Tearing up the mats on Tuesday

Today's warm up was intense.  We broke from running and dropped to do crunches.  It's good to change things up a little to keep the warm up interesting.  There was good work done on the chicken walk and our new reverse chicken.  Every new movement leads to the next technique we will be working on.

We've added a leg drag to finish our single leg take down.  This opens the door for a sweet knee ride.  There are so many choices from the knee on belly.  Aidan showed his far side arm bar.  Looks like we will be adding that to our chain next week.  Overall we accomplished a lot today and it was great to see everyone working hard.

Today we focused on movement.

Are warm up today was longer than usual.  We focused on some more advanced warm up movements that are necessary for techniques we'll be working on in the near future.  An example is the step entry for a double leg take down.  A few of our younger students were doing it naturally whilst they were attempting to do the chicken walk.  Aidan did an excellent job showing the movement which we decided to call it the reverse chicken.  

Our technique of the day was breaking lapel grips.  Everyone new to the school picked up the technique quickly and it was a great refresher for our senior students.  Grip fighting is always a hit with this team.  Excellent work everyone.

Phase one of the Bully chain is complete!

Two awesome classes today at Auckland Kids Bjj.

Our Junior class did a fantastic job putting together the first phase of the Bully chain.  My leg is sore from being kicked by everyone.  Not to worry it's a good sore feeling.

In our junior warm up session I had the students pick their favorite animals.  The first one picked was the Tuatara and then the Scorpion.  I was pleased that they picked 2 of the newest and higher difficulty exercises.  Good work Junior team for going for after the hard work.

Our Senior class completed phase one of the Bully chain as well.  We added a backward roll option when they are pushed to the ground.

The class was taught the collar drag exercise drill as part of their warm up.  Everyone is learning fast and we are getting more technical with every class.  Well done to everyone.

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.