Combat Base Archives

Just like walking down memory lane, I enter the night club for the interclub and basically there were mats put down on the dancefloor, the fencing around the dancefloor had mats leant against them and it was cold.

This is how most of us 'old skool' guys started out, before purpose built gyms and wall to wall matting, we would train anywhere, sometimes without mats just on a piece of old carpet. The first interclub MMA matches we did was exactly the same, some mats, some space and some eager participants. Absolutely perfect.

In fact the interclub organiser, Spenna, fought his first MMA match in one of our interclubs that were exactly the same as this and he went on to fight pro in some of the country's biggest shows and competed internationally so if this interclub could springboard someone to that sort of level, that would be awesome.

Also reverting back to the no judges' decision rule that we used to use, either win by sub or stoppage, lose by same or draw, that's it. No points, no decisions, simple.

I had thought over this long and hard when we were doing regular interclubs that if a guy completely dominates another guy but ends in a draw, is it really fair? I came to the conclusion that it was, if you can't finish the guy then it means he has some defence and desereves some credit.

Anyway I'm rambling now so back to the interclub. A great turn out from the Fulinkazan clubs and invited friends kept the action going, no lulls just one great match after another. Mainly aimed at giving guys some competition experience so what they lacked in experience they made up for in enthusiasm, every guy giving 100% on the day.

From Combat Base we had Tom Keough making his amateur MMA debut who thoroughly impressed me all round, he dominated both opponents with some crisp striking, good takedowns and some dominating groundwork. Right at the end of the 1st fight he faked a leg kick and executed a superman punch that echoed round the club, something he had only learned 30 minutes earlier!!

Nige Tunningley was in the heavyweight grappling division and, though not small himself, faced some big guys. Against both opponents Nige showed some good standing wrestling getting good takedowns to go to ground where again he imposed his game. Managing to pass guard and having submission attempts both matches ended in draws after full time.

Final Combat Base guy was Paul Lawrence who is brand new to us but very game and wanted to try competition straightaway. He was doing some good work, got the takedown, escaped a tight looking guillotine and passed guard to side control. A scramble ensued and Paul showed his back to his opponent who didn't need a 2nd opportunity jumping on Paul working for the RNC eventually getting the tap.

After all the matches were done, trophies for sub of the day and fighter of the day were given out then ALL the competitors received a medal, whilst this has been criticised before by various people I think it is an excellent gesture to the guys that gave up so much time to train, put themselves in a stressful position having to fight someone they didn't know and whether it is a cliche or not, I firmly believe that everyone who competes is a winner regardless of the result.

As I finish off so many interviews and reports etc with the same thing I hope people now recognise how important it is to be the 'man in the arena'. Everyone wants to win, sometimes you do but sometimes you don't but the main thing is that you try.

Continues his win streak with a 1st round RNC submission victory over seasoned veteran Sami Berik.

Been a great year for Danny showing how well rounded he is, won advanced division at Ground Control, recently won a boxing tournament and remains undefeated in MMA.

Total Combat 32, Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton Le Spring

Saturday 21st saw the semi-pro debut of Jonny Smith and the return to Total Combat of Pete Hill since he could not fight in the final of the Total Combat British Lightweight Pro MMA £1000 tournament due to a broken hand suffered against Ingolf Nielsen earlier in the year.

First of the two in action was Jonny Smith who was matched against Craig Foster from Sherburn MMA and what a match it turned out to be. First round Jonny had success with his wrestling, getting an awesome suplex and groundwork although at times being overwhelmed by the strength of Craig was forced to play guard. Jonny has a dangerous guard and threatened with arm bars, tried to set up the triangle and almost locked in an inverted triangle. Craig defended well and landed some good strikes of his own. My opinion was round one to Jonny.

Round 2 started with some strikes being thrown, Craig getting the better of the exchanges but Jonny still moving forward. Craig was starting to get the upper hand as Jonny was struggling with the strength difference which eventually wore him down. Craig finished strong, in my opinion, taking round 2.

In my mind we were gearing up for round 3 or looking at a draw yet the decision was given to Craig which in my opinion was a little harsh but it was a great fight with both guys putting in a great performance and both should be very proud of that.

That just left Pete up against Anth Grecian for the Total Combat British Lightweight Pro MMA title that Anth currently holds. Pete has put in a lot of time training with Wayne Murrie and the guys at Manvers Fight Factory for this fight so felt very confident.

Both guys came out and met in the middle of the cage where an exchange of punches saw Pete clinch and push Anth up against the fence. Pete immediately started working for the takedown while Anth tried to keep standing and started to get to guillotine position. Inevitably Pete got the takedown and ended in Anth's guard. Anth being very comfortable off his back started to turn his hips to attack with the arm bar, Pete defended it well and looked as though Anth was going back to guard then re-applied the arm bar getting the submission.

Another good event from the Total Combat crew, I'm sure that Jonny and Pete will learn from these matches and come back even better.

Huge congrats to my coach Chris Haueter who took first place in the Black Belt Senior 2 Lightweight division adding the no gi gold to the Pan Ams gold he got earlier this year.

Congrats to Michio Grubbs on receiving his black belt, a quality guy, very tough. Helen trained with him on our last visit and had nothing but praise for him.

Michio is the instructor at Team Magnitude out in San Diego so if you are ever out that way, you must check him out.

Our friends at True Spirit MMA organised part 2 of their newly founded no gi grappling competitions on 8th November, held again in Leeds which means no ridiculous amount of travel and getting home at a reasonable hour.

Combat Base UK had a good turnout with the North East lads coming down, the Stockport guys coming over as well as The Asylum guys too, was great to see everyone together. There were too many guys to mention everyone individually but props to Rob for the advanced -68kg gold again, Jack taking silver in the juniors +45kg and Max going through 5 matches to take novice -73kg silver.

We ahd some great performances and everyone should be proud of themselves regardless of the results on that day, whenever people start to get disappointed about losing I direct them to the Man In The Arena speech that is on the home page, that really says it all.

There are still a few glitches to iron out but this has the potential to be a good competition. Organising a tournament is a thankless task and if you have never done it probably don't realise how much goes into it. If the competitors. coaches and spectators support it in the correct way this tourney will get better and better.

New Purple Belt @ Factory BJJ

Huge congrats to James Nardone, pictured below with coaches Adam and Doug, who was just promoted to purple belt by Helen. James has been on a tear this year winning Ground Control no gi, winning Caged Steel semi-pro MMA tourney with 4 submission wins in his first ever MMA matches then taking gold in the Scandinavian Open this weekend with 3 straight submission victories.

James is such a cool guy, excellent competitor yet very humble and an asset to the Combat Base family.

Ground Control 6.0 - Danny Mitchell Wins u80kg Advanced Final

Congrats to James Nardone from Factory BJJ who took the gold at the Scandinavian Open winning all his matches by submission and to Carl Fisher who took bronze in the absolute.

Wellington "Megaton" Dias is an official black belt representative of the Royler Gracie Jiu-JitsuAssociation. Wellington originally trained under Rogerio Camoes and later at the legendary Gracie Humaitá jiu-jitsu school in Rio de Janeiro.

Wellignton Dias is nick named "Megaton" because of his Judo training and propensity to launch his competitors into the stratosphere like the blast of a nuclear bomb.

He received his black belt at the age of 18. Wellington is now a fourth degree black belt under Royler Gracie,
7x Pan Am medalist
7x European medalist
4x Worlds medalist
4x US National medalist
2x Rickson Gracie International Championship medalist
Rio De Janeiro/BR State Champion
Abu Dhabi veteran among other accomplishments

Your chance to train with one of the best, he's only in the UK for 2 days flying in specifically to do these seminars.

Massive thanks to Adam Adshead and the Factory guys for hosting this, I can't wait.

Huge congrats to Chris McIntyre from Combat Base NE who won gold in blue belt u88kg at the Glasgow Open.

ADCC Barcelona

ADCC this weekend and probably the most stacked tourney so far, only really Roger Gracie missing from the world's best.

Follow the link & make your picks, see if you agree.

Men’s -67.9 kg Having to make 2 choices as I just can’t split Cobrinha and Mendes
Men’s -76.9kg Marcelo
Men’s -87.9kg Braulio
Men’s -98.9kg Xande
Men’s +99kg 'Cyborg'
Men's absolute tbc

Superfight - Drysdale

Women’s -60kg Megumi Fuji
Women’s +60kg Penny Thomas
Women's absolute Lana Stefanac

Mainly obvious choices but a couple of outsiders.

Going to be an awesome tournament.

Check out the fighters on the web site, some great coverage of them on there.

Congrats to 4 very well deserved new belts at our gym.

Ian “Mongoose” Jones promoted to purple belt

Posted on YouTube for my friend Leo, check out a review of the guard passing from trapped hook that we have worked to death recently.

Building on the success of the previous MMA tourney, Caged Steel once again provided an excellent day of MMA competition but this time moved away from the no head shots amateur rules that was the format last time to a more realistic headshots standing set of rules.

One of our guys from Factory BJJ, James Nardone, decided to jump in and give it try despite not really training in MMA.

Fight 1 saw James work a perfect grappler v striker strategy, closing the distance, clinch, takedown, control, arm bar 1-0

Fight 2 was pretty much a carbon copy of the first but this time seeing the opportunity to take the back, James spun around, locked in the figure 4 body lock and getting the RNC 2-0

The semi final started with James's opponent shooting in to take James down so James was content to play his dangerous guard game. Once he had navigated his way off the cage he was able to set up a triangle then applied the arm bar from it too just to make sure. 3-0

The final was going to be the real test though, James was to face a fighter from Manvers Fight Factory who we knew would be tough, in shape and have a good stand up game thanks to Wayne Murrie, Ian Jones and the rest of the guys there. This turned out to be the case as James had to take some hard shots, one opening a nice cut over his eye, before the fight went to ground. From there James came into his own working his guard game again and pulling off a nice arm bar submission to end the match.

In conclusion, in his 1st MMA tourney he went 4-0 to win the -77kg title, won all 4 matches by submission and won all 4 matches in the 1st round. I guess that's not too bad.

Well done to James and all the guys at Factory, every win is always a team effort.

In place of the newsletter that Adam says was soooooo 2006 he has set up a Twitter account to get the news out to everyone whilst it is still current.

Its been a couple of years since my good lady and I trained in the USA what with one thing and another so to say we were excited about going to train at Chris Haueter's new school in San Pedro was an understatement. Especially for the open mat which has loads of people turn up to train.

Friday morning was no exception, over 20 guys mainly black belts, browns and purples turn up at 10:00am for the open mat. Yes, 10:00 on a Friday morning attracts over 20 quality guys. I have seen less than that at seminars, doesn't anyone have to work!!

Knowing it was going to be a tough session we had to be in shape so took some time to go to Venice "Muscle" Beach to get in some good training. Seeing a HUGE ripped guy that couldn't lift any of the big weights deterred me from the weights area and onto the gymnastics section instead. I was never that good at chemistry anyway.

Now we were pumped it was time for the open mat. It was already over 90 degrees F by 10:00am which is pleasant to sit in but horrendous to train in especially for Helen being a Scot, a few generations ago they were running around barefoot in the Highlands.

I had tried to warn her of the oppressive heat after my trip to Johannesburg when they opened the gym windows and it actually got warmer, at least San Pedro is a little, and I mean little, bit cooler than Jozi.

The level of the guys there was awesome, yet everyone still had time for everyone else, a true laboratory for learning, everyone bringing something different to the table. Guess I'm just not used to training with a room full of black and brown belts.

Helen was especially impressed that all the people there actually rolled with her instead of trying to overpower and outstrength her just to tap out a black belt, that they understood the concept of TRAINING. What victory is there in a 200lb guy outstrengthing a 110lb woman just to get a submission? Or just ragging something on for the same reason. If you can't do something against someone your own size, don't do it. She doesn't always get that luxury over here.

So 2 1/2 hours and 3 litres of water later, the session ended, we managed to exchange details with new friends who are hoping to make a visit to the UK as well as catching up with old ones. Had not seen Chance Wanlass since 1999 when he visited the UK as a purple belt but he informed me that California tradition dictates that Haueter should buy me a steak as he had just given me my new belt. I decide to find the nearest eating establishment to see if this tradition is true, it's not :0(

Refuelled and rehydrated we jump into the Combat Base-mobile and head out to Redondo Beach again, the scene of some ridiculous cardio training, for some body boarding and general down time. Never was a beautiful place more brutal, Haueter says he does the cardio training for all his tournaments right here, it's amazing what you can do with a slope, a bunch of steps and a lot of sand.

Goes without saying that we had an awesome time training with everyone and can't wait to get back.

“Grapplemania-uk 1 was a fantastic success. There was a large turnout with alot of talented contestants. Grapplemania-uk 2 will be an improved version of the first tournament, we will take into account all your suggestions. There will be more prizes and an absolute division at end of the other divisions”

Advanced -68kg
Finalists - Jonny Smith (Combat Base)
Finalists - Rob Lawlor (Combat Base)

Novice -80kg
1st Andrew Lanes (Combat Base)
2nd Thomas Keough (Combat Base)

Mark Richards was unlucky to meet an excellent competitor in the first round and lost, keeping up his excellent record of meeting quality competitors in all the tournaments he has done, facing Rob Broughton in his first tourney and Andy Farrell in his second :0)

Nathan Quinn posted a 1-1, with a kimura submission in the first round but then losing to eventual winner in his 2nd round match.

Ian 'Mongoose' Jones representing Fight Factory won the Advanced -80kg divisionusing his patented guillotine.

Congratulations to all who took part.

You have to check out the new website, have a good read and take the test. There is some really great stuff on there; game development, game planning, training mentality. So much good stuff, it's a must read.

Our friends at True Spirit MMA are organising a no gi grappling competition on 26th July, be a great opportunity to have a strong team showing, see poster in gym for more details.

