Kick Ass Lady Grappler Highlight Videos

Two lady warriors that I have had the great pleasure of both training with and interviewing - Ana Maria India and Gazzy Parman have their own little fan-made highlight videos.

Here's Ana Maria's:


Ana Maria India - BJJ & MMA - Highlight [HELLO JAPAN] from Hello Japan on Vimeo.

It was made by fellow blogger Stuart Jones, who produces the Hello Japan (http://hellojapan01.wordpress.com) blog. Stuart trains in Manchester and is a purple belt. Of Ana Maria, he says:

"I trained at the Minotauro Team in Rio de Janeiro for 6 months in 2008, where I met Ana Maria in the Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu classes. She was really cool to me and I was inspired by her dedication to training and Jiu Jitsu, she is a very technical grappler. I learned a lot about her through the interview on your website and thought it was really cool how she started training and dedicating her life to Jiu Jitsu. In my spare time I like editing fighter highlights and seeing as there were so many videos around of Ana Maria, I thought why not make a video of her best moments. So I did and I hope everyone enjoys it."

I noticed he posted the video on Facebook and Ana Maria herself said: "“Wow! Many thanks, I loved it a lot” ~ Ana Maria India.

Cooooool!

Gazzy Parman also has a really cool highlight video made by a fan. The video is called 'Beautiful Assassin' and I nicked that headline for my own interview with Gazzy - which is coming out in Martial Arts Magazine on December 5th. It's my best interview ever so look out for it!



Gazzy did more than just 'like' this video, she...well why don't we let Gazzy explain for herself:

"The most impressive fan I've ever had in my life, has now become a good friend of mine. I didn't know who he was when he contacted me on myspace to have me check out the "Beautiful Assassin" highlight video he made. I was nearly in tears when I first saw it. He touched my soul when he made the Beautiful Assassin highlight clip of some of the things I've done. I couldn't believe someone would spend so much time making such an amazing highlight clip of me.... he did such a great job for the few fights if mine he could find. The music is spot on and the feeling he gave it really shows off my soul. I love him him forever for that. He's called Zen Monkey on YouTube, real name Jakub Bobrowski, from Poland."

Now that's what I called a 'like' !!!

Oh yeah, Gazzy's coming back to the UK in December - watch out for seminar dates to be announced soon.

byMeerkatsu

in video

November 15, 2010

Kick Ass Lady Grappler Highlight Videos

Two lady warriors that I have had the great pleasure of both training with and interviewing - Ana Maria India and Gazzy Parman have their ...

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Flying Cartwheels and Dodgy Half Guards - My Finals Fight

I'm not really big on the whole post-match analysis thing. But I'm posting this fight at the English Open of my final with Mark Phung because it's pretty hilarious stuff. Check out Mark's audacious cartwheel at around 2:20 and my ONE good sweep thingy at around 3:10. Apart from that, I get pretty much owned every second of the way, but it's all good fun.

In the video, I'm the little guy, no, hang on, we're both little, okay, I'm the Chinese guy, no, wait...okay I'm the one wearing the white gi (Faixa Rua leve if you must ask) - enjoy!

byMeerkatsu

in tournament, video

November 10, 2010

Flying Cartwheels and Dodgy Half Guards - My Finals Fight

I'm not really big on the whole post-match analysis thing. But I'm posting this fight at the English Open of my final with Mark Phun...

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Faixa Vermelha

This video features multiple world champion and arguably one of the most gifted BJJ exponents of his generation - Leo Vieira, rolling with 76 year-old Renato Paquet who is a red belt. There are not many red belts in the world - to get one I think you need to have devoted your life to BJJ for over 50 years and be ranked a 9th degree black belt. Anyway, watch this and I defy you not to feel a little emotional towards the end.



Thanks to my Portuguese buddy Katia for translating the little speech at the end; Renato says that he will not be "here" on earth when Leo receives his redbelt but the day he does put that belt around his waist he will feel Renato's presence with him!!

byMeerkatsu

in video

March 20, 2010

Faixa Vermelha

This video features multiple world champion and arguably one of the most gifted BJJ exponents of his generation - Leo Vieira, rolling with ...

