Will / Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Australasia

This is another AIRPORT Blog. Waiting for my flight home from Sydney – and, as seems ‘par for the course’ with Jetstar Airlines, the flight has been cancelled and is now leaving three hours later. Time to write a blog!
I have just finished a big weekend in Sydney – after flying up on friday and heading out to Bargo to teach for David a Jacqui Suker. Firstly, I have to thank my good friend Steve Perceval, who did the airport pick-up and driving. He also arranged my accomodation in Penrith (something he certainly doesn’t have to do – but always does) – he is such a good friend and loyal student; I appreciate both his company and his help, every time I come to Sydney!
After we finished our session at Bargo, we sat down to the great home-cooked feast that Jacqui always prepares for us. Chicken, steaks, salads, fresh roast vegetables, etc. It is always such a pleasure to sit down and eat with the Sukers at their great facility in Bargo. These people are the salt of the earth!
After a short nights sleep, I was picked up again next morning by Steve and taken over to Luke Pezzutti’s Lions Den in Kingsgrove. Luke, owner and operator of CFC (cage Fighting Championships) has been a long time student and black belt of mine. He has put a load of work into his CFC show – which is without doubt, the best in this art of the world.
After Luke’s session, we headed back to Penrith, to Steve’s Ultimate Fighting Arts Centre. There we went through some advanced escape principles and some attacks from my own ’secret stash’. All were sworn to secrecy!
Then we leapt into the car once again and headed into the city to Rick Spain’s school. This Australian martial arts legend is a real favourite of mine. Constantly re-inventing himself and redefining his approach to the study of martial arts, Rick runs one of the best schools in Sydney. I had the pleasure and the privelage of being able to grade him to the rank of Brown Belt this visit. Congratulations Rick!!
The best candidate for the most ‘enthusiastic student of the year’ award, would have to be George Adams. I have rarely met anyone who was more excited about training than George. As someone who has suffered more than one life-threatening accident, he is in many ways, a real inspiration. George attended Steve’s seminar and followed us over to Rick’s for more. Afterward, he treated Steve and I to dinner at a Brazilian Churrascaria! Yum! Thanks George – that was awesome.
Another quick sleep and it was time to be picked up by my mate Richard Sargeant, (student of Steve Percevals’) and taken over to Michael Scotts in Cambelltown. Michael has a mat full of fantastic students, all a pleasure to teach. I taught the basics of my new ‘open guard’ method – something that I have developed over the past two years. We had a blast.
I was then picked up by the always awesome Kathryn Hamblin and taken over to Fari Salievski’s school in Liverpool. Fari was trying to make it back from England in time for the session but came directly from the airport just as the session was winding up. Sorry you couldn’t make it Fari – all I can say is beware the anti-Fari techniques that I just taught your students! They loved it. I am sure you will too!
After saying a quick ‘hello and goodbye’ to my friend Fari – I spent several hours with Joe Ingrati at his school in Maroubra. We covered a load of my new MMA concepts and training ideas. I am sure that Joe’s students will be in for some fantastic classes in the weeks and months to come.
Well – that was my weekend; I now have an hour or two to eat, answer some emails and finish writing this blog before I head back home to Geelong. Looking forward to the next weekend – when I will be spending time with my much missed family.
Have a great week,
best respect,
JBW

Training in BJJ requires that you pay a price.
By this I mean that at some time or other, you are going to have to embrace the concept of ‘losing’ or ‘doing it tough’. Some pay it early in their training, some pay it later, some pay less but pay frequently, others pay less fequently but they pay more. However it goes – you WILL PAY. Accepting this fact and understanding that it is a necessary part of the process can make life easier.

The larger stronger students, for example, tend to put of ‘paying’ for some time. Initially, they dominate the smaller, lighter students and don’t find the training to be too ‘difficult’ at all. The problem is though, later one, as those smaller and weaker students become more technical, they may find they are asked to pay a huge price when the tables turn and they find themselves on their backs and experiencing positions they have never spent much time in. This can be a very frustrating time for the ‘big guys’.
Conversely, the smaller students, are always finding themselves ‘being squashed’ and on the ‘defence’. From ‘day one’ they are underneath and being dominated by the larger half of the class. They pay constantly from the very outset. The good news though, is that the longer they spend on the bottom, the better their Guard Skills and Escape Skills become. Eventually, the tables turn and they begin to rack up a few wins over the bigger guys. And that of course, is when the bigger guys begin to pay.
The deal is, that everyone pays. And it’s not a bad thing – in fact it’s a good thing – it’s how we develop ‘immunity’. We get a small dose of the chicken pox – we pay a price, for sure, but we develop the antibodies that allow us to prevail over future infections. We all need to pay.
If your in the middle of the class – not the smallest, not the biggest, sometimes you pay, other times you don’t . It all works out in the end. Payment is required – but payment can be fun too!

