Martial Arts Wellington 272 Taranaki St GSW BJJ NZ

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John Will returned to GSW in Lower Hutt for another round of BJJ Seminars. Once again due to numbers the seminars were split into two sessions.
White Belts and Coloured Belts.

The White Belt session was attended by 40 BJJ Students from GSW and Submission Martial Arts in Whitby. John covered a bunch of Immediate Action techniques in a seminar that he called a Vaccination Seminar.

Basically John covered answers to several of the problem areas that he sees beginners getting caught in during their first months of BJJ training. Things that John covered were, Crossover Guard defence, Side Control Escape (Hip in Pocket), Switchbase escape, Elbow Escape from Mount, Side Mount Escape, 1/2 Guard pass, Head to Head (Sit-out) and Front Choke Escape.

At the end of the White Belts session 4 New Blues were Presented 1 from Glen’s Submission Martial Arts and 3 from GSW. Conrats to Melvin, Kym and Kelvin

The Coloured Belts session covered getting the back and was attended by 30 of GSW’s Blue and Purple Belts. John had given us some great chokes at the last seminar and this time he went into several ways of gaining and controlling the back using several vital principals involving leverage and weight placement.

As always Johns seminar left everyone with something to take away and think about, as well as many things that instantly fitted into peoples grappling. Johns next session will be November 24th..

Our next seminar at GSW is with Richard Norton one of John Will’s training partners and multiple Black Belt, including his BJJ Black Belt from Jean Jacques Machado. Richard has starred in dozens of movies, with many top Martial Arts Movie Stars. Richard has also travelled the world as personal protection to performance artists. Richard bio can be found at his site www.richardnorton.net/blog

Richard will be running BJJ Seminars at GSW Lower Hutt on the 3rd of July 2010. Each seminar will be $50 and last 2 hours. Jump onto the GSW facebook page to register your interest as places are strictly limited and filling fast.
Wellington Saturday 3rd July 2010
BJJ Seminar White Belts 1pm – 3pm $50
BJJ Seminar coloured Belts 3.30pm-5.30pm $50

Wellington Sunday 4th July 2010
MMA / Street Defence Seminar (for Zen Do Kai Students)
Sunday 4th July
9am – 11am
$50

The boys and Girls in Auckland are hosting this years Will / Machado BJJNZ nationals.

Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010
Time: 9:30am – 5:00pm
Location: AUT, North Shore Campus
Street: 90 Akoranga Drive
City/Town: Northcote, New Zealand

Download the NZ Nationals Poster A4 >>

Online registrations can be made here >> http://strongvon.com/willmachado2010

A facebook event page has been set up for all information and news:
Facebook Event Page Nationals 2010

Here is all the info from the facebook page. We look forward to seeing all Will / Machado BJJ Students there!!

Early Bird Entry Fee, before 5th July
$40.00, includes free competition t-shirt

After 6th July $40.00 entry fee plus $20.00 for competition t-shirt

Online entries at http://strongvon.com/willmachado2010

Weigh In 9:30am

ENTRIES CLOSE MIDNIGHT FRIDAY 23rd JULY

* You must be a member of a Will/Machado affiliated academy to compete

DIVISIONS

WHITE BELT - 5 minutes
63KG
68KG
73KG
78KG
83KG
88KG
93KG
98KG
+98KG

BLUE BELT – 6 minutes
63KG
68KG
73KG
78KG
83KG
88KG
93KG
98KG
+98KG

PURPLE BELT – 7 minutes
80KG
+80KG

BROWN BELT – 8 minutes
Open

FEMALE:

WHITE BELT – 5 minutes
65KG
+65KG

BLUE-PURPLE BELT – 6 minutes
Open

2KG allowance for Gi

NB: Divisions are subject to entries, there may be an adjustment in weight split to make for better competition pools

It’s done.. decision made… GSW and the Poneke Dojo are parting ways. Pretty sad, after a stellar relationship for 8 years. But we need to move onwards and upwards.

Classes get bigger and bigger, no matter what I say people still keep coming along. So I’ve made the decision to run all classes out of the Hutt for a few months while we finalise a new Wellington location!

Wellington will be Bigger Better More Classes and More Variety. Stay tuned for more in the coming months.

The last class at Prince of Wales Park will be this Sunday 9th May!

I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to Chris & Jill Gower for everything they have done for me and GSW over the years, you guys are the very best.

Geoff

The Poneke Dojo @ Prince of wales park has been repaired and rematted and is ready for us to use. Our first class there will be Thursday the 15th of April. Remember there is limited space so please don’t come. You are encouraged to make the drive to Lower Hutt where several Blue Belts will be on hand to help you with your game and have a roll. Other than that if you can only make it into town then I’ll see you on Thursday.