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Moving Fist Way Foot-age

Every Christmas I get a bunch of Amazon vouchers and I usually use them to purchase a couple of BJJ books, but this year there doesn't seem to be much interesting published so instead I bought a ton of martial art DVD films. I love Asian cinema and comedy martial art parodies, but they have to be very good. So here's a very quick review of what I've been watching...

byMeerkatsu

in review, video

February 23, 2010

Moving Fist Way Foot-age

Every Christmas I get a bunch of Amazon vouchers and I usually use them to purchase a couple of BJJ books, but this year there doesn't s...

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Grappling dumbly

WOOT! Or whatever the kids say these days. I have my own fighter profile page on the MHBJJ website. Regardez ici: Mill Hill BJJ Seymour Yang. Now, no one can ever say: No one remembers second place!

Training's been going ok. as I mentioned before I think, it's just business as usual since I got promoted. The guys who mullered me before, still do, and visa versa. But I have noticed a little change in the way I approach my jiu jitsu, I liken it somewhat to the time when I was training in traditional ju-jitsu. Allow me explain...

byMeerkatsu

in video

January 27, 2010

Grappling dumbly

WOOT! Or whatever the kids say these days. I have my own fighter profile page on the MHBJJ website. Regardez ici: Mill Hill BJJ Seymour Y...

Read More

Spiral Guard

Hands up if you have heard of the spiral guard before?

Nope, me neither, well I didn't until a few weeks ago when the name suddenly started appearing on forums with people asking about this mysterious new system. Youtube and a google search (at the time) wasn't much help either. Then I read Slidey's review of the Japanese instructional DVD called Paraestra and his  description of spiral guard grabbed my interest. Being small and, seemingly by default, a bottom player, I loved the idea that I could spin around under and beneath my opponent trying to weave a web of confusion -  so I bought the book/DVD and decided to test if this spiral guard thingy actually works in real live sparring...

byMeerkatsu

in techniques, video

January 21, 2010

Spiral Guard

Hands up if you have heard of the spiral guard before? Nope, me neither, well I didn't until a few weeks ago when the name suddenly...

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Braulio Estima: Invisible Jiu-Jitsu Instructional Review

Braulio is the hottest name in town right now. The current European openweight, ADCC openweight and World heavyweight champion is not only an awesome competitor, he's a darn good instructor too. Just ask his very loyal and adoring students at the Birmingham Gracie Barra Academy. So I was very keen to have a butchers at his latest set of BJJ instructional videos courtesy of the CageFilm website...

byMeerkatsu

in instructional videos, review, video

November 22, 2009

Braulio Estima: Invisible Jiu-Jitsu Instructional Review

Braulio is the hottest name in town right now. The current European openweight, ADCC openweight and World heavyweight champion is not onl...

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My one-on-one with Roger Gracie

I wonder why 40 is celebrated as one of those big milestone birthdays? Could it be that it marks the moment when you can finally relinquish silly notions you may have previously had of becoming a (i) rock star, (ii) Wimbledon champion, (iii) remotely good at fighting?

Luckily for me, my wonderful wife still lets me believe I can continue my quest to improve at (iii) above and arranged for me to have a private training session with none other than Roger Gracie. It was the best birthday present I've ever had and an eye-opening training session with the World's best grappler.

Private lesson
And so to business. Roger asked me what I wanted to go over. I mumbled something about learning some cool techniques and he suggested we roll for a bit to see what my weak areas were. So we started off with me trying to pass his guard. Roger let me stand up and open the guard, then, in a comedy moment I got excited and tried to step over his legs, rather like you would step over a puddle of milk on the kitchen floor. I was so unbalanced that I tripped and fell on top of him. He laughed and said that I had 'swept myself over'. Um yeah, not a great start. But almost immediately he pointed out some crucial alterations I could make to my attempts that were a great improvement.

Next up was passing half guard. I get caught with this all the time. Roger showed me three very simple but effective passes. All involved simultaneously applying large degrees of pressure onto the opponent whilst trying extract the trapped leg. One involved my shoulder and his gi lapel effecting a choke and Roger urged me to put it on full strength. his gagging, choking noises sounded convincing enough for me to think that I really was choking him out. Maybe I was. He said I was. Good Lord. Imagine little me, choking out the World Champ!!!

