September 29th – October 2nd

The week started well with the commencement of my training with Craig Jose who is one of the best Muay Thai fighters I know (and I know a lot of Muay Thai Fighters).  Having agreed to fight MMA on March 13th I decided I needed to get out of the comfort zone and asked Craig to help me prepare my stand up skills.

For people who don’t train to a high level or not involved in competition it might seem strange for the instructor of a stand up martial arts system to ask someone from another system to help him out but if you look at the camps of good MMA teams they constantly diversify their training and try to fillas many gaps as possible.  The stand up style I’m most likely to come up against is Muay Thai but one thing is pretty much assured……That I won’t come up against anyone as sharp as Craig!

Tuesdays core class was good with a solid turn out.
We worked on our boxing skills and took some of the more advanced guys through some of the Chum Kiu concepts before regrouping the class to work on our boxing defences. A 2 t shirt night as i put it.

Wednesday night grappling was super quiet with only myself, Ben, Jenna, Terry & Rob from cyclone but that never matters when you have a guy like Dave Harewood teaching you Brazilian Jiu Jitsu aided my the also highly skilled Darren.  We worked on a variation of mount and some triangle attacks from that position.  I was still nursing a back injury but kept myself tight and avoided anything getting worse.

Thursday Night Sparring (2nd October)
An unusually quiet night was completely livened up by the arrival of my long term MMA training partner big Bryan Moore and his protégée Dave.  We went through some of our typical boxing drills, light sparring etc and then Bryan showed the class some wrestling takedowns which progressed to doing some rounds of wrestling.

We concluded the night doing Semi Pro MMA rules sparring with some excellent progress shown by Mark Longbotham, Sedge & Joe.  We’re looking forward to Bryan and Dave returning in a week or two.

October08

OCTOBER

Sunday 5th.
The resolution to train harder kicked in with a second week in a row 6pm Sunday at Jarrow Community Centre the scene of much pain whilst training with Bryan & Micky for fights a couple of years ago.  This time the pain wasn’t so bad and B JJ was the intention. I’d wanted to go and get some weights done earlier but ended up finishing some tiling which took it to the wire. I arrived to find no Dave H but luckilly Darren and Paul Townser were there so I got some good training in on the floor.

Tuesday 7th
I skipped Monday in favour of being lazy and was restless by class on tuesday night.  After a bit of a warm up the class worked on boxing skills interspersed with rounds of sit ups, press ups, squats etc.  We added in some rounds on the pads and some boxing drills with the big 14oz sparring gloves before working on some clinch skills from the Chum Kiu set.  Another 2 T shirt night.

Wednesday 8th
Back to busy.  A few beginners split the class a little but we got in a good warm up and added some core skills some of the more regular guys seemed to feel they didn’t need.  Dave H came to the rescue and showed the more advanced guys a wicked armbar to sweep thats definately going into my game.

Sparring with Jeff was as good as ever and he’s going to be a major asset on the road to this fight.  Jeff is mayne 5 kilos lighter than me but way ahead on skill level.  I’m trying to wrestle and keep top position more which is a task with someone as good as Jeff but you have to try!

Thursday 9th Fight Night
The arrrival of two new guys is usually welcome but tonight nearly caused a bit of trouble however luckilly Sedge saved the day by turning up as reliably as ever.

The Sparring session was awesome tonight.  Everyone is showing real skilll improvem,ent and a great mental toughness.  Highlights were Phil discovering he’s a bit of a natural at shooting, my new found love of San Shou style takedowns (I have Chris to thank for this)  Myself and Ben trying to prevent the other from walking the next day and fight of the night between Joe & Cambell (How the hell he got out that triangle??) and considering how little ground work Joe has done he reallly should consider it as he’s a bit of a natural.  Dave J proved again he needs a better ground game also as he has a natural disposition towards pretty slick looking Judo trips.  Roll on UFC 89 next weekend, think Dave invited us to his house!

Also welcome back to Patrick the prodigal son who hasn’t lost a great deal of his skills in his time out. Young & Dumb enough to maybe make a career of this fighting lark…..

