Dallas Seminar With Carlos Machado

Just got back from the Dallas seminar with Carlos. I always leave excited and humbled by the knowledge and skill of the man. He made all of us grapple a 4 stripe purple belt going to brown who had a crazy guard game. I did better than I expected.... The guy was a really good guy and extremely talented. I forced him to go to turtle one time, I got reversed twice, and he managed to pull guard and Carlos stopped us the last time. Carlos wants each of us drilling his game so that we will have a blue print for an effective grappling game until we get to the point where we develop our own.

He wants to ask ourselves what he would do when we get in trouble.... So our new catch phrase is "What would Carlos do?" He told us he used to do the same thing with Rickson when he was learning his jiu jitsu game.

Peace

Chris

A night of chokes

Last night we worked on chokes for most of the class. Brabo chokes, D' Arce Chokes, Anaconda chokes, and peruvian neck ties were the chokes of the evening...... All work well with or without a gi. Tonight we are going to do more of the same but we will probably add two more. Another prospective student last night..... I'm not sure what these guys are eating but if it will help me pack on the muscle I need to get some. Anyone in cyberspace reading this is welcome to come play.

Peace,

Chris

Jiu Jitsu

The jiu jitsu class is continuing to grow. We are up to just over 20 players with our new guys and gal that are doing the trial program. The techniques are getting cleaner and smoother as these guys get better. We've been doing a lot of half guard work and we are about to start side control escapes. I keep getting slowed down by stupid injuries. I woke up with a sprained ankle this morning and I went to bed fine. The price of getting older..... Some of our former students are talking about getting back into class so we are shooting for 30 jiu jitsu players by fall.

Teuk Gong Black Belt Candidates and BJJ Class

The Teuk Gong Black Belt candidates looked good tonight. Their knife defense was sharp, pardon the pun, and their club defense was on the money...... The gum work and dae gum work was much improved although the initial sword work needs some attention. Pre-test is friday night so I will be able to get a better idea of any potential weak areas.......

The BJJ class is continuing to grow.... we have two more women interested and about five more guys. I hope these guys force me to buy more mats. I want to extend an open invitation to anyone that would like to work on their grappling skills.....

Jiu-Jitsu Tonight

Tonight was a good class, 16 people on the mat in the adult class. Three of them were new people and one was an former student. We worked mount attack combinations: keylock, sideways armbar, extended armbar, and kimura. Everyone worked hard and sweated a lot.... All in all a very good class. Hopefully we will continue the trend and have to expand the mats.

I pulled out some new tricks on the guys. I let Andy take rear mount and go for a rear naked choke. When he crossed his feet I tapped him with an ankle lock. No overblown egos, just a good crew of guys and a couple of girls training really hard. Our oldest student is 64 and our youngest(in jiu-jitsu) is seven.

BJJ Class Monday

Last night we had a really good class. Twelve big guys on the mat rolling around. We worked on shooting and sprawling for about 10 minutes. We finished by rolling for about 40 minutes. Keep bringing more people to play with guys.

Black Belt Training

We had our blackbelt training class tonight.... Eight students showed up and we got some good practice time in. This class will meet every friday between now and the belt test unless otherwise posted. Class time will be from 5:30-6:30. If it looks like we need more time we will go to 7:00pm.

Martial Arts History

Here is a bit of martial arts history for my readers......

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was created in the early 1900's in Northeastern Brazil. A Japanese official named Maeda moved to the area to try to help form a Japanese colony in Brazil. Mitsuyo Maeda also known as Count Koma was apparently a former jiu-jitsu champion. He and Gastao Gracie become close friends and as the friendship grew he offered to teach Gastao's son Carlos the art of jiu-jitsu. Carlos trained with Koma for 6 years before Koma moved back to Japan. Carlos began to teach his brothers and in turn they eventually passed on what they learned to their children. Carlos was left without an instructor when Koma moved back to Japan so he was forced to innovate new techniques. Carlos then began issuing challenges in the papers and fighting all takers successfully. These matches led to new innovations and techniques. One of Carlos's younger brothers Helio further refined the art. My instructor Carlos Machado is the nephew of Carlos Gracie. We are extremely fortunate to be so close to the source of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Hapkido was created by Yong Sul Choi and Ji Han Jae. Yong Sul Choi learned Daito-Ryu Jiu Jitsu in Japan but the exact extent of what he learned and for how long is not clear......Regardless the similarities between Daito-Ryu Jiu Jitsu and Hapkido are remarkable. Daito-Ryu Jiu Jitsu gave birth to several arts including Hapkido and Aikido. Akido was apparently created over time but really took shape sometime after 1940. Hapkido was also created over a period of time from 1948-1957. Ji Han Jae become a student of Yong Sul Choi and added much of the unique striking and kicking that form some of Hapkido's signature moves. We were long associated with He Young Kimm, an early Judo and Hapkido pioneer in the United States. My current rank, 4th Dan, in Hapkido comes from In Sun Seo, he is one of the senior Hapkido Grandmasters in the world.

Teuk Gong Moo Sool was created about twenty years ago. Three prominient military and law eforcement officials wanted something to better enable their elite groups to deal with deadly situations. The basic soldiers learn Tae Kwon Do as part of their physical fitness and self defense requirements. This did not give them the skills necessary to deal with more dangerous situations. They created Teuk Gong Moo Sool from Hapkido, Aikido, Jiu Jitsu, Kuk Sool, Tae Kwon Do and various other martial arts. The goal was to create a short but effective system for the counter-terrorist squads and their special forces. It is an effective but condensed martial arts program.

Tae Kwon Do was created after WWII. It was originally Korean Karate, (let the flaming began!), but many of the different branches have changed their material substantially. Tang Soo Do is another version of Korean Karate that refused to combine when the other korean karate schools did to create Tae Kwon Do.

The history given here is intended to be a complete version but rather a condensed version. It is accurate to the best of my knowledge.

Belt Test!!!

Tommorrow night, (Thursday March 27), will be a test night. All regular classes except BJJ are cancelled.

I will attempt to post some history on Hapkido, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Teuk Gong Moo Sool before next week. We had a prospective student come by and he was determined to take a traditional martial art..... I did not get a chance to speak with him so I need to educate the public on our arts.

First Time

This is the first post on our new blog. We have the largest program in the McComb, Mississippi area. The goal of this blog is to educate and inform our students and friends. We have been teaching martial arts in the McComb area for a little more than five years. From our humble beginnings teaching out of the fitness center to our move to being a full time school with our own location, we have been blessed with the support of students and parents.

We offer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Hapkido, and Teuk Gong Moo Sool. All of these martial arts offer different but effective perspectives on self defense. There are so many things to learn and there's just not enough time to train in everything.....

I have shared mat time with Carlos Machado, Rigan Machado, Mike Swain, He Young Kimm, and many others. Our goal is to provide the highest quality marital arts instruction to our students and to use martial arts to change our students lives. The impact that a good martial arts program can have on a person's life is profound. Seeing students becoming more confident, more assertive, and being happy makes our job even sweeter........