Saturday, February 27, 2010

"Attack with power...


not strength."


Thanks to TopJudo for awesome photos

Friday, February 26, 2010

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Judo armlock compilation

Fantastic compliation of armlocks in judo, bjj sambo or any other style of submission grappling. thisnis made by Spinks from New Zealand, i foguth him on the ground last year and it was defiently an experience. He strangled armlocked and pinned me like a baby. He has beautiful technique and this is a great video..one of the best ive seen.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Judo in MMA - A few clips

Just a few clips of Judo throws in Mixed Martial arts competition.



Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pickup Video

Here is a short video clip of a pickup i did at a recent compeition. It was a non ijf run tournament (so old judo rules were allowed) but unfortunately this throw wasnt scored.
I think the referee thought it was a groundwork turnover or something

Nogueira Seminar Cancellation

Dear fellow Nogueira fans,

I am very sorry and disappointed to announce that the Antonio Nogueira seminars will not be going ahead. This is due to lack of support from the Canberra community as only 20 individuals have successfully paid as of today. There is quite a large organisational cost involved with hosting Nogueira in Canberra and unfortunately we needed a minimum of 50 people to cover costs.

Due to my sponsor I have access to a few UFC fighters as well as top BJJ and Judo practitioners and i am very disappointed in the lack of support shown in attending the Nogueira seminar as it would have been awesome for Canberra to get a good reputation for supporting these events.

There has been so much effort and costs involved to put this seminar together and i would sincerely like to thank the people who paid and supported the event.
I will be in contact with you all shortly to express my thanks as well as organising a refund to you as soon as possible.

For those of you who are still keen on attending a Nogueira seminar he is holding a few in Melbourne, Adelaide Sydney and Gold Coast.

Once again I apologise for the cancellation as having Nogueira and his 2 fellow UFC Fighters here would have been an awesome experience for all BJJ, MMA and UFC fans in Canberra.
Kind regards
Matt D’Aquino
www.beyondgrappling.com

Monday, February 22, 2010

Dusselldorf Grand Prix


The Dusselfdorf Grand Prix was on last weekend and with the new judo rules firmly in place it is an ippon fest at most international tournaments. With not many counters being attempted it seems now that the best "thrower" wins the fight as most fights are won on scores given by throws.

Reigning world Champion Zantaraya of the Ukraine has been in blistering form and has now beaten arch rival Hirioka from Japan in their last 3 meetings.
As the new cycle of judo techniques comes in you will see Zantaraya's Greco roman style kosoto gake from the clinch in the semi final is as well as a awesome counter and then arm lock in the final.
Make sure you have a look at Hirioka seoi nage in the semi final against the junior world champion from Mongolia. It is a reverse entry that fools your opponent and it was used with awesome effect by Choi at the Beijing Olympics.

Semi Final 1 Zantaraya vs Korean


Semi Final 2 Hirioka vs Davaadorj


Final
Zantaraya vs Hirioka




Highlight reel of Dusseldorf Grand Prix

Beyond Grappling Personal Training

I offer Personal training 1 on 1 or in small groups. Due to my extensive knowledge in Judo, BJJ and freestyle wrestling I cater my sessions for you and your individual needs.
Many of clients include people wanting takedowns for BJJ or to help their rugby league tackles. Others, for Mixed Martial Arts compeition. some simply want to learn the martial art of Judo or something they can utilise in Self Defence.

I teach tried and true techniques that i have used personally in my training and during international competition. My personal belief is simply "If i havent done it, i wont teach it."
Due to my vast training and competition experience i teach all techniques with or without the gi. Put simply, i teach a style of fighting that i personally implement on my opponents, and due to my results in Judo and BJJ competition, what i do works.

I charge $65 for 1 hour session 1 on 1
For 2 or more people i charge $45 for a 1 hour session.
Call Matt on 0422793609 to organise your first session for half price.