New Week October 13th & 14th

Dave C AKA Big Dave sent through some cool pics of last week so we’ll get those up asap but in the meantime here’s the week so far.

Monday involved nothing more interesting than some cardio & Weights however I have discovered Jenna runs faster than me on a treadmill.

Tuesday Night class all good.
Good turnout. Worked clinch and some boxing which was good. Terry has become a great addition to the group and another couple of interesting prospects to the group in Davey & Andrew.  Cyclonewingchun is getting a good name in newcastle and its great to see guys with genuine experience coming to a Kung Fu club and enjoying the sessions without preconception of how we will work.  Also great to see improvement from people like Andy & Jenna who are training regularly and the benefits paying off. Solid fitness session too.

Wednesday Grappling
Dave H couldn’t make the session so we worked on some core skills such as bridging, knee & elbow escapes etc etc.
Then in was spar spar spar for me.  Ben & Rob alternated rounds with me which was great whislt the rest of the guys worked on thier armbars and triangle chokes.

Thursday Sparring.
One good point of thursday was the arrival of Simon who came once before on the now defunct Monday.  As I mentioned on the night I think Simon could be a curse as almost no one else turned up for the second time when Simon did hmmmm.  Big Dave & Mark L shored things up though and we got some light sparring in then did some rounds of wrestling at the end.  Sedge has improved tremendously recently and needs to work on his ground game as he seems to have a bit of a natural flair for it.

Sunday Jarrow Jiu Jitsu
A lazy weekend came to an end with training Sunday with Dave H, Darren and Sean at Jarrow Community Centre.  Technique was the order of the day working on alternative mount positions and some back escapes. Sparring with the guys was great and especially with Dave this time as we got the level just right.

Monday Milestones Gym
My cardio has always been my achillies heal so working on it has to start somewhere.  Guys at Cyclone often think I’m really fit but actually I know I’m not.  The treadmill was unforgiving then I followed it with repeated 3 minute rounds on the bags. Jenna worked on her low point kicks and then nearly crippled me with one towards the end of the night. Thats the thanks I get for training her technique!

Tuesday Core Skills
Sedge started the class whilst I did some groundwork with Steve M.  Sedge has really got the makings of an excellent coach and I’m watching his confidence and skill level grow week by week.  Terry, Cambell, Jenna and Andy are all improving at a fantastic rate.

I was pleased to see Phil come along to the technique session. Phil is one of the best kickboxers in the group, he’s got the ability to become a really good all round fighter so we shall watch this space!!

Another new guy from this San Shou club turned up, Tristan. Solid guy, good skill level so hopefully we’ll see him again soon.
Put Daves pictures up now so check them out!

Wednesday October 22nd. No Gi Jiu Jitsu
Having Dave Harewood come to teach your class every week is really a privilage so having your long term training partner and good friend Bryan Moore answer the door at the training hall would be one of the few things that would make it better.  Tonight had an awesome turnout, we were actually struggling for mat space again.  Richie, Darren and Jeff all came along from Dave’s camp, as mentioned Bryan and his student Davey came along too and then add Mark, Jenna, Chris, Matt, Colin and Ben from Cyclone to make a really good nights training. Mount attacks, switches to side controls and a variation on the hammer lock before starting a tough nights sparring was the order of the day.

Thursday 23rd Fighters Night
8 was the perfect number with Cambell, Matt, Big Dave, Colin, Ben, Mark L & Myself training.  We decided it was dirty boxing night (otherwise known as Wing Chun Clinch fighting) we worked on a drill inspired actually by watching Pete I and Craig Jose training the night before.

