Sunday 28 December 2008

Notes from a foreign country..........





Just thought I'd share a few posts with you about my trip to Amman, where I was invited out by Zaid Mirza (more about him later) to report on the Capital Challenge International BJJ event and to compete in the purple belt division (the less said about that the better lol).

This event aimed to be the biggest and best BJJ event hosted to date and had the highest paying purses ever, which reflected in the black belt brackets boasting such names as Cobrinha, Sergio Moraes, Braulio Estima, Leo Leite, Kyra Gracie, Lagarto, Gabriel Vella, Fabricio Werdum, Cleber Lopes, Tiago Alves, Adriano Silva and dozens of other black belts and brown belts.

The competition covered all coloured belts from white belt upward and prize money was divided in the following way ($ pay outs for 1st and 2nd place only in all brackets apart from brown/black belt bracket)

White belt - 1st place $800 2nd place $400
Blue belt - 1st place $1200 2nd place $600
Purple belt- 1st place $2000 2nd place $1000
Brown/black- 1st place $10000 2nd place $6000 3rd place $3000

Open weight - $10000

Female open weight white to purple 1st place $1000 2nd place $500

Female open weight brown/black $4000 2nd place $1000


With payouts this generous, competition was fierce and no easy matches for any fighter in any belt division lay ahead.

SENI UK organisers please note the payouts in this event and start saving up, time to treat the UK fighters in the same vein!!!

Over 15 countries attended the event from all over the world, including a strong Middle East contingent from Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Palestine and a mighty UK presence of the one and only Fighting Photographer, always at the ready with a camera in one hand and a gi in the other. I was to be fighting in the purple belt -88K division and was looking forward to international competition and was very excited to be involved in such a large scale jiu jitsu event.

The trip out to Jordan was, in typical style, a manic affair from the start; I'd been in touch with Zaid and knew I'd be coming to the event and after work on Monday 15th I came home to find an email from him with my flight details - Tuesday 16th at 1130H!!!

There then followed a flurry of phone calls to students letting them know what was happening and one to my boss letting him know I was off in the morning and then a grovelling call to a friend to get him to take me to the airport in the morning. Once the dust had settled, it was a quick case of packing a bag for the week ahead and for once I hadn't forgotten anything and jumped aboard the first plane to Istanbul for a five hour wait for my connecting flight which took me to Queen Alia Airport in Jordan, where I was welcomed effusively from all the taxi drivers, eager for me to spend my Jordanian Dinars with them. After much kissing of cheeks and hugs and wide friendly smiles off half a dozen taxi drivers, I got into a taxi unscathed and headed to the Grand Hyatt Amman, which was to be my oasis in the desert country of Jordan for the next seven days.................

Blog link


Had the pleasure of meeting Team Yamasaki purple belt, Yasmin Sewgobind at the CCI event in Jordan; my Scandinavian friend Pilo Stylin is also a team member so we had a few things in common to chat about and she also has linked me in her Blog, so to return the favour here is Yasmin's Blog, with some great posts about her time at the event and some wicked sight seeing photos!!

http://yastahira.punt.nl/

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Capital Challenge International, Amman, Jordan Dec 19-20th 2008





Back from a wicked week in Amman, thanks to the very generous hospitality from Zaid Mirza and the BJJ Federation of Jordan - new friends have been made from Jordan, UAE, Bahrain and many other BJJ mad countries in the Middle East! Got plenty photos and will be posting up a few articles all about my experiences from the Middle East.

Enjoy the pix - a group picci post training, Zaid Mirza and Carlos Santos, Tiago Alves and Adriano Silva and Alexandre Esteves with my good self!

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Happy Birthday Pricey!!

All the very best to our hot tub host with the most, 'Big' Gaz Price!

The party starts early at Gaz's house in his newly installed wet room, with piped music, before hitting the town's Rainbow bars and dancing until the early hours, decked in the best Lycra rash guards the Pink Pound can buy!

Anyone in need of a lift can speak to Terry, who'll be over in a jiffy on his new motorbike, plenty room on the back!

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Bonfire night session with Chris Haueter!




Had the privilige of hosting a gi session with Combat Base main man Chris Haueter this evening! I first met Chris in LA way back in 1999 and he took good care of my good self and fellow Brit Scott Goddard who is now a black belt! Chris is in the UK on a whistle stop tour of the CB academies and is staying with Darren and Helen Currie!

