As
always the format would be 4 workshops with time for extra drilling, rolling, catching
up with old friends in between but this time we added the Absolute White Belt Death
Match Tournament which pitted 8 fighters from 8 different clubs against each
other to give some guys a little extra of the tournament experience.
The
tournament was absolute, so no weight categories and to their eternal credit
Josh Heston from NGT and Stephen Hant from CB both wanted to fight despite
being only 60kg and 61kg respectively. I decided to just let them fight each
other and not join the tournament because of the big weight difference, great
warrior attitude though.
Helen
Currie got the ball rolling with her 3 part warm up; On The Minute Every Minute
for the general warm up, joint rotations and movement then onto the sport
specific drills that she swears by that have given her the kind of body control
and movement that I can only dream about.
With
everyone warmed and loosened the first competitive matches started.
First
up were Stephan Hant and Josh Heston with Stephen taking the win by Ezekiel
choke but as was agreed beforehand the winner would grant the other a rematch
so these 2 would meet each other again later.
As the 8
man tournament started Rich Cadden got off to a winning start to meet Brandon
Guest in the first semi.
The
second semi was decided as Josh Moorby and Big Mo progressed too.
The
scene was then set for workshop #2 in the capable hands of purple belt
instructor Lloyd Cooper who taught leg drags. I was very impressed how
everything was really broken down, the techniques were great but the attention
to pressure and weight distribution was excellent and as we know, makes all the
difference.
The
repechage finalists were decided as Krysztof Kaminski and Marc Crowther both
scored victories in their respective semis to progress to the finals.
The
tournament finalists were decided as Rich Cadden progressed to meet Josh Moorby
in the absolute finals, this becoming very interesting as Rich, being the
lightest entrant in the tournament made the final.
I was
really interested in what Roberto was going to teach as I play this position so
need to know what guys are going to start doing to me so I can get some
counters ready for them :0)
Again
the importance of pressure and posture whilst passing was really emphasised.
There seems to be a pattern emerging here from the higher grades!!
The
final matches from the tournament were now to be decided, Krysztof proved a
little too much for Marc who fought valiantly but had to settle for 2nd
as Krysztof took the match in fine fashion.
Then
the anticipated rematch of the ridiculously light guys took place. This time it
was Josh’s turn to administer the Ezekiel choke for the finish, ending 1 match
each and a rubber match in the pipeline somewhere down the line.
I was
really impressed with Stephen as he said to me that the first match he won
quite quickly so wanted to try something different this time even if it meant
him losing. A lot of guys want to win at all costs so was refreshing hearing
him say he wanted to test something else instead.
The
tournament final was a great match with Josh showing his excellent jiu jitsu
from top and Rich working from bottom against the bigger guy. Josh went on to
take the match but both guys did themselves proud.
The
final workshop was a master class in detail as brown belt instructor James
Nardone broke down the entry, taking the back and the finish whilst there.
James gave everyone a disclaimer before he started saying there wasn’t much
movement involved in his section and by the looks of the level of control he
had over his demo partner he was right. An excellent way to control and finish.
What
impressed me most about all the technical sections was the attention to detail,
before we moved on to a following technique the instructor made sure to address
and correct any mistakes that had been made on the previous technique right
down to the smallest detail, this allowed everyone to have a solid base before
moving on. No flashy showing off techniques just good solid jiu jitsu that
anyone at any level could use.
Following
the obligatory photos courtesy of Mr Fisher, we moved on to the final bit, there were a few promotions
that needed to be made, one especially giving me great pleasure and made me
emotional yet again.
Danny
Mitchell started off the awards by calling up his AVT team member Josh Moorby
who has a solid jiu jitsu game, demonstrated by his faultless performance in
the tournament. Josh has put in a lot of time to his gi game with Danny and it
really shows. Danny presented the blue belt on the behalf of Combat Base.
Danny
then called up another one of his students, Rich Cadden, for his blue belt. For
those of you that maybe don’t know Rich is a real Muay Thai champion winning
the world title twice in Thailand amongst other accolades. Rich had set the bar
high for himself but has medalled at all the tournaments he has fought in so the
time had come for the blue to be awarded and for the bar to be raised a little
higher.
Next,
NGT head coach, James Nardone had the pleasure to promote Tony Riley to purple
belt. Tony’s game has sky rocketed of late and is a solid competitor as well as
being a great coach and much respected NGT team member. We wondered if James
would get through the ceremony without getting too emotional which he (just
about) did.
Final
promotion was very special to me as we were tasked with presenting Danny
Mitchell with his black belt on behalf of Combat Base UK and Chris Haueter.
There is so much I could say about Danny but don’t want it written down in case
it is ever used in evidence but what I will say is that this guy can do
everything, he is the consummate professional, will fight anyone at anything
and is as humble as ever. His fighting skill is also matched by his coaching
skills and has coached guys that have won titles in BJJ, no gi, MMA and more as well as winning all these things himself too.
Excellent competitor, fighter and coach.
His popularity is reinforced by the fact that Twitter and Facebook lit up with
messages of congratulations.
I wasn’t as brave as James and admit to having
tears in my eyes all through the promotion. Helen tied the belt around his
waist and made it official.
I am
extremely proud of what we have here, we had 70+ guys turn up to train, all
contributed to charity and had fun whilst helping support people not as
fortunate, raising about £700 for children’s cancer charity in Rotherham.
I am so proud of all you guys, we have something special here.
Finally
shout out goes to Cat who is still the best brownie maker in the UK, you’re a
lucky man James, no wonder you are marrying her :0)
Thanks for
the support everyone, it means the world to me.
Darren
