The Canadian Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Federation presents Grapplers Inc, BJJ tournament, February 3 2012. If you want to roll, better register soon.

Hit the website for details. http://inrival.com/event/cbjjf/grapplers-inc/

Where: David E Enarson Gymnasium – Trinity Western University.

7600 Glover Road
Langley, BC, CA

Spectators Fee $10

When:

Event Date
February 4, 2012

Registration Closes
January 29, 2012

The West Coast Martial Arts Championships are coming this weekend to the BCIT Campus.

This year we will again be a two day event. Friday night will be Modified Muay Thai action. Saturday will include Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Grappling and SKIL rules Sport Karate forms and fighting.

More Info:

Website: http://wcmac.ca/

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=150089221734025

Two hard working days learning a ton of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu with the Master, Royce Gracie at Versus Training Center over the weekend. We worked hard, rolled hard, and learned lots of new tricks. Congrats to Tyson, Tom, Kiarash and others on their belt promotions.

Its time once again for the Full contact Karate tournament.

Sunday, November 28 2010
Doors Open 12:00 pm, Fights Begin 12:30 pm
Place: British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)
Address: 3700 Willingdon Ave. Burnaby, BC

Advance Tickets now On Sale
Adult (13 & over): $10.00/ea ($15.00 at the door)
Child (6 – 12): $5.00/ea ($10.00 at the door)

Main Features of the Event

• World famous Kyokushin knock down fighting matches

• Professionally edited 20-page event programs

• Traditional Karate forms called “Kata” competition

• Karate demonstrations

More info: www.fightingart.ca

I am training my way through a karate kickboxing program at Versus Training Center as I blog about martial arts in this blog. They are two symbiotic experiences that feed and support each other. It was time again on October 28 2010 for a belt promotion class. Its a time to have our skills tested and get recognition for the hard work we have put in to our training. My program is a very modern Karate Kickboxing style, described as… ‘more power than Kyokushin Karate, more technique than Muay Thai’ (Iman said that). The class starts with technique drills, to demonstrate mastery of individual skills and combinations. My promotion to blue belt was the highest ranking promotion that day and it put me on the menu. I had to go through seven rounds of sparring, and the last two were against my Senseis, Ali and Iman, both who are Kyokushin black belts. So there I was sucking air after 5 rounds, and there were two more to go. and in walks Iman with his gloves and shin pads on, and he is fresh and ready to go. Well it turns out I did ok, but I really had to dig deep because I was gasping for air after doing 5 straight rounds. But it turns out that I did ok. And now I have a blue belt. Thanks for a great test, the sparring, and all the great training. See you in class. Osu!

Link to full photo set on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/superwebdeveloper/sets/72157625195875779/with/5149282759/

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/

I’d like to add a plug for a workshop I took in the summer last year. Bartitsu: Fight Like Sherlock Holmes, is a course offered at Academie Duello, a studio for the western martial arts, swords, fencing, that sort of thing. When Bartitsu offered in London a hundred years ago, it was the first time eastern martial arts were presented in the western world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle mentioned Bartitsu (as Baritsu) in his final book on Sherlock Holmes, and hence today we have a new Sherlock Holmes movie directed by BJJ brown belt Guy Ritchie and starring, as Sherlock Holmes, Wing Chung practitioner Robert Downey Jr.

Learn to Fight Like Sherlock Holmes

Bartitsu: Fight Like Sherlock Holmes

Saturday, January 23 – 2:00pm to 6:00pm

Learn the fighting style of Sherlock Holmes in this unique one-day workshop at Academie Duello. England in the 19th century was replete with instructors in martial arts from the world over. E.W. Barton-Wright had returned from Japan and opened a school to teach the English gentleman how to defend himself against ruffians using only the most effective techniques whether unarmed or carrying the accessory of the time: the walking-stick. The Bartitsu system worked so well that Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle wrote that Sherlock Holmes used it to defeat Moriarty.

bartitsu arm takedown

Learn:

• English boxing, French kickboxing and the English interpretation of Judo
• Stick fighting and self-defense with an umbrella
• Modern urban self-defense evolved from the principles of Bartitsu

Whether your interest is in history or practical self-defense, this workshop will give you the skills and knowledge of 19th century fighting.

More info, photos, history, in my earlier blog post.

Learn more at bartitsu.org

Add this Event to your Google Calendar

Earlier this year I found a little two hour, once a week class offered by Martial Arts instructor Jordan Lawrie. I don’t recall the name for his class, and maybe there wasn’t a name for it, come to think. But to describe it, I would call it ‘Creative Self Defence’. We did lots of things I was familiar with, and Jordan added lots of creativity to the mixture. I wasn’t able to continue the class, but looking back, it was a great class and I learned lots.

