Take a break from the Kids and drop them off at Campbelltown Martial Arts this Saturday at 6:00pm. The night will include games, motivational videos, board breaks and pizza. You can also bring a buddy and receive tickets to the Campbelltown Martial Arts referral draw, with over $800.00 worth of prizes to win. The draw will take place in December at our presentation night. You must be present to win. The kid’s night is for kids 5 and over. See the CMA notice board for further details. Please enter you kids names on the kids power event sheet on the notice board if you want them to attend. We need at least 25 kids for this event to go ahead. So parents take a break from the kids next Saturday night. They are in safe hands and we will have lots of fun with them!!!

Buddy Week at Campbelltown Martial Arts!!!

Following the CMA Kids Power Event we will be having a Buddy Week at CMA for all our kids classes. Each child that brings a buddy to try a class at Campbelltown Martial Arts, will receive ten tickets to our referral draw and a certificate for their participation in the event. We have plenty of fun skill drills and martial arts to keep all the kids entertained for the week. Buddy Week will be from Monday 4th June to Friday 8th June. All you need to do is a bring a buddy to class to train with you.

Campbelltown Martial Arts Referral Draw

The CMA referral draw has started and we are slowly starting to fill the barrel up with tickets belonging to CMA members. All you have to do is refer a friend to try a class at CMA and you will receive a ticket. If they join you will receive 5 tickets and are guaranteed a prize with spin of our referral wheel. There are 3 prizes in total, to the value of $800.00. Make sure you receive a ticket if you refer someone to Campbelltown Martial Arts. Visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/ for more information on Campbelltown Martial Arts!!!

Campbelltown Martial Arts Kids Power Event

As promised Brian Ebersole is set to visit Campbelltown Martial Arts on Wednesday 15^th August at 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Make sure you mark this day free in your calender. It’s open to all students training in our adults Hapkido, BJJ or MMA classes. Brian’s specialty is wrestling and its very hard to get access to a great wrestling coach in Australia, let alone Campbelltown, so we are excited to have him spare us a few hours of his time. I have done a few training sessions with Brian and he is very giving of his time and an enthusiastic teacher. He is very technical and you will certainly come away with some great concepts and techniques to add to your MMA game.

Bio of Brian Ebersole, who is visiting Campbelltown Martial Arts later in the year!!!!

Other amazing seminars scheduled for Campbelltown Martial Arts

Don’t forget later in the year we have BJJ extraordinaire John Will visiting Campbelltown Martial Arts on Saturday October 20 at 1:00pm. We also have undefeated world champion kickboxer Benny The Jet visiting Campbelltown Martial Arts on Monday November 12 at 7:30pm. Lets also not forget black belt Richard Sargent teaching BJJ at Campbelltown Martial Arts now on the first Friday of each month. He will also be covering some MMA classes in early July. Visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=9 for more details on this wealth of knowledge and experience in stand up fighting and BJJ, coming to the students of Campbelltown Martial Arts!!!!

ISKA BJJ TOURNAMENT

3 CMA students decided to compete in the 2012 ISKA ALL TIME CLASSIC INTERNATIONAL at Anne Clark Centre, Lidcombe. As I wasn’t at the competition due to competing in the other tournament, Master Michael has provided the following update:

The ISKA event was quite small in BJJ with not much depth in the divisions:

Tom Koski just lost on points in the no gi but still got 2^nd place

Marty managed to find himself in a round robin finishing third, avoided a great flying armbar which had just won his competitor the no gi event.

Chrysler won his match taking first place with an un-passable upside down guard.

Triplebull BJJ Tournament

The other tournament for the day was the Triplebull BJJ event, held at Miranda. The competition was strong especially in the blue belt division. There were a large number of grapplers mostly male white and blue belt levels. It was fairly well organised and the day ran smoothly. There was a strong crowd cheering everyone on.

unfortunately CMA BJJ participants didn’t fare so well on the day.

Nathan suffered his first ever submission. It was a shame as he was ahead, but tired at the end and taped out as the “other guy was about to break his jaw”. Nathan’s will be focusing on his grappling fitness for his next tournament.

My match ended in zero-zero and I lost by a one point advantage. I belive she got the advantage by attempting to pass my guard. While it is disappointing, I was happy that there wasn’t much in it and will work on attacking a lot more for my next tournament.

Kylie lost 8 points to zero in the women’s white belt division, she was happy not to be submitted and if she can work on her movement whilst on the bottom, she will hopefully improve for her next tournament.

The value of tournaments in BJJ.

