The boys and Girls in Auckland are hosting this years Will / Machado BJJNZ nationals.

Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010
Time: 9:30am – 5:00pm
Location: AUT, North Shore Campus
Street: 90 Akoranga Drive
City/Town: Northcote, New Zealand

Download the NZ Nationals Poster A4 >>
View the Competition Rules >>

Online entries have now closed!
There have been over 150 competitors registered! Including 11 Females and 26 Kids making this the biggest Will / Machado Gathering in NZ history and one of the biggest BJJ competitions in New Zealand.

A facebook event page has been set up for all information and news:
Facebook Event Page Nationals 2010

Here is all the info from the facebook page. We look forward to seeing all Will / Machado BJJ Students there!!

Early Bird Entry Fee, before 5th July
$40.00, includes free competition t-shirt

After 6th July $40.00 entry fee plus $20.00 for competition t-shirt

Online entries at http://strongvon.com/willmachado2010

Weigh In 9:30am

ENTRIES CLOSE MIDNIGHT FRIDAY 23rd JULY

* You must be a member of a Will/Machado affiliated academy to compete

DIVISIONS

WHITE BELT - 5 minutes
63KG
68KG
73KG
78KG
83KG
88KG
93KG
98KG
+98KG

BLUE BELT – 6 minutes
63KG
68KG
73KG
78KG
83KG
88KG
93KG
98KG
+98KG

PURPLE BELT – 7 minutes
80KG
+80KG

BROWN BELT – 8 minutes
Open

FEMALE:

WHITE BELT – 5 minutes
65KG
+65KG

BLUE-PURPLE BELT – 6 minutes
Open

2KG allowance for Gi

NB: Divisions are subject to entries, there may be an adjustment in weight split to make for better competition pools

Competition Rules

SCORING SYSTEM

2 points
Sweep, Knee Ride, Takedown

3 points
Guard pass

4 Points
Mount
Back Control

Advantage
(to decide in case of draw)

Penalties
1 penalty -1 advantage
2 penalties -2 points
3 penalties disqualification

RULES
The following is NOT ALLOWED:
· Slam from the guard
· Biceps lock
· Cervical lock (of any kind)
· Frontal neck crank
· Scissors takedown
· Heel hook
· Sideways knee lock
· Pulling backwards to take the back (over the feet)

In addition to the above, the following is NOT ALLOWED for WHITE & BLUE belts:
· Wrist lock
· Calf lock
· Mata Leao with foot

In addition to the above, the following is NOT ALLOWED for WHITE belts only:
· Straight leg lock

Once again GSW had the immense pleasure of hosting another BJJ Black Belt under the Machado Brothers.

Richard Norton is known by many in the Martial Arts world as a Action Movie Star who has appeared in over 60 movies, alongside greats such as Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yasuaki Kurata, Benny “the Jet” Urquidez, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, and Cynthia Rothrock. But personally Richard is more than just a name and a face on the big screen.

In 1996 Ko and I traveled to Geelong to attend seminars by Jean Jaques Machado run at John Will’s academy. Richard Norton was in attendance as well and he took the time to assist us both as we struggled with the concepts and ideas that JJM was trying to instill in us. It was a profound time in our training. Meeting legends in the Martial Arts and forging stronger ties with our coach John Will.

Recently Richard has returned to Australia from his home in LA to start work on Mad Max 4. Richard also started running seminars for local Martial Arts Schools, so I approached him about coming to NZ for a couple of sessions at GSW.

Richard ran 2 sessions for the GSW crew, one for the white belts and one for the coloured. As we have had so many sessions with John Will we did not know what to expect from Richard. But very quickly it became clear that while Richards teaching style was different from John’s, his skill and ability was beyond awesome.

While I was personally disappointed with the turn-out from both the GSW crew and our associated schools, the students that did attend were rewarded with an inspiring and thought provoking set of skills and drills. Richard was engaging and entertaining in his delivery and, like John, his stories and anecdotes reminded us why we are so privileged to be a Machado school.

Through our association with John Will and BJJ Australasia, we have been granted access to BJJ royalty and those that were there at the beginning of the BJJ revolution as we know it. Not only can we claim a direct link to the source but we have trained with those that help create the BJJ that we know and love.

Richard session covered many topics as he gave us what he called his ‘tea tasting’ in other words a broad range of skills and insights into concepts for our games.

