Monday, October 24, 2011

Melbourne Cup Weekend

There will be no classes this Saturday 29th October due to the Australian Jiu Jitsu Challenge being held at the State Netball and Hockey Centre. Best of luck to all the competitors from our club and please head down and support your team mates if your not competing. There will also be no classes on Tuesday 1st November which is Melbourne Cup Day. Have a nice break and we'll see you back on the following Thursday.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

LAST Ep

Last Ep of TTT

LA LA is a joke!  A state sanctioned circus where people come to idolise other people for trivial accomplishments. Don't get me wrong I love watching movies, but everything here is a plastic facade. A spectacle of crap!! about as entertaining as a show bag with out chocolates.

 Today I got out of my fringed dwelling of LA and headed down to Santa Monica pier which is still a spectacle but a nicer place. Tomorrow I'll hopefully get to venice beach "the humane zoo" should be fun.

Enough Whining though... How about an image to make you guys laugh... Below is a shot of “me ‘ed” after the open mat. Not the most flattering shot and perhaps a little Narcissistic, I’ll give you that! But I thought some of you might like to laugh at it,  and to find some solace in the idea that everyone dog has his day or as Renzo say’s “sometimes you’re the hammer and sometimes you’re the nail” ,  or in this case "sometimes your the nail and sometimes your the nail" so here it is; 

Yesterdays training was a good session;,cobrinha basically jumped straight into the session with some techniques. Two passes that we’re linked by a common response (defence/bloke by the opponent). The class had no warm up… just bang straight into the technique, then it was timed rounds for the remainder. Cobrinha and Fabio (the other instructor there) were both on the Mat rolling with everyone and at the end of the class, Cobrinha hung around discussing different situations and answering any questions anyone had,  he showed some great stuff here and emphasized the need to drill, DRILL and DRILL some more!!

Ok so I am at the end of my sojourn around, through, in and out of a small part of America and an equally small part of its Ju Jitsu culture. As brief as it has been I’ve picked up some tricks, tips and techniques and hopefully some motivation or a desire to move forward as well as a better perspective on where I am at personally with Zhoo Zhitsu!!


So I'll have about 19 hrs to try and remember and reflect on all the little bits and pieces I’ve seen over the weeks so that hopefully I can impart them on to you guys.  But one definite technique I've had emphasised to me over the weeks is "mat time" you can't beat mat time, the best guys were the guys you saw at every class, morning, lunch and noon. So hopefully see you all at training next week.. OSU or as some might say MOOS!!


Cyborg No Gi Triangle from Knee Ride





Might work these in tomorrow nights second class.

Ep4 The Open Mat and no one walks in LA

Jeroen has put me onto an app so that I can blog since my Mac has decieded to go and hang out with steve jobs (RIP) for a little while, just hope steve doesn't keep all my photos amongst othere misc files. So thanks to Jeroen I can blog, no thanks to this app I can't spell check, let this be a warning; I put wet stooff on da hot stooff :)

Two days ago I arrived in LA and I basically chose my hotel based on proximity to the club. Down side is that it is not close to anything else, cept la brea tar pits, which are just Pit full of tar seeping from the ground ( kinda interesting but not what you would come to LA for. So in a nut shell if you don't have a car in LA... Ya F&$€ed! And even more screwed when ur mac dies and ur credit card snaps ( and becomes useless ) but thats what LA is about... Its makes you or breaks you.., lucky I fly out tomoz.

So the open mat was a perfect way for me to filter into Cobrinha club and even better cause classes aren't held on sundays so I got an extra day. There were guys from all over the place even as far as San Diego ( saulo's). A few guys that I spoke to were from the following; JJ machado, Rigans, Gracie accademy, Paragon and so on. It was a perfect opportunity to net work and find clubs... If only I had more time.

So Cobrinha introduced himself and the session and then it was "the awkward ball" ( find a dance partner a begin training ). Everyone danced and changed partners every 6 minutes. In the begining I found myself out in badlands, dark colors standing on every corner. He he. Rollnumber two was the man himself "Cobrinha" cant really remember much other than thinking... Nothing is working, he basically set up camp on my back ( pass, back, pass back). He was really approachable though and during the roll he made some observations and gave some tips :)

All in all was a great session, you can always tell it wasgoid when you get home and your heads all bruised up.

Well thats it for now I am off to the human circus " venice beach boardwalk"

This pick is of the class before adv classes last night, its basically just all drilling specific reaction and the last 15 minutes is a technique

Saturday, October 8, 2011

So this Episode has been a long time coming in part due to our internet dropping out in NY and the fact that spare time on the net has been drastically chewed up by booking hotels and cars.These two things have also drastically chewed up my funds.

In short we have been covering a mass distance of America via trains, plains and automobiles or no trains, but you get the idea. Sedona was my favorite place so far. Vegas was very short lived ( no training L ), San fransico was just as short ( no training ) and all the towns inbetween ( no training ).

Ok so that’s the explanation and now for a quick BJJ story, Last few session at MG were pretty cool but I was getting in there early in the morning and due to the Comp a lot of guys had backed off their training.  Paul showed some good half guard stuff (he’s a gordo BB so pretty much his bread and butter) and we did a few escapes.

 Next day I headed out to No-gi Pan’s. At first I was a little disappointed because I thought it would be a bigger event. Lots of good guys but it just wasn’t as grand as I expected but then I think I was confusing the Pan and World no-gi. The main matches I watched was Lucas Lepri in the semi and final… he basically just walked through the two guys,I don’t think he was even sweating when he walked off.

I had asked him about conditioning at the gym and he said he just did some Oly lifts and Bulgarian bag work… gotta get a bag (that must be the difference). Its actually scary how far above the level was. At one point he had attempted to pass deep half but got caught so after balancing for a while near the edge of the mat, you could see he decided to give up the sweep. Not as soon as he was swept did he straight away arm drag back to the top (giving uo something to get something, like sacrificing a pawn to get a bishop). His next opponent he took down, and then just controlled him and took his back eventually. He looked super calm and really composed, like it was just another training session. The next match I watched was Henrique (MG) and the Half guard terrorist Ciao go at it in the finals. This was a crazy macth, little guys are so good to watch and these two guys are sooooo little, Ciao looks like a boy! I think Ciao won by Adv.  I’ve filmed some of it so I’ll try and post it.


The states has been smashing my Bank account due mainly to hotels and unforeseen glitches. This and not being able to find out when I am due back at work has put an end to Brazil L oh well. At the moment I fly back on Wednesday 12, but I am trying to get my flights extended so I can get down to San Diego, but it all depends on how much they want to charge me for the change. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get into cobrinha’s to get the gold for you guys. 

This is a shot of the comp... guess they all look the same, cept maybe ADCC ( Pro-gi and No - gi)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

UFC 136 The Great Debate

Ok here is a really short and quick post or more precisely just some pics.. I've written another post but its in drafting form so provided there is an internet where we are heading next I'll try and get it up.


One pick Of MG at the 7.00am class and the other is of Sedona... I think the (bare MG) the best place we have visited so far.