This week, we covered sweeps from the 1/2 guard. It is vital position to study as it is last resort before getting your guard passed. Next week topic will be the turtle position. I will be teaching the beginner class at the Dojo from 11 am while Ben and the rest of the Judokas from our sister club will be competing at the Auckland Judo Open. But you can also attend open mats at Atos. Also this week, we received delivery of our pre ordered t shirts and hoodies. Please do not forget to sign up for the National Gi competition which is held on Saturday 05 August. The attendance seems to be dropping a bit so we are looking at opening our doors for potential new students in the month of August.

If you live in the east Auckland and want to train BJJ, check Andy's club as he opened his new club. Please see below link for more information. https://bucklandsbeachbjj.co.nz/

This week, we covered the topic of top half guard for the beginners. Stuart taught the 50/50 position with some variation of the straight ankle locks He started a you tube library for this specific interest. So click on the below link for more information. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeiz81d07B3oEDBfoaxruI3qhIpsVX3OH Otherwise, I got another 12 small embroidered patches for sale at $5 each. Another 12 bigger embroidered patches for sale at $25 each. We still have lot of the screen print back patch for $10 each. We are still waiting for the t shirt and hoodies to be manufactured (pre ordered only). You can register online for the National Gi competition. https://www.strongvon.com/nzgrappler30 Any plans for the weekend?  3 options for training this weekend. Saturday - Beginners Judo at Epsom from 11am with Ben. Open mats at Atos (City Bjj) from 10am followed with lunch at Mercury plaza for the hungry and on Sunday AucklandMMA in Pakuranga is hostin

Copied from Laurance post on our FB group: " Registrations for NZ Grappler Gi Nationals are now open. The event is being held at ASB Kohimarama Stadium on the 5th of August. Early bird Pricing is $60 for adults and $50 for kids. After the 30th of July these prices increase $10. The club will refund you half the early bird entry fee if you decide to compete. Also for any Blue or Purple Belts that compete there is an option for the absolute devision which is an extra $20 if you want an extra challenge. Winner of the Purple, Brown and Black Belt Absolute will receive a big shiny belt oppose to the Medal You have 3 weeks to prepare if you are competing so you should be working on you're game plan and fitness at this point. The club does not recommend cutting weight for the day unless you are very close to the devision below you, in the case put down that pie and go for a run. If any white belts are curious about competing have a chat to Serge, Stu or any higher be

On Tuesday, Stu taught sweeps fundamentals while the advanced students drilled guard sweep. On Thursday which was very cold, we merged the class and we taught the straight ankle lock. The Nationals GI competition is on Saturday 5 August and the registration is now open online. As usual, the club will refund half of the entry fee on the day of the event and we will have a prize money of $100 for the competitor that get the most submission. In case of the draw, we will split the prize money. At the last competition, we had 9 competitors and the club refunded over $300 of entries fee. Get your cardio up by running and you should be on weight for the event, do not try to cut weight on the last week as it is not worth it.

This week, we covered guard pass. For the beginners, we taught the principles of breaking the closed guard (standing and on the knees), knees slices. For the advanced students, on Tuesday we covered the long step pass against the de la riva guard. This specific guard pass is excellent against people that grip the pants with the de la riva hook. On Thursday, Stu covered guard passes against the single leg X guard. He also created a play list with 6 videos for your perusal. Single X guard is a difficult hard guard to pass and therefore is very popular at the moment, especially as it easily lead into the straight ankle lock and the notorious Ashi garame position https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeiz81d07B3qnwkxZy3pS3830W4Iv9EMr Guard Fundamentals:

This week, the fundamental program was based on guard submissions. Stuart covered the "trilogy" of the guard subs: arm bar, triangle and omoplata. For the advanced group, we continued with "less is more" concept. Basically, it is time to stop teaching techniques all the time and try to replicate the seminar scheme by teaching a multitude  of techniques that no one remembers. So we let our advanced students drills techniques for a specific positions and they can drill their favorites techniques. For example, this week, it was guard subs, guard passes, guard sweeps, mount subs and mount escape. For out takedown portion, same concept. Stuart taught a Judo throw to the beginners and the advanced students get to do Uchikomi which is just drill their favorite throws. Open mats at Atos / City BJJ was fun and we had 6 members attending their open mats on Saturday. Next week we teaching guard pass for beginner and Serge will teach the long step pass against t