For me personally it was a great look at things from a different perspective and the next day the feedback from everyone has been nothing short of astounding. Everyone knows that John Will is the very best coach and we are well versed in John’s delivery and execution of his seminars, which is why they now cater for 80+ people, but Richard provided a fresh insight into old skills and new twists and tweaks as well as new concepts. invigorating to say the least.

I won’t run through a list of what he covered as the group that made the effort can claim those things as their own, this is not a hiding of skills or a keeping of secret knowledge but an acknowledgment to those the gave up their time and took a punt on the unknown.

Richard also ran a session for the local Zen Do Kai students and instructors, held at GSW. Through sheer diplomacy I will keep my opinions to myself, other than this.

I cannot express how validated I feel in my decision to run GSW as I do, our mat culture is awesome and the people who attend our classes and fit the ideals of the school should hold their heads high and revel in their ability to absorb information and encourage the outpouring that this attitude inspires in our visiting instructors. You Guys and Girls rock.

Photos from the sessions can be found on our flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25573780@N02/>>

Richard Norton GSW BJJ seminar >>

Richard Norton GSW Zen Do Kai Seminar >>

John Will returned to GSW in Lower Hutt for another round of BJJ Seminars. Once again due to numbers the seminars were split into two sessions.
White Belts and Coloured Belts.

The White Belt session was attended by 40 BJJ Students from GSW and Submission Martial Arts in Whitby. John covered a bunch of Immediate Action techniques in a seminar that he called a Vaccination Seminar.

Basically John covered answers to several of the problem areas that he sees beginners getting caught in during their first months of BJJ training. Things that John covered were, Crossover Guard defence, Side Control Escape (Hip in Pocket), Switchbase escape, Elbow Escape from Mount, Side Mount Escape, 1/2 Guard pass, Head to Head (Sit-out) and Front Choke Escape.

At the end of the White Belts session 4 New Blues were Presented 1 from Glen’s Submission Martial Arts and 3 from GSW. Conrats to Melvin, Kym and Kelvin

The Coloured Belts session covered getting the back and was attended by 30 of GSW’s Blue and Purple Belts. John had given us some great chokes at the last seminar and this time he went into several ways of gaining and controlling the back using several vital principals involving leverage and weight placement.

As always Johns seminar left everyone with something to take away and think about, as well as many things that instantly fitted into peoples grappling. Johns next session will be November 24th..

Our next seminar at GSW is with Richard Norton one of John Will’s training partners and multiple Black Belt, including his BJJ Black Belt from Jean Jacques Machado. Richard has starred in dozens of movies, with many top Martial Arts Movie Stars. Richard has also travelled the world as personal protection to performance artists. Richard bio can be found at his site www.richardnorton.net/blog

Richard will be running BJJ Seminars at GSW Lower Hutt on the 3rd of July 2010. Each seminar will be $50 and last 2 hours. Jump onto the GSW facebook page to register your interest as places are strictly limited and filling fast.
Wellington Saturday 3rd July 2010
BJJ Seminar White Belts 1pm – 3pm $50
BJJ Seminar coloured Belts 3.30pm-5.30pm $50

Wellington Sunday 4th July 2010
MMA / Street Defence Seminar (for Zen Do Kai Students)
Sunday 4th July
9am – 11am
$50

John Will returned to Wellington this month and there were a couple of new things this time around.

Firstly we held the seminars in our own facility in Lower Hutt. With the Wellington Dojo fire earlier this month and the smaller mat area I decided that running the sessions in the Hutt would be a better option. This also gave us the chance to start at a much earlier time slot. But with the mat size I also split the session into White Belts followed by Coloured Belts.

So at 6.30pm with a few stragglers still coming through the door John kicked off his first session of 2010 and his first ever session at GSW Lower Hutt. there were 30 White Belts on the mat including 7 from Submission Porirua. Glens club is going through the same sort of expansive growth as we are at GSW and The Submission guys are starting to fight for mat space. An awesome achievement for Glen and a positive boost for BJJ students in Wellington.

John covered some basic concepts for recovering the guard, then a few ways to pass the guard followed by a few was to escape when you guard has been passed. He then put the whole thing together as a drill for everyone to cement the concepts of guard recovery into their heads.