Here’s what Big Dave had to say about it:

“Anyone else feel like they got done over with a baseball bat last night? A physically gruelling Fighter’s Night last night incorporated a great drill I have never seen before, using strikes to prevent someone getting into the clinch with you, or using strikes to get out of the clinch.
Being first and foremost a grappler, I would normally use the clinch as “the clinch” and play the clinch game, however the drill made me think, initially about picking shots from the clinch, and then it progressed into a “prevention is better than cure” mindset, which meant I used my body structure and movement to create space preventing people clinching me up, and throwing my shots with space to have a wide choice of targets which prevented them moving in”

And some pics too

Saturday 25th – Seminar with Alan Orr, Keithly Deepest Darkest Yorkshire……

Alan was holding a seminar on the MMA/NHB side of our system at Yorkshire CSL run by my good friend Dwaine Harper.
These things are always fun and its good to catch up with some of the guys from around the country.  Dwaines club is similar in many ways to Cyclone Wing Chun in Newcastle with many of his guys interested in MMA and grappling aswell as the wing chun elements.

The Seminar was cool and I worked with Adam who is a man mountain.  Alan showed me a wicked butterfly guard sweep (what on earth is going on here, wing chun guys showing people BJJ sweeps???) and we worked on some timing stuff for counter punching too.

pics to come………

NEW Week Same Deal

Monday 27th
Killed myself in the gym, hit the treadmill hard and then weights.  Did multiple rounds on the bags including a  minute killer at the end. Nuff said other than dropping 3 kilos…..

Tuesday 28th
Wing chun core class. Sedge took the guys through the form and again showed his understanding is getting better and better. Tristan returned and we worked on some core wing chun structure basics before moving on to some CSL Chinese Boxing drills.  The wall drill was fun with Phil throwing the biggest right hands in the world.

Wednesday 29th Grappling
The usual 6.30 start was brought forward to 5 to help Steve M out with his floorwork as he’s been missing out on the wednesday class due to a college course. By 6.45 when Dave H turned up I was well and truly exhauisted and well under par.  Ben however is making some steady progress and it’ll be nice to see how Matt, Jenna and some of the others do as we progress towards next year as they have been putting the mat time in. Certainly time for some interclubs next year.

Richie as ever the gentle giant trained in with me and I can’t wait to see how some of our big guys cope with a lad who is both extremely strong and skilled.

Thursday Fighters Night - End of the Month 30th October.
Very disappointing the amount of regulars who didn’t appear tonight. The fighters group has made so much progress but without its core guys everyone suffers.  Had a good spar with Chris (defence dude defence!!) I’m 6′3″ and 84kg, Chris is 6′5 or 6′6 and at least 100kg with very long arms…. Nightmare.  But as I pointed out to Tristan, sometimes you need to work out who to deal with certain peoples body type and never assume an easy night with anyone.  Its great to have the chance to learn with other peoples skills and the emergence of the San Shao crew has been great for us.  I certainly learned allot from training with Chris so I hope he did the same.

Which brings me to the last technique of the night which does indeed come from training with the San Shao guys.
San Shao catches kicks, its their signiture thing, then they throw you.  And if they are good at it then its hard to deal with, the first time I sparred with one of these lads (Simon) There I was happilly out boxing him and bang I’m on my back.  I could only admire the move. The one thing I noticed however was they spent a few seconds after catching a kick to align themselves for the takedown….. Opportunity time.

Whilst doing BJJ we often learned the basic set up for a flying armbar which then moved onto the real move.  However the “pidgeon” set up with a little clinch modification works a treat against low point catchers. Check out the photos for the results.

Training Diary November

To View Other Months navigate from the “our training” section on the tool bar or for last month Click Here

Monday 3rd November – Fitness @ Milestones Gym

Its not always easy to motivate yourself to train outside of the club but the chance to start early (5pm) was good.
I pushed the treadmill and need to really start hitting the road properly soon but 20 minutes followed by a 10 minute interval based session resulted in tearing a muscle in my calf.  Cleverly deciding to carry on I proceeded through to do my limited weights routine followed by the boxing room.  The urge to finish early through a combination of pain and general weariness I kicked into touch and finished at 7.30. Unfortunately not enough I fear.

Tuesday 4th November – Core Skills Class
A good turnout and good class.  The return of Joe Mcgarrol was a welcome site whose boxing is really outstanding now.  We covered some basics like the pac sau and then concentrated on switching leads to the southpaw stance.  Something encouraged in CSL but not my personal favorite thing.