GSW Wellington Prince of Wales Park, Salisbury Tce, Mt Cook

Monday

8.00 – 9.30 pm: BJJ Intermediate (Open – Gi – grappling)

Wednesday

8.00 – 9.30 pm: BJJ Intermediate (Open – Gi – grappling)

Thursday

7.00 – 7.45 pm: BJJ Fundamentals (new members)
7.45 – 8.30 pm: BJJ Apartheid (Coloured only)
8.30 – 9.00 pm: BJJ Grappling (Gi – grappling)

Sunday

6.00 – 6.45 pm: BJJ Fundamentals (new members)
6.45 – 7.30 pm: BJJ Apartheid (Coloured only)
7.30 – 8.00 pm: BJJ Grappling (Gi – grappling)

John Will returned to Wellington this month and there were a couple of new things this time around.

Firstly we held the seminars in our own facility in Lower Hutt. With the Wellington Dojo fire earlier this month and the smaller mat area I decided that running the sessions in the Hutt would be a better option. This also gave us the chance to start at a much earlier time slot. But with the mat size I also split the session into White Belts followed by Coloured Belts.

So at 6.30pm with a few stragglers still coming through the door John kicked off his first session of 2010 and his first ever session at GSW Lower Hutt. there were 30 White Belts on the mat including 7 from Submission Porirua. Glens club is going through the same sort of expansive growth as we are at GSW and The Submission guys are starting to fight for mat space. An awesome achievement for Glen and a positive boost for BJJ students in Wellington.

John covered some basic concepts for recovering the guard, then a few ways to pass the guard followed by a few was to escape when you guard has been passed. He then put the whole thing together as a drill for everyone to cement the concepts of guard recovery into their heads.

After a quick break there was a change of tack with John covering a couple of concepts for attacking and maintaining and attacking the back. He then made everyone go through the guard recovery drill at a slower more flowing pace and swapping partners..

The White Belt session ended with 3 Blue Belt promotions. Glen awarded Submission Martial Arts first Porirua Blue Belt to Andrew Douglas and I promoted two GSW students to Blue as well. Congrats to Jeffery Alcaraz and Haydn Parker. After a quick Photo shoot the White Belts cleared the mat and the Coloured Belts took over. There were 30 Blue and Purple Belts in the advanced session and John and I took the opportunity to promote a couple of Blues to Purple.

Congrats to Phil Stenhouse and Brad Kora! BJJ Purple Belt is a significant step up and one that is not easily earned or awarded, so well done. I know the East Coast BJJ crew will be particularly stoked with Brads promotion. We hear nothing but good things about Brad and his boys in Whakatane.

John the got straight into the session covering advanced concepts around the Kata Gatame position, including, maintaining and fine-tuning the position, finishes and entires to the position. A great session and 4 hours of hard work for John. After a few quick photos everyone split and John and I got home a good hour earlier than normal. This morning I’ve seen John off on a flight to Christchurch to meet up with his ol’ buddy Ron for a fishing trip in the Wanaka area. Ron accompanied John and Melissa on Johns very first seminar trip to Wellington in 1999!

So all up there were over 60 people attending this seminar round and I’m sure that when John returns in June we’ll have to take advanced bookings as the GSW classes grow and as Glens school requires more and more spaces on the mat for Johns seminars. Look for big things in 2010 as this is GSW’s 10th year as a BJJ school!

On Tuesday the 8th of Feb the new Poneke Dojo at Prince of Wales park suffered fire damage. What appears to be an electrical fault in the kitchen, sparked a fire on the top floor of the Scottish Harriers building. The fire caused extensive damage to the kitchen and lounge area and the training areas suffered smoke and water damage.

Our thoughts go out to Jill and Chris Gower who have put in countless hours over the Christmas holidays working on getting the new facility ready. The damage is heart breaking and although insurance will cover the costs I’m sure they are hurting right now.

What does this mean for GSW? Well I’ve made the decision to run all our classes from our Hutt Location until the Wellington Building is repaired or until a new venue is found. So beginning Sunday the 14th of February our Lower Hutt class timetable will look like this.
Sunday 6pm Fundamentals – 7pm Grappling
Monday 7pm Fundamentals – 8pm Grappling
Wednesday 7pm Fundamentals – 8pm Grappling (Please note there is no normal class on the 17th we are closed for a John Will Seminar!!)
Thursday 7pm Fundamentals – 8pm Grappling

Thomas took several pictures of the fire damage and you can see them on our facebook page. Compare them to the pristine videos posted below.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=146480&id=72268139002&ref=mf

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3310078/Fire-destroys-newly-renovated-karate-dojo

Please check back here for more information as we get it.

Thanks

Geoff

The new Poneke Dojo site @ Prince of Wales Park is not going to be ready until the middle of he month. Rather than put off our start back time to match the new location, we have decided to run classes again at the old venue @ the Mt Vic Dojo.

It’ll be only for a couple of weeks until the new place is ready. So things will be a bit sparse and haphazard and to reflect this we’ll be running the classes as No-Gi. All GSW members are welcome and I assume a few new members will pop down to check us out as well for the new year.

So Normal classes resume today Sunday 10th January 2010 6pm No-Gi Techniques and 7pm No-Gi rolling.
Please wear shorts or Gi pants and a rashie or tee (Tees will be stretched so make sure it’s an oldie)
Do not wear anything with extra pockets, belt loops or baggy fabric. These are dangerous since fingers and toes can get caught in them. Baggy cargo shorts are an example of what not to wear.