Several of the Factory BJJ guys recently toured the USA and participated in the BJJ World Championships. Check it out.

Following the session and then subjecting him to competitive matches Helen promoted James Hoy to blue belt.

We were over in Stockport again at the new Factory BJJ headquarters for a competition strategy workshop prior to a number of them going out to the Mundials in a couple of weeks. It can really be an advantage to your game if you have a strategy that is going to help you get the match to the mat with you in a favourable position but I believe it to be a much overlooked aspect of competition jiu jitsu.

Working through grips, set ups, offence and defence, the time flew by and what should have been 2 hours became 3 so we concluded by having full competitive matches to help simulate tournament conditions as far as reasonably practicable, all of which I believe helps the competitive athletes. It seems so much harder when you under these conditions even in your own gym.

Then came my favourite part of any session I've done at the Factory - free lunch!!

Pete Hill was competing in the 4 man tournament to crown the Total Combat British Lightweight Pro MMA Champion, which also carries £1000 prize money.

Drawn in his first match against Ingolf Nielsen from Gracie Barra Newcastle, a really nice guy from a well respected team, Ingolf has some solid kickboxing credentials having won nationally and internationally.

The first round was a real battle with Pete demonstrating some good wrestling, takedowns and submission defence whilst Ingolf worked a dangerous looking guard, both guys seemed to be comfortable in this role.

Between rounds Pete's corner were telling him to pass guard, not to be content with throwing shots from there and really apply some pressure.

This turned out to be sound advice as soon as round 2 started, both guys traded a few shots then Pete got the takedown, this time he passed to full mount and was able to unleash his ground and pound. To his credit Ingolf traded punches from under mount but Pete eventually got the upper hand and the referee stopped the contest putting Pete through to the final and a shot at £1000 and a title.

But it wasn't to be. The same broken hand that he suffered in the Ryan Scope fight when he successfully defended his Total Combat Lightweight Semi Pro British Champion title at the last Total Combat saw Pete having to withdraw from the tourney and was rightly gutted about it.

Local fighter Anth Grecian was awarded the title and the £1000 after beating Arron Barrow in the other semi-final but Pete has the first shot at the title should his hand be healed for the next show.

Congrats to Danny 'Aranha' Mitchell, new Ultimate Force Pro MMA European Welterweight Champion following his awesome 2 minute submission of veteran Lee Doski by inverted heel hook following a leg lock trade off. After the fight he got on the mic to address the point that most people thought he was over-matched and hope that he changed a few minds, which I'm sure he did.

Congrats to Mark Richards, 'Joe' Rogan Tonks and Karl MacLean on being promoted to blue belt by Helen this week, great achievement.

The Champions show held it's 5th show, this time using the cage for the first time. After the success of the first 4 shows the authorities granted the use of the cage this time and changed the whole look of the fights immediately as a lot more clinching and using the environment was noticeable.

First one of our guys up was Jonny Smith coming off an impressive win by RNC last time. This time we had worked on a game plan that would allow him to play a little more stand up as he had been training for semi-pro but was unable to find a suitable opponent. His opponent Tien Huen from True Spirit in Leeds has a Thai background so we figured he would be a good test.

The fight went exactly to plan as both guys traded a few shots then went to clinch, Jonny got the best of the knees trade off in clinch then took the fight to the ground. He mounted his opponent immediately and looked to control Tien's arms which he managed to do before taking a sweet arm bar for the first round victory. A very impressive performance.

Next up was Andy Lanes, a relative newcomer to MMA having only trained his grappling properly for 12 months, so we knew that this would be a tough fight against Kamran Akrim also from True Spirit MMA Club as he has much more experience but Andy is a game guy that will fight anyone.

The first round started with both guys trading punches and kicks pretty evenly then Andy Lanes got the takedown and landed in Kamran's guard. Andy unleashed a barrge of punches and slams from within the guard but Kamran was really calm and did what he needed to do to stay in the game. Andy started to work to break the guard, got the single arm control that we had been working but both guys were too sweaty so couldn't get the leverage that he needed so went back to punching the body and kneeing the butt.

At this stage Andy made a little mistake and for a second broke his posture and Kamran attacked immediately taking full advantage, he manipulated the position until he fully had Andy's back and sunk the choke. Good fight.

A few of our guys travelled over to Manchester to compete in the latest edition of Ground Control, Rob Lawlor took a very creditable 3rd place (despite being disgusted with himself but we know Rob has vey high standards)

Big Joe beat his first 2 opponents with his unorthodox but effective style before having to retire from the competition due to a little misunderstanding which won't happen again now.

Jase Farrar won his first match by triangle choke after racking up a ridiculous amount of points but couldn't continue to the next round.

Mark Richards won his first 2 matches in good form but lost to the eventual winner who had a lot more experience in competition being a seasoned MMA competitor.

A huge congrats to everyone, anyone who has ever competed knows how stressful it is and even though it sounds like a cliche, everyone that dares walk out on to the mat has already won.

Just published an account of my trip to Africa, it is more for me to remember but have a read and see what you think, click on the flag.

After (not too much) deliberation, Factory BJJ moved into their own new premises. The relief of not having to share mat space with anyone else, the ability to do what you want and when you want to is nothing in comparison to the outrageous rent and crippling rates that go with the responsibility of owning your own gym. Ha, bet you wasn't expecting that!!

To officially christen the new headquarters of Factory BJJ, they hosted Machado black belt John Will for the first seminar in the new gym. The reports I had heard of John being an ultra-technical teacher were right on the button as I picked up some great detail on things I thought I knew already.

Working our way through the hook (elevator) sweep from hooks (butterfly) guard was first up, looking at overhook, underhook and over/under variations then onto various arm bars. Might not sound like much but it was 2 1/2 hours crammed with details.

What were the details? I'm not telling otherwise you will know them too and I want these for myself ;0)

Adam will have report and pictures on www.factorybjj.com real soon.................

Don't forget if you want to be kept up to date on future seminars and the like, subscribe to the newletter, just send an email to info@factorybjj.com and put newsletter subscription in the heading.

Awesome news that Chris Haueter just won Senior Medio Black Belt division at Pan Ams, 2 fights and 2 wins.

Also well done to my old buddy Leo who competed but lost on points to an outstanding wrestler who had done his homework to shut down Leo's game. Added to this that Leo tore his calf a few days before the tourney and really shouldn't have competed but Leo said that as long as he could walk onto the mat he would give it a go.

Huge congrats to Ryan Hunter who returned to Judo competition with a gold in his first tournament as a black belt. To not compete in Judo for such a long time then come back in as a black belt and win gold in a tough tournament is an immense achievement. Now he has his competitive drive back, the sky's the limit.

When guys from our gym want to compete, whether it is MMA, sub grappling or Jiu Jitsu, I have 3 criteria.

So Jonny Smith, Andy Krlic and Andy Lanes all turn up as they say they would so off to Bradford we go. We arrive in good spirits, see some old faces when we arrive at the venue then go to weigh in.

All 3 guys make weight easily so that is 2 out of 3 on my list satisfied although I am always on edge until I know that our opponents have arrived. My edginess was not necessary as all the opponents turned up and made weight. I am now a happy man knowing that as soon as we get through the rules meeting we will be going out to eat.

Rules meeting and pre-fight interviews out of the way we head off to the Asda to stock up on food. The fighters, who were all starving by this point picked various foods to gorge then back to the hotel.

As we are sat eating I noticed Andy Krlic devouring exceedingly pink chicken, I commented how a good vet could have got the chicken back on its feet but he was hungry so ate it anyway. I put that to the back of my mind and continued getting some down time before the medicals.

Then it started...........Andy felt bad and began his toilet inspired shuttle runs, each time feeling worse and worse.

Went to the medicals with Andy still feeling bad, Jonny went first everything ok, resting pulse 60. Andy Lanes next, everything ok, resting pulse 72 (the guys are nervous so the pulse will be up a little) Andy Krlic gets on the stool, pulse 107!! He asks what the resting pulse rate will be and they replied that it was his resting pulse rate. Normally having a resting pulse rate of low 50s, something seems wrong.

Then the nausea starts. Damn, this guy is due to fight in the 2nd match and I'm doubting that he will live that long.

So the runner comes up for us and we are on our way down to the ring with Jonny, I see Andy attempting a warm up with Ben but clearly he was not up to it.

Jonny climbs into the ring and calmly waits for his opponent Daniel Bowes from Team Akurei to make his way down and join him in the ring. We don't know anything about Daniel so the game plan was to work around Jonny's strengths and take the fight to him. Jonny had been training some big pick ups so was looking for an early slam to get the crowd going. The fight started with both guys landing some shots, Jonny moved into clinch eating an uppercut on the way in but picked his opponent up, got the slam that he wanted and started to work his ground game. Both guys ended up back on their feet where Daniel started to shoot that Jonny sprawled out of and reversed it into another big slam. This time working knees on the ground to soften up the opponent before transitioning to mount. Jonny worked patiently towards Rickson position where he transitioned into taking the back and sunk in a rear naked choke for the win.

I had momentarily forgotten about Andy but true to his word he wanted to fulfil #1 by doing what he said he was going to do, that was he came to fight. Having watched his opponent, James Anderson, against Caged Steel fighter Phil Hoban we had devised a pretty solid game plan that I was convinced would give us the 'W' only I hadn't counted on Andy being sick. All through the first round he was implementing his game plan just with no power, he was going through the moves but unable to truly unload even when he caught James in his favourite achilles lock position he had no strength to finalise and ended up with one of those both-going-for-footlock moments. End of round one, Andy with a 10-9.

As he came back to the corner he was really in no state to continue and we should have thrown in the towel but he had come to fight. As round 2 wore on Andy got worse and James got the better of things landing some shots and taking it to the ground, at one stage James had a point taken off so by my reckoning if Andy could hold on to the end of the round he would win by j/d 19-18. Andy was now mounted and was desperately trying to defend and with a final burst of energy attempted to escape but fell right into a guillotine with only 30 seconds remaining and had to submit.

I mean no disrespect to James or his team (who I am friends with) but that wasn't the real Andy who was in the ring that night and I, for one, would like to see a re-match.

Our last fighter for the evening would be Andy Lanes who after only 6 months of training was to take on the tough Peter Rejdovjan. Based on Peter's last fight against Billy Glossop we thought he was going to come out like a steam train but came out a little cautious instead. After a feeling out process Andy Lanes threw the first combination that Peter counted with a thudding leg kick. Using that as the trigger point Andy Lanes stepped in for a single leg to try take the fight to the floor. Peter managed to catch Andy Lanes in a guillotine but he kept trying to take the guy down. Remembering the drills we had been doing for the past month, as Peter went to sit back into guard, Andy tried to block off the legs and pass on the way down. He almost had it but didn't complete the pass as Peter readjusted his grip and sunk the guillotine tight leaving Andy Lanes no option but to tap. Although disappointed with his first outing, he will be back. Congrats to Peter he took the chance very well.

In conclusion, a real roller coaster day, one guy won in the first round, one guy lost in the first round and one guy lost in the Asda...............

Great night for Pete Hill and Danny Mitchell notching up wins against some quality opposition.

Danny fought first as he was competing for the first time in a MMA tournament and won a split decision over Andrew McQueen, a very talented fighter, to put him through to the final of the tourney.

In the meantime Pete Hill was making his first title defence over standout Ryan Scope. Following a war of a first round the second round was under way and following the same pattern as the first when Scope's corner were forced to throw in the towel to prevent their fighter from taking any more punishment meaning Pete was still the Total Combat Lightweight Semi Pro British Champion.

Finally Danny got to work on the Norwegian fighter Runar “The Viking” Gundersen eventually winning by jd to add the Total Combat British Welterweight Pro MMA Champion title to the Phoenix Fights Welterweight Semi Pro Champion title he won last year. On top of this he scooped the £1000 prize money too.

18th January 2009 at Caged Steel

Starts at 12:00pm, finishes round 4:00pm

Only £5.00 entry fee minimum (see below)

This is the first in what will hopefully be a regular session to get everyone in our group training together, whether you want to train gi, no gi, mma, wrestling, striking or whatever.

Whether you want to train on the mats, in the ring or in the cage there will be someone who will train with you without any ego or hidden agenda, it will be a friendly environment because it is only open to our group so be sensible, be a good training partner and train hard.

There will be a 20 minute workshop in every hour segment so:

12:00 to 1:00 will be workshop 1 plus free training & sparring
1:00 to 2:00 will be workshop 2 plus free training & sparring
2:00 to 3:00 will be workshop 3 plus free training & sparring
3:00 to 4:00 will be workshop 4 plus free training & sparring

The workshop coaches and material are still to be confirmed but I assure you that there will be someone who you have never trained with before teaching in a way that may be a little different to what you are used to, which is of benefit to everyone, it’s always great to have a different perspective on things.

Now the serious stuff, we have decided that some of the entry fee for the day will be donated to either a young girl who goes to the school where Andy K is a teacher (honest, he is a teacher) who was recently diagnosed with leukemia and who’s family are having a hard time or we will make a donation to kids cancer charity Candlelighters who I have done fund raising for before and are a very worthwhile charity.

We are only asking for £5 entry fee to train for 4 hours so if you wish to donate a little more we will be having a collection on the day too. To raise more money we may have an auction or a raffle or something, any ideas?

We are due to start at 12:00pm and finish at 4:00pm but you don’t have to stay for the entire session, just turn up when you want, stay as long as you want then leave when you want, as long as you come through to support us that is all that matters.

We have some really talented people in our group, some great coaches and some great facilities but we are not really utilising them all. We all get caught up in our own little worlds sometimes so let’s all open up, support each other and make these days a real success.

The Champions III
Congrats to Andy Krlic on his 2nd round submission in his MMA debut at the Champions III. More on this to follow.

