Owner: Slidey's Training Log URL:http://www.slideyfoot.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 10:01:39 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Detailing (mainly) my Brazilian jiu jitsu training, which I began in Nov 2006 at the Roger Gracie Academy. To a much lesser degree, also includes my experiences in a few other martial arts, particularly Zhuan Shu Kuan. Site statistics:Click here
19/09/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-09-19 15:39:00 Class #88Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 19/09/2007 – BeginnersI wimped out of the advanced yet again tonight, so really must try and make two tomorrow. I was close to forcing myself to train, but decided against it: term starts soon, which will mean I’ll be coming down from Birmingham to training, so will have had plenty of sleep the night before. So, finally run out of excuses in two weeks!Besides getting home early, I also felt I’d got plenty of useful technical details from the beginners class. Jude, who always goes into depth when demonstrating (something I very much appreciate), went through the triangle from guard today. The first set up he showed was to have a grip on both their wrists. Push their left hand into their stomach, then bring your right leg up over their shoulder, effectively putting them into position. Put your left foot on their hip, then raise your own hips in order to bring their right arm up, after which you pull it across to your ri
14/09/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-09-14 16:44:00 Class #87Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 14/09/2007 – BeginnersUnusually for me, I’m not going up until Birmingham til next week, as my sister’s 30th is this weekend so I’m staying at home. That meant I had the opportunity to give the new Friday class a try, as well as give my Padilla & Sons gold weave gi a test run: I’ll kick off this entry by describing how I bought it.The excellent Smash Pass review served as a very convincing advertisement, having been alerted initially by a post over on MAP. That convinced me to go for this gi as my next purchase: originally I’d planned to get a super lightweight Vulkan, but I no longer care about weight so much, as I don’t plan to drop down a category again (seeing how badly that seemed to fuck up my immune system and general health over August). As I’d been hearing from several sources, Joe provided excellent customer service, sending me a series of polite, professional emails confirming the size a
13/09/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-09-13 16:00:00 Class #86Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Luciano Cristovam, London, UK - 13/09/2007 – No-GiI had assumed tonight’s class would be taken by Felipe as usual, given that he was teaching the kids session beforehand, but instead Luciano was in charge of training. It seems Luciano has a penchant for the complex, as well as being keen to get everyone sparring as much as possible: even part of the drilling involved a fair bit of resistance. We did some pummelling (which I think is the right term when you both start in a clinch, then fight for the double underhooks), which was then immediately followed by takedown specific sparring.As ever when we do takedowns, I wasn’t really going for takedowns myself: I’m pretty much clueless standing up, particularly no-gi, so I took it slow and tried to take in what the other person was doing. I tried to get to a clinch position and stop them grabbing a leg, and also had a brief attempt at one of the moves we were shown a while back, where you push on
12/09/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-09-12 16:04:00 Class #85Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 12/09/2007 – BeginnersAs I missed last week due to a great trip in Devon (decided against Lake District, and turned out well: blazing hot in Devon, so even managed to get a decent tan), wanted to definitely make the Tuesday. However, I then got bogged down in PhD work, meaning I needed all of Tuesday to make my way through some more Lowell. I’m also due to teach a whole bunch of seminars in the next couple of months, which is cool, but does require a fair bit of preparation. I’ve got one for work, another one somewhere else I should get paid for, and finally two academic seminars, which are my main concern. The plan has always been to teach at university, so I’m looking forward to the experience: hopefully will be able to learn a lot about the whole process, which up til now I’ve only seen as a student (well, unless you count teaching some ZSK classes, but that really isn’t the same).Class tonight was my first s
26/09/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-09-26 16:44:00 Class #91Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 26/09/2007 – BeginnersFor any UFC fans, entertaining podcast I listened to today by probably my favourite combat sports journalist, Eddie Goldman. In a similar vein to his diatribe against UFC Fight Night, he’s now gone even further and stated that the UFC ‘doesn’t matter’. Have a listen and see what you think: yes, it’s a rather extreme position on his part, but as usual Goldman does make plenty of interesting points. In the same podcast, there’s also news about a cool new documentary following an MMA fighter, which sounds worth a look.My good intentions for training more regularly have once again been scuppered: at most I’ll be going twice a week for the next month or two. That’s because I seem to have a very busy October ahead: I’ve got three seminars to teach on entirely different subjects to entirely different audiences, so should be interesting, if challenging. Perhaps no bad thing, as I also disco
