The three hour session started off with some armbars from the Gracie Jiu Jitsu self defence syllabus.

Attention then switched the floor. Using his layered approach to learning, Dave broke down progressions of the Americana from mount. After each step, he took the time to give the counter for that progression, before next giving a counter for the counter.

The seminar was attended from people from across the United Kingdom, from as near as Chelmsford itself, to all the way from Wales.

Check out our Facebook events page HERE for more details on further upcoming BJJ seminars in Chelmsford.

White Belt
<70kg

 
<80kg

 
<90kg

 
90kg+

 
Absolute

 
Blue Belt
<70kg
No Winner
 
<80kg

 
<90kg

 
90kg+

 
Absolute
No Winner
 
Women’s White Belt Open Weight

Jon spent time to explain the different type of pressures and controls that can be used to pin your opponent whilst in side control, before moving on to show some particularly sneaky submissions.

As ever, Jon brought to the seminar his unique sense of humour, which led to a very laid back session that all attendees seemed to really enjoy.

A huge thank you to Jon for taking the time to come and show us some fresh material and concepts.

Further upcoming BJJ seminars in Chelmsford for 2014 include Dave Birkett in February and Professor Pedro Sauer in May; contact academy reception for more details.

Mark Philips, a GJJ Black Belt under Marc Walder, spent the session focusing on aspects of the guard and ways to deal with somebody trying to break and pass it.

Mark’s teaching style is very conceptual, which seemed to resonate well with those guys training on the day; everyone commented on how much they walked away with, to implement into their game.

A big thank you to Mark for coming to the academy to pass on some of his knowledge.

Further upcoming BJJ seminars in Chelmsford for 2014 include Jon Hegan in January and Professor Pedro Sauer in May; contact academy reception for more details.

Having travelled all the way from Iceland, Halldór covered a wide range of GJJ Self Defence syllabus, as well as some of the more sport applications of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, over his five day visit. Material covered included standing headlock defences, breaking the posture in the guard, attacks from the guard, 2 on 1 guard attacks and sweeps, mount escapes, and gi tie ups and chokes.

At the end of Sunday’s session, four club members were awarded extra stripes on their white belts (picture above with Halldór). Well done guys, for all your effort and hard work!

A big thank you to Halldór for making the journey to Chelmsford to pass on a little of his knowledge; I’m sure everyone will now have one or two extra tricks up their sleeves.

Further upcoming BJJ seminars in Chelmsford include Mark Phillips at the end of November; contact academy reception for more details.

A good mixture of belt grades were present with students travelling from across the UK to this well attended seminar.

The seminar started with a Gracie Jiu Jitsu inspired warm up and Michael took the time to help a number of students improve these basic GJJ movements that covered everything from forward and backwards rolls to shrimping and explained the relevance these held and how they complimented some of the more advanced techniques.

The seminar then moved on to cover the correct positioning to execute takedowns and some “basic gameplan” for stand up sparring to help students learn to not just utilise the techniques in isolation but to use them in a flowing sequence. This then lead to several friendly bouts of standup sparring with Michael helping students to adjust techniques to maximise their effectiveness.

The seminar moved on and continued from the standup sparring to cover three different throws from the back of an opponent and how to use these in both competitive and self-defense situations.

After a short break the action moved onto the ground and the mount position was drilled extensively covering upa, elbow esacpe and the correct variations of these to use depending on your opponents positioning. This was paired with drills to maintain mount as partners attempted to escape.

The final section of the seminar concluded with a number of submissions from the mount including cross chokes, americana, armbar, and the ezequiel choke. Lastly the students then proceeded to spar the groundwork and Michael took time to roll personally with a number of students including Martyn who found the experience of great benefit.

Hosted at Laurence Sandum’s Black Belt Martial Arts Academy in Chelmsford, the three hour seminar was split in to two halves.

The first 90 minutes focused on some of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu self defence syllabus. Dave was sure to offer small yet important points to increase the effectiveness of the techniques.

The second hour and a half switched focus to attacking with, and defending the triangle, giving a number of options and progressions for each.

The seminar was well attended, with almost 30 people on the mat; BJJ Chelmsford members being joined by guests from SD Martial Arts in Colchester, Westcoast BJJ in Wales as well as from Dave’s own academy, Dartford BJJ in Kent.

Check out our Facebook events page HERE for more details on further upcoming BJJ seminars in Chelmsford.

Joining members of BJJ Chelmsford, other clubs in attendance on the day included Dave Birkett’s Dartford BJJ, Mark Phillip’s BJJ club, Paul Finn’s Karasac group and Sean Doyland’s SD Martial Arts.

Run in the spirit of Gracie Jiu Jitsu (GJJ) self defence, the competition was a single round, submission only event. This meant that if after ten minutes there was no submission, both competitors were knocked out of the tournament.

After the individual weight category match ups were done, and the winners awarded the trophies, the absolute category began, which produced some interesting match-ups.

The event was a great success and we look forward to hosting a follow up event in the near future.

A massive thank you to all the competitors for making the day such a success!

Further upcoming Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) seminars in Chelmsford include Jon Hegan in June and Dave Birkett in July; contact academy reception for more details.

Mike Diaz, a 2^nd Degree Pedro Sauer Black Belt, travelled all the way from his own club, Park City BJJ, in Utah, USA to give the seminars at Laurence Sandum’s Black Belt Martial Arts Academy in Chelmsford.

On request, the six hours of training on Saturday covered, in detail, the Pedro Sauer Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Association Blue Belt syllabus. Throughout the day, those attending received fine tuning from Mike on how to make their techniques more effective and harder to counter.

Sunday started out with a number of BJJ Chelmsford members testing for stripes and belts. After nearly four hours of the assessment of the 88 techniques on the White to Blue syllabus, as well as sparring ability, those testing received their new grades.

The remaining three hours on Sunday afternoon became a Q&A clinic, where people asked Mike about particular problems they were having and how he would deal with them. For each, Mike then gave a couple of answers which everyone then drilled with a partner.

A massive thank you to Mike for making the transatlantic journey to give such an outstanding weekend of training; everyone walked away with even more enthusiasm for their training than usual.

Further upcoming Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) seminars in Chelmsford include Dave Birkett in July; contact academy reception for more details.

As part of Royce’s 2013 UK tour, the mat was jam-packed with a mixture of grades, from all over the country.

The seminar began with the drilling of some of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu self defence syllabus, throughout which Royce gave some humorous and very easy to remember phrases and kinesthetic cues to help drill them effectively and correctly.

The second half of the seminar focused on moving from closed to an open guard variation, and then follow up options that then become available. The way the options were laid out made them very easy to remember and to select the most appropriate.

The session closed out with some situational rolling from the guard position, with the person in guard only allowed to use their right arm. This made for some great problem solving and, in some cases, hilarious rolling.

Thanks to Jon Hegan for his hospitality and making the event possible, and to Royce for passing on some of his knowledge.