Camp news, Pan Am results, SBGi managment news, + FREE videos

Spring Camp 2012 our biggest & best yet! Spring Camp 2012, held at Travis Davison's beautiful, newly renovated facility was a massive success. This was our biggest camp in decades, and ran like clockwork from start to finish. Friday began with a round robin session featuring six SBG BJJ black belts, teaching six rotating groups some of their most innovative material. This was followed by several hours of rolling & socializing. Saturday began with a fantastic crossides top section from SBG BJJ black belt & Head Coach Karl Tanswell, featuring a brand new top game call out drill that took everyone's performance to a new level, and will be a feature at all the Gym's which were smart enough to be in attendance. After that SBG East Coast Director Steve Whittier taught some new, and very interesting BJJ half guard. And the day finished with SBG founder Matt Thornton taking everyone through the critical points of crossides top, including the ever popular "death mount". At the end of the day participants were fortunate to witness the graduation of the first ITP (Instructor Training Course) for SBG Montana. A course which is now a regular feature at SBGi, and takes our coaching and staff to an even higher level of professionalism and teaching ability. Sunday featured Judo takedown with SBG BJJ Black Belt Lily Pagle. Lily brought out high percentage fundamentals, and I've since seen several of our own Portland members hitting these same throws in live rolls here at the gym. This was followed by what was probably the best Muay Thai class I have ever seen taught, and I've been doing this for twenty Years. Steve Whittier managed to capture not just the key points of striking, but also a fantastic, low impact way to train stand uplive, with timing, without having to take hard shots to the head; brilliant session. The day ended on a high note as Karl Tanswell taught his STAB program (Self defense Training Against Blades) for the first time in several years here in the States. I want all SBG coaches to be exposed to STAB at some point. Over the last several decades I've observed, been asked to review, and had contact with virtually every blade orientated system on the planet. Believe me when I tell you not only is STAB better, it isn't even a competition. There is nothing even CLOSE to this program on the planet. This was without a doubt one of the most successful camps we have had, due in no small part to Travis, and the SBG Montana family. Look for our next Fall Camp to be held mid October in Niagara Falls! It will feature the same coaching staff + MORE surprise guests. Details to be announced in the coming week. Stay tuned! - Matt Thornton

SBG Pan Am results    Once again ALL our competitors demonstrated the quality fundamentals that SBG in known for. SBG Mod Coms Ahmed White, after a long lay off due to knee surgery, once again took GOLD at blue heavyweight. Look for Ahmed to come out strong at the Worlds next month. SBG Portland's Coach Chris Stearns won three matches in a row via submission, before losing his fourth match to an "advantage" point, and taking home the BRONZE. In a field dominated by full time professional athletes, Chris put on an amazing performance of SBG APE guard, and went the entire tournament without having a single point scored on him. We are very proud of him. And who can forget SBG BJJ black belt Travis Davison's first match, winning with...yes, a flying triangle. BJJ hot rod style, nobody does it quite like Travis. This after suffering a knee injury just a week prior to the tournament. Again, we are proud of ALL our competitors, and we will have a detailed list of the other results in the coming newsletter. Look for Team SBG to represent in the Worlds next month.

Exciting changes to SBGi management In our ongoing efforts to improve SBGi for its members and Academy owners, I've decided to makeTravis Davison SBGVice President of Operations. This choice makes perfect sense for a number of reasons. First, Travis was the first BJJ black belt who came from my own Portland Gym. As such he understands my values, and what we are about as well as anyone within the organization. Secondly, Travis has shown himself to be a doer, a go getter over these last several years. Since he opened his first gym in Montana just a few years ago he has managed to produce a team of world class blue belts, purple belts and brown belts. A world class MMA team, a world class children's program, and an academy which welcomes and serves people of all interests and levels. He has grown his gym to the point where it is now one of the largest in the org, it has doubled just within the last year alone. And he still manages to continue competing and growing himself in the Art he loves. The addition of someone else to help with operations is important. I plan to continue playing a role in SBG. However, as my writing and interests have expanded, my own time has become more scarce. I realized SBGi needed someone fully dedicated to the art, sport and business ends of what we do to be there for our members. As such please welcome Travis as the new SBG VP of Operations. What does that mean to you? If you are a student, look for weekly video updates on the SBG members forum: http://www.sbgiforum.com/ Travis will also be online there to answer questions you may have about BJJ, training, coaching, or anything SBG related. As a gym owner look for posts and info by Travis in our private platinum section, where we are all dedicated to helping you grow, and meet your own personal business goals. This is just one more step in making SBGi the worlds leader in functional Martial Arts training. -Matt Thornton

