Pontefract gym Xmas schedule

24th December - closed
25th December - closed
26th December - closed
27th December - open
28th December - open
29th December - open
30th December - closed
31st December - closed
1st January - closed
2nd January - closed
3rd January - closed
4th January - open

Back to normal after that

It's not who's best it's who's left

Quote:

"out of 10 white belts who start BJJ  it is said that 1 will make it to blue belt

From 10 blue belts maybe 1-2 will get to purple...and so on

The factors that allow for someone to eventually reach blackbelt are not necessarily physical assets or talent.

If we can say that it is primarily mental/psychological factors that allow/result in 1 white belt eventually  reaching black belt

It could be just that the black belt  just has far more passion for BJJ than the others who didn't continue.

We might also conclude that the black belt has a far greater degree of resilience (rebounding from slumps, injuries and training interruptions); perseverance; lack of ego etc."


What keeps you training?
What do you enjoy most?
Would not getting promoted lead you to quit?
What might cause you to quit eventually?

DC

Ramblings of an old man

Was teaching some countering back escapes this week and worked arm triangle for a while which started me off on the 'old man rambling about shit' memory lane trip which also goes to prove a point about how you can always learn something about competing even if you don't lose.

People always say you learn more from a loss but I think if you are analytical, you can learn from any outcome.

Was competing in a tourney a couple of years ago and the first match was going really well for me; got the takedown, passed to side, set up the arm triangle, slid over his body and squeezed. The smell of victory was already wafting into my nasal cavities when the guy DIDN'T tap. So I squeezed harder and still NOTHING! Tried again, nothing again!

I switched to the shoulder lock and got the tap.

I subbed the next 3 guys and won a big shiny gold trophy.

Was I happy? No I was not!!

I gave the trophy to someone and went to find my first opponent to ask about the arm triangle, he said it was tight but would never have tapped to it.

So began my study of the arm triangle. I collected every resource and competition footage I could find and drilled the hell out of it. Things were going great but still something was missing.

Then I got to train with Dirty Dozen member John Will at Factory BJJ and I finally got the last piece of the puzzle so now I have an arm triangle I am fairly happy with. Btw, if you never trained with JBW then you should.

I had subbed 4 guys and won a trophy but the best part of the whole experience was the fact that something hadn't worked and gave me a mission in my Jiu Jitsu life.

Where am I going with this? Maybe that even in winning there is always something to improve.

But then again I could just be an old man rambling...............

COMBAT BASE UK OPEN MAT

To help welcome Allegiance MMA back into the Combat Base family and being open to all members of Combat Base UK we are holding an open mat session at Allegiance MMA on Sunday 27th November 2011 starting at 1:00pm.

Hopefully have representatives from our latest addition to the family, Voodoo Gym, so they can see how we do things too.

Allegiance gym is located above Brooklands Bar, Alexandra Mills, Alexandra Road (off Bradford Road) Batley WF17 6JA

There will be a few workshops on the day, Adam, Carl and Neil have all offered their services. It is a great opportunity to learn something new, meet and train with new people, all in a friendly environment.

No ego, no attitude, just a good training environment.

As we are donating the proceeds to a children's charity to try to improve someone's quality of life this Christmas, the minimum entry fee will be £5.00, if you can give a little more please do so.

Any more info email combatbase@hotmail.com

Combat Base Team Training Day

11th September 2011 saw us back at Combat Base Bolton for the next installment of the Training Day saga, ever since we started planning it I knew it was going to be a special day. On our last trip to Redondo Beach we spoke to Chris Haueter about how everything was going and the promotions we were going to make and he couldn't have agreed more.

So before we actually started we gave out the big promotions.

The first was an absolute pleasure for me and I genuinely felt emotional to see Steve Muckle receive his black belt. Steve has been the epitome of BJJ since I met him all those years ago, his dedication to training and his ever enquiring mind made him an excellent fighter and coach. When life dealt him some bad luck (and there was plenty of it) he didn't submit, he dug in and got through.

I always thought that if he had remained injury free he would have been the first male Combat Base black belt in the UK but nevertheless he is there now anyway. I'm so proud that he got there, lesser people wouldn't have.

Then we had 3 brown belt promotions, Antony Griffiths, James Nardone and Carl Fisher all received new belts. All 3 guys are doing great work as coaches and competitors, racking up a nice haul of medals between them.

