Robson Moura, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt and multi-time-just-about-everything champion will be teaching a weekend-long seminar at the Degerberg Academy of Marital Arts Friday 4/25, Saturday 4/27 and Sunday 4/28.
The Seminar will consist of six two-hour sessions covering the following topics:
Friday 4/25 7 - 9pm - Working From the Full Guard
Saturday 4/26 10am - Noon - Side Control
1:30pm - 3:30pm - Attacking the Back/Turtle
4pm - 6pm - Passing the Guard
Sunday 4/27 10am - 12pm - Butterfly Guard
12:15 - 2:15 - Sparring Concepts/Gameplanning
Only a few slots left, so sign up quickly - Pricing is available for the entire seminar or per-session.
$50 per session or $250 for the entire seminar if you sign up by Thurs. 4/24
$60 per session or $300 for the entire seminar at the door (space permitting)
Please call Degerberg Academy of Martial Arts for more info or to sign up 773 728-5300.
Degerberg Academy of Martial Arts is located at 4717 N. Lincoln Chicago, IL.
If you're in the neighborhood, stop on in. Most of the WWNHH? crew will be there and we'd love to meet you.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Robson Moura Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Seminar
Monday, April 21, 2008
Kerstin wins the Gloves!
by Mike
Kerstin picking up the W. Sunday, February 10, 2008
Partial Results From Total Fight Challenge 11
by Mike
Total Fight Challenge 11 was an interesting experience. A near riot, a fighter refusing to leave the locker room and HDNET showing up to get some footage. Very strange night.
Jim Peterson ended up fighting Jose Maldanado in a sort-of last-minute replacement. I actually remembered Maldanado from a Muay Thai fight on the same card as Jim's first TFC appearance. Since then, he'd compiled a perfect 2-0 record in MMA matches. We didn't have any time to try to adjust Jim's game aside from a, "crowd the guy and work your takedowns" phone conversation. This was basically been the opposite of our gameplan for when we thought he was fighting Kevin Nowacyck.
Maldanado came out and pressed the action with crisp striking, cutting Jim in the first exchange. He pressed the pace throughout the first round, although he displayed a tough chin when Jim caught him a couple of times. Peterson tried to clinch and work his sweeps, although Maldanado displayed some strong wrestling of his own.
Jim scored a nice takedown that accidentally sent Maldanado through the ropes and onto the apron. The crowed popped for that one in impressive form.
Maldanado walked away with with the decision while Jim got a Sesame Street bandage from the paramedics.
Good showing by Jim against a tough opponent.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Shoutout to Kerstin...again!
Our sources report that Kerstin took another fight last night, this one on a couple hours notice (!) and came away with another decisive win!
As I understand, Kerstin and her coach only had a couple minutes of watching her opponent warm up on the pads to figure out a strategy. Granted, at this level of competition, one isn't able to learn much about their opponent, but one generally has some time to prepare for the event itself - here, I think she had a long-ass drive to the venue to collect herself.
I think Kerstin had less notice for this fight than Peter Aerts did during his 2006 bout with Ernesto Hoost. As the story goes, Bob Sapp was originally supposed to have his third match against Mr. Perfect, but demanded more money and eventually pulled out of the competition. Aerts (who was a commentator for this event) was asked to replace Sapp in the main event and had to borrow all of his equipment (including Semmy Schilt's oversized shorts).
I'm amazed that people would take fights on such short notice, but it's a tribute to Kerstin and her training that she not only went in cold, but came out with a decisive victory.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Total Fight Challenge 11 - February 9th!
by Mike
Total Fight Challenge 11 on February 9th is going to be an interesting event. Jim Peterson is scheduled to fightand looking to improve his record to 3-1. Trying to stop him will be Kevin Nowaczyk who appears to be 12 feet tall on the poster.
Jim's been training hard for this fight, sharpening his standup game to round out his skillset. Considering both of Jim's wins have come via TKO, I'm looking forward to seeing some fireworks on the feet. If the fight makes it to the ground, Jim's got years of experience with both wrestling and submission grappling, so expect him to stay active, improve position and then end the fight from there.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Bas Rutten vs. Dracula
This is a bit old (only a year, but I swear it seems like a lot longer), but a story for no good reason, other than to showcase the sort of people who are drawn to Combat Sports and as a teaser for Meredith's piece on seminars.
Maybe it's not Dracula. I dunno.
Bas ran a seminar at this year's ComiCon. Gareb Shamus, the owner of Wizard also owns the International Fight League, one of the many challengers to UFC hegemony. They had the ring in the center of the convention with a number of the fighters there for autographs, pictures and seminars.
Seminars?
Yup, seminars.
I learned about this a half hour before the con started. I grabbed some gear and tossed it in the trunk before taking off. First up was Tompkins, trainer to many top MMA guys, then Pat Milletich was going to teach grappling and finally El Guapo himself was going to show some MMA beatdown skillz.
The first thing I did when I got in was to run over to the IFL booth. Unfortuantely, the seminars were limited to 30 and they were all filled. Fortunately, they were running some on Sunday, taught by Big Mo Smith, Renzo Gracie and Matt Lindland. I thought about it for a minute, called one of my instructors* and signed up for all three. Seven and a half hours of seminars was going to kill me. But, hey, how many guys can say that Maurice Smith punched them in the face?
OK, lots, but seriously. He's that good.
