BJJ Seminar at 360 Martial Arts in Ulverstone, Tasmania

Last week I taught a BJJ Seminar at 360 Martial Arts and Fitness in Ulverstone Tasmania while visiting the area for a family holiday. I have attended many seminars over the last 25 years and have had mixed experiences. Some have been great and have changed the direction of my martial arts training and coaching and others have been terrible. In some cases its clear that the instructor has not given any thought to what or how he is going to teach and is only there to collect a paycheck. I've always wanted to make sure that when I'm asked to teach that I have a great session planned and that every single person who attends will get something out of it and will improve their martial arts ability in some way. I always plan my seminar step by step and then hand out notes on what has been covered at the end of the session. 

Here is what I taught last week:

Takedown & Open Guard Seminar - Denis Kelly MMA Coaching

Grip Breaks: Kumi Kata (From Right Hand Grip)

• Right hand Fingertips to ear and pull back right Elbow
• Both hands grip Right sleeve - Pull Down or Pull away and Lean Back
• Shake - Pull down Collar grip with Left Hand

Grip Surfing Drill:

• Get Grip and Prevent Grip
• Flow from One Grip to the Next
• Collar - Sleeve - Belt - Leg - Two on One

Fireman's Throw / Kata Guruma:

• 2 on 1 Grip - Pressure Down on Shoulder - Action/Reaction
• Pull with Left Hand - Drop Penetration Step Right Knee  
• Right hand to Sky - Ribs on your Neck
• Sink/Sit on your Heels - So he doesnt have too far to fall
• Lower your left shoulder to the mat - let opponent do a forward roll over you

Open Guard Grip Surfing Drill:

• Non competitive - Just flowing between grips - Partners gives correct energy
• Hips (Feet on Hips) - Hooks (Feet hooked behind knees) - Elbows (Spider Guard)

Lasso Guard:

• Wrap leg from Outside to Inside of Arm
• Block Tricep with your Instep - Lock your Elbow to your Hip
• Test the Connection - Partner walks backwards and pulls you.

SASA Sweep - Yukinori Sasa (Paraestra Gym Tokyo):

• Bring Right Foot from Left Hip to Right Hip - Shin across belt
• Right Hand goes inside his left Knee
• Bring his Right Shoulder to the mat with your Left Knee & Lift with right hand
• Finish in Knee on Belly Position

To Oma Plata:

• If they don't move forward after removing foot from hip
• Right hand to outside of Right Knee - Rotate under stomach
• Stretch both legs - Knees tight to force shoulder to Mat

To Triangle:

• Right Leg over Left Shoulder  
• Grip right elbow with both hands
• Pull Right elbow in - Stretch left leg through
• Inside of left knee on right shoulder to angle off to your right.

Guard Passing Drills:

• Slap-Head : Passer
• Slap-Head : Both
• One Arm Bandit
• No Arm Bandit
• Blind Bandit

I received a lot of great feedback about the session and could see that many of the participants were picking up the techniques and concepts really well. Really looking forward to getting back there to run another session in the near future.

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My MMA Journey - Part 3

After my win in Italy at the end of 2003 I was keen to get back in and have another go as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there weren't as many opportunities to fight or MMA events taking place at that stage. I kept myself busy by competing in BJJ, KSBO amatuer MMA events and also some Jiu Jitsu Kumite events which were mixture of semi contact karate and grappling. I was also pretty busy at this time with work and exams, but as soon as my exams were over I made a big push to get matched up for as many MMA matches as I could get.

