Video Technique of the month - March 2013 - Prof Mike Fowler

Hey Guys!!

Long overdue video techniques of the month with non other than Prof Mike Fowler. It was an honour to finally get to meet him at the end of last year when he was in london for a photo shoot for Tatami Fightwear. Also present then was foot lock Tsar Dean Lister. Mike has always been someone I admired and had some video instructions he had previously made. He is certainly responsible for some of the techniques and concepts that form part of my game.

The photo shoot took place at London Fight Factory, which is the famous Checkmat gym run by my long time friend and fellow Ricardo Vieira Black belt Liz "Manxinha' Ribiero.


I want to say a big thank you to Prof Mike for being so giving with his knowledge and agreeing to show some techniques for my blog.

"Intelligent Combat"

News Update - 14.3.13

Hey Guys!!

The timetable of events has been updated. Please have a careful look in case there is something there that you might be able to attend.

I was recently in Brighton for my first seminar there. A great turnout and good training.
Apart from the stripes that were awarded, I congratulate new BLUE BELT Jeaffreson Paterson on his achievement.

The website www.cfsbjj.com is well under way and I hope the first version will be live in the next few weeks - Watch this space.

More video techniques to follow shortly.

'Intelligent Combat'

IBJJF European Championships 2013 - Lisbon - 24-26th January 2013

Hey Guys!!

Back from a successful trip to the IBJJF European Championships in Lisbon. A great result for our team all round (as reported on our facebook page), with me winning Gold, Anna Mayne at Bown Adult winning Gold and then Silver in the absolute, and Yousuf Nabi winning Silver in Brown Master Leve.

My Current Euro medal tally is as follows:

2008 - GOLD - Purple (middle/senior1) - Gi
2009 - GOLD - Brown (middle/senior2) - Gi
2009 - BRONZE - Brown (Absolute) - Gi
2010 - GOLD - Brown (middle/senior2) - Gi
2012 - BRONZE - Black (middle/senior2) - No gi
2013 - GOLD - Black (middle/senior3) - Gi

Thanks again for all your support......photos and videos to follow.....

'Intelligent Combat'

Mestre De La Riva Mini Documentary - The Evolution of the De La Riva Guard

Hey Guys!

Hope you all having a great xmas so far. Hope this mini documentary about my teacher brings you some more Xmas and new year cheer!!!

Technique of the Month - December 2012 - Mestre Ricardo De La Riva

Hey Guys,

In celebration of the forthcoming festive season together with my promotion to 1st Degree Black Belt by my teacher Mestre De La Riva, I bring you the December technique of the month.

Enjoy!

Master Instructor - Guro Dan Inosanto - 2012

It is a real honour to spend any time at all whatsoever with this extremely unique individual, let alone to have been a student of his on his Instructor program for approximately 13 years.

This man is legend.......

Early Xmas present from Prof David Jacobs of Fairfax JJ

Enjoy!!

'Intelligent Combat'

Bi-Annual Grading/Seminar - 25.11.12 - Pics n vids...

Hey Guys,

Once again, thank you for all turning up to what was a fun day but also a very important one.

We welcomed Miad Najafi and Yousuf Nabi, joint Instructors at Element Martial arts in Brighton to our group and they are now officially CFS BJJ  Brighton. Miad has been a friend of mine for nearly 17 years and our martial arts history is connected in so many ways, so it was a pleasure to have him and Yousuf join us.

As we continue to grow from strength to strength our quality improves because of the dedication of you the students and the hard work and passion of the branch instructors who I am proud to be associated with. The quality is reflected in what I see when I visit and what the BJJ community sees when we compete.

Thanks to Darren Owen for being the camera man and as always Corey Donoghue for being my essential right hand man.

The full details of all that were promoted is already on our facebook page and there is also an excellent report by Liam Wandi the part time grappler. For those that got stripes keep up the good work and for those who didn't, your time is coming.......

Intelligent Combat

Tatami Fightwear photoshoot......Dean Lister...Mike Fowler...Pedro Bessa and more

Hey Guys,

On Tuesday 13th November, I spent the day at London Fight Factory (the home of my good friend Luiz Ribiero) for the photoshoot arranged by Tatami Fightwear.

