and 90% was a waste from a fighting point of view. They are not good odds. But when I first discovered BJJ when wrestling with these Wing Chun guys who were doing privates with John Will at the time, the opposite was true. Over 80% of what you learn in BJJ can be plugged straight into real fighting, some parts cant, like open or inverted guard, but most stuff is very effective right from day one. I like those odds much better. So since then I will put a guy who has done 6 months of BJJ against someone who has done 6 months of karate any day of the week and twice on Sunday. This is no reflection on the student or the teacher but on the efficacy of the delivery system and type of training involved. And if the goal is real life skills first then it pays to play the percentages.

Xande Ribiero

Found this text the other day and thought it was a great description of BJJ and fitted well with this video of Xande Ribeiro....

"Brazilian jiu jitsu is a grappling-based martial art whose central theme is the skill of controlling a resisting opponent in ways that force him to submit. Due to the fact that control is generally easier on the ground than in a standing position, much of the technique of Brazilian jiu jitsu is centered round the skill of taking an opponent down to the ground and wrestling for dominant control positions from where the opponent can be rendered harmless. To control and overcome greater size, strength and aggression with lesser size and strength is the keynote of the sport. This is done by utilizing superior leverage, grip and position upon your opponent. Students of the sport gain a deep understanding of the workings and limits of the human body. This knowledge can be used to subdue and control an opponent with whatever level of severity the student chooses. The path to this knowledge is physically and mentally demanding. Students benefit from greatly increased physical fitness, problem-solving ability, self-knowledge of their body and mind and the many social benefits of working within a large group of like-minded fellow students as you learn and have fun together.

Many students first learn about jiu jitsu through the great popularity of mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, where Brazilian jiu jitsu technique is very prominent. Indeed, the beginnings of the contemporary MMA competition were largely tied up with proving the combat-efficiency of Brazilian jiu jitsu . The practice of Brazilian jiu jitsu as a sport, however, is strongly separated from MMA. Daily classes do not feature kicking or punching. The focus is on safe grappling technique that can be done on a daily basis with no more fear of injury than any other contact sport."

John Danaher Renzo Gracie Academy

Marcio Feitosa Guard Pass

Dream 6 MW Final Jacare v Mousasi

Editorial (aka Ranting)

Lets get a couple of things straight. There has been the usual banter on the Internet forums of the relative merits of BJJ as a method of self-defence and whether other fighting systems are better. What BJJ does do better than anything else is provide you with skills to effectively control an opponent on the ground, either from the top or underneath. Now given that fights regularly end up here it’s a great skill set to have. Secondly BJJ provides you with a training philosophy that forces you to deal with a non-compliant opponent all the time, every training session in fact consists of aliveness. These two things alone make it better than most other systems. But who the hell wants to be on the ground in a punch up if it can be avoided….not me. So the next part of the equation is stand up and clinch and for these two things we need boxing and wrestling, again two “aliveness” systems centred around going all out with someone intent on stopping you. In boxing its getting and being hit hard and in wrestling its all clinch, takedowns and sprawls. The end product of this gruelling evolutionary process is MMA, which seamlessly integrated the transitions between these 3 ranges. Once again though, MMA contests are one-on -one match scenarios with rules, refs, timers and buzzers. A sport, not a fight. What gets me though is these dingbats who then decide because of this that their classical combat system is leaps and bounds better than both BJJ and MMA in dealing with live situations without pressure testing anything. If ten years of the UFC has taught us nothing else it is what works most of the time for most people in a one on one confrontation. A controlled trial, if you like, of the effectiveness of fighting arts. Reliable and Reproducible. To train in anything else and think it makes you a better fighter is ignorant at best and lunacy at worst. Now the trick with all this stuff is that it takes a long time to learn, years in fact. You can spend a lifetime in any of the 3 disciplines and still be learning. So you need to analyse and train the basics or fundamentals in each system and these do not ever change for anyone. These are rock solid principles that go beyond a particular technique like eye gouging, for instance, which seems to be the classic get out of jail free card pulled up by these Muppets. Try your secret techniques on me and see if it works. The result may surprise you. So therefore, develop and train fundamentals in stand-up, clinch and ground. Now that we have the skills next we need to make the leap to self defence training by introducing adrenal responses, verbal, pushing and shoving, contact cues, startle/flinch responses, fences etc. all this has been covered by many authors. My favourites on this topic are Thompson, Blauer and Grossman. And without these things this is where BJJ and MMA can and will fall down in a real situation. But the skill set is still 100 times better than anything else out there. Period. That jump to combat effectiveness is in the training, psychology, awareness, avoidance, stress coping, mechanisms and scenario training NOT the techniques. So train in alive arts like boxing, wrestling, BJJ and Judo and leave the other stuff behind. Keep it real.

