Spring Camp Review Special!
First of all, many thanks to Alan and Lily Pagle for being such great hosts,
and for carting a bunch of us around all weekend. Modern Combatives
was a very cool place to hold this camp.
And it was a pretty amazing camp! I would have to echo Luis's opinion
that this was the best camp yet, both in terms of the technical material /
coaching and overall vibe and camraderie. The energy was right on all
weekend, with a packed house of around 70 participants.
Friday night's session began with an open roll before SBGi Vice President
Luis Gutierrez took the group through a series of innovative (and typically
funky) So-Flo Jiu-Jitsu drills. In the second part of the session, UK
Director Karl Tanswell showed a highly functional call-out drill for
training grip fighting with the gi that can be run just like the clinch
surfing drill. This is definitely a keeper that we will be putting into the
curriculum right away.
The final section of the night consisted of rotating Q & A / coaching
sessions. The camp was divided up into four groups, with each group
assigned one of the coaches. After 15 minutes of addressing and training
any of the group's questions, the coaches would then rotate to another
group until they had worked with all four. By the end of the first night,
many of the camp participants were expressing that the quality of
instruction had already exceeded their expectations.
On Saturday morning the camp began with a warmup, then went
immediately into Luis's instructional section, which was a comprehensive
series built around his unique underhook lockdown from sitting guard.
This is an extremely strong variation that opens up a lot of possibilities
for butterfly sweeps, submissions, and drags.
The section also featured impromptu guest coaching by a high-ranking
ninja (later revealed to be BJJ Guru Chris Haueter), who silently educated
camp participants to enhance their technique through stealth and
misdirection.
Ireland Director and Jiu-Jitsu Ace John Kavanagh taught the latter half of
the morning section, which began with his 3-category approach toward
attacking the back in MMA. The focus of his instruction was on the
second category, when a missed submission attempt will result in a
scramble. He discussed when it makes the most sense to sacrifice a
traditional rear mount and go for armlocks, and showed a series of
sneaky and effective attacks to increase your chances of landing a sub as
time winds down.
After lunch, Karl started off the afternoon with his MMA Clinch and Wall
Sprawl series. He has worked out some very cool drills from here, and I
had a great time comparing notes with him on wall clinch / anti-clinch
material. He also addressed a very important aspect of the game that in
my opinion is often overlooked by trainers: how to coach your athletes
during training so that they will be coachable during a competition. Great
stuff!
The day wrapped up with Matt facilitating a Q & A session for the entire
camp.
Sunday morning's session began with a fantastic series of hybrid yoga /
ginastica natural / BJJ warmup exercises Luis has been using for his
workouts back in Florida. I have already incorporated them into my
warmup routine in class.
We then moved into my Muay Thai section, where I covered Muay Thai
fundamentals with some MMA applications. We began by working
mechanics and form on punches, circular elbows, stabbing knees, and leg
kicks – emphasizing the relaxed but powerful style characteristic of the
Sityodtong camp – then moved into partner work and isolation drilling.
We finished up with some clinch work and trips/turn-overs that tied in
nicely with Karl's wall clinch material.
In the afternoon, Portland Gym Coach Travis Davison took over and broke
down his low x-guard game (which I immediately knew I would prefer to
the more common variations), including sweeps and his trademark calf/
hamstring-slicer submission. He then went into a second series, this time
covering a game for passing butterfly guard, both with and without the
gi. Very solid, fundamentally strong material!
The camp concluded with another Q & A session and final comments (and
some more free rolling for those who stuck around.)
Thanks to everyone who taught, attended, photographed, filmed, etc.
It was a blast!
-Steve Whittier
For a Camp slide show click here:
http://www.dragonshots.com/SBGI-dayone.html
First of all, many thanks to Alan and Lily Pagle for being such great hosts,
and for carting a bunch of us around all weekend. Modern Combatives
was a very cool place to hold this camp.
And it was a pretty amazing camp! I would have to echo Luis's opinion
that this was the best camp yet, both in terms of the technical material /
coaching and overall vibe and camraderie. The energy was right on all
weekend, with a packed house of around 70 participants.
Friday night's session began with an open roll before SBGi Vice President
Luis Gutierrez took the group through a series of innovative (and typically
funky) So-Flo Jiu-Jitsu drills. In the second part of the session, UK
Director Karl Tanswell showed a highly functional call-out drill for
training grip fighting with the gi that can be run just like the clinch
surfing drill. This is definitely a keeper that we will be putting into the
curriculum right away.
The final section of the night consisted of rotating Q & A / coaching
sessions. The camp was divided up into four groups, with each group
assigned one of the coaches. After 15 minutes of addressing and training
any of the group's questions, the coaches would then rotate to another
group until they had worked with all four. By the end of the first night,
many of the camp participants were expressing that the quality of
instruction had already exceeded their expectations.
On Saturday morning the camp began with a warmup, then went
immediately into Luis's instructional section, which was a comprehensive
series built around his unique underhook lockdown from sitting guard.
This is an extremely strong variation that opens up a lot of possibilities
for butterfly sweeps, submissions, and drags.
The section also featured impromptu guest coaching by a high-ranking
ninja (later revealed to be BJJ Guru Chris Haueter), who silently educated
camp participants to enhance their technique through stealth and
misdirection.
Ireland Director and Jiu-Jitsu Ace John Kavanagh taught the latter half of
the morning section, which began with his 3-category approach toward
attacking the back in MMA. The focus of his instruction was on the
second category, when a missed submission attempt will result in a
scramble. He discussed when it makes the most sense to sacrifice a
traditional rear mount and go for armlocks, and showed a series of
sneaky and effective attacks to increase your chances of landing a sub as
time winds down.
After lunch, Karl started off the afternoon with his MMA Clinch and Wall
Sprawl series. He has worked out some very cool drills from here, and I
had a great time comparing notes with him on wall clinch / anti-clinch
material. He also addressed a very important aspect of the game that in
my opinion is often overlooked by trainers: how to coach your athletes
during training so that they will be coachable during a competition. Great
stuff!
The day wrapped up with Matt facilitating a Q & A session for the entire
camp.
Sunday morning's session began with a fantastic series of hybrid yoga /
ginastica natural / BJJ warmup exercises Luis has been using for his
workouts back in Florida. I have already incorporated them into my
warmup routine in class.
We then moved into my Muay Thai section, where I covered Muay Thai
fundamentals with some MMA applications. We began by working
mechanics and form on punches, circular elbows, stabbing knees, and leg
kicks – emphasizing the relaxed but powerful style characteristic of the
Sityodtong camp – then moved into partner work and isolation drilling.
We finished up with some clinch work and trips/turn-overs that tied in
nicely with Karl's wall clinch material.
In the afternoon, Portland Gym Coach Travis Davison took over and broke
down his low x-guard game (which I immediately knew I would prefer to
the more common variations), including sweeps and his trademark calf/
hamstring-slicer submission. He then went into a second series, this time
covering a game for passing butterfly guard, both with and without the
gi. Very solid, fundamentally strong material!
The camp concluded with another Q & A session and final comments (and
some more free rolling for those who stuck around.)
Thanks to everyone who taught, attended, photographed, filmed, etc.
It was a blast!
-Steve Whittier
For a Camp slide show click here:
http://www.dragonshots.com/SBGI-dayone.html