Just wanted to let everyone know that Machado black belt David Meyer will be holding a seminar the weekend of Nov. 13th at Lancaster Family Martial Arts in Lancaster, PA (www.lfmac.com). We're still nailing down the exact time because Dave has just returned from New Orleans where he worked with the Save a Pet foundation to feed, rescue, and transport hundreds of abandoned animals due to Hurricane Katrina (a BJJ black belt and an animal lover!)

There will be a 1 hour kids seminar (ages 5-9) for $30 and a three hour adult seminar for $50. Exact times to be determined.

For those of you not familiar with Dave Meyer, check out: http://www.grappling.us/

Mr. Meyer will also be available for private lessons which need to be arranged ahead of time -- please contact either me or www.lfmac.com to set up a private lesson.

We're trying to start a grappling program at LFMAC (due to the lack of BJJ schools in the York/Lancaster, PA area) with Dave's help so we hope to have a good turnout for the seminar and to generate interest for a BJJ class in the near future. My instructor Mike Weisensee (a 3rd degree bb in hapkido under Master Geoff Booth, a 4th degree bb in TKD, and a certified instructor in krav maga and FIGHT) is hoping to get certified to teach the first 2/3 of the BJJ blue belt curriculum under Dave Meyer's program so we can start a grappling program at LFMAC.
Please contact me or the school (www.lfmac.com) for more information.
Hope to see you there!
Todd

I am curious about something.

If you are not yet ranked in BJJ, how do you go about getting "certified" to teach 2/3 of the curriculum and prepare others for belt grading?

A couple of things to keep in mind Fletch1:
Dave Meyer and John Will's "Masterclass Grappling Curriculum" is designed to help schools with no access to local BJJ/grappling instructors to integrate a grappling curriculum at their school. My instructor and I realize that we (esp. me!) aren't qualified to rank anyone else in BJJ because we're not even blue belts ourselves.

What we can do is use the Masterclass Grappling Curriculum to help other students work towards their blue belts under Dave Meyer. Mr. Meyer does all the evaluations and belt testing during his seminar visits to our school which should take place 2-3 times a year.
Part of the Masterclass Curriculum is to work toward your blue belt and another "track" is to work toward your instructor certification--my instructor and I are doing both. To be "certified" as an instructor means that you understand the details of the techniques and can effectively demonstrate them to your students, it doesn't mean you are an accomplished competitive grappler.

Believe me, my instructor and I are in no way trying to claim that we're experienced grapplers. We would LOVE to have a belted BJJ instructor come teach classes at our school (I have a post on this forum begging someone to come help us out) but we REALLY want to start learning to grapple and to eventually start a grappling program at LFMAC. Notice I said "eventually": we know we're not ready yet and what we're planning on doing initially is just having a small group of interested people get together 2-3 times a week to train BJJ.

I note the skeptical tone in your last post and I understand it. Once again, we're not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. If you want to read more about the Instructor Certification portion of Dave Meyer and John Will's "Masterclass Grappling Curriculum" check out the website: www.grappling.us.

Note also that my instructor and I have already paid for the Masterclass Curriculum materials and we aren't asking anyone at our school for money to train with us; we're just trying to generate interest. We just want to learn and freely and openly admit that we are beginners too. And, once again, if you know any BJJ blue belts or above in the York, PA area PLEASE send them our way!

There is a good school in Berks County, PA and we've had a purple belt from their school conduct some seminars but he's a Police Detective and doesn't have time to teach regular classes at our school.

So, forgive me if I'm overreacting, but cut us a little slack, we don't have access to a BJJ school close enough that we can train regularly, so we're doing the best we can with what we've got.

Thanks.
Todd

I should add too that when I initially talked to David Meyer about his program he was adamant that his program was in no way a substitute for working with a good BJJ instructor and rolling with skilled grapplers, i.e., people who can routinely beat you. And, he said if we happened to find a good BJJ instructor in the area and wanted to start training with them that he encouraged us to do so. His and John Will's program, as I said, is meant to offer a method for training grappling where no qualified instructor is available. As one of our hapkido students joked, "oh, you're getting your blue belts by correspondence course!" Well, yeah, but until something better comes along we have to do what we have to do!

Todd,

I should have qualified my inquiry so that you would not have read that I had a "tone". I was just curious as to what the actual parameters and limitations were for your program.