Wednesday Grappling.
A quiet night but as ever rescued by Dave Harewoods excellent tuition.  We worked some wrestling escapes then sparred for a half hour.  New guys Dave and Simon just need to learn to tone their aggression down a little!!

Thursday Fighters Night
Sedge had his work cut out tonight as there were actually more beginners than fighters but a good showing in both quarters.
The Fighters group really pushed it tonight and there was blood on the mats again this time from Big Daves noses and Joes shin.  Big Dave C had this to say:

“The best thing about Fighter’s night this week was the progression visible in everyone.  In areas outside their base art. Phil the kickboxer, has progressed so much in his clinch work, it’s unreal.  Despite being a stone heavier than me, I used to bounce him round the mat in pummelling drills and throw him from side to side.  No more, he makes me work for every underhook.  His clinch is damn good, add to that his big, fast hands, and you have a great fighter.

Alex’s throwing and trips need to be seen to be believed, he applies his MMA training and knowledge to the “traditional” throws and tripping.  His understanding of the throws is shown by his increased ability to counter other peoples  throws.  Add in both his western boxing and chinese boxing skills….its awesome to train with him. I learn so much sparring with people who could take me apart piece by piece, but don’t, and instead work on their weaker points, it is definitely a two way street with both fighters improving.

Joe’s structure and wing chun skills mean that its really hard for me to bully him around despite having an eight stone weight advantage. Damn that guy knows the precise angles to mess with your distancing.

Me? my stand up defence is still getting better, which is great for me coming from an art where striking is secondary, and the throw or pin is foremost. My timing in my throws is slightly off against some people, meaning I have to struggle to destroy their structure to complete the throw.
Knowledge of a weak link in your chain is the best type of progress.  Something to focus on in the long cold months ahead at cyclone”

Tuesday 11th November – Core Skills Class

Having missed my usual Monday night fitness I decided to work hard on the fitness of the group.  45 minutes fitness working with kettlebells and bodyweight exercises over 5 minute rounds saw many of the group wishing they’d brought spare Tee shirts but it was good to get the big hunks of Iron out again. A well attended night with work on the form, structure and then lot of work on core defensive skills.

Wednesday 12th Grappling

Dave couldn’t make the class so we did some work on mount escapes followed by me and Ben sparring for the rest of the night.  Triangle heaven or hell depending on your point of view (or which side of the triangle you were on) .  Jenna and Chris were a little mismatched for training but worked hard on their core ground skills.

Thursday 13th FN
Well attended again with good progress from 6′million” Chris who tortured me with his 6″ reach advantage for most the night till I made a bit of a break through.  Its excellent to get to work on your skills with a new problem to solve and it took an hour and 15 minutes of me working on getting inside the guys reach to get there.  Chris has improved so much in the short  time he’s been training with us I’ll be interested to see how his ground game comes on.  In his weight category he could do well on the local MMA circuit.  Joe and Cambell worked very hard and are both looking really good.  Sedge took the others through a mix of Wing chun defensive skills and counter attacks which looked like everyone appreciated…. In fact I quote…

“I have to agree, from what i experienced last night, that Sedge is a great instructor and has the patience of a saint. After last Tuesday i was worried that i’d lost any training that i’d had but last night seemed to help bring a lot of it back.”  David Peake

Friday 14th Milestones Gym , Walbottle
Milesstones will soon be hosting a return to a regular monday class which will be MMA Stand up (our Chinese Boxing System) but today I was Training with my good mate Craig Jose who is helping me progress my stand up skills Muay Thai style. Craig is an awesome Thai boxer and has a really good overall understanding of stand up fighting so getting one on one training with him is a real boost. It goes with our mentality at Cyclone of not rejecting things based on a defunct style philosophy and Craig thinks very much the same way adapting his Muay Thai style and merging skills he’s picked up elsewhere too.  My left hook is improving too!

Monday 17th Milestones Gym, Walbottle
A bit of a mix up lead to Terry starting the monday nights off a week early but we had a good workout in the end. I transfered to doing some weights until late after working some drills with Terry and then hitting the bags for 8×3 m rounds.
A two Tee shirts night for sure.

