We are continuing on our second week of the half guard by studying the sweeps from half guard. See you on the mats

Half guard is the position which we concentrate the most. In one year training program, we teach 8 weeks of half guard which consists of 4 weeks of top half and 4 weeks of bottom half guard spread trough 2 semesters. http://www.bjjheroes.com/techniques/half-guard

One more training to finish the week on Saturday morning: open mats at city BJJ from 10 am or Judo class with Ben Epsom at 11 am. Have a good weekend.

To conclude semester one, we will have graduation on Tuesday 5 July. Usually we try to have graduation in June and in December. The reason for the delay for this semester is that Stu is coming back in July from Japan. Traditionally, mid year graduation does not that many students being promoted to the next belts. Not sure why! What to expect: We try to do not waste too much training time and it just happens during a normal class. Instead of having a technical class where the instructor teaches the topic of the week, the students will just demonstrate their favorite moves. Now, this is NOT an exam. It is their chance to show off their skills in front of your peers. The decision is already made by the instructors once we advised you that you are due to move to your next belt. For the students that are not moving to the next belt, you will receive a stripe. This is what the black tab is for, you can receive up to 4 stripes. So usually, you get 4 stripes after 2 yea...

After the Regional Competition last Saturday, it was important to address some of the mistakes that the competitors did. We worked on cross choke defense, Knee on the belly and Triangle defense. On Thursday, we finish the class at 7.45 pm so the competitors could do some speed drills. The moral is very high after the comp and I can see that the competitors are still hungry for more competition. So we have the National gi competition on the 06 August, it gives us 12 weeks to prepare. I think I will trim down the content of the classes and concentrate more on repetition: less is more. Also I need to talk to city BJJ to see if they want to host an friendly competition next month for our competitors to fine tune their game plan but also for students that want to try out to compete in a more friendly and smaller event. Otherwise, keep training. Next 2 weeks topic is half guard. See you on the mats.

I think vandersen and renee from Fuji Mae nz are planning some new competitions. 16th July and 8th October. Watch this space...=)

Would you be interested to have a friendly competition at city BJJ? I am thinking end of June. That is about 6 weeks time. It would give you some good experience and a way to assess your game plan half way before the nationals which is 6 august?

Good training tonight. I can feel that our competitors came back and are more hungry for more competitions. Let build up on this momentum. 12 weeks until the National GI competition. It is a team sport as our competitors needs your support to help prepare for the event. Even if you do not want to compete, be there for them and give them that extra rolling if needed. Thank you for the support.

Fun day at this event with 13 competitors. It included 4 teenagers which 3 were doing their first competition. Everyone had fun and the most important thing is that no one got injured. Lot of stuff to work on and improve for the National GI competition which is on 6 August. So it only leave us about 12 weeks to prepare.

Yesterday, the NZ grappler organised another Regional Gi competition. They used a repechage system which means you get guaranteed  2 matches. It is a great way to get more matches and experience. The organiser also gave Lucy 3 exhibition matches as she did not have anyone in her category. She got more experience than most competitors. They also put the video of the finals on their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/nzgrappler/?fref=ts

We just created a new pose: It is the seiza V. Coming to your BJJ gyms around the world. For more BJJ pose. http://www.aucklandbjj.com/2014/04/how-to-pose-for-bjj-pictures.html

Drills for warm up arm bar standing guard break choke from back control James (Judo black belt and BJJ blue belt) continued on teaching Judo throws with teaching Kuzushi: how to break the balance. He is teaching more on a blue print format to help our BJJ students. Serge taught sweeps such as scissor sweep and hip bump sweep. One more week before the regional gi competition. We can always attend open mats at city  bjj on saturday from 10.30 am. Next week topic is 1/2 guard pass. See you on the mats.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KtwDnLguhaTGNSaDREQUxJMnc/view?usp=drivesdk

As you know by now, Stu will be in Japan for 2 months. We still will split the class into 2 group during the technical lesson. I will take the beginners on Tuesday and Igor will take the advance class. On Thursday, I will take the advanced class and Igor will teach the beginners. Therefore, I will be able to teach all the students. Igor will be bring an interesting and fresh style of teaching as well. Igor role is continue on the same weekly topic with the beginner on Thursday and on Tuesday he will help the advanced students into drilling their techniques and the game plan of the competitors. We will be focusing the next 2 weeks for the Regional GI competition. But stay assured that we still will follow our regular semester teaching topics.

Sorry this is a bit late but here are the confirmed results from the 2016 AucklandBJJ.com Masters competition. I hope everyone who entered had a great day! We will like to thanks everyone that supported this event. Especially the old boys that traveled from Napier. See you at our event next year. U60 Blue 1st Mr Chen (ABJJ) U50 Blue 1st Steve Suddens (Tukaha) 2nd John Turner (ABJJ) U40 Blue Heavy 1st Damon Kosidis (ABJJ) 2nd Vitali Alelulev (Uni Judo) 3rd Ben Teague (Tukaha) U40 Blue Light 1st Steve Suddens (Tukaha) 2nd James Maccombe (Uni Judo) U50 White 1st Heemi Brown (City BJJ) 2nd Adam Cavanagh (Zero Gravity) U40 Heavy 1st Dwain Hindriksen (Uni Judo) 2nd Cy Unverricht (Allegiance BJJ) 3rd Mathieu Morin (Tukaha) U40 White Light 1st Leandro Coutinho (DS Team) 2nd Joe Gallacher (Zero Gravity)