It was a long day but really good fun. I had the chance to train with and learn from Dean Lister, Mike Fowler and Pedro Bessa.

Mike agreed to film a couple of techniques for the blog which will be posted in the new year.

I'll put up some pics soon :)

'Intelligent Combat'

Upcoming Events 2012/2013

Hey Guys!!

Lots of new dates added at various locations. Check out what suits you

'Intelligent Combat'

NEW CFS BJJ Clothing....

Hey Guys,

I'm really excited as I've been working behind the scenes with my fantastic sponsors TATAMI FIGHTWEAR and their sister company ARMOURTECH to design and produce some clothing for our group

We will shortly have the following:

Rashguards
T shirts and
Hoodies

Below is the mock up design for the rashguards - all early feed back is great!!
It will have both the CFS and new De La Riva logo on it too!

The hoodies will come in 2 colours. Black and Graphite. The quality is excellent featuring:

High density waffle lined hood


-Chunky drawcord
-Fully zipped front

-Front pocket

-Ipod pocket   it will have a smaller CFS logo on the front with a larger one on the back. The look of the hoodie can be found on the tatami website hoodie section  - the red monogram hoodie.   T shirts are still being designed.   I am told that everything will be available for the seminar/grading on Sunday 25th November with Prof David Jacobs. We will also have CFS patches available. If you don't have yours already...why not?!!       Price list   Rashguards  - £30.00 - same standard as current IBJJF Tatamifightwear rashguards.   Hoodies - £30.00   T-shirts - TBC   Patches - £15 - for set of 3 - 10cm/15cm/22cm - lapel, trouser and back         Orders   All previous merchandise has always sold out and I expect the same with the new stuff. It is  available on a first come first served basis. I have tried to cater for all sizes including the ladies but numbers in all sizes are limited because I am not running a store and even though our group is expanding I cannot afford to 'over' order.   I therefore advise you to come prepared on 25.11.12 as you may not get a second chance :)

Semi-Final Fight - ABSOLUTE DIVISION - European Championships 2009 - Brown Belt - Senior 2

Whilst I am in the rare mood of posting some of my fights, below is my semi final fight in the absolute division in 2009. I fought Ake Zaar of Hilti BJJ. He was a super heavyweight who had no opponents in his division and therefore decided to cause havoc in the open class which he did.

It was an interesting fight. I suspected he would pull guard and so adopted the appropriate strategy. I wasn't doing too badly almost passing his guard but he eventually got the mount ad choked me out with?........Wait for it.........his chest!!

His chest was so big and wide he flattened my nose until I could not breath and that was that. It was a good job I had already won my division  ;)

Enjoy!

My Fights from European No-gi championships 2012

Fight 1




Fight 2

CFS BJJ - October 2012 - Video techniques of the month - Pro Leo Specterow - 4th Degree Blackbelt - De La Riva Jiujitsu

Ok Guys,

As you know, I am extremely fortunate to have trained with some of the best martial artists in the world. For some reason, these humble people always seem happy to share their knowledge with me and those interested in what we do.

Here we have 2 videos from prof Leo Specterow from Brazil. He is such a nice guy. Very humble but extremely deadly. He is a professional bodyguard and security advisor to the stars as well as teaching the gentle art of Jiujitsu.

Tune in again next month when we will have some more from Master De La Riva himself :)

Enjoy!!





Video 2

London Open & European No-Gi Championships - 20/21st October 2012

Ok guys. Update for the weekend.

 The CFS BJJ team this weekend consisted of fighters from HQ. Steve Payne took Gold (no other fighters) in his division and bronze in the absolute after 2 fights. Hamza took Gold (no other fighters) in juvenile division. They both fought in the London open yesterday.