Tuesday 18th Core Skills
Undoubtedly the best turn out for some time with numbers around the 20 mark, keep it up guys.
After 45 minutes of gruelling kettlebells and fitness everyone was glad to start the Sil lim Tao form.  We looked at applications and the use of lan sau and lap sau as part of a simple bosing combo.

Wednesday 19th Grappling
Another busy night with the arrival of quite a few of Dave Harewoods guys along with Bryan Moore and Davey.  Working on hip switching in a guard pass brought up some interesting core skill issues and then onto sparring.  After nearly being choked unconcious by Jeff I went on to train with Richie the Gentle Giant.  For such a big guy Richie is a skilled individual and quick too.  don’t know what his stand up is like but if its even halfway decent he could be ripping up the local heavy weight division.

Thursday 20th Fight Night
The injury list saw Mark L and Big Dave training in what no longer looked like a beginner session.  Sedge is really coming on as an instructor and his stretching routines at the end of the class are a fantastic addition to the class.

It was great to get Dave Jewitt back and again the turnout this week was excellent. Tall Chris is now a solid member of the group and he’s improved massively since his arrival (Where TF are all these heavy weights coming from??)  It was also nice that Aaron came along from the Karate Group who train in the building on Fridays.  Its tough to go from being the instructor of a class into someone elses group but the best guys always remain a student and Aaron took to the training well.  When I changed my routines and started wrestling etc it took me on the journey that eventually led to starting Cyclone Wing Chun. As a martial artist you must constantly question your training and a different perspective always helps you expand.  Having guys like Big Dave from Trad Jitsu, Chris from San Shou, Phil from Kick Boxing has been great for the group so I’m really hoping Aaron will continue to train with us, It was good for Joe to have someone closer to his weight too!!

Some of the lads comments:

“Last night was excellent! I think doing the forms with Sedge and then moving over to the fighters group was inspirational (even though I was apprehensive of joining the fight group with being out of training for such a long time). Sometimes you need some “hard love” to force you to do things and your, “Dave you’re tall – you’re fighting with us” was the tonic I needed. All I need to do now is to work out how to take Phil down! ” David Peake

“Just to say Tuesday and Thursday were two great training nights.
Have a good weekend mate and provided I don’t have any major dingers on the bike at the weekend I’ll see you next week.Cheers “Colin Graham

Monday 24th Milestones MMA Boxing Session
The first official night at Milestones proved to be a big success and the gym was almost full with 11 guys making the first session, a big improvement on Newburn LC.  New boy Phil found it direct from the website and a couple of lads from the gym made it too.  Lots of fitness and then mainly boxing saw a good start to the week.

Tuesday 25th Core Skills
Another good turnout. The fitness session is seemingly turning out to be an attraction despite a gruelling 45 minutes with the evil kettlebells.  We then worked from the first and second forms mainly on clinch positions and body structure.

Wednesday 26th Grappling
Very quiet night but sparring with Jeff and Dave was great for me.  We’re all looking forward to getting Dave’s gym back.

Thursday 27th FN
An excellent turnout yet again.  Tristan and Joe are turning out to have a good training partnership and the guys were all looking good. Great to have Ben back too who proved he hasn’t lost too much(other than a bit of control) in his absence by knocking Big Dave down with a right hand whom travelled past me horizontally I seem to remember.  I’ll leave this one with
Marks comments though.

Just a quick note to give some feedback on last night.

“It was my first week back in the fighters group after four weeks off injured and I quickly realised how much I have missed it. Sparing with Chris was an awesome experience as his size, strength and skill level are a huge challenge to overcome. This helped loads with my movement, and despite being peppered with shots for the first few minutes it was evident towards the end that I was able (occasionally!) to get in and out and land some decent shots (on nice body shot in particular seemed to make an impression). It was also great to see Steve again after being like ships that pass in night for a month or so. Safe to say we picked up where we left off, getting some good quality rounds under our belts and both landing some decent shots. The little trick that Alex showed us towards the end to block a takedown (when someone catches your leg) was a reminder that sometimes it is the simple things that are the most effective and Alex’s ‘crowd pleaser’ arm bar transition is something to work on as it looked wicked when he demonstrated it. All in all another insightful and hugely rewarding session.”
Mark Longbothan

December 08

March 09

March 2009 Training Diary Resumed!!

