Singapore beckons

Hello again,
I am off again on thursday morning, this time to Singapore.
I am looking forward to this trip and the time I'll be spending with the great group of martial artists gathering there for five days of exciting training. I havn't been to Singapore for 25 years - so I am expecting some big changes. And this time, as I won't be living in a drain-pipe somewhere, I will be able to get onto the net regularly and keep the blog updated.

I'll be visiting my student Sam Wee in Malaysia next week - and am really looking forward to that also. it's been a couple of years since I have seen him or his wife Marlina. This will be a fun trip.

I'll keep you updated.
best wishes,
train smart - train safe.

JBW

Off to Sydney

It's friday - and I am off to Sydney at lunchtime.
I am looking forward to seeing some of my Sydney friends - my first port of call will be David and Jacqui Sukers school at Bargo this evening. Tomorrow I'll be teaching at Michael Scotts school in Cambelltown in the morning and then at Steve Percevals school in Penrith in the afternoon. On Sunday morning I'll be at Black Belt Anthony Lange's gym in North Manly and then Rick Spains school in the afternoon, in the city.
This will be my last visit to Syndey till March next year - my schedule between now and then is pretty hectic.

Thursday next week will see me teaching in Singapore - where I'll be for six days. I will make sure to take my laptop and upload some fun vid clips for you to enjoy.

Till next week - train smart, train safe!
JBW

Setting up the Crossface

Here's another quick tip for you - this time covering how to we can establish the crossface position. We have already taken a look at one of the most effective ways of making use of it, so hopefully you are keen to learn how to set it up in the first place.
I hope it is useful for you.
Train smart - train safe.
JBW

Entry and takedown

Here is another quick vid-clip of some useful methods of entry and takedown gainst an opponent unloading a barrage of strikes.
I hope it helps - the instruction is broad-strokes only - but the it may get you thinking.
Train Smart - train safe!
JBW

Crossface - quick tip

Dave Meyer and I just finished shooting 36 small video clips today covering a variety of common BJJ related problems. These 36 quick tips will all be uploaded eventually.
Here's a quick one on Crossface.
Hope you like it,
best wishes,
JBW

Videoing today ...

After breakfast this morning, Dave meyer and I are off to the mat to lay down some video clips (as quicktime files) for use on this blog - the site , etc.
I have just gathered together a bunch of questions that people have been throwing at me in seminars that I have run over the last six months, and as these questions are at the very end of the seminars, I usually don't have much time to give full and thorough answers, I thought I would try answering on video.
I don't know yet how we will go today - but we have plans to cover about 50 topics. We are aiming for a three or four minute video clip for each topic.
This afternoon , I'll try to drop a coupke up on this blog and see how we go.
Stay tuned.
JBW

A true legend ...

One of the best things about the weekend was seeing my good friend Hanshi Tino Ceberano at the Supershow. Many people consider Tino to be the pioneer of martial arts in Australia. He was the teacher of many of our most well respected and influential martial artists. A true martial arts legend here. I was fortunate some time back to spend a lot of time with him in Japan - where he is revered as one of the best Goju Kai men in the world. The last time I saw him was when he and I were best men at a wedding in the Philipnes a few years back. At the show, I was standing talking to someone, and I hear this great loud voice yell, I turn , and there is Tino running toward me.
You simply cannot spend time with him without a smile appearing on your face. he is a man of amazig skill, great character and immense charisma. We are lucky to have him residing back here in Australia.

Think about all the benefits that martial arts training offers us. perhaps the most important thing of all, are the great life-lasting friendships that we make along the way.

Train hard - train smart.
JBW

Gold Coast Supershow

It's monday afternoon and Dave Meyer and I are chilling out after a workout at the local pool. We arrived home in the early, early hours of this morning after spending the weekend at the Australian MArtial Arts Industry Supershow, organized by Fari Salievski, on the gold coast. It was a great event, where I had a chance to catch up with a lot of old friends. Notably, Tino cenerano and Richard Norton, were there also. It was a special moment for me when I was called on to present Richard with the Australian Lifetime acheivement award for contribution to the martial arts. He is simply one of the best martial artists on the planet - his skills are outstanding and he has black belts in many styles, including BJJ. The fact that he flew in from LA especially for the event, (just for the weekend) speaks volumes about the man. Richard is the kind of person, that if he makes a promise, he keeps it. These 'old school' values are part of what I love and admire about him.
Over the weekend, I taught a couple of sessions which were extremely well received. My apologies to all those who asked for more - but there were no extra timeslots or mat space to be had.
A lot of new school oweners bought my pro grappling Curriculum over the weekend. I foresee our association here in Australiasia, contuniing to expand beyond expectations. Welcome all.
I'll try to get a few pics up on this site soon. I didn't take my camera - but hndreds of pics were taken over the weekend - am sure some will e-mail me a few.
Best wishes all - food and rest are needed. A normal week starts tomorrow.
JBW

Teaching tip #4; Get a time machine!

One of the most difficult things I find with teaching is to fully understand exactly where peoples starting points are. You see, before we can get a student to a new, desired place, we need to first know where they currently are. Thats the tough thing.
The more clearly we understand where someone is in the present, the better we can begin to move them toward the new and improved desired state.

I feel one of the biggest mistakes a green instructor can make is to try to relate to their new students from where they themselves are after years of training. What they really need is a little time machine that whisks them back to a place near where the new student is, and deliver the info or class at that level in a way that makes sense to someone with that limited amount of experience. People need to start from where they are; not from where we are.