2008 Beijing Olympian
2009 Pac Rim Champion -60kg
2 X Oceania Champion
USK Cup Prague 3rd -60kg
St Gallen Open Switzerland -60kg 1st
Multiple Australian Champion
2009 Royler Gracie Cup Purple belt -74kg 1st
2009 No gi Submission Grappling Champion Purple belt -67kg
2009 Frestyle Wrestling nationals -66kg 4th

2nd Degree Blackbelt in Judo
Blue belt in BJJ
Certificate 3 & 4 in Fitness
Senior First Aid

Above: Me at the Closing Ceremony at the Beijing olympics

Above: Me applying a triangle choke at a BJJ Seminar in France


Judo exponent has Olympics in sights

EAGLEHAWK’S Shayann Stuart has come a long way from training in her dad’s backyard judo studio, with the young judo star set to make her mark on the world stage.
The 18-year-old, who is a member of the Australian Institute of Sport’s national talent identification and development program, recently took out the ACT International Senior Open in the under-52kg division and is on her way to claiming the Oceania-Australian number one ranking.

Trained by her father Stephen Stuart at the Bendigo Judo Academy at the back of their family home in Eaglehawk, Shayann took out the ACT International by earning a half score.

“To win, you need to get a full-score throw to win instantly. It goes for five minutes and you have to get a score in that time to end up winning or to win it sooner you just get the full score, which is a perfect winning technique.

“I won my finals with a half score, which meant I fought for five minutes and to win with a half score means taking out the opponent by choking, holding, locking or throwing.”

Shayann’s greatest test came in 2009 when she competed in the Oceania Judo Championships, where she was overpowered by an experienced international competitor.

“I was against a girl who competed in the Olympics in Athens and I also went against a girl who went in the Olympics from Luxembourg and lasted in that match the whole time.

“An Olympian should beat someone that has been in anything like that straight away, so her coach went off at her for that, so I was pretty happy with that.”

With the future in mind, Shayann has recently given up her place studying beauty therapy and is now solely focused on her international judo goals.”

I’m going to compete in a lot of tournaments now to get my points up to be able to compete in the Olympics in 2012.

“Winning this competition (ACT International Open), besides the national titles, this is the biggest event in Australia and because I won it, it gets me selected for bigger tournaments and the points you score there are the points that could get me in the Olympics.”

This year, Shayann will compete in judo events across the world, including events in Europe, Asia and Oceania.

With the Olympic Games as her ultimate goal, Shayann will now aim to reclaim her number one ranking in the sport for Oceania.
She will be aiming to do so at next month’s Queensland International event.
“I’m ranked number two, just below the number one at the moment.
“I was number one, but the Olympian I competed against in Samoa scored above me.
“If I win my next tournament in Queensland I’ll be number one again in Oceania and Australia.”

Shayann will next compete in Strasburg, Germany, as part of the AIS national talent Identification and development program from March 14-26.

Submission of the Week- Flying armbar

You have to have some confidence to try and do one of these in competition. Also in no gi this must have been pretty difficult to pull off.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Half Guard

Half guard or half mount is a ground grappling position where one fighter is lying on the other, with the opponent in the bottom having one leg entangled. This position is refered to as "half guard".
The half guard is the position that is in between a full guard and side control or full mount. The combatant on top will try to unentangle the leg and obtain side control or mount, while the bottom combatant will try to transition into a full guard or alternatively attempt a sweep or submission.
In self defence the fighter on top is said to be in a better position due to the fact that he can attemp elbows and punches as well as submissions. Although most atheltes tend to pass from half guard to side control in order to strike alot more effectively without getting swept or countered.
Below is a photo of the half guard position


Effective and well known sweeps from the bottom are Old School and New york, (video of them up in the next few weeks.)

UFC 110


Yesterday we went to the UFC It was sweet as saw heaps of the UFC fighters in the crowd as well as see Aussie George Sotoripolous beat highly ranked Joe stevenson in awesome fashio. He out punched and out groundwork joe beautifully and was great to see an aussie win.
The photos below are from ufc.com they are of george out grappling joe as well as the only submission of the night going to Chris lytle Kneebaring Brian forster. The knee bar was classical and really showed the crowd a different submission that they dont normally see.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Pics of the week

Judo is a very very hard sport to photograph because its so explosive and fast that sometimes you just miss what happened. But its also hard because a 'good' photo in the photography world is when you get both peoples faces in it. But because in judo you are facing each other its alot harder to get that sort of shot.

