Showing posts with label Coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Coaching. Show all posts

Thursday 30 June 2022

How to get your BJJ Black Belt.


                                    

BJJ differs from other martial arts in that there are no clear requirements for getting your black belt or if there are, they vary from school to school. 

https://acsamelbourne.com.au/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-classes/

Other traditional martial arts, on the other hand, usually have very clear-cut criteria about what you need to do to achieve each belt on the way to becoming a black belt. In karate, for example, there are certain techniques you have to be able to demonstrate and katas you have to perform before you can move up a belt. Even in Judo, which is the closest thing to BJJ, there is a progression path used all over the world for accumulating competition points, demonstrating certain techniques, and then performing the Nage no Kata to obtain a black belt.
Grading requirements can vary greatly from place to place in BJJ. Some schools measure belt advancement solely by the amount of time served and classes attended, while others focus on the number of techniques demonstrated for each belt. Others, such as my original academy (Carlson Gracie London), based belt progression on performance in competition. If you didn’t win a tournament at your current belt then you don’t progress to your next belt.
Your instructors will pick the best grading criteria that work for them, and your school will probably have its own variant, but in general, there are several keys to making progress in BJJ.
Don't focus on the belt.
Instead, focus on improving and learning. It usually takes 8-10 years of consistent training to achieve black belt status. Some people get it faster if they train full-time. Others, like myself, will take longer. (12 years in my case). If you enjoy the training and it becomes a part of your life, you won't care if it takes 3 years or 25 years. The journey is more important than the destination.
Avoid Burn-Out
Aim to train consistently rather than overdo it at the start. Don’t train 7 days a week for 3 months and then quit. Train 3 times a week for 7 years and then you’ll achieve your goals.
Compete.
I’ve been training in BJJ for approximately 22 years. The people who compete always make more progress and stick with their training. You don’t have to be a full-time competitor or quit your job to focus on BJJ competition but my advice would be to compete at least a few times at each belt level along the way to get accurate feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. 5 to 10 minutes in real competition can be the same as 6 months of relaxed training in terms of your development.
Real Training
Be clear about what counts as training time. If you’ve been training in BJJ for 8 years but have had several 6-month breaks or periods where you only trained once a fortnight then that doesn’t count as 8 years of training. Also, if your training session consists of you trying to overpower and tap out the new white belts rather than focusing on your learning and development then that also doesn’t count as real training.
Be a good training partner.
Your coach has your best interests at heart. They want you to make progress and eventually get your black belt because it reaffirms to them that they are doing a good job as a coach. However, they also want what’s best for the other nineteen students on the mat. If you’re a crappy training partner or even worse a dangerous training partner who risks injuring the other students there’s a good chance the coach doesn’t want you on the mats and won’t promote you. Learning how to be a good training partner is perhaps the most important BJJ skill you can learn.


Come try out my BJJ classes at Australian Combat Sports Academy in Thornbury, Melbourne.

https://acsamelbourne.com.au/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-classes/

Tuesday 2 March 2021

Podcast Interview with Sonny Brown

Here is a new interview I did on my friend Sonny Browns Podcast.

Sonny is a great martial artist and experienced MMA fighter but also a very successful and talented  Podcast host. He has had some huge names in the BJJ & MMA community as guests on his show over the last few years so I was very honoured to be invited.


https://sonnybrownbreakdown.com/life-lessons-from-the-worlds-longest-lockdown-with-denis-kelly


Thursday 27 August 2020

Interview with MMA Coach Ian Bone


MMA Melbourne

Heres a short video Interview I did with my good friend Coach Ian Bone. Ian is a multiple time Australian MMA champion, BJJ Brown belt and is now heavily involved in the Japanese Karate / MMA hybrid style of KUDO.

https://www.facebook.com/coachbonecourage/videos/2614198028830557 


Learn MMA in Melbourne

Tuesday 11 August 2020

MMA Striking Class Video

Karate Style Striking for MMA

Key Concepts:
1 - Side on Stance - Presents less of a target for Opponent.
2 - Distance - Bouncing in & out of range to land strikes. Not staying in the pocket.
3 - Single power strikes rather than combinations.
4 - Clearing obstructions - Opponent will have hands up so you need to clear them before you have a target to strike.
5 - Changing Stance - Stepping through on strikes to increase power or landing in a favorable angle.