New students are also less capable of processing the truckloads of fine detail and technical points that advanced students are capable of processing. In fact, one of the several major hurdles or obstacles to the art of mastery is an over reliance on focal vision. Over hundreds of thousands of years, we have done the larger portion of our learning through the use of our peripheral vision. This is because males have been very busy relating to each other in a shoulder to shoulder fashion whilst on the hunt. Learning skills whilst employing our peripheral vision is something that we seem to be very good at.

So try this; when teaching a novice a technical move, demonstrate it at some distance from them. They will be unable to employ their focal vision, and they will very quickly get the big picture, the broad strokes of the move, so to speak. Once they have the general gist of the move, move them in and start to flesh out the details.
This works remarkable well.

Try it. It works.
Train smart, train safe.

JBW

Drunk's don't leg check!

Drunks don’t leg-check
Here's the thing
most martial arts systems are driven by Darwinian forces that exist only within their own walls. That simply means that they are basically evolving to fight themselves.
Hey that guys winding his hip up, he’s throwing a round kick, I better leg-check. Yes, perhaps you better. But also realise that by doing so, you are developing responses that may or may not necessarily be the best responses for realworld, no rules encounters.
You throw your own round kick and your sparring partner stops what he's doing and checks. It’s good for him to do that, so he doesn't have to take the brunt and force of continual round kicks on his unprotected thigh. But DO NOT think that this is the response you are going to get from the drunk guy. The drunk guy is not going to RESPECT your round kick, put his plans on hold and leg-check. He is simply going to smash you in the face; probably right in the middle of your kick. He will also not react to fakes; he will not keep his distance, he may not even register the fact that you are hitting him. Drunks don’t leg check; they don’t counter your triangle choke, they don’t try to pass your guard. Drunks don’t leg check; so make sure you that some good portion of your training is preparing you for how people ACTUALLY fight you in the real world, as opposed to how your sparring partners fight you in your school.
Train smart, train safe.

JBW

Dave Meyer coming friday!

Just arrived back home after a hectic weekend of five seminars in Sydney.
Thanks Sam and Craig, Lance, Fari, Luke and Joe for making it a great weekend! I'll be back up there in three weeks time for another round of seminars, at Bargo, (Dave and Jacqui's), Steve Percevals, Michael Scott's, Anthony Lange's and Rick Spain's. can't wit to see all you guys!
This week is going to be a busy one here at my school and then I shall be picking up Dave Meyer (BJJ Black Belt and great friend from San Fransisco) at the airport on friday. Then it's off to the first Australian martial arts industry Supershow on the Gold Coast. Myself, Dave Meyer and buddy Richard Norton will all be conducting mini-seminars there - and will be hanging out for a weekend of fun and frolics, training and martial arts talk, etc. If anyone can make it, I urge you attend the Supershow; it is going to be great. A big congratualtions to Fari Salievski (director of MA Success here in Australia) for making the Supershow happen. Fari is committed to improving awareness within the martial arts industry down here on the underneath part of the world!
So all is steaming forward as usual - but the real scary thing is going to be the swimming session tomorrow morning with my wife Melissa. She warms up with 50 laps; be afraid, be very afraid.
Provided I don't drown, see you on the mat soon I hope,
train smart, train safe.
JBW

The wizard revealed

Just had a brief video conference with our gruesome websmaster Geoff Grant. it didn't take much coaxing to get him to pull a weird face. So there you have it. At last, the curtain is drawn back and the wizard revealed. Let's hope the wind doesn't change direction.
JBW

The thinker thinks and the prover proves!

What is the single biggest limiting factor of our lives? The answer; the belief systems we carry within our minds. One useful way to think about this is to look at our mind as two separate parts; the part that thinks and the part that proves. That is: the conscious and the subconscious. Whatever belief system we have is created by our conscious mind and our subconscious goes it’s hardest to prove this belief to be true.
If we change our belief system consciously, then our subconscious goes into overdrive to prove this new belief system to be the new truth. This is the way we work. It is useful to think of it like this. The thinker thinks and the prover, our subconscious, proves it to be true.
Believe yourself to be shy and your subconscious will begin to direct your behaviour in such a way that it will prove your belief to be correct and true. Believe you are a failure and unable to get the job done, then again, your subconscious will guide you toward actions, or lack of actions, and again prove your belief to be true. Believe you are strong and capable – your subconscious will shape and guide your actions and feelings and you will become strong and capable.
The thinker thinks and the prover proves.
Be careful what you think; for as sure as the sun will rise, your prover will go into overdrive and make those thoughts a reality.
This is the underlying principle of visualization and affirmation training.

Train Smart, train safe, think great thoughts.

JBW

Unreasonably Curious ...

Unreasonably Curious!

How have I learned almost everything that I have learned? Easy answer; I have always been UNREASONABLY CURIOUS about the things that took my interest. To me, this in itself is interesting, because whatever it is about being unreasonably curious that gives greater insight into a subject, could well be worth delivering to the students I have in my care.

If I can get them to be unreasonably curious about martial arts training, then we will have more minds at work on the problems that we face – and a greater chance at continuing to provide workable and replicable solutions to those problems.

Almost all children are curious. Perhaps even, unreasonably so, until their curiosity is usually repressed by social forces; teachers,parents, etc. Children learn language with almost no effort –they just pick it up. Children are amazing learners – because they have almost limitless curiosity. I love to promote curiosity within the minds of my students. I want to have them think their way through problems – I want them to understand all the working parts of a technique – I want them to be curious about how well the technique works under the stress of sparring ad I want them to be curious about ways to modify and improve it.

What’s over that next hill? What’s up around the next bend of the river? What secrets revealed in the unravelling of the human genome? Curiosity drives me – always has, always will I guess. Take my advice – be UNREASONABLY CURIOUS!
Unreasonable curiosity is the superfuel for our learning machine!

Train Smart – train safe!
JBW