Christmas Eve Workout

After a couple of private lessons this morning, I hit my last thrice-weekly HIIT session with a few of my friends. Today was a tough one, consisting of six exercises: 40 seconds of work on each followed by a 20 second rest - one minute off when we were dopne, and then the whole thing repeated five times. I need a protein and a nap!
Here are some pics taken from a workout earlier this week (mondays session I think)
Anyways, this will be my last post before Christmas - and then I am off to Aitutaki, a small island in the Cook island group (south pacific) for eight days - time to read a few books, do some fishing with Felix and spend some time with Melissa. Nice.
Happy Christmas everyone - have a great time.
JBW

A Happy Christmas technique ...

This is an idea that completely changed the way I escaped the Mount - especially when I was being mounted by a far superior grappler. When I was a purple belt I always had trouble when mounted - I would try the standard Elbow Escape and always seemed to have trouble getting my knee through - this idea really worked for me and improved my grappling on a number of levels - it also deepened my understanding of and ability to use my Butterfly hooks. I hope it helps all of my readers - Merry Christmas to all.
JBW

In the can ...

Another day - another 2500 pics!
My friend Marc Hebert is out from South Africa - and the last few days have seen him behind the camera taking several thousand still shots and getting a stack of video in the can. Being a digital media whizz, he has, after a hard night, nearly completed the authoring of a new DVD on Mastering Sweeps. This is the third in the series (the first two being Mastering Chokes and Mastering Armbars) and is nearly ready to be shipped off for replication. I have the 2500 pics on my hard drive, so I have everything I need to put together another Jiu Jitsu book sometime over the next six months. The title of the book will be Understanding BJJ - and will be an in-depth look at how to go about building a personal game.
I am messing around with the 'look' and 'feel' of the layout, and need to get that squared away before I put my head down and get to work on it. The featured pic here is my attempt at building a 'notebook-style' look - and comments would be appreciated. It wil be a large book - several hundred pages - and it will be very detailed.
I have been thinking about this book for some time now - but I couldn't do much more than think about it until I had the pics on my hard-drive. Not having the bits and pieces i need on hand was what was stopping thoughts and mild musings from becoming reality. I know this sounds obvious - but so very often, we can't move forward because we can't be bothered or are unwilling to take the steps that commit us to action. Taking the steps that commit us to things, is a real secret to transforming daydreams into reality. HAve a great Christmas everyone - I'll get another post up before the weekend.
Best wishes
JBW

True Character ...

Reminder:
On the 12th of the 12th 2009 at 12.08pm with 5 seconds on the clock Haydn Clasby received an injury that changed everything about himself and my club. Hayden broke his neck and is now paralysed from the nipple line down. This was the first injury that anyone had heard of this kind and it rocked the BJJ world. People from all over the world sent messages of support, gave money and offered things. It was amazing to watch. On that day I lost my favourite training Buddy, I lost the ability to look at people rolling and not cringe when some one is in guard. I lost the ability to roll for a very long time. It changed everything. What I did find on that day was a Man that has the most incredible strength. In all my life I have never met any one that inspires me the way he does. Here was a guy that had been told one of the worst things you could be told. Haydn amazed us all with his strength of character his ability to still laugh and his willingness to never give up. To make light of the situation and to keep moving forward. Today I am heading to Haydn’s house to celebrate the fact that 1 year ago today he could of died but he didn’t! It is a bitter sweet celebration and I sit here and write this with tears in my eyes for all that was lost and for all that was gained from one moment in time that can never be taken back. Haydn you are a legend! - Melodie McDonald

Latest Haydn update:

Haydn is doing really well and is settled in his new house with partner Gen and new dog (cavalier/pug) Gus. Renovations have been finished and now he has a flash new bathroom and lift to get to his home gym.

Haydns biceps muscles continue to get stronger, as yet he doesn’t have triceps or wrist extensions, it amazes me what he can do with just biceps. His left arm is considerably stronger than his right but in the last two months that has gone from strength to strength.

He has been looking at the possibility of Stem Cell treatment but that will be quite a few years away if he decides to do it as there is still a lot of experimenting with it at this stage.

2012 will see Haydn moving to Christchurch for a few months, to have an operation on his arms to move muscles around so that he can get wrist extensions, which will allow him to pick stuff up.. Hopefully the MMA/BJJ community will step in and head a long to the hospital and meet Haydn so that he will have a steady stream of visitors. He will pretty much be a “nigel no mates” down there! He is a pretty funny guy and am sure you will have a laugh with him.

Haydn has a long term plan of joining the Wheel Blacks and playing wheel chair rugby! He regularly goes to their games.

This is a pic of Haydn at his “1 year since I nearly died party” with his 1 year anniversary cake taken last Saturday!

All the best HAydn - you inspire us all.
JBW

Opportunity ...