Combinations
A - Left Hand Trap to Rt Cross / Right Elbow
B - Left Hook Kick (Ura Mawashi Geri) to clear hand - Rt Cross
C - Step through Rt Cross - Left Body Kick (Mawashi Geri) - Right Spinning Backfist (Uraken)
D - Right Body Kick (Mawashi Geri) then Right Cross while retracting kick
E - Right Front Kick (Mae Geri) - Step through to Southpaw - Rt Jab - L Rear Hook - L Head Kick (Jodan Mawashi Geri)
F - Rt Cross - bring feet together - L Head Kick (Jodan Mawashi Geri)
G - Rt Cross - L Hook (Pivoting to Left) - Rt Head Kick (Jodan Mawashi Geri)
H - Bounce in Jab - Cross - Bounce back - Left Head Kick (Jodan Mawashi Geri) or Left Side Kick (Yoko Geri)
I - Jab - Skipping Left Side Kick (Yoko Geri) - Rt Spin Back Kick (Ushiro Geri)
J - Side step Left vs. Rt Cross - Rt Side Kick (Yoko Geri) land in Southpaw - L Cross - Rt Hook - L Uppercut - L Knee (Hiza Geri)


 

Monday 21 October 2019

ACSA MMA Fighter Mitchell Carter wins the XFC Title - MMA Melbourne

MMA Melbourne

This weekend my student Mitchell Carter won the XFC Amateur Featherweight Title. XFC is the longest-running MMA promotion in Australia and this was their first-ever event in Melbourne.

Mitchell has been training hard as part of our MMA fight team and has won four MMA fights, one Boxing match and a NOGI Jiujitsu tournament in less than a year.

In the leadup to this title fight, Mitchell put in a solid eight weeks of preparation focusing on his takedown and wrestling skills as well as adding some new tools to his striking arsenal.

MMA Melbourne

He actually had three changes of opponent for the fight due to injuries and pull-outs. His eventual opponent was a very good, experienced striker who Mitchell fought once before. The end result was a great fight and a good clash of styles.

Thanks to everyone on our team who helped out in the preparation in the weeks leading up to the fight. How a fighter performs on the night of a fight is a direct result of the training partners who he has trained with day in and day out over the weeks leading up to the fight. We are very lucky at Australian Combat Sports Academy to have so many great strikers and grapplers all training together under one roof in a safe environment that allows us to get great results like this. 


MMA Melbourne


Check out our MMA Classes at ACSA MMA & BJJ here:




Tuesday 29 January 2019

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.





Monday 9 July 2018

What I've learned as an MMA coach


These are some of the things I've picked up on my first ten years as an MMA Coach


You don’t need to be a Fighter.


Before becoming a coach I believed that I needed to gain as much fight experience as possible. In my mind it would affect my credibility if I hadn't been there and done it. Since opening my school I've never had a single student who cares if I had real fight experience or not. The only thing that students care about is whether you will be able to help them achieve their goals. Fight Experience can be useful and is helpful for separating the legitimate coaches from the frauds but many experienced fighters are clueless when it comes to coaching and don’t take the time to learn how to coach properly.

No Substitute for Experience.


However, my own fight career has been a useful asset for me. My experiences in the ring and cage have given me confidence in preparing fighters and an ability to understand what they are going through during their preparation. I can help my fighters avoid making the mistakes that I made during my fight career. This speeds up their learning and progression rather than relying on trial and error. I am also confident that I am not asking my fighters to do anything that I haven’t done myself. Trustworthiness is one of the most valuable attributes a coach can have. The fighter must be able to trust the coach 100% rather than doubting if he is actually speaking from experience.

Wide Knowledge Base.


What you learnt during your own training and fighting won’t be enough. Every Fighter has their favourite techniques that have worked well throughout their competitive career. When you start coaching you encounter a wide variety of students of different skill levels, personalities and body types for whom these techniques just aren’t a good fit. Students will get bored of learning your ‘A game’ every night for the next five years. You need to go back and re-learn many techniques and skills that you didn’t pay too much attention to when you were a fighter. You need to understand them so you can pass them onto your students. You also need to invest time in learning how to coach properly and be aware of the distinction between demonstrating how much you know versus passing on the information in a useful manner.

Always Keep Learning.