Due to the pressures of training for 2 fights and also helping getting Steve ready for his fight at the 10th Legion show too March has been a difficult month to really do the diary properly with.

I write this entry on the 15th March at 4.10am after my first K1 fight at the excellent Northern Fight League Event. I’ll leave a full fight write up for someone else but I managed to get the win in the second round with a KO.  My opponent Gareth was a true sportsman, real gentleman and I genuinely hope we’ll get a chance to train together in the future.

Over the first 2 weeks of the month my own training has been severely hampered by this nasty virus but its been a peasure to watch Steves game really start coming together, he’s worked hard and is really putting the effort in. Speaking of effort Richard has been working with Sedge and the results are really there to see, wow he can punch now!!! I don’t say this lightly as there aren’t many guys who get their act together that fast.

Phil has been my sparring partner for the last month and has improved himself so much that he has been battering me in some of our sessions, he’s really made a difference to the quality of my own training at the club, once his clinch comes up to speed he’ll be a force to be reckoned with at 205lbs.

The whole group at Milestones are looking tough & learning fast, its pointless naming them as they are all coming on so well but notables in the last two weeks have definately been Bobby & Griff! So a good month so far. April promises to be even better.

Fighting Talk

This is a new section of the website to replace the Training Diary.
Fighting Talk will be a collection of views and commentary on recent events at Cyclone Martial Arts Club hopefully with a variety of contributors from the club.  If you are a member then you’ll enjoy hearing the perspective of the people there and if you are a just taking a look then you should get a good feel for what’s going on up here in Newcastle.

The entries will be dated however the updates may be weekly monthly or just whenever something notable happens so without further a do we’ll have a round up of recent events…..

Fighting Talk 001:  “May is the Cruelist Month”

The last few months have been a very busy period maybe hence the demise of the Training Diary (which also suffered radio silence due to the iminent fights of myself and Steve) however there’s been an awful lot worth talking about.

March 14th saw me competing in K1 Rules kickboxing for the first time at the excellent Northern Fight League show ran by my good mate Craig Jose.  I’d wanted to do some form of stand up fight prior to fighting MMA at 10th Legion with it being such a long time since I’d competed in anything.  One of the great things about taking a fight is it elevates your overall level.  It makes you concentrate on building your skills and maybe work on areas you avoid in day to day training.  I have to say weeks of one on one sessions with Craig really improved my overall standup game adding new elements in that I had in the past neglected.  For the two weeks prior to the fight I battled a virus but managed to pull out a decent enough performance and get a knockdown win in the second round.  More on the perils of overtraining later.

And Then there was more….
Attention then turned immediately back to MMA with myself and my student Steve Middleton fighting on the 10th Legion MMA event in Hull.  One of the things I may learn here is never to train for a fight on which my students are fighting aswell.  I think almost naturally as a coach you concentrate harder on your student than yourself. however there were some cracking moments of crazy training which I’ll maybe get round to embedding in here as we video’d some of it. Craig (Jose) was fighting too so we often trained together as a group which was good for all concerned.  The real downside for me was struggling with ill health almost defintely caused by simply not resting enough and getting no real rest after the NFL fight.

