MartialArtsNomad.com made its way from the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu seminar in Port Alberni to Summer Slugfest IV in Victoria BC. Summer Slugfest is an outdoor fight event organized by Peteric’s Gym, hosted this year on the grounds of Velox Rugby Club. We BJJ students had to blast down to Slugfest IV directly from Port Alberni to meet up with our team, which included two fighters on the card. The blue sky held, the weather was warm enough, the crowd was at capacity to enjoy the 14 fights on the card.

Highlights Reel

I have put together a highlights reel of what I shot with my video cam during the night, with shots from around the grounds, fighters warming up, card girls, and of course some action from some of the fights.

Over the course of the night, I shot 321 pics during the event and recorded fights for Moghaddam vs Downey (mt), McCurdy vs Bergen (kb), Ladki vs Aquino (kb), and Sharma vs Valiquett (mma).

Chase Ingalls

Other fights on the card worth noting was an appearance by Chase Ingalls against Robert Durkenson. Chase Ingalls is looking more and more like a fighter with a promising future after his unanimous win in the ring at Slugfest IV.

Chase Ingalls vs Robert Duerkenson

Sanjeev Sharma vs Andrew Valiquett

Sanjeev Sharma and Andrew Valiquett got together for a 3 round MMA battle. Round 1 went to the ground and Valiquett controlled from the top position. The fighters stayed on their feet during the next two rounds while they clinched, kneed, and boxed each other in a battle of attrition. The split decision went to Sharma.

Derek Mrak vs Nigel Yarjau

The MMA battle between 190 pounders Derek Mrak of Canada’s Best Karate and Nigel Yarjau of Pure Self Defence was in many ways the most impressive fight of the night. Yarjau is a fit and experienced fighter. Mrak didn’t look like your typical fighter, with longish hair and handlebar moustache, a guy you wouldn’t tussle with nevertheless. Mrak took a real beating from Yarjau, complete with lumps, blood, eye pokes, and the most brutal and hideous armbar I have ever seen. Mrak did everything he could to give payback, including dumping Yarjau out through the ropes and on to the judges table at one point. Fight fans watched in horror as Yarjau cranked Mrak’s arm from 3:00 to 9:00. Mrak didn’t tap. I kept snapping photos. People were screaming. The medic beside me said he thought he heard his shoulder pop. Most sane, and insane people would have tapped. Mrak is a stalky tough guy, and managed to slip out of it eventually and almost get full side control. His corner was calling for hammer fist but he didn’t have much of a left arm left. From a technical point of view, Mrak didn’t look, or move like a typical fighter, it didn’t appear he was able to listen to his corner as much as other fighters, and he missed opportunities that could have changed the tally. But such is ring fighting. At the end, Yarjau won unanimously, but the fans were on their feet cheering and applauding Derek Mrak for his exceptional grit and guts he showed against a superior opponent. Osu!

Moghaddam vs Downey

The co-main event of the evening was a rematch and at the same time an ‘ante upping’ between Kiarash ‘The Beast’ Moghaddam and Mike ‘knock ‘em Down’ Downey. These two cruiserweights battled it out in April for the Amateur Western Canadian Muay Thai title. It was a hard fought, intense battle that called for an additional round to determine the winner. The belt was given to Moghaddam. At Slugfest IV they got back together for the open IKF Canadian title in this division. The fight was again a closely called match, but Downey got the upper hand eventually with knockdowns, despite consistent and aggressive volleys from Moghaddam. Fight judging is not a perfect thing, and fighters know they must not leave it up to the judges. Fight fans can expect these two exciting fighters to step back in the ring when Downey has to defend his title.

Links:

Summer Slugfest IV Results

Youtube Videos

Flickr.com Photos

The Martialartsnomad blog was back for day two of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu seminar at Dragon Martial Arts Academy in Port Alberni. Gi day with the master was started with a variety of self defense moves such as escape from front and rear neck choke, and takedowns with gi collar. We looked at a variety of moves including escapes and finishing moves from the top. Early on in the warm up, Royce Gracie called a time out and told us to apply a little more struggle and force in our choking and strangling so that the defender can know what it feels like while practising the escape. He said we were being too gentle, and he wished he always had nice students like us to practice with! Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, after all, was developed and refined by the Gracie family in Brazil to deal with practical combat situations, both on the mats and in the street.

