Tag: Team

BJJ Seminar with Professor Patrick Martin

Today I went to my club to get graded which happens typically every three months or so depending on the majority of our members are available.

I’ve been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu since February and I’ve made some pretty solid progress considering my GCSE’s, the School of Rock production and settling into College.

I’m now two tab white belt, which essentially shows my own personal journey which is going very well in my eyes. Currently I am two tabs away from being promoted to blue belt which I should I get definitely by this time next year!

We went over the basics today, and some new techniques, escapes to prevent submissions being put on during competition which is epic.

But for now I can only keep on getting better with my second family over at Rogers BJJ Academy.

Looks like I have made a return to the climbing wall!

Today I returned to Red Spider Climbing, I worked on my Blues and Greens, then I started to work on Oranges. I have been skipping them and going straight to green but they’re essential to help with my technique. It would be great to find a partner to do it with but no one has seemed interested yet at college so I’ll keep it under wraps for now, the crew at red spider are great and everyone on the wall is very friendly it’s a great environment!

My goal is to now perfect my Dropknee technique for the following three reasons:

  • Employing a dropknee can help you reach holds that seem far away. When you lock in a great dropknee your hip turns toward the wall, taking most of the weight of its corresponding leg, and your feet stay in a stable position. This allows you to generate upward motion with your feet and your hips, as opposed to using your arms to pull. You’ll find that this actually increases the overall distance you can reach.
  • Employing a dropknee can help you balance on the wall while climbing, and therefore stick to relatively bad holds. Given the relative stability of your body and your ability to reach a long distance, you create more time to optimise your grip on the next hold—a huge advantage, if said hold is terrible.
  • Employing a dropknee at any given moment gives you the appearance of a climbing master. All the hotties in the gym will be impressed which is always a bonus.

With a little bit of repetition and constant practice I should begin to feel the natural feel of the position and the motion it creates, when I watch other climbers attempt the competition wall they use it a lot the amount of energy it saves is very helpful.

The technique depends upon the climbers level of flexibility, which I find myself to be during BJJ, the possibility of damaging tendons, ligaments, and muscles around the knee are very much real.

Whilst doing this if I start to feel any pain I’ll drop, taking my time is crucial too just in case if I were to jerk my knee into the position then end up tearing my Medial Collateral Ligament.

Daniel Strauss, Guillotine Tour Seminar; Sunday the 21st of October 2018

My half term is going well so far, today I met Daniel Strauss, also known as “The Raspberry Ape”. He is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt under 10x world champion, from Roger Gracie.

He has been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for the past 12 years and in that time hes had an active and successful competitive career: A British and English champion at black belt, NAGA elite European champion and a number one ranked black belt by the UKBJJA. He has also been invited to and competed in the world’s biggest submission grappling tournaments such as Polaris pro, ADCC and the Eddie Bravo Invitational.

In 2016 he started “The Raspberry Ape Podcast” with the goal of creating an educational and entertaining resource for the community. Since it began it has served as an important documentation of the history of UK Brazilian jiu jitsu with some of the country’s most influential individuals as guests.

Today we went over his signature move the Guillotine, it may come across as a simple move to the untrained eye but the sheer amount of time and additions Strauss has made and has proven to work very well to himself and everyone who has attended his tour, it is a brutal game changer within grappling especially to me!

If you would like to check out Daniel Strauss, there is a short video his website can also be found under Raspberry Ape.

Me and Daniel StraussTechnique fun time.

Dorset & Hants 2018, Bournemouth Littledown Centre Gym

On the 29th of September, I competed for the second time this year and I’ve improved in the span of seven months from a Bronze to now a Gold and a Silver. I train with my team on Monday and Thursday evenings, and occasionally Wednesdays if i can get there after college.
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