People do BJJ for all different reasons. For some the main emphasis is on competition, for others it’s about learning the art of BJJ. Lots of training and mat work in BJJ will make you a good practitioner of the art and competing in tournaments will help you to become a better competitor in the art. Tournaments also offer other benefits. BJJ tournaments enable you to grapple other competitors outside of your gym and you will be presented with different challenges from what you may experience in your BJJ school. You will experience grappling at a much higher intensity and speed. It will also force you to learn to handle your nerves and work on the weaknesses in your BJJ game. I belive everyone can benefit from doing a few BJJ tournaments each year and encourage all BJJ practitioners do get out of their comfort zone and participate in some friendly BJJ competition.

Once you decide to enter a BJJ competition the tournament process begins, it’s not just about the match. It’s about making a commitment to compete, then stepping up your BJJ training to prepare. It’s about working on your game plan and putting it all together on the day. It’s then about learning from your experience and looking at your match in a constructive and positive way.

Visit CMA’s you tube page “hapkidobjj705″ to view the recent grappling matches. Visit  http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=7 for information on our BJJ program.

Campbelltown Martial Arts adults recently graded in what would be one of our smallest gradings ever. 3 white belts going for orange and Joel Doyle going for provisional black belt. Whilst it was a small grading all students grading showed a lot of heart, especially Joel grading by himself. This was made a little bit easier thanks to the loyal students who stayed back to work with Joel and offer support. Thank you to all those students. Joel’s techniques were crisp and sharp. He is now just one belt away from black belt.

unfortunately I had to say no to a number of students who wanted to grade as their name was not on the grading list and they had missed to many classes. If you want to grade you need to be training regularly and have your name early on the grading list, not two weeks before hand.

The next grading is Wednesday 27th June. Please put your name on the grading list if you intend to grade. You also need to be training regularly to get your modules marked off.

Eagles Martial Arts Grading Update

Eagles students at Campbelltown Martial Arts recently had their second grading for the year. The kids were enthusiastic and excited, especially those grading for the first time. For the first time ever we had such a large number of green belts grading to blue belts and becoming seniors.  Well done to the following students for receiving the spirit award, Zoe Brown, Yazmin Mason and Harrison Pudner.

Gradings at Campbelltown Martial Arts are tough, no matter how old you are or how many you’ve been through, they never get easier. This grading two of our most senior students took the stage to demonstrate the skills they have learnt over the past months in return for the ultimate glory of another black belt stripe. Once they achieve all their stripes they will be ready for an adult Green Belt – so its worth fighting for on their way to an adult Black Belt at Campbelltown Martial Arts!!!

As for Jesse this was his first grading as senior belt, which meant a wood break. For some a wood break is the most daunting part of a grading. Jesse demonstrated all his techniques to the best of his ability and the practise outside of class showed. Jesse’s wood break took 3 sidekicks to snap it in half.

6 months ago Erin received her Black and last night came back to earn a stripe. By her side all the way was Harrison searching for a 2nd stripe and after missing out on the last grading due to injury, he had a point to prove. Harry exploded off the ranks displaying intense focus and speed in his hand techniques. Described as “Harry your on red Cordial” (Michael)  The cordial ran dry for a short time, but as a true junior black belt he came home strong, even giving his sister Brianna a couple of cheap shots along the way. When it came down to the wood break on an ADULT BOARD, he narrowly missed out on the elbow break, just cracking it. Unfortunately the anguish became too much and tried a sidekick, finishing what he started and after a couple of attempts broke it flush in the middle of the board. Breaking an adult board with elbow strike has eluded our junior Black belts and over the years, many adults.

This martial arts grading was a hard one for Harry and no matter what we threw at him, he came out the other end stronger for it. He showed spirit and determination way beyond his years and as such received a “Spirit Award”

Erin showed a lot of poise and growth during her grading. Technically strong and her falls out of throw’s were one of her highlights. When Erin first experience falling out of throws, that some adults still are uncomfortable with, it was really confronting and there were a few tears, but not today. Erin demonstrated a great pole routine and experienced her first wood break on an ADULT board. A few attempts with the sidekick saw no result. Coming back after a break, there were a few more unsuccessful attempts, that’s until she switched sides and broke it immediately.