Or sometimes a referee is in the way or even when you take an action shot its so fast that it ends up blurry.



Funny as BJJ Video

Pure white belt, what a legend. this is so so funny

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Submission of the week

Awesome classic reversal from a kimura attempt without a half guard

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Brief Judo History

Taken from http://www.kanojudoschools.com/

Originally Judo was derived from Jujitsu. Jujitsu is a form of control that uses punches, kicks, blocks, wrist-locks, leg-locks, throws, pins, arm-locks and strangles. As a fighting form it is very effective, but as a sport or a form of physical education it had one problem - A lot of practice partners were damaged during the learning process.

Judo as a sport was developed by Professor Jigoro Kano who was born in 1860. He as a young boy was quite sickly and took up Ju-Jitsu. Ju-Jitsu is a form of self defense buried deep in Japan’s feudal past. Jigoro Kano saw that some of the techniques were very rough and decided to take out these dangerous techniques to develop his own sport, which he called Judo. Judo as a word involves two concepts. Ju - which means “suppleness and gentleness” or giving way and it must be understood to be a way of reaching the Do - which means “the way to harmony”. Judo thus means the Supple way better understood as the “Gentle Way”.

In (1882) Jigoro Kano opened his own school and called it the Kodokan. Currently this is one of Japan’s biggest Martial Art Universities, if not the biggest. Jigoro Kano was Japan’s Olympic representative and campaigned tirelessly to develop the sport Internationally and to get it recognised as an Olympic sport. He died in 1938, while on a boat coming back from Europe, after establishing Judo as an International sport. Judo is acknowledged at Olympic level and was first introduced at the 1964 Tokyo Games. The Barcelona Olympics in 1992 saw the introduction of Judo for women
Prof Kano 1860-1932

Bulldogs Give Judo A Go!


Young Bulldogs add Judo to their training regimes

Over the last month, as part of their training routines youngsters Jordan Roughead, Jarrad Grant, Jarred Boumann, James Mulligan, Josh Hill, Liam Jones and Andrejs Everitt have been participating in Judo sessions with Instructor Malcolm Bangs of Zenith Sports Services.

Derived from the ancient martial art of Jujutsu, Judo provides another great way for the group to work on their fitness and adds something different to their routine.

“Not only does the training add variety to their pre-season routine, it exposes the players to throwing, falling, tackling and balance techniques that are easily adapted and successfully used on the football field” said Bangs.

The group are enjoying the new activity, in particular trying to master some of these throwing and self defence techniques, which the sport is famous for.

“It’s been good to add some more variety to our training schedule; it keeps things interesting. As well as learning the basics, we’ve had a go at some of the throwing techniques which has been cool” said Andrejs Everitt.

As well as a form of physical conditioning Judo teaches self discipline, respect, self confidence and power, skills that will be of great value to these up and coming players.

In fact, according to Bang’s “many sports teams, including several AFL clubs, are seeing the benefits that Judo brings to their players. Judo increases self confidence and on field physical presence whilst developing specific skills that are essential to the game.”

Judo was introduced as an Olympic Sport in 1964 and is practiced by millions of people worldwide.

To find out more visit www.zenithss.com.au


Submission of the week

This is an awesome example of the transition skills needed in judo competition. Here Chuck (in blue) pounces on his opponents arm. Unfortnately the referee had called matte (stop). So the armlock didnt count.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Steven Bradbury


saw this on TV a few months ago as a promo for Vancouver this year. Its a fantastic clip that really does show the stroy behind the incredible win of Steven Bradbury.


