News 2010
New Blue Belt 12th July 2010
Congrats to Dane Mitchell from The Asylum who was promoted to blue belt.
Dane is already a quality Judoka so I profiled him as having slick takedowns and a solid top game (which he has) but his guard work was very impressive, great movement.
He won welterweight gold and was absolute champion in the recent Grapplefit.com No Gi Championships in spite of being only 77kg.
A very easy promotion.
Seminar at Fulinkazan HQ 10th July
After much time threatening to go over to Spenna's we managed to get there following the opening of the new Fulinkazan HQ to teach a Jiu Jitsu session.
I know it hasn't always been easy for Spenna doing what he has wanted to do so the new gym is a massive step in the right direction and he really deserves it.
The seminar started with some specific guard drills to work the crucial movements required when playing guard, sometimes we get bogged down with acquiring more techniques and sometimes forget the really important bits.
Following this passing guard was covered in detail, stripping the passes right back to the bare bones before rebuilding. Some basic yet very important points were drilled with everyone seeming to appreciate the differences that it made.
A few options were also covered when the guard had been passed rather than just going to regular side control, a pass straight into a really effective controlling yet attacking position seemed to make sense to most.
I have taught this passing guard seminar a good few times and it has always been well received, I think everyone got something from it.
Look forward to the next one.
New Blue Belt
Congrats to Team Fu member Adam Simpson who got his blue belt from Helen tonight after a tough session. Goes to show how hard work and good training pays off.
Combat Base Facebook Group
Any Combat Base members not yet joined, click here to join our members only group. Great way to read up what's happening and links you to all the other members of our ever-growing group. Some cool stuff on there already.
First Blue Belt For James Nardone BJJ
Congrats to Adam 'GSP' Ross on being promoted to blue belt following his stellat performance at the Manchester Open and becomes the first promotion at the newly formed James Nardone BJJ club.
Well done guys
Manchester Open BJJ Championships
Sunday 20th June 2010 saw the first of what I hope will be a regular addition to the BJJ calendar, the Manchester Open and it was the perfect opportunity to get out of the house and away from the kids on Father's Day (just kidding family if you are reading this, if you are not reading this I'm not kidding)
Was a really well run competition, not many contentious decisions and no obvious sandbagging which is always a plus.
From Combat Base UK we had a decent team comprising Combat Base, Factory BJJ, James Nardone BJJ and Combat Base Bolton.
A mention must go to Adam Adshead for taking purple featherweight with 2 very slick submissions in spite of being outweighed by 10kg and competing in the weight group above. 10kg is huge when you only weigh 60kg to start with.
And to James Nardone taking silver in the middleweight division only marginally losing the final to an experienced player in Paddy Carmody. Excellent result for James who has settled into the purple belt division very quickly and is really only a lightweight competitor.
Everyone did themselves and us proud and although it sounds like a cliche you really are a winner for just putting yourself through the ordeal of competing, congrats to everyone.
Some photos and stuff here
Hope to see more of you at the next one.
The Guard
As we are studying guard at the moment I thought I would post a fight from the Grappling and Submission Challenge from May 2007.
Here I take on Stephen Martin, an excellent competitor who won the Mundials at junior blue belt so obviously a talented guy.
I decided to play guard because 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 the arm lock.
Watch the video then check out the notes below:
At 0:23 - I pull guard and attack immediately with a low risk attack which I think is better than just pulling to guard position.
At 0:35 - Don't have good grips or great controlling position so when he stands I decide to stand and start again. *Remember* you don't have to stay on the ground, one of the options with guard is to stand.
At 0:38 - Repeat the pull guard and attack immediately with a low risk attack but this time keep closed guard for a while to stabilise position.
At 0:49 - Open guard to start setting up scissor sweep but he defends very well, notice how wide his base is.
At 1:00 - He is wanting to pass to his left (remember what I was telling you in class) so I show him that way and switch to half guard.
At 1:03 - Slide shin in to Z guard to control distance.
At 1:23 - Start setting up the close range spider guard (which we worked recently for about a month) overhooking his right arm and using my left foot onto his right hip to control his entire right hand side but keeping my right foot as a hook between his legs. As he steps back to avoid the foot on hip control I climb high guard and start to set up my 'omaplata as a guard' position (see more about this on Leo's Page).
At 1:35 - Notice how keeping the right hook allows me to play a little half guard with that leg therefore controlling his ability to move effectively.
Oli Geddes Seminar Videos Uploaded
Big thanks to Oli for getting all the videos uploaded showing him using all the techniques in competition that he taught at our seminar.
