Sensei Wristen locken

I was at BJJ training Friday night. Hadn't been for a few sessions and I noticed a couple of new faces. In particular, one who seemed to give me a bit of a stare back. No problem I thought, just people checking each other out. Maybe he was marking my card.
So I carry on training and sparring as normal and then one of the club regulars comes up to me and asks if I have sparred with the new guy yet? No, I answered, why?
Turns out the new guy is from a trad JJ background and has been tearing up the dojo the last few sessions with his rather unique brand of JJ. Oh God, I thought, typical, some trad JJ comes in and I get lumped into the 'strange' JJ category, just because I also train in trad JJ. Anyways, I decide to approach our new friend and offer to spar.
The timer begins and I grab the lapel, as one always does, and he instantly pulls for a rather forceful wrist lock. Wow! I think, he really is old skool, does he not know anything yet? Of course the wrist lock attempt is just giving me what I want (momentum and position) but I decide to play for a while. Every damn time I go to grab the lapel, he grabs and turns for a wrist lock old skool stylee. So I decide to get a little more pro-active and roll properly. By properly I mean looking for submissions, which I got with ease, 3 tapouts in one sparring round (4-5 mins) is a record for me. Actually maybe one didn't count cos he tapped as I went for his injured ankle. Far be it from me to rest on my laurels, but I enjoyed the roll as it was a good demonstrator that on the ground and in a sport setting, pure technique conducted in a relaxed state does beat brute strength and nervous force. Plus, the fact that without atemi strikes, trad JJ is fares poorly on the ground compared to BJJ. Come to think of it, I reckon even with atemi strikes, BJJ would have the upper hand. But then we delve into the realm of who is better and I don't want to end up in that hornets nest of an argument.

byMeerkatsu

in

June 30, 2007

Sensei Wristen locken

I was at BJJ training Friday night. Hadn't been for a few sessions and I noticed a couple of new faces. In particular, one who seemed to...

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Royce fights drugs allegation

This blog would be remiss if it were not to mention the positive drugs test of Royce Gracie. Royce fought and won his fight against Kazushi Sakuraba on 2nd June. It was his routine drugs test for this fight where he tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone. Royce denies the accusation that he took banned substances.
It is always sad to hear about drugs in sport. I think the whole MMA world would agree that Royce is a nice guy and quite possibly the last person you would expect to abuse drugs. Meerkat believes in the sincerity that Royce did not take drugs. If you know Royce, you know he is not a cheat. There is the argument that the sample was either tampered with, improperly handled, or the nandrolone derivatives that they test for, were a product of his natural metobolism. The BBC site has a good simple explanation of how nandrolone by-products could enter the human body without the person knowing. Unfortunately in this crazy finger pointing world, mud can stick and smoke can billow with accompanying fire.
Meerkat wishes Royce the best of luck in his fight to clear his name.

byMeerkatsu

in

June 20, 2007

Royce fights drugs allegation

This blog would be remiss if it were not to mention the positive drugs test of Royce Gracie . Royce fought and won his fight against Kazushi...

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The Ju-Jitsu Landlord

Meerkat is shocked. An anonymous student, who apparently just did their kyu gradings, sent me this mocked up photo. Well I assume it is mocked up, you never know, comedian Al Murray may indeed have a disposition for ju-jitsu. He certainly ticks all the right boxes in terms of the required shaven head appearance.
May the JJ Gods above strike the prankster down with thunder for being so disrepectful.

byMeerkatsu

in

June 14, 2007

The Ju-Jitsu Landlord

Meerkat is shocked. An anonymous student, who apparently just did their kyu gradings, sent me this mocked up photo. Well I assume it is...

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A design for life

Ahhh, if only they gave out dan grades for web design. Just spent close to 5 months designing a new look for my club website. I'm pretty pleased with the result as it involved learning a couple of new skills. www.imperialjujitsu.co.uk

Sunday was spent invigilating over the kyu gradings. I was worried cos it was the first time that gradings were being done at the East Tilbury Village Hall, which is miles away from anywhere. But everyone showed up and passed without incident.

Haven't trainined BJJ for a couple of sessions due to man flu. But coach Eddie is in the States on tour with Royler Gracie and looks like he will be coming back with some well deserved stripes added to his brown belt. Well done to Ed.

byMeerkatsu

in

June 13, 2007

A design for life

Ahhh, if only they gave out dan grades for web design. Just spent close to 5 months designing a new look for my club website. I'm pretty...

