Will / Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Australasia

Jiu Jitsu legend Rigan Machado will be coming out to attend this years Will-Machado Australasian Championships in September.

On Sunday the 14th September he will be conducting separate seminars for both white belts and colored belts at Dominance MMA Academy in Richmond.

The following Friday night, September 19th, he will fly to Christchurch and conduct a seminar at Geoff Aitken’s Academy, followed by another at Geoff Grant’s academy in Wellington on Saturday 20th and finally again in Auckland at Mike Fooks Academy on Sunday 21st, before heading back to Los Angeles.

This special New Zealand leg of his visit will afford a unique opportunity for our Kiwi members to get on the mat with a true BJJ legend. Details of times and locations will soon be available from relevant instructors. Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity.

The date is set and the wheels are in motion - this year’s championships is going to be our best yet. If past trends are anything to go by, the day itself should be both bigger and better run than ever before - and on the day after we have events planned for both students and school-owners alike.

Don’t miss out - start booking early airfares now and save a few dollars. Plan to be finished up by 6 or 7pm on the Saturday - and make time for the seminars on Sunday. All being well - Rigan Machado will be out again - teaching his latest ideas to both beginners and advanced students in separate seminars starting at 10 am Sunday morning at the Dominance Academy in Richmond.

Team info packs will be sent out to instructors in the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing you all there.
Warm regards,
John Will

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Visiting black belt Dave Meyer spent time at the Geelong school this past week, while he was here helping me with my new MMA Curriculum video shoot.
Dave has been training and coaching at the highly rated and very successful Fairtex Gym in San Fransisco.
<a title=”Dave Meyer at the Geelong BJJ class” rel=”lightbox[main]” href=”http://www.bjj.com.au/main/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/dave_meyer_in_australia.png”><img src=”http://www.bjj.com.au/main/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/dave_meyer_in_australia.thumbnail.png” alt=”Dave Meyer at the Geelong BJJ class” /></a>
Here’s a pic of him after the advanced class last Thursday night.
JBW

Dave Hart from Dominance in Melbourne, just finished competing in the PANAMS, where he took the silver in the brown belt division - but not before winning over Kayron Gracie (carlos Gracie Jnr’s son). Here is n excerpt from Dave’s recent e-mail …

“So another day, another grapple….

My division was due to start at 1:20pm and more or less got going on time. I went to check my weight and freaked out because in my clothes, hoodie etc, I was 1kg over! So in panic mode dreading the idea of running a kilo off in 20 or 30 mins with a cold I got changed in to my gi and checked my weight again. 1kg under… I didn’t argue…

So I was called. My first opponent heard of my amazing prowess and decided to run scared instead of facing my wrath. DQ-ed. So straight to round to. This dude pulled half guard on me. Played a very tight game, not really trying to do anything, mostly waiting for me to screw up. I was happy to play it slow and warm up. Got and advantage by flatteningat”him out in half guard with about 20 seconds to go. That was it.

Next was Kayron, Carlos Gracie Jr’s son. Worth noting he is a really nice kid. Only about 20 years old. Don’t recall all the fight. He pulled guard and tried a roll over sweep and switched to armbar when that didn’t work. Slipped out of that, but I believe he got the sweep off it. I just opened up my game, triangle, legbar, toehold again and again. Screwed up at some point defending a pass and went to my knees and stopped for a second he jumped on sinking a hook and taking the lapel and went for the lapel choke hard from back.

Thankfully Fred loves that choke so I was pretty confident I was able to get out. Helping my lapel was in my mouth, lol, tasty. Got out, went to my knees and gongao hard straight away and hit the triangle. It was off to the side but had played around with it on the judo players. Went wrist lock which he didn’t care about, cutting armbar which didn’t seem to really hit, then tightened up the triangle and squeezed. The end.

Two hours later I had my final. He pulled half guard, and I went straight the leg and didn’t catch it. He was five foot nothing and
roided to the eyeballs. Not much leg to break. So I gave up two points Went balls to the wall after him with everything and he got penalised two points for stalling. He pulled half guard again and swept me. The next four minutes was him stalling and me going nuts. Soooo close to sweeping him so many times. But this little roider had mastered his half guard sweep stall to glory game.”

Having just returned from my week of teaching in New Zealand, I feel a great sense of satisfaction at how far the Kiwi’s have come over the last decade of training. Many of the mats I taught on were packed to the gills, with a mature spectrum of ranks ranging from blues through to our two Blacks - Geoff Aitken and Geoff Grant. I clearly remember, only five or six years ago, teaching for the likes of Geoff Grant, and there were only four or five students on the mat. Through sheer determination and a love for the art, Geoff persisted and now runs a thriving and successful school in Wellington. I taught there last wednesday to a packed room of forty hardcore students, including strong representation of blue and purple belts. This is a great example of what persistence and desire can achieve. Geoff Aitken down in Christchurch has done no less - his professional school, numbering four hundred odd students is another testament to Kiwi determination.

I think back even further, and am reminded of when I was the only BJJ Black Belt in the Australasian region - those were early days with less than 100 people training - total. Traveling back in my time machine even further, ten years earlier in fact, I was in fact, frowned upon by many in the martial arts community for being an ‘upstart’ in wanting to combine the grappling and stand-up aspects of the martial arts. No-one thought that submission grappling would ever hold any interest for the general public - the UFC hadn’t been thought of at that stage and I had a hard time convincing people that this was something that would one day be considered ‘the norm’.

Today, it’s a vastly different world. The UFC DVD’s are available in most video stores. Foxtel and cable television host a myriad of MMA-based events. There are even, reality-based TV fight shows in the making. Schools that don’t offer some sort of grappling/MMA/BJJ training are considered by the informed public to be sorely lacking. How times have changed!

My New Zealand friends have come a long way - the schools are strong and getting stronger - as the general public keep pouring through the doors to access our exciting style of training. The Australasian region has produced several dozen BJJ Black belts of it’s own. We now have over sixty schools in our organization - each of them is a unique special place - all growing and prospering as the shift toward MMA builds with each year. We have come of age.

Train hard - Train Smart.

JBW