After a number of drills, Royce Gracie started asking for questions from the group about what we wanted help with. We needed escapes from side control, mount, from locks and other situations. Gracie demonstrated the moves with a student a couple times, and sent us on our way to practice some more. Then students with more than a years experience were then paired up to roll, and then stripes and belt promotions were handed out.

We ended our session with a few more group photos and autographs. I got Mr. Gracie signed my white belt.

Royce Gracie goes around the world now, giving seminars for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. As a Gracie, he still works to promote the art that bears his family name, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. The masters of the art are also there to ensure homogeneity in grading, and to bring the community together.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is still young and that makes it a good time to practise it. Its a great benefit as a new student to benefit from a seminar conducted by a master of the art. When the master is in the room, you listen closely and try hard. You need not be very experienced in bjj to come to a seminar hosted by one of the masters. You can attend even without having achieved any particular level in the sport. Of course, it would be better to have had some class experience in bjj or something similar. Be prepared with Gi and grappling clothes, mouthguard, and kneepads, and a good attitude. After only having two months of classes prior to the seminar, I can say it has changed the way I think about how I work on the mat. I know after my first roll back at the dojo, I am being a bigger nuisance to my competitor than ever before.

Link to photo set on Flickr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157624676621669/

MartialArtsNomad.com was at the Royce Gracie seminar for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu at Dragon Martial Arts in Port Alberni, BC. We just had an awesome day learning some core techniques for grapping and submission from one of the greatest fighters of all time, known for his domination of early UFC events.

Royce is also an instructor with a great spirit and gives personal attention and instruction to all his students.

On the first day we worked on the principles of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu self defence. We started with escape from a front neck choke to throw. That was our warm up.

Then Gracie got us working over the next 3 hours building up a sequence of moves that would go from standing to ground submission of the opponent.
the moves started with a kick block and pass guard to bear hug or from the clinch, taking the opponent to the ground, or by leg hook; from then we went through the options of arm bars, choking the opponent out by wrapping his arm around his neck, and assuming that the opponent resist and blocks, we move to behind and eventually finish with an arm bar.

We worked on the pieces of the puzzle and then at the end, Gracie tells us to put it all together…. and it came together like a dance! We finally got to see what we were learning in the day.

Looking forward to day two. We will be putting on our Gis and doing more with the master. Definitely looking forward to day 2.

Link to full set of photos from this day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157624771738374/

My travelling friend Lee in HK snapped and sent me this fight picture for my martial arts blog of a fight night (tonight) in Hong Kong. Funny I wasnt sure what kind of fighting this was by the information on the poster. I wasnt sure if it was a kickboxing or Muay Thai fight or just boxing. A search on YouTube for martial arts video of libogen fight night brought up lots of fight videos and they are definitely fighting the art of the eight limbs.

Libogen Fight Night Poster in Hong Kong (photo by GramophoneDJ)

Thanks for coming back to my martial arts blog. Today I have for you an extended interview I recorded with Sifu Tom Laroche November 25 2009 at Generation Centre, Sifu Tom’s gym in Kamloops, BC.

Sifu Tom Laroche

I have to go home to Kamloops once in a while and being away from the gym is no excuse to stop training. To keep it going I looked up Sifu Tom Laroche, a world champion kickboxer and one of the teachers at the first martial arts school I ever went to, a White Crane Gung Fu school. Sifu Tom is still teaching martial arts after all these years. I dropped into his school to train, and after we got together for an interview. I knew that someone who has been in the game for that long would have lots to say. We talked about the emergence of martial arts from the 70′s until today, his world title, how he got into martial arts, and the martial arts school he runs today.

Delighted to run to you again now, first let me apologies for being such a brat in your class over 30 years ago. I’m flattered that you’ll have me back. You have been doing martial arts for a really long time now, how long is it?

I started in 1976 really serious, but actually we started when I was 18 yrs old when we used to drive from Princeton with my brother and a friend of mine, we would go by car or by bus every weekend and drive up to Vancouver, they would let us stay in the Kung Fu school, and we would train, and then we would go back and train in Princeton during the week and then go back on the weekends, that was my first introduction to martial arts…

A Gung Fu school in Princeton?