Highlights From the Eagles Martial Arts Grading

• All of the kids breaking their wood!!!!
• Enthusiasm and excitement from the Junior Eagles – soon to be “Falcons”, especially those grading the first time!!!!
• Harry’s hand technique and boxing and after a tough grading coming back to class the next day and Harry backing up with an important softball match!!!!
• Three junior black belts students have now experienced a grading, equivalent to that of an adult red belt grading at only 11. Two of them still in primary school. Makes you wonder what they can do at 15-16!!!!
• Having 7 kids grade to blue belt – Welcome to the senior class Kindra Doyle, Gryphon Doyle, Ronin Scott, Jack O’ Toole, Lachlan O’ Hare, Liam Mrkonja and Paolo Atas. We are sure you will make great senior falcons.

These kids are very resilient and can sometimes surprise you with how much spirit they have. No matter how much you test them, they find a way through with amazing spirit.

The next grading is scheduled for Monday 25th June. Visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=14 for more details on our kids Martial Arts Programs.

Last Saturday 30^th April 2012 CMA Martial Arts saw our Little Eagles (3 to 6 year olds) perform their best work and be on their best behaviour to show Master Michael that they are worthy of their next belt level.  Our grading took a whopping hour and a half as we had students grading from every belt colour starting from white belt students right up to those Little Eagles who have now gone through the entire Little Eagles program and have reached their final belt colour.  Many congratulations to Alexander Joyce and Dominic Haines who worked hard to perform all their work on the day to be awarded their last belt colour of purple/white.  Both boys have been training for approximately two years and are now eligible to join the next program, Junior Falcons, which will eventually take them to their Junior Black Belt.

As with every grading, Master Michael scores each student in every aspect of their syllabus and the student at the end of the grading with the highest score is awarded the Spirit Award.  This grading the award was presented to the following two Little Eagles:

Sonali Naidu and Alyssa Cartwright – well done ladies you both did an excellent grading and this also shows in your complete concentration during each and every training session you both attend!!

Changes to the Little Eagles Martial Arts Program

CMA Martial Arts is about to make some exciting changes with the Little Eagles.  We are just about to launch a new syllabus for the Little Eagles and once printed each student will receive a copy. The new syllabus will keep some work that is already in the current syllabus with added new work as well as  life skills for every student to become familiar with.    We will also see a change of name from Little Eagles to:

- the 3 &  years olds will now be called the Junior Eagles

- the 5 & 6 year olds will now be call the Eagles.

One more exciting change will also be the change of the belts.  The progress of colour stripes will remain the same, however, they will no longer have purple on each belt.  Each belt will now have the backing colour of white with the colour stripe running through the centre of each belt.  This looks very striking as the students’ uniforms are black.

Next Martial Arts Grading – Is Your Child Ready to Grade?

Our next grading for the Junior Eagles and Eagles is diarised for the end of June, so Miss Natalie and Miss Janelle are aware of those students who should be ready to grade and will work very hard with them to have them ready and shining on the day!!  Please remember that to grade the student must:

1. Complete at least 2 complete rows of training on their training card,
2. Be training regularly and understand their work.  Sometimes, especially with the Junior Eagles (3 and 4 year olds), even though their training maybe up to date, they may not necessarily be ready to grade mainly due to their age and this is fine. Each child is assessed individually and our Instructors, Miss Natalie and Miss Janelle, will discuss each child’s eligibility to grade with each child’s parent/s.   Martial Arts is a personal journey and all students and parents need to understand that students all grade at different intervals.

Any student wishing to grade needs to place their name on the “Grading Sheet” or check with Miss Natalie or Miss Janelle if you are not sure if your child will be ready

Good luck to all our students in their training for the next 7 weeks and we look forward to another successful grading at the end of June.

Just kidding, the real special is below!!!

Campbelltown Martial Arts “Sport and Spoil” Mothers  Day Gift

Looking for that perfect present for your special mum this Mothers’ Day but you have absolutely no idea what to give her??

CMA Sport N Spoil has gift vouchers for any swedish, remedial or sports massage so that special lady in your life can just simply lay back & be pampered!!

CMA Sport N Spoil Mothers’s Day special offers a full hour massage for only $40 or half hour for $30.  Gift Vouchers are available to present to your special mum.

Enquire with Natalie at the CMA front counter for more details or call/sms on 0411 483 192. Visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=20

                                 ALL MUMS’ DESERVE A SPECIAL TREAT!!!

Mums Play a Very Important Role at Campbelltown Martial Arts

We have a lot of mums at CMA currently training and they would love nothing better than a well deserved massage especially if they haven’t already had one so far this year. We are now into the second quarter of the year and if you have been training hard since the start of the year than you need service your body to keep going strong for the rest of the year. “You service your car regularly so why not service your No.1 resource – YOUR BODY!!”

