Last week, we covered the position of the turtle for fundamentals and went over the bottom half guard sweeps for advanced. The turtle position is the last position in 12 weeks program. Turtle position is not rewarded by points and only an advantage if you force someone to turtle up to avoid a guard pass. if a person turtles up to avoid getting down like a snap down or an arm guard, it could be considered a takedown.  Any reversal from turtle would not be reward any points. Lot of people are making the confusion as they could be a change of position and it could be mistaken as a sweep. There is also some people that call it the turtle guard to add more to the confusion. The lockdown is a great bottom half guard who was made popular by Eddie Bravo (creator of the 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu). We study sweeps from the lockdown such as the entry know as the whip up, old school sweep, plan B and the electric chair. This week, we will be doing questions and answers which is ...

Adam Evans has started his BJJ classes for kids at a new location. Age range: 5-12 years old. Days: Tuesday: 4.30-5.30 pm Saturday: 10.00-11 am. Location: Koshinkai Aikido Dojo 38 Monmouth Street Grey Lynn Auckland Please contact him directly for more information. Adam Evans 020 412 29618 adam12evans@gmail.com http://www.aucklandkidsbjj.com/

Message to the purple belts, It came to our attention that it would more practical for you to become a member of the IBJJF before getting promoted to black belt. That is if you are planning to get your black belt certified by the IBJJF when the time comes. We do not force our students to be IBJJF certified or members of the IBJJF. Stuart and myself are IBJJF black belt certified (first degree) and our club is IBJJF registered. So if you are satisfied to be promoted to black belt level by our instructors, that is fine and we are ok with it. As you can always go under our umbrella and your students and so and so on. But you are contemplating that one day you would like to be IBJJF black belt certified, then it is more practical to start this process by getting your membership from purple belt to start with. http://ibjjf.com/athlete-membership/ http://ibjjf.com/info/graduation-system/

For the past 2 weeks, we covered the half guard system. The first week, we teach half guard passes and on week 2 we teach half guard sweeps. The position of half guard is the position that we cover the most in our program. We do 4 weeks for half guard per semester. Hence 8 weeks in a year. We also try to incorporate the 10th planet Jiu Jitsu system made famous by their founder Eddie Bravo.

Congratulation to Andy Medcalf and his club for running this fund raising last 7 October 2017. It was a charity event and any level, from any club were welcome along.  Nogi training was also encouraged as it was held one week before the nogi regional event. They roll for 6 hours to raise as much money, and awareness for the children's charity Variety, which raises money for the disadvantage Kiwi kids. It was great to Laurance, Dom, James and Jackie from our club participating. If you want to train BJJ, check out their website  https://bucklandsbeachbjj.co.nz/ or their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Bucklands-Beach-BJJ-653207931540809/ Great instructor and good atmosphere with a location by the beach. We will keep you updated on their next fund raising plan. https://www.variety.org.nz/

We do subscribe to the idea that learning BJJ is just another commodity like getting someone to mow your lawns or which grocery market you shop at.  Yes, you pay for your training in modern Sc hools.   Believe me when I tell you that what you are paying for is what for the service and that both our instructors are a full time jobs outside our club. If someone tries to tell you that they are running a BJJ gym and they are not making a profit and they are just breaking even with expenses. They could be lying to you. To start with, if they are not making a profit. Then maybe it is a sign that their gym is a failure and time to bail out and seek to train in somewhere else's gym. BJJ is dream for self starter and people that dreams to become entrepreneur. The reason is simple.  You will always find an instructor willing to affiliate with you and in return make your gym look legit. The further away is the "head" instructor, the better. Hell,, I even know of whi...

Member of the week:  Mr Linjan Chen. Mr Chen started our program about 4 years ago when we moved to the Epsom location.  His attendance is remarkable and he averages 6.5 hours of training per week (Bjj and Judo included).  Thank you for the support.

I forgot to post that 2 weeks ago. Member of the week.  This is Igor Goulart.   He originates from Rio de Janeiro - Brasil. He is one of the hybrids that cross train in both martial at our sister Auckland University Judo Club.  He is a black belt in Judo and purple belt in Bjj.  One of his favorite Judo throw is called seo nage.  Thank you for the support.

This week topic was 1/2 guard passes. On Saturday, 6 competitors entered the No Regional BJJ competition organised by the NZ grappler. The club refunded 1/2 of the entry fee of our competitors which it only costed them $30-35 to compete. Also, Marcio and Callum shared the prize money of $100 for the most submission as they has one submission each. The club shouted a "few" jugs of beers and pizzas at the Zookepper son in Royal Oak (after competition venue). Shots of tequila were great but gave me a massive hang over the next day. Callum suggested to add some competition before the Nogi Regionals. In terms of result, the team did really well. 6 competitors: 3 medals. Due the double elimination format which NZ grappler only uses for the Regional event, the team got to have at least 2 matched each and everyone got lot of valuable experience. The most important part is no one got injured (well apart some cauliflower worsening). Next week, we will covering 1/2 gua...

This the second time I heard of BJJ competitions held in NZ, that are trying to mimic ADCC rules. Literally, they are NOT following the IBJJF rules which is the standards of BJJ competitions. Both competitions will be held in remote places in NZ which is great to promote the sport at grass roots level but the question is why using or more like allowing lot of techniques that already banned in IBJJF rules. Why are they trying the reinvent the wheel? If the IBJJF has banned specific techniques (even at black belt level), one would think it was due to trial and errors or more like injuries after injuries. And even if someone managed to win such competitions with the ADDC style of rules, what is next? Can they enter other competitions in NZ? Are they on purpose alienating most of the competitors by offering such rules?

On Tuesday night, we covered IBJJF rules for the Regional NOGI competition. On Thursday, Serge taught some sweeps like hip bump sweep and scissor sweeps. They go very well with Kimura and Cross chokes. Some links about IBJJF rules http://www.aucklandbjj.com/p/learn-bjj-rules.html http://www.aucklandbjj.com/2013/07/ibjjf-rules-where-how-to-learn-them.html