10/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-10-10 17:00:00 Class #95Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 10/10/2007 – BeginnersMy normal train was cancelled, but I was able to take a Euston train instead, so that worked out ok because the Virgin train is faster anyway. I wasn’t going to be doing the advanced today, as I wanted to make the social – due to that work presentation, I was only going to be able to stay briefly at the start, but still thought it worthwhile. I’ve been hoping for an RGA social ever since I began training here, so certainly wasn’t going to miss this opportunity even if I couldn’t make the whole night.Its been almost a year now since I started, and while I don’t think there’s a specific year syllabus, tonight’s class wasn’t too dissimilar from the first sessions I attended. We began with the basic standing pass, where you stand up and push the leg away, then drive your knee through, swing the other leg over and switch into side control. That was followed by a kneeling pass using my fa
04/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-10-04 17:12:00 Class #94Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 04/10/2007 – BeginnersI had been expecting another spar in the no-gi, so was feeling entirely fresh for the beginners, especially as there is that period while you wait for them to warm-up. I joined in for the throws, introducing myself to a newish guy going by the distinctive moniker of Abs. However, as he’s a fair bit heavier than me (85kg), I was happy enough to later switch to Rohit, who’s 73kg. First technique Felipe showed us was taking the back from guard. If they have an arm gripping your lapel, break that hold, maintaining your own grasp on their arm. Pull that arm right across your body, then reach all the way over their back to the far armpit. Having secured that hold, open your guard and base out on your other arm. Use that to swivel up towards their back, bringing your leg out and in to hook their leg. Make sure that as you do this you maintain the pressure with your shoulder into their arm, so they can
04/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-10-04 17:09:00 Class #93Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 04/10/2007 – No-GiThere’s a social next Wednesday I thought I wouldn’t be able to make, but as it turns out I should be able to make the conference to give my presentation on time. That does mean I won’t be able to stay too late, so I’m not sure many people will be there during the time I spend at the club: it starts at 20:00 and training is still on, so will most likely just be a few beginners. Nevertheless, I’ve been hoping for a social ever since I started, so will make the effort to attend this.Tonight was also the first time I’ve seen Chris since his tournament performance: from what he said, definitely sounds like he had the same weight-cutting problem I did and felt awful. However, he managed to win, and only lost the next one narrowly on points, so that goes to show how good his BJJ has got in the last few months. He was keen to work on a butterfly sweep, which we worked a little before class got goin
03/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-10-03 15:50:00 Class #92Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 03/10/2007 – BeginnerSomeone from Gracie Barra Calgary bumped into my blog earlier this week, presumably while Googling BJJ terms, as my glossary has appeared on their site. Cool. :DHowever, that does remind me to ask that if anyone notices I’m talking rubbish anywhere in the glossary, please stick up a comment correcting me. The instructor over at GB Calgary mentioned that he’s cast an eye over it and it seems ok (very helpful to have someone of that level check for errors), but as I intermittently update that glossary, I’m always grateful for constructive advice. I’m merely a white belt, after all!I wasn’t able to train last Thursday as I’d intended, because the trains messed up yet again. Not only did they screw my journey back on the Wednesday, but when I arrived at Farringdon on the Thursday ready to go train, I was greeted by a sign telling me there was no Hammersmith & City line service. What was espec
18/10/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-10-18 17:19:00 Class #97Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 18/10/2007 – BeginnersHaving had my usual three spars and finishing with a rest, I felt ok for the beginners. I noticed there was a new girl in class: any reduction in the machismo level is always excellent news (though having said that, RGA has a very good atmosphere, perhaps because its got a fairly high number of women training). Turns out she was Chet’s cousin and Tamvin’s sister, which is kinda cool: nice to see more of the family getting into the BJJ.It was only Navreet’s third lesson, so that gave me a chance to try and act as teacher. Attempting to demonstrate a technique to someone else is a good way of thinking more carefully about it yourself, and considering October is teaching month for me anyway with all those seminars, I can do with the practice.Things kicked off with passing the guard. Felipe started with the one where you grab both collars with one hand, the other low, with elbow in. Put your knee