So many people so that Bradbury shouldnt have won his Olympic Gold because the others fell over, but the same people think its ok for Ian Thorpe to fall in the pool and be Disqualified in his Pet event only to have the winner of the race pull out in order for Thorpe to race in his spot.
Whats the point of racing and winning the qualifier only to be told that its unfair that Ian was DQ so now you have to pull out because he's better than you.
What a joke?
How can someone feel remorse or bad for winning a Gold for their country at an Olympic Games. I think its disgusting for Aussies to treat him as a person who doesnt deserve to win a gold medal because he was lucky. He was there putting in the hard yards and he won simple. He crossed the line first he wins.
Similar with Steven Bradbury, even if he came last in the final he still wouldve placed 5th at an Olympic Games, i know many people (including myself) who dream of placing in top 7 at an olympics (not to mention him going to 4 Olympic Games and being ranked top 10 in the world for more than a decade.)
i love how he says that he "was taking the Gold not for that particular race, but for the 12 years of sacrifice", emotion, injury and dedication he needed in order to be where he was that day.
ive had some people tell me bad luck im sorry you lost after 90 seconds at the Olympics. To which i reply, yeah but i won hundreds of fights to get there and anyway thats the nature of our sport. Im an Olympian not many people can say that.
A hammerthrower goes out and throws 3 throws thats it! There event is over wether they win or lose.
So i thought i would share with you this video because it really does show the other side of sport besides lucky wins or losses.


The Race

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Seminar

Former PRIDE & UFC Heavyweight Champion
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira will be running 2 MMA Seminars in Canberra





Meet and learn from one of the most famous UFC Fighters of all time at one of his exclusive Canberra seminars.
Tuesday 2nd of March 4:30pm or 7:30pm
Cost: $125
Hurry limited numbers
For more info fightgymdirectory.com.au/events

ACT Open

ACT open was once again a very well run tournament. At last year competition it was around 40 degrees but this time it was raining outside and was relatively cool all day inside..so nice for spectators.
Weigh in was the day before and i made weight pretty easily, spent an hour in the sauna and then off to the official scales which i weighed dead on 60kgs.
My good friend Josh came along to sit in the sauna with me and we had a good time. While we were in there we met a guy from New Zealand who invented the Les Mills bodypump and bodycombat, he is an MMA fighter and was 2nd in the world for kickboxing. The people you meet while you are in a sauna

My first fight was against a young guy from Queensland i threw him with a sumi gaeshi and then held him down for a win.
My second fight was against another young guy who threw me early with a drop seoi nage before i turned him over from turtle and held him down as well.
My final was against Arnie from Queensland, we had a good fight until we locked together and i threw him for a harai goshi for ippon.

All in all a good day at judo, all my preperation went really well, i trialled some food and water intake at the bash for cash and implemented them this time in the tournament and it really paid off. My prep for this comp was one of the best i have had. I made weight easy (only 2 to 3 weeks of dieting) i rehyrated really well and had a good dinner that sat nicely in my stomach. I had an awesome relaxing sleep and didnt really think much about the comp the next day.

So the next comp for me is the nationals for freestyle wrestling for -60kgs. so i will continue to diet for the next few weeks leading upto that as well as the QLD Open.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ACT Open, a few days to go...

This Sunday i am fighting in the ACT International Open. I am, as always fighting in the -60kg division and that means a little bit of no food and a little bit of saunaing. I have been dieting for a few weeks now and as always i make weight pretty easy.
Today i havent been doing too much, i cleaned the house while watching Matrix 1 and i am now on to Matrix Reloaded. i may tonight relax and watch the 3rd installment of the Matrix.
I have been doing a little bit with my blog, i have been trying to upgrade it and make it look pretty nice. So if in the next few weeks you see some crazy stuff going on on here, dont worry too much.
I have added a few pages on the right hand side of the blog. They just give some info on me and my Personal training as well as some interesting article i have written regarding judo, bjj, wrestling and grappling.
If you ever want to comment feel free to do so as i welcome all input into making my blog better and more interesting.
As i will be in the sauna tomorrow ill blog about my comp later on.
Catch ya
Also ill leave you with a picture and a quote
"Fight to Win"

Pic of the week- Strive

"Strive to Succeed"

Technique of the Week - O goshi

O goshi is a hip throw and is one of the first 40 throws of the Kodokan. It is also part of the updated 67 throws of the kodokan. O goshi is a great throw to teach beginners because it has all the elements needed in judo, from pivoting, pulling off balance, bending the knees and rotating to throw.
It can be done gi or no gi and is great when your opponent loves overhooks.