Inka's record in competition is 82 wins and 20 losses from 2003. Her only loss in 2008 was against Sean McDonagh probably the best Junior male fighter his weight and age in UK maybe even Europe.

2004
Gracie Barra Yorks BJJ Doncaster Sept girls 9 to 10 Gold, girls 11 to 12 Gold
Gracie Barra Yorks BJJ Sheffield Dec girls 11 to 12 Bronze

2005
Combat Base BJJ Knottingley Mar girls 11 to 12 Silver
North of England Submission Championship NoGi Sheffield girls 11 to 12 Gold
Hull BJJ Invitational Hull July girls 11 to 12 Gold
AMA National Junior Championships Ne waza Leeds Aug girls 11 to 12 Gold

2006
Midlands Submission Fighting Championship Gi Stoke Jul girls 45kg Gold, girls/boys 45kg Gold, Open Weight mixed Silver
Lancashire Open Championship Gi Burnley Aug girls/boys 45kg Gold, Open weight mixed Bronze
ADCC Open London Submission Grappling NoGi only junior competitor
Urban Gorillaz BJJ Sheffield Nov fought in Adult 60kg

2007
Coastal BJJ Championship Redcar Jan girls/boys 45kg Silver
NJJC Welsh Open Sub Grappling NoGi Nantyglo Feb girls 45kg Silver
Midlands Groundfighting Championship NoGi Stoke Feb girls 45kg Gold
Midlands Groundfighting Championship Gi girls 50kg Silver
UMA Ne Waza Burton Mar girls 45kg Bronze
Nagare En Championship Gi Derby May girls/boys 50kg Bronze
Headhunters BJJ Stoke Jul girls 55kg Silver, girls open weight Silver
World Martial Art Games Gi Regensburg Germany July girls 55kg world champion
UMA British Open NoGi Burton Oct girls/boys 55kg Gold
NJJC Open Championship NoGi Worcester Oct girls 50kg Gold
Urban Gorillaz BJJ Birmingham Nov girls/boys 55kg Silver

2008
UMA Ne Waza Championship Burton Feb girls 55kg Gold
Gracie Seni UK BJJ London April girls 60kg Gold
UMA No Gi Championship Burton May girls open weight Gold
Combat Base Championship BJJ girls 13 to 14 Gold
EFMA European Junior BJJ Paris France girls 55kg Champion
NJJC Open Championship NoGi Worcester Oct girls 60kg Gold
Gracie Barra Birmingham Championship Birmingham Nov girl/boy 55kg Silver, girls open Gold

Sunday 12th October saw the successful return of the Combat Base inter club but this time focusing only on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, both gi and no gi.

The Combat Base Inter Club BJJ Championships were used experimentally to see if clubs are going to support the idea of a closed gi and no gi competition, a club championships which will provide us with champions within our group plus assist in the grading process. Also promotes a little friendly rivalry within the group and will especially help beginners to try competition in a safe and friendly environment whilst still providing the adrenaline dump.

The competition itself kicked off with the lightweight white belts, Leroy Holcroft representing Combat Base Bolton against Lewis McEnaney from Combat Base North East and what a start it was. Both guys put on a great show which set the standard for the rest of the day, the first match of the day is always the toughest. Eventually Leroy got the choke and the stage was set.

The Caged Steel team were entering their first gi grappling competitive matches as a team so as Wajad Sadiq (Wax to his friends) took to the mat, all eyes were on him. Unfortunately he ran straight into Factory BJJ’s Ronan Roche on a rich vein of form who racked up a number of points to take the win but Wax did himself proud and paved the way for later. Ronan then himself lost to Combat Base North East’s David Vincent who was in fine form and then outpointed Wax by one point to take first place in the Lightweight division. David looks like he is a very good prospect, having trained only 8 months and is a credit to the CBNE team headed by brown belt coach Steve Muckle.

Combat Base Bolton competitor James Canavan got off to a winning start in the middleweight division against Combat Base’s Paul Keegans only to fall to Paul’s team mate Jason Farrar in the final following a tough match which really highlighted how frustrating the points system can be. James attacked Jase from the off, throwing up triangles and arm bars forcing Jase to defend for the majority of the match. Jase defended everything that came at him and then took his opportunity 30 seconds from the end. He escaped an arm bar attempt, passed guard and quickly took mount securing the points victory and the gold medal.

Medium heavy saw Caged Steel MMA fighter Billy Glossop make his gi debut. He said his goal was to survive for one round but did much better than he expected by outpointing tough Combat Base competitor Francois Van Staden. Billy advanced to meet Combat Base’s Mark Richards in the final where Mark won a comfortable points victory but aggravated a back injury forcing him to withdraw from the no gi division later that day.

The heavyweight division surprised a few people as the heavyweights are not usually renowned for their agility and movement but every competitor played the game as though they were much lighter. Tomasz Winconek, fighting in a weight above his natural medium heavy, got the submission win over Gareth Price. Not be outdone James Parker from Combat Base Doncaster also got a submission win over Rogan Tonks by Americana.

Rogan got some immediate redemption as he took 3rd place by kimura leaving Tom and Parker to battle out for the gold. After a tough battle which left the judges debating the match, Tom got the decision.

In the super featherweight division, representing Caged Steel was 2nd dan Judo black belt Neil Gilpin against Factory BJJ coach Ian ‘Doug’ Mochen in a distinctive battle of styles, Neil having the aggressive Judo top game whilst Doug is playing the Jiu Jitsu guard game. Doug has the ability to remain extremely cool under pressure and pressure he was definitely getting from Neil whilst all the time Doug was just setting up his submission. When he was satisfied with his position he got the submission that left Neil no option but to submit.

In the featherweight division Jay Furness took the gold with submission wins over John Sherwood and Leroy Holcroft who had just got his blue belt about 10 minutes previously.

Lightweight division saw Combat Base’s Andy Krlic face off against Factory BJJ’s James Nardone. Andy seemed a little off his game which James capitalized on immediately, after that Andy was always playing catch up but James has too much experience for that and got the win. Great match.

Final gi match was a purple belt superfight between Team Fulinkazan head coach Spenna and Combat Base Doncaster head coach Danny Mitchell. Both of these guys are known primarily as MMA fighters but what most people don’t know is that they are both very proficient gi players too, as was evidenced in this match. As the match went the full distance
Spenna had just outpointed Danny for the W.

WHITE BELT
Feather (Pena) >70kg
1st Leroy Holcroft Combat Base Bolton
2nd Lewis McEnaney Combat Base North East

Light (Leve) >76kg
1st David Vincent Combat Base North East
2nd Ronan Roche Factory BJJ
3rd Wajad Sadiq Caged Steel

Middle (Medio) >82kg
1st Jase Farrar Combat Base
2nd James Canavan Combat Base Bolton
3rd Paul Keegans Combat Base

Medium Heavy (Meio Pesado) >88kg
1st Mark Richards Combat Base
2nd Billy Glossop Caged Steel
3rd Francois Van Staden Combat Base

Heavy (Pesado) >94kg
1st Tomasz Winconek Combat Base
2nd James Parker Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum
3rd Rogan Tonks Combat Base

BLUE BELT
Super Feather (Pluma) >64kg
1st Ian "Doug" Mochen Factory BJJ
2nd Neil Gilpin Caged Steel

Feather (Pena) >70kg
1st Jay Furness Caged Steel
2nd John Sherwood Factory
3rd Leroy Holcroft Combat Base Bolton

Light (Leve) >76kg
1st James Nardone Factory BJJ
2nd Andy Krlic Combat Base

PURPLE BELT
Superfight
1st Spenna Fulinkazan
2nd Danny Mitchell Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum

After the medals had been presented Helen Currie took the stand to promote a few of the guys and explain what she expects from our group.

Helen explains “I have really high standards when giving promotions and I never give the benefit of the doubt, so the guys that got the promotions rest assured have deserved them, not just for their performances today but the continued performance week after week and month after month, both in the gym and in open competition. The way it should be. Me and Darren had to train our asses off to get blue belt which took a couple of years back then so if we had to do that, everyone else has to!

All the new blue belts have been training between 1½ and 2 years already and have proved themselves so I am happy to say that they are representatives of our group”

Leroy Holcroft from Combat Base Bolton promoted to blue belt.
James Canavan from Combat Base Bolton promoted to blue belt.
James Parker from Combat Base Doncaster promoted to blue belt.
Tom Winconek from Combat Base promoted to blue belt.

Spenna, who has been with us since the halcyon days of Knottingley Sports Centre, was promoted to brown belt.

Quite a few others got stripes and a renewed vigour to compete next time. If the no gi is half as good as the gi section, the experiment has been a success.

And success it was, as the no gi section carried right on from where the gi section left off.

The smaller guys started the no gi section and again set the standard for the rest, Judo black belt Neil Gilpin making his no gi debut against Fu fighter David Keating also making his competitive debut. The match went back and forth with experience telling in the end and Neil getting the points win but credit to David for pushing him all the way.

The featherweight division was absolutely crazy with some real talent. Rob Lawlor and his upstoppable elbow crush, the Caged Steel guys Jay Furness, Mark Aldridge and Max Ramsden all getting submission wins before falling victim to submissions themselves, new purple belt Doug proving his ability no gi is as good as his gi winning by armbar then stepping aside. Another Factory BJJ member John Sherwood and Combat Base Doncaster’s James Martin also getting wins, Andrew Trudgil, Lewis McEnaney and Paul Allen all fought their hearts out but were overcome by experience in this stacked division. The final saw Rob Lawlor submit the powerful Max Ramsden for the gold. Max hasn’t been training that long so to make the final in his first attempt in such a strong division is awesome.

The lightweight division turned out to be just as tough, again with some very entertaining matches.

James Nardone narrowly lost to Nathan Martin from Combat Base Doncaster in a battle that was decided by 1 advantage; Andy Krlic secured an arm bar on Ronan Roche then submitted Nathan Martin advancing to the finals. Matt Barker had a victory over Paul McCabe then lost to Wax who went on to get the Achilles lock in the finals and take the gold.

The middleweight was equally as competitive as a couple of the guys have been dying to compete but as yet hadn’t had the opportunity. Making the transition from a striking only background Combat Base’s Paul Landreth-Smith tested his ground skills losing only on points to Adam Fawkes. Combat Base’s Shane Cartwright wasted no time in getting the win putting him straight into the finals following the withdrawal of his intended opponent. Lee Dennis from Combat Base Doncaster got the win over Paul Keegans and Jason Farrar to put him into the finals. Paul Keegans took 3rd place by way of arm triangle submission over Adam Fawkes.

Shane Cartwright took the gold in the final over Lee Dennis by submission, both guys performing really well in their first ever competition.

Combat Base competitor Francois Van Staden got the medium heavy division going with a points victory over Caged Steel’s Tom Keogh. Billy Glossop then defeated Mike Tolson and Francois on points only to find gi division winner Tomasz Winconek waiting for him flowing his victory over Combat Base Doncaster’s Tony Hill in the semi finals.

Desperate to add the no gi gold to his gi gold, Tom fought very well and finally secured victory by submission over a very game Billy Glossop who impressed throughout the day.

Gaz Vause got the heavyweights under way with a modified brabo choke submission over Caged Steel fighter Charlie Hellawell and Rogan Tonks scored a submission over Stephen Harrison.

Unfortunately Charlie Hellawell had to leave and Stephen Harrison must have thought his day was so also left leaving Rogan Tonks to take 3rd place by default as he was going to withdraw injured but, as my coach Chris Haueter says “it’s not who’s best it’s who’s left”.

James Parker met Gaz Vause in the final; the match was back and forth with some great exchanges between the big guys. Gaz was up on points and looked to be close to winning the decision in his first competition but Parker kept his composure and pulled out an omaplata. Gaz defended as long as he could be had to submit giving Parker the well deserved win.

Not wanting to be outdone, the inimitable Saif Khan fancied a break from the photographic duties he and business partner Pete McFadden were sharing on behalf of MMAPics.com and jumped in for a match.

The co-promoter of the highly successful Champions show was to face off than no other than James Parker the MMA fighter who has fought successfully on the last 2 Champions shows. To make things interesting, someone suggested that if Parker won he would get double the purse for his next fight on The Champions 3 show scheduled for 22nd November in Bradford. Showing the kind of form that helped him win a MMA title, none of the old magic had gone (just the lungs ;0/) as he clinched with James Parker and delivered a text book haraigoshi. Keeping the pressure on, he only briefly stopped for a photo opportunity before hunting for the knee bar submission that would save him some money.

NO GI Results

Super Feather >64kg
1st Neil Gilpin Caged Steel
2nd David Keating Fulinkazan

Feather >70kg
1st Rob Lawlor Combat Base
2nd Max Ramsden Caged Steel
3rd Jay Furness Caged Steel

Light >76kg
1st Wajad Sadiq Caged Steel
2nd Andy Krlic Combat Base
3rd= Nathan Martin Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum
3rd= Matt Barker Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum

Team mates don’t compete against each other so shared 3rd place.

Middle >82kg
1st Shane Cartwright Combat Base
2nd Lee Dennis Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum
3rd Paul Keegans Combat Base

Medium Heavy >88kg
1st Tomasz Winconek Combat Base
2nd Billy Glossop Caged Steel
3rd Francois Van Staden Combat Base

Heavyweight 90kg+
1st James Parker Combat Base Donny AKA The Asylum
2nd Gaz Vause Combat Base
3rd Rogan Tonks Combat Base

I am sometimes reluctant to give out a Fighter Of The Day trophy, when everyone has put their heart & soul into the preparation and the competition itself, it somehow doesn’t seem right to elevate one person over everyone else. Having said that I also believe that if someone has performed well above expectation level (especially their own), that person has shown something special that day then I like to honour that too. If it were just on performance itself then Rob Lawlor, Jay Furness, Tomasz Winconek or James Parker could have won but due to performances above and beyond in gi and no gi the Fighter Of The Day trophy, sponsored by Allsports International Limited, went to Billy Glossop of Caged Steel.