18/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-10-18 17:11:00 Class #96Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 18/10/2007 – No-GiTo start with medical matters, finally had that mole (or rather, ‘tag’: think I’ve been using ‘mole’ incorrectly) removed yesterday. Straightforward process, beginning with an anaesthetic injection, which did sting a bit but nothing too unbearable. The doctor then used a hot wire to literally burn the tag off my back: I could hear the sizzle as it sliced through, but fortunately the anaesthetic did its job. The wound seems to have healed up ok – doctor said my painkiller would wear off in three hours, so should take some paracetemol, as I’ve basically got a burn mark on my back. Despite its many problems, still good to know that the NHS is capable of providing really simple procedures like mole/tag removal for free and without a long wait. Giving that wound time to heal was why I didn't train yesterday.My left elbow has also been giving me trouble for a while, but I think that’s probabl
25/10/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-10-25 17:00:00 Class #98Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Felipe Souza, London, UK - 25/10/2007 – No-GiI’ve been rather light on training this week, with just one session. Probably a good thing too, as I’ve got two niggling injuries at the moment: first that elbow (which I think is probably RSI), and secondly the mole removal scar. I thought the burn mark had healed up by now, but this session proved it was still fairly raw. Still no Chris, or indeed any of the people I normally chat to before the session: maybe the cold is tempting people to stay at home? So instead, I paired up with one of the guys from the beginners class, Tomasz (if I’m spelling that right), who recently got his third stripe. After going through the takedowns from last week, we moved on to passing the half guard.Underhook the opposite arm to your trapped leg, securing their head with your other arm so they can’t turn, also driving your shoulder into their face. Move your free leg to the side, also shifting your weight, until
01/11/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-11-01 17:17:00 Class #100Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 01/11/2007 – No-GiUnusually, Jude took the no-gi class today: that could be the start of a new trend, as I think I heard him say something about taking over a lot of Felipe’s classes for a while, because Felipe is doing an Open University degree (always good to see people getting back into education :D).Unlike yesterday, there was lots of technique to go through. Jude started off with the single leg takedown we did a while back in a beginners class, also showing a variation if they resist. As you go for the single leg and they maintain their balance, shift your grip and stand up, so that you’ve got both arms underneath their leg. Then change the near hand (so the one further from their foot) to go round their waist, and finally sweep their lone leg with your same side foot, dropping them straight to the ground.He then moved on to the guillotine from guard. Your hand dives around their head, palm up, with the forearm
31/10/2007 - BJJ (Advanced) 2007-10-31 18:47:00 Class #99Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 31/10/2007 – AdvancedMy first experience teaching an academic seminar earlier this week went ok: I had the usual problems of getting people to talk and then the same people speaking up each time, but that’s to be expected. Next time, I think I’ll bring in more quotes to hopefully kick-start discussion. However, the next one is about two of the most famous poets of the 20th Century, Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, so I’m expecting the students to already have some ideas about their work. Or at least more familiarity than they might be expected to have with a poet like Peter Reading. ;)I bought myself some Compeed (apparently I spelled it wrong earlier) after the seminar from the university pharmacy (which reassuringly hasn’t changed at all since I started way back in 1999, unlike almost everything else). They’re normally used for blisters, and were the first thing my sister recommended when I mentioned I was loo
17/11/2007 - BJJ (RGA Open Day) 2007-11-17 14:30:00 Class #102Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 17/11/2007 – RGA Open DayKate didn’t show in the end, but George did: I had all three of my gis with me, so was prepared in either case. Was great to catch up with George, as its been a while since we’ve had a proper talk (as rather obviously demonstrated by the fact I didn’t know he’d gotten engaged some time ago!), and especially as he’s one of the few poetry people I know. The Open Day also gave me a chance to chat to several people I’ve not seen in ages, because either I or they aren’t making the same days. This was the first time I’d seen Owen since he got his blue a while back, though still haven’t seen Liam. Indra was there too – feels like a long time since I last saw her, and IIRC she’s just come off an injury or something like that (busy at work, maybe?). Also the first time in a little while I’d seen Gary and Dominique, who both got their blue (this week, I think), which is cool. I’m