No Gi version

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Judo highlight reel

I saw this highlight reel on youtube and surprisngly it is the judo of today. Most of the footage is of the late 80s and early 90s judo competition. And this is the style of Judo of today.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Min ho Choi highlights

To put it simply Choi is one of the best judo fighters to ever win the Olympics. He won the olympics with style by winning every fight with an ippon score. He beat the likes of Sobirov from UZB, Hadjakhonzadeh Iran, current world champ Houkes from Ned and the highly rated Paischer Ludwig in the final.
I trained with Choi in korea 2 months out from Beijing Olympics and he threw me over and over and over again. Maybe 20-30 times a day. He is just so fast and can adjust to your positioning so quickly, but after fighting at the Olympics and seeing him win you could tell he was on the day just that level above everyone else.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Awesome Armlock reel

Here is a fantastic example of how sometimes in order to submit a very strong opponent you must try a variety of techniques in order to get the win.
In this video Groundwork specialist and 2 X World champion Niel Adams starts out by attacking a turtle then pulls guard but finally gets the submission against a very very strong opponent.

Pic of the Week

If at first you lose, do what your coach told you to do.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

ACT Barbell - Strongman comp

Yesterday after work i went and watched a strongman competition. One of the guys i met up in QLD told me he was entering it so i thought i would go and check it out. I have been to a few bodybuilding and weightlifting shows and a few power lifting shows but this strongman comp was easily the best one Ive been to in the 'weightlifting' world.
They compete in 5 or so events and each are slightly different. 4 of the events are known with the last even always being a surprise for the competitors until the day of the comp.
Powerlifting Australia have just recently implemented weight divisions tom help promote the sport and get more people interested in competing even if your not a 120kg muscle man.
I'm not too sure what the weight divisions are but i do know the lightest one is -75kg (which is still pretty big.)
The events they did yesterday was a 180kg yoke lift with a zercher grip for 15metres. Then they did a variety of overhead pressing movements, a farmers walk of 300kg, a medley of duck walking 280kg tire flips and wheelbarrow and lastly they finished with the big atlas stones ranging from 120-150kg.
It was awesome to watch. It was good to see these big fellas who are functionally strong opposed to guys who lift big weights in the gym but aren't overly strong in a wrestle or lifting stuff etc.
To explain the difference between powerlifting and strongman is biomachanics. Powerlifting and bodybuilding when lifting weights put themselves in biomechanically the best position possible and then start the lift. In strongman though you have to be strong in all positions not just the ones that generate the most power.
I think this is also why grapplers are stronger than most athletes. When doing judo and wrestling your opponent is trying to break your posture in order to throw you. By breaking your posture they are essentially breaking yyou strength to a weak position and then throwing you. But after time you start to develop strength in really odd angles and positions because you are constantly being forced into positions that are functionally strongg.
I have attached some photos of the comp.
180kg Zercher yoke Lift

Scott Farmers walking 300kg for 15 metres

UFC 110 - pretty soon



My good frined steve was lucky enough to score us tickets to ufc 110 in Sydney Australia. Its being held at the Acer Arena in homebush and it is the 2nd fastest sellout in ufc histroy (fasest was GSP vs Serra 2 in Montreal Canada.)
So we were very very lucky to score some tickets.
It going to be awesome and with 30 ufc shows scheduled for this year its going to be awesome to hopefully see some more guys coming up through the ranks besides the old blokes (eg Couture vs Coleman on today.)
The fight card for UFC 110 is stacked with well known fighters.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez (Main Event)
Wanderlei Silva vs. Michael Bisping
Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos
Ryan Bader vs. Keith Jardine
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Ben Rothwell
Goran Reljic vs. C.B. Dollaway
Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Chris Lytle vs. Brian Foster
James Te Huna vs. Igor Pokrajac
Elvis Sinosic vs. Chris Haseman

