Blog
Breathtaking!
What a breathtaking view! But how about a breathtaking story? Darren Grieve is one of our Instructors who teaches Karate and BJJ on the Sunshine Coast when he is not policing the streets. Some of his students just happen to be Police Officers who work under him. Have a read of his email relating to an incident which took place late last year:
Hi George,
I just got a phone call from Rob thanking me for teaching him the cross lapel choke. He was working by himself and had to go to a Domestic. The bloke went for him so he used the double leg takedown and then put the cross lapel choke on him he had a T Shirt which made it easy to apply. He choked him out and then put the hand cuffs on him. His last words were “I can’t #^">%@g breathe.” It is good to know that things work when it comes down to the crunch. He said he originally was going for the armbar but because he was in a doorway he changed to the choke. The grub has a heap of previous for assault police, the last time he bit a chunk out of a copper's arm.
Regards
Darren
Once again, another win for the good guys! My guys in Qld had made good use of their skills on more than one occasion. Now there's another good reason to get back into training if you had second thoughts this year.
GA
Just Do It!
My first martial arts lesson of the year just happened to be on the Gold Coast with my very good friend and one of my first Black Belts in Sikaran-Arnis (Phillipine Martial Arts) in the late ‘80’s. What was I thinking at the time? My head spinning, and back used as a shock absorber, from those insane theme park rides, jet boating and go-kart racing.
How does one get motivated in the martial arts after a couple of weeks of R & R? 'Just do it', I thought (it works for Nike) and went straight to Vincent’s full time Kickboxing and MMA centre. Vincent is a 
professional coach to some of the best kickboxers in the country and has a BJJ Black Belt under John Will. I walked in and Vince greeted me with a big handshake and hug. I spent a lot of time with Vince in the dojo and he talked about what I used to say and do in class when I was teaching him. He would never forget the time when he walked into my school and I told him to put his gloves on and we sparred the whole lesson without warming up (must’ve been a ‘grasshopper thing’).
In my books, three weeks without training is a lot! I almost forgot to tie up my belt. When I started feeling the sweat down my forehead I thought I had temperature but then I realized this is what happens when you train. Great feeling!
The guys at the gym were very nice to me, especially, after Vince's public welcoming speech. I did a BJJ class with Andre, from Brazil, who is currently teaching some of Vince’s classes. At the end of a tough roll, they went around the classroom asking for commentary. To paraphrase John Will, I said the advantage, of Andre not yet being able to speak English well enough meant that I had to really watch and concentrate the techniques he was showing rather than relying on voice patterns which has a tendency to lax visual focus resulting in half attention span. I am going to gag myself and walk in and teach one day.
Anyway, it was a difficult decision to train whilst on holidays. However, it only took me five minutes to get back into it. Just turn up to your first lesson and if you don't like the first five minutes you have my permission to go home. I just finished my weight training and exercise bike. Time to get ready to meet up with Steve Perceval for a tough workout tonight. Victor is going to have his share of me this Saturday at one of his insane Kickboxing classes. Anybody else wants to come along, they are more than welcome. It's on this Saturday 11am at Ryde, then lunch and coffee at Rhodes Shopping Centre.
GA
12 Months of Hard Labour
Happy New Year everyone! Looking forward to another great 12 months with friends, students and hard martial arts training.
At the beginning of each year we look back at the changes and improvements over the years. As a young Rookie, I only had to carry a revolver, a spare ammo pouch and handcuffs; how is 
easy was that? Twenty nine years later, I am bombarded with so much stuff to carry around; a box trailer would be nice!
Technology is the cause of all this. Who would’ve ever thought you would be able to carry a phone in your pocket and call from anywhere around the world or own a computer a trillion times more powerful than that first black and white Wang computer of the 80’s? Now we have cars that reverse park by themselves! Nobody can resist technology or catch up with it. Technology is about constant improvement based on the demands and expectations of the world.
Fight technology is no different. It has to keep up with the demands of the times and the demands of people. The martial arts also have to advance or evolve. When I commenced martial arts training 35 years ago, our floor exercises were just push-ups, and sit-ups – even those were done the wrong way. Strectches were just based on the forward and side splits (that was it). Today, there's a lot of material out there.
Kickboxing in the early 70’s – what was that? Boxing with kicks? How stupid, that will never work, we thought. Ground fighting in the early 80’s? That was also stupid, who wants to get on the ground and get their clothes dirty!
If you try to resist technology it will only be for a short time. Look at the people who said they will never use the internet or carry a mobile phone. These are the same sort of people who said the same thing about BJJ and Kickboxing.
Shihan Richard and I were talking about how wonderful it would've been to have the technology of today available when we were young!
GA