I am painfully aware of what is like to have no access to a qualified coach or instructor in BJJ. I trained for a while driving 200 miles round trip just to work with a Blue Belt when I started. Finally, I found a Black Belt on the other side of my state that was a 250 mile round trip. I trained once a week like that for 3+ years.

I had "garage training" partners but nothing consistent until a few years ago. As a Blue Belt, I inherited a class that was started by a visiting Black Belt and I kept it going after he left. A few years ago, he came back and found that I was still at it and had my own students, some that drove an hour just to train with me. He promoted me to Purple based not just on my "Wizardry" on the mat (HA!), but my ability to teach and coach.

The reason I tell this story is that I know where you are coming from. I just never had a "curriculum" given to me from a distance instructor, to teach to my group. I started out as a senior student who "led" the class in the absence of an instructor and eventually became the "instructor".

I continue my training with my coach and friend, Luis Gutierrez. It is long distance however, so most of my work is with my students, some of whom I have had my instructors promote to Blue based on my observations.

Great post Fletch, thanks very much. Sorry if I overreacted but it sounds like you feel my pain. I had just gotten into BJJ in Seattle about 8 months ago when my wife and I moved to York, PA for her job and it's been very frustrating trying to find a good BJJ school in the area. Fortunately, I found Mike Weisensee's school in Lancaster which teaches hapkido, FIGHT, and used to teach krav maga. And Mike is eager to learn grappling so he can include it in his school's curriculum but, of course, he wants to make sure he's competent in the basics of grappling before "inflicting" it on his students!

Dave Meyer and John Will's program is a great guide and, most importantly, David is availble to answer questions via phone and e-mail and is incredibly generous when it comes to giving seminars--he makes it essentially risk-free for small schools like ours who might otherwise have to shell out big bucks to get a phenomenal instructor like him to give a seminar.

I just talked to David today and will be posting the final dates and times for the seminar in a forthcoming post.

Thanks again for your post Fletch. Your school looks impressive, BTW! SWAT team member? Yikes!!

Happy training.
Todd

Okay, I just talked with David Meyer and here are the final details for the Sunday, Nov. 13, seminar at Lancaster Family Martial Arts in Lancaster, PA. (www.lfmac.com)

10:00 - 11:00AM > kids (ages 5-9) seminar - 1 hr. - $30
11:00AM - 2:00PM > adults (ages 10 and up) seminar - 3 hrs. - $60

Gi is optional.
Seminar will focus on fundamental principles and techniques of grappling such as defense, controlling from the top, correct positions and transitions, and finishing. The class will likely be split into two parts--the first focusing on defensive techniques and positions and the second on offensive techniques (finishes) and positions.

If anyone is interested in private lessons with Mr. Meyer, please PM me to arrange.

And, please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks.
Todd

Hey Todd, David Meyers is also my Instructor's BJJ teacher. David will be here in Edmonton, Alberta on Sunday, October 30, 2005 and will be staying with my Instructor's partner and best friend. Our class time with him will be 3 hours (2:00 pm to 5:00 pm) and then afterwards we can roll with him should we choose to do so. There will only be 24 of us in this class, 12 from our school and 12 from my Instructor's partner's schools. The cost was $50 and I know it will be worth it.

Our school does already incorporate grappling (JJJ/BJJ/Hapkido) and this will only add to what we already do. Several times a year my Instructor and his partner will go to San Francisco to train at the Machado gym and others.

I'll keep you posted as to how things went.

Have fun at the seminar. I know you will. I attended one of David Meyer and John Will's seminars in Seattle and they were great, and it's a pleasure to be able to work with David through his masterclass program (I know I must sound like a commercial but I'm just happy that my hapkido instructor and I are able to train grappling in a city that doesn't have a good BJJ school nearby.)
Cheers.
Todd

ToddR my man!

Seminar on a sunday? Rock on! I should be able to make that. I am in the same situation that you are re: good grappling instruction around here. There just isn't much.

Look forward to meeting you up there, and will contact you shortly for details.

I'm thinking about it too... Good price and close...

