Tuesday drilling with the team

What a great class today.  We worked more on our technical stand up which went well.  Everyone got their head around the kick from the push back position as well.  We took a leap forward and started to work the beginning movements in the Bully chain.  there is still more work to do however all the students are learning it quickly.

For some fun to end the class we did a stand up game.  Students pair up and go for touch the shoulder of their opponent.  the one that gets tagged has to sprawl.  This was a lot of fun and a great warm up for getting everyone used to closing the distance for a take down. 

Saturday on the mats

A new phase has started in our training.  We are working on a new chain.  The scenario is a bully pushes you to the ground.  The victim break falls and does a push back movement whilst siting.  If the aggressor closes the distance the victim uses a kick from the push back position and finishes with a technical stand up.  There are a lot of techniques that need to be taught firstly and then we can combine them into what we call the Bully chain.  Once we have the first part of the chain complete we will add the second part which ends in the victim taking control of the bully.

Both class today did an excellent job.  We did a few new animals in our warm up.  We added the Scorpion, Jaguar and the Wheel barrow exercises.  Every movement and exercise we do in our warm up directly relates to our Jiu Jitsu. 

A great morning of training Bjj

The weather was sweet and everyone was keen to train this morning.


We worked on the bridge drill for mount escape and then moved into the sitting up drill for our hip bump sweep.  Once those movements were looking good we did a few rounds of the hip bump sweep drill which transitioned into the completing the sweep.  The mounted opponent then executed the mount escape.  Wash rinse repeat and all went well.  We finished with a fun game of crab football which the girls won!  Well done to everyone.

Our senior class worked on the same movements/techniques.  We finished up with a super awesome roll session.  I love seeing everyone use their techniques whilst rolling.  Everyone is moving well and being confident in their game. 

Our 1st birthday party

What a celebration we had!  I was overwhelmed by how many parents and students came out to join in the party.  It was great to see everyone give skating a go.

Special thanks go to Liz for painting faces at our party. The children thoroughly enjoyed their new look.  Another big thank you goes to my wife Dao.  Her support and tolerance has allowed me to consistently learn the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and start our school.

It was great to see Stuart from Auckland Bjj join us.  Stuart and Serge are my professors and have given me a lot of guidance and support which has allowed me to have such an awesome group of students.  I look forward to another year and am sure we will continue to grow.

One week till the party!

It seems like yesterday when we started Auckland Kids Bjj.  We are turning a year old this month.  To celebrate we're going to have a birthday party for the school at Skateland on Saturday the 20th of October from 2pm to 4pm.  Our Saturday classes will go ahead as normal.  We look forward to seeing everyone at the rink.

Training report for Saturday the 13th:

This morning both classes learnt how to escape side control to recompose and take closed guard.  everyone caught on quickly which made working the new technique a lot of fun.  Our junior class surprised me at the end of class.  They lined up perfectly at the end without any help from me our Aidan.  Well done!

Our senior class worked the same technique.  We got through the lesson quickly so we could have a good rolling session.  the session was better than good, it was fantastic.  Everyone was thinking and using technique. It is very rewarding for me to see everyone use what the have learnt whilst rolling.  We will be doing more rolling sessions on Saturdays so everyone can sharpen their skills.

Working the chain

Saturday we worked on a new guard pass technique.  This will bring the count of techniques our students have learnt to 3.  We've added the guard pass to our chain of positions we've been working on for the previous weeks.

In our senior class we finished up with everyone learning the far side arm bar.  It was a lot of fun watching the students having a go at it for the first time.  It was equally as fun to see the students that learned the attack in the previous class remember and execute the arm bar effectively.

Everyone got an invitation to Auckland Kids Bjj birthday party.  I was very happy to see the wonderful reaction from the children when they opened the envelope,  It's going to be a fun time at Skateland.  Aidan and I have been spending 2 hours every Saturday there having a blast and getting in better shape as a result.  I recommend for children that are new to roller skateting to purchase the pads offed at skateland or pick up a set of pads that protect the knees, elbow and wrists. 

Training at the big boy dojo

Aidan came along to the adults class tonight.  We worked on a Kimura attack from the lock down in half guard.  Aidan learnt the Kimura trap as well.

After the evenings lesson it was time for a few rounds of tachi-waza.  Aidan got stuck in and gave it his all.  Ne-waza was next.  After Aidan and I had a few good rolls it was time for him to train with others on the team.  It was great to see him take the challenge of roll with the adults. 

Aidan was chosen to help clean up after class and got right to work without any complaint.

A great evening training and a fun way to spend time together on school break.