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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

By the time John Will had left Wellington on Wednesday he had changed the face of BJJ in New Zealand, again. After a week of seminars in Christchurch, Auckland, Hamilton, Napier and Wellington, John had taught some very cool techniques and concepts to the BJJ NZ Will – Machado schools.

But more importantly he had promoted some of his most loyal BJJ NZ followers.

While in Auckland John ran two seminar for the GroundControl crew in Howick. During the seminar John took the opportunity to promote several of GroundControl’s senior students to Blue Belt. The following were rewarded for their commitment to training,Lee Warden, Brent Lang, Leyla Oakley, Matt Hogan and Kody Hamilton, congratulations all.

GroundControl in Auckland continues to go from strength to strength. The new blues will find they are needed during the upcoming restructuring of the crew. With Glen Tarrant returning to his home town of Wellington, there will be a huge gap in the Auckland BJJ team. Glen is returning to Wellington to be closer to family support and will form a new GroundControl in Wellington, good luck with the relocation Glen.

Also Auckland, during seminars run by Michael Gent’s former students, John promoted two of the members of the Maai Hyoshi Dojo’s. Karl Norton and Steve Cockell were both awarded BJJ Purple Belts for their hard work and dedication to the BJJ style.

In Napier, another former student of Mr. Gent was awarded an even higher honor. Shayne Cox of Twin City Martial Arts was graded to BJJ Brown Belt. Shayne has been active in competition in both New Zealand and Australia. Recently competing in the Will – Machado Nationals in Australia, Shayne took 2nd place in the Purple Belt division. And in Auckland a few weeks ago Shayne stepped into the competitive arena for his very first MMA fight, which he won convincingly.

Shayne has been a steadfast supporter and member of BJJ NZ for many years and this promotion is another step in is never ending quest for knowledge and skills.

In Wellington, John ran another highly successful training session at the Royal New Zealand Police College, where he imparts knowledge and techniques to the trainers and instructors and also helps formulate training programs for the police and recruits of the New Zealand Police Force.

John later taught a BJJ Seminar at Wellingtons GSW Martial Arts. Where he also took the time to promote several of the clubs deserving students. Cain Harland and Brendan Pfahlert were both awarded their BJJ Blue Belts. The promotions are the result of years of dedication to the club and consistent BJJ training.

Also promoted on the night were Jonathan Bares and Jason Murphy. Both were promoted to Purple Belt.

Jonny is a fierce competitor and has twice defeated some of New Zealand’s best BJJ competitors at the Douglas Santos competitions in Auckland. In both 2006 and 2007 Jonny won his Blue Belt division. Jonny has also recently steeped into the MMA arena, testing his grappling skills in a limited rules fight, which he easily won.

Jason Murphy is a quiet mild mannered thinker and a tireless workhorse. Jase has been part of the GSW club for almost 5 years, and in that time has been a consistent and dedicated part of the clubs infrastructure. Recently Jase has taken up the job of running classes and writing the news for the extensive GSW website, both of which he performs with meticulous precision.

The big news of the night though was the promotion of GSW’s head instructor Geoff Grant. John Will awarded Geoff with the coveted BJJ Black Belt. Geoff has been a member of BJJ NZ from the very beginning and started his BJJ training with John in 1995. The promotion represents over 12years of hard work and dedication.

Geoff’s Black Belt promotion puts him in a very select group as he is one of only two Will – Machado BJJ New Zealand Black Belts.

Congratulations to all the Will – Machado students and instructors and thank you to John Will for another fantastic year of BJJ in New Zealand. We hope to see you on the mat sometime soon.

The GSW crew headed to Auckland for the 9th edition of the Douglas Santos BJJ event. Hosted at the Auckland University Rec centre a team of 8 joined the 110 competitors for a long day of grappling under the CBJJ rules.

GSW results from the day were.

White under 74kg:
1st Rob Long
2nd Adan Tijerina

Blue under 74kg:
1st Jonathan Bares
2nd Michael Hourigan

Blue under 94kg:
1st Hemi Pou

Kupu Vanisi should have had silver in the white open but the division was run poorly and as a result Kupu was left out of the medal tally.

Congrats to Cam and Dan for their efforts as well. I know they are both pretty disappointed but as we all know it’s pretty difficult to go out there and win your first comp of the bat.

Dan was pretty much against the ref in his fight as the guy wasn’t even looking at the match, so he was robbed.

Cam did good in his fight but knows where he went wrong and what things need to be worked on.

It was a good day and everyone did us proud, as they always do.

We have a great bunch of guys and a fantastic attitude to our training which I think clearly shines through when we compete and interact with other clubs. Having watched the attitudes, skills and actions of other schools I can safely say we are doing very well, thank you very much. Also for a club that apparently has a reputation of having mostly Big “Strong guys” it was our lightweights that tore through the opposition and our big “Strong Guy’s” who were some of the least munterish.

Well done to all the GSW crew for making the effort to get to Auckland and have a go.