JBW

How well do our classes prepare students for ‘real world’ assault?
Well, as far as physical assault is concerned, the big ‘overhand’ right is far and away the most common punch thrown at the very outset of a fight; so it sure makes sense to train students to deal with that scenario. Leg-checks and counters to triangle chokes are certainly important aspects of the well-rounded kickboxer or MMA fighters training but they have little to do with how the average person is physically assaulted on the street; so how do we prioritize what we offer to students who are coming in asking for self defence training?

In my school, new students must undergo an introductory course that lasts for three months before they move up into the more specialised intermediate and advanced classes. In this intro class they are exposed to a variety of training methodologies including – pre-fight scenario training, structure-based defence strategies for dealing with a flailing head-hunter, ground and pound defence techniques, worst-case-ground scenario training as well as basic strikes, kicks, elbows and knees. My focus is to give them what they asked for; in the shortest time possible, I try to arm them with some skills that will greatly increase their chances of survival in the world outside the school doors. So my short-term approach is a fairly wholistic one – but what about my long-term goals?

As someone who has sampled life in it’s many aspects, in a dozen different countries over the course of five decades I feel confident that I have a fairly balanced view of how the world works. Although I have had my share of street tussles outside of the dojo, I have also come to realize that the ways in which we are assaulted are many, varied and quite often subtle; and they are rarely ‘physical’.

For instance, almost every day, we can find ourselves assaulted on emotional and financial fronts; but does our martial arts training provide us with the skills necessary to deal with these ‘less than obvious’ forms of assault? It is my view that the martial arts are a metaphor for ‘life’; and by life, I mean the ‘struggle of life’. In undertaking martial arts training, people prepare and strengthen themselves in ways that at first, may not seem obvious. Through martial arts training people learn to stand up to adversity, to be more confident, to develop a mindset that will allow them to push through situations that would previously have brought them to their knees.

However, it is also my belief that the kinds of martial arts training that ‘tests’ us every time we step onto the mat, or into the ring, builds ‘real’ confidence and ‘real’ strength of will; the brand of confidence and strength of will that will not buckle under the ‘real’ pressure of life. The only thing worse than no confidence is false confidence.

I lament at the rise of ‘pat on the back’, ego-building, new-age martial arts practices that ultimately fail to deliver on almost every front. These are those schools that promote one thing but deliver another; they promise martial arts training that will deliver self-defence skills but their training is outdates and totally unrelated to real fighting. Okay, so we give them a break and concede that they provide an environment where people can practice safe martial arts while building confidence, self-esteem and the like – but upon what skills is this so-called confidence and self-esteem based. My contention is that it may just be a house of cards ready to tumble at the slightest touch.

Martial arts for me is about preparing people to prevail; to prevail in all areas of life; physically, emotionally, psychologically, financially. I want my students to have the skills to milk life for al it has to offer; to have the courage to ‘go for it’ to try new things, to fail, know that it’s alright, and try again. Martial arts training is about fortifying our resources and improving our odds for survival. Martial arts training is about building within ourselves a ‘mindset of excellence’. Martial arts training is about struggle and growth, about problem solving, about winning and losing battles. This all sounds like ‘life’ to me.

JBW

‘You’ll be ‘trouble’ when you grow up’ – one of my teachers used to say. This particular teacher was one who didn’t like being asked questions he couldn’t easily answer. Where I saw opportunity for discussion, he saw ‘threat’. pretty sad really. As it turned out – he was partially right – I do like a little bit of ‘trouble’.

When all is well – when I have my house just right, plenty of money in the bank, food on the table, family all happy, the right circle of good friends, etc – when everything is just rolling along nicely – I feel quietly content – for about a week or so! After that, I find myself seeking out situations that provide me with a mild dose of stress (trouble). As my friend Steve Lavalle in Florida is fond of saying “pressure makes diamonds”.

Gains arn’t made in the ‘garden of Eden’, under ideal conditions, when everything is rosy and sweet – ‘gains’ are made, when necessity calls for them. We lift weights and our muscle fibers adapt and thicken; competition arises and we improve our own business practices; we put ourselves into a little debt, we need to find ways of making money to pay that debt down. A little ‘trouble’ causes us to ‘overcome’.
The trick is to get the balance just right; enough ‘trouble’ to keep us moving forward and growing, but not so much as to threaten our physical or mental health.
BJJ is an art built on this principle – applying this particular lesson to our larger lives will afford benefits beyond expectation.