The final award (not made on the day because we ran out of time and needs some serious math) is the Team Champions.

Basically each competitor is awarded 2 points for a win and 1 point for a loss so the team points total can be worked out. Then the amount of matches each competitor had is calculated and put into a team total. The total points is then divided by the total matches to give a competitor average.

I want to also publicly welcome Adam, Doug and the Factory guys into our group, already proving to be an asset.

To conclude, the whole day ran problem free, thanks to a huge team effort, Helen and Becks for the paperwork, Ben and Carl for the refereeing, to all the coaches for their support, to Saif and Pete for the photos, to Jamie for use of his awesome facilities and to the competitors themselves for being the ‘Man In The Arena’

Special thanks to our sponsors, Allsports International Limited for their continued support in all we do.

The Combat Base Inter Club BJJ Championships are going to be used as an evaluation tool to try to ensure consistency in performance over our group of clubs.

At the moment Combat Base employs a ‘traditional’ grading system i.e. you train your butt off for years then someone just throws a belt at you and hence, you are promoted.

This is great if you train at a club where someone is of an high enough level to grade people, if you don’t have a black belt at your club, I believe the rule of thumb is “you can grade up to 2 grades below you with the backing of your black belt instructor” therefore a purple belt can give stripes on a white belt, a brown belt can grade up to blue and the blacks have to do the rest.

In an ideal situation, we would be able to get around all the clubs on a regular basis so that people are graded to the level they should be, making it fairer for all concerned. When people step into open competition they will also face people of a similar level within their belt providing more of a challenge.

Therefore this competition is an experiment to see if clubs are going to support the idea of a closed gi and no gi competition, a club championships which will provide us with champions within our group plus assist in the grading process. Also promotes a little friendly rivalry within the group and will especially help beginners to try competition in a safe and friendly environment whilst still providing the adrenaline dump.

Taking an example of a white belt who has been training for 12 months, he is beating all the other white belts in class with skill and even holding his own against the blue belts, there are 3 paths they could choose

1. Keep doing what they are doing in class and wait for the promotion to come whenever.
2. Enter the club championships, show what they can do. It’s hard to argue against someone who just won their weight group plus maybe take on a higher grade too, see how they do there.
3. Stay sandbagged and win back to back SENIs at white belt level for 6 straight years.

This is just based on the old Judo system that I went through. You do your theory in class then compete against other clubs for your grades. If you win you were promoted!! Obviously there is a little more to it than that but that’s the basic idea. Very fair system of grading.

Please note though, this is NOT the only way to grade, you can still just be given your new grade in class as not everyone has the desire or time to invest in competing as everyone trains for their own reasons.

Finally, to grade in BJJ at Combat Base you must do some gi. I’ve heard all the crap about gi not helping you for no gi competition etc but I honestly think that if you just want to do no gi then you can’t be serious about grading in BJJ.

Huge congrats to Melissa Haueter for winning gold at the recent World Championships beating 1 opponent on points and 2 opponents by submission.

Back To The Factory 6th July 2008

Courtesy of Adam Adshead

Yesterday saw Factory BJJ welcome back Darren and Helen Currie to do their, now, semi-regular seminar for us.

Working on the Half Guard material he covered last time, Darren went onto develop that further by giving us the opposing side - working some clever grip play in the process.

With a lot of people at the gym now working Half Guard consistantly, it was great to get some ideas on how to pass it and also for the guys on the bottom to stop the said passing.

As well as that we looked at some nifty no gi sweeps and what to do if someone stands up out of your half guard. (Something we really needed, as it kept occuring)

As ever, the coaching was brilliant, super technical and functional! Darren and Helen showed us many little gems for us to go away with and play around with and we can’t get back on the mats quick enough! (Including some much needed warm up drills - sorry guys they are going to be a regular addition)

Unfortunately they had to head back after the seminar but we all had a good feed on their behalf. Plus, now when they come back we have to buy them two dinners!

It’s a great pleasure for a fledgling club like ourselves to have such high level coaching on display on our mats. We look forward to the next one in the near future, as well as a few of us heading over to Darren’s place for privates on a regular basis too.

Thanks again guys from Adam Adshead and everyone at Factory BJJ

National Junior Gi Grappling Championships

The event……Combat Base UK National Junior Gi Grappling Championships
The venue…..Carnegie Sports Facility, Headingley, Leeds
The date……..22nd June 2008

It’s been a while since we last held a grappling competition for the juniors and did it show! The standard across the board has raised tremendously with the competitors showing a complete range of skills, the stand up, the sweeps, the passing game, everything seems to have been moved up at least a couple of notches.

The atmosphere was the best of any competition I have ever been to and that is full credit to the organization and support of the event, the competitors, spectators and coaches from opposing teams happily mingled and offered support to everyone regardless. The whole day was about the kids, providing a positive atmosphere in which they could have a positive experience of competition which is so important for the newbies, not some of the stupidity that I’m sure we have all seen when coaches/parents are screaming at some 5 year old kid to not let the other kid beat him as if it is an offence to his manhood if any of his kids lose. We know the sort don’t we.

It is best summed up though by Ben, who refereed throughout the day “the best bit is seeing the kids with huge grins competing, they are just doing it for the love of doing it, they just try to win by going for it”

I would definitely echo this sentiment as the kids do what they do and don’t back chat or question everything. The kids are way more gracious than a lot of the seniors. This is one of the reasons why we award EVERY competitor with a medal.

If these guys keep training the way they have been then the UK will have more Jiu Jitsu champions than they ever have before.

Results
Girls 4 - 6 years
1. Courtney Puckering - Hull Sport
2. Ellie Amies-King - MFF Fighters

Boys 4 - 6 years
1. Danny Puckering - Hull Sport
2. Isaac Roberts - Combat Base
3. Levi Swindell - MFF Fighters

Girls 7 - 8 years
1. Shauna Jones - Hull Sport
2. Tea Lewis - Bradford Judo/XLMA
3. Hannah Day - MFF Fighters

Boys 7 - 8 years light
1. Samuel Thomas - MFF Fighters
2. Kieran Farnell - MFF Fighters

Boys 7 - 8 years heavy
1. Ethan Taylor - Hull Sport
2. Jake Richards - Combat Base
3. Hussain Basyurt - Hull Sport

Girls 9 - 10 years
1. Katie Cooper - Nagare En Derby
2. Emily Young - Hull Sport

Boys 9 – 10 years light
1. Liam Martin - Gracie Barra Derby
2. Tristan Fishwick - Combat Base
3. Joshua Thomas - MFF Fighters

Boys 9 – 10 years heavy
1. Jack Bethell - Gracie Barra Derby
2. Lewis Reed - Gracie Barra Derby
3. Jay Millard - Hull Sport

Girls 11 - 12 years
1. Stella Doyle - MFF Fighters
2. Kate Standley - MFF Fighters

Boys 11 – 12 years light
1. Salim Alam - True Spirit MMA
2. Ben Schofield - Combat Base
3. Connor Wright - Combat Base

Boys 11 – 12 years heavy
1. Kailum Smith - Combat Base
2. Ben Cooper - Nagare En Derby
3. Louis West - Hull Sport

Girls 13 - 14 years
1. Inka Doyle - MFF Fighters
2. Beau Maclean - Combat Base
3. Shani Testro - Gracie Barra Derby

Boys 13 - 14 years light
1. Sean McDonagh - Gracie Barra Derby
2. James Beardsmore - Gracie Barra Derby
3. Jonah Osborn - Gracie Barra Derby

Boys 13 - 14 years heavy
1. Ryan Holdham - Tai Jutsu Kai
2. Bradley Swindell - MFF Fighters
3. Craig Sunman - Hull Sport

Girls 15 - 16 years
1. Christine McDonagh - Gracie Barra Derby
2. Lauren Reed - Gracie Barra Derby
3. Rebecca Linsley - Tai Jutsu Kai

Boys 15 - 16 years light
1. Chris Dolman - Hull Sport
2. Ben Docherty - Gracie Barra Derby
3. Daniel Portman - Kodakan

Boys 15 - 16 years heavy
1. Joshua Camm - Gracie Barra Nottingham
2. Kane Davis - Gracie Barra Derby
3= Liam Swindell - MFF Fighters
3= Jack Plachcinsly - Kodakan

Not wanting to undermine the efforts of any of the competitors who all performed very well, but we also award trophies for fighters of the day for those that have just stood out a little, techniques of the day for the best execution of a clean technique and team champions for the team that have performed most consistently on the day.

Fighters Of The Day sponsored by PopArt
Girls under 10 - Tea Lewis - Bradford Judo/XLMA
Girls over 10 – Beau Maclean – Combat Base
Boys under 10 – Liam Martin – Gracie Barra Derby
Boys over 10 – Salim Alam – True Spirit MMA

Techniques Of The Day sponsored by Allsports International Limited
In the under 10’s Danny Puckering from Hull Sport got the award for a beautiful seionage.
In the over 10’s the award went to James Beardsmore from Gracie Barra Derby for his crisp sweep to mount technique.

Team Champions sponsored by Caged Steel Gym
To determine the true team champions, the medal positions are assigned a value and worked out against how many people from that team placed. This total is then divided by the number of competitors in the team so an average is calculated therefore it is not just the largest team that enters that wins. Therefore:

I would like to thank everyone who turned up and supported the event. The teams:
Bradford Judo
Bulldogs & CNO Judo & Mixed Martial Arts
Combat Base
Gracie Barra Derby
Gracie Barra Nottingham
Hull Sport
Kodakan
MFF Fighters
Nagare En Derby
Tai Jutsu Kai
True Spirit MMA

To the officials, the Combat Base team, Ben and Rob for refereeing, Andy, Jase, Mark, Becks, Jonny, Karl, Helen, Tony and to anyone I may have forgot ;0/

Thanks to Pop Art for sponsoring the trophies and the T-shirts, to Allsports International Limited for sponsoring Technique Of The Day trophies and to Caged Steel Gym for sponsoring the Team Trophy and to St Johns Ambulance for covering the event, glad you weren’t busy.

Big thanks too to Photo Solutions who spent the day walking around taking photos which were then available for purchase on the day. Great idea. You can still go onto their web site, have a look at the photos and buy them if you missed the opportunity on the day.

Took a little trip over to Stockport to train with Adam Adshead and the guys. Well worth the journey over and made some new friends.

Adam kindly put it on his web site here.

Check it out.

By the way, after the seminar we were taken out for lunch so that's set the standard. If anyone wants us to do a seminar for them they have to take us to lunch too. That's just the way it is now.

UMA UK II Open (No Gi) Groundfighting Championship

A quick review by Andy K from Fulinkazan Forum (my comments are in italics) of the teams day on Sunday! Sorry if I get any of this wrong guys but I was pretty busy shouting and acting like a fool for most of the day!!!

After the journey and weighins Rob was our first competitor in the under 70kg category. Rob dominated his first opponent and won by triangle. In his second match rob took a convincing win via points and nearly locked in his infamous ‘elbow crush of death’ This now put Rob in the semi final, where he once again disrespected some legs and came out with the win. In the final match Rob got trapped in a guillotine choke and finished with the Silver Medal in what was a highly skilled division!!! Well Done Roberto! Oosssssssss!!!!!!! (Rob has gone from strength to strength recently, adding some more elements to his already solid game, definately a force to be reckoned with)

Suzy was next up in the womens division and fought well in her match despite been kneed in the face! Hope she is ok and back competing soon. (Suzy was hit with a knee in the face that completely threw her off her game, on top of that her opponent blatantly cheated then was heard boasting that she did it on a purpose, classy!)

I fought next in the under 75kg division won my first match on points but in my second match tapped to a head and arm choke! (Andy also did excellent in only his 2nd grappling tourney, he dominated his opponent in the first match and made a mistake in his 2nd match and got caught. It happens)

Mark was next up and this was his tournament debut, the nerves didnt show and he won his first match in style by shoulder lock! In his second match Mark’s opponent was a no show! Mark advanced to the semis where he had a back and forth match with a great fighter from Blackledge MMA team. Mark lost the match but put in a class A performance against the eventual winner of the category! Well done Mark fantastic performance! (Mark's first tournament and a real personal success, geting a few wins in your first tourney after 8 months of training is pretty awesome)

Joe was the next team member to take to the mats in the sub 95kg category. Joe’s first opponent was a guy from SBG! Joe locked in the rubber guard and attempted an omoplata and various sweeps! Joe took the decision! Joe’s next opponent didn’t show (probably scared of Joe’s freakish size!!!) so he was now in the final! Joe had a great match and unfortunately lost on points! Well done to Joe as he took silver in what was again a highly skilled category! (Joe is a monster to say he is only 16 years old and hasn't been training that long, his results on the day were awesome)

This led us to the open weight, where Mark fought some awesome matches and showed what a competitor he is! He won two matches and lost two! Mark fought some real colossal guys and looked great on the mats! Nice work mate!!!

In the team event we were a little outsized to say the least! We fought well and ended up with a bronze! During the team event Joe beat the winner of the open weight division a massive achievement! Nice work Joe!!!

After winning the Pan Ams last year, Leo Kirby and his son Matt decided to go one better and compete in their own weight groups and absolute too. Matt went first and set the prcedent by taking gold in his weight group and silver in the absolute.

Not to be outdone, Leo took gold in brown belt seniors then took gold in absolute too.

"Here I demonstrate how to transition into the beat down position and how to apply the reverse triangle. I also show some other options from here. Hope you can use it in your game".

Easter sunday me, Parker and the twins made the 100 mile journey to Gateshead to fight in the Impact show at the federation brewery.

