10th Planet JJ Seminar in Bridgeport, CT – Feb. 20th

John Roderick of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Hartford is holding a No-Gi Jiu Jitsu seminar this Saturday in Conneticut. Below is some information and the attached flyer.

Date: Saturday Feb. 20th, 2010

Time: 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Location: 1055 Huntington Turnpike Bridgeport, CT

Cost: $40 in advance, $50 at the door.

Contact: chris.ipacs@hotmail.com or 203-572-0375

Master Toddy’s Muay Thai Trainer Seminar

I am sitting here at the dorms waiting for my cab to come take me to the airport, and two words can describe how I feel right now. The first word… Exhausted! The other word is Fulfilled! After a three day intensive semi private seminar with Master Toddy, I am drained both physically and mentally, and yet I feel filled up with a tremendous amount of Muay Thai knowledge and culture. I will briefly explain to you the format and overview of my experience the last three days to the best of my ability. Even with me being the wordsmith I am it still won’t scratch the surface of such a wonderful opportunity and time that I have just had.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am staying at the Fighter Dorms here at Master Toddy’s house. So Monday morning started off with Master Toddy driving me into his school from his house. It was quite an experience to just sit in the presence of Master Toddy and listen to him speak his wisdom and knowledge. It was an excellent way to start my training.

When we arrived at the school, I go to meet the other students enrolled in the course, who were Ray from Hawaii, Paul from Texas, Jeff from Ohio, Alfred from Florida and Chea and Jeff from Master Toddy’s academy. Actually, hanging out and sharing ideas and information was one of the most rewarding parts of the entire experience. It’s weird, because in the area I am from, there are so much politics between the schools in the area and no one wants to share. However, there was such a sharing of knowlege, experiences and ideas between each other. It was cool to hear what things worked well for others in their school, what their plans were and the things that have been effective for them. All of these guys were great guys, and I can’t wait to spend some time training at their schools.

Now on to the training. The three days were broken down into both a morning and afternoon session, each which was about 3 to 4 hours worth of time. All the lessons were conducted completely by Master Toddy, so basically over the last 3 days I have had over 20 hours of personal training with Master Toddy, which was great and well worth the investment.

The first day was mostly spent covering technique in both the morning and afternoon session. During the morning session, we covered many techniques which varied between offense and defenses. Master Toddy took us through his 11 punch system, his defensive techniques, a variety of elbows, footwork and sparring drills. Eventually, we broke for lunch, and during the afternoon session we spent the entire time covering padwork. Master Toddy showed us his method for holding pads, his philosophies for padwork and then had us demonstrate them on each other. This was only a prequel for the first test of our training session, which was hold pads for students in a live class. Let me tell you, Master Toddy put us with some of the fiercest most intimidating students in the kids class and tested us on our form, technique and ability to motivate them. Actually, I got pretty lucky because I had the all star student of the class, which made my pad holding go easy. By the end our our session, we all got a seal of approval from both our students and Master Toddy, and we called it a day.

Day two started with us going back to technique drills, and we started by covering kick defenses, counters and front kicks. Actually, a good portion of the day session was spent on variations of the front kicks. We practiced this both with a partner, and on both a heavy bag and upper cut bags. Actually, I respond very well to this style of teaching, as Master Toddy was very methodical and broke down the finer points of each technique and how to apply it in a fight situation. In fact, he even covered proper brathing when you are practicing your techniques. Day Two definitely had a lot more conditioning than day one, as we did a lot of bag and pad work while still packing in a lot of technique.

The Day Two night session focused a lot more on the business side of things, as we discussed many of the technical and marketing aspects of running your own school. Master Toddy simply has an endless amount of knowledge to offer in this area, and I was absorbing as much as I could. Once the students came in, we ended up getting our second real test of the seminar, and it was to conduct padwork for a private lesson. Master Toddy paired us up with a group of girls from the woman’s class. I’m going to go off topic here for a second just to mention that I feel I was paired up with one of the cutest girls of the bunch, which was a nice bonus. I believe that her named was spelled Kyra, and she was a very attractive girl from Hawaii. Aside from being attractive and very sweet, she is an excellent martial artist, and impressed me with her form and technique. What impressed me even more is that she has only been training for 6 months, of total training. Kyra has a fight coming up hopefully on August 22nd, and I wish her the best of luck. Sorry guys, I didn’t get a photo.

OK, back to our test, so here is how it went down. Master Toddy paired us up with different students to give a private lesson with. We ended up doing about 5 or 6 rounds of pad work, and after each session Master Toddy would ask them for a score from 1 to 10, and feedback. On the first round, Master Toddy told us our score, which for me was a 9 out of 10, but I believe the girl actually said 10, although Master Toddy wanted to give me some encouragement to try even harder. Master Toddy also gave us his personal feedback and ways to improve our lessons. By the end, we made major strides in our private lessons. I really enjoyed this portion of the training, and it is just one of the things that sets Master Toddy apart. Not only his attention to detail, but the attention to the important details, such as padwork. After the session was over, Master Toddy sat us down and gave us all individual feedback, and answered a bunch of questions for us that we had.