Man, that would be great if both MattJ and RangerG made it to the seminar (and if each of them brought about 15 people ). Seriously though, I think it's a really fair price and will be an excellent seminar. And, with my 100 sq ft of grappling mats on the way I think I see a garage grappling group (nice alliteration huh?) forming in York, PA. I've been in contact with another guy named Nick who's interested in training in York. Very cool. Hope to see both of you there, and please let me know if you have any questions.

todd -
any idea if mr. meyer is coming to chicago? we have a great instructor (trains a UFC big-namer) in bjj, but it's hard to get attention as a beginner when there are so many brown & black belts at the school. i'm keepin my eye out for seminars!

ShikataGaNai,
I'm not sure what his seminar schedule is but I'll try to find out. He seems to do seminars all over the world so I'd be surprised if he didn't get to a big city like Chicago at least a couple times a year. Mr. Meyer's website lists Garcia's Black Belt Academy as a school that uses his Masterclass Grappling Curriculum, so maybe they occaisionally have seminars there? You can also go to www.grappling.us and click the "Seminars" button to see what Mr. Meyer has scheduled. It doesn't look like this page has been updated for awhile though.

Well today is the 30th and will be going to train with David Meyers at 2:00 pm Mountain Standard Time. Suppose to go to 5:00 but I've been told possible 6:00 or later. Looking forward to it.

The seminar was fantastic. I came home and I was so charged up ... I just ate up the information he gave and left me for wanting more.

Everybody there ... about 30 people ... were already versed in grappling so we dove right in. Our main objective was arm bars and we started arm bars for the person on the top. Then we did a crash course in defending from the bottom with our feet. David Meyer even had an individual try to take top mount aggressively to show how effective the legs can be. All the while he talked calmly and defended at the same time ... he was good. Then he taught how to do arm bars from the bottom. All and all the 3+ hours was not enough ... and like I said it left me for wanting more.

Afterward we took a group photo and he turned to me and asked for me to stay for a few minutes as he wanted to go over a few things. He showed me how to not use strength for one of the exercises where I was on the bottom and had my opponent in my guard and to lock in a arm across my chest while pulling in my opponent and creeping my legs up their body. Then he instructed when I should use the strength to lock the legs, push their head down with my arm/hand and then bring my other leg over top of the head and lock my arm bar in. I was honored he took the time to show this to me and for his kind and motivating words.

After this we were allowed to grapple with other class mates and I applied the arm bar techniques he taught us earlier and unbelievable how well they worked. Like he said earlier, he would show us step by step and break it down so that we can see it if it happens. While grappling I could see it just like he said and it worked great. Also like he said, there are numerous of arm bars and holds but you only need to learn one really good that works and then move on to others.

David Meyers knows his stuff and it was a great pleasure to train with him. He is very personable, friendly and funny and I couldn't have spent a better Sunday. For all of you who will get a chance to train with him I hope you have as much fun as I did.

As pictures become available I will post them. What a wonderful day.

Sweeeeeeet.

Dereck,

Sounds fun and am glad you learned a lot! Yes, I am somewhat envious.

Just to add to my earlier post, we are trained in grappling in our system and have learned numerous of arm bars from the top and bottom but David Meyer shows so much more and he teaches it in a way that breaks it down so simply. Then he moves from group to group checking and showing small things that need to be fixed. Any questions he is more then happy to answer. To learn arm bars in certain situations that you would have never thought of is just incredible. The easy transition from trying it one places and then moving to another is just amazing and he makes it look so simple. I now want to learn even more and am envious of all of you that train this full time.

Matt and Ranger … if you get a chance to go to this with Todd you won't be disappointed.

I'm there for certain. REALLY looking forward to it now. Thanks for sharing, Dereck.

Hey Dereck,
Thanks for the rousing endorsement! Yep, David Meyer is the real deal and I am really looking forward to the seminar. And, I am thrilled that MattJ and RangerG are going to make it. I don't think they'll be disappointed.

As Mr. Meyer said on the phone last week, even experienced grapplers who think they already know the basics will learn a great deal at his seminars. He's not bragging, he's just pointing out that very few people focus enough on the minute details of grappling, so he's always able to show them ways to improve upon the knowledge they already have.

I'm psyched! Now, I need to get some mat time in. My instructor has been in Australia for the past two weeks training with his hapkido master (Geoff Booth) so I've only been able to grapple once in the past two weeks. While he was in Australia my instructor got to train at Elvis Sinosec's school (though Elvis wasn't there--he had...ummm...left the building ). So, we're going to train this Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon to get ready for the seminar. My wife's going out of town this weekend so I get to train!!!

Later.
Todd R

Got back from the seminar.