First up was James Martin (left) who was fighting Frank Slater from Sor Thanikul. It was a great fight with james taking Frank down and working to the mount landing some body shots. James got reversed but slapped on a nice tight arm bar from guard. Frank went crazy, slamming until he was free. Franks striking was sharp but James showed alot of heart and showed an iron chin after taking some hard shots and a head kick that barely made him flinch. James kept working for the clinch but Frank had the edge with the striking and won a dec. All in all it was a great fight for James and he showed much improvement in his first fight for our gym.

Next up was me! (middle) I was fighting Graham Langley from Heavyhitters. I knew he wanted to strike so I took him down straight away and worked to mount, nearly got the arm triangle but he defended well. He kept working to his feet and I kept taking him down, I landed a nice slam in the first round. At one point I shot in and he hit me in the back of the head (illegal strike) and my face slammed into the canvas. The doctor was called in to check me over but I told him I was fine. I was pretty dazed and cant remember much of the second round but apparently I went for the mounted triangle, got reverse, he stood up so I switched to knee bar and submitted him.

Last up was Nathan Martin (right) and he was fighting Simon Gould from Heavy Hitters in the main event of the night!!! Simon had a massive following and the crowd went mental. The fight started and Nathan landed a perfect right hand and dropped Simon, then locked in the guillotine, Simon went for the double leg but Nathan swept him and finished the choke from mount (something I showed him from the JK seminar, haha, thanks John). It was great to see such a quick finish from Nathan, must have been all the bananas he ate before his fight (at least 5 haha).

So, it was another good night for the club and thanks to James Parker for helping out in the corner.

A big shout of appreciation goes out to Darren and Helen Currie for making this happen; with only twenty fours hours notice at their disposal, a good turnout welcomed Chris Haueter to the gym in Pontefract, where Chris took the no gi class. Chris has recently been touring South Africa, giving a number of seminars out there and on his return to LA, Chris has stopped by in the UK, to travel up to Scotland, where he is cornering one of his students in an MMA fight. Prior to the MMA fight, Darren and Helen were lucky to get Chris to stay over in Pontefract for 48 hours and as a result, it was another road trip to the historic market town for the Fighting Photographer.

Chris started the class with a quick warm up and went in to show the class the way to execute a proper sprawl and after showing a number of takedowns from the clinch, Chris took the class through a number of sweeps and submissions from the sprawl position for the man on top and also for the man on the bottom, who, after the sprawl, had managed to secure one leg. From there, Chris showed the class a few techniques from the guard position, including the two on one hand position, applicable for MMA and from this position, introduced the ‘Russian’, a very deceptive little hand and arm tie up, that can lead into turn overs and submissions galore. Sadly, time was against Chris to show us everything from this position and the class finished off with rolling from the sprawl position; from this position Chris warmed himself up on Darren before moving on to my good self and after a walk in the park (for Chris!), he returned to finish off Darren, before moving back and doing the same to me!

Chris will be back in the UK around July, where he will be here for around two weeks, taking classes and running seminars at various Combat Base clubs, so expect to see more reports and pictures in the summer!

Well, weve got a new club so i thought why not get a new site

www.thorne-mmagym.com

The new club is in Thorne (hence the domain name) which is the outskirts of Donny really. Its abit of a #### hole at the moment but im working on it, gunna officially open sometime in April it think.

Danny

Four weeks have passed in what seems like a blur for the Fighting Photographer, having the arduous task of travelling the country in a bid to provide you dear reader, with news and stories from the UK’s top jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts instructors, together with blow by blow accounts on the hottest MMA events blasting their way onto the circuit – it’s a tough job I keep telling myself!

Once again on March 4th, I found myself heading over the hills and entering the land of the White Rose, that of Yorkshire and more specifically, the town of Dewsbury, where, tucked away on an industrial estate, away from prying eyes, lies the MMA academy Caged Steel.

From this state of the art MMA academy, Darren and Helen Currie take a regular monthly session for the students at the gym and deliver jiu jitsu based sessions tailor made for the no gi and MMA practitioners and competitors that train there.

Moving on from the session last month, finishing from the back, Darren and Helen centred around finishing the opponent after sprawling against a double leg attack, where the opponent is on all fours, or the turtle position.

After the obligatory warm up Darren introduced a number of ways of stopping your opponent’s attempted double leg attack by way of a number of under hooks and body locks; rather than start each double leg attack from standing and saving wear and tear on knee joints and noses and cheek bones, the students began their attacks from the kneeling position, which had the desired effect with many students quickly gaining confidence on the shoot in.

Satisfied everyone was au fait with blocking the leg attacks, Darren went through a number of finishes from various positions, including the chin strap from double underhooks, Anaconda and Brabo chokes from over under positions and crucifixes and basic wrestling turnovers from side ride position.

Teaching finished for another month, all that remained was a few rounds of rolling and another monthly session was brought to a satisfying conclusion; the next four weeks will, once again, I’m sure pass by in a whirl and I’ll be back on my laptop with news from the next seminar.

Until then, keep training and see you on the mats!

February 12th sees the start of our regular monthly Combat Base seminars at Caged Steel Gym in Dewsbury.

The seminars will be no gi as the Caged Steel team want BJJ as applicable to MMA but also is equally relevant to no gi grappling.

The topic this time is Attacking From The Back following on from the last seminar of Taking The Back. It is a bold statement but I guarantee that after this 2 hour seminar your ability to finish people from the back will be much improved.

To kick start the year at Combat Base Bolton and to motivate the students after the Christmas lay off, Darren and Helen made the trip over to the land of the Red Rose to deliver a three hour seminar devoted to the x guard.

In all my years of training, the x guard had received scant attention, so I was more than looking forward to the seminar and becoming a white belt again for the afternoon; the seminar was well attended with Jamie Ward, Jamie Edmonds and members of Combat Base Bolton and Pontefract all supporting the event, as well as the support of pro MMA fighter Matt Thorpe, who came down to the event, so it was nice to see open minded guys from different arts all training together.

Darren started the class with a number of specific drills that can be easily incorporated into any warm up and then broke the entry into the x guard into smaller segments before getting to the x guard itself, which made it easier to understand and practice.

From the x guard itself Darren demonstrated a number of simple sweeps from the position and went on to show a number of ‘what if’ scenarios, arising from whatever position the opponent landed from the sweeps. With only three hours to train, Darren had barely scratched the surface on the x guard and the seminar came to an end and from there, students were paired off and rolled with each other and I am happy to say I managed to pull off a few sweeps from the x guard, surely a credit to my skill or Darren’s superior coaching skills? I’m sure Darren will have his own answer!

Darren will be back later in the year to deliver his speciality seminar, the half guard, which I’m sure will go down as well as the x guard session, judging from the positive feedback received after the seminar from the students involved.

January 19th saw the return of Eddie Bravo to the UK being hosted by our friends in the North, as we had trained with Eddie previously, this seminar was a must attend.

The seminar was to be 2 hours half guard and 2 hours rubber guard with a healthy sprinkling of butterfly thrown in to link the 2 together. The seminar proved to be one of the largest I have ever been to, with around 60 people in attendance.

For people that can see beyond the pro-weed, wannabe rockstar there is an authentic bad ass BJJ black belt and excellent teacher. There is a genius in Eddie’s system, everything is well worked out, well drilled and above all else has a progression, a hierarchy of position. Forget the unusual, sometimes weird names given to the techniques, the system has structure and Eddie’s drill sergeant method of coaching is outstanding.

There is an argument that says that the more unusual or random the name anyway, the more likely you will remember it.

Rather than go through everything we did, suffice to say that Eddie said he had taught over half of his bottom game and, I for one, believe him because my brain was at saturation point there was so much detail.

For anyone who says that he did nothing new as they have seen it all before on the internet, in his books or on his DVDs then I disagree, I have trained days, months and years of half guard and rubber guard but I got so much detail out of the seminar as well as seeing a couple of things that were new to me too.

I was lucky enough to work with Eddie himself on the day so got to feel the pressure and the execution of his technique, none of which you can get from books or DVDs so the next time he is in the UK, you must train with Eddie Bravo.

Eddie also did a technique photo shoot for Fighters Only magazine and web site so keep your eyes open.

Welcome to our latest addition, Combat Base Bolton. The group is run by my long term friend Carl Fisher, who is currently a purple belt. Already Carl has started organising and promoting so look for a busy year.

Check out the Omaplata part 2, this has been Leo's project now for some time and contains a lot of excellent information to improve your omaplata. Here

Just returned from Combat Base North East where we conducted a workshop on taking the back. It's always a pleasure to travel up there. Whilst there a few promotions were awarded.

Steve Muckle, CBNE head coach was awarded his brown belt. Steve's commitment to BJJ over the years has been total, even travelling almost 300 miles round trip every week for years just to train with us. Plus his side control is legendary.

Promoted to purple belt were Graeme Allsopp, Ed Drysdale and our own Ben Mallows.

Further congrats go to Chris Campbell for his excellent victory at Fightzone the night before, capturing a nice big belt for his trouble.

Congrats to one of my longest serving students and long time training partner Ryan Hunter who deservedly just got promoted to brown belt.

The Kirbys win again

Following on from father and son victories in the Pan Ams earlier this year, my good friend and E-sensei, Leo Kirby took to the competitive mats again, followed closely by son Matt.

Ultimate Force 7

Congrats to Danny Mitchell on his win at Ultimate Force in Doncaster this weekend against Team Machine fighter Lee Wedgewood.

Both Danny and Lee stepped up to fight each other after their original opponents pulled out on the day. Danny's opponent weighed in then disappeared.

Congratulations to Pete Hill who continued his winning streak with a TKO early in the first round, due to ferocious punches that left his opponent unable to defend himself.

Pete has been working a lot of his stand up game with Combat Base Doncaster coach Danny Mitchell, obviously time well spent.

Massive congrats to Inka and Stella Doyle who both took gold in their respective weight groups in the grappling divisions at the World Games, excellent achievement.

New articles by BJJ black belt and ADCC silver medallist Felicia Oh, Roger Gracie brown belt Nicolas Gregoriades and Ireland's first BJJ black belt John Kavanagh.

Plus a preview of the recent interviews with the first UK female BJJ black belt.

Watch out for Helen and Chris Haueter features in Fighters magazine coming soon…..

Grappling and Submission Challenge @ Oakwood, Derby 20th May 2007- report, thoughts and strategies

Combat Base junior and senior athletes travelled to Derby to compete in the Grappling and Submission Challenge.

The junior girls team were unlucky so far as the promoters decided to combine males and females together so all the girls had to fight boys but not to be put off by this, the entire junior team competed superbly. The boys had the edge strength-wise but the girls excellent technique just about made up for it and pulled off some excellent wins. The girls team comprised Mia Gill, Stella Doyle, Beau MacLean, Bethany Tudor and Inka Doyle.

The senior team comprised Darren Currie, Andy Krlic and Anthony Doyle. Whilst Darren and Anthony are fairly seasoned competitors this was to be Andy’s first foray into grappling competition following earlier competition success in Thai boxing.

Darren was up first and dispatched his opponent fairly quickly with a shoulder lock submission. Darren’s view of it was “This was my first competitive match in a couple of years so I didn’t want to rush in and make mistakes especially as I did not have a game plan. We tied up, I got the position that I wanted and got a takedown into a dominant position. I attempted a side choke but the guy defended it well so I had to switch to a shoulder lock to get the submission”

Next match saw Anthony get a dominant top position on his opponent after a lengthy feeling out period, patiently took the guy’s back and secured a submission win via rear choke.

Round 2 saw Darren submit his next opponent with an arm lock to get through to the semi finals. Darren’s view of it was “my next opponent looked very good, he was very quick and showed some good submission skills so my first thought was to get a position where he could not use any of that against me. I got the position that I wanted then systematically attacked until I caught an arm lock for the submission. I made the right decision as I saw him choke out a couple of guys later in the tournament who didn’t kill his movement immediately”

Anthony’s second round match went the full time limit with Anthony being dominant and getting the win on points.

Next up was Andy who had a back and forth match with a much more experienced competitor before getting caught with a take down in sudden death overtime, losing by the narrowest of margins.

Andy’s next match saw him submit his opponent with a shoulder lock after a really good match. then stepped aside to let Anthony go through to next round as teammates from our gym do not fight each other in competition.

Darren’s semi-final match started with a battle for grips then Darren pulled a half guard position, attacked with a triangle, when his opponent defended he got the sweep then switched to an arm lock for the submission. Darren’s view of it was “my opponent in the semis looked and indeed was very strong. He was representing Gracie Barra, which is a very good Brazilian Jiu Jitsu organisation so I knew he would have some skills. I knew I had to catch something early and put the pressure on him, which I did. I got a triangle choke position and attacked his arm but he defended well. I waited for him to stand so I could get my sweep and transition to the arm lock. He was a tough guy!”

In the next match Andy worked his full repertoire of skill before getting the submission with a triangle choke.

Next match saw Anthony get taken down so wasbehind on points then had a real back and forth match with his opponent, Anthony trying to sweep but his opponent had great base. It was a close match with Anthony losing on points, his opponent advancing intothe finals to face Darren.

Darren won the final with a foot lock to take the gold. Darren’s view of it was “my opponent looked to have a very strong Judo background as well as training in Jiu Jitsu too so I knew I would have to be careful. I did enough Judo to know what it feels like being thrown on your head so I was obviously keen to avoid that. I decided to attack his leg and go for a foot lock, as these techniques are not that common and would have surprise value. I guessed right as I managed to lock the foot quite quickly.”

At this point, as per club policy of team mates do not compete against each other, Andy graciously decided to step aside so Anthony could compete in the 3rd place play off. The match started off fairly even then went to ground with Anthony working from underneath. His opponent worked patiently to try to get a more dominant position, just as it looked as though he may have got it the match ended giving the opponent 3rd place and Anthony taking 4th place.