After a quick break there was a change of tack with John covering a couple of concepts for attacking and maintaining and attacking the back. He then made everyone go through the guard recovery drill at a slower more flowing pace and swapping partners..

The White Belt session ended with 3 Blue Belt promotions. Glen awarded Submission Martial Arts first Porirua Blue Belt to Andrew Douglas and I promoted two GSW students to Blue as well. Congrats to Jeffery Alcaraz and Haydn Parker. After a quick Photo shoot the White Belts cleared the mat and the Coloured Belts took over. There were 30 Blue and Purple Belts in the advanced session and John and I took the opportunity to promote a couple of Blues to Purple.

Congrats to Phil Stenhouse and Brad Kora! BJJ Purple Belt is a significant step up and one that is not easily earned or awarded, so well done. I know the East Coast BJJ crew will be particularly stoked with Brads promotion. We hear nothing but good things about Brad and his boys in Whakatane.

John the got straight into the session covering advanced concepts around the Kata Gatame position, including, maintaining and fine-tuning the position, finishes and entires to the position. A great session and 4 hours of hard work for John. After a few quick photos everyone split and John and I got home a good hour earlier than normal. This morning I’ve seen John off on a flight to Christchurch to meet up with his ol’ buddy Ron for a fishing trip in the Wanaka area. Ron accompanied John and Melissa on Johns very first seminar trip to Wellington in 1999!

So all up there were over 60 people attending this seminar round and I’m sure that when John returns in June we’ll have to take advanced bookings as the GSW classes grow and as Glens school requires more and more spaces on the mat for Johns seminars. Look for big things in 2010 as this is GSW’s 10th year as a BJJ school!

John’s trip to NZ starts early this year. John is doing his usual seminar circuit through the country. Having recently finished his latest book in the Rogue Black Belt series, many of the Will / Machado BJJ NZ students will be hoping to get their hands on a copy of the 3rd book “Passion & Purpose”..
John’s New Zealand schedule:
Feb 12th – Christchurch – Geoff Aitken
Feb 13th – Auckland – Mike Fooks
Feb 14th – Auckland – Karl Norton
Feb 14th – Hamilton – Phil Beale
Feb 15th – Hamilton – Steve Wallace
Feb 16th – Napier – Shayne Cox
Feb 17th – Wellington – Geoff Grant

Its always an exciting time when John Will is in New Zealand doing a round of seminars.

In the days leading up to the seminar excitement builds as students anticipate what is in store. John has an ability to translate seemingly complicated techniques into digestible chunks that get students doing moves that they may have otherwise thought beyond them; On the flipside, John also gives insight into how intricate simple techniques can be when done correctly. Students new and old alike leave his seminars enthused about the BJJ and their training.

He also left some well deserving students with new grades.

John Lamb and Jarrod Kent were both promoted to Blue Belt.

John Lamb has a technical game and the people he rolls with can find themselves in trouble quickly. He is leaving for Brazil in November for a number of months to experience training in the birthplace of BJJ. We look forward to him coming back and sharing with us what he’s learnt.

Jarrod Kent is a real competitor and his new Blue Belt is an excellent reflection of his ability on the mat.

Then came the big reward for the Ground Control and Submission Martial Arts clubs. John played the part of the Infomercial host, with a “but wait, there’s more”, and reached into his bag for some Purple Belts.
Michael Fooks and Andrew Craven from Ground Control; Mark Corkhill and Warren Lambert from Submission: were all promoted to Purple.

For all four, the promotion was a reward for significant technical improvement and recognition of the dedication required to build their clubs while being white and blue belts. The new Purples expressed thanks to those that helped them get where they are now, specifically: Glen Tarrant, from Submission Porirua, for helping start both clubs; Geoff Grant, from GSW, for his direction and guidance; their students; the rest of the Will Machado community; and of course, John Will.

Congratulations to all those promoted over the weekend.

Steve Hogg

John is currently in New Zealand doing a seminar tour of the associate clubs.
Here is his schedule for the NZ tour.

