Archive for the ‘Auckland’ Category

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

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.

John is returning to New Zealand in November and will run sessions at the following clubs

Friday November 23rd – Martial Arts Christchurch: Geoff Aitken
Saturday November 24th – Martial Arts Auckland: Mike Fooks & Glen Tarrant
Sunday November 25th – Auckland: Karl Norton and Steve Cockell
Sunday November 25th – Martial Arts Hamilton: Phil Beale
Monday November 26h – Martial Arts Napier: Shane Cox
Tuesday November 27th – Wellington: NZ Police College
Wed November 28th – Martial Arts Wellington: Geoff Grant

John also plans to have copies of his book “Rogue Black Belt: Fear & the engine” available for purchase. If you can’t wait then please order a copy now from his website www.rogueblackbelt.com

Saturday 4th August 2007, the second John Will seminar of the year! This was a day that should have been in your diary, a day not to be missed. Blown away by another combination of techniques that will surely be driving GroundControl through the next few months and beyond!

Anticipation is generally the feeling that greets you when you enter the Howick Dojo as anther seminar is about to commence, this time was no different. Eager to get started we indulged in a quick warm up to which John made a very good point about sloppy warm ups and it ’s relationship to sloppy training. To put it finely, bungling black belts! This, I know is a point that some of us have spoken about before and are very mindful of. In order to get the most out of your training, and life for that matter, TAKE NOTE!

he morning session consisted of techniques to counter the guard pass. Heavy Leg, Crossover, Compass drill and Sea saw. One of the important factors in this was being able to identify at what stage during the guard pass each of these techniques apply. Heavy leg under 90 degrees of leg bend, crossover greater than 90 degrees in leg bend and Sea saw being forced all the way over. For those that are interesting in the MMA, we did two sweeps while defending attacks/punches from the mount and guard. A good application to have for MMA or in the street! A quick fire round of open guard drill capped off the morning session. It was good to glance around the mat to see everyone in open guard action, impressive! A sign of things to come!

The majority of people that were here for the morning session continued on for the afternoon session, with maybe one exception (must have been a family emergency). The afternoon session began with ways to get into the X-Guard, Hooking the leg, Step Over, Flagpole and Hook sweep. This was building on the Hour Glass Theory of many different ways to get into X-Guard, then many different sweeps to get out. The sweeps to get out were the Rigan sweep, noted as a pre-emptive sweep before actually entering into the x-guard. This term was brought about by Rigan Machado and his vision to see techniques opportunities in the first instance, not the second or third where the rest of us operate.

Hmm, or are you one of the few? Anyway, fantastic sweep none the less. Also not forgetting the reverse sweep from the back/behind to which Warren had firsthand experience of from John for most of the afternoon. And while I’m here, well done Warren for the absolute domination you had over John on your light grappling session. Ok, so I’m kidding but maybe one day!

We had an introduction to foot locks, and notably the differences in the way there are put on. Backward pressure vs the turning of the foot/heel. This was well emphasized when your partner had control over your back and crossed his legs (something that you should never do). When you put alternate legs over for the foot crank, you could visualize the different movements for the submission.

The day was finished off by the usual question & answer session. This was a time to fix any issue you’re having with your grappling outside of what we did in the seminar, to which some of you took full advantage of. The rest of us were just mentally drained and held each other up! Kidding of course, but well done to all for the 6 hours plus of solid effort you put in.

On a final note, well done Howard Fergusson for achieving your Blue Belt, awesome to see another Blue Belt amongst the ranks! Well deserved my friend!

Brilliant seminar, looking forward to the next!

GroundControl BJJ – the Auckland arm of Will-Machado BJJ held their first internal competition on April 17.

Often times newer students are hesitant about entering competitions. We often hear comments like “I don’t feel I’m ready” and “I’m not good enough yet”. The danger with that thinking is that by the time you do enter, it implies that you must think that you are “ready” or “good enough”. The result is that the student misses out on some great opportunities to compete and develop, and then when they do compete they find that they have put added pressure on their shoulders. That’s why we always advocate competing before you feel ready – so there’s no pressure, just an opportunity to have fun and learn.

And that is precisely what this competition was designed to do. Introduce the students to the competition environment in a low pressure arena amongst friends.

The response was tremendous – we had 30 competitors on the day representing the Howick, Takapuna and Hamilton clubs. All male competitors had at least two matches and the women had at least four.

The level of technique exhibited was very pleasing, especially for those who were taking the plunge into competition for the first time – some of whom had been training a number of months. Also in first time roles were the coaches in their capacity of referee.

As this was our first time refereeing we felt it important to put in place a very clear complaints procedure in the event of poor decisions. Namely – take it up with the coach concerned next time you are sparring with them. We must have done an ok job as to date no complaints have been received.

The name of the game was participation, and for that reason I will not go into specific results in this article. It is clear however that with 30 competitors, and some very strong prospects and some very technical BJJ developing at all levels we are looking forward to the next open tournament immensely.

The GroundControl internal tournament will be an annual feature leading into the new year. It’s a great way to bring the clubs together to begin the year and lead into the open tournaments. We also expect to be fielding some good size teams at the Will-Machado nationals both in NZ and Australia this year.

2006 was a huge year of growth for GroundControl. It is clear from the results of this day that 2007 will be even bigger.