Right after that, we had a brief ceremony for Jeff from Ohio. Jeff has been training with Master Toddy for several years now, and was being rewarded his Kru. They called Jeff to the front of the class and presented him first with a prajiet on each arm, and then with the traditional mongkol along with his Kru certificate. Jeff was actually leaving after the second day, which is why we had the presentation for him on Tuesday. Our session for the day was done following the cermony.

In Day Three, we covered an insane amount of material and technique including kicks, knees and we spent a great deal of time doing neck wrestling/clinche work, which I loved. I had actually been after Master Toddy to show us some clinch techniques, and I did learn a great deal of subtle tips to improve my clinch game. We also worked a lot of different knees from the clinch, and I learned several techniques and tips as to when to deliever the appropriate type of knee based on your relation to your opponent. These kind of tips are what made this training so valuable to me. We also spent a great deal of time going over the finer points of the Thai kick, with a lot of focus on the leg kicks.

In the afternoon session, we had a long Q&A with Master Toddy, where we asked him everything from ideas for laying out your school, to grading systems, to pro shop design, and anything else that popped into our mind. This was really helpful for the students like Albert and Paul who are current school owners.

Our final test came during the evening session, where Master Toddy pretty much had us assist in running a small sparring class for each of several groups. It was a little nerve racking at first, because we all were not sure how the format was, but after we got the flow of it, it went pretty flawless. Basically, the students performed a drill and we would go around and encourage them and make minor corrections, and then eventually this transitioned from simulated sparring to free flow light sparring to slightly more intense sparring. I really enjoyed this, and it was a good experience to see how Master Toddy runs his school.

Following sparring class was a grading cermony. Several of the kids in the younger class were rewarded advancements in their grading levels. The entire school stopped training for this ceremony. This was actually followed by a nice cermoney for the group of us that were left for the Trainer Seminar. It was similar to Jeff’s cermony from the day before. We were called up to the front of the class and received the prajiets, mongkol and a certificate of completion for the seminar. This is the first step in a long journey to become a Kru under Master Toddy, and I am excited that I have taken the first step. It was pretty cool to have this happen in front of some pretty respected fighters who happened to be training at the gym that day, such as Kevin Ross, Anthony Brown and a few others.

I can not say enough nice things about Master Toddy, and the rest of his staff, students and the rest of the great people that I met during my training. If you are into Muay Thai, I encourage you to take a trip out to Las Vegas at some point to meet Master Toddy and get a private lesson. You will not regret it. You can find out more information on Master Toddy at www.mastertoddy.com

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UFC Fan Expo – 1 Week Away

OK, so the UFC Fan Expo is less than a week away, and I am pretty excited. I fly out this coming Thursday to spend a week in Vegas divided between the UFC Fan Expo and training at Master Toddy’s Muay Thai Academy. Typically, when I head to a camp or seminar like this I try to really up my cardio and conditioning ahead of time so I don’t seem like I am a mess when I am there. Unfortuntely, with my grandfather being in the hospital the last couple of weeks, I have had many responsibilities that have forced me to slack on my training a bit. Family is more important than training to me. My Grandfather is back home and doing well, so this last week I can focus a bit to try and keep up to par for the Master Toddy Seminar.

The first part of my trip will center around the UFC Expo. I am traveling out there with my buddy Kalif, and we are staying in a time share while we are there. I am excited because I haven’t really seen him since I got back from Thailand, because we both stopped training at the school I was training at. There are several big things we will be doing while we are at the expo.

Autograph Sessions

Obviously, one of the biggest draws of the Expo is the ability to meet, get photos with, and autographs from many of the UFC stars. Among the stars that will be there are: Minotauro Nogeuira, Rampage Jackson, Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Diego Sanchez, Shane Carwin, Lyoto Machida, Chuck Lidell, Randy Couture, Renzo Gracie, Royce Gracie, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva, and Ring Girls, Arianny Celeste, Edith Labelle, and Logan Stanton. I am going to try to snap photos with, and get autographs from all of them and more, and hopefully find out where the after party is!

Training And Development Session With Eddie Bravo

The master of The Twister and The Rubber Guard, Eddie Bravo of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is having a training session at the UFC Expo, and I will be attending it. I’m very curious about the No Gi 10th Planet system. I know a lot of people hate on this, but I am always open to learning new styles that may be effective. Other training and development sessions include Wanderlei Silva (Sold Out), Mark Dellagrotte, Urijah Faber and Rumina Sato.