Nov 13th – Geoff Aitken – Christchurch (Black Belt)
Nov 14th – Michael Fooks – Auckland
Nov 14th – Glenn Tarrant – Auckland
Nov 15th – Karl Norton – Auckland
Nov 15th – Phil Beale – Hamilton
Nov 16th – Steve Wallace – Hamilton
Nov 17th – Shayne Cox – Napier
Nov 18th – AM – Royal New Zealand Police College
Nov 18th – PM – Geoff Grant – Wellington (Black Belt)

On April the 11th TCMA in Napier will be hosting the Will/Machado BJJ National competition.
The comp is a friendly get together for all Will / Machado BJJ NZ clubs and is a fantastic way to catch up with old friends and make plenty of new ones.
The comp is only open to those clubs that train under John Will as it is officially an “in house” comp.
Below are links to pdf files with all the current information, including posters, entry forms and rules.

More info will be added as it becomes available, but for now mark Easter Saturday (April 11th) on your calendar and start preparing.

Will Machado BJJ NZ Nationals
Easter Saturday April 11th 2009
Hosted by TCMA, held at,
Tamatea Intermediate School Hall
Freyburg Ave
Tamatea
Napier

Weigh in: 9:00am
Entry fee:$35.00

Martial Arts Evolution Comes to Lower Hutt

Long standing Wellington club, GSW Martial Arts, opens a new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training facility in Hutt City

Lower Hutt, Wellington, 15/02/2009: In March 2009, adults in the Hutt Valley will be able to try out a Martial Art that has revolutionised the way people view self-defence and Martial Arts training.

GSW Martial Arts has been operating in Wellington for over 9 years and after several years of huge growth, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) Black Belt, Geoff Grant, has decided to bring this exciting and challenging martial art to the Hutt.

Geoff has been an exponent of BJJ for over 13 years and is the only Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt in the Wellington region. In fact there are only a handful of Black Belts in the country and only 2 of them are Kiwis!

Geoff began his martial arts training at the age of 17 and has practiced for almost 25 years. But it was a special trip to Melbourne in 1995 that led to him studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Australasia’s most well known and respected BJJ coaches – John Will.

John Will is one of Australia’s most recognizable Grappling Instructors and he has spent the last 13 years helping Geoff bring the Martial Art of BJJ to Wellington students. In November 2007 John Will awarded Geoff with his BJJ Black Belt, sealing Geoff’s reputation as a dedicated and skilled instructor.

After years of running the highly successful GSW club in Wellington, Geoff secured a site on High St where Hutt Valley residents could find out for themselves what makes GSW and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so popular.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a Grappling Art. First and foremost it teaches control. What you do with that control is up to you. Those at GSW use that control to submit our opponent using BJJ techniques like, Arm Locks and Chokes.

But the control can be used for many things, control over the opponent and situation gives you control over the outcome. It could be to just subdue them until help arrives or to subdue them to cuff them or extract them from a venue or area.

Initially classes will be run on Mondays and Wednesdays for beginners and other classes will be scheduled once the facility is in full swing. As an introduction to BJJ, Geoff is offering 2 free trial lessons. For more information visit the schools web page www.martial-arts-lower-hutt.co.nz

GSW Martial Arts Lower Hutt
L1, 223 High St
Lower Hutt
Hutt Valley, Wellington
Upstairs above TnT Children’s Wear.

Blue Belt Brad Kora started out training BJJ with his brother Fran during their down time between gigs and recording their album. Fran had been training with GSW in Wellington for a few months before showing Brad and Stu just how effective BJJ is.

Brad was immediately hooked and trained any and every chance he got. After some hard training and competition success Brad was promoted to Blue Belt by Geoff Grant of GSW Wellington. Since then Brad has been training a small group of friends and associates in his modest training area. But as all of the BJJ NZ instructors know small beginnings in BJJ quickly grow and now Brad is running out of room.

Next year will hopefully see an expansion for the club but for now you can train in Whakatane with Brad and the boys at:
East Coast Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Location – 13 Harvey Street, Whakatane

Contact – Brad Kora (07)3078222 or Mbl 0212526650 & Nasa Steed (07)3125966

Areas we cover are the Eastern Bay of Plenty (kawerau, Te Teko, Opotiki, Edgecumbe, Whakatane, Ruatoki, Te kaha, Matata)

Tuesdays 6pm-8:30pm 
(fundamentals and technique for the first hour then rolling)

Thursday 6pm-8:30pm
(fundamentals and technique for the first hour then rolling)

Sundays 11am-2pm
(Advanced classes then rolling)

Welcome aboard guys