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME GREAT STUFF GOTTA MOVE TO CALIFORNIA AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had a really good time. Partnered up with RangerG for the seminar. DM is a great instructor. He concentrated on very basic concepts, but showed clearly how they can make or break your game. I spent about an hour before doing this post writing notes from the seminar. So much good stuff...

One of his biggest things with us was to keep pressure on the opponent when you are on top. He showed me how I was not really doing that enough, and that by keeping my hip on the opponent from side control, how much of a difference that made.

He also made a good point of showing us why it is bad to be flat on your back if the opponent is on top. He showed us to block the opponent's arms from getting behind our heads while getting to our sides. It really does keep you more mobile.

He also showed us about getting to our hands/knees if possible, even if that means having your back under the opponent. As long as you keep the opponent directly in front of you, he will have a hard time getting to your back (with any kind of decent finishing techniques).

I was really struck by how different ground fighting is from stand up stuff. Good balance by even weight distribution is a core concept of stand up fighting. However, on the ground, even weight distribution will limit your mobilty and let the opponent know when AND where you are moving.

Dave showed us what he called the "ninja mount" from side control. It involves keeping ALL your weight on the opponent's upper body, so you can move your lower body easily. It also makes the opponent have a hard time discerning when you are going to move, because there is no weight shift from your lower body. All your weight is already on his upper body. Very confusing, but makes perfect sense when you do it!

Can't say enough about what a good instructor Dave Meyer is. If anyone has a chance to train with him, I HIGHLY recommend it. One of the best seminars I have ever been to.

PS -

RangerG is a tough but helpful martial artist. He gave me very good feedback on when things were or were not working as I applied them. His endurance is also quite impressive. As matter of fact, I had to "slow him down" a bit so that I could keep up. My AKK refuses to be kept quiet for long!!

Hope the nose is OK, Ranger!

SCORE SO FAR -

MattJ - 3 (busted noses, that is)

Oldman - 0
RazorFoot - 0
RangerG - 0

Butterfly - 10 (I couldn't walk right for days....nay, WEEKS even, after those damn thigh kicks!)

I'm sure RangerG and ToddR will have more to add. I will have a picture to post soon.

I would also like to add that it was an AWESOME seminar! If anyone gets a chance to attend one of Dave's seminars...DO IT! I learned some techniques that I had not seen anywhere else. I too was writing notes when I got home.

MattJ was a great partner on the mat. He kept things real and challenging. It was fun to add some of my favorite submission holds on him when I had him down. Of course he did pay me back with a broken nose that refused to quit bleeding for about 15 min.... He keeps telling me it was an accident... I think he is racking up a broken nose score

I got to meet ToddR from this forum as well.. A super nice guy and a top notch martial artist. Polite, honorable and humble. I was honored to attend the seminar at his dojo. Watching across the room..I could see that Todd had a real grasp of the techniques (glad he was not my partner...I get wrapped up enough as it is).

The big shock was that Dave Meyer is about seven years younger than I... S'cuse me while I go take my geritol..

All in all it was a great seminar. Matt was a great partner to work with...and his skills are top notch..heck..he almost had my back at one point...

Matt..always a pleasure.
Todd..an honor to meet you Sir.

Time for a hot bath and IV Ibuprofen...

Awesome you guys, I knew you'd enjoy David Meyers.

I went to class on Wednesday and was talking with some of the guys who came with me to the seminar and were talking about how we should have picked up some of his discs. When changing and getting ready to leave my Instructor walked and and secretly handed me a disc. Knowing my enthusiasm they had acquired a disc for me ... which I am very greatful for.

David is a good Instructor. Can break things down so well that makes it easy to understand and apply. I can understand why my Instructor and his partner train under him. They will be going to see him in San Fransisco in the very near future. I can't wait for the opportunity when he comes back to further train.

Again I'm glad you all enjoyed him. I'm going to sit down and take notes off of the disc and one of the blackbelts who is doing the same, and also was a person to get the disc for me ... thanks to him too ... said he'd like to get together with me to train more on them. I'm there!

Maybe one day I will get a chance to train with some of you as well. That would be something to look forward to in the future. The world is already getting smaller as we have this board plus have trained with the same Instructor. It is not to harder to imagine.

Sounds like you guys had some fun! Glad to hear you folks doing well, learning...and more importantly, hanging out as friends with each other.