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

No it was in Vancouver, but what happened that there was a Sifu, and he came through town and stayed at a hotel that was right across the street from my parents place. And they were practising in this empty parking lot, my brother seen them and was talking to them they invited him up so for the first weekend he went up then he told us about it so we jumped in with him and started going back and forth for a long time and then eventually that phased out but that’s kind of where I got the bug for martial arts, and that was right back in the time when Kung Fu, in 1973 was the #1 show on TV, Bruce Lee had come out with Enter The Dragon, he had just died and his show had just come out, so it was big, real big push on it and that was when we got caught up in that.

(There was) that kind of Kung Fu fever.. and then basically from that point on… eventually I stopped, then I went to Nanaimo for a welding course, and we met another guy who was teaching Kung Fu over there, he was from San Francisco, It wasn’t anything fancy or flashy, it was, you know…  a class. Yet it re-ignited our passion to train again, and then I remember watching Bill Wallace on TV, Superfoot Wallace was the world champion professional world karate association and he was defending his title there and I remember seeing little things along the way that kept putting the focus on it and then… So I moved back to Princeton after my course, and from there I ended up moving over to Kamloops area, and I bumped into a guy that trained with us back in Nanaimo and he told me about the school, and that’s when we really got involved and that’s when I taught you over at the White Crane Gung Fu School, and you were, how old were you?

I don’t know, maybe 10…

So we put tons of kids through that school, and that was right at the time when I was fighting and we had a really successful fighting team, I had won the world title and it was just such a big thing in town here, so we just pumped so many kids through there, so I bump into many now who same thing they come back later when they’re adults, its kind of cool, some of them they actually have schools now in different places.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with student

Yeah, all the way along I really started my serious training in town here with Barry Adkins, of the White Crane Gung Fu School. That was 1976. And we put in about two years of training, we got an invitation to go to China, to Hong Kong at that time, and we competed there and we took a four man team over there, we came back with four gold medals. We were the only Caucasians there, we were told that we were the only Caucasians ever to compete in this tournament. So we won four gold medals, and they invited us back, so we took back a seven man team in 1980, and then we won 5 out of 7 fights there, so they invited us back in ’81, with a 21 person team, 11 fighters and the rest were demonstrators. So two days of fights and demonstrations. They would have a fight, and then a demo, a fight, and then a demo, over two different days, so it was big, they had Gung Fu masters, they had top Gung Fu masters all lined up in tables, like head tables, because the Chinese are really into honouring their masters, and giving them first place, so it was a chance to have them all in front of us, and we were performing, it was a great experience, and out of that, I forget what we won but we won the majority of fights at that one too.

…we took a four man team over there, we came back with four gold medals. We were the only Caucasians there, we were told that we were the only Caucasians ever to compete in this tournament.

And then we went into Guangzhou, which is right next to Hong Kong, it used to be Canton province, we did a demonstration with a Wushu team over there, in an auditorium that held 6000 people. It was totally circular, made of stone, and it was packed to the rim with people. That was a great experience. Then in 1983 we hooked up with a professional tournament, what they called a world championship, it wasn’t like a world title so much but it was like track and field going to the world championships. They had 16 countries involved, and I went there and they had two nights of fights, the first night was elimination, and then the finals, and I won the fight and won the trophy for my weight class. As soon as I got back to Kamloops from there, we turned professional, I was still amateur then. That last fight was sort of a pro/semi-pro fight.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

Then turned professional, started fighting all the way through western Canada, we fought in Spokanne, Edmonton, that was our main circuit around here. And then in 1983 I was invited to go to Australia, and was the US and Canada taking on New Zealand and Australia. There was a promoter over there, his name was Bob Jones, really well known back at that time and he had schools all over Australia. He had a really successful organisation, he would do camps in the summer. We had these fighters come over, some of them were world champions from the states, or they weren’t world champions then they became world champions later. And people from Canada, and I fought for the Commonwealth title, and we stayed in Sydney right on Bondi beach, and then they had fights in Sydney, Perth, Newcastle, and Melbourne. I fought in Melbourne, flown over for this. So it was a big thing, and I won the commonwealth title. I fought a guy named ‘No Mercy Percy Lanciao’… so I had no mercy on Percy…

…we hosted the fight, we brought him in and I won the world title in 1984, July 12 1984. I remember it well- I had a front row seat!

