Tomorrow morning, 4 members of Team Ryu set sail (not literally) for Brighton, where the first “grab and pull” tournament is gonna take place, as i’ve already stated.

Feel free to leave us some goodwill messages on our mobiles or anything, i think it’s gonna be a great day.

Competing from our club are:
Steve Boughey.
Steve “Dodgy toe” Wright.
Jez Lord.
Luke Wykes

Results will be up by this time tomorrow for sure. There’ll also be some video from the competition up here on Sunday, so until then, stay safe and TRAIN HARD.

New three column layout i’m playing around with, it’s nowhere near finished so please bear with me guys. You still have the same access to all the old posts, etc in the meantime, they’re going nowhere.

L.

By David Camarillo
 To reach your full potential in excelling your game you must approach the arts you are combining properly with an open mind to learn. When it comes to learning the two arts you have to experience them in their natural state. This state is natural in that it is not plagued by rules [...]

Lee got me thinking tonight. Assimilation and integration of techniques takes some time, you don’t just jump from learning the twister to being world class at it overnight.

Same with every technique; how many times have we been shown a technique in class, thought you’d never suit it, then you forget about this? Then a few months down the line you’re using it a little, then a little more, and suddenly it’s a part of your gameplan. It’s crazy.

I think the conscious competence learning model relates extremley well to Brazilian Jiujitsu and Muay Thai, and I always think it’s a good thing to know what stage you’re at.

When you can break down your learning so you know where you’re at and what you need to do, you’ll get to your goals faster.

An analogy; if you were to drive to Brighton, for example, it would be easier if you knew the route you were taking in advance, rather than learning as you go along.

Anyway, here’s the model in progressive stages. I’ve put a little note next to each stage as to what *I* interpret this to mean, perhaps you think differently? Feel free to start a debate on this .

- Unconscious Incompetence – You’ve just been introduced to the technique, and you aren’t aware of exactly how important each movement is.
- Conscious Incompetence – You realise what you’re doing is wrong and that you need to use the technique fully, not missing any parts of movements.
- Conscious Competence – You pull the move off well, but having to seriously think about what exactly is going on.
- Unconscious Competence. You can pull the move off without even thinking about it, and it’s a technique you go to when you know you need something that you’re good at.

Tonight i wanted to take it easy and avoid any possible injuries before Saturday, but hey, that all goes out of the window when you get into the ryhthym of the night.

Tonight, carrying on from recent events, we covered the twister roll. Starting from “reverse kesa-gatame” (or twister side control), we entered the truck position first where the first few techniques of the class were based.

These included the banana split and the regular calf crank. It’s a shame i can’t calf crank at white belt level because i genuinley love them and it’s a great way to finish a fight quickly.

I can personally recommend Eddie Bravo’s material on this “truck” position, he wasn’t the “inventor” of a lot of this stuff but he was certainly an innovative force in this style of Jiujitsu. His Mastering The Rubber Guard book, while at times a little advanced, compliments his system perfectly and shows exactly how things work. Mastering the Twister is an amazing read, whereas i find his “jiujitsu unleashed” offering a little sub-par when compared with his later works.

Anyway, the class was good, i trained predominantly with Adam, who, as a guy close to my size (alright, he’s like 30kgs lighter but shh), and he’s got pretty good lately. More to the point, we both caught the techniques tonight, and this will be my focus (i say that far too much) after Brighton.

Infact, i’m going to set myself some learning goals. More on this at the weekend.

After we covered the truck, Lee introduced many of us to the wonder that is the Twister submission. Banned in most BJJ tournaments because of it’s legendary status as a dangerous hold, the Twister is, for those of you that don’t know, a lock that focuses primarily on the spine and forces a tapout horrendously quickly.

Lee showed us this from the truck to the back control, which i feel is a beautiful transition, and the fact i was looking for this setup in sparring is a testament to it’s effective status as an easy-to-use hold, once you’ve found you’re groove with it.

Lee’s wisdom tonight shone through at the start of the class where he shared a teaching he’d learned with regards to BJJ; that there is a number for every technique you do.

This number relates to how many repetitions are necessary before you fully are able to implement the technique well, without worrying too much about how you pull it off. In competition you simply haven’t got time to fret about whether the foot is in exactly the right spot in the lockdown.

A learning model relates to this well, which i will post something on after this.

Sparring was interesting, i’m tending to play bottom game a little more lately and while it’s not neglecting my top game, sometimes i really miss it and want to play it far more often.

Oh well. I’m 17. Time is on my side.

okay guys, here’s a roll from Steve Wright and Tim Lodge. Tim’s one of the newest members of the club and really puts his heart into everything he does, it’s pretty inspirational to watch. Keep in mind though, it’s no black-belt level superfight, but enjoyable to watch anyway.