Like that ol' beer commercial goes....despite technical differences, ages of participants, just the comraderie of good folk learning together....doesn't get much better than this!

Glad to hear.

-B

Well, it's 5:15AM and I'm about to drive David Meyer to the airport in Baltimore so he can catch a 7:50AM flight back to Oakland/San Franciso. I was so pumped from the seminar that I barely slept at all last night.

I cannot describe how much it meant to me that guys like RangerG and MattJ came down to support my school--those two exemplify everything that is good about the martial arts: talent, humility, respect, and authenticity. It was fantastic to look across the room and see them ROLLING!! They were working it, and having a blast! At one point I looked up and RangerG was trying to staunch the flow of blood from a busted nose. Poor MattJ had this genuine look of distress on his face from the errant elbow (or was it from some good ole' ground and pound?) But, like the professional he is, RangerG just shrugged it off and kept right on rolling. BEAUTIFUL!!!

After a 3 1/2 hour seminar, David rolled with some of the blue belts from Berks County BJJ and despite a wicked cold "managed" to give the guys some lessons in humility. I gotta tell you though, those Berks Co. guys are good! Shane Mock, Mike Siani, and their purple belt former instructor Keith Neff are top-notch guys, and you always see their names in the winners' circle of local and regional BJJ tournaments.

My instructor and I came back to the dojo w/ Mr. Meyer for another 3 1/2 hours to work on our instructor certification and I'm proud to say we passed with flying colors, so we now have the David Meyer seal of approval to teach levels I and II of his Masterclass Grappling curriculum. Not sure when we'll start a class at www.lfmac.com but I'll keep you all posted.

I'll try to post my own notes from the seminar asap but I have a ton of "real" work to do today and I feel a SERIOUS crash coming later this afternoon.

I'll say it again so there's no mistake--RangerG and MattJ are KILLER! Couldn't ask for better friends than them.

Looking forward to doing it again REAL soon.

Cheers.
Todd R

No way I'm training with you any more MattJ, my nose is big enough as it is without you punching and kicking it all the time!

Thanks for the congrats. You just may be in luck--we're probably going to hold the David Meyer curriculum classes on Tues/Thurs from 8:00 - 9:30. These will be with gi and will focus on levels I and II of the Masterclass Grappling Curriculum, so we'll probably do some warmup drills, rep 2-3 techniques, and roll for the remaining 30-45 minutes.

Then, we'll have the no-gi class on Saturday mornings from 10-12, which might actually turn out to be an MMA class since the instructor, Brad Souders, likes to teach standup, clinch, takedowns, and grappling at the same time (and I sure as heck could use work in ALL those areas).

I'll post information about exact days and times, and prices for these classes, as soon as they're available.

A few of us should also plan a trip up to Berks County BJJ (that's where all the belted BJJ guys who were at the seminar were from--really good school w/ some killer grapplers). David Meyer said I need to get up there and get my butt kicked by those guys so I could get better at competitive grappling. Oh boy, that's gonna leave a mark.

Later.
Todd R

Picture from the seminar:


http://img284.imageshack.us/img284/4112/dmseminar7jw.jpg

From the left to the right -

MattJ, Dave Meyer, RangerG, ToddR

You guys had bagels? Cool!!

Looks like a rough and tumble group of warriors. Thanks for sharing the experiences with us.

Thank you Sir!

Good eyesight JoelM!

In the above group shot, ToddR is top row extreme left. Dave Meyer is top row in the blue Machado gi. ToddR's instructor (Mike) is in the white gi with the black shirt to the left of Dave.

I am in the middle row, black gi.

RangerG is in the front row in front of me, with the white gi and the black handwraps.

I'll send some pictures myself as soon as I get my hands on them. As we trained at my Instructor's partner's gym, they took the photos and will be posting them on their website shortly (I hope). This I'm guessing is better then contacting everybody and sending them individually.

Good stuff you guys.

Matt ... could you put in any bigger of a picture?

I just wanted to post that I have gone through David Meyer's DVD on arm bars and it is awesome. He and his partner John Will show about 30 different arm bars from the top, bottom, side or when your opponent is in a turtle. I have already successfully tried a few of these in class last Thursday and they worked excellent, even enough for my Instructor to take notice that I had picked them up so fast.