So right after that when we got back we found out we had an opportunity to fight for a world title, and it was against a guy named Ismael Roblis, from Galveston Texas. So he came in, he was a boxer and kickboxer, very successful, he had 45 boxing matches under his belt, plus numerous kickboxing, he had fought mainly in PKA, but we had fought mainly in World Karate Association (WKA), the Karate International Association of Kickboxing, which was leg kicks, and punching and kicking, so we fought here in Kamloops, we hosted the fight, we brought him in and I won the world title in 1984, July 12 1984. I remember it well- I had a front row seat! It was a great fight, he was a hard, fit competitor, so it was good. At that point, I was told it was the largest audience for an event held in Kamloops, held in the memorial arena, before we got the big arena, the interior savings centre, we had 3000 in there, the stands were packed, the floor was packed. We had such a really good fan base in Kamloops, we had everybody from young kids, right up to grandparents, so it wasn’t like a certain little segment of the community, we had a whole cross section, which was really cool. In ’84 in November, I fought and defended my title against a guy named Alan Watson, he was from Florida, and originally from the Bahamas. I took him out in about the seventh round.

Sifu Tom Laroche working with Tyne Hennefet

That spring we had another title defence, Rick Simmerley from Florida, he had fought Benny Urquidez, tried to fight him and Benny beat him, so we fought him here in town, a unanimous decision, we had a 12 round fight. Later on we arranged to fight Benny Urquidez. Benny was the super lightweight title, (Benny the Jet). He was 140 and under… about 7 lbs under that. And he had already been 135lb world champion, most people in kickboxing knew who Benny was. He was someone who I would use as a focus, a protege, cause I liked his style, he was strong, he was fit, he kicked and punched well, so we had always had our focus on him. Eventually we set up a fight for him, was in 1987. We fought him November in Los Angeles. What happened was there was a vacant title, a guy in Holland, I forget his name, somebody killed him, and he was the world champion, so his title became vacant and it was the World Karate Association Welterweight Title, which was 140 ¼ to 147. So we were fighting, my title wasn’t on the line, his title wasn’t on the line, we were fighting for a vacant WKA title, that was an excellent fight, a 12 rounder. They gave the decision to Benny, I was the first person to ever take Benny 12 rounds. In fact my fight was the second last fight that he had. And then after that he had maybe one or two years later he had one other fight against a guy from Japan, and then he retired. After that I had one more fight defending my title, I fought a fellow, from New Haven, Mississippi. They called him Jimmy ‘The Jet’ Bland, so we fought and it was a 12 round fight and we won by unanimous decision.

…and these two girls were sparring and she really got whacked and I remember she cried during the sparring at first and then the other girl was crying, and then after I said, ‘What do you think?’, she says, ‘I think I want to fight.’

After that I announced my retirement, because I felt I had a new focus coming toward me, I was a Christian already and I had been out already ministering lots, I had already gone and done bible school, and it was where I wanted to redirect my focus more. Really I was in my prime, I was at the top, they were talking about paydays of $50,000, no-one had seen anything like that at the time, there was lots of talk about that. But now with Mixed Martial Arts we are seeing those paydays way above that. I like to think that we had a part in that segment of building up the martial arts and getting it out to the public. MMA is the way now that it has come through, and martial artists are getting wages that they deserve. Boxers were getting million dollar paydays, multi-million dollar paydays… boxers work hard, (but) any mixed martial artist, they work harder than any boxer or kickboxer. There is so much more conditioning required. Whether you are working knees because you are doing Muay Thai, Sanshou which is punching, kicking, or throws, or mixed martial arts its just a huge draw on your conditioning. Now they are starting to get paydays which they deserve.

So you have seen the whole martial arts scene evolve from something kind of special, from the spark that Bruce Lee ignited to MMA now, you have been witness to quite a time line.