Everyone did really well and represented the club excellently, I’m sure that we will be at many competitions to come.

Our resident Floridian, Leo Kirby, continues to post technical information from his ever expanding game, check out his page on this site too.

Congratulations to our new black belt, Helen, who was awarded her new belt from Chris Haueter on his recent visit. Helen is the first UK female BJJ black belt, only the 2nd in Europe and the first female that Chris has ever promoted to that grade anywhere in the world.

Following his awesome performance in the Derby Grappling Competition and his continued improvement overall Andy Krlic was awarded his blue belt. Check out Andy's performance, as well as Anthony's and Darren's performances too, in the link below.

Rob Lawlor travelled down to the Big Smoke to compete in the lightweight purple belt division of this year's installment of SENI. Unfortunately, Rob lost on points to the eventual winner but still put in an excellent performance.

Also check out all the other great interviews here, who'd have thought that Marcelo Garcia was into The Ramones!!

After recent success at the Pan Ams as below, Leo was awarded his brown belt from Edson Diniz.

Leo and his son, Matt, both competed at the recent Pan Ams in CA. Leo took gold winning all 3 matches in the lightweight purple belt division and son Matt followed the following day be winning gold in the heavyweight intermediate blue belt division. Massive congrats to both.

Just added a new page to the website that is authored by my good friend Leo Kirby. Leo is currently training with ex-World Champion and ex-Shooto Champion Edson Diniz in Florida as well as training with BJJ phenom Marcelo Garcia whenever possible. Leo has sent me training tips, techniques and other information for the last few years so I decided it was time for him to share them with you too.

In the coming months there will be step by step techniques, video clips and more. The first installment is a breakdown of a 2 day Marcelo Garcia seminar he just hosted.

Combat Base's Pete Hill made his return to MMA with a convincing win. Pete dominated the stand up, due to his training at Combat Base Doncaster with coach Danny Mitchell. Pete took his opponent, James 'the Future' Williams from Team Warrior, down at will demonstrating some vicious ground 'n' pound. Pete secured an arm triangle and unfortunately got the submission at the exact moment the bell rang for the end of the round. Pete came out for round 2 and blasted his opponent who appeared to be gassing, Pete kept the pressure on and ended up winning a unanimous decision. Credit to his opponent who held on right to the end.

Danny and his team did a great job getting Pete ready, you wouldn't have thought it was his first fight in 3 years!! Roll on Storm Force 5.

Big congrats to my old mate Carl Fisher who just got his purple belt from Lagarto.

It came as no surprise to find out that John Kavanagh got promoted to black belt by Matt Thornton. Anyone who rolled with John when he came over will agree it was a well deserved promotion.

First event of the year and a few trophies in the bag already. Stella and Inka Doyle took gold and silver respectively in their age groups and Tony Doyle took silver in the middleweight blue belt division.

Found all these links to events we held or participated in over the past few years. Have probably got most of them below but it was nice to walk down memory lane.

Went to Machado Academy in LA. little did Helen know that Chris Haueter was going to look at her brown belt. After a little warm up and stretch, she jumped straight in at the deep end and rolled with Cindy Omatsu, the first ever female BJJ black belt in America.

Next up was JJ Machado/Eddie Bravo black belt Felicia Oh, who is one of the best competitors in America right now, this torture went on for an hour before rolling with people her own grade. Deservedly, Helen was awarded her brown belt, making her the first female brown belt in Europe.

Whilst at the Machado Academy, my training partner Lloyd gave me some of the best advice I have ever had, I'll share it with you. Even at 4am you can still get steak and eggs in Las Vegas which is exactly where we were headed next. He was right. Thanks man.

Combat Base team went unbeaten all day as below:
Chris Brandon drew but almost landed a picture perfect flying arm bar.
Luke Young 1 –0
Danny Mitchell 1 – 0
Ben Mallows 2 - 0
Paul Hannon 3 –0
Allan Butler 2 - 0

Congratulations to Luke Young who won gold, to Varqa and Dodd who both won silver at the Seni BJJ tourney.

An absolutely awesome tournament with over 120 competitors from a variety of clubs taking part. Raised approximately £1000 to go to children's’ charities.

The day ran absolutely problem free due to massive team effort. So a shout out to (in no particular order) Spenna, Lu, Varqa, Dodd, Paul Murphy, Mel Leathley and the girls from Hull, Simon, Lisa, Helen and the internet legend that is YorkieBen – hope I haven’t forgot anyone.

Ages 4 to 6 lightweight
1. Beth Schofield Combat Base BJJ
2. Callum Philipson Kickers BBA

Ages 4 to 6 heavyweight male
1. Nathan James Nova Vida BJJ
2. Luke Murphy GB Doncaster
3= Eli Stienberg Kickers BBA
3= Oliver Good Kickers BBA

Ages 7 to 8 lightweight female
1. Stella Doyle Combat Base/Combat Jiu Jitsu
2. Jade Spurgeon Hull Sport Ju Jitsu

Ages 7 to 8 heavyweight female
1. Remmy McDonald Combat Base BJJ
2. Georgia Hannard Hull Sport Ju Jitsu
3. Eli Dodson Hull Sport Ju Jitsu

Ages 7 to 8 lightweight male
1. Ben Schofield Combat Base BJJ
2. Cameron Benson Kodokan JJ
3. Joseph Hopkins Combat Jiu Jitsu

Ages 7 to 8 heavyweight male
1. Daveed Lyn Nova Vida BJJ
2. Ryan Fells GB Doncaster
3. Leighton Lewis Kickers BBA

Ages 9 to 10 lightweight female
1. Kate Benson Kodokan JJ
2. Tia Derrick Nova Vida BJJ
3. Jessica Toomey Hull Sport Ju Jitsu

Ages 9 to 10 heavyweight female
1= Davina Lyn Nova Vida BJJ
1= Kierny Gill Nova Vida BJJ
3. Beau Maclean Combat Base BJJ

Ages 9 to 10 lightweight male
1. Mark Greaves Kickers BBA
2. Jack Grace GB Doncaster
3. Ben Chappell Combat Base BJJ

Ages 9 to 10 heavyweight male
1. Liam Murphy GB Doncaster
2. Timothy Ellis Hull Sport Ju Jitsu
3. Callum Inman Kickers BBA

Ages 11 to 12 lightweight female
1. Megan Halliday Andy Cittenden's MA
2. Inka Doyle Combat Base/Combat Jiu Jitsu
3. Hannah Czolacz Nova Vida BJJ

Ages 11 to 12 lightweight male
1. Ryan Sheldrick Hull Sport Ju Jitsu
2. Sean Fells GB Doncaster
3. Hayden Southwell Andy Cittenden's MA

Ages 11 to 12 heavyweight male
1. Courtney Johnson Nova Vida BJJ
2. Karl Peebles Andy Cittenden's MA
3. Sam Cummings Nova Vida BJJ

Ages 13 to 14 lightweight female
1. Lorraine Grocock Kickers BBA
2. Emma Grocock Kickers BBA
3. Holly Czolacz Nova Vida BJJ

Ages 13 to 14 heavyweight female
1. Anis Sokhansang Nova Vida BJJ
2. Lucy Hillam Kickers BBA
3. Shaunna Adams Kodokan JJ

Ages 13 to 14 lightweight male
1. Adam Kyzer Andy Cittenden's MA
2. Graham Stansfield Andy Cittenden's MA
3. Dale Whiteley Combat Jiu Jitsu

Ages 13 to 14 heavyweight male
1. Lewis Collier Combat Jiu Jitsu
2. Greg Shepherd Crewe Judo Club
3. Jordan Rowe Andy Cittenden's MA

Ages 15 to 16 female
1. Sarah Collier Combat Jiu Jitsu
2. Katy Yexley Pete Guest
3. Victoria Rowe Andy Cittenden's MA

Ages 15 to 16 lightweight male
1. Joe Taylor Combat Jiu Jitsu
2. Arran Doyle Combat Base/Combat Jiu Jitsu
3. Liam Wheatcroft Hull Sport Ju Jitsu

Ages 15 to 16 heavyweight male
1. Luke Young Combat Base BJJ
2. Liam Pickles Kickers BBA
3. Matthew Whiteley Combat Jiu Jitsu

Ben Schofield Combat Base BJJ
Tia Derrick Nova Vida BJJ
Leighton Lewis Kickers BBA
Lorraine Grocock Kickers BBA

A medal was also presented to Callum Philipson from Kickers BBA for technique of the day. Being only 5 years old and 17kg, he threw his first opponent with a beautiful seionage in the first match of the day.

Andy Baker of Co Print, the company that manufacture and print all the gym’s clothing, for sponsoring the Fighter Of The Day trophies

To all the officials who have given their time freely doing a very difficult job

Finally I would like to thank all of the coaches, parents and competitors without which there would be no tournament.

Ben Mallows, Will Harrison, Vince Moran and Luke Young all received their blue belts.

Jonathan Smith took bronze medal in the –60 kg group winning 2 matches and losing 1 on decision.

Luke Young wasted no time in submitting his 2 opponents by arm locks to take the –70kgs title.

Vince Moran lost his first round match against the repeating champion but got immediate redemption winning his next match by arm lock submission.

In the senior –74kgs category Darren Currie won bronze medal winning 4 matches by submission and losing 1 on a decision. On top of this the Chief Referee awarded Darren with Fighter Of The Day for effective technique and outstanding sportsmanship.

The matches began with Luke (69Kg) taking on a heavier and older contender in the under 80Kg section, who bull dosed him back onto the mat. This was no problem for Luke who casually received the aggression and sat back into guard, clamped his opponent, brought the arm across, leg over and applied a crisp arm bar.

Meanwhile Vince was fighting in the over 80Kg section. Vince sat into a loose guard to apply a scissors sweep against his first opponent who was solidly based then tried to take a leg for a knee bar but was unsuccessful so sat up and applied a winning gi choke. His next opponent was more experienced but Vince controlled him in side-mount until he escaped. It was fast and furious until Vince’s opponent tried a foot lock but Vince escaped his foot and mirrored the technique with a winning lock.

Luke and Vince then defeated another opponent each with some brilliant scissors sweeps, both taking first place in their weight groups, Vince for over 80Kg and Luke in the under 80Kg section.

Then they fought each other in a close match for the title of Champion of Champions. Vince emerged the winner on decision.

For those of you that do not know, shame on you, Eddie Bravo is THE man. A J J Machado black belt, the Twister pioneer, the man who tapped Royler Gracie at ADCC Brazil using one of his patented triangle set ups and the head instructor of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu.

Day one was spent working the infamous rubber guard whilst day 2 was set aside for taking the back and pizza. Eddie's step by step style of teaching is absolutely awesome and i am sure that everyone left the seminars with something that was immediately workable because of his teaching methodology.

Should he return to these shored you MUST train with Eddie Bravo or at the very least buy the Twister DVD.

Mark Spencer fought Ollie Ellis. This turned out to be a very close and strategic match with both guys showing their full repertoire. At the end of 3 hard fought rounds Ollie won by Judges Decision.

Next up was a Light-Heavyweight match between Tom Blackledge and Neil Hall. If the last match was strategy then this was power with Tom landing an elbow that was registered on the Richter scale causing the stoppage.

Matt was conducting another series of seminars over at Defence Unlimited Gym in Manchester. Ably assisted by Tom Oberhue, they presented a wealth of information and training principles as usual.

April 25th saw the European BJJ Championships being held in Birmingham as part of the SENI weekend.

It was an awesome competition drawing some real talent, the purple belt divisions were solid.

Ben Mallows won gold, Chris Eastwood won silver and Paul Smith got 4th place in their respective weight groups.

This was a straight knockout tournament for white and blue belts plus purple belt superfight divisions. The Combat Base team had Vince Moran, Dodd Granville, Mike Marriott, Ben Mallows in the white belt division, Paul Smith, in the blue belt division and Varqa Abyaneh in the purple belt division.

Representing Combat Base Northumberland were Lee Smith in the blue belt division plus Harry Lowes and Tom Joyce in the white belt division.

Dodd Granville won "his" weight group (he actually fought in the weight group higher than he should have),

Paul Smith "lost" his first round match by an absolutely appalling decision as he took his opponents back, attacked with arm bars and triangles, attempted sweeps and retained guard so well that his opponent had no chance of passing. The officials gave it to the other guy anyway!!! Bad, bad, bad decision.

Another excellent day with Matt and BJJ black belt John Frankl, as always a massive amount of information was presented. John's half guard bottom section was especially useful dealing with defending the cross face and taking the bask.

February 22nd we were in Doncaster, demonstrating Vale Tudo and Jiu Jitsu on a Kickboxing show.

Matt Thornton Seminar report, Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy February 10th 2003

BJJ black belt Matt Thornton was recently in the UK and it was standing room only at Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy as Matt gave a four-hour seminar of outstanding technical detail. Concentrating on the gi for the evening, Matt covered the basic techniques, including guard passing, combat base, knee rides, arm bar set ups and a number of easy to use high percentage submissions, workable from all ranges and positions. The emphasis was on position before submission and the use of the hips at all times, which Matt pointed out to the class time and again. Matt went on to discuss the theory of aliveness in training and how by applying this to your training, rapid improvement will be the end result. Flashy submissions were not on the menu in the seminar, he explained to the class, more so attention to detail to situations all grapplers find themselves in, regardless of grade and it’s paying attention to the finer points that make all the difference to your game. Matt ended the seminar with a well received question and answer session for the students, before receiving a well earned round of applause.

Two days later, Matt was at the newly opened Combat Base Academy in Pontefract, permanent home for Darren Currie’s students, together with Matt’s teacher Chris Haueter and another four hour seminar culminated in Matt and Chris rolling and grading a number of students who walked away with well earned blue and purple belts.