Simon Ball was promoted to purple belt

Catriona Barkley, Josh Dilcock, Ty Harrison, Tony Riley, Andrew Whitelam, Jody Clark, Andrew Morris, Lee Gilmore, Will Aston and Adam Lowes were all promoted to blue belt.

Final promotion was Lewis Shaw to yellow belt, despite being only 13 he has already competed in the adults division where he has given people a run for their money. If guys like this keep training, then God knows what they will be like in a few more years.....

To make things even better and thanks to everyone's generosity, we raised £319.73 for the nominated charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, so all in all a very good day for all involved.

A big thank you to all concerned.

Check out Fish's blog post here

Takedown MMA BJJ 2 Gi and No Gi Grappling Tournament Sunday 2nd October

Results

Brown Belt Super fight

Antony Griffiths - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK Vs Rob Lawler Combat Base Pontefract

Winner - Antony Griffith via submission


Adults Under 99kg Gi
1. Phil Ounsley - Allegiance MMA/Combat Base UK
2. Neil Audsley - Combat Base UK
3. Ian Stesel - Combat Base UK

Adults Under 87kg Gi
1. Daniel Mason - Combat Base UK
2. Alex Etchells - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
3. Rick Lawanson - Predators MMA

Adults Under 80kg Gi
1. Jamie Lester - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
2. Łukasz Gradeckiz - The BJJ Labs @ Fighting Fit Martial Arts Centre
3. Jakub Alchimowicz - Manchester Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Stealth bjj

Adults Under 73kg Gi
1. Roberto Barbiero - Combat Base Dewsbury
2. Neil Blanshard - Combat Base UK
3. Mat Leigh - Factory BJJ / Combat Base Stockport

Adults Under 68kg Gi
1. Emiel Malczewski - Manchester Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Stealth bjj
2. Daniel Jones - Gracie Barra Essex

Juniors Over 50kg Gi
1. Leighton Massey - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
2. Gary Massey - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
3. Dylan Ellis - Combat Base UK

Juniors Under 30kg Gi
1. Taylor Martin - Combat Base UK
2. Blade Massey - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
3. Riley Stesel - Combat Base UK

Ladies Under 65kg No Gi
1. Jenny Sjodin - The BJJ Labs @ Fighting Fit Martial Arts Centre
2. Gemma C - Preston Reps Mma

Adults Under 99kg No Gi
1. Neil Bailey - Fightbase
2. Matt Condon - Manchester Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Stealth bjj
3. John Nezzi - 12 Gauge MMA

Adults Under 87kg No Gi
1. Rick Lawanson - Predators MMA
2. Stuart Meschia - MARKSMAN MIXED MARTIAL ARTS GYM
3. Alex Etchells - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK

Adults Under 80kg No Gi
1. Will Burke - Predators MMA
2. Alex McLoughlin - Fightbase
3. Jamie Lester - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK

Adults Under 73kg No Gi
1. Tim Jones - 12 Gauge MMA
2. Mark O'neill - Preston Reps Mma
3. Ben Blease - Lowe MMA

Adults Under 68kg No Gi
1. Gaz Pilot - Predators MMA
2. Stuart Berry - Fightbase
3. Emiel Malczewski - Manchester Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Stealth bjj

Adults Under 62kg No Gi
1. Jordan Chester - Preston Reps Mma
2. Jake Mclellen - 12 Gauge MMA
3. Jenny Sjodin - The BJJ Labs @ Fighting Fit Martial Arts Centre

Juniors Over 50kg No Gi
1. Nathan Lambert - The Pound MMA
2. Leighton Massey - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK
3. Dylan Ellis - Combat Base UK

Juniors Under 50kg No Gi
1. Alex Swales - Preston Reps Mma
2. Gary Massey - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK

Juniors Under 30kg No Gi
1. Kian Makinson - Preston Reps Mma
2. Riley Stesel - Combat Base UK
3. Blade Massey & Kane Kelly - Evade Martial Arts/Combat Base UK

Massive well done to everyone.

Combat Base North East blog

If you are not reading the blog above already then you should be, there are some excellent posts in it. Steve is a great coach and the homework he sets is excellent.

http://combatbasene.blogspot.com/2011/10/well-done-brett-and-dan.html

http://combatbasene.blogspot.com/2011/10/well-done-adam-and-drew.html


If you take the 2 latest posts as above then consider the excellent work that is being done up there. They are a relatively small club that have been an integral part of Combat Base from the start, they are kind of isolated from the rest of us geographically but goes to show what you can do with limited resources if you have a real team set up and a real work ethic.

