May 6-19 @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

Awesome couple of weeks training.

A few new students joined the team!

We have been working hard on our passing techniques.

It is important to understand how passing works and what is fundamental to each position.

A single guard pass rarely results in success but combination guard passes often work well.

If we want to be able to pass the guard without problems we need to be aware of what our opponents can do to attack us. Taking the back, sweeping, or simply returning back to guard after we have battled to almost get the pass.

We also need to consider: What type of guard are we facing? What grips? What hooks?

How do we intend to pass the guard? Speed? Power? Smashing? Floating? Sideways? Over? Under? Through? Spinning? Rolling?

Do we even need to pass? Can we finish from inside the guard with a choke or footlock?

As someone who spent a long part of my BJJ life in guard - mainly because I'm usually the smallest person in the room - I preferred fighting from the back.

Recently, I've been having more fun fighting from the top. Especially in no-gi.

Here are a few reasons why I want to spend more time working on my top game:

In a situation against multiple opponents you don't really want to be on the bottom because you will get kicked in the head.

In MMA or fights on the street the person on top generally has an advantage because he can strike more effectively.

I think once people learn the guard they fall in love with its diversity and eternal evolution.

However, we don't always want to be in the guard nor can we always get into the guard.
We need to be able to fight from everywhere.

We can't simply ask someone who is trying to hurt us or rob us on the street to put on a gi so its easier to do a berimbolo because you need your belt grip.

Last two weeks @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

Phew. Big couple of weeks.

The Ryukyu free fight tournament and Yuki Nakai seminar were last weekend.

No one from our team fought in the tournament but some of our members went in support of other teams and fighters.

The tournament was well organised and flowed well. Good job Ryota Matsune!!!

Following the tournament was a seminar taught by the legendary Yuki Nakai.

The seminar was interesting and covered a variety of techniques from how to escape the back to the berimbolo.

The instruction was excellent and Yuki Nakai spoke excellent English and took the time to explain the moves one on one.

He took the time at the end of class to explain some BJJ philosophy.

He explained how important it is to train with different people and different martial arts.

He shared an idea that I have heard a few times recently: "You shouldn't think of positions in bjj as bad positions or good positions but instead treat them a position with its own unique possibilities."

April 7-14 @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

We had a massive week of training ahead of the King Of The Island tournament on the weekend.

In total we had 5 members from the team fight.

Isaiah and Elijah represented the team in the kids division.

Both did an awesome job. Isaiah won his first fight in 40 seconds via armbar from the triangle position and moved on to the finals where he put on a gutsy performance but in the end lost by points. Elijah was dominating his first fight but was put into the armbar position, he escaped though and pass the guard and maintain mount to get the win via points.

Both boys were promoted after their efforts and true showing of spirit.

Kelvin fought well on Sunday making his way to the final of his weight division.

He fought a very experienced opponent and was eventually worn down. Taking 2nd place in his weight class.

Jay Matias our big boy representative fought some tough and huge guys in this weight classes.

Jay took 3rd in his super heavy weight no gi class and 1st in the gi.

James was invited by the tournament's organizer Ivan Sakamoto to take part in a brown belt superfight against Takashi Miyagi. James threatened the pass and choke early on. Miyagi's flexibility and guard kept him safe. Miyagi in counter attack threatened with a triangle / kimura combination which James powered out. James made another attempt to pass and looked like he would get his points but in a scramble was swept. Miyagi ran out the buzzer to win 2-0. Great fight.

Out of the 8 academies that came out to fight and only have 5 fighters we placed 4th overall. 

Nice Job everyone!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support. Dave, Sayuri, Sheree, Gc, Betsy, Emily, Elisa, Jojo and Ali. Having people supporting the fighters makes a huge difference. Hope everyone makes it out next time and maybe will even get on the mats to have a roll.

Finally thank you to the other teams, competitors, and organizers. Great event see you next time.

First week of April...

First week of April and no slowing down. Kids classes are slowly getting bigger. 

We have two of our students from the kids class representing our team at the tournament next weekend. I'm sure they are going to bring home the gold.

Last week we started no gi classes.

Classes six days a week is a lot of work but its good for everyone.

Last week Kawada-San (52 years old) trained 5 times last week.

It awesome have someone so motivated to train every morning class.

We have started an MMA program for people wishing to fight.

Saturday night we covered MMA grappling basics, countering strikers, and general MMA grappling strategies.

Looking forward to another week of training before the tournament.

Last week was crazy I'm still recovering.

We spent the week preparing for Betinho's visit.

His first class covered basics and some new attacks from the triangle.

We had a pretty tough rolling session that day.

In the evening Betinho taught us new drills for both conditioning and techniques.

Saturday's seminar was a big hit and the gym was packed to the brim.

I was promoted to brown belt after the seminar which is awesome but a huge responsibility.

It was awesome to have two other black belts present during the seminar giving their blessings.

All you need to do to get better at BJJ is to keep training, win or lose, never give up.

This week @ Oceania BJJ Okinawa

Pretty awesome week leading up to the Grand opening.

Monday's kids class was full and we worked on beginner techniques.

It was great to see some of the more experienced kids helping others with their technique. 

Wednesday morning we had a visitor from mainland Japan. Despite being 15 years old he is ranked 3rd in Japan in his weight class for freestyle wrestling. His takedowns were monstrous and he was incredibly strong for someone his size and age. He is going to be a force to reckon with in the future.

Wednesday night was bittersweet. Our class was packed and we had some new visitors who had trained Sambo and at another mainland Japan BJJ team. Tad, who has been training with me on and off for a while is leaving Okinawa to go to university in Osaka. Tad is really tough and a fast learner I hope he finds a place to train in mainland and wish him the best with his studies in the future. He was put in a meatgrinder for his last class and sparred against various opponents for a total of 45 minutes. Nice work. 

Friday night the mats were crowded again. Two people trialed class. Apparently BJJ is a little tougher than their badminton training they were doing. We had two other blue belts visit our class. It was a great chance for everyone to test their techniques against different, in some cases stronger, and some cases more experienced students. 

Saturday open mat was busy.

We had our usual Saturday kids class with two new female students. Both immediately picked up the techniques quickly. Proving that BJJ is not just for men, or boys. 

We have started preparing everyone for the "King of the Island" tournament April 13th and 14th next month. We pushed our competitors hard and we luck enough to have some large adults to train with them.

Awesome seeing a 35kg student taking the back of a 110kg student. BJJ at its best.

Thanks for the great week everyone. See you Monday.

This week...

This week was pretty busy.

We had a few new people join our classes this week.
We were really lucky to have 53 year old join our  morning classes.
He wasn't interested in taking free trial classes, he immediately joined our team.

Our friend and brother Jay came back form Afghanistan this week.
Jay was missed on the mats.
It is important to have someone bigger and stronger than you to train with so you can improve your technique during class and sparring sessions. If you have trouble with techniques against bigger guys you can immediately refine your technique.

Welcome back bro. 

Everyone lets train hard and always have fun.