Im looking forward to seeing Nogueira fight as well as seeing the Aussie George fighting a top notch fighter in Joe Stevenson. One of my favourite fighter of all time is Mirko crop cop so i was pleasently surprised to see him on the undercard in Sydney.
Im so looking forward to this month in terms of judo, bjj, wrestling and ufc.
The UFC is getting so popular and soon every man and his dog will be a mixed martial artist with no fights.

Tournoi of Paris 2010




The Tournament of Paris is being played today and it would be such an amazing event to attend to watch let alone compete in. Before i retire from competitive judo i really want to compete in a Tournoi de paris.
Judo is a very popular sport in France and i think a large reason why it is popular is because David douillet multiple world and Olympic champion, married a lady of royalty in France. Since then the popularity of judo has risen alot.
The crowd in France are very knowledgeable and understand every aspect of the sport and really do get behind their athletes.
It was interesting to note that the lightweight divisions 60 and 66kg were dominated by up and coming Georgians and Mongolians.
It is funny to note that many people (including myself) believed that with the new rule change of no leg grabbing that countries like Georgia, Mongolia, Russia and all the other ex soviet nations would suffer tremendously due to the chage in styles. But it seems these countries have adapted their training regimes to accommodate the new rules and still dominate in international tournaments.
60kgs was won by a Georgian called Asumbani (not a villi like usual) and in second place was the Uzbek sobirov (who beat me at worlds 07) and in 3rd was france and japan.
Similar story in -66kg. The Korean and 2 time world champ Joo-jin Kim in first place followed by the 2 highly rated mongolians and the former 60kg powerhouise David Larose.

I dont usually watch any higher than -73kg and sometimes not even -73kgs. just because the guys i will be fighting are either fighting -60 or -66kg.

Here is a very nice Uchimata for ippon. Notice the Spainiards dominant right hand and due to whites bent over posture it was easy to get underneath for a nice uchimata for ippon.


Also here is the -60kg final

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Ouchi gari - Technique of the week

Ouchi Gari or major outer reaping throw is a great throw as a direct attack, as well as a setup throw into big throws such as seoi nage, harai goshi, osoto gari and uchimata.
Ouchi Gari is one of the original 40 throws of Kanos Kodokan judo, it is also part of the new revised 67 throws of the kodokan. It is part of the first set of throws in the Gokyo.

This throw is also effective in no GI grappling but obviosuly due to the fact that there is no GI to grip and manipulate, you must eith achieve double over or under hooks in order to fully control your opponent.

Below is a highlight reel of some effective Ouchi Garis in judo competitions.

Pic of the week- Transitions

This weeks Picture of the week is a good example of the effectiveness of a judo throw. By throwing your opponent and continuing on the ground you have the abiity to pass your opponents guard straight away and finish in a side control or scarf hold position.
Practicing these transitions is a great way to acheive the upper and when fighting.
You can see in the picture below how the attacker has thrown with a drop seoi nage or a tai otoshi and will finish in a kesa gatame (Scarf hold) at the end of the movement.

Bash for Cash

Many people, including myself believed the bash for cash was completed with big success. I think all athletes as well as spectators had a good time watching the competition.
The doors opened at 7pm and the first fights were at around 810pm. I had a pretty tough draw, although fighting up a weight division is always a pretty tough ask.

The competition was run slightly different to a normal judo competition. Figths were 3 minutes with no golden score. All calls were made in English besides yuko, waza ari and ippon. The other big (and controversial) decision was the fact that there was only 1 referee in the center and the 2 other refs could not overturn any decision made by the centre ref. The other 2 refs were only brought in the event of a decision. So the ref in the center could make a wrong score and no one could overturn and change the score.
Also the old IJF (freestyle judo) was used and the other adaption was the first penalty would be a yuko (although not 1 penalty was given the whole comp.)

first place received $1000, 2nd $500 and 3rd $250. Fastest ippon also received $300.

