CFS - Empty Hands - Basic striking/padwork series - Curriculum - 2011 for Instructors & Students

Ok Guys, further to requests from some of you, I have put on video the current basic striking series I am using for all levels. It is essential that all students and instructors familiarise themselves with this material.

The series is centred around five pasic punches and is really useful for the pad holder as well as the striker. In my view, in order to gain a better understanding of striking you really ought to be able to pad hold in as many different ways as possible.
The videos are self explanatory but the five punches are as follows (using the numbering system)

1.Jab
2.Cross
3.Lead hook
4.Lead uppercut to head
5.Rear uppercut to head

I also want to thank Glen Akwei for his help. Glen is one of only 2 coaches on the CFS MMA program, and has extensive experience in the art of Muay Thai having trained in Thailand many times as well as in Holland. He has competed in Muay Thai as well as amateur MMA. He is a former student of Guro Bob Breen and Winston Fraser and has been training with me for many years now. He currently teaches the Muay Thai classes at Mill Hill CCA academy and assists me in the MMA classes.





Video 2



Video 3



Video 4



Video 5



Enjoy and feel free to let me know how you get on with it

OCTOBER - Video techniques of the month & BONUS interview with Master Julio Cesar Pereira - Head of GF Team - 6th Degree Black Belt

On Tuesday 4th October, thanks to the kind assistance of Daniel Pintado, I had the opportunity to train with, learn from and interview another BJJ Legend. This time it was none other than Master Julis Cesar Pereira, 6th Degree Black Belt and head of the GF Team Brazil.

I was introduced to him in Nottingham at the recent ADCC without knowing too much about him prior to that. I was particularly keen to train with him but not so much because he was the teacher of Rodolfo Vieira but because he was the teacher of Huanderson Pavao. Pavao as he is commonly referred to used to reside in the UK and taught out of the London Fight Factory. He was a master technician with and without the gi coupled with awesome strength and a big heart. I trained with him privately every week for about 9 months prior to his return to Brazil. I owe him alot.

Anyway as you can imagine, I was particularly keen to see the source of Pavao's teaching and I was not disappointed. In our session we concentrated on passing the guard followed by sparring. He then kindly answered some questions about himself and put some techniques on video to share with you guys.

Rather than present the information in a question and answer type format, let me tell you what I learned about this very humble man with World class BJJ.

Julio Cesar Pereira was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 22nd December 1964. He commenced his training in BJJ under Prof Monir Salomao in 1974 and it was he who gave him his Black Belt some 25 years ago. He was awarded his 6th Degree by the federation in 2005 and gained his Black Belt in Judo in 2001.

He describes his specialities in BJJ as takedowns and passing the guard. He knows one or two things about leglocks too!

He has an enviable competition background, and in his own words 'I love to compete'. He won the Rio state championship 21 times, the first coming in 1974. He won the Masters and Seniors World Championships in both 2005 & 2006. He told me that his greatest competition success came in The American Cup in 1996 when he contested the final with a student of Rickson Gracie. There was literally no support for him but he managed to take home the Gold. He also had 3 memorable fights with Royler Gracie, losing the first 2 by submission and the last on points.

Having just come from ADCC, I asked him his views on how much time a BJJ player should train without the gi. He told me that normally he spends the majority of the time in the gi, but obviously depending on the competition , then the training would be adjusted.

I asked him if he trained Rodolfo any differently to any of his other students. He explained that where he is from, whilst the passion for BJJ is high, the standard of living is not the same. As a result most players would begin their training after a full day of work, rather than having the luxury of training 3 times a day. He told me that Rodolfo was the first person in the GF Team to completely dedicate himself to BJJ after he completed his studies. He had many other famous students but they all had to work and could not fully commit themselves to BJJ alone.

As a result of Rodolfo's success, he now has many students who want to dedicate themselves in the same way.

I was happy to learn that Mestre Pereira is a long time friend of Mestre Ricardo De La Riva. He told me that even though he was awarded his Black Belt one year before DLR, DLR is like an idol for him and a personal friend. They trained together for many years and DLR was the first person form Zona Sul (South Zone) to open up his academy doors to teach all manner of people whether affluent or not.

This was the Mestre's first trip to Europe and was happy that through his love of BJJ he had been able to travel to Spain, france, Switzerland, Germany and of course the UK. He stated that he had met a lot of new people and friends old and new.

The GF Team currently has one official affiliate in the UK, Gabriel Rainho who is both a BJJ & Judo Black belt. You can contact him at gabrielrainho@yahoo.com.br. He is based in London.

Video Techniques

Video 1 - Escaping the De La Riva Guard

Video 2 - Passing the half guard

Video 3 - Guard passing in action

I want to thank Mestre Julio for his time and teachings and it was such an honour to spend time with such a down to earth man without the politics that rears its ugly head in BJJ.

Enjoy

Technique of the month - April 2011 - Mestre Ricardo De La Riva - The first of a series.

The Art of BJJ - Marcelo Garcia and Ryan Hall Grappling

My skills are every good as these two guys and I move exactly as the do until.............................I wake up :)


Enjoy

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

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"

My Teacher - Guro Dan Inosanto - October 2010

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

One Year Anniversary - Mill Hill BJJ - 12.9.10

It was an honour and pleasure to attend the one year anniversary of Mill Hill BJJ on Sunday 12th September. The plan was for Roger Gracie to attend in order to teach a few techniques and officiate the grading that was also due to take place. It was more or less standing room only with what looked like 50 plus people in attendance to show their support.

There was the full range of belts in attendance with all from Black to White. Unfortunately, Roger was unable to attend so the guys had to make do with being taught by Nick Brooks and myself, with young Dan Strauss taking care of the warm up


(see vid below for numbers/warm up)

Nick (despite recovering from recent knee surgery!!) kicked things off by teaching a series of techniques fresh from his recent training with Master De La Riva.