Finally, Roger wanted to check out my guard game. Aha! I thought, this is where I am most comfortable, surely the 9 times World Champion would be impressed here. So he sat there in my guard and I gripped here, opening guard there, twisted left, bended right....basically working real hard to do something to break his posture. After a few minutes, I stopped and Roger gave me his assessment. He said, I seemed to look...a little lost. LOST! But I thought I was playing a cool fast and furious game, yet the reality was that I resembled nothing more than a small child fumbling in the dark! I was mortified by his withering assessment. But, all was not lost, he showed me what he prefered I should do; it was nothing more simple than being more patient, not to change grips so often and just trying to break posture before attacking. So I tried again and perhaps faired a little better (ie didn't look so silly).

The biggest lesson he wanted me to take away was to concentrate on understanding what the opponent will do next (as a result of my attempted techniques). I can only do this by repeatedly attempting the same few favourite moves during sparring and analysing how the opponent reacts each time.

Roger gave the example of his friend Braulio Estima. He told me Braulio knows thousands of moves, and yet in the intensity of a black belt fight, he will often opt for only his 2 most favourite moves. These moves have been practised so much, that he knows every conceivable reaction his opponents will make, and thus can counterattack at a hairstroke.

So overall, a great session. One hour seemed to zip along. I felt like we had covered so much and all his tips and pointers were already filling my head, and at the same time oozing out the other side. It was a rare privilege for Roger does not give privates out to anyone. So I have to thank my beautiful wife and my coach Nick, for arranging this.

Insider Knowledge
I asked Roger about his Mundials fights. How was it that he had managed to submit ALL his opponents with basically the same choke? He corrected me, with some pride, by stating that 3 were ezekiel chokes, one was a guillotine and the others were collar chokes. Roger explained that when he finally got into mount position, his opponents were so desperate in trying to shove him off, that they extended their arms to push him away, thus leaving their necks unprotected. It was then fairly straightforward matter for him to attack with chokes. The principles of patience, and using the technique at the right time, that roger taught me today, also applied to Roger himself during his actual fights.

It was also interesting to see Roger train. I got to the RGA academy a little early and he was working on conditioning drills - the same animal workout drills I mentioned before. He said he had his third big MMA match coming up in 6 weeks so was beginning his preparations in earnest. I guess soon he will be going to the States to continue his MMA training with Renzo Gracie. Which leads me nicely onto my final bit...

Renzo Gracie, Legacy.
This week I watched the Renzo Gracie documentary, Legacy. Oh my God, this is THE best martial arts doc I've ever seen. It is just so well made but Renzo himself, is such a HUGE character he positively jumps out of the TV screen, grabs you by your neck and chokes you out. There are several excellent reviews of Renzo's film already online so I won't add to the review list other than by saying it is a MUST SEE film for anyone into MMA, grappling, BJJ or just curious to see what a complete nutter he is (I mean this in the nicest possible way of course). You can buy the DVD here.

More RGA training photos on Flickr here:

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, renzo gracie, roger gracie, video

July 06, 2009

My one-on-one with Roger Gracie

I wonder why 40 is celebrated as one of those big milestone birthdays? Could it be that it marks the moment when you can finally relinquish ...

Read More

Ju-Do

This week has been a bit of a judo-fest. First, at the BJJ British Open, I saw a number of awesome judo throws from stand-up. One chap who entered had only done a handful of previous BJJ lessons, but was an international calibre judoka apparently. Anyway, he lost in the final of his weight division and was so incensed, when his victor went to shake his hand, the judoka hip threw him with a tremendous thump to the ground. It caused a bit of a debate online and perhaps was a bit petulant..but man, what a throw! See the video of the incident here in the background from around 3mins:




As I take part in more and more of the judo classes at Mill Hill, I'm developing a growing fascination with the sport. After ten years of traditional ju-jitsu behind me, I thought I knew a lot about throwing people. Ha! Not now. Not after randori where I get to be swept, thrown, pinned and generally beaten up by big strong judo black belts. It is a humbling experience to say the least.