Maxim/UFC Octagon Girl Search

So I just found out that Maxim is hosting the next UFC Ring Girl Model Search. The contest will be held live at the UFC Fan Expo. You know what that means??? Tons and tons of extremely hot women will be there. From what I understand it is a judging panel that decides the next ring girl, but I am sure that the audience feedback plays a part. I’ll snap off a bunch of photos and video while I am watching the pagent style event.

Grapplers Quest

Grapplers Quest is holding a grappling tournament at the expo. Some of the big name people in the open division include Vinny Magalhaes (from TUF 8), Ramina Sato, and Joe Stevenson. There will be many divisions of the tournament. I have wanted to compete in one of these for a while, but I probably won’t do it here, because it will take time away from all the other stuff I have planned, but I will definite watch it for a bit.

Vendor Booths

There will be many vendor booths at the UFC Fan Expo, that I will want to attend which I will want to visit while I am there. I have already made contact with some vendors and theyw ill be supplying me with some products in the future to do more product reviews on. I will let you know as I make some connections, and I am sure you will see the adds on the site. Some of the vendors I have touched base with are MMA Adnetwork, Get Rung Mats and Body Kore.

I’ll try to make a couple posts while I am out there if anything pretty awesome happens, and I also will give you updates from Master Toddy’s as I am training there as well.

Oh yeah, if you want to go to the UFC Expo, you can get tickets from here: UFC Fan Expo Tickets

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Robert Drysdale Seminar – Wednesday, June 24th

Robert Drysdale Seminar 2 hours (1 hr gi, 1 hr no gi) $90
Host:Elijah Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Time:6:00PM Wednesday, June 24th
Location:Elijah Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
1345 Stuyvesant Ave. Union, NJ 07083
Website:http://www.ebjj.com/

Robert Drysdale (born in Provo, Utah) is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter. Robert was born in the USA and then moved to Brazil with his family at the age of 6. As a teenager Robert returned to the USA to attend college in Las Vegas. There he began training with the Lewis-Pederneiras (Nova Uniao) association. It was quickly evident that Drysdale was a natural at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It was during that time in Las Vegas that Robert decided he would dedicate himself fully to the training, competing, and teaching the art of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

Robert returned to Brazil in 2000 where he lived until 2008. During that 8 year period Robert Drysdale owned and operated a Jiu-Jitsu Academy in the town of Itu, Sao Paulo, Brazil. While in Sao Paulo Robert trained with the Maromba Club and later with team Brasa Jiu-Jitsu Club. His personal commitment to teaching, training, and competing at the sports highest level was absolute. He trained several times per week with his fellow teammates at Brasa Jiu-jitsu club headquartered in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil. This elite team of world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters is composed of some of the best black belts in the world. It was at Brasa in 2004 Robert received his black belt from Leo Viera.

In 2008 Robert relocated to the USA and is currently teaching and training in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Master Toddy Muay Thai Seminar In Las Vegas

Master Toddy is having a Muay Thai Instructor Seminar July 9th – 11th in Las Vegas, NV. Right now it’s about 99% that I will be attending this seminar. You will notice that this seminar is the same weekend the UFC fan expo. That means I will probably be at the UFC Fan Expo as well, and I will have the opportunity to meet and get photos with a bunch of UFC personalities, which I am looking forward to.

Master Toddy is a world renown Muay Thai instructor. He has trained such fighters as Gina Carano, Kit Cope and Dale Hartt. His school in Las Vegas is really popular. A few times a year he has an Instructor Seminar. The seminar has two parts to it. Part 1 is to become a “Certified Trainer” under Master Toddy. Part 2 is to become a “Full Instructor”. There are some requirements in between the two courses, such as a certain amount of hours training under another Muay Thai Instructor, time spent training, and conditioning level. In addition you must demonstrate the proper form and technique on all 10 Muay Thai Levels and designed by Master Toddy.

This seminar isn’t for a beginner or someone just looking to learn a few things about Muay Thai. It’s for people who are serious about becoming Muay Thai Instructors.

Among the topics covered are: Using pads to train your students, using private lessons to increase your income, attracting students to your school, choosing the proper equipment for your school, creating an exciting training enviroment, Real Muay Thai Levels 1-10, Master Toddy’s state of the art training techniques, pad and bag work, safety and proper gear selection, training champions, refree and corner man training, winning business systems, and marketing and academy design.

You can read more information about the seminar here: http://www.mastertoddy.com/index.php?page=instructors-cert.php

If I do attend, you can expect several posts during my time there highlighting the training and also the UFC Expo. I should also still be in Vegas for the UFC event, and maybe even an after party, so we will see how it goes. I am betting it will be a blast.

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