See out a little trouble …
JBW

The first step in ‘extracting maximum value’ from something, is to realize that there is high value there in the first place. The more deeply we look into something, the more we will see (Just ask a quantum physicist). Once we ‘know’ there is value within something, we tend to look more closely – and bang = we see things that had previously escaped our notice.
In working BJJ basis for example – as beginners we are usually somehwat overwhelmed at the sheer volume of techniques and concepts we are exposed to and are therefore ‘forced’ to take a broad view = as opposed to a deeper view. This is one of the reasons why purple belts are usually a good step up from blue belts on the ’skills ladder’ – simply because at tat level, they usually have a pretty healthy ‘broad’ view, and are starting to really look deeply into some of the aspects of their ‘game’.
Looking deeply – or digging into things – is at the very heart of what is commonly known as ’science’. As kids, most of us had a natural inclination toward ‘discovery’ and ‘extracting value’ – perhaps that is a big part of what is so very appealing about BJJ. The child in us once again becomes awakened – as we explore, dig, understand and continue to ‘extract value’.
Train hard – train smart,
JBW

One of the most common questions I am asked by students during the Q&A time that follows most of my seminars is ‘How would you describe what you do?’ (Ie: what do I do for a living?)

This is a question that I could spend hours answering – but if I had to distill my answer down to a single sentence, it would be this:
I TEACH PEOPLE TO PREVAIL!
For me, the martial arts are a metaphor for life; they are about struggle; and about overcoming obstacles and dealing with pressure. At their very core, the martial arts are about prevailing against physical assault; but beyond this, they are about prevailing against all kinds of obstacles and adversity. Highly physical and challenging arts like BJJ, Kickboxing, etc – see us dealing with real pressure on a regular basis; and becasue of this, provide us with the will and mindset to deal with the myriad of pressures that life throws our way.

BJJ,in particular, demands that we ‘lose’, try again, ‘lose’, try again, until we work it out. The study of BJJ provides the perfect environment for both mental and physical strengthening. The study of BJJ provides an opportunity to develop a mastery of leverage and the ability to ‘problem solve’ – and these skills are easily brought to bear in life off the mat.

What do I do for a living? I teach people to PREVAIL.

JBW

During my recent four day interstate seminar jaunt, I spent time on the mat with a wide spectrum of BJJ and MMA students. In this day of ‘information over-supply’, it comes as no real surprise that I am often asked the question “what should I work on?” – as there is so much ‘out there’ today – as compared with what was available say, two decades ago.
Obviously, the answer to this question differs from student to student, dependant upon a myriad of factors … however, I can offer this piece of advise to any who will listen:
Work on your weaknesses! Our natural tendency is to focus on our strengths and take the ‘Egyptian’ view (living in de nile) when considering our weaknesses! Banish ‘denial’ from your mind and embrace what is difficult – this always produces amazing and quite often, unexpected results.
Working on our weaknesses, lifts our whole game up. if your Guard lets you down, then next time you hit the mat, pull to Guard (for a month), if it’s your escapes, put yourself underneath, if ‘fast’ opponents give you grief, seek them out, etc. And off the mat, as you take the lessons of Jiu Jitsu into your wider life, if you find your finances are something you instinctively ‘reel away from’ – do a budget. Embrace your weaknesses, work on them – even just a little attention on them will give you results.
Best wishes,
JBW