At the same time, I am reading 'The Pyjama Game' by Mark Law. It's a brilliant read. I'm fascinated with learning about the heroes of the sport and the rigours they had to go through to become the best. The book also covers a little bit about BJJ. The author trains at the Budokwai in London so is lucky to train with world and Olympic judo champions, as well as Roger and Mauricio. Books like this inspire me to keep up with my own amateurish writings. I thoroughly recommend it.

byMeerkatsu

in books, judo, tournament, video

June 26, 2009

Ju-Do

This week has been a bit of a judo-fest. First, at the BJJ British Open, I saw a number of awesome judo throws from stand-up. One chap who e...

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British BJJ Open - part 2

The Fightworks Podcast published my full British BJJ Open tournament report here.

Excerpt:
The cancellation of the annual Gracie Invitational in the UK this year led many to call for a big replacement event. Up stepped world champion Braulio Estima and his Gracie Barra team in Birmingham to stage the British BJJ Open . With over 620 competitors spread out over 8 mats, this event did not disappoint in terms of size and scale.
[The Fightworks Podcast]

The Social Whirl of BJJ
It was really cool to hook up with fellow BJJers who I only ever meet online.
Here's a shout out to:
Rachael McMillan, who writes this blog, and who won her white belt womens division.
Sarah Merriner, who is also a fellow alumni from our trad JJ style, and who posts regularly on the EFN forum.
My fellow galo and pluma fighters - Isaac Perez, Vishal Patel, Enrique Vallesenor.


The gi wars
I was tucked in some corner of the hall busy photographing away when Carslon Gracie black belt simon Hayes comes up to me to say hi and thanked me for setting up the Faixa Rua Facebook group. A little while later, I am having my fight and brown belt Andy Roberts who is sponsored by arch rival Black Eagle hears my name being called and says to Clint - is that Seymour? Hmmm, well here's a clock choke from me and black eagle. Er, I'm not sure if he was joking or if I really have upset him. I might lay off the online cheeky gi war antics for now, just in case!


Video & photos

Above is the video of my fight with Enrique Villasenor

Below, two Flickr albums of fave photos from the tournament:

As Isaac says in the previous post comments page, one of the strongest memories from coming away from tournaments are the people you meet and the friends you make. Here here.

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, photography, tournament, video

June 22, 2009

British BJJ Open - part 2

The Fightworks Podcast published my full British BJJ Open tournament report here . Excerpt: The cancellation of the annual Gracie Invitation...

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Animal magic

Animals! Every gym has one individual who fights like an animal, looks like one and heck even smells like one. But seriously, the use of animals as a metaphor or training aid in martial arts goes way back to the origins in India and China. Off the top of my head, animal associations in classical martial arts include tiger, crane, snake, dragon, mantis, monkey and loads of others.
BJJ is no different. Animals are used to name some techniques and many instructors and fighters are given animal nick names. But the best use of animal imagery has to be the 'Animal Workout' as seen on the video below:

My BJJ instructor Nick has been doing a lot of this at the Roger Gracie Academy so he's got us all doing it at Mill Hill too. It's fun, fairly easy to do, and a pretty good work out as well. I can imagine a really long set of each would be pretty punishing, thankfully Nick keeps it to just one set per length of mat.
Thanks to JJ pal Dave who pointed out that our very own British Quarterstaff Association are teaching their techniques through the use of animal imagery. There is the fox, stag, boar, cat, bear and hawk. All very British. I reckon a good old 'stag' style quarterstaffer would teach a pesky White Crane Kungfu stylist a thing or two about fighting. Yeah!

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, martial arts, video

March 04, 2009

Animal magic

Animals! Every gym has one individual who fights like an animal, looks like one and heck even smells like one. But seriously, the use of ani...