I shot a little bit of video, although just with available light. Settings have been tweaked to bring out the action just a little better. I caught up later with Jordan over coffee and pannini and asked him to tell me a bit more about his background, his personal philosophy on martial arts, and his training drill featured in the video, which he calls the ‘Seven – Eleven’.

The class:

Jordan’s 2 hour class was a grab bag of techniques, but we focused a great deal on the clinch.

“The clinch. The clinch is sort of the lost range – there are a few ranges in fighting, out of range, kicking range, punching range, knees and elbow range, and then you have your ground – grappling range. The clinch is the range before you hit the floor, when I can grab on to you. The clinch is very important in order for you to be able to defend yourself, and to have tricks, like getting behind your opponent because you are safe there… feeling that dynamic of the opponents body weight is important, having a good firm base and knowing how to manipulate your opponent’s base… You don’t have that in kickboxing, where as you are a free individual out here working in space, dealing with gravity and your opponents kinetic energy. Getting in close is a way to deprive your opponent of weapons.”

The Seven Eleven Drill

“I got the name from one of my old instructors, he was a really well trained guy, going to some or another corner store, late at night, got swarmed by some teenagers. He told them he wasn’t looking for trouble but suddenly, a kick to the groin turned on his adrenaline and he ran right through the first guy he saw and kept running… a really well trained guy, trains all his life, gets swarmed, doesn’t see it coming. Violence happens now. You don’t see it coming at all… I like to do a lot of multiple attacker scenarios, realistic, in that a couple more individuals really changes your game plan. Attacks occur often by weak people, with backup. Attacks among men have back up and weapons.”

“Kickboxing is good to learn the mechanics of punching and kicking, to develop your power, but if you want to train for the real world I really think you have to be training more intensely with these kinds of drills – multiple attackers, multiple weapons, I’ve got several variations on this one, the defender has boxing gloves on, and he’s being attacked by a boxer, essentially, and a wrestler who’s got a (rubber) knife in his belt. The wrestler can pull his knife out once he gets the clinch, and then he can start stabbing.”

“So it teaches him to use the clinch to prevent that guy’s arms from going into his belt to find a weapon. I’ve done it also where the boxer in the middle didn’t know that these guys had weapons. And then once he gets stabbed, its 20 or 30 seconds added to his drill… The drill also teaches line theory, which says put something between you and your attackers. In this case he is using one of the attackers, he’s forming a line. If there was something in the room, even better. So many variations on this one. This drill was mostly appropriated from different martial arts, putting different theories together, and developing my own take on it.”

About Jordan Lawrie

Jordan describes himself as a Jeet Kune Do practitioner. He has come by this title by the path of training in martial arts that he has taken over the years, starting with Aiki Jujutsu and moving on later Chinese Kempo, with its hard and soft styles for about 5 years. Later Bruce Lee’s writings had a strong influence on the idea that he could train in whatever he wanted. He got in with an MMA practitioner friend and got to learn a lot more about the clinch, the standup clinch, Jiu-Jitsu, kickboxing and boxing, tried lots of classes around town; Wolfe’s Defendoo for a year.

“Once you have enough experience in Martial Arts you can learn… a lot in a short period of time… so, I dont have a lot in the way of belt credentials, but I really carry with me the Jeet Kune Do, Miyamoto Musashi philosophy of learning what you can- a little bit of everything and just challenging yourself to make yourself a little bit better… if someone were to ask me what I train in, although I have never formally trained in it (except for a few classes at Ed Wong’s school), I would say it is Jeet Kune Do.”

Jordan now teaches at http://www.elementsacademy.com/ , a modern styled Hapkido school, with a strong fitness component in the curriculum. He is able to teach kickboxing, self defense, MMA – a little bit of everything, true to his traditions of being creative.

“Being creative. I think one of the things that Martial Arts is really lacking is creativity, its an art form, its like a dance, its like an interpretive dance, but a combative form. Because, I don’t think you can be held in a dogmatic believe that once a system is set its a fixed system. A system is always shifting, right down to a cellular level… its always in flux, its never completely in balance. To continue to be an art form it needs to be adding and subtracting from multiple sources.”

Web links in this post:

http://www.uss-canada.ca/index2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeet_kune_do

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyamoto_Musashi

http://www.elementsacademy.com/