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Adapt, or die trying

Just done 5 hours kobudo (traditional weapons) training up in Brentwood. Got my hands on the new multi martial atrs weapon made by Grant and Eddie's Cobra MA company (as seen here modelled by my daughter). Man! This thing is damn good...no shortcuts here, only top quality. From all the various bits and pieces, it was actually a doddle to put together the various weapons in quick succession. I didn;t even need the enclosed instruction sheet. And, from a brief nosey glance around the dojo, it seems I was not the only one to sport the new weapon set. Let's hope the product continues to be a success for Eddie and Grant as they have put so much care and work into the project.

Well, I managed to get through a good kobudo today. Last time I moaned about the lack of progess and too much time spent on old katas and no time to learn new stuff. Word obviously got around (I still don;t believe anyone actually reads this blog). This time, Sensei promised to change things and there was a noticeable snappiness to the instruction with an urgency to get all the weapons covered as much as possible. This time, I finally got to learning, or attempting to learn, the Naginata kata, I also covered the fab Sai3 kata and most of the various bo staff katas. So I am very happy and I think so were my colleagues.

Kobudo was a chance for Head sensei to gather us club owners together and talk about new things coming up. The biggest and perhaps most shocking news of all is the fact that Head sensei wants to introduce Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu rules ground-fighting into our style. And he asked me and a couple of other senseis who do BJJ to help get involved! When he first mentioned it in private to me, I honestly thought my ears needed de-waxing. I mean, just how many traditionalist ju-jitsu clubs would even contemplate the very idea? Actually, quite a few. Certainly I know of Nick Brookes' Mill Hll Club who practice both styles - quite successfully I might add. Then, there is the Belgium Jikishin group who seemlessly do both styles - and I think it was the recent trip to Aalst by some Jikishin members where BJJ was demonstrated that most impressed Head sensei. Oh, and let us not forget the Irish Jikishin contingent, Josie Murray, and their love of BJJ.
My personal view is that an open mind to new movements and trends martial arts is a very good thing. Taking a serious look at the phenomenal success of BJJ right now says a lot about the effectiveness of the style. It is also no surprise that a good number of Jikishin students, like myself, also train serioiusly in BJJ. I find the two styles sit comfortably. And I am very excited by the prospect.
But I worry about three things: First, that adding BJJ rules to our already very full syllabus will deter some students and even some instructors - it just simply is not everyone's cup of tea. Secondly, I think that if we are going to do this properly, then I feel the need for an expert of the style to oversee the evolution to BJJ rules, to give things more credibility I guess. In the UK right now, we have perhaps half a dozen world class BJJ black belts. Could it be feasible that one of these might help? (Or I could suggest we invite the fragrant Kyra Gracie to provide a seminar...just a thought).
My third concern is that BJJ is whole myriad of complex techniques, concepts, mindsets, all sorts of things. A couple of short seminars would not do the style any justice. One needs to train in BJJ a heck of a lot in order to improve by even an iota. I'm still searching for that iota myself.

It's very early days in the project. At first, Head sensei is going to organise a non-competitive event to introduce the rules and some simple techniques to everyone in Jikishin. then, if the take-up is good, add a BJJ style category to one of the upcoming comps. Then...who knows. Maybe the Mundials!!! Adapt or die trying, as they say.
We'll see I suppose. In the meantime, the new mantra in class is...PASS GUARD, PASS GUARD!

byMeerkatsu

in

June 02, 2007

Adapt, or die trying

Just done 5 hours kobudo (traditional weapons) training up in Brentwood. Got my hands on the new multi martial atrs weapon made by Grant an...

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How to Win Friends and Influence People

Another reason to regret missing SENI – my kickboxing instructors: John and Stuart Lawson were fighting at SENI. For John Lawson, it was his ‘comeback’ fight, his first since winning the WKA World title in 2001. Oh well, here’s a picture taken by Mrs Meerkat of John in action to make up for my missing the event.
As if the world needs another excuse to dabble needlessly online – in addition to blogging, web updates, myspaceing and instant messaging – Meerkat has just signed up to Facebook. What a fun way to be in contact with hundreds of virtual friends all at the click of a button and linked by the slimmest of shared interests, such as Living in London, or quite liking Kyra Gracie.

Actually, what red blooded BJJ male doesn’t like Kyra Gracie.
Of course in real life, I actually only have about two real friends, neither of whom would waste their time with something as trivial as Facebook, nor would ever have heard of the radiant Kyra.
Oh well, at least I have 5 hours of kobudo weapons training to look forward to tomorrow.

byMeerkatsu

in kickboxing, kyra gracie, martial arts

June 01, 2007

How to Win Friends and Influence People

A nother reason to regret missing SENI – my kickboxing instructors: John and Stuart Lawson were fighting at SENI. For John Lawson, it was hi...

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