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Special One

I used to think I was a bit different to other martial arts practitioners. No, seriously, I mean being an established instructor from a trad martial art who moonlights in another (almost rival) martial art (BJJ) can't be too common right? And for a short time it probably was the case, since most of the BJJ comrades I met in the early days were people who only trained in BJJ. But recently I have come across quite a wide variety of guys, several of them who are instructors at their own school of martial arts. At Nick's club, one chap I met told me he runs a taekwondo-based MMA school here: http://www.ukblackbelt.com/ As a two stripe blue belt I thought he would be good, and in the two milliseconds it took for him to sink an armbar on me, my thoughts were quickly realised. God forbid I ever engage in a stand-up spar with him if he is this good on the ground. In fact BJJ now seems to attract a lot of guys who also train in other systems, especially trad JJ, like me. And the BJJ instructors and classmates seem to be very cool about this. It speaks volumes about the confidence they/we have in the art. Clearly, the idea that including an effective ground-based strategy into your repertoire is widely agreed to be important. So I am the special one no more, but I’m glad. The more we all learn to appreciate each other’s style, the better the world of martial arts. No secrets I say. Oh yeah, here’s the blooper reel to illustrate just how special I am:



It was grading day for my club students on Sunday. I had quite a few guys grading and all passed, thankfully. But a couple of errors were pointed out by the senior senseis had me cringeing because I was the one that taught them the erroneous techniques. Invigilating gradings is also frustrating for me as I can't help but look on at other students and critically thinking, Nooo, that was wrong, wrong, wrong. But having to perform in front of a judging panel is a nervous thing and nerves can play havoc with your memory, coordination, and ability to do, erm, ju-jitsu.
So thankfully, the senseis grant a large degree of allowance for this.
Speaking of grades, as we all know, BJJ awards grades ad hoc and not on a formal grading like trad JJ. so it was a nice surprise for me to be awarded my third stripe at blue belt by Nick Brooks. I'm quite chuffed as I feel accepted into the fold at what is still a fairly new club for me. I'd better watch my back though. A three stripe blue belt I think makes me technically the most senior non-teaching regular at the club. Gulp!

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, jikishin ju-jitsu, MMA, traditional ju-jitsu, video

September 16, 2008

Special One

I used to think I was a bit different to other martial arts practitioners. No, seriously, I mean being an established instructor from a trad...

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It's Showtime Folks!

I've finally finished my epic showreel. For a long time, I have wanted to produce some video clips to add to my JJ Club home page. So that newbies can see what our style of ju-jitsu entails and perhaps to add a little flair to static words and pictures. In the world of martial arts, moving footage seems to connect quickly with people, and in today's YouTube generation, one can't afford to be left behind. It was good fun making the video and producing it. I learned alot about editing and the tedious process it involves. I hope it gives a fair reflection of the wide variety of techniques that we practice at the club - including throws, punches, kicks, locks, strangles, kata, kobudo weapons, groundfighting, stand-up etc.

So sit back, get out the popcorn, chill to the sounds of DJ Krush and enjoy.

Coming up soon, the sequel - IJJC - the lost blooper tapes!

byMeerkatsu

in imperial-club, jikishin ju-jitsu, video

September 07, 2008

It's Showtime Folks!

I've finally finished my epic showreel. For a long time, I have wanted to produce some video clips to add to my JJ Club home page. So t...

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Balls of Steel

I came across this clip quite randomly (I googled Juko Ryu, more about that later). If I am honest, it is pretty amazing stuff, I can't work out how they manage to withstand punches to the throat and kicks to the groin. If we disregard the ambiguous claim of channeling 'chi' energy, I would imagine that this skill takes many many years of repetitive training of those parts of the body to tense at exactly the right moment.
Not easy, but certainly feasible physically (not that I would want to test the idea personally!)
Genki Sudo is a MMA star who rather shockingly knocked out Royler Gracie in an MMA tournament. Us Royler fans don't talk about that one too much. Ahem. BTW Royler is coming back to the UK in October for a seminar, hoorah! I'm getting my gi ironed in anticipation right now!!!!

byMeerkatsu

in traditional ju-jitsu, video

August 15, 2008

Balls of Steel

I came across this clip quite randomly (I googled Juko Ryu, more about that later). If I am honest, it is pretty amazing stuff, I can't ...

Read More