Promoted to blue were Chris Eastwood, Simon Wooffindin, Steve Muckle, Cheryl Williams, Spenna and Ryan Hunter.

Special promotion to blue belt was Jonathan Smith but seeing as he is only 13 he has to wait 2 years before he can wear it.

9th March saw the first leg of the newly formed Defence Unlimited Submission League. With most of the team concentrating on the upcoming fight night we had a team of 3 enter.

Jonathan Smith who won his first 2 matches by rear naked choke submission and finished the 3rd match with a sweet arm bar.

Cheryl Williams lost to Gracie Barra purple belt Rachael Wheatley but put in a redeeming performance beating her next opponent by rear naked choke.

Spenna won his first match by arm bar, drew the next match as his opponent stalled his way to a draw. Match 3 was a draw then lost the final match to Gracie Barra Birmingham head instructor Braulio.

The team results for the day were 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses so all things considered not a bad day.

After a couple of fighter withdrawals left 2 of our fighters without matches, so a team of 4 competed in the Yorkshire Vale Tudo Fight Night.

First up was 13 year old Jonny Smith. After a brief stand up exchange, Jonny got rear mount and was sinking in a text book rear naked when the fight was stopped and re-started standing, later deemed to be a mistake. The same pattern of Jonny taking the back emerged showing complete positional control. At the end of time, the decision was given to the other guy!!

Next came 16 year old Pete Hill against Mark Chapman. The fight was a standing battle with both guys going toe to toe. Pete started to get the better of Mark with some hurtful shots but Mark kept coming. The fight lasted a full 10 minutes with Pete being awarded a unanimous decision. Both guys should take a lot of credit for this very gutsy performance.

Then Cheryl Williams at 56kg took on Natalie Kendall at 80kg. With the immense size difference Cheryl immediately wanted the fight to go to ground. From there Cheryl attacked with some solid ankle locks while Natalie punched at her body and legs. This was the pattern of the fight which went to judges decision and was awarded to Natalie, against the opinion of the majority of the crowd. Definitely a win for mass over skill.

Final fight was Ryan Hunter, who took on a skilled competitor in Ian Margerison (don't ask me how to pronounce it).

Ryan got the unanimous decision. Both guys fought well but I personally would like to have seen a 3rd round.

Pete Hill won the trophy for fighter of the night and got a £100 cheque thrown in too from the sponsor.

The growth of our beloved sport just keeps on gaining momentum up and down the UK, as more and more people are bitten by the grappling bug; keen to test their skills on the mats, for many of the beginner’s, finding a suitable competition where the skill level reflects their new found abilities can often be a difficult task. Step forward Darren Currie, Yorkshire’s promoter extraordinaire, who arranged a mini invitational between Darren’s Combat Base Academy, Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy and a number of Spenna trained warriors. The grapplers had no more than a couple of matches experience, many were first timers and had the added bonus of fighting on the hottest Sunday of 2003 at Neil’s spacious academy.

DC: Well done, that went really well, how do you feel?
Ben: Very tired but happy.
Foggy: Great, it felt really good, very exciting.
Ian: Good, felt like I learned from the experience.
Jenny: I enjoyed the competition.
Paul: Nervous beforehand but relieved when I finished.
Varqa: Feels good to get to compete and the fact I've got no injuries is good too.

DC: How were your nerves?
Ben: I had to throw my undies away after the match.
Foggy: What nerves? They were destroyed as soon as I hit the mats.
Ian: More nervous than I thought. Made me more tired in the match.
Jenny: I was nervous at the beginning.
Paul: Nervous beforehand but relieved when I finished.
Varqa: Was really nervous waiting for my name to be called out but once I was on the mat it was like a (hard) training session.

DC: Was your match different to what you expected? In retrospect, what would you have done differently?
Ben: I can't really remember much.
Foggy: Yes it was quicker. I was fortunate to end it so soon.
Ian: It was tiring but enjoyable. I should have relaxed a bit more.
Jenny: I shouldn't have turned my back.
Paul: My match went as I thought it might although next time I'd go for the takedown from the start.
Varqa: Yes it was different because I won!

DC: Are you now hoping to compete again?
Ben: I'd like to compete again, hopefully I'll be in better shape.
Foggy: Definitely. I'll try anything really, gi, no gi, vale tudo, it doesn't matter.
Ian: See what happens.
Jenny: Yes, I would compete again, I really enjoyed it.
Paul: I would like to compete again. Same format for now but I would like to move onto amateur vale tudo at some point.
Varqa: Yes, I'd like to compete in some more submission stuff and perhaps work up to some amateur vale tudo matches.

DC: How did you prepare for your match?
Ben: Not well enough.
Foggy: Loads of training and mental preparation.
Ian: Lots of fitness work and cardio, rolling with my training partners.
Jenny: Usual training with Helen.
Paul: Usual training, nothing special.
Varqa: Came down to Combat Base and had the blue belts beat me up.

DC: What about diet, didn't some of you cut weight?
Ben: I lost 5kgs that messed up my stamina.
Foggy: Me? Diet? No, I'm naturally fat.
Ian: Just a good clean diet, I lost about 3.5kg, used some protein supplements.
Jenny: I lost 6 pounds, ate loads of protein, fruit & veg.
Paul: My diet is terrible, I don't use supplements, my fighting prowess is all natural.
Varqa: Cut down the carbs and took more protein.

DC: Any advice for first time competitors or people considering competing ?
Ben: Not really.
Foggy: Just go for it and do your best. Most importantly just enjoy it.
Ian: Just do it, it's a great learning experience.
Jenny: Just enjoy it, try not to be too nervous.
Paul: Just do it. It can only make you and your training improve.
Varqa: If you're at a club and your instructor feels you're ready then give it a shot, even just for the experience.

DC: Any final words?
Ben: Where's my money?
Foggy: No
Paul: When's the next one?

Congratulations to the guys that competed successfully at the 2nd submission league.

Chris Eastwood and Andy Pyle had a stack of matches between them, winning most by submission and sharing 3rd place.

Unfortunately Mark Chen had to withdraw from the competition due to cut from a freak accident.

July 5th was the night all Neil Hall's hard work came to fruition. Maybe I'm a little biased, maybe because some of our guys were competing but this was the most enjoyable show I had seen.

Myself and Fisher plus Chris Eastwood and Steve Muckle got to put on a bit of a BJJ demo which was a blast.

The inaugural Gorilla Cup UK Junior Grappling Championships took place at Castleford Sports Centre in West Yorkshire, UK. The Gorilla Cup is the name given by the Straight Blast Gym's grappling competitions in the USA. With Combat Base’s links with the SBGi BJJ Association, head honcho Darren Currie decided to use the same name that perfectly fitted some of the little 'monkeys' competing. It is always a great experience dealing with these young athletes, everyone comes to fight; there's no playing for points, getting a minor score and stalling their ass off for the rest of the match. They readily accept judges' decisions without question and fundamentally just got on with it. It is such a pleasure watching kids as young as 5 years old doing their Jits, working their guard to sweep and improve position rather than just trying to tie their opponent up, such an open game. All coaches and parents were glowing with pride and rightly so.

Following rolling with each other, with brown belt Mike then getting beat up by Matt, culminating in the now infamous @ss whipping, the following people were promoted:

Mark "Spenna" Spencer got 3 stripes for his blue belt then Varqa Abyaneh, Ian McGreavy, Paul "King Of The Wristlocks" Smith, Richard "Foggy" Fothergill plus Lee Smith from Combat Base Northumberland all received blue.

October 19th saw the next installment of the sub league. The only Combat Base representative this time was Varqa who posted a record of 1 win, 2 creditable draws and 1 loss. Varqa is improving at an alarming rate and is on his way to being a quality competitor.

Another superb performance by Spenna defeating Sami Berik at UC8. Landing some good punches and elbows before locking in the triangle for the round 1 victory.

Another night at the office, another solid performance by Spenna. He was dominating the match when a freakish fall from a take down left him a little disorientated (he was the one doing the taking down). Spenna continued to dominate the match and took a deserved judges decision.

Darren Currie and Simon Wooffindin went over to Hull to 'compete' in a friendly fight night to help raise money for children's charities.

Matt Thornton makes his inaugural trip to the UK giving a series of seminars. First time we have trained with him and the guy is hugely impressive.

Inter Club Competition at Bradford Kickers was on 19th May 2002. Steve Muckle, Rory Duffield and Cheryl Williams made up the grappling team whilst Pete Hill, Ryan Hunter and Mark Chen made up the Vale Tudo team. 6 wins and 2 losses make for a good day.

Ultimate Combat 2 was on 9th June 2002 Mark Chen and Spenna competed in pro Vale Tudo.

Matt Thornton back in the UK, probably the hottest day of the year so about 40 of us crammed into a gym to train. Very hot, very sweaty, very good seminar.

Sunday 21st July 2002 Fighting Chance's Super Sunday Seminar @ Fighting Chance Academy, Batley, with Darren Currie covering BJJ, Spenna wrestling and Carl Fisher Sombo. The FCA guys were enthusiastic so we'll be back there in the near future. A good day.

Alliance black belt Roger Brooking travelled up from London to treat us to a four hour seminar in BJJ. He gave a very technical display of BJJ then kicked the butts of all the blue belts in true BJJ fashion. Great seminar.

Chris Eastwood completed his Phase 1 Instructor Certificate from the Keysi Fighting Method UK, well done mate.

1st September saw our Inter Club Competition held at Bradford again. Cheryl Williams, Chris Eastwood, Spenna and Pete Guest all got wins in the submission matches. Pete Hill, Cheryl Williams, Ryan Hunter, Bamber and Spenna all won their Vale Tudo matches with Ryan winning a four man tournament. Not bad for a day’s work 9 wins, 1 draw and the only loss coming by JD.

8th September Mark Chen won at Ultimate Combat 3, putting him into the lightweight semis.

15th September was the Sport Jiu Jitsu Grappling Championships @ Dewsbury. Cheryl & Chris both took silver medals only losing to vastly more experienced competitors.

28th September saw us back at Fighting Chance Academy @ Batley, putting on a guard seminar.

Our good friend Spenna opens an MMA class at Fighting Chance Academy, watch for these guys to break through onto the competition scene.

The rest of October, I was in the USA resisting the urge to train by drinking Miller Genuine Draft, eating corn chowder and watching the Anaheim Angels win the World Series.

Roger Brooking came over to Doncaster and has decided to make it a regular visit once a month. A BJJ black belt in Yorkshire on a regular basis…..

Fighting Chance Academy's head honcho Neil Hall competed at Clash Of The Titans in his first submission wrestling bout. Even though the judge scored it as a draw, Neil completely dominated and should have been given the decision.

Ultimate Combat 4 - Lightweight Semi Final - Mark Chen KO’s his way to Lightweight Title shot

Chris Eastwood, Ryan Hunter & Steve Muckle compete in the Sombo Comp @ Fighting Chance Academy. Each one gets bronze. Well done guys for stepping out of your usual formats.

Inter Club Competition reviews, seminar and class reviews plus interviews with Matt Thornton, Roger Brooking, Darren Currie, Mark Chen, Ryan Hunter and Neil Hall.

Competition reviews, interviews and profiles on www.allsports-int.co.uk News Section, Martial Arts

Respect to all the fighters, I hope no one is disappointed with their performance yesterday because everyone came to fight and fight they did.

Big thanks to all fighters, coaches and supporters. Thanks to Jim Burman for a first class refereeing performance and thanks to Helen, Jimmy Wong, Andy Pyle, Tom, Darren, Tony and everyone who helped. Sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone.

Jemma Reisborough (Phoenix MMA) V Cheryl Williams (Combat Base BJJ)
Cheryl by submission.

Chris Eastwood (Combat Base BJJ) V Martin Kleinhout (Sport JJ)
Martin by decision

Carl Fisher (Tom Blackledge’s Academy) V Spenna (Combat Base BJJ/Kickers)
Spenna by submission

Steve Bowman (Phoenix MMA) V Steve Newlove (Sport JJ)
Newlove by referee stoppage

Graham Beaumont (Sport JJ) V Ian Margerison (Fighting Chance Academy)
Graham by decision

Tony Morales (Phoenix MMA) V Ian Margerison. (Fighting Chance Academy)
Tony by decision

Carl Fisher (Tom Blackledge’s Academy) V Steve Fitzsimmons (Sport JJ)
Steve by submission

Shawn Lancaster (Fighting Chance Academy) V Spenna (Combat Base BJJ/Kickers)
Spenna by decision.

Cheryl Williams (Combat Base BJJ) V Jennie Taylor (Colleseum)
Cheryl by submission

Matt Thorpe (Colleseum) V Iain Brownley – injured
Matt wins as Iain withdrew due to injury

Steve Fitzsimmons (Sport JJ) V Aidrian Oliver (Fighting Chance Academy)
Steve by submission

Bamber and Spenna train together so did not fight each other in the final calling it a draw and sharing first place.

Team Champions went to Mel Leathley’s Sport Ju Jitsu (we don’t consider our team for the trophy as we organise the event, sore point I know)

Ian Lorentz (Huddersfield) V Graham Beaumont (Hull) Lorentz by judges’ decision

At the breaks Mel Leathley and his girls Jiu Jitsu team from Hull provided a couple of demonstrations. First of all, throwing to groundwork demonstration bout then into the full Jiu Jitsu rules, punches, kicks, throws and groundwork.

A big thanks to everyone involved, all the behind the scenes staff, everyone at Kickers, all spectators and fighters. Thanks to the judges Dave McClennon, Mark Spencer, Helen Smith and Simon Wooffindin. To the referees Darren Currie and Jim Burman. Finally to Darren Good for use of his excellent facilities.