Fear – that most primeval of motivations, applies a subtle pressure to the way we live, the way we train and the way we live our lives. As martial artists and fighters, we should study fear, we should know it, learn from it, even embrace it, if we are to fulfil our potential.
Fear is the most powerful of foes and yet can be the most powerful of allies; it is a strange thing that most people live with daily, yet also know little about. It urges, it tethers, it whispers and sometimes it screams; but where does comes from and can it be harnessed?
These are questions that warriors are in the business of answering. The more often we put ourselves ‘on the line’, the closer we come to some level of mastery over our fear. It becomes less a thing that makes us run and more something we can see as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Fear is an old thing; an on-off switch that formed an integral part of our early ancestors hard-wiring. It was the basis of our most primitive survival mechanisms; something that prompted us to run when circumstances required and to fight harder when we had no other alternative. Fear is the fuel that drives the engine that resides in every single one of us; in which direction it drives us depends on circumstances and to some degree, how we have trained ourselves to respond. To harness our fear, it helps to understand what it is. In fact to master any thing, we first need to understand that thing.
The feeling we call fear begins with a release of hormones, the most well understood of which is called adrenaline. Sometimes this release is slow and subtle, giving rise to a gnawing feeling in our stomach. Over time, this kind of non-stop adrenal release can give rise to stress and even impact negatively on our health. At other times it is released in a torrent, causing tunnel vision, time distortion and a screaming desire to run as far and as fast as we can from the stimulus that bought it on. This latter symptom is often referred to as ‘flight or fight’.
The flight or fight response is well known; we perceive a threat, hormones are released into our bloodstream, blood vessels constrict, the heart-rate soars and in a second our body is driven by forces as old as mankind itself. This all makes perfect sense. Our early ancestors relied on this super-charging mechanism to provide them with the strength and focus to survive in times of great and sudden stress. In the simplest of terms, fear made us run faster if we could, or fight with more strength if we couldn’t. It depended more on the circumstances than anything else as to which way we reacted under pressure; and rarely our will power.
The unfortunate reality though, is the fact that although the ‘flight or fight’ response has been integral to our survival throughout our evolution, in many instances we are still governed by it today, even when it no longer serves a useful purpose. The most-subtle example of this is evidenced by the fact that most people do not like to venture too far from their comfort zones. The bottom line here is that we fear the unknown and this in itself, is the biggest hurdle to personal growth that human beings need to overcome. In the past, fear of the unknown probably kept many of our ancestors alive. If they didn’t know the plant they wouldn’t eat the plant; if they weren’t familiar with another tribe, they stayed away for fear of consequence. Now though, these self-same reactions hold people back from trying new foods and making new acquaintances. Old fears can often mean new shackles.
Sometimes though, the ancient hormonal reaction to danger (the adrenal dump) can save our lives. If the threat is ‘real and present’, then the rush of adrenaline can provide us with the focus and strength we need to prevail. Even this though, cannot be taken for granted. For those who havn’t experienced this regularly, the adrenal-response can also paralyse and cripple. Remember, our ancestors lived with these feelings, they were intimately familiar with them but in the course of our own everyday lives, most of us are not used to their effects and can be adversely effected by them. Luckily, a variety of training models exist that can help prepare today’s martial artists for the effects of sudden adrenal dump.
In short, fear can be a friend but it can also be our greatest foe. Pushing our boundaries, extending our comfort zones and taking risks can help acquaint us with fear and in time make it a friend. Understanding that at it’s basis it is just a chemical response to a specific set of circumstances and that we can interpret that response as ‘prime physiological preparation’, will go some of the way toward helping us harness our fear and ultimately prevail.
JBW 2008

Singles and doubles are the bedrock of good ‘shooting style’ takedown strategy.
Although there are significant differences in the way we should train and execute High Doubles, High Singles, Low Doubles and Low Singles – there are also some commonalities. If we train the following components, we should enjoy an improvement on all of those takedowns:

- The LEVEL CHANGE: developing an ability to quickly and suddenly change levels is fundamental to good leg-shoots. We should always change levels before we step in for the ‘shot’.
- The PENETRATION STEP: Being able to step in strongly and with enough ‘penetration’ is paramount if we want to reduce our chances of being ‘sprawled on’. The angle of flexion in our lead knee should be ‘less’ once the step has been taken, and not greater than the angle we had on the initial level change.
- The LEAN IN: Once our shoulder connects with the opponent, we need to ‘lean’ in and ‘stick’ to him. This ‘stickiness’ will prevent us from experiencing the ‘billiard ball’ effect of knocking him away and into his defence (sprawl). On low doubles especially, the ‘lean in’ allows us to control how hard our knee impacts on the floor/ground; very important for those with ‘older’ knees or for street applications.
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Although there are a myriad of other details that I have not gone into here, these two things alone can really make or break a single or double leg shot. A lot of students tend to put focus on the ‘finish’ of the takedown, in the same way they tend to focus on the ‘finish’ of an attack – but once again, we will never even have the opportunity of working a ‘finish’ if we don’t work through the process that precedes it. By putting time into practice of the LEVEL CHANGE and the PENETRATION STEP phases of the leg shoots, we will see marked improvements in how many shots we chalk up as ‘wins’.
Happy shooting,
JBW

It was a totally unexpected pleasure to receive a special presentation from Major Travis Faure, head of the Military Unarmed Combat Cell for the Australian Army, at the Championships on the weekend. The presentation comprised of a series of photos taken at the Royal Military College in Canberra, where I have done a lot o work this year. As much of my work for various military and other law enforcement agencies is somewhat ‘under the radar’, I have few momento’s to stick up on my study wall; so this one is much appreciated. (My ‘secret squirrel’ T-shirt collection, on the other hand, is impressive! But unappreciated by my wife who has to find wardrobe space to accommodate them) Major Faure also shared a few thoughts on behalf of the Aussie military; again, unexpected but very much appreciated. I must say that Travis himself was the driving force behind the total revamp that the Aussie military defensive tactics program has undergone over the past two years.
My sincere thanks to the whole team – you know who you are!
JBW