I drew Charles in the first round. Charles is a guy from France who now lives in Australia (also a former 60kg competitor.) He is extreme left but i got underneath him for a few kata gurumas to beat him by 2 yukos.

My second round was against a guy from japan over here on exchange. I knew he wouldn't be used to people trying to footy tackle him, so i came out fast for a footy tackle and he sprawled. Then i pickup him up by his legs, like an Alexander Karelin style pickup and I (as well as my opponent) believed he landed flat on his back. But the referee for some unknown reason didn't score the ippon. We kept on fighting and then the Japanese guy threw me for a drop seoi nage (shoulder throw.) It was awarded a very very generous ippon score. So he won the fight.
All the fights were filmed so i am excited to see whether my score i threw the Japanese was ippon. Everyone i talked to said it was ippon but you never know really. It could've been a wazari and then he threw me anyway.

i was so angry at the fact that i threw him for ippon in 8 or 9 seconds and i would've not only got the $300 for the fastest ippon but also had a shot against ivo dos santos in the final at $1000. But Instead i was to fight for 3rd place against Christian.

Christian is a German guy that now lives in Australia doinbg something with cheese. He threw me for a waza aro in the first 20-30 seconds. For the rest of the fight i was chasing and chasing but with no penalties being given and me not landed the throws i was attacking with he ended up beating me a wazari to a yuko.

So all in all i came away with nothing in the sense of money. But with every comp you get better in some way. It may be how you re hydrated, refueled, warmed up tactial as well as how you fought. I'm just happy that i had 3 fights and threw guys in each fight for scores.

I'm now dieting down to fight at the ACT open in a weeks time. My weight management is going fantastic due to my wife Sam, making me lovely lunch's and dinners high in veges.

In the -73kg Oren from Canberra ha d abye first round. In the second fight he fought 2008 Olympian Dennis iverson, Although Oren fought OK Dennis threw him for an early score and then landed on Oren when Oren attacked with a loose tano otoshi.
Orens fight for 3rd was against a guy from Austria. Oren dominated grips and piled alot of pressure on his opponent. After 2 good tai otoshi attempts oren ended up submitting him with a well rehearsed juji gatame.

Dennis iverson won the final against Ben donegan in tremendous fashion throwing Ben in under 10 seconds with a lightning fast left drop seoi nage.

+81kg was always going to be an interesting division. With the likes of Duke Daniel and Priscus in the mix anything is possible.
Canberra's duke Didier had a good first fight against a Aussie representative James Bradbury before drawing a rematch with fellow compeitior and junior Coach Daniel Kelly.
The fight lasted the full 3 minutes with no one scoring a point. Due to the fact of no golden score Daniel won the fight by decision.
Dukes third place fight was against South Australian Dave Kschammer. It was a good biff with Dave tripping duke up after duke nearly threw him off the mat. They had a good brawl with Duke throwing Dave with 2 pickup style counters to win the fight by a waza ari (i think sorry duke.)
The final of +81kg was between Daniel and Priscus and with no score being scored Priscus was named the winner due to walking forward and pressuring Daniel with leg grabs. It was a controversial decision with Daniel not being too happy and the crowd cheering for a golden score fight.

all in all a good night, the spectators enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to having -
60kg next year.

Below is the group photo of all the competitors.


Results below

Dare the Dream

I thought this picture was relevant to the quote
"Dare to Dream."

Monday, February 1, 2010

Footbrawl

I saw this on the internet and thought i would share it with you.
Its a pretty crazy sport, i played something similiar at SA Judo Academy.

Judo submissions highlight reel

This highlight reel is a fantastic testimony to the type of submissions you require in order to succeed in judo competition. Featured in this video are great judo fighters such as flavio canto dynamic submissions and control, mark huizingas awesome armlock turnover, Hwangs tranistions from throw to armlock and craig fallons turtle turnovers and control of his opponents.
Enjoy