Another quality session, complete with the infamous 'Smash the Junk' guard pass!

Chris Haueter @ Caged Steel!!





An awesome session with Chris at Caged Steel Tues 4th November, well attended and the guys were given a masterclass in no gi jiu jitsu; starting from standing, takedowns were covered and moved to the ground with some new open guard material, combining the 'Russian' grip that led into sweeps and submissions galore!

Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did!!

Monday 27 October 2008

More pix from Interclub!





Thanks to Ben again!

Pix from Interclub October 12th





All pix by Ben Mallowes!

Chris Haueter seminar 5th November!


Machado black belt and one twelfth of the infamous 'Dirty Dozen', Chris Haueter will be making an appearance at CB Bolton on Weds 5th November :D

Time 730pm - 10/1030pm

Cost - £25 pp

Address: MORRISONS BLACK BELT SCHOOL ACADEMY
UNIT G3 FALCON MILL HANDEL ST
HALLIWELL
BOLTON
BL1 8BL


Further details from thefightingphotographer@hotmail.co.uk

Sunday 12 October 2008

New belts at CB Bolton today!



After a jiu jitsu filled day over at Caged Steel, James Canavan and Leroy Holcroft were duly awarded their blue belts from Helen Currie

Anyone in the know will be aware of the high standards that Helen possesses and that she does not give the belts out unless they are well deserved and pass all the criteria and tick all the boxes in the same vein as the Carlson Gracie guys in London, so big congrats to you both from myself and all the students at CB Bolton, who have been instrumental in the progression of James and Leroy, they couldn't have done it without a team effort!

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Rob Lawlor @ Caged Steel last night!


Taking over from Darren's regular class, Rob Lawlor jumped in and delivered a cracking little session on the knee ride position.

Some nice drills, movement drills, escapes and submissions were covered, me and my students all enjoyed the class and look forward to next month!

Thursday 2 October 2008

CB Bolton - new home!

A small clip of the new home for Combat Base Bolton!

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Birthday session at Caged Steel






Had a most enjoyable night last night over in Dewsbury, taking my regular BJJ class which also happened to fall on my birthday; after being terrorised by the girls and almost choking to death on silly string, after class a nice large creamy birthday cake was lit and wolfed down by all the studends, leaving half a cake for the juniors at class tonight in Bolton.

Many thanks to all who attended last night and for the cards and cake, look forward to my card off Dave as well tonight!!

Thursday 18 September 2008

Chris Haueter on the mats!!

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=amJUMIhbsLo&eurl=http://www.combatsport.co.uk/News.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKr6X6SjEHU&eurl=http://www.combatsport.co.uk/News.html

More pix from UMA/FILA comp!



Tuesday 16 September 2008

Happy Birthday James Canavan!!


All the very best to one of our more facially challenged members, James 'Legs' Canavan, from both myself (the handsome one) and the rest of the guys and gals at the club (not so handsome), have a great day mate!

Jim is the guy on the left of the picture.

Monday 15 September 2008

UMA matches on You Tube!!

One from each team member!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4-3arTSd08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MKhwzNydTA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEO3INGhXY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J38QW1Yh6E

UMA/FILA event yesterday!!








Had a very good day out in Derby supporting Jim and Ebe on a unique day for grappling events, running two events side by side. It was a great chance to see top level grapplers going head to head and seeing what it takes to reach the next level and for the elite grapplers and coaches a chance to send their juniors into battle on the UMA mats and see the standard at this event.

Overall, received lost of positive feedback from coaches and competitors and was made extremely proud of my students Leroy, Gaz and Jim who all medalled on the day and displayed excellent sportsmanship and some polished grappling skills - well done lads!!

Big shout to Ben 'I'll eat all the biscuits and toffees on the judges desks' Ogunby for taking us down and helping out on the day and getting himself back in time for his tea!!

Saturday 16 August 2008

BJJ seminar!


Had the pleasure of taking a 3hr class down in sunny Stoke Upon Trent on behalf of the UMA today; good set of students, one group travelling as far as West Wales, so big shout to Dean Hancox and crew!

More seminars in the piple line, the next one being a 4 hour class, combining 2 hours of Judo with 2 hours of BJJ, more details to follow!

Few more pix to follow, mainly of myself getting a good hiding off a junior student!

Thursday 14 August 2008

Triangle clinic - a few pix





Another quality session from Darren and Helen Currie, looking forward to part 2 next month!