10th Legion.  April 5th 2009
For a full write up from our perspective click HERE.
The day before way in can make for a nervey strange atmosphere for the rest of the day stuck in an unfamilier town whislt hanging around a hotel but one of the best things about fighting MMA in a decen t event is meeting all the other guys and hanging out with them.  Its a bit like the first day of a new school where you know a few guys from the last one but inevitably make some new aquainences and by the end of it maybe some friends.  Familiar faces and good friends like Pete Irving and Craig Jose were there for the early weigh in’s thens the day progressed we got to meet some cool guys from Team Berserk in Sweden. the meal at the end of the day was a good night out with 9 or 10 guys shocking all the barstaff by ordering cokes and coffee all night.  Its often funny to hear new guys at the gym giving star status to lads like Mike Bisping, Dan Hardy and being a little in awe of Jess Liaudon (who was fighting Pete I for the Title, I think Steve asked for his autograph!) when these guys have been kicking around the same events our old team had for many years who we got to know in similar circumstances to the day before the 10th Legion Event but this as I say is one of the cool things about MMA.

A fantastic part of fight day itself though was the arrival of 40 or so Geordie hooligans from Cyclone and the Faktory gym on the bus from the Toon.  The support that myself, Steve and Craig enjoyed that day was awesome and really says something about us as a club when so many people can show their support by travelling across the country on a Sunday afternoon and spending the whole day at the event (well and the pub).  It really made a difference to my resolve to win the fight when everything else that day had gone wrong for me but also made the entire event memorable and that little bit special.

One other aspect of MMA rarely seen by people not involved in the sport is the team aspect and brotherhood that develops through hours, days and weeks of hard training all leading to one event.  Your team sheds blood, sweat and tears in the gym to get you ready for what could only be a few minutes or even seconds in the cage.  One such man for me is Bryan Moore who has been an absolute rock for me during the last few years, we’ve cornered each other so many times through so many events now but this was the first one where we’d both been fighting on the same night and this made it somewhat special.

Bryan deservedly won the European Middleweight Title and showed once again what a warrior he was after surviving a horrific and illegal knee to the head which would have stopped a lesser man.

Both Myself and Steve gained the all important W too, Steve put in an awesome performance and I managed a feat of mind over body then finally afterwards allowed Zombiedom to take over as the pic below will show…

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And theres more…….
Post fights is all good aside from the definate personal case of serious overtraining which seems to be one of the perils of teaching and training.  Several of the guys have all taken the decision to fight on the September 10th Legion show Tristan, Patrick, Steve and Matthew.  The team has really galvanised since the fights and both Phil and Mark are looking like serious propositions in the near future.  New guys Danny, Andy and Ryan are all beginning to look like they could be fighting sooner than I originally thought but work to be done yet!!!

Speaking of Which: New guys Danny & Guy “Sparred” (Well had a fight really) last night and I think both of them deserve a credit for how well they are developing their skills. Neither have trained much longer than 6 months and both have only started groundwork really this year. take a look at this. I missed the footage of how Guy bust his nose so this was the last 2 minutes of a 5 minute round.

June Fighting Talk

Fighting Talk 002 – MUSA!

June brought Cyclones first Grappling tournament with 6 of our guys competing. Rob, Matt, Tristan, Richard, Danny & Terry all competing.  Its worth noting we are essentially a club which bases in stand up fighting although we do work on clinch a fair amount especially the dirty boxing element which transfers well to the takedown and wrestling arena.  Other than Rob most the guys present had less than 3 months grappling experience.

To say everyone did well is an understatement with Rob winning his division and most of the guys getting at least a win under their belts.  Danny did well in a battle against a very strong and game opponent in Tom from our counterpart gym in Keighly ran by my good mate and Chu Sau Lei brother Dwaine. Chris from Musa is a proper gent and we all enjoyed the day having a good team day out.

Gym Improvements

Its a tribute to how much effort the lads are willing to put into the gym and their training to say we have put together enough money to add more mats and finally the arrival of a couple of new heavy bags.  On top of that we have transformed the dingey cellar at Milestones into a really nice little MMA Gym.  The benefits are being felt by everyone so the efforts are really paying off.  We now have 45m of jigsaw mats which has really made a difference to the training as we can simply have more guys on the mats training and sparring.

July Fighting Talk

FOR PART 2 Click HERE

It would be fair to say martial arts completely changed my life and it would also be fair to say Brazilian Jiu Jitsu completely changed my martial arts.  This month Fighting Talk is all about grappling & Jiu Jitsu.