He taught a variation of the lapel/posture break and arm wrap when the person is in your guard leading to a very slick back take and then an even slicker armbar if they manage to avoid the back take. It was niiiiicccce!

.....the set up....

....the armbar

I taught some of the principles and concepts from the half guard position both top and bottom. Rather than concentrating on loads of techniques, I wanted to emphasize the need to understand what each hand and your legs are supposed to be doing from the top and bottom position. I then taught the way that I attack the Kimura from half guard which seems to have a high percentage success rate for me

After this began the formalities of the grading:

Andrew Marshall - Blue Belt

Steve Carr - Purple Belt

Steve Griffiths - Purple Belt

Rob Connor - Brown Belt

There was also a number of stripes given out to various people from white to Purple Belt. Parabens to them all!!

We then had some great rolling followed by the long awaited sushi trip in Edgware where some people ate like there was no tomorrow!!! Hehehe!

A great day

UFC Fighters watch out - Star in the making

BJJ Drilling - 26.7.10

The first drill is one I use when I have managed to pass the guard but my opponent is shrimping away and pushing on my head. I react by posting off my head which is on the floor and hopping over to the other side. This can be done continuously for a minute or so or simply by the numbers

The second drill is practicing 'floating' from side to side keeping knee contact. I normally do this on a grappling dummy or heavy bag on the floor. The idea is to be able to react to the movement underneath and then adjust. This can then lead to submission openings etc without losing the control

Intelligent combat

BJJ in Bournmouth - 24.7.10

A great session with the group down there which is getting bigger, better and stronger. A great all round gym headed by Gary Baker and well on the way to becoming affiliated to CFS BJJ.

We covered the complete beginners standup program together with maintaining side control.

There was the mandatory rolling for 45 mins or so at the end and the standard was good and improving. Thanks to Corey for his help

CFS Training - July 2010

A couple of vids showing some of the empty hands and weaponry training - Good Work!

MMA Training - Mill Hill CCA - 29.6.10

Good training session - Worked on some clinch work and striking from the clinch. Also trained some ground work with one person only allowed tot try to submit from guard whilst his opponent could only strike to the body.

Enjoy the vids

Training With Leo Vieira - 5th and 6th June 2010

I went to the seminar taught by Leo Vieira on Saturday 5th June 2010 at the Combat Sports academy, Rochester, Kent.

He taught half the seminar with the gi and the other half without. He demonstrated why he was rated by Graciemag as one of the top 3 grapplers in the world with his fantastic understanding of BJJ coupled with his world class ability to convey the skill to mere mortals like me!!

The seminar was well attended - 6 Black Belts including yours truly with only one being non-Brazilian, also yours truly hehehehehe!!

We had a private session the next day but i'm keeping that to myself ;)

MMA Training - Mill Hill CCA - 2.5.10

In this video the guys are training some of the top control drills with a heavy bag on the floor. I learnt these from Erik Paulson and are an essential part of my grappling and MMA game.

BJJ Techniques of the month - April Madness

Hey guys

Seasons greetings to you all. Unfortunately, I was not able to put up BJJ techniques in February or March, so I am kicking off April with a host of techniques to make up for it. I don't think you will be disappointed. Performing some techniques and helping me with mine is Alliance BJJ Representative Miad Najafi, who is a very well respected Brown Belt (From Ricardo Vieira), living and teaching in Brighton. He recently returned from Atlanta where he trained with the Alliance team and in particular Cobrinha. He is a versatile martial artist with a background in JKD & Kali (Black belt), trained in wrestling, a former amateur boxer and versed in MMA. His website can be accessed via the links section on this blog.

In this series we cover attacks from the back, sweeps from half guard and some techniques from spider guard. Please enjoy and as always feel free to comment

Attack from the back - the detail is what is all important

The same technique shown again one more time

A nice sweep from half guard shown here

A similar sweep from half guard in response to the legs being crushed prior to an attempted guard pass

Here Miad demonstrates an Omoplatta attack from spider guard

Here i demonstrate another way to attack the omoplatta from the spider guard followed by a way to take the back from the same guard

Corey Donoghue - British BJJ Open Champion 2010 - Blue Belt - Masters/seniors - Middleweight

Congratulations to Corey Donoghue - The new British BJJ Open Champion 2010.

Corey did himself, his team and I proud at the tournament on Sunday 28th March 2010.

He fought in a division of 19 fighters where the standard was high. He had 5 fights dominating everyone and never lost a SINGLE POINT or ADVANTAGE.

He swept four out of his 5 opponents and racked up over a total 45 points, beating one opponent 19-0. What is equally as impressive is the fact that he seriously injured his knee and ankle in the second fight and the medics told him not to fight any more.....but they didn't know Corey very well as he had 3 further fights. He wanted to fight the Absolute division too, but as his coach I had to think of his safety and called it a day.

As a team we thank all our friends and supporters who are always there for us :)

CFS Sensitivity Training - 19.3.10

In this video, Corey and Jesus are training sensitivity material for speed and co-ordination. They did it very well plus had a lot of fun so I thought I would share. Enjoy ;)

Roger Barnes Memorial FMA Seminar - 14.3.10

Hi Guys.

On Sunday 14th March, in Honour of Guro Roger Barnes, as FMA seminar was held at the Bob Breen Academy to mark the first year of his passing. It was taught by Master Instructor Guro Bob Breen, Grandmaster John Harvey of Rapid Arnis and myself. There was a good turnout with close to 35 people and all the proceeds went to the Barnes family who also attended.

In the first video clip below, Guro Bob and I play whilst I attack and he defends.

In this second video, Guro has his revenge as we switch roles:)

Here Guro teaches some 'third hand' principles with the stick