Alliance black belt Roger Brooking travelled up from London to treat us to a four hour seminar in BJJ.

After the warm up, Roger started the first part of the seminar with stand up Jiu Jitsu. A part often neglected in our quest for ground domination. Beginning with guillotine chokes and counters progressing through to the take down.

Roger then progressed through a mere fraction of his repertoire taking us through many positions, attacks and the all-important escapes from each position.

Opening of the guard was broken right down in detail, showing how important the fundamentals are. If you can’t break the guard you can’t begin to pass.

Then came the rolling. Showing what an a true black belt can do, Roger proceeded to take on all the blue belts, the faces of Andy Pyle, Jimmy Wong and Darren said it all after their roll.

Roger provided an excellent day's tuition and will be made most welcome any time he cares to visit which hopefully shouldn't be too long in coming; everybody who attended the seminar really enjoyed the opportunity to train with a black belt who demonstrated just how far we all have to go.

Anyone in the London area, either living or visiting really ought to check Roger out

The UK is an exciting place to be at the moment for MMA, as each weekend showcases either a new event or witnesses the arrival of a new instructor from foreign shores keen to spread the word; however, there can be a downside to this in the fact that our own home grown instructors can be left by the wayside as our thirst for knowledge makes us look for outside tuition and we start to think 'this guys Brazilian, so he must be good.'

With this in mind, it was a pleasure to see Fighting Chance Chief Instructor Neil Hall bring in local instructors took time out of their busy schedules to pass on their knowledge and skills to a mixture of novices and senior grades and a healthy turnout it was, with over thirty attendees on the day, numbers usually reserved for visiting “names”.

Darren kicked off the afternoon with a number of drillsrom the side mount that emphasised position before submission and gave all students something to work on, before moving on to working the actual submissions themselves, and impressed the guys with his smooth transition from position to position.

Spenna then took over and started with basic pummelling drills and briefly touching on the endless number of takedowns available from this position; he went on to demonstrate ways to shoot in for the leg and finished his slot with a lovely takedown from the clinch, ending in whatever submission came to mind.

For the final section of the day, the Fighting Photographer himself, Mr Carl Fisher demonstrated some of the Sombo techniques that had enabled him to win the bronze medal in the FORMAUK Championships the previous day. Helping to bridge the gap between standing and ground Carl ran through a number of takedown to leg submission combinations providing further options to the grappling game. (Darren added this section to Carl’s original report as he didn’t report on the stuff he did, the modest old bugger)

To finish the instruction section Darren took to the floor to address the attendees “I’d just like to thank everyone for being open minded enough to train with us. We are not rich and famous, not big names, the other two aren’t even good looking so we really appreciate the effort you have made to come here today. We hope you got something out of it”.

The academy is well worth a visit and I am assured another seminar is in the pipeline, where I am sure another maximum capacity will be the order of the day.

First of all, anyone who has seen any of Matt’s previous tapes or attended the seminars he has done in the UK will know exactly what to expect and they will not be disappointed.

With these being seminar tapes I wasn’t expecting the tape quality to be that good, but the quality is every bit as good, if not better than, most studio produced tapes that I have.

The thing I personally liked about these tapes was Matt covered some of the material that he had done with us on his last UK visit so it refreshed my memory of some of the finer points that I may not have fully grasped (forgotten). This coupled with a load of stuff that I had not seen before made a perfect blend.

I also like the fact that Matt makes you think, it’s not just “do this, do that” but to actually think for yourself. There are too many examples to quote but the ‘evolution of an art’ he explained was so right. Experiment yourself, don’t wait for someone to do it for you.

As usual everything is shown using his 3 stages of learning a new technique, the 3 I’s. Introduction, isolation and incorporation. Even this in itself can make you totally re-evaluate your training and teaching style, if you don’t use this method already.

I won’t go into detail about the technical content of the tapes, check the link below if you want a complete break down of the seminar content.

The negative points? I could have done without U2 playing in the background but you can’t condemn a man for his musical taste now, can you? Other than this the tapes are superb.

To conclude, these tapes are very slick, full of information and, more importantly, make you think. 4 hours of quality, no bull $hit training. Well worth a place in anyone’s library.

For further information on obtaining these videos click on the link below or mail Luis Gutierrez on Luis@onedragon.com

The Keysi Academy hosted the first UK visit of Matt Thornton, the President of the Straight Blast Gym.

The techniques, both ground and clinch, were excellent and immediately useable as expected from a quality martial artist like Matt. The way all the techniques are presented and taught makes it easy to fit them straight into your current game.

Having training partners like Chris Haueter, Dan Henderson and Randy Couture obviously helps.

Matt’s war cry is “Aliveness” but rather than me try to explain it check out Matt’s web site at www.straightblastgym.com

Matt Thornton is due back in July 2002, don’t miss the opportunity to train with him.

Howard Combat Kimono’s competition single is the best gi I have ever used and is my favourite gi. The collar is so thick it makes it very difficult to grab which is obviously a plus. The jacket is very well fitted under the arms which makes it comfortable to wear. It has been seriously worn and is showing no signs of failure at all, this jacket is indestructible.

This 3 tape series is not so much an “instructional” as we have come to expect but a “what, where, why and how to” concepts video series.

The first tape introduces the concept of "Aliveness", in other words training with timing, energy and motion to enhance performance. Although Matt does demonstrate techniques, it is the over-riding principle of Aliveness that is constantly stressed. Not attractive video-selling flash techniques designed to make you look good but actual training methodology to improve your all round game.

Tape one also covers the stand-up fight game, drawing heavily from boxing but also incorporating kicking, the straight blast and many other options.

Tape two deals with the next logical phase of game, the clinch and takedowns featuring world-class fighter & UFC Champ Randy Couture.

The subject of tape three is the ground-game and the base art of Brazilian Jiu Jutsu featuring Machado black belt, Chris Haueter. Nuff said!

The tapes are put together really well. The message is transmitted loud and clear but there’s more than a pinch of humour (the baseball batter using traditional martial arts concepts on tape 1 is outstanding, so funny because we’ve all done it!!)

The technical information blends well with interviews reinforcing the points being made and the actual fight footage perfectly demonstrates the “Aliveness” training concept really does enhance your performance.

CHAOS TITLE MATCH
1st Jonathan Smith - Combat Base
2nd Tom Richardson - Combat Base

LIGHTWEIGHT VALE TUDO
1st Mark Chen – Freestyle
2nd Andrew Roberts - Gracie Jiu Jitsu
3rd Ross Bainbridge - Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Ryan Hunter - Combat Base - withdrew due to injury

LIGHT MIDDLEWEIGHT VALE TUDO
1st Rory Duffield - Combat Base
2nd Iain Brownley - Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Carl Fisher - Phoenix Jiu Jitsu
3rd Chris Kerr - Ashington Wrestling / Sombo

MIDDLEWEIGHT VALE TUDO
1st Ross Pettifer - Gracie Jiu Jitsu
2nd Brian Smart - Combat Base
3rd Mark Bailey - Combat Base
3rd Michael Butler - Keysi Academy, Newcastle

HEAVYWEIGHT VALE TUDO TITLE FIGHT
1st Chris Collins - Tiro Luta Academy
2nd Chris Eastwood - Combat Base

LIGHTWEIGHT DIVISION
Champion - Craig Myerscough – Cheadle OWC
2nd Mark Chen - Freestyle
3rd Ryan Hunter – Combat Base
3rd Jimmy Wong – Keysi Academy, Hull

LIGHT MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION
Champion - Glenn Brodrick – Gracie Barra
2nd Greg Mawson - Skirmish
3rd Carl Fisher – Phoenix Ju Jitsu
3rd Tony Devine – Kickers Academy

MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION
Champion - Ande Roberts – Gracie Barra
2nd Dan Spink – Harlow Free Fight
3rd Andy Pyle – Keysi Academy, Hull
3rd Adam Reeds – Harlow Free Fight

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Champion - Nick Jones - Skirmish
2nd Steven Cummings
3rd Michael Butler – Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Paul Hannan –Combat Base

HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION
Champion - Keith Dace – Harlow Free Fight
2nd Paul Scott
3rd Brian Aiken
3rd Wayne Wood – Keysi Academy, Newcastle

SENIOR MALE DIVISION
Champion - Pete Guest – Tang Soo Do Freestyle
2nd Brian Smart –Combat Base
3rd Ian Patterson – Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Ron Carr – Keysi Academy, Newcastle

FEMALE DIVISION
Champion - Rachael Wheatley – Gracie Barra
2nd Bev Sisson – Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Vikki Watts – Keysi Academy, Hull

INTERMEDIATE MALE DIVISION
Champion - Paul Cole – Gracie Barra
2nd Jonathan Booth –Combat Base
3rd Gary Carr – Keysi Academy, Newcastle
3rd Marc Leigh – Kickers Academy

Carl Fisher (Phoenix Jiu Jitsu) v Ismael Tahiri (Tiro Luta) – Fisher by leg lock

Carl Fisher (Phoenix Jiu Jitsu) v Mark Hallam (Tiro Luta) – Fisher by arm lock

Carl Fisher (Phoenix Jiu Jitsu) v Chris Collins (Tiro Luta) – Collins by leg lock

Helen Smith won her first match, then lost the second to a much larger opponent.

MALE UNDER 73kg
1st= David Smith - Defence Unlimited
1st= Danny Rogerson - Defence Unlimited
3rd= Neil Cooper - Defence Unlimited
3rd= Anthony Knibb - Defence Unlimited

UNDER 80kg
1st Tony Devine - Kickers Academy
2nd Mark Spencer - Kickers Academy
3rd= Ian Brownley – Mike Wray’s BBA
3rd= Patrick Gomery - Wrestling

UNDER 87kg
1st Andy Pyle - Keysi UK
2nd Gareth Roberts - Skirmish
3rd= Brian Smart - Combat Base
3rd= Dave Ives - Merseyside Vale Tudo

UNDER 95kg
1st Nick Jones - Skirmish
2nd Martin Kleinhout - Hull Sport Ju Jitsu
3rd= Paul Johnson - Shin Sen Jutsu
3rd= Paul Gardner - Defence Unlimited, Withington

OVER 95kg
1st Graham Cook - Keysi UK
2nd Mike Martin - Darlington Jiu JItsu
3rd= Benjamin Fearns - Phoenix Ju JItsu
3rd= Simon Small - Darlington Jiu JItsu

LADIES
1st Rosi Sexton - Defence Unlimited
2nd Cheryl Williams - Tang Soo Do Freestyle
3rd= Sarah Slater – Chuldow Martial Arts
3rd= Rachael Broughton - Darlington Jiu JItsu

1st Ian Leach - Tiro Luta Shootfighting Academy
2nd David Wooffindin – Premier Tae Kwon Do

MIDDLEWEIGHT VALE TUDO CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
1st Rory Duffield - Combat Base
2nd Chris Collins - Tiro Luta Shootfighting Academy

HEAVYWEIGHT VALE TUDO CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
1st Chris Collins - Tiro Luta Shootfighting Academy
2nd Brian Smart - Combat Base

A superb seminar made better by the fact that there was about 10 people in a small room having questions personally answered by John Machado. The techniques were excellent and as usual he rolled with everyone present (for rolled read played) At one point he was holding down a strong looking guy, the guy was thrashing around frantically trying to escape. John calmly reached over, took out a bottle of water and had a drink all the while the guy underneath is trying to escape. John casually puts the top back on the bottle, replaces it and carries on rolling without the guy even knowing what he had just done.

It was amusing to start with as John got us all sat down and asked what we were having trouble with. No one answered initially so he took off his black belt, threw it into the middle and told us we had all been promoted to black belt.

As everyone looked puzzled, he explained, “if you don’t have problems with anything you must all be black belts” With that point taken we went through a whole host of problems including technique completion when being stacked and triangle escapes.

John raised some very good points
1. Patience - you cannot expect to jump in and beat people who know what you know.
2. Everything tight - no space.
3. You do not need to finish immediately, tire them out first, wear them down, whatever then take them out.
4. If working in partner’s guard do not leave one arm in on it’s own in guard. John recommended leaving the same side knee along with the arm.
5. With the triangle escapes especially the kamikaze ones, you may as well try them because otherwise you are going to get choked anyway.

Another excellent seminar, this time concentrating on defending against double leg take down, turnovers and finishes.

Again John rolled with everyone after the group and been split between experienced guys and beginners. John took on the experienced guys one after the other, there was about 40, and just beat us all easily.

I was always told that if you sit back and wait for things to happen, nothing happens. I now know this to be untrue. I received a phone call out of the blue inviting me to a seminar with a BJJ black belt that I had never heard of. Obviously interested, I went along.

I met a guy called Andy Norman who had recently opened a BJJ class in Hull so hence began my weekly trips to Hull to train. I can’t thank Andy enough for giving us this opportunity to train authentic BJJ, know what I mean?

There I was introduced to a guy called Chris Haueter, he was a black belt from the Machados so I knew he was going to be good. Fortunately he turned out to be way better than good and has changed my approach to training for ever more.

Chris was about my size but took on everyone at the seminar regardless of size. There was a huge Judo black belt and Chris played with him like he was a total beginner.

1. Learning to grapple in a gi is especially good for this country because with the crappy weather you will almost always have clothing on
2. If it is not working move your butt. A lot of escapes can work when you have space. To create space move your butt.
3. PATIENCE when you are after a certain position use patience. Do not rush into anything. Prepare for a long fight
4. Control! Control! Control! Everything on the seminar was due to control.
5. Keep everything tight and allow your opponent no space. If you are trying to reverse a position, try to create space.
6. IF YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING, MOVE YOUR BUTT! (literally)
7. if you are in guard keep your arms in, use your elbows to stop your partner working their way up to a high mount where the oopa would be less effective, when trying to pass the guard don’t leave an arm behind, protect your arms.