Daniel Camarillo HL clip

European Judo C'ship 2007

Renzo Gracie Doco Trailer

Turtle Movement Drill - Shaolin

Annoying American who talks too loud and too much but Shaolin is amazing to watch move, think I have seen this stuff done on Fit ball as well.

Open Guard Transitions - Tinguinha

Photos Rigan Machado Seminar

Club Update

Things are moving along nicely at the new venue, Adrenalin Gym will make a great place to train for our students. We have had lots of new faces come through the club to train so I hope they decide to commit to come down regularly. The big wrestling mat went down today and was cleaned after the session. It looked great. When down it will give us 100 sq metres of mat to wrassle on! The surface is also much smoother so less mat burn. I need to pick up the Extreme and Nova Uniao banners to hang up on Monday and with the edition of a bin, clock and chairs it will be set to go. When its finished I'll post some photos. Thanks to Dave again for his help. The group going to Tasmania in three weeks has been training hard and we will be having a daytime open mat the next two Wednesday's at 1pm. Please join us if you wish to get some more mat time in or check out the new venue. Also I have decided to make Thursday night class a No-Gi class between now and the Pan Pacs to allow our guys to prepare for both events. So no need to bring a Gi on Thursday nite anymore (Sorry to Big Chris who already thought this was the case, I stole your idea) After the Pan Pacs, to be held in mid November, all classes will revert to No-Gi for the summer months.

Sit out from Turtle

Larry Papadopolus Interview

Here is the link to an interview with Extreme black belt, Larry Papadopolus. Larry runs Boxingworks in Sydney's CBD. The photo is Larry trying to rip Suda's head off in the Shooto bout he talks about in the interview.

Peaks and Troughs in Training

This is a subject that has seen some attention on various blogs and websites over the years. But I was talking to young Jason after training last nite and could see the initial glow and enthusiasm of training was starting to wear off and was being slowly replaced by the reality of the grind of training. The realization had struck that this grappling business is hard work and perhaps much more difficult than originally anticipated. This is a classic case of the the three months blues, what was once easy to learn with everyone going easy on you, all of a sudden becomes much harder, as your game becomes predictable your forced to solve problems on the fly. This is where many people stop training at this point, having learnt some cool stuff on the ground but its all a bit hard.

I hope that by having the conversation with Jason that it makes it ok to have this concern and that it can be worked through by being persistent with training. It reminds me of a learning model I heard about some years ago where when learning a new skill we move through four distinct phases......

1. Unconsciously Incompetent
You dont know that you dont know

2. Consciously Incompetent
You know that you dont know

3. Consciously Competent
You know that you know

4. Unconsciously Competent
You dont know you know

Like learning to drive a car it moves from sitting in the passenger seat wondering what all the fuss is about, to the shock that its not as easy as it looks, to developing good habits over time and with experience, to finally becoming second nature. I think much of the 3 month blues is realising how much you don't know (consciously incompetent) and deciding to either quit or keep going at this point. The kids got talent so I hope he keeps training.

Attacking the Turtle - Thales Leites

Here is the patented Nova Uniao neck-arm choke set up from side back control. I think this clip is from the same seminar series as the knee ride choke we worked the other nite but obviously in no-gi this time.

Set up to Crucifix from Open Guard

Am looking forward to attending Rigan's Melbourne seminar this weekend.

Big Right Hand...

The punch that launched one career and may have ended another. Sitting in the pocket and counter punching Liddell takes big kahunas...big props.

Kimura from Armbar defence

Choke from Knee RIde

Here is a fundamental choke from knee ride as taught by Fabricio Werdum, with a good control by switching the knee position.

ESPN MMA LIVE

Fabio Gurgel - Omoplata Set up

Fabio Gurgel
by swsda

Randy back in the UFC

Footage from UFC President Dana White's video blog discussing Randy's return and his upcoming fight with Brock Lesnar in November. No need for a body language expert here. You read between the lines... money talks I guess.

First Nite at Adrenalin Gym

Well we survived our first nite at the new premises. Blood noses, popped elbows and a fat lip. All in a days work for a BJJ class. This sure as hell isn't the easiest sport to partake in, speak to any person who has grappled long and hard enough and there is a long list of injuries to be found. Physio, Chiro, Reco's, Acunpuncture and party packs of Voltarin. Maybe golf is an option. Anyhow on a brighter note, there is room for a full size mat upstairs at Adrenalin, which is great as we can crack out the fancy cover. Have ordered some banners for inside and will get some signage up on the outside of the building. Sore bodies but happy days. Thanks to Dave, Paul and Grant for helping me shift the mat.

Cris Brown Interview

Here is a link to a Cris Brown interview on the Extreme website providing an insight into his competition and training background. Not a bad CV eh? The photo is of RIco Chiaparelli, Coach John Donehue and Cris when Rico was in Australia some time ago for a seminar.

Rigan Machado Melbourne Seminar

Mike Swick: Triangle Set-up