Martial Arts Wellington 272 Taranaki St GSW BJJ NZ

Posts Tagged ‘John Will’

Looking at this news page you’d be forgiven thinking that there is nothing happening at GSW…
Well you couldn’t be more wrong.
The fact is there is too much happening!
In the last couple of months we’ve been struggling to get the new location up and running in Taranaki St. We’re so close but still waiting on mats and some final touches before we can take in new members. This is driving me nuts, as we have had so many people interested in training at the new facility when it’s finished! Soon, very soon.

While that has been going on we have had another visit from BJJ royalty. Rigan Machado once again graced our mats for a seminar after being in Australia for the Will / Machado Nationals. We have also recently had another visit from our coach John Will. We managed to shift some mats into the Taranaki site and run a seminar with over 50 people on the mat! As always the session was epic, but what made it more so, was the promotion of GSW’s first BJJ Brown Belt – Hemi Pou. Never has our mat seen a more deserving rank handed out.

This month while we hope to put the final touches on the new location, we will be hosting one of the biggest names in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the world!
Robert Drysdale is coming the GSW for two nights and running a No-Gi session on Wednesday the 8th and a Gi session on Thursday the 9th. It took a bit of work to get him down to NZ but he was in Australia doing a series of seminars with Will / Machado schools and after several back and forward emails between various people, he agreed to pop over for a couple of days.

I have to thank Gareth Lewis for talking to his contacts and getting the dialogue started and also Sophia Drysdale for all her hard work behind the scenes in getting it all finalised. Thanks you both.

This is a huge coup for GSW and Will / Machado in NZ and we have kept these first sessions with Robert closed to our members only, (I’m hoping that there will be more opportunities to train with Robert in 2011) and the response has been overwhelming. As I write this, the Gi session is fully booked and the No-Gi has only a few spots left. Looks like it’s going to be an enormous couple of days. Hopefully I’ll have time over Christmas to update you on the seminars and progress of the school.

For current members, please be aware, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th classes will be at Taranaki St. Wednesday and Thursday will be the Robert Drysdale seminars (don’t just turn up expecting to get a spot) then we will be changing everything for the following week. Check Back!!

Till then Take Care and I’ll see you on the mat sometime.

Geoff

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

This will be John’s final seminar at the MVD in Wellington.

Next year we’ll likely have to restrict numbers due to the downsizing of the MVD and it’ll likely be run in the Hutt next year.

So take this final opportunity to train with John Will in numbers.

What: John Will Seminar
Where: MVD Wellington
When: Wednesday November 18th
Time: 8.00 – 10pm
Cost: $60