Massage therapy is a simple, non intrusive therapy that restores, rehabilitates and revitalises the mind and body. Not only is massage good for you but it also stimulates your muscles, brain, nerves, and internal organs. Massage releases tension and toxins from within the system and is most beneficial in creating a sense of relaxation, healing and nourishes the body from the everyday activities we all go through, thus resulting in an overall feeling of health and well-being.

Lets not forget all the other important mums to Campbelltown Martial Arts

Whilst we would love to get all the mums associated with Campbelltown Martial Arts training with us either in Cage Fitness, BJJ, Hapkido or even MMA (we have one mum training in MMA and she is tough, not going to mention any names here!!), we understand at CMA the huge sacrifice all our mums do. They ferry their kids to training at Campbelltown Martial Arts night after night, which then turns into weeks, months and years. They also provide support in many ways for their kids at gradings, tournaments, camps etc. We cannot thank them enough. Do something special for your mum visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=20 and treat them to a massage at Campbelltown Martial Arts Sport N Spoil!!!

There are certainly a lot of BJJ tournaments in Australia to choose from. Before preparing for a BJJ tournament, you need to decide which tournament you are competing in. Each tournament is different. Some BJJ tournaments are more professional than others. The quality of the refereeing, the entry fee and prizes, the rules, the type of competitors it attracts and who is running it, will affect your decision on what type of tournament to compete in. It’s best to chat with other experienced BJJ practitioners and seek their advice on what tournaments are worth competing in. It’s also worthwhile to keep in mind that you often get the same competitors in a particular tournament, so mixing it up and going into different tournaments will offer you the best chance of experiencing many different fighters. Some tournaments have more at stake than others, such as the Australian Abu Dhabi BJJ trials for the World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship (WPJJC), which offers an all expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi for each winner to compete. The WPJJC is one of the most prestigious in terms of the calibre of grapplers it attracts around the world and the prizes on offer. $30,000 for the black belt open winner, which for 2012 was Rodolfo Vieira Srour. Another big tournament coming up on May 31st-3rd June 2012 in California is IBJJF World Championships.

Once you have decided on which tournament, commit to yourself that you will compete. This is a personal promise that you make: an internal decision point that you will not back down from. Share this news with your coach and training partners so they can kick it up a notch in your training.

Preparing for the BJJ Tournament

Make sure you are aware of the rules concerning your tournament and what techniques are and are not allowed. This may impact on your BJJ game. Allow plenty of time to practise from your feet. In general training BJJ stars on the knees, however in tournaments it starts on your feet. As such you need to develop your stand up game. Be careful of any activities which may increase your chance of injury from a month out.

It’s a good idea to cross train in other fitness activities that will help to improve your overall fitness for BJJ. This should be done all year round for BJJ however slow down closer to the competition date. Activities that work on short-term explosive power, your forearm and hand strength, your grip strength and cardiovascular fitness. You want plenty of gas left in the tank after each grapple to remain strong as you progress through the rounds in competition.

Personally I find Cage Fitness great for this. http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=16  It is a complete fitness system that is based on the structure of a championship MMA bout. What this means is that Cage Fitness will give you a total body workout over 5 – 5 minute rounds. The key elements that Cage Fitness focuses on are endurance, strength, power, and core.

You can’t beat time on the mat in BJJ. You should be rolling consistently and seriously and working on your game plan. However having a restrictive game plan will cause you mental conflict and delay your responses if things don’t go exactly as planned (and they almost never do). Be flexible with your game plan and what may or may not happen.

As the BJJ competition gets closer

Ensure you are not doing anything that may cause injury. Continue to eat well and drink plenty of water. Ease up on your training regime closer to the event and ensure you are well rested at the time of the tournament. Mental preparation is just as important when preparing for a tournament especially as it gets closer. Stay calm and try not to prejudge your oponent. There is always someone who can kick your butt out there, but you’ll find that they are the ones you least expect. Some competitors look pretty tough. The scarier their packaging, the less substance you’ll find. The stealth competitors are the ones who have the confidence to ignore the packaging BS. Ensure you fully warm up your body at least an hour before your fight. This will  improve sports performance and reduce risk of injury. Dont underestimate the importance of this.

You Did It!

Win or lose, it takes courage, hard training, and commitment to compete.

Learn from the Experience

Scrutinize. In the days following the match, watch your video if you have one and carefully scrutinize it (with your coach if you can).

Listen to your body. If you have more than a couple of fights, you’re likely to be sore in the days after the competition. Think about what parts of you are sore and how your warm up and stretching can change next time to reduce the after-effects of your BJJ tournament.