Its been exciting because I have been actively involved in it. I’m not competing any more, but I’ve got competitors. I have had one of our guys, he represented Canada in the 5^th World Wushu Championships in Hong Kong, Tyler Walkton, he was only one of four fighters from across Canada to represent Canada. There was about 55 or 54 countries. Another fighter that we had, Tracy Hubert, he went on to win the BC Muay Thai title, the Canadian Muay Thai title, he fought two international matches, for an international title against Canada versus Thailand… did really well moved over to Thailand, and did really well over there.

In that time frame we have seen a lot of different fights take place, different styles, Muay Thai was starting to come in, around 2000. Later then we had one of our girls, Yvette McConnel, she went on to win the BC Kickboxing WKA Amateur title, we have had a lot of fighters in between that. Mixed martial arts has come in. So on our cards now, it is very common to see kickboxing, boxing, maybe a Sanshou fight, which is punching kicking and throws, Chinese style, and the mixed martial arts, which is all on one card, so people are getting a the real thing now, its like a smörgåsbord of martial arts when you go to a tournament.

…‘It’s great to be to be the world champion, but when you’re truly a great world champion, its when you can help somebody else become a world champion… So we are still working on that next champion.

One of our girls Tyme Hennefet, in August she just won the Canadian Featherweight Sanshou title. She won a place on the Canadian team, she went to the world Wushu championships held in Toronto this year and it was over 85 countries involved. She made it to the quarter finals, she is young and and training, she’s strong, she is fighting this coming weekend with one of our other fighters, and then she is going to be off to China, coming here in December, and we are looking for a title fight coming up in the new year, so its exciting, a number of different generations from yourself, how many years ago was that?

30 years ago.

Students Training at The Generation Centre

Thirty years ago! Now here we are seeing a whole new generation coming up, so its been exciting, and I’m right in there I enjoy jumping in there and sparring with the students, I’m fit, so it keeps me healthy, I was just saying to one of our fighters here today that, I can’t think of a better way to make a living. I just enjoy it, I have lots of fun you’re helping people get in shape, you teach them self defence, you help a competitor go into the ring, something that only a very small segment of the community ever even dares to step into. And to see them go in and then take that and add that to their life, to their career, to their family, its exciting to see that.

So you’re passing on your experience…

Well that’s it, and really that’s the job I always had planned in this before, and I always say to our students, if you really want to reach for your very maximum in martial art, you cant just train for yourself. You have to start giving it away. I call it a selfish fight that all he does is train for himself. And there is that time to do that. Sometimes you got to focus on yourself. Somewhere along the way you have to start giving it away, otherwise I believe you limit yourself to the level you can actually obtain. You only can go so far. And I have heard this before: ‘It’s great to be to be the world champion, but when you’re truly a great world champion, is when you can help somebody else become a world champion. And now its not just you, but somebody else. So we are still working on that next world champion.

And you have been running this school for a while?

I have been running this club since 1997, on my own, I worked in Corrections for seven years, that’s when I had retired from kickboxing, I just felt I wanted to make a change, like I said I went to bible college, got ordained as a minister, was out ministering lots, went on several missions to China, been over to Africa, been over to talk to different churches, schools, do a lot of work with schools and young people… But with the training here, we went through quite a transition, with this property I came across it in the year 2000 and I have always seen it for years, a place where we would have our own gymnasium, before we were working out of schools and churches, I ran across these facilities, ended up purchasing it from this fellow who wanted to make a change, he was retiring, and new we’ve got the front building, and it was to be a community centre, what we call ‘The Generation Centre’. A place to cover all different age levels, from young kids, I teach 4-5 year olds, we teach 6-12, teens and adults. We have a class for seniors, our oldest student was in her late seventies, trained up till about 79 years old, and she was in all the time. She had seen a big change in her health, she could hardly move from fibromyalgia, came to prayer meetings and got healed, from god. She got totally healed from where she could hardly move, and now she says she wanted to kickbox. So she started training at 74 years old, and she was running working the bags, she was actively involved in the centre, cleaning, she just enjoyed being here because she was just so thankful for the change that was in her life.

Students Training at The Generation Centre

We have had just such a good cross section, we have had people constantly coming back to visit, people stop for a while then they come back training again. So the focus of the club, I would have to say the majority of the people will never want to fight. So what we want to do is we want to teach some fitness, self defence, just how to improve the quality of life. And then there’s the people who want to spar, we’ll work with them on that, and then there’s the people who want to compete, which is always a very small segment of a club.