Don’t keep looking back to the glory days. MMA is continually getting better and more advanced and a good coach needs to keep learning and improving. Some martial arts styles haven’t changed much in the past 50 years however MMA and BJJ are continually evolving and changing, A good coach must keep up to date with new techniques so that students are not caught off guard by them, Too many coaches rely on just teaching the way they were taught. All sports evolve and improve over time and combat sports are no different. It makes sense to continually stay on top of the latest developments in the sport just as an athletics or football coach would.

Martial Arts Trends come and go.


There will always be new fads or new trends in the industry. Since gaining popularity in the western world Martial Arts has a history of going through trends where one style would be popular for a few years and then replaced by another. This was the case with Judo, Kung Fu, Karate and then Ninjitsu. MMA & BJJ are currently the biggest trend in the martial arts world. BJJ is actually a microcosm of this Martial Arts trend phenomenon where we see a new group of techniques become popular for a few years before being replaced by something else. Based on this I believe you need to be aware of the current trends in the industry but focus on the term long term rather than basing your entire coaching philosophy around whatever happens to be popular at the moment.

The Right Culture and Training Environment.


As mentioned previously, a good coach must stay on top of the latest developments in in the sport, however, Trends come and go. What is relevant and popular this year may soon be seen as an old fashioned technique that nobody uses anymore. What can persist for a much longer time is the gym culture that you create. The atmosphere and culture in your gym is the most important asset. How the students and fighters act, treat each other and behave in the gym. The training environment you create in terms of safe and effective training, and the reputation and the values of the team are more important than short term success.

Coaching Beginners is more Impressive than Coaching Champions.


Anyone can coach a fighter who is already a champion. By the time they reach Championship level the fighter should already have spent ten thousand hours training. It becomes more a matter of supervising their training and making sure they don't do anything stupid. What impresses me most is when a coach can take a complete beginner with no skill or training background and get them to championship level.

The Team is more Important than the Individual Fighters.


Obviously it is always more rewarding to work with a fighter from beginner level all the way up to championship level but this is not always possible. Fighters will switch gyms, lose interest in fighting or quit training altogether but its not a big deal. Every top level professional sports team has players leave every season, every college or high school has to start off each year with a fresh batch of players. If the right systems, culture and coaching are in place then the team will consistently produce results.

Focus on Quality over quantity.


Some people aren’t a good fit and will do more harm than good. Many coaches think that the more people they can ram into their classes or fight team the better. One bad training partner with the wrong attitude can put off (or Injure) five or six people. The same is true with building the long-term culture of the Gym. Some fighters will bring with them bad habits such as turning up late, missing classes or lazy training. If you don’t stamp it out this will eventually rub off on other junior members of the team, who will follow the lead of the senior fighters, develop the same bad habits and ultimately lose any chance of achieving their full potential. No matter how much talent a fighter may potentially have, if they don't fit with your team culture and philosophy you are better off without them.

There are no secrets. 


Fighters often feel like they are missing out if they aren't training with ten world champions every day. I've trained at some of the best gyms around the world and with many of the top coaches. What I've learnt is that there really are no secrets. The most successful gyms and fighters just do the same things that everyone else does, they just do more of it and do it more consistently.

It's about more than just Winning Fights.


Training fighters to win trophies and belts is great but the novelty quickly wears off. This is especially true if you feel that the competition success isn’t having a positive effect on the fighter or the team. There are too many examples of fighters and athletes who were successful in competition but the success had disastrous consequences for their life outside of sport. Martial Arts should be a way of improving the lives of everyone involved rather than focusing on winning at all costs.


Tuesday 29 May 2018

Martial Arts Injuries


Injuries are one of the main reasons students quit their martial arts training. Many students quit either directly because of an injury, they take time off to recover and then never return. Alternatively when they return all of their training partners have improved so much that they feel that they'll never catch up so they give up.


You can never completely avoid injuries over the course of your Martial Arts training career. The basis for all types of martial arts is injuring and opponent or attacker. Its unrealistic to expect that you wont pick up some types of injuries. Even in forms of martial arts which are usually seen as relatively safe such as Tai Chi and Aikido, there is still a possibility of injury


Comparison with other sports


Injuries are possible in all forms or sports and physical activities. There are lots of best practice methods to prevent injuries which are exactly the same across all sports. These include warming up thoroughly, making sure you are using proper technique and doing a cool down and stretch at the end of a session.



