Sunday 28 November 2010

Promotions at CFS BJJ Bournmouth - 27.11.10

CFS BJJ Bournmouth had its first grading on Saturday. Congrats to all the guys as the standard is high and I was proud to award some belts and stripes as follows:

Gary Baker - Blue Belt & 1 stripe
Luke Arnold - Blue Belt
Stacey Arnold - Bue Belt
Aaron Davies- White belt - 3 stripes
Lee Curtis - White Belt - 3 stripes
Kristian Wanstall - White Belt - 3 stripes
John Beaves - White Belt - 3 stripes
John Snooks - White Belt - 1 stripe

















Sunday 21 November 2010

Tatami Fightwear - Film/Photo shoot - Nov 2010 - Wales


The Crazy Tatami Fightwear Crew..........Can you name them all?
Pippa and I looking mean :)
Yours truly in fine Estilio attire!

Check out some of the filming........



Things you can't easily tell...

1. I was bloody freezing!! - Wales in November and no top!!!
2. They sprayed water on me as sweat.......that was bloody freezing too!
3. I was in pain - nearly broke my right toe 2 weeks ago....bouncing on it = PAIN!
4. How much fun did we all have - IMMEASURABLE!!!


Thanks to Lee & Gareth of Tatami fightwear for their hospitality and a great day out. Also thanks to my fellow sponsored athletes for a great time;

Pedro Bessa
Kevin Cox
Greg Creel
Daniel 'Vaseline' Agard (Don't ask!!)
and the wonderful Pippa Granger

CFS BJJ - Technique of the month - November 2010 - Bonus Technique with Professor Leo Vieira

Hey Guys,

I trained with the Master in June this year but due to technical issues (all mine) I couldn't get to upload the video before now. Now that it's sorted, we get 2 techniques this month.

Please enjoy the techniques shown by Leo, who has an understanding of BJJ that few people can actually comprehend. When I think of some of the things leo taught me and how he broke it down, it reminded me of a phrase I started to use many years ago....."My complexity is my simplicity"


CFS BJJ - Technique of the month - November 2010

Hey Guys,

This month's technique is performed by my good friend Professor Pedro Bessa who kindly gave his time in sharing some of his BJJ technique and variations.

Pedro is of course a World class BJJ player who is one of the UK's leading exponents of the art, as well as being a Tatami Fightwear sponsored athlete.

Enjoy

Monday 8 November 2010

Congrats to the 'CFS' Fight team - 6th & 7th November 2010


This weekend gone was a good one for CFS.

First of all, Guro Carl Jackson, the defending British Stickfighting Champion fought again in the British championships, but this time in the veterans division which is much harder as the fighters are exactly just that...veterans and seasoned champions.

Carl took Gold in the Double stick division and Silver in the Single stick division, which in fact was a repeat of his success last year. Very well done adding to his earlier success in the Mexico World championships earlier this year.

There was also success at the English BJJ Open which took place at Dartford over both days with fights at all belts. The competition was very well attended and very well run as usual. Congrats to the principal organisers Blackbelts Dickie Martin & Simon Hayes.

White belts Jesus Lopez Lara & Darren Owen took their first steps in competitive BJJ. Darren fought first facing a tough opponent who mangaged to pass his guard which was later replaced and then just missed completing a very close armbar. He then fought in the repercharge where he also lost to a memeber of our sister team at mill hill bjj, but tried hard.

Jesus had a very tough first fight and got kicked in the mouth whilst passing guard. He secure an advantage for an X choke attempt from guard but couldn't do much more thereafter as he popped his already injured rib in the fight. He won the fight but I wihdrew him from fighting further due to injury.

Next up was my old training partner Andrew Nugent who although a Brown Belt, was making his first step into the competitive BJJ arena. He fought veteran BJJ player Austin Gardner also from the Checkmat team. It was sad for me to see 2 people I know well to have to fight but fortunately for them they did not know each other. Big props to Austin who normally fights at under 76kg for taking on Andy who weighed in with the gi as a 'light' Middleweight at 79kg. It was a close fight with Austin locking onto Andy's ankle but Andy managed to tough it out and dominated mostly from the top after an excellent footsweep. Congrats to English Champion, Andy Nugent!!

As always it was good to see so many friends at the tourney with Blackbelts galore present.....my how times have changed. I can't count how many were there but even allowing for the 4 that fought in the superfights, in no particular order I saw:

Jude Samuel
Edwardo Azevedo
Marco Canha
Luiz ' Manxhina' Ribeiro
Neto
Dickie Martin
Simon Hayes
Nilton Garcia
Jackson Fortunato
Felipe Souza
Arlans Siqueira
Luiz Tosta
Nick Brooks
Marc Walder
Eamon Madden
Ivam Marciel
Marcus Nardini

My apologies if I missed anyone out because I forgot or didn't know them.

What was also good was that whilst there were a number of different gis out there on the mat, Tatami fightwear gis seemed to be everywhere! Clearly the choice of champions :)

I want to send out a big thank you to all the guys who put it on the line this weekend, as whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Intelligent Combat

Tuesday 2 November 2010

My Teacher - Guro Dan Inosanto - October 2010

Dan Inosanto and the "Harmless" Malong ;) from ricky d on Vimeo.

Improving standards.......

This weekend gone, I was fortunate to travel to Bournmouth and check in on Gary Baker and the CFS BJJ Bournmouth team. They really are developing there and it's great to see people enjoying the martial arts that they study.

I also checked in on Andy Nugent's team in Letchworth where I bumped into some old familiar faces including, my good friend and fellow Guro Dan instructor, Fraser Kyne. Also got to meet Gez, the head instructor of Cambridge freefight. A really nice fellow with solid Purple belt BJJ skills.

Keep up the good work guys :)