When I got involved in MMA back in 2002 MMA had been going for 9 years however it had hardly surfaced in the UK.  I’d hooked up with a bunch of guys and will never forget being repeatedly taken to the floor by a guy who became my training partner in the years to come, Gavin Bradley.  The experience of not being able to stop something happening should be a wake up call to anyone in martial arts, it certainly was for me! One of the guys from our gym Green Lane, Pete Irving had started doing this thing called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with a guy called Dave Elliot over in Wallsend and for me this was the start of a new journey in martial arts.

Fast forward 7 years.  Cyclone Wing Chun has a deceptive name really as many of our group just see it as an MMA class, indeed two nights a week involve grappling and takedown work.  The name now is as much a tribute to our root system and the understanding of body mechanics and structure I have learned through Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun as it is a reference to the martial art practised. Our Boxing system is Chu Sau Lei family boxing but we don’t pretend the ground work stems from anywhere other than BJJ.  Indeed my Wing Chun teacher Alan Orr has his own BJJ instructor Leo Negao and Alan’s open mindedness towards always learning new things has very much helped elevate the overall standard of our national group.  Alan and I have always been like minded on such subjects, we exchange ideas and there is always discussion based around “if it works then do it”.
This is so far removed from so many teacher student relationships and something I feel our club Cyclone has very much instilled at its core. Last night training with Dave H (more in a moment) we used a principal from our Wing Chun in a defence against a neck attack which again shows the attitude of the best instructors in keeping an open door to new ideas and creative thinking, on Monday gone I heard myself explaining to a class consisting of many new guys how I often learn from my students as they make techniques I give them their own, often taking them a stage further than me.

My BJJ/Grappling instructor now is the hugely talented and (happily) best kept secret in the BJJ world, Dave Harewood.  The softly spoken, amiable and hugely talented Mr Harewood gave me very much a new aspect to my game, spending hours of one on one time refusing payment who simply trains for the love of it. A more honest, humble bloke in the martial arts world you will struggle to find. In more recent times Dave has taken on some of my students such as Steve M, Rob D and Tristan who are all developing solid BJJ games of their own.  I am lucky to have trained with some really well decorated BJJ guys from all over the world and I won’t name drop here but I can honestly say I rate Dave as highly (or higher) as any of the black belt instructors I have spent time on the mat with.

This ever revolving cycle of teachers and students will have a living example on Thursday 16^th July when my instructors teacher Crezio De Souza comes to our club to teach a seminar with my long term friend Pete Irving.  It will be a fantastic experience and honour for me to have three generations or teacher and students there in one place, Crezio, Dave, Myself & Pete with a class full of my students too.

In conclusion to this article I’ll add the seminar write up next week and leave a permanent gallery of the photos.

August Fighting Talk

In conclusion to Last Months Fighting Talk about the effect Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has had on us here at Cyclone Martial Arts.

Seminar Review – Crezio De Souza, Thursday 16th July 2009. Milestones Gym, Walbottle.

I’d say seminars generally fall into one of two categories.

1. An interesting opportunity to meet a personality from the martial arts world or a well known teacher which ultimately centres around beginner level techniques you could have learned a whole lot better from your own teacher.
2. A fantastic opportunity to learn from one of the best around from which you take valuable information that improves your all round game.

I can honestly say my second opportunity to train with Crezio De Souza was the latter and a whole lot more.  Its the second time I’ve been fortunate enough to train with the amiable little Brazilian Jiu Jitsu master and the seminar was 3 hours of some of the finest instruction I’ve ever had.

If having a bona fide BJJ master in the small confines of Milestones Cellar Gym the lads at Cyclone were lucky enough to have another 2 fine BJJ instructors there too in the form of my instructor Dave Harewood and my old friend Pete Irving to help them along with the technical instruction they were receiving from Crezio.

We covered a sensible structured range of techniques that went through from the shoot to passing the guard to attacking from the top and choosing strategies to win in MMA.  I personally came away with several things that have radically altered my game from just one session.  I looking forward immensely to training with him much longer in Brazil early next year.