If you weren't at the seminar then you are not allowed to look at them.
News From Combat Base North East
Grapplefit.com Nogi Championships 2010
Strike Fighting Championships 4 in Ashington
Andy Ferris wins at Battle At Boulmer
Grapplefit.com Nogi Championships 2010
A good day in Sunderland for Combat Base North East and The Asylum medalling in most of the divisions including a huge win in the absolute for Dane Mitchell despite being a welterweight. These championships go from strength to strength so a congrats is in order to Trev and the gang, keep up the good work.
Results:
Lightweight -73kg
Bronze: Kris Brotherton, Combat Base NE
Welterweight -79kg
Gold: Dane Mitchell, The Asylum
Middleweight -85kg
Silver: Brett Smart, Combat Base NE
Heavyweight -97kg
Silver: James Parker, The Asylum
ABSOLUTE CHAMPION 2010
Dane Mitchell, The Asylum
Combat Challenge Review 06 Jun 2010
from mmahitpit
Friday 4th June 2010 saw another excellent night of fights in front of a sold out crowd at the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford. Saif Khan and his team deserve great praise for organizing such a high quality event at one of Bradford's premier hotels.
"Pro 77kg - Will Brooks (Team Akurei) v Andy Lanes (Combat Base)
The well supported Lanes started this contest in confident fashion forcing Brooks against the fence and controlling the position. Brooks turned his back and Lanes did not need a second invitation to take it and hook in his legs. Unfortunately for Lanes, when the two hit the ground he was unable to hold Brooks for long, with the Akurei man turning into Lanes full guard. He then landed a few body punches before Lanes failed in a triangle attempt which resulted in Brooks gaining the full mount. Lanes felt he was in a vulnerable position and turned giving up his back to Brooks who gladly took advantage and locked in the rear naked choke to gain the submission victory at 2 minutes 45 seconds".
Some guys like to train for a couple of years then consider competing but Andy is not one of those guys, he wanted to fight straightaway so within 6 months of starting Jiu Jitsu there he was ready to go. At this point in his career everything is a lesson and he is improving a little in each fight.
Unlucky Andy Lanes this time but I’m sure he will be back at the next one.
New blue belts 17th May
Congrats to John Harrison who was just promoted to blue belt by Helen. I first met John when I was still teaching at the sports centre about 7 years ago when he was younger but a lot heavier, hard to believe now. John has trained with us on and off for years so it's great to see him promoted.
Oli Geddes Seminar @ Combat Base 16th May 2010
After a lot of backwards and forwards trying to agree on a date that suited us we finally got Oli Geddes up to Combat Base to work his competition half guard game, something I was looking forward to.
To assist Oli in the seminar was Roger Gracie black belt Nick Brooks, himself a very accomplished competitor, check his profile here who was on hand to pass on some of his knowledge. to the participants.
The seminar started with the absolute basics of half guard, the fundamental stuff, the foundation that everything else is built on, the leg positioning and grips.
We went through his whole competition game of sweeps, stand ups, submissions, reversals and transitions to other positions that lasted a full 4 hours and there would have been more to come except we ran out of time. The cool thing about all the techniques was obviously the structure and progression and the fact that Oli had successfully used all these techniques in competition.
Oli had obviously put a lot of thought into this seminar with typed handouts of everything we would be covering and his execution of it down to the finest detail was excellent.
Hopefully get them back up for part 2 real soon so make sure you get to this one.
Check out Oli in action on his web site The JiuJitsu Game
Pic by Carl Fisher, more pics on his blog here
The Purple Poodle does Thailand
Details from Carl Fisher's recent training trip to Thailand here (scroll down the page a bit)
Found some old tapes.....
Got a video player again so started going through my old video collection to get them onto my pc so there may be some old stuff making its way onto the web site.
Check out my youtube channel too
To start us off we have 9th March 2003 saw the first leg of the newly formed Defence Unlimited Submission League.
Jonny aged 13 but looking about 9, won his first 2 matches by rear naked choke submission and finished the 3rd match with a sweet arm bar. In the 3rd match he had the guy’s back for a while and didn’t finish so I asked him why he didn’t get the choke and he simply said ‘I got 2 already, I wanted an arm bar’
Equally impressive was seeing Braulio compete live for the first time. I’ve included this match not because I have any affiliation to him or his team and have not had the opportunity to train with him so far, I just think the guy is awesome.
Rolling With John Frankl February 2004
Got to train/roll with a black belt my own size which was quite a rarity in 2004, in fact it still is, following another excellent seminar from John Frankl and Matt Thornton from SBG.