Unless you’ve got a big big area population, very seldom could you ever run a club on fighters. Fighters come and go and a fighter thinks there a fighter and then they get punched in the face and then all of a sudden its not fun anymore. Then there’s the other people that get punched, I think about this one woman, we had, I remember, she had been training, really pretty, slim girl, she was about 27, and so we had some visitors come out from another club and these two girls were sparring and she really got whacked and I remember she cried during the sparring at first and then the other girl was crying, and then after I said, ‘What do you think?’, she says, ‘I think I want to fight.’ I said, if you can go in there and take those whacks, and say that to me then you got it. For the fighters its a unique thing. You gotta have somebody that has some grit, somebody that likes a challenge, sometimes its somebody that comes from a sport like football or rugby, or they’ve been involved in wrestling, maybe they’ve been a fighter out in the street, and they wanted to change. Now they can take their energy from a negative and put it into a positive, and see that all they’ve got to do now is learn the technique. So its been good, you know, and I think about that, the reward that comes from an instructor, to see how it’s impacted them, and even for yourself, I mean, this many years and you’re still training, and now you’re getting information out to people, so I like to think maybe I helped a little bit.

It took a long time, there was a gym right across from where I was working, the instruction was excellent, it kept me going, it was a good counterpoint to sitting in a desk writing software all day long.

That’s a good companion! Computers and martial arts.

My friend Lee is being a real nomad these day, and recently he found himself at the Chin Woo School in Kulala Lumpur, Malaysia. Being so nice he sent me a few photos.

More Info about Chin Woo from WikiPedia.

Chin Woo School in Kulala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Photos: GramophoneDJ.

Elite Training Center St. Petersburg Florida

A break from the cold, rainy weather sent me to Sunny Florida. It’s supposed to be warm there, event though I heard recent stories of it being so cold Iguanas were falling out of trees. But just because I am away it doesn’t mean I can stop training, especially if I want to enter the Tiger Balm Tournament in March 2010. So I asked Sensei Ali if he knew of any where to train in the Tampa Bay area and he found Elite Training Center. So I fired an email their way and the response back from Phil Beatty, the owner and chief instructor, was, “You are certainly welcome here… No attitudes here, just great training with friendly people.” That sounded just great. Elite Training Center is a fairly big martial arts school in the heart of St. Petersburg, being one of the largest and best schools in the whole Tampa Bay area. The school offers Karate for adults and kids; it’s also a Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu School; they have a Muay Thai and Kickboxing program, and have plenty of room for crossfit training, a weight room, and Elite Training Center also offers seminars in Self-Defence on a regular basis.

So on Saturday morning I found my way across St. Pete with the TomTom and met up with Kathy at the front counter and joined the Muay Thai/Kickboxing class. Many students from that day are already in a MMA mindset, since they were in the BJJ class immediately before Muay Thai/Kickboxing. The class instructor was a very capable Roger Patrizzi, who has over 20 years experience in martial arts, a background in Close Combat training with the Marines, and a number of Muay Thai and Vale Tudo fights to his credit. The course plan when I attended class was punching and kicking combinations in the first half and light sparring during the second half. My impressions from the class were that the open and relaxed environment enabled the instructor to keep moving about the class and allowed the students to share some of their thoughts as well. The mat is open after class and I got some sparring in with Alex Cruz. I heard later that Alex is on the card for his first pro MMA fight on February 26, in RFC 20 (Real Fighting Championships) in Tampa (note last I checked the RFC website, they had not updated the info with his fight).

I came back the following Tuesday for another class. This time I managed to borrow some fancy sparring gear ahead of time so I could train with the group that had gear. I was in for a real surprise when I sparred with Jeff Bullock, who had some of the speediest punches I have come across in a while. Turns out he was so hot because he was training for a fight on the 23^rd of January! I had to compliment him afterwards for being such a good boxer. He was really amazing. I have since heard from Sensei Phil Beatty that both their fighters from that night, Jeff Bullock and Alyssa Bellini won their fights. Congratulations to both fighters. I understand also that Elite Training Center is set for further expansion to support its growing student base and future programs.

Here are a few photos from my time there.

