This week, we covered side control for fundametals and single x for the advanced class. Actually we taught single X guard and straight ankle lock on Tuesday  class to the beginners as well. It is fair to recognise that the single X guard and the ankle lock are getting more and more popularity nowdays and have become the staple of techniques for most of of the competitors. We are now waiting for the rash guard and the nogi shorts to be manufactured. Also, I already refunded half of their entry fee of our one of competitors. Please note that the last day to sign up is 8 October. Once you signed up and paid, send a facebook message with your bank account so the club can refund half of your entry fees. The event is on Saturday 13th October. https://sjjfnz.smoothcomp.com/en/event/1007 Also, we are still taking new students at both locations (Epsom and Sandringham), all levels are welcome.

This week, we covered the back position which rewards you with 4 points for establishing it. Also, this is the last week to place your order for the rash gaurd and shorts with Laurance. We would like to place the order asap. Also, the registration for the NZ grappler NOGI regionals is already open. Early bird finishing on 30 Sept Last registration is 08 Ocotober. https://sjjfnz.smoothcomp.com/en/event/1007 Same deal as usual, the club will refund half of your entry fees, $100 prize for most subs, beer and pizzas at our local pub after. We are still taking new members at both sites (all level welcome). Twenty dollars per week and no contract. Come down for a free class and/or send us an email. Thanks for the support.

Please register with our club management software https://aucklandbjj.helloclub.com/register OLD Details below (dont use these) Please setup an Automatic payment into our account with the following details Bank: Asb Account Number: 12-3061-0077603-00 Reference: <your name> Code: [epsom | sand] (choose one depending where you are based)

This week, we covered the topic of the mount position. It is the first position that we teach in the program as it scores the most points: 4 points. Next week, we will be covering the back position which also scores 4 points. On Thursday, Stu also covered the competition rules in order to prepare for the inter club which was held at Sandringham. Buckland Beach BJJ and ETK HQ came and supported our invitational event. Prior to a NZ grappler competition, we like to prepare ourselves by hosting a little competition 4 weeks before. it get students in the moods. test some techniques and many of them it was their first opportunity to test their skills. We made 5 groups of 4 and everyone has a guaranteed 2 matches. The inter-club competition concluded with an open mats where everyone got to to roll with another 30 minutes. Thank you for the support. Please note that we are still taking new members at our Epsom and Sandringham locations.

We would like to congratulate Andy on his promotion to black belt by his Professor Raphael Dos Santos. Andy is the head coach and owner of Buckland Beach BJJ. he also runs  fun raising events For Variety The children 's charity. Well done. For more information to train at Buckland Beach BJJ, please check out his website. https://bucklandsbeachbjj.co.nz/

I always love to run the topic of the questions and answers as it concludes the 12 weeks program and provide me with feedback on how we are doing. I usually ask the new students to ask questions and attempt to answers them. Often the questions are related to a week that a student would have missed and we easily cover that again. It means that it is an opportunity to catch up with information due to a busy schedule. But also, the questions covers some techniques that are not in our fundamentals. Which is great because we acknowledge that it is impossible to offer the perfect program. Maxwell asked about spider guard passes Jordan asked about side control and knee on the belly escapes. Davey asked about omoplata sweep and triangle. We also had the visit from Marcelo on Thursday.

NZ grappler has confirmed the date of Saturday 13 October for the nogi regional therefore we have started our nogi season accordingly. Also we have added our inter club invitational competition to prepare for the regionals on Saturday 15 September. The invitational event is not to replace or compete with the NZ grappler competition. It is for our students and a couple of clubs to get together and offer an opportunity to test our skills in a friendly environment. I think it is ideal for beginners to try out before they can enter the regionals. We also will have some of our coaches Laurance and Luis to start referring as well. It is a short 2 hours event from 10 am to 12 am. We will just create group of 4 people of the nearest weight with a double elimination system with guarantee 2 matches. We will also seed the matches so you will be matched up with same belt level in your first match. The event will be hosted at our Sandringham because of the space in terms of 160 s

After the National Gi competition, I did a little speech at both dojos (Epsom & Sandrigham). The reason for the speech was to acknowledge the need for the club to promote and follow a calender shaped around competition but at the same time explained that competition was not everything in our mind. At the same time, I hope that it did not belittle the achievement of our competition who achieve 6 medals from 10 competitors (which is an outstanding result by any means). It make sense to have a specific rules set around what competition rules we are expecting to enter. So for example, since we enter NZ grappler events which follow SJJF rules currently, we train under these rules. It would be pointless trying to follow different rules and then having to modify our set of skills for each event. The competitions available in Auckland are typically a regional nogi and gi and a national gi and nogi which are spread around the year. Usually it is like 2 events per semesters.

We are still taking new students. Please come down for a free class,  our fees are $20 per week and no contract. This is the right time to start training as the days are getting longer and warmer. http://www.aucklandbjj.com/p/training-details-whenwhere.html

Laurance has organised a pre order of T shirts,  hoodies and patches with Nick from the the printman website. Nick is very flexible and always deliver good products. Very happy to support our local business community. For more information, please check out his website http://www.theprintman.co.nz/

This week we covered the topic of the turtle position.  It is interesting to notice that sweeps from turtle will now be rewarded under the Sport Jiu Jitsu Federation rules. NZ grappler is now using SJJF rules and no longer using IBJJF rules. 42.8 Sweep (2 Points) A sweep occurs when the competitor that is underneath has the opponent in a form of guard and is able to get on top of the opponent by inverting his/her position.  Guidelines for sweeps are as follows: a) In order for a competitor to be awarded points for a sweep, the opponent must have a form of guard established.  The guard is considered any position where the competitor is on his/her back, side, or turtle position using one or both legs to keep distance or control over the opponent.  If a competitor is using his/her legs to keep distance or control of the opponent, then the opponent is considered ‘in guard.’ b) Turtle guard will only be considered a guard position when it was established from a preexisting gu

Buckland Beach BJJ club celebrated their first year anniversary. Also they hosted a fund raising event for Variety The children's charity. The concept is to roll for as long as you can within the 6 hours of the event. People from other clubs came and supported this fund raising event. They have the best view from their window as it looks into the sea. I think the second best view is the BJJ club in Queenstown that look into the mountains. If you are interest to train at Buckland Beach BJJ club, check out their website for more details. https://bucklandsbeachbjj.co.nz/

We had ten competitors and they came back with 6 medals. The club spent over 400 dollars in sponsoring their students by refunding half of their entries fees. Also, Laurance won the $100 challenge as he got the most submissions of the day. We end up at our local pub and invited 2 competitors from Nelson.