The roll highlights a few things that we have covered recently in class so watch it first and then read the notes below:
A little revision for you, the things below we have covered recently:
Right off the bat I go for the rolling choke, most people will try to take the back that I anticipated John would be thinking so I tried to initiate an attack from the front. He defended the choke very well by not letting me get the hand behind his head then escaping to his knees (I should have re-rolled but ......)
At 1:08 awesome sweep, I didn't break the grips that he wanted and paid the price, was an awesome sweep though.
At 1:40 the sickle sweep when someone stands in your guard.
At 1:50 rolling omaplata, as cool as it looks I did emphasise it's practicality too, like the way John set it up from his threaded spider guard that we worked for a month straight.
At 3:15 the arm drag, I know we worked it from the full butterfly but it still works the same way, you can see how John uses it to great effect and puts me in a bad spot.
At 3:34 he arm drags me again, I managed to roll to guard this time rather than have him take my back but getting caught with it twice in 20 seconds is not good. He did laugh and say he only had 2 moves, unfortunately for me arm drag is one of them. Really simple technique in principle and one that should be in everyone's arsenal, see how quickly it changes the game.
Really enjoyed the roll and got a lot from it, I really appreciate the black belts that roll like that, he could have killed me but played open and made it a match so that we both could get something from it. The black belt rolling with a lower grade he doesn't know yet still gives the guy some game rather than worrying about if he gets caught or not so decides to smash you instead.
Grapplemania 3.0 28th March
Congrats to the newly blue-belted Max Ramsden who took 3rd place in the -80kg advanced division despite being the lightest and youngest in the division.
New belts 23rd March
Congrats to the latest guys that got promoted by Helen
Gary Hoyle and Max Ramsden were promoted to blue belt
Dave Hirst was promoted to purple belt
Congrats to all.
Ladies Only Training Day 21st March
When Dave Webb and I first spoke about the ladies only training camp, I was expecting quite a number from the BJJ gi community wanting to train with the only female BJJ black belt in the UK, especially as a recent visiting female black belt seemed to have attracted quite a few women to her seminar who seemed to relish training with a female black belt.
Very few showed interest and even less turned up for our first session but that is definitely their loss, maybe Helen is not a big enough name, wrong nationality or maybe politics, who knows!!
The day itself finally arrived and there was a fantastic turnout, more than I had expected, from a variety of different styles too; BJJ players, no gi grapplers, MMA fighters, Judoka and others which gave a very good blend. There were a few ladies who were unable to attend due to injury/other commitments that really wanted to attend otherwise the session would have been even larger.
Helen started her section with her warm up combining a little Ginastica, movement drills and sports specific BJJ drills all working movement, hips and core. From there she moved on to show close range/no gi spider guard. Anticipating the variety of styles, this particular position is applicable to BJJ, no gi, MMA and self protection as the control it gives is brilliant and offers a wide scope of techniques and concepts from there.
She started out by working on breaking posture, getting to position and the importance of control before adding the techniques. From there she moved onto the hook sweep series before looking at the application of the triangle choke and omaplata from that position. For the gi grapplers she showed the variation of the cross lapel choke from that position which is little known but extremely effective.
To finish off her technical section, she had the ladies move onto line drills to practice the guard under pressure; people playing guard can only sweep and the person on top can only pass. These drills are really useful to practice sweeping and passing as it puts the person into position constantly to practice that situation rather than trying to implement it into sparring straightaway.
A very quick break ensued then it was the turn of UK's most successful MMA fighter, Rosi Sexton, who is also a very capable wrestler, no gi competitor and BJJ purple belt.
Rosi started her section with some wrestling drills as she explained it is one of the most under-trained areas, she started with some pummelling drills progressing to the correct technique and application of the single leg, a fundamental yet important takedown to have in your arsenal and again applicable to BJJ, no gi and even MMA.
Expanding on this topic she moved onto single leg variations and set ups showing, for example, attacking the single and switching to the double, attacking in combinations rather than hanging all your hopes on just one technique.
Once on the ground she showed her set ups to the basic straight arm bar including some interesting S-mount stuff that looked painful yet effective.
Then to the bit that most people wanted, the sparring, everyone getting to spar an MMA Champion and a BJJ Black Belt so everyone seemed happy.
From the feedback we received and the fact that everyone is friends on FB now, I would say that the day was a real success.
Will definitely be happening again so keep checking back. Anyone who missed out, if you want to kept informed on the next one just drop me an email on combatbase@hotmail.com
Thanks to Caged Steel for allowing us to use their awesome facilities.
Thanks to everyone who attended and supported us, truly appreciated.