Women's Martial Arts training & the SBGi Vibe Portland Gym member Masha talks about her experiences at SBG. This is a great video: http://sbgi-pdx.com/news/2012/04/20/functional-martial-arts-women-portland/

Coach Cane's top training tips: Everyone knows what an amazing Coach Cane is. Here is a recent list he put up for "hobbyist" grapplers, which applies to everyone interested in improving in this sport: http://sbgi-pdx.com/news/2012/04/23/canes-list/ Be consistent.Training 2 times a week every week is going to pay off more than training very intensely for short periods followed by stretches of time off. Of course I have no scientific data to back this up but I’ve seen it play out over and over again at the gym. Enough to confidently make this claim. Focus on fundamentals. At it’s core fundamentals can be broken down into Posture, Pressure, and Possibilities.Building a library of techniques is not a great or efficient way to get good. You only have so much room on your bookshelf. At a certain point the shelf will be filled and you’ll have to throw some out to make room for new ones. In my personal experience I’ve rarely seen anyone who is good at more than about 5 submissions at one time. They may know way more than that but their A game is mostly limited to the top 5. Adding 50 more moves won’t help your game much. Focus on Posture most of all.I tell students that the posture should do about 80% of the work for you. You should always be asking yourself “Am I in posture?” If the answer is no then you know what you have to do. If posture does 80% of the work then you should be spending most of your time either working to get posture, improving the posture you have, or fighting to keep it. If you are doing this then BJJ will be way easier.Focusing on posture means getting the best possible posture you can get WHILE putting the other person in the worst possible posture you can. If you create this posture imbalance then you don’t have to be good at BJJ in order to beat the other guy. Remember, the posture does 80% of the work. Don’t roll above 70%.(Link to post on 70%) I you go all out all the time then you will be building a game that requires that you go all out all the time. That’s hard to do if you aren’t young and in super shape. Instead try building a posture based game that REQUIRES that you move slower and concentrate on simply building good posture along the way. A good goal is to build efficient postures that use leverage and structure instead of muscle strength. To use efficient motion that requires less intensity of movement. And to use fewer movements in your overall game. My goal is to win by moving less and less until eventually you won’t even notice that I’m moving at all.  Focus on breathing.If you can’t devote lots of extra time to conditioning exercises you need to be very mindful of your breathing. Stop and check during a roll. Are you breathing heavier than the other guy? If the answer is yes then you need to slow down and focus on posture. Catch your breath before you exert too much energy. Breathing heavy is a sure sign that you are not attending to posture effectively. Simplify the game.Can I use the same posture in mount bottom that I use in cross sides bottom? How many ways can I use this triangle submission? Finding multiple uses for things that you already do well is a great way to improve your game without having to put a tremendous amount of extra time in. As you learn new things try to relate them to things you already know and look for commonalities wherever you can. Don’t keep score. The worst thing you can do for your game is to keep track of who you tapped and who tapped you. It’s counter productive and probably the worst way to measure progress. If you focus on the tap you miss most of the joy of BJJ. You won’t notice the beautiful guard pass, the gorgeous butterfly sweep, the perfectly timed escape… All the things that happen in a roll that show mastery of the game. A gym where nobody keeps score is a healthy gym. If you are in a gym where there are a lot of side conversations about who tapped who you’ll find the atmosphere unhealthy. A tap should only be treated as an event that happens in grappling that tells you when to stop. Nothing more. There are many better ways to measure progress. Enjoy the journey. In only every case those who enjoy it more are better at it. Train in a way that is healthy, smart, and most of all fun. Will power will get you a year of training at best. If you aren’t having a blast on the mat you won’t stick around or train in a way that will allow you to make much progress. This is perhaps the most important rule. It’s certainly not about “dedication” or “work ethic” as some will describe. Look around you. What looks like dedication is actually someone following their bliss. They are doing it because it’s the most enjoyable and rewarding thing they can think of to do. This is only always the case. -Team SBG

Trav's flying bow & arrow choke:

Excited about Fall Camp in beautiful Niagara? You should be! Stay tuned for details in the coming weeks.