I'm starting to watch it again and will continue to do so until I get even more proficient, though many of these are out of my league at this time and will take a lot of practice. After classes myself and a black belt, and I believe others will follow suit, will be going one by one through them and practice them for about 15 to 30 minutes under our Instructors guidance. The black belt has written each move down for guideline notes but I have offered to bring my lap top in and play the actual DVD so we can refer back to it.

So if you get a chance to view this do so, you won't be disappointed.

My Instructor sent me a copy of the photo for our David Meyer day. The copy I received wasn't that good of quality but should suffice.

Since you already know what David Meyer looks like, I'm the bald stocky guy with the goatee above him in the white T-Shirt.

[IMG]http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/4118/dmpicture0iu.th.jpg[/IMG]

This picture was taken in Edmonton at Steve Bartley's gym (farthest right in blue gi). Steve is my Instructor's business partner and friend. My Instructor is Sean Wright and he is the gentleman under the Korean flag in the back in the blue gi. Both are students of David Meyer.

Cool Picture!

I think you and I have the same barber....

Yup ... ourselves. I seen Oldman's picture he drew of you and thought ... is that me? I like to shave it completely clean except on grappling days I will leave shaving till after. Facial growth can be another advantage.

Cool pic, Dereck. Remind me not to start any fights with you! Dang, you are thick! Dave Meyer is awesome, and it looks like you guys had a huge turn-out for him. Great stuff.

Cool pic Dereck, thanks for posting it. It does look like a great turnout.

So, your instructor is a student of David Meyer's? Does this mean he's working towards a belt under the Masterclass Grappling Curriculum? If so, I'd be interested in hearing how he's progressing. The biggest challenge I'm finding is not being able to roll with good BJJ guys near where I live. The closest places to find schools that train BJJ with a gi are an hour and a half away from me--i.e., too far for me to get to on a consistent basis. I guess I should just stop being a wuss and drive to one of these places at least a couple times a month, and preferably once a week (but my wife would HATE that!!)

Cheers.
ToddR

Hi Todd. I don't know all of the details but I'll wing it. My Instructor and his partner Steve are not taking the curriculm as you are. Their orignal training in grappling is due to Hapkido they learned with Taekwondo. To further themselves they became JJJ black belts and then decided to train further with BJJ. They would visit the Las Vegas and area to train at various gyms including some Gracies and Machados. This is when they met David Meyer. From there they would meet up with him whenever or where ever possible understanding that he doesn't have his own gym. They keep in touch as to where he will be but I believe they mostly see him in the San Francisco/Las Vegas area which they frequent throughout the year as time will permit or when David will be there.

When David was up here in Edmonton I believe they had the whole day with him on the Saturday and then after our class the three of them stayed later into the night to train and such. How things are progressing exactly with their training is unknown to me at this time.

I do know when originally training in Las Vegas that they were looked at sceptically because they had no former BJJ training ... not to mention no cauliflower ears. After rolling on the matts with their students and beating students up to blue belt that things changed and were accepted and welcomed back for further training.

I know they have very high regard for David Meyer and say he is unbelievable. Even when meeting with him and he was suffering from back injuries and said would roll with them but couldn't use he full strength he still could out beat them. He suffered afterwards but his skill is that good. He will be back at least next year which I can't wait to see and train with him again.

Thanks Dereck.
That sounds like what Fletch did - travel occasionally to learn from experienced BJJ'ers and then go back home and work the techniques he learned.

We have the DVDs and manual to work from but there's no substitute for live training with a good instructor.

One of my problems is I want to train EVERYTHING all at once and, unfortunately, I haven't won PowerBall yet so I can devote myself full time to martial arts!

Cheers.
ToddR

That's the way most people train and unfortunately, the reason why so many people take so long to get really good. I bought tons of tapes and magazines looking for new techniques when I thought I had "mastered" the stuff I had already seen.

It took several years for me to come full circle and realize there are many details in the basics and the answer was rarely in some advanced techniqe.

For example: I could play guard and submit with Triangles, Omoplatas and Armlocks and I could Sweep, but.....I couldn't hold anyone down. My pins were not effective. I was getting reversed before I could set up anything from the top. After four years, I had to go back to learning pins.

Hey Fletch just a question. I believe I read you weighed around 150 lbs or so. When pinning do you find less weight a hinderance with larger opponents? It sounds like we are a little oppposite where the top pin and working is much easier then working the bottom.