From Combat Base Northumberland
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Well Done Andy and Chris Mc
A belated well done to Andy Ferris and Chris McIntyre for their performances last weekend.
Andy fought his MMA comeback at Battle at Boulmer on Friday 12th March, winning with a Lion Kill around 2 minutes into round 1. Well done to Andy, and thanks to Simon Ball and Dan Boyle who cornered him.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get a photo of Andy with his trophy this week.
On Sunday 14th March, Chris McIntyre overcame some “difficulties” to win medium heavyweight blue belt at the London Open BJJ Championships. Chris defeated 3 opponents on points, and had to deal with an attempt to make him replay his second fight and a dislocated shoulder.
Look at the Dan Gable quote at the top of this page, “Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” Chris showed an abundance of determination and guts…I’ll avoid the jokes about how much he sweats, and deserved his victory both for what he did on the day, and what he does in the gym every time he trains.
All Chris’ opponents were trained by Brazilian black belts. So, there’s a message in his performance for all of us. A small team from Ashington can hold its head up alongside anyone from Gracie Barra, Alliance, Carlson Gracie, etc.
Steve
Starting off with the fundamentals of arm position, set ups and posture he immediately went onto the applications starting with standing and then working down to the ground. He futher went on to show using darce as a counter to a variety of situations where your partner is attacking you.
From there we went on to using the darce to set up the Peruvian neck tie which flowedreally well and clearly demonstrated that if you get position and know these techniques that no matter where they go to you have options.
The session concluded with sparring but with the proviso that the only submissions allowed were the ones that we had just covered. This is an excellent way to ingrain the techniques rather than just forgetting everything and go back to default sparring, definitely the way to improve.
Hopefully going to have regular sessions with Danny so watch this space.
Ryan Hunter Gi Choke Session 16th March
Following on from the gi choke session Ryan taught at the Team Training Day I had him expand on some of the chokes he did to really get over to the guys the importance of correct set up on the chokes. It is always great to have Ryan teach because being a high level BJJ brown belt he is also a high level Judo black belt so we get the best of both worlds, the aggressive Judo quick kill mentality and the more relaxed and measured BJJ approach, a great combination.
To start with Ryan put everyone through a sport specific warm up that covered some awesome standing and ground grappling drills.
The highlight again for me was the synergy of his BJJ and Judo in the sangaku turnover to reverse triangle, Ryan taught some very cool details of how to immobilse your opponents limbs to make escaping so much more difficult and if by some stroke of fate, they did escape there was plenty more waiting for them.
He also ran over some quick kills where submission definitely came before position proving tha the old adage is not always right.
Finishing with some 'winner stays on' sparring the class ended with everyone exhausted but wanting more.
Great session.
Combat Base Group Training Day 7th March 2010
This time we were being hosted by Spenna and Team Fulinkazan over in sunny Bradford on the warmest day of the year so far.
To keep things fresh we changed (most of) the coaches this time as I feel it is important for all our students to have experience of different coaching styles, I don’t pretend that I know everything and with so much talent in our group it makes sense.
Starting exactly on time, the day started out with a sports specific warm up with strength and conditioning coach Brendan Chaplin who put everyone through a great warm up, anyone interested in improving their mobility and agility should definitely check out Brendan.
After a quick drink break, the first workshop started with Carl Fisher covering a progression of ½ guard sweeps starting off with a fundamental sweep then adding the ‘what ifs’. Carl showed some great detail to help improve an area that creates problems for a lot of people.
We then had a little free time for people to drill the techniques or spar or just catch up with everyone as was the plan to allow free time at the end of each session to provide some time for everyone to review what they had just done if they wanted it.
Next up was Ryan Hunter to work some chokes. As well as being an excellent BJJ brown belt, he is an even better Judo black belt so proceeded to show all the BJJ and MMA guys his sangaku turnover, a technique he uses with great success.
He next went on to demonstrate a rolling choke against turtle position or when your opponent starts to escape side control which was again very well received before finishing his section with his ‘suicide’ choke from back which is a great alternative to the usual finishes from back.
Another rest/drill/spar break ensued before handing over to Adam Adshead and Doug Mochen from Factory BJJ to introduce us all to offside kesagatame. I watched this section with real interest as I had not seen much of this live before but I can understand it a little better now and can see the possibilities.
This section focused mainly on control from this position but also included one of my favourite submissions, the ‘fat man’ choke. Another excellent section.