Link to full set on Flickr.com

BJJ training

Kickboxing and Muay Thai Class

Jeff Bullock (blue)

Instructor Roger Patrizzi with student

students discussing the fine points of techinque together

Fancy Loaner Shin Pads!!!!

Alex Cruz and Jeff Bullock Sparring

Link to full set on Flickr.com

Sensei Blake is on the road in Las Vegas for tryouts for Wanderlei Sliva’s Fight Team. Blake told us to train extra hard in his absence, and I for one am making an effort by going to FighterBody training. In the mean time we have heard back at the gym and on his blog with posts dashed off on his iPhone that he has proven himself decisively on day one of the training camp. Like we knew he would. Lots guys at the gym have been on those punches and kicks, so we know how tough he is.

I let my guy have it…the poor guy – I landed the spinning hook kick that I wanted and more…spinning back kick, sweep, stiff jabs, RK to the head, until the bell…people were like wo!

Its a great boost around the gym to know how well he is doing in Vegas. Its easy to invest confidence in a trainer who has been world champion, but he also follows through as a great instructor. Along with his brother and fellow Sensei Dean Lirette, our classes are packed with skill, creativity, and technical insight.

The tryouts went really well. About 50 or so showed up -out of that they picked 20. They broke us up into groups and had us work with the coaches on different techniques to see how we picked things up and where about our skill level was. We rolled for a bit… When it came to sparring they paired us up by approximate weight. We had 2min. Go at it And show our stuff. I wasn’t taking any chances to not get picked so I let my guy have it…the poor guy – I landed the spinning hook kick that I wanted and more…spinning back kick, sweep, stiff jabs, RK to the head, until the bell…people were like wo! It was most satisfying after the UFC tryout a couple of weeks ago. Wand sets a totally different vibe. He’s very warm hearted and really loves training and fighting. He wants to give opportunity to anyone who wants it bad and willing to work hard.

Boxing coach Mike Smith with Blake Lirette

In Wandy's Gym, Las Vegas

We are all looking forward to more reports from the field from Sensei Blake.

Osu!

A little break from home led the Martial Arts Nomad to the Maryland Renaissance Festival south of Annapolis one recent Sunday. The festival is a big medieval fair, apparently the largest such gathering in the US, and there you will find merrye men and ladies, hussards and wenches in costume carrying on in this medieval wonderland. We went through this  the enchanted forest for food, ale and mead, and enjoyed the entertainment. We found even that it is possible to mix alcohol and nasty weapons! We went off to the midway area with our ale and throw either half a dozen knives, stars or axes for a measly $2.oo. What an incredible bargain! The objective is to hit the heart, and you win a prize. I got a bullseye with a throwing star and won a ticket into the maze. I ended up giving it away later.

We wandered some more and found swords, helmets, elephants, turkey legs, and the jousting tournament. Of course its all for the enjoyment of the crowd, but handling a horse in heavy armor waving about a weapon of some kind and making it look real is not as easy as it looks.

It just goes to show that martial arts can be found everywhere.

Capital Jiu Jitsu In Dulles Virginia

If I ever miss a martial arts class, I know that the next one is going to be that much harder. So I dont like to miss a class, unless it cant be helped, like when I am going out of town.  I will even try to find a way to train while I’m on the road. In October I had a conference to attend in Alexandria, VA., and would be staying in Centerville, Loudon County, basically. That’s way out there from D.C. and Alexandria, I know, but that is not really part of the story.

I did a bit of looking around on the web to find a gym to train at. My criteria would be to find a place that would allow me to train the way I like and be located in the general vicinity. I finally settled on Capital Jiu Jitsu and I sent an email introducing myself. I was given a very welcome reply to come and train while in the region.

They turned out to be a good fit for me because I am accustomed to a very contemporary approach to training. My idea of a good gym is one that offers a range of programs, with kickboxing and BJJ as the core curriculum, some form or another of cross fit training harsh enough to make you puke, and some gentler things like Pilates and Yoga. It turned out that the kind of gym I picked out was not unlike the one I go to regularly in many ways. That meant that when I got to Capital Jiu Jitsu, I saw lots of things I know and love (or dread) and that made me right at home. Its a combination of an up to date curriculum combined with the brutality of things like kettlebell weights and monster truck tires. It happened also that I had come to the ‘Mothership’ location of this three location franchise, with over 10,000 square feet for martial arts and 2000 square feet for cross fit training. They even have a half-octagon cage for MMA training for the pro fighters.