I had four pro MMA fights in four months from June to September 2004. I won three of those and the fourth was given as a draw however it was one of my most dominant ever fights. I took my opponent down and punched and elbowed him from guard for three straight rounds. In between these fights I also competed in regularly in BJJ and grappling events.
I found all my own matches by contacting promoters and offering to fight anyone they had at a similar weights. Then a group of us would head off on a road trip on Saturday to the other side of the country. Weigh in, have a fight then drive home later that night. Looking back now that probably wasn't the best way to manage a Fight career but I wanted to keep improving and to me that meant testing myself and staying active. I had to fight whoever was offered and keep working to get better between every fight.
Throughout all these fights and during the training camps I was suffering from instability in my knee. I could still and compete but it would pop out every now and again (including during one of my fights) and I needed to keep it heavily taped up when I fought. At the end of 2004 I was booked in to get ACL reconstruction surgery and this put my fight career temporarily on hold.
In Feb 2005 I had a full ACL reconstruction. This can usually take a long time to recover from but I wanted to make sure I was fight ready as soon as possible after the surgery. The first two weeks I was off work stuck at home wearing a huge knee brace and using crutches, as soon as I could walk again I got back to light weight training and also did rehab physio sessions once a week. About a month after the surgery I got back to boxing, however focusing more on punching and not so much footwork. During this time I did most of my boxing training at the Fitzroy Lodge gym in south London.
I also had more exams around May of this year so once my exams were done I wanted to return to full training. Approximately five months after my knee surgery I was ready to get back to grappling training and was able to compete in a grappling tournament again a few weeks later.
Around this time I also got offered a shot to fight on a new MMA promotion which would take place in London in October. I was very keen to get back in and fight to make up for my lost time. In the months leading up to this fight I also went on two training trips, firstly to Amsterdam where I got to train with many legends of Dutch Kickboxing including Ernesto Hoost, and then a few months later I traveled to Brazil where I trained at Brazilian Top Team, which was the leading MMA team in the world at that time.
My first fight back after surgery was against Ciro Gallo in York Hall, Bethnal green. I dropped him with a punch right at the start of the round then got a Judo style Turtle rolling armbar. I was happy with the result of this fight as I had been out of full training and fighting for so long. However as always when I felt a fight was too easy I also had a slight feeling of disappointment that it wasn't enough of a challenge and that I had wasted several months of training and preparation but hadn't really tested myself. However I was never really the type of fighter to pick and choose my opponents or even to bother finding out much about them before i stepped into the ring. I just fought whoever was in front of me. I didn't look as MMA fighting as a career or even a sport. I just looked on it as a realistic way of testing my martial arts skills. If you get attacked on the street you don't get to pick and choose who you get attacked by, you don't ask for someone who is closer to your weight or has a similar record and you certainly don't ask your attacker to come back on another day because you've got a cold or sore elbow.

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Seminars coming up at in February

We have two great seminars coming up soon:


On Thursday 7th February we  have Alex Volkanovski and Frank Hickman for an MMA Wrestling Seminar.

Top 10 UFC Featherweight Alex "The Great" Volkanovski is riding a 17 fight win streak with an undefeated 6-0 record in the UFC. Alex recently defeated top 5 UFC featherweight, Chad Mendes in Las Vegas at UFC 232.

Frank Hickman is the head wrestling coach at Tiger Muay Thai and has worked with some of the worlds best MMA Fighters.

A Division 1 wrestler from Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania and a 3x Division 1 National Qualifier Frank is a grappling machine with 20 years of wrestling knowledge of the famed Hickman Bros.

This seminar is being organised by CMBT Nutrition.

CMBT is the first sports nutrition brand dedicated to the Combat sports community. To find out more check out cmbt.com.au/seminar

To book for this seminar follow the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cmbt-wrestling-seminars-tickets-54227315360?fbclid=IwAR2CGq-sthXfxvKnLKlDcBvBJGMS0B7dwJ0PrY0sZS7wqxOyVitjYRyRTYk

The following night on Friday 8th February we have a seminar with Mendes Brothers Jiujitsu Black Belts Justin 'Juggs' Dee and Jason Powell.

Justin JUGGS Dee

18yrs training jiu jitsu

1st Degree Black Belt under Mendes Bros/ATOS Jiu Jitsu 

Founder and Head Instructor at Full Metal Jiu Jitsu

Jason Powell

8yrs training jiu jitsu

Black Belt under Justin JUGGS Dee & Mendes Bros/ATOS Jiu Jitsu 

Assistant Instructor at Full Metal Jiu Jitsu

Multiple time QLD Jiu Jitsu Champion

Multiple time QLD No-Gi Jiu Jitsu Champion 

NSW Jiu Jitsu Champion

ADCC Pro Jiu Jitsu Silver Medalist (NSW)

This seminar will run from 6pm until 8pm and the cost is $60 per person.

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