15/11/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-11-15 16:51:00 Class #101Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 15/11/2007 – No-GiI didn’t make it to class last week, as there was a higher priority: my girlfriend. Her fortnight kicked off by getting viral labyrinthitis, which is an infection of the inner ear that completely destroys your balance, so you’re constantly dizzy and feel like you’re about to throw up. There was no way I was going to leave her like that, so arranged to work from home in order to look after her. She then had a tough interview on the Monday, still suffering slightly from the infection, which wasn’t helped by her train ticket disappearing and the guy at the ticket office being a total bastard about it (despite the fact she had her receipt and outward ticket). Finally, she then had to have a tooth pulled out the next day, which sounded nasty: lots of pain and blood. So BJJ kinda took a back seat. ;)Had PhD work to finish off yesterday, which meant I missed Wednesday, but next week should hopefully br
22/11/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-11-22 17:04:00 Class #104Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 22/11/2007 – No-GiAs ever, Jude ran a fitness intensive class today. The warm-up was fairly continuous, with bear crawls (not sure if I’m doing them right, but appear to be walking on all fours with your bum in the air), shrimping and the like, with a few double-legs thrown in for good measure. That bear crawl would prove to be of importance to the first and, like yesterday, only technique: single leg takedown. The variation this time was a bit different. You start by dropping your right knee, also putting your right hand to the floor. Reaching for their leg with your other arm, you switch to the other knee, swivelling round and forward. Having secured that grip, your first hand grabs their ankle, finishing by lifting up their leg and taking them down.Next, Jude got us to do a drill where the first person goes for the leg, but their partner steps round. This is where the bear crawl comes in, as you have to move round i
21/11/2007 - BJJ (Advanced) 2007-11-21 17:01:00 Class #103Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 21/11/2007 – AdvancedDidn’t make my usual train today, but no problem because I normally get there super early, so still made it on time. Its been a strange week, as it started with a rather strident email from my supervisor warning me of some major problems with the philosophical basis for the thesis. However, in person turned out to be rather less problematic: it looks like what we’re going to do is change tack, which sounds good as I’ve been having problems with the philosophical side of things anyway. Much happier sticking with pure English Lit, focusing on poetic form, rather than philosophical theory for which I lack the relevant grounding.Class started with a whole bunch of throws, for which I was paired up with one of the numerous tough Poles who train at RGA. He still tried to help out with advice, but even in drilling went fairly hard. So I was glad that I didn’t ended up paired with him for the rest o
28/11/2007 - BJJ (Advanced) 2007-11-28 17:13:00 Class #105Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 28/11/2007 – AdvancedBig family news in that my niece arrived on the 23rd, shortly before midnight. I could possibly have trained the Friday class, but was feeling kinda tired, completely ruling it out once I got a message from my sister that she was heading off to the hospital. My parents, my brother and I went to see her, the new baby and her husband in London the next day: they all looked good and healthy, and judging by the Facebook pics, she’s now at home. Will be popping round after work on Friday: first baby from this generation of our family, so exciting stuff for us. :DClass was taken by Roger again, which seems to be a regular thing in the past few weeks. Again there was plenty of focus on throws to start off with, and to my pleasure I was able to work with Dominique again: hadn’t seen her and her partner Gary for a while (well, they were at the open day, but didn’t get to train with them), so that was c
29/11/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-11-29 16:21:00 Class #106Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 29/11/2007 – No-GiQuick note on links: Jude’s EFN site is now using a new url, so everything that used to be under www.bjj.eu is now going to be replaced with www.efnsports.com. That goes for the main site, the forum, the video blog etc (as per links on the left).Lost my damn gum shield yet again yesterday (definitely put it in my bag, so must have fallen out somewhere at home): tried to pick a new one up before class, but the one shop near my office that might have sold them is about to become a smoothie bar. Grr. So I’ll have to buy a new one in Brum (unless my gf has two?), whether I find the old gum shield or not: this keeps happening, so it would be useful to have a spare.I was a bit uncertain about training tonight, as the tricep on my left arm has been acting up since training yesterday, along with my right leg (not quite sure how that happened). Decided to go along in the end, and was glad I did due to the de
12/12/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-12-12 15:59:00 Class #109Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 12/12/2007 - BeginnerThe Fightworks Podcast is going through the Best BJJ Blogs of the Year again (previous list here), but this time Caleb has stuck up a poll. You can vote here: looking through that group, I'd say Aesopian's blog is still the obvious one deserving of the title, though personally I'm fond of Christina's (fraquellibjj.blogspot.com) and Nick G's (jiujitsubrotherhood.blogspot.com, soon to move to plain jiujitsubrotherhood.com). As I've only got the one vote, I went for Christina, but looks as though Aesopian should clinch it. Also cool to see a bunch of blogs I've not read before, so will have to give those a good look: plenty there to fill a train journey. ;)Didn't manage to train on Saturday after all: I was feeling a bit shitty in the morning, and traffic delayed us on the drive into London (as the whole family was coming to visit my sister and her baby, my mother decided to take the ca