Monday and Wednesday classes will be in the Lower Hutt club and will be No-Gi until further notice.

Hope to see you all there.

The first class back for GSW in Lower Hutt and a good turnout of almost 30 people on the mat.

The class covered chokes mainly from the sprawl position.

• First we started with a quick review of the standard Guillotine from the closed guard. This gave us several simple principals that we could then apply to techniques later in the class.
• Next was the Anaconda choke from the sprawl position.  We take a loose seatbelt grip, right bicep in front of their collar bone, left arm under their armpit. Our Right arm traps their right tricep and then we place our right hand in our left bicep. From there we apply pressure by bringing our elbows together and then roll under their body. Once we’re on our backs we walk our legs towards their body and apply more pressure for the tap.
  
• Darce Choke – From the same sprawl position with the seatbelt grips. This time we move our body to the left and align ourselves with their shoulders. At the same time we push our left arm deep so our left hand is up by their neck. We then clasp palms and drive our right forearm across their neck forcing them onto their left side on the mat. We then push our left arm out the back of their shoulders and clasp our right bicep, placing our right hand on their back. We then switch our base towards their legs and use our body to apply pressure to the back of their tricep.
  
• Peruvian necktie - Same grips as before, same angle change, but this time we jump up to a squat and step our right leg over their head as we sit back, we bring our left leg over their back so they cannot roll out of the choke.
  
• Rolling Lapel Half Nelson – as we had a few minutes left I added this choke to the end of the class. Although not strictly of the same type of chokes it is applied from the same sprawl position. This time from the sprawl we place our right hand under their chin and grab their opposite lapel with a pistol grip (four fingers in the collar). From their our left hand comes under their right armpit and then behind their head. We use our left hand to pull their elbow out of the way so we can roll under their body. When we are on our back we extend our left arm behind their head and support it with our left knee, using the leverage and pull their lapel with our right hand for the tap.

Things to thnk about for the coming year.

Set small goals. – simple obtainable goals will help you see your progress far better than general long term aims. In BJJ it’s the little things that make all the difference. Lasting a round before being submitted by the Blue Belts, escaping side control quickly where you would normally take minutes, holding a strong position where normally the person would escape easily. These sort of goals will help focus your game and give you an idea of how your progressing on the mat.

Drill – at the beginning or end of ever session, grab a willing partner and rep out a technique 20, 30, 40 or 50 times. It could be a technique you just learnt in the last class or something you need to add to your game. Drilling the technique will help cement it into you game all the quicker. But remember “Practice Makes Permanent” so make sure you understand the technique before you rep 50 sloppy versions.

Game Diagnostics tool – Don’t forget to grab a cop of Johns Game Diagnostics tool from the club. An awesome tool to assist in recognising your “IA” (Immediate Action) from any given position: http://bjj-australia.blogspot.com/2008/11/game-diagnostics.html

After a short break for Christmas GSW Martial Arts Lower Hutt will have it’s first class of the year, tonight.
Monday 4th January 2010 7pm
223 High St Lower Hutt

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Classes will restart in Wellington, in our new location, on the 14th of January. Stay tuned for more info..

1:Tonight we started with partnering up,and rolling at 60% with no subbing

2:Here we had half guard.We grabbed left gi pants at the ankle with our right hand,and their left gi cuff with our right hand.Swing our right hand right around to almost 360 degree’s(trying to hit outselves in the butt),we loaded them onto our right knee,and launched them over to our left hand side,coimg up to knee ride.We then could step our left leg over their head,slide down the bat pole,squeeze the knees,and lie back for the arm bar.

2B:A variation on drill 2:We couldn’t quite load them up on our knee,so we swung around half way to grabbed their left leg and rolled off to the left side,so our left leg went under theirs,and right leg over trapping it.Our hands grabbed lower calf,and we stretched ourselves up, for the knee bar.

3:Here we had feet in the hips,and our hands had control of their gi cuffs,with our knees in their biceps stretching them out.With our left knee we pulld it down,and placed our right shin across their lower stomach(both legs were our to the left hand side.We came around to the right 90 degrees and with our right hand grabbed thier left gi pants at the ankle.pulling our left knee right down to the ground, we rolled over our left shoulder,and pulled their left leg up sweeping them over

3b:A variation on drill 3:We went for drill 3 but this time when we swept them over,our left knee went on their right arm trapping it to the ground.We them put our right hand in their left side gi collar,and our right hand in the right side.We then soun around and tripodded up placing our head on their lower stomach on their right hand side.Bringing our elbows together as much as we could,and raising them up for the spinning choke.

4:We set the butterfly sweep,and out partner lent forward so we swept them over

4B:We set the butterfly sweep,and our partner stood up.With our left foot we wrapped it around their right bicep,and our lright foot went in their hip.We pulled down our left foot and swept them over.

4C:We again set the butterfly sweep.Our partner came around to our right side to pass our guard,so we loaded them onto our right leg pulled our left knee down and launched them over to our left for the sweep.