Blogging about martial arts is one of my own reasons to try another school, but there are other reasons as well. By dropping in on another school, you get a different perspective on your regular training program. You get to see what you know in a new light, you find out what other people know or are training in, and its a chance to see how much different martial arts schools actually share in common. Another reason you might want to try another gym is because you may be moving, or you aren’t happy training where you are currently. I hope the last case wouldn’t be the case. Or maybe you want to expand your training by going to more than one gym.

I came to the advanced Muay Thai/Kickboxing class, led by sensei Japheth Brubaker, who is also the BJJ instructor at the school. But as it turned out, there were only two other guys at the class that night, Eugene Catedral and Leo Perrucci, who are also training assistants for the beginner/intermediate classes which they told me are much larger. I regret that I ran out of time and was not able to train on one of those days with them.

The one hour class began with typical grinder of a warmup with light jogging, some burpees, push-ups and sit-ups and crawling around on all fours. Then we got into roundhouse kick defences, as you see in the photos, with variations on trapping a kick and dropping the opponent to the ground. We then moved on to Thai clinch escapes and variations. Towards the end of the hour, we did some very light sparring, with lots of fast moves but hits were kept as light as possible, power to a minimum. In a second round between Leo and Eugene, they were able to incorporate the clinches and leg holds into the free sparring, which was really nice to see. They learned something and then applied it. That is the whole point of this exercise of learning martial arts, isnt it?

There is a fairly common practice among martial arts schools is to offer a first class for free. That might just spark your interest in trying out another school for fun. But such allowance, whether there is one or not, does not exclude from rules, expectations, or the traditions of martial arts. Its to see if there is a good fit for both you and the school, with no risk for either party. With that in mind, here are some pointers for you if you want to try a new gym. I’m assuming you have done your research and are ready to try them out:

• phone or email ahead of time, ask permission politely to try out their facilities. Tell them about the school you go to now, how you train, your age, your weight, your personal experience training. Be honest about what you can do and expect that a good school might allow you to come in at a level lower than what you can do.

• Bring what gear you can. There are probably some loaner gloves you can use.

• Show humility and respect to the sensei, or sifu, the students and staff alike. Pay attention to the lessons.

• Don’t be a dick. Being arrogant in anyway could be a total turn off. Not everybody knows what you know. In an informal sort of way you are representing the gym you come from, so remember that it is about more than just you when you go in there.

• Respect is the most important thing in martial arts. So bow when you step on the mat, even if the way you have been taught to bow isn’t the same bow the gym uses. You bow to the sensei when you see him the first time, and then introduce yourself politely to him or her and the other students. Go on those assumptions and they will tell you otherwise if needed.

• Don’t go with something to prove. Just try to fit in and go through the exercises. You are just there to work up a sweat and keep some kind of regular schedule in the gym.

• A gym is more than some big equipment or space or great this or that. Keep an open mind and you might find that things that detract from your experience are more than made up by other qualities.

• Consider writing a thank you email or note, or even better, write a review for them for Google reviews or one of the other web sites for reviews, like Epinions,  about businesses and services. Even recommend it to a friend. People who operate martial arts gyms in general are there because they love what they do and they give fully of themselves. So pay them back at least by sharing your positive experience with others.

• If for some reason your experience was negative, try to communicate politely through more discrete ways to the Sensei or other representative what you did not like about the school. At least try it that way first, because hopefully it was just an off day for someone there. This does not need to present itself as a point of conflict. Letting the school know about what your concerns were may help them improve their services and the programs they offer. Remember, no matter what, its supposed to be a learning experience for everybody concerned.

• If they don’t offer a freebie class, respect that. Perhaps they offer a free week or other new member program that you might go for. A good school costs money to run and you shouldn’t be adverse to spending something that helps them in some small way to keep the lights on.

So there you have it. One way or another, just keep on training.

Osu!

Thanks to: Eugene Catedral, Leo Perruci, Japheth Brubaker. Photos by Audrey Foo.