Thursday 31 July 2008

BLOODLINE FIGHTER FIGHTS SATURDAY

Bloodline Fighter SEAN FOLAN 3.0.0 will be making his 4Th entrance to the cage this weekend where he will be taking on Chris Garry 3.0.0, Folan has been training extremely hard for this fight alongside Bloodline fight team which include Paul Marut (thai boxing ) and Eddie Kone (Gracie jiu jitsu ) black belt.

The training has gone to plan and this fight has the makings of a war.
Good luck Sean from RGDA UK.
updates will follow shortly along with photos.

Also RGDA ROMANIA will be fighting this Friday at the beach in mamia Romania, rgda uk wish all the fighters a safe and victorious fight for information and fight results please check out www.absoluto.ro or www.rgda-uk.com............

Good luck to Tudor, Ferry ,Toleah, Eugine and the guys ............

Wednesday 23 July 2008

BJJ AND SELF DEFENCE

So here i am teaching at the academy when a voice from within the class says " i came to learn Brazilian jiu jitsu not this " on closer inspection i notice a young guy wearing a tee shirt and shorts at the front of the class ?

i stop the position and ask the guy what he meant by this to which he replied " i saw a bjj competition the other day and they were on the floor fighting "the class erupted with laughing, i addressed the class explaining this.
Over the time i have spent in bjj i have noticed in its evolution a lot of bjj academy's have stopped or they do not teach the basics, when i say basics i mean they teach sports bjj not the self defence side of it it seems most academy's nowadays neglect this element of bjj  but bjj is and will always be a self defence art designed to handle situations on the streets, it wasn't developed for points or to be fought under time constraints, it was devised to defeat any opponent any size any situation with devastating results.
the new student had recently been to another academy and saw them rolling together on the floor and assumed that was what bjj is.
He stayed around and participated in the class and at the end he approached me and said it was a real eye opener and he would definately come back, i asked him why it was an eye opener and he said had he not came down and trained with us he would probly not have known bjj was developed for self defence and assumed it was just a form of wrestling in kimonos................

he has returned to the academy and it has been a year since this happened  he is still there at every training session and still learning and loving the self defence...............

basics basics basics and keep teaching the self defence aspect,s lets not forget what bjj was devised for....

EK

Wednesday 9 July 2008

INJURY,S SUCK......



Suppose it had to happen at some time....

I have spent just over 13 years training and teaching in a sport which i completely adore, and during this time i have never really been injured that seriously..... until now, even though the injury i sustained wasn,t through training , it does reflect on almost everything i enjoy doing........ well almost everything,,,
i have ripped my meniscus (torn cartilage) and have a small fracture to the knee , this injury does not allow me to straighten the leg fully and causes a huge ammount of pain when i put pressure on it.
i will be in hospital for an operation shortly until then its doses of pain killers and using crutches to walk around (lol).
as i have been housebound for a few days and boredom has started to set in a friend of mine from the academy picked me up and took me to the gym so i could see everyone and stop feeling sorry for myself, while i was there they got me to pose for this photo.......... i am told that the injury i have sustained is quiet common and i should heel within a month of the operation....
so i am looking forward to quick healing and getting back on the mats, until then i will be a technical advisor for the team ......
E.K

KEEP A CHILD ALIVE.

Every minuet a child in a 3rd world country die,s.

how many minuets are in an hr ? a day ? a month ? a year ?
We can never forget the present is a gift, And i don't want to take for granted the time i may have here, because the lord only knows tomorrow is not guaranteed.

WWW.KEEPACHILDALIVE.ORG

Lets start a virus to end a virus.

TEXT:  ALIVE to  90999

Thursday 3 July 2008

THE RIGHT APPROACH TO TRAINING


So you have found a bjj instuctor your happy with, his credential's check out, you like the academy and the people so whats next as you begin your path into the world of Gracie Jiu Jitsu.


The right approach to training....

At my academy  i always try to set an example for students both old and new, i try to represent jiu jitsu the way it was taught to me and pass on its values and traditions to those wishing to learn. 
Inside my academy you there are a lot of different people both men and women all who have different attributes and reasons for being at the academy .
Some are hardcore competitors who are on the mat every day 29 hrs per day who live to fight and have a die hard never tap approach to training , then you have others who just want to keep fit, make Friends or just belong to a team and hang out.
Personally i respect everyone who is at the academy, and i respect there reasons for being there i also find great satisfaction  when watching one of my students progress, gain confidence and achieve there personal goals they have come there for.
So in order to have the right approach to training one needs to adopt a few things,
The correct Mind set, Attitude and be open minded  towards the training and towards the people they train amongst.
One of the most common hindrance's  i found in bjj is peoples ego, most people will not reach their full potential in bjj because of a few reasons but i consider the main ones to be ego,s ,bad attitude,s and biased opinions.
I introduced an idea at my academy which help,s me tame peoples ego so they leave there ego at the door and  they can integrate and become part of the class where everyone embraces them and they become part of the team very quickly.
I call it ego less training, this is a concept that when a new student joins the academy along with the basic /core techniques  he starts to learn and adapt an ego less approach to training straight away, he/she does exactly the same as all the other students in the class until sparring time, then he is placed with a student who has sound technical knowledge and they spar without using submissions , just a continuous exchange of positions (sparing without submissions) and they do this for a few weeks until i am absolutely satisfied  that they will not injure themselves or anyone else in the class and they fully understand our concept,s and what BJJ is .

A final note to the right approach......

The academy has limits to what it can teach you which is why you must keep an open mind, i can provide you with the technical knowledge and tools to help you on your journey into bjj but you will not find the biggest or toughest opponents at the academy, you will find them in that little place in your head called (your mind or inside yourself )
you will need to train for at least 2 years 3 times a week before you can say you know jiu jitsu , you may believe you know or understand it but i know through personal experiance that you really dont, by the time you reach purple / brown belt you will start to have a real understanding .
A lot of students reach blue belt and then leave the academey because they think i am holding back promoting them or they believed they have arrived because they can tap most of the other blue belts in the academy , here is a word of advice,,,,
There is so much more to BJJ then being able to just execute a few techniques and  submit everyone everytime you spar.

Dont think you have arrived before you are even onboard the train.


Train safe

E.K