The club so far stands at 1 black belt, 3 quality brown belts, about 8 tough purple belts and a bunch of blues too. Even the white belts are beasts, as one of their brown belts, Graeme, posted on their Facebook page recently "there are no easy matches at Combat Base"

Considering guys at the club have competed in and won BJJ and no gi tournaments plus being undefeated in MMA says something about the versatility too. Guys that always give 100% and bring home the medals.

Don't know where I'm going with this but I just thought it was worth mentioning that from nothing they now have a solid team that is just going to get better and better.

Glad they are on my side.

Why structure the class the way I do?

Class structure
1. Warm up
2. Techniques
3. Isolated drills
4. Sparring
5. Cool down


Descriptions and explanations

Warm Up

Sufficient warm up but nothing crazy, you are here to learn and train BJJ not do cardio. If half of the session is a ridiculous warm up you are not doing yourself any favours, sure you will get fitter but will your BJJ be better?

If you are already tired before you start drilling the techniques then you are burning tired application of techniques into your memory. It is ok to spar tired some times but not in the learning phase.

Remember that practice makes permanent, if you practice crap you will be crap.

So a 3 part warm up, general exercises to raise the pulse then into joint rotations for mobility then into sports specific movement drills.

The sports specific drills will vary on the topic for that session. For example, we recently worked a lot of single leg squat progressions (here) because we were covering faking guard pulling to taking a shot (here) so you see how the exercise will help the technique.

Now we are working attacking the turtle we incorporate drills like (this)



Techniques and positions

We will work a few techniques that are based around a particular scenario covering the gross motor skills (the main points) and details of the particular techniques considering set ups, combinations, "what if" scenarios etc

We will usually work something for an extended period of time, maybe a month or so as I believe that this will really help ingrain the things we are training.

I personally hate training something different every session, I have been subject to this and really think it is to the detriment of really learning something. One class it's foot locks, the next class it might be chokes then the next one is triangle escapes etc absolutely no flow so you don't get to learn a 'game' all you get is a bunch of techniques.

I want all Combat Base students to improve their BJJ, I don't have to teach something new all the time to try to keep people interested, if they truly want to improve they will appreciate what we do.

One guy had trained at a different gym before coming to us, he told me that he knew an arm bar and triangle etc but didn't know how to get to a position to apply them.

Do you think his previous "coach" had done a good job?


Drilling

Probably the most important yet under-trained aspect of BJJ, every one wants to spar but a lot of people aren't ready to spar. You have to put in time on the drills first or you will get lost and frustrated. Sparring is a great evaluation tool but more of that later.

Why do I believe that the drilling is where you really improve?

An example, we have 2 guys, one was used to playing top position and the other less experienced had to play from bottom. If these 2 just spar they will naturally gravitate to what they always do and won't grow.

So I give them a drill. Guy who usually plays top starts on the bottom, guy who usually plays from bottom starts in full mount. Guy underneath has to escape, guy on top has to control and submit.

Make sense? Without this drill neither would have been in this position to practice.

Especially if you are a less experienced guy sparring should not be a priority!!


Sparring or rolling

Is basically putting it all together and if you manage to control your ego (which most people don't even though they think they do) can be good for evaluating your game.

Why don't I think most people control their egos? In one word, Helen.

A significant amount of guys that Helen rolls with use strength on her, why?

I have heard guys say to her 'I had to use strength there otherwise you would have got me' for God's sake she is an excellent black belt she will get you. If you rely on strength you are going to come unstuck, quick.

You might think you are doing well because you don't get tapped by a 50kg woman, ask yourself why you didn't get tapped, was it because of your technical escapes? If not, sort yourself out, you are restricting your progress.

If your ego is under control, you tap, ask her for advice then start again.

Sparring should highlight any weaknesses or holes in your game so you can fix the problems.

How do you fix these weaknesses? See drilling as above!!

Would welcome any feedback but don't ask me if I think you are one of those guys, ask yourself.

DC

Behind The Scenes At The Tatami Fightwear Photoshoot

Team Training Day 11th September 2011

http://thefightingphotographer.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-belts-at-training-day.html

Check out the write up of the training day, lots of photos on Combat Base UK Facebook page.