I love to train however often life and its commitments get in the way. There is always some young gun clocking up crazy hours on the mats attending every class and that’s great, but for a lot of us there is often a number of things competing with our time and ability to train. And the older one gets the more complicated life and this challenge becomes. Business, work, our kids and their sporting commitments, our partners and spending quality time with the family, study, home duties etc all compete with our time and our martial arts training. There is however usually always some time to train in our crazy schedules, even if your really busy.

How To Train In Martial Arts When You Have No Time

The first thing to do is to eliminate your time wasters such as watching TV. Research suggest that people over age 15 in Australia watch on average 3 hours of TV a day. Imagine how much training you could get in by eliminating or cutting back the amount of TV watched. So everyone the first step is to throw out your TV and stop doing all that stupid stuff that’s wasting your time!

“CMA Sport N Spoil” has officially open its doors. This is a professional massage service that has been introduced to Campbelltown Martial Arts to benefit its members, family and friends.

Natalie Scott has studied massage and its techniques for the last 2 years and is now qualified in Swedish, Remedial, Sports and Muscular Rehabilitation. The massage can be firm or light and tailored specifically for each client.

Benefits of Massage to the Martial Arts Body!!!

Many of us at CMA train everyday and our bodies are continually under stress. Other factors may also put stress on the body such as our daily posture, the way we sit or carry ourselves, our sleeping position etc. A good massage can help elevate this. Massage is beneficial and nutritious for the body and mind.

Massage helps to create a calm state of alertness while reducing mental stress. It can create a calmer mind, and increases the capacity for clear thinking. It is relaxing and allows the body to release stored stress.

Massage improves circulation, improves joint flexibility, aids in healing scar tissue due to injury. It also releases chronic muscle tension and pain, reduces physical fatigue, releases muscle spasms and cramps, aids in the release and elimination of toxins, promotes deeper and easier breathing, reduces blood pressure, relieves tension related to headache and eye strain. Massage nourishes your skin, improves posture and body awareness. It has been proven to aid in fibromyalga.

Finally, massage flows beautifully with the overall benefits of martial arts. It creates a feeling of well-being while reducing anxiety. It creates awareness of body-mind connection, enhances a sense of harmony, and increases energy flow at all levels.

Make a Booking at Campbelltown Martial Arts “Sport N Spoil”

Make a booking in the month of April and receive the following specials:

1/2 hour $20

Full hour $30

See Natalie at the front counter, visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=20, call or SMS Natalie on 0411 483 192. The when you are all fresh come and see me for some real pain, martial arts style that is!!!!

One of the biggest tournaments of the year for BJJ, World Professional Jiu – Jitsu Championships was recently held in Abu Dhabi and since its inception in 2009, it regularly attracts some of the biggest names in BJJ and is promoted as promoted as the largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu event in the world. The inaugural 2009 tournament had the prize purse of US$111,000. This amount was increased further to US$150,000 in 2010 and US$272,000 (AED 1,000,000) in 2011. This years prize money total was $320,500.00, all of which are the largest money prizes in history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. The winner of the main event, the black belt male open division received $36,000.00 in winnings. The Black Belt open winner was Rodolfo Vieiro Srour of GFTeam Academy in Brazil. Gabrielle Garcia of Alliance Academy in Brazil won the female open black belt division.

For a list of the tournament results click here http://uaejj.com/en/index.php/wpjjc-2012-results

Qualifying for the BJJ WPJJC

Trial events are held in several countries throughout the year to qualify for the tournament. Participation in the trials is not mandatory and anyone willing to pay to go overseas and compete is able to; however the winners of the trials have an all expenses (airfare, hotel, meals) paid trip to Abu Dhabi for the tournament.

How did the Australian BJJ competitors do

Australians did receive medals including:

Jess Fraser, 3rd in Womens open Blue Belt – Academy Maromba

Roumanos Moussa, 3rd in Mens white belt 88kg division – Academy Roots

Tony Torrisi, 3rd in mens blue belt 76kg division – Academy GarraJJ Qld

Nikola Skoric - 3rd mens blue belt 94kg division Academy Gracie Sydney

David Marinakis - 3rd Black Belt 64kg division – Academy Dominance Melbourne

Campbelltown Martial Arts offers BJJ classes for men, women and children. We plan to compete and enter a team in the Sydney trials next year for the first time. Visit http://www.hapkidobjj.com/index.cfm?page=7 for more details on our BJJ classes.