07/12/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-12-07 15:58:00 Class #108Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 07/12/2007 - BeginnersI mentioned previously that the 07:30—08:30 mixed classes were being cancelled after November, but that's now changed. There was a notice mentioning that they won't be cancelled, at least not in the immediate future. Good news for all the crazy people that actually want to wake up and train that early. :pThis is my first beginners class since the Open Day, which in turn was my first since the middle of October: I've been spending most of my time getting smashed by blue belts, so today was a chance to get smashed by white belts instead. Ability-wise, I'm still way behind everybody in the advanced class, at the bottom of the three/four-stripe whites.Tonight's session started off with the scissor sweep. Roger didn't post on the hip, like I've seen before, instead putting the foot on the floor, using that to shrimp and get the shin across the stomach. Also, he gripped the same side arm
06/12/2007 - BJJ (No-Gi) 2007-12-06 16:35:00 Class #107Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Roger Gracie, London, UK - 06/12/2007 - No-GiMy gf did have a spare gumshield, which is good: not sure I quite molded it right, but meh, better than nothing. I had meant to train on Wednesday, but trains on my way to campus messed up, so that I wasn't able to get to Leamington in time to catch the right train to Marylebone. However, not too annoying, as my gf is visiting her parents again this weekend, meaning I've got the Friday and Saturday free to train. Also means I can pop in again on my niece this Saturday, then maybe make Christina's xmas party.Of greater annoyance was my laptop charger dying on the train down to High Wycombe. At first I thought someone was eating a curry, but turned out the smell was coming from the Dell adapter, after which it fizzled out. On the plus side, that meant that instead of pissing around on the internet last night, I finally got round to reading Pumping Iron, something I've been waiting to do since my
19/12/2007 - BJJ (Advanced) 2007-12-19 17:15:00 Class #111Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 19/12/2007 - AdvancedTonight's class followed the same pattern as the advanced class I'd watched yesterday (having attended the beginners later on). That meant submission escapes, specifically the armbar and triangle.I was pleased to see two people there I haven't often had a chance to train with recently, Dominique and Herman. Pairing up with Dominique for the drilling, we started off with the armbar escape. This was the same basic technique as I'd seen some time ago in the beginners, but as usual Jude had some further tips. Firstly, he emphasised the importance of getting your rear foot (which will be on the same side as the trapped arm) right in close to their bum, your other knee by their head. Having grabbed your free arm's biceps (I normally always put that as bicep, but apparently the correct term is biceps, rather than that being a plural) with your trapped arm's hand, dig the elbow of your free arm i
18/12/2007 - BJJ (Beginners) 2007-12-18 16:32:00 Class #110Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 18/12/2007 - BeginnerLooks like I'm getting a round of colds yet again this Winter, meaning that last week I only made the one session. On the other hand, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as I had a whole bunch of bureaucratic things to sort out on Thursday night. Cold or not this Thursday, I probably won't make the nogi again, as it's the departmental xmas meal: managers buy all the drinks, meaning that training is unlikely to be a good idea (I'll bring my training gear along just in case, but I don't expect to make it to class that night).Term has finished now, so I can try and make Tuesday sessions until it starts up in the second week of January. Of course in practice that merely means I have the option of this Tuesday, as the other two are taken up by christmas and New Year respectively. Going by last time, the academy should be open at the start of January, but will have to wait and see.Tonight's
06/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-06 15:58:00 Class #125Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 06/03/2008 – AdvancedWarm-up, unusually, was led by Joanna. Oli was away that lesson, and no Jude either: he mentioned something about going away the previous lesson, so perhaps he's off on a holiday or something?As to technique, yep, you guessed it: De La Riva sweep, though this time they're standing up. As before, wrap around the outside of their same side leg, hooking your foot on the inside by the inner thigh. Grab their same side heel, and also grip their opposite sleeve. For this variation, they're trying to pass, so have a hold of your other leg, trying to push it down to pass. As they step round, push their arm back through your legs, lift up their leg (using your De La Riva hook and grasp on the heel).
