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

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

Finally the boys have put the finishing touches on their album and it’s cut and being delivered to stores for release on Monday the 15th of October.

If you want to pre order a copy go to www.amplifier.co.nz

RELEASED MON 15TH OCTOBER.

Combining the invincible elements of the Kora strain, rock, funk and house, our five superheroes unleash the ultimate musical odyssey.

Recorded in Aotearoa, mastered in London by Kevin at Soundmasters (David Bowie, Queen, The Prodigy), this is the long awaited follow up to the platinum, EP Volume.

The album features fourteen tracks that hold true to every facet of music that KORA enjoy, ranging in mood from groovy, to heavy and aggressive, and the graphics pay homage to a love of arcade games and epic moves.

Brand skanking new tracks include Skankenstein, Out of My Mind/Down The Road, an instrumental Skoolyard plus Culture with a guest appearance from the old man on slide guitar.

Two tracks, Burning and Crazy Things have evolved and been revamped from the original EP.

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.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) – it may sound like a painful method of hair removal, but it’s one of the fastest growing martial arts in the world. At the foundation of the growing Mixed Martial Arts craze – the craze that looks set to overtake boxing as the worlds most popular combat sport- BJJ is widely held to be the most effective fighting style on the planet. And Brent Lang of the Howick GroundControl BJJ club is now the Heavyweight Australasian champion.

Brent recently traveled to Melbourne with coach Michael Fooks and 3 other competitors from GroundControl to compete in the Will/Machado Australasian championships. Will/Machado is the largest BJJ organization outside of Brazil.

With competitors coming from all over Australia, Auckland, Napier, Wellington Christchurch and even Malaysia it was a significant event.

Although this was Brent’s first effort at competing outside of his club, an illustrious career in rugby means that he is no stranger to competition.

“In many ways Brent is the ideal student” says coach Mike Fooks, “he is friendly, treats others with the utmost respect and takes instruction very well. But once he steps on the competition mat his focus is scary to behold.”

That focus was evident in Brent’s quick victories. It took him only a total of 2 minutes and 18 seconds to submit his opponents with choke holds – barely 1/5^th of the allotted time.

So what does he put it down to? “I put a lot of work into it, I’ve had really good coaching, and great support from the team in the club and my family. And also a big dedication, I’ve been doing a lot of training outside of BJJ as well, speed work, stamina work so it’s been quite a committed effort, planned out and executed.”

There is no doubting the effectiveness of the execution. And with Brent’s wife just starting her own training, GroundControl about to open children’s classes and 3 Lang children waiting in the wings – there may be more trophy’s yet to find their place in the Lang home.

Well, we are 9 days out from the Australian Nationals and the Hawkes Bay Team are getting edgy. Preparations are being made and bags being packed.

There’s 5 of us going…

Shayne Cox Under 90kg Purple (YES UNDER 90)
Damian Smith Under 70kg Purple
Dan Digby Under 80kg Blue
Kelly Nissen Under 70kg Blue womens
Shane Chapmen Under 70kg novice

John and Melissa run one of the best tournaments I have ever participated in. Smooth, timely and exciting for the spectators. His wife Melissa is the background lady doing all the preparation work and keeps it together. We’re expecting another great one.

The trainings been done, we’re ready to roll.

When we come back, I’ll post details of how everyone performed. Hopefully with some details from every one from NZ not just HB>

Anyway take care.

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!