Every problem presents us with an OPPORTUNITY to come up with, or develop, a solution. Every Time we 'tap' on the mat, we have an OPPORTUNITY to ask ourselves how it happened and to come up with preventative measures. Every time we experience negative feelings we have an OPPORTUNITY to test out ways of thinking that might steer us toward feeling better about ourselves or our situation. Every time a student has difficulty in learning a skill or a new technique, it presents the instructor with an OPPORTUNITY to come up with a way of imparting that particular skill or technique ion a way that resonated with that student. Every challenge presents us with an OPPORTUNITY to stretch ourselves in new and novel ways that may allow us to ultimately prevail. When we are hungry, we have an OPPORTUNITY to choose some healthy food to satisfy our hunger.
I am often asked how or why I am so passionate about my martial arts training today as I was thirty years ago - the answer is a simple one; I see every day as an opportunity to take a fresh and novel look at the things I have practised for decades. Every day is an opportunity to come up with a better way to try and impart the things I know, to other people; every single time I step onto the mat is an opportunity for re-invention; how is this not exciting? OPPORTUNITY is always present, we are surrounded by it, we marinate in it whether we realise it or not. Life is OPPORTUNITY. Inhale it, taste it ... revel in it.
best wishes all,
JBW

Empty Inbox - Breathless Workout ...

People often ask me, how I get so many things done in the course of any given year. To me, it always seems like a bit of a strange question, as from my own perspective, it always seems as though I do have plenty of free time on my hands. it's true though, I do get stuff done, but I tend to put my head down and get on with the job when circumstances require - as opposed to waffling on about it. This year, I built an investment property, wrote another book, taught 750 odd classes and travelled to conduct near on 100 seminars - apart from this, I spent quite a bit of time in hospital with my eldest son - and in between took a trip to Singapore, a trip to the USA and a trip to Europe - yet as I write this blog, my inbox is sparkling and empty - meaning I have attended to the 25 odd e-mails that have come my way on this day.
I approach my strength and conditioning workout for example, as I do most other things - with a mindset of getting it done as quickly and efficiently as possible. The last thing I would want to do is spend an hour and a half in a gym, socializing and wading my way through a boring and long-winded workout. I want to get my heart-rate up as fast as possible, and keep it there for 30 minutes, while taxing myself on a variety of fronts (functionality of fitness, strength, flexibility, anaerobically, mentally, etc). Thirty minutes - and I'm done! I do not like to waste time.
I attend to e-mails through the day, I act on them, I leave my inbox empty. if I set to writing a book - I set aside a block of time each day and put my head down and get it done. I do not like attending to something and waling away having to come back to it - I would rather not attend to it at all, until I have the time to 'knock it on the head' and put it behind me.
I have listen to many people over the years, talking endlessly about the things they want to do - without ever taking the action to do those things. I have often mused that many people could more than likely do the things required of them in their jobs, in probably ten hours or less, if they were motivated (and allowed) to do so. people love to 'waffle on' - but if you want to fit more into your life - make a habit of shedding off some of those 'time-wasters' that creep so insidiously into our day-to-day lives.
We can't create more time for ourselves - but we can almost certainly free up some of the time we do have. Time, after all, is the one resource we cannot really afford to waste - none of us can get more than our allocated share.
Empty your inbox ...
JBW

Dealing with the hooks ...

Here's a short clip, where on demonstrate an effective method of dealing with the butterfly hooks. In this clip I am working with my friend Rich Green in Coventry, England. Just by co-incidence, I taught this move briefly in a private lesson this morning, to Marc Collet, who is out visiting from England, with his friend Roger Gilbert (both from Tony Terranova's gym in the Cotswalds). We are replete with visitors this week, as I also have my friend Marc Hebert from Johannesburg here until Christmas. An international flavour to my mat this week, here in Geelong. Nice.
Time to head to training - JBW

!/2 Guard Passing Strategies

Here's a pre-christmas plan for dealing with the half guard. Note that the underlying battle between the two of us is the battle for the 'underhook'. Whoever wins that battle, gains the strategic advantage.
Train smart - JBW

New Friends ... no, not on facebook.

It's great to be back into the rhythms of a normal training week. I had my first night back at my school last night, and enjoyed it immensely. Two visitors arrived from the UK for training (Mark and Roger from Fighting Fit Martial Arts in the Cotswalds) and another coming from South Africa on the weekend (Marc Hebert).
I think there are a lot of benefits to be gleaned from travelling abroad for training; the distractions of daily life are cut to a minimum - there is a greater appreciation of the things learned (perhaps due to the massive effort involved in learning those things) - there are new training partners to help 'pressure test' your game - plus of course, the fact that being in a new environment helps to see things from a new perspective.
I often have guests travelling to my home town of Geelong from far away - and it is always a pleasure to have them in the class. I meet a lot of people in the work that I do and have built some rock-solid friendships over the years; perhaps one of the most rewarding things about martial arts training is the opportunities that it provides for us to connect strongly to people from different walks of life and different parts of the world - the kinds of people that perhaps, in the course of our normal lives, we would not usually get to know or befriend. Nice.
JBW

Home Sweet Home

Home at last.
I am sorry for the lack of blogging these past ten days - I was spending time in some remote NZ backcountry - and internet access was not possible. I have just arrived back home and will be back into my usual routine as of tomorrow morning. I have several overseas visitors arriving this week to train at my school - so I am looking forward to that. Great to see my family again, having missed them a lot. Back on deck - life is great!
JBW