05/03/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-03-05 17:30:00 Class #124Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 05/03/2008 – AdvancedFelipe has started up a new club (which he's calling the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu School), which is cool - he's going to be running classes at two locations:Willesden Sports CentreDonnington RoadWillesdenLondonNW10 3QXSpring Health Club81 Belsize Park Gardens, NW3When I last looked the website wasn't up and running yet (when it is, it will be here), but there's a Facebook group in the meantime. Contact Felipe through that for more info: he had an opening workshop at the weekend, which no doubt went well. Speaking of websites, SteveBJJ has changed his URL, dropping off the 'blogspot.com' bit: its now simply Also, the map is still growing, and that world map I mentioned is expanding steadily: one
28/02/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-02-28 16:41:00 Class #123Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Jude Samuel, London, UK - 28/02/2008 – AdvancedMy thumb is still giving me a bit of irritation, but equally its not affecting my training in a noticeable fashion. Hopefully any niggles will be gone by next week. My gf didn't go along to her pilates class last week (she's not quite settled into a routine), so instead she took the cheaper option of running through a class with me at home. I'm thrilled she was willing to do some BJJ with me, but if this becomes a long term plan for her fitness (and I very much hope it will be), I'm going to need some proper mats. Even if her interest drops off, I could do with mats for doing drills etc at home, though that’s another point in favour of the cheaper eBay option.I've thought about this before, but now I'v
27/02/2008 - BJJ (Advanced) 2008-02-27 16:53:00 Class #122Roger Gracie Academy (BJJ), Gustavo Dos Santos Pires, London, UK - 27/02/2008 – AdvancedMy map has been expanding swiftly over the past week, so I'm up to about 90 locations now. I also discovered a site called bjjMap.com, based over in Brazil: that was the first thing to pop up when I google "bjj map". As far as I can tell, they've been attempting to do something similar to me, except with the grander ambition of a global club map. As that site also appears to use Google Maps as its basis, I'm hoping they can incorporate what I've already done: I'll keep on building mine up, but those clubs should help to beef up the global map (if only UK locations).My thumb was still a bit sore from the throwdown, but its been ok for holding drinks and the like, so I decided I'd just go a bi
23/02/2008 - Oxford Throwdown II 2008-02-23 17:23:00 Oxford Throwdown II, Bullshido, Oxford, UK – 23/02/2008I wasn't around for the first Oxford TD, which I think was some time back in 2005, but have been a regular throwdown attendee since 2006. Cullion organised this one at the Oxford Brookes Centre for Sports, where there's a room available for £45.It wasn't an especially long journey for me, as I'm only coming down from Birmingham, slightly over an hour away on the train. Bran Lydster, on the other hand, was heading from Doncaster, which is considerably further: nevertheless, bumped into him as the train taking me from Brum also happened to be his final connection. Then again, unsurprising, given that three of us from Bullshido had been planning to arrive about the same time. I had initially seen a person on the platform weighed down w Read more:Oxford
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