I posted a thread in the Judo/JJ forum under Stength or something like that. I took a page from you and John and with the encouragement of my Instructor to just go to my back and work it. Hopefully one day I will be more effective as I am on top. And don't get me wrong ... I need work there too but being 200 lbs helps me keep them down even if they weigh more.

Well...I am in no way an instructor, but I would be willing to drive out once in a while if you need a resisting training dummy.....wait...that didn't come out right..

Dereck,

To keep this thread on track, I'll start a new one for discussion.

Fletch

Ranger, you know you're always welcome at our dojo! I think we're going to start a "BJJ Basics" class on Tues and Thurs nights from 8:00 - 9:30, though my instructor is hesitant to offer a BJJ class at his school before he's at least reached the rank of blue belt. And, we're having to rethink the scheduling of the no-gi jiu-jitsu/MMA class that we're trying to get Brad Souders to teach--he's joining a sambo/judo/jiu jitsu team that trains on Saturdays so I don't think the Sat morning time slot will work.

We still have our Friday night open mat as well, though lately we've been working on hapkido since a number of people are testing in a couple of weeks.

I'm actually heading down to www.baltimorebjj.com tonight and Wednesday night to get some rolling in. I've only trained once in the past two weeks because of work obligations and the holidays.

There's also a judo kai in Harrisburg that I want to check out so, Ranger, if you ever want to join me (MattJ too!) just let me know and we'll put a carpool together (we can strap your Harley to the back of my Honda Civic!)

Cheers.
ToddR

Sounds good to me. I train on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but after your group is done belt testing, Friday may be possible, and weekends after this one. I am going to help with Krav instructor training and testing this weekend. I will be in touch....you can count on that.

Last night when talking with my Instructor I learned some background on David Meyer. It seems he used to run his own Jujitsu school in the past. One of his students on the side went to a Gracie school and when he came back after a few months David found it more difficult to roll with this student. Then another Gracie student asked if David would roll with him and after an hour of great difficulty he asked the Gracie student how long he had been training and was told a year. This stunned David and eventually David closed up his school and went to a Machado school leaving his black belt behind and taking on a white belt to learn BJJ. Now today he is an exception BJJ black belt.

I just thought I'd pass that on to you.

That's interesting Dereck, I didn't know that. I did know that Mr. Meyer had a black belt in "small circle?" jiu jitsu under professor Wally Jay before he began training BJJ under the Machados. That's pretty impressive that he put on a white belt and trained BJJ until he earned his black belt, but then he's a pretty impressive guy all around!

Thanks for the updated link. If you will look on this part they have our school listed ... Elite Taekwondo, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and are currently listed as Level 2.

http://www.grappling.us/schools.htm

This is not exactly my school as we are in Fort Saskatchewan, AB (15 minutes away) but we are Elite and are grouped together as one entity as this is mainly where BJJ and our training was for the seminar plus where Sean (my Instructor) and Steve (Edmonton Instructor) train together. Sean and Steve are best friends and partners plus Steve was one of Sean's Instructors when training under Master Sung Lee. They train extensively together on these techniques as well as JJJ/Hapkido/Taekwondo. Good sounding boards for each other to perfect techniques and teaching.

Thanks again.

I know this is an old thread but I finally got some pictures of the seminar.

http://www.elite-tkd.com/gallery/Oct_10_2005_Grappling_Seminar_with_David_Meyer/images/IMG_0147.jpg

http://www.elite-tkd.com/gallery/Oct_10_2005_Grappling_Seminar_with_David_Meyer/images/IMG_0185.jpg

http://www.elite-tkd.com/gallery/Oct_10_2005_Grappling_Seminar_with_David_Meyer/images/IMG_0187.jpg

http://www.elite-tkd.com/gallery/Oct_10_2005_Grappling_Seminar_with_David_Meyer/images/IMG_0190.jpg

http://www.elite-tkd.com/gallery/Oct_10_2005_Grappling_Seminar_with_David_Meyer/images/IMG_0191.jpg

David Meyer came up again to Edmonton where our clubs got together and went over working from the top for the first 1.5 hours and some techniques and then working from the bottom for 1.5 hours. Some basics with a few twists that I will find very useful, but always good see him. Will post further photos once available.

Here's the class photo. Clean shaven bald guy in the front row, fourth from the left.

David Meyer Seminar - June 3, 2007