Graduation time

Good day everyone

We will be having a graduation on June 30th at 10:00am.  It is a great opportunity to get everyone together to celebrate your achievements and be rewarded for all the hard work.

Students will need to get a black tab on their belt.  This is where the stripes will go.  The tab is 11.5 to 12cm. A tailor or anyone with a sewing machine can add the tab. 

Time change for class on Saturday the 2nd of June

Hello everyone

Class will be at 9:00am this Saturday.

There is a function taking place that starts at 10:30am  This happens approximately 3 times a year.  We hope to see you all there.

Cheers Adam

Rener Gracie on How to Tie Your Jiu Jitsu Belt Belt

Good day everyone.  This is the video I used to perfect tying my belt.  The first knot he shows should be easy enough for the younger students.  If you're feeling bold go for the Hollywood tie.  Oss!

Training report

Today was all about grip breaking.  We learned 3 ways to break a lapel grip.  2 of our students that don't have a gi yet worked on 2 grip breaks and a defense if they are grabbed by the throat.  Everyone worked hard and enjoyed learning the techniques.  We are very lucky to have such hard working students.  Well done to everyone.

A stellar day on the mats

What a fun class today.

We had Olivia's mum Yvonne join us as my assistant today.  It's fantastic to have the extra help and to have an adult to to help with demonstrations.

We had a new student join us today and give it a go. Talia jumped right in and was a fast learner.  Hopefully she'll be able to join us more often. 

Today we reviewed our mount escapes.  Everyone is doing a great job on refining their technique.  Our next step was to introduce ways to retain the mount.  Everyone learned how to make themselves heavy in mount firstly.  Next we worked on the grapevine.  The grapevine was a hit with the team.  We moved to the technical mount and how to follow your opponent if they try to roll away.  It was a good introduction and I look forward to more drilling with these techniques.

 Talia learning mount escape

 She nailed it!

Olivia working with Talia

Tuesday training report

Good day everyone

It was good to see a new student give it a try this Tuesday.  We hope he enjoyed our class and will continue his BJJ journey with us.

We are working hard on mount escape at the moment.  Our goal is to have 3 ways to escape the mount in our toolboxes.  We reviewed the first 2 options and then moved on to a situational sparring game. 

King of the mat is a fun way to make the training more intense.  Everyone showed that they were getting the concept.  Everyone also realized that when the game starts it's much harder to escape the mount.  This is where Olivia showed that a small person with the correct technique can escape from a much larger opponent. 

We'll continue our mount work this week.  We'll be moving on to our next phase of training next week.

What a fantastic Graduation we had today

Stuart and Serge both visited us today for the graduation.  We honoured to welcome them into our Dojo. 

We started out with our normal warm up and moved into our mount escape work.  We worked 2 options today and will continue with a 3rd in our next class.  These mount escape techniques and drilling will be a permanent part of our Jiu Jitsu journey.

Now for the graduation highlights.

Aidan has earned his Yellow belt.  He showed a warrior spirit at the no gi competition and had 2 had matches.  He bought home a silver medal.  We are all very proud of Aidan's had work leading up to the competition. Keep up the great work!

Olivia earned her grey belt.  Olivia showed her bravery at her first competition.  She had 2 hard matches and fought hard.  Olivia has learned the intensity needed to compete and what she needs to work on for the next competition.  Olivia showed a warrior spirit in her matches and did not give up.  Well done!

Oscar earned a second stripe today.  He has discovered that what he has learnt so far is working well for him when he spars with the team.  Oscar's has become more focused in class and in enjoying drilling with his team mates.  Great job!

Pietro earned his first stripe today. He has been training well and has had increased focus.  He has found that the techniques in his toolbox are working for him whilst sparring.  Pietro enjoys our sparring sessions and I'm very pleased to see him learning how to take control of his opponent.  Excellent work!

At the end of the graduation Stuart surprised everyone by pulling a brown belt out of is gi.  I was speechless.  I wasn't expecting to have a brown belt in the near future, yet there it was in front of me.  Thank you Auckland BJJ, Stuart and Serge for giving me a home to continue my Jiu Jitsu journey.  I'm overwhelmed by the support they both have given me and our kids school.   Thank you to all of the team at Auckland BJJ for being such awesome people and wicked training partners.