Rest/drill/spar break
The final workshop was taken by one of my oldest (in time served) students/training partners Steve Muckle who was to take everyone through butterfly guard, an area of his expertise
Steve is the definition of dedicated, for the first 2 or 3 years of his BJJ training he made a 5 or 6 hour round trip just to train with us for 2 hours. This paid off as he was promoted to blue belt and started his own club, the first offshoot of Combat Base. Steve had the worst luck of anyone I know yet still battled on with his training earning his purple and brown belts, coaching some very good students himself with him and his students also having competition success, so it was great to have him here.
Teaching the fundamentals of butterfly guard, the grips, the angles and the options I could see straightaway that people had picked up the details and was making a big difference to their butterfly games.
The day concluded with free time for plenty of rolling, reviewing, drilling and comparing notes, was a great day all round and already people asking about the next one.
Following the sparring section, the following promotions were awarded by Helen.
Ed Drysdale - Combat Base North East - brown belt
Graeme Allsopp - Combat Base North East - brown belt
Dan Boyle - Combat Base North East - blue belt
Danny Mitchell - The Asylum - brown belt
Craig Lawrence - The Asylum - blue belt
John Sherwood - Factory BJJ - purple belt
Gareth Price - Combat Base Bolton - blue belt
Joe Borek - Combat Base Bolton - blue belt
Kam Patel - Fulinkazan - purple belt
Nate Simpson - Fulinkazan - blue belt
All photos above were shamelessly 'borrowed' from this guy:
Check out the rest of the photos at www.mmapics.com, buy some photos and make him happy.
After the rent for the building had been paid, we had cleared £300 that we are donating to cancer research so thanks to everyone that gave their time and money.
See you at the next one.
Latest interview that I did for Allsports is now on my blog
New Purple Belt 15th February
Huge congrats to Tom Winconek who got his purple belt from Helen last night after class.
Matches From European Championships 2010
Following on from this month's focus, watch the incomparable Rafael Mendes use his spider guard to good effect.
After training a little with Wellington 'Megaton' Dias last year, a look at the man in action for the guys that missed training with him.
Spot the submission from the legend that is Fabio Gurgel.
James Nardone Short MMA Documentary
Check out Factory BJJ's James Nardone's foray into the MMA world as he prepares to enter the welterweight tournament at Caged Steel.
Click here
Footage Of Helen On Youtube
Confirmation of details for inaugural ladies only training camp.
To be held on 21st March at Caged Steel, a purpose built training centre, in West Yorkshire.
Starts at 12:00 noon to allow people that are travelling in to be able to arrive in time without having to set off at a ridiculous time, instructors will teach/coach 2 hours each and time will be available for rolling/sparring also.
The instructors will be:
Helen Currie BJJ black belt
Rosi Sexton Pro MMA fighter
Taking into account travelling costs that many of you will incur we have tried to keep down the cost, so due to kind donations from a number of sponsors and the generosity of the instructors, the price for the session will only be £25 per person.
The sponsors, Caged Steel Fight Centre, Tatami Fightwear, Kombat Clinic and Allsports International Limited are delighted to be part of the team offering this outstanding opportunity to help promote an atmosphere in which women can train with their peers rather than just training with the lighter guys in the usual mixed sessions.
These camps are not aimed at replacing that training, just getting together all like minded women at the same venue at the same time.
There will be training gear for sale on the day from Caged Steel and Tatami Fightwear that is specifically designed and tailored for women.
I hope that this will be well supported to make it feasible to do more.
We would like to start taking names of interested parties to give us an idea of how many will be attending, anyone interested please email me at combatbase@hotmail.com
Join our Facebook group here to keep informed.
New Blue Belt 18th January 2010
The first new blue belt of the new decade was presented to Richard Lander last night.
Congrats to him.
Tatami Fightwear Sponsor Helen Currie
Following on from her recent interview with Kombat Clinic that has dragged her onto the internet and exposed her to the rest of the country Helen has been snapped up by Tatami Fightwear to help promote and develop training equipment for women.
This is looking like a great opportunity for both and can only assist the development of womenin BJJ and MMA in the UK.
They have already released the first wave of women's equipment with more to follow.
Tatami Fightwear have a full range of competition regulation gis for all sexes including childrens range. Check out their web site here
To be honest, I'm surprised that someone hadn't approached her already being the only female black belt in the country and 1 of only 2 in Europe.
How good is the gi?
Helen's initial thoughts on the competition gi "brilliant fit, best fit of any gi I have ever had, including the more expensive ones. Tatami have definately got it right with the cut and fit of their ladies gis. Going to train hard, wash hard and see where we are after that. First impressions? Brilliant gi, would recommend to anyone. Have the Zero G too to trial next"