 Today Darren Owen took Silver in the blue master division. Fought bravely but got submitted via arm bar. Corey took Silver fighting in the final with a freshly damaged rib which was just too much to overcome. I took bronze winning my first fight and then losing my second fight to a good Brazilian. I tore my hamstring on Wednesday and so I was just grateful to be able to fight. We want to thank everyone for their support and best wishes as without you it would all be meaningless. Thanks again

CFS BJJ Bi Annual Grading - Sunday 25th November 2012

I am now very pleased to confirm that the date has now been fixed for aour next major meeting. This promises to be a big one for a number of reasons and I hope that you will all show your usual support in numbers.

Prof David just won the IBJJF Masters & Seniors Int'l championships in Brazil fot the second time, and as you all know he is a seasoned competitor, excellent  instructor and all round nice guy (except when he's fighting you :) )

He will be in a few days early and will be available for some private classes. Arrangements can be made through me. He will also be teaching a seminar on Saturday 24.11.12 at Mill Hill BJJ so in fact he will be at the same location 2 days in a row.

Please make sure you all have your patches and if you dont have any then see your branch coach/Instructor

Check out his final fight and his display of basic solid BJJ. Osss!

Recent Seminars etc - 22nd and 29th September 2012

On Saturday 22md September I travelled to CFS BJJ Manchester to catch up with the gang. I taught a split 3 hour seminar with the first half purely on MMA based striking and leg defences, and the second half concentrating on no gi guard passing.

As always it was a great pleasure but forgive me as I don't have any pics to post.

On Saturday 29th September I travelled to CFS BJJ Letchwork to coach the guys headed by Black Belt Andy Nugent. We covered guard passing strategies and techniques and also had some time for Q & As.

It was also good to see David Webb from TOKON Academy who joined us and is welcome any time.

Some of the guys were given stripes on their belt, and their full details are on our facebook page

Video Technique of the month - July 2012 - Mestre Ricardo De La Riva - Video 2

Hey Guys,

Here is the second video technique in the series. Here he shows how he deals with the opponent who avoids the first sweep :)



Intelligent combat

Video Technique of the month - June 2012 - Mestre Ricardo De La Riva

Hey Guys,

Here is the first video technique as promised. Thanks again to the Mestre for being so generous with his knowledge (I really didn't want him to show this stuff.....It's just too good :)  )

CFS BJJ - Bi-Annual Seminar/Grading - Sunday 10th June 2012

We had a good turnout today from our various academies, even though unfortunately there were some people who couldn't attend for various reasons.

Nevertheless, we had great fun with the positions being taught by Bruce lee, sorry I mean Prof Nick Brooks and myself.

Nick taught a couple of very nice sweeps from half-guard and I taught some attacks from the closed guard with the emphasis on how to set up and maintain the neck/collar control.

We then followed with a Q & A session, with questions being asked about countering the arm drag from the guard; attacks from the turtle position and attacks from side control.

We were all in high spirits following our recent competition successes:

Anna Mayne took GOLD in Purple lightweight and the absolute division at the British open a few weeks ago, and then mirrored the same results at the London open on 2nd June 2012. Oustanding!!

Other results from the London open included GOLD for Darren Owen, white belt masters and Richard Lee, Silver in the same division.
Michael Carroll took Bronze in his division in the purple belt as did Matt McGuire also in his purple belt division. Lewis Remney took Silver in his white belt division and last but not least, Purple Belt Carol Fan took GOLD in the Grapplers showdown under 60kg Division.

Great results all round and I am very proud of the group and all the instructors.

Promotions


There were some very well deserved promotions today as follows

Anna Mayne - BROWN BELT
Jay Cahill -      PURPLE BELT
Darren Owen  BLUE BELT

The following received stripes on their belts and they are now as follows:

Martyn Cahill - Brown 3 stripes
Matt McGuire - Blue 4 stripes
Lewis Remney  White 3 stripes
Matt Dennis -    White 2 stripes




                                                         The Crew

                          Black Belts - David Onuma, Andy Nugent & Nick Brooks

                                                                Jay Cahill

                                                        Anna Mayne

                                                        Darren Owen

                                              Liam Wandi - The Part Time Grappler

                                                       Gary Baker

                                                 The Chosen Ones :)

                                        The Crew again.........and Bruce :)

See you on the mats.


'Intelligent Combat'