The soundtrack is The Prodigy vs Enya, “Orinoco Bitch”. Quite an interesting track.

I’ll be there. Registration’s now over, but i’ll be competing in the Super Super Heavyweight White Belt Adult division.

If any of the guys that read this wanna say hey, i’ll be the guy with my name on my tshirt. Not hard to spot .

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman begins by explaining, once again, how the pay-per-view business model of many boxing and mixed martial arts companies is flawed due to numerous factors, including the growth of streaming on peer-to-peer networks, the declining economy, and more. In particular, the pay-per-view model of the Affliction MMA promotion is critiqued.

In our main interview, which was originally played on SecondsOut Radio, we spoke with the award-winning boxing writer and author, Thomas Hauser of SecondsOut.com.

Recently he wrote a lengthy and sharp critique called HBO: 2008, which called into question the direction being taken by HBO, the most important television network in boxing.

That article has been widely discussed, and we continued that discussion, both about HBO and the state and future of boxing, on our show this week.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called “The Heist”, by musician Ian Carpenter.

No Holds Barred is free to listen to and is sponsored by:

IFL, the International Fight League. Make sure to check out their regular TV shows on FSN (Fox Sports Net) in the U.S. and to check your local listings for dates and times. Check out the IFL web site, ifl.tv, for a listing of IFL live events and their TV schedule.

Gladiator Challenge, shaking up the mixed martial arts world since 1999, and now with 30 shows per year. For more news and info, check out their web site, GladiatorChallenge.com.

BJJMart.com, your premier source for all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gear, videos, books, and much more.

Gladiator Magazine, for in-depth coverage of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, submission grappling, and MMA, as well as lifestyle articles on surfing, cars, movies, and more. Gladiator Magazine is available at any major bookstore and online at BJJMart.com or Jiu Jitsu Pro Gear.

FightBeat.com, for news, results, interviews, and free exclusive videos from the worlds of boxing and mixed martial arts.

Thanks, Eddie Goldman
EddieGoldman.com

I hate advertising on blogs like this, and this isn’t your traditional advertising. Whenever i discover a hidden gem, I’m gonna let you guys know about it.

It’s always nice to get some new clothing to check out, particularly just before a competition so you can wear it there and feel like you’re a real BJJ player. Competition’s just wouldn’t be the same without the sea of Affliction and Xtreme Couture tshirts flooding the halls.

However, rather than any of those big-names, i’m trying to keep as British as possible, which led me to order from a new startup company; Respect Fight Wear.

Not only is the design on this good, but the quality of the tshirt is high and if you choose so, it comes personalised with your name, which is always going to be a bonus if you want to be recognised out and about.

The design itself is high quality, and it stands out without being obnoxious. I’m not a big fan of “loud” tshirts, ones that you’d be scared to wear on a Friday night for fear of being arrested for causing a public disturbance. This is why this design is pretty much ideal for me, and i’m sure plenty of you out there feel the same.

The cost is £20, which for a personalised tshirt is sodding good value.

Last time i got any personalised tshirts from a different company, it cost me nearly £15 for a one sided, shoddy-quality print. I know where to come in future.

The company is so fresh that the official website for the clothing line doesn’t have much on it at the moment, but they have sufficient contact details and links to their “mother company”, Raw Designs, to see you through an order process. Remember to say where you heard about it!

www.respectfightwear.com – The fight wear brand
www.raw-designs.com – General garment printing (good martial arts coverage too)

All of the above will help you on your way..

Thanks to all the guys at the company for sorting me out, it’s good stuff. I also ordered a hoody that i’ll save to review another time.

Until Thursday,

Train hard, kids!

Last weekend, we held the annual gym summerparty. We had a barbeque on the beach and the weather was perfect.

It was also time for the finale of another tradition we have in the gym: The Gun Festival. Basically it is a competition about who can increase the size of their arms most in two months. There is always a lot of hype and trashtalking going on in the gym for those two months as we all pump our guns intensively to win the competition.

Last year I won with an increase of 7.7% and this year I made it to 11.16%. However, this was not enough to win the competition, as one of the other guys increased impressive 11.59%. So I had to give up the throne and now I must listen to him the next year until I can win back the title.

Here is a little highlight in superslow that I made with my new camera:

As always, our gym parties always ends up with a lot of challenge matches, also known as “Happy Grappling”. Here is one of mine against our local powerhouse Rasmus “Rhino” Keller: (Don’t mind the shirt with a picture of him naked, it is a long story lol)

Ok, I promise next post will be more serious