Martial Arts Specific Injuries

There are several types of injuries which are more likely to occur in Martial Arts. These include joint injuries or loss of consciousness as a result of submission techniques, Cuts and bruises from accidental contact with strikes. Skin infections such as Ringworm or Staph infection commonly seen in grappling styles as a result of poor hygiene, there are also various injuries and illnesses associated with excessive weight cutting.


The most serious in my opinion is Head Trauma and Concussion. This is more common is striking styles but can also happen in grappling as a result of a slam or take-down. Excessive head trauma and concussion have very serious long term effects (memory loss, depression, loss of cognitive function) which are only now being understood. I would advise all Martial Arts students to be aware of these risk factors and choose their training activities wisely. Including choosing your training partners wisely which brings me to the next point.


Risks of Sparring


Something specific to martial arts is the risk involved in sparring or rolling in BJJ. This is one of the most fundamental and productive activities in Martial Arts training but it requires a large degree of trust and responsibility with the participants. You are trusting your training partner with your personal safety. You need to ensure you train with partners you can rely on to not go crazy and do risky or unpredictable techniques,

80/20 rule - 80% of the injuries are caused by 20% of the students.

I've found that the majority of students can be trusted to roll or spar safely without any problems and without causing injuries. I've also noticed over the years that most of the injuries in sparring usually come form 20 percent of the students. If you're the coach I think it's a good idea to monitor the sparring and look out for those 20% of students who are constantly going too hard, being too competitive or using too many risky or unorthodox techniques. Take them aside and encourage them to tone it down or join up at the new gym down the road instead. You’ll be amazed how the injury rate goes down once you get rid of the ten ‘win at all costs’ students. Then the rest of your students can train in a safe and productive environment.


If you're a student have a look around at who is sparring sensibly and who is going crazy and try to avoid them as much as possible.

Check out my BJJ Sparring article here:



Other tips for minimizing injuries for Students and Coaches

Make sure all beginner students complete a Pre-Training evaluation / Functional Movement Screening. This will make sure any existing injuries or conditions are known to the coaches so the activity can be modified where necessary.


All sessions begin with a sport specific warm up. Use functional movements which will be similar to types of movement actually used in the session. Gradually increase intensity rather than going too hard too soon.


Training starts off at an easy technical pace for new students for at least the first two months - don't rush into sparring or high intensity training too soon. Even though the student may enjoy it their body will not yet be ready which leads to injury and quitting.


All students focus on training with good technique, not taking shortcuts. One of the common reasons for technique breaking down is due to exhaustion so make sure everyone trains at a pace they can maintain. Injuries are also just more likely to occur when a student is exhausted so adequate rest and recovery is essential.


Make sure all students have appropriate level of good quality, clean training equipment. This includes gloves, head gear, shin guards, mouth guard, clean clothing suitable for the activity (such as rash guard for grappling).


Additional strength training twice a week can also go a long way to prevent injuries in Martial Arts. It's important to avoid any kind of exercises which could cause additional injury risks and focus on good form and technique.


Recovery training such as Foam Rolling, Stretching or massages are also important for injury prevention and a good way to prolong your Martial Arts training career.
Adequate Supervision


As mentioned above Martial Arts and Combat Sports are dangerous. Make sure all training is supervised by an experienced coach - This is one of the biggest risk factors I see in Martial Arts training. The 20% of students mentioned above get together to bang it out or roll on their own schedule because they are too busy to make it to the regular classes. Inevitably this leads to the students getting injured and quitting Martial Arts within three years.


This is also a big danger of open mat sessions in BJJ. Students may be doing reckless, injury causing techniques on each other without supervision. There needs to be firm rules in place about what is acceptable.


All sessions need to be run by a qualified and experienced coach. There is a big risk from a business point of view of sessions run by inexperienced coaches who have inadequate training on how to coach safely and effectively and how to minimize and prevent injuries.

Finally, its important to refer to a sports medicine specialist or sports physiotherapist if there is a serious injury or problem.

Check out my article about building the right Gym culture here:


Long Term BJJ Training

Eleven years ago since I got my black belt and I thought this would be useful advice for anyone who is in the earlier stages of their JiuJi...

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