I wandered the con, on one hand glad that there were dozens of 50% off graphic novel places, seemingly having taken over the wrestling tape and manga pirates. Giving it some more thought, I figured maybe something was wrong...maybe I shouldn't have signed up for all those seminars. They're in a comic book convention for Chrissakes. They're going to have to make it enjoyable for nerds who haven't seen their feet in years. Oh, man.
So, I stopped by Milletich's seminar. Showing a fairly basic takedown. At least most of the people in there looked pretty serious.
Left, hopped into a boring School event and hopped back out, realized Bas was teaching next door and thought I'd sit in the doorway until they kicked me out. I missed the warmup, but given that it was Bas, I figured it would be as brutal as could be. I talked to a guy the next day who confirmed that it was indeed painful and he had years of training.
They were practicing the liver punch. Fifteen minutes ago, the majority of the people in the room didn't know how to make a fist. Now, they were doing the liver punch.
I love you, El Guapo.
A couple media-types came into the room and poked around, one of which was the vampire-looking guy above. He was followed by a cameraman.
By this time, Bas was showing how to work out of the clinch. Clinch, throw a knee ("knee means 'knee cap.' You never hear me tell people, 'upper leg him!'), spin to disorient your opponent, knee, spin, etc. He admonished the crowd to be very careful as it would only take a little bit of a toss to send your opponent flying.
Vampire-guy watched for a few minutes and asked one of the IFL reps whether he could interview Bas. Given the go-ahead, walked on the mat (with his shoes!) and walked up to Bas.
"Can you show me."
"Show you what?"
"Show me the drill."
Bas dropped into a fighting stance, clinched an imaginary opponent and started explaining the drill.
"No, do it to me."
Bas raised an eyebrow, but I imagine quickly realized he's been in stranger situations in his life and clinched the vamp. He threw a knee, said, "and how I turn you" and...suddenly Dracula was halfway across the room, trying to get back onto his hands and knees. Bas looked very apologetic and reached down to pick up the guy's hat. "As you can see, it's a very powerful move."
Bas apologized, clearly not having intended to hurt the guy or even toss him across the room. The host merely said, "thank you" and got the hell out of there.
I couldn't get my camera out and on in time to get the actual drill, but this shot is of the aftermath, while vampire is trying to conceal his fear.
Bas just kind of shook it off and went back to the seminar.
I don't know where that guy was from or what show he was shooting for, but I really hope that they use that footage. If vampires have any sense of humor at all, it'll be on the show. Absolutely priceless.
I love you, El Guapo.
* The conversation went surprisingly closely to:
"Hey man, I'm here at the ComiCon..."
"..."
"[Explanation of what was going on] I think I'm going to do all three. If you don't hear from me again, tell everyone I love them."
[Laughter]. Jerk. "Bring something back, M--. We gotta spread some new thoughts around."
Thus, I signed my death warrant.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Total Fight Challenge 10 Results
by Mike
Our guys put on a great show at the Total Fight Challenge 10, held on 9/15 in Hammond.
Jim Peterson fought at 185, where he got into trouble early on when he attempted a kick and was taken down, then his opponent took Jim's back. He sunk in a tight rear naked choke with a body triangle and seemed to stay there for two minutes or so, long enough that the hecklers started arguing with each other about how he should get out of there. Jim remained calm and collected, working his defense perfectly until he was able to reverse, pass the guard and stuff his opponent into the cage before winning via ground and pound TKO at 4:45 of round one.
As I was ostensibly a corner for the two fighters, I wasn't able to watch more than a couple fights, but checking with the audience confirmed my suspicions that this match got the biggest cheers of the evening.
Lightweight Eric Rasmussen pulled a draw against an undefeated opponent who figured out and neutralized Eric's gameplan. He spent most of the first round evading some impressive looking, but ultimately ineffective ground and pound. Eric adjusted for the second round, but his opponent again realized that it was either stand and get KOd or risk the KO on a shoot. His tenacity got him the takedown, but Eric stayed active, got very close to locking in an armbar, then scored a nice sweep to put him on top, where he started threatening his opponent with strikes, but the round ended before Eric could finish him.
Unfortunately, the fight was an amateur bout and only two rounds long. The opponent looked gassed and had the fight gone to a third round, I'm confident Eric would have stuffed the takedowns and gotten a TKO victory. As it was, the unanimous 19-19 decision was fair and correct.
Congratulations to both guys for giving a great account of themselves!
MMAWeekly also put together a writeup of the event.
Jim en route to a TKO win.
Eric working for the armbar. MMA Weekly said, "Eric Rasmussen and Josh Shockley went to war in what turned out to be the fight of the night."
* Note that the first picture is from Jim's first fight, back in February, from the Full Contact Fighter site. Jim got a pair of Hendo's fight shorts for this fight to match his Hendersonesque striking style. He likes being coordinated.
Edited to include MMAWeekly quote and pics.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Total Fight Challenge 9/15
by Mike
Jim Peterson and Eric Rasmussen will be fighting next weekend (aka 9/15) at the Total Fight Challenge in Hammond.
I've been working with both guys and they've both improved on their already formidable skills. Jim's striking keeps getting crisper and Eric's grappling is rounding out his game very nicely. They're both exciting fighters and have always been Fight of the Night candidates.
Edit: Meredith pointed out that Eric is on the poster (if you squint really hard, you can see him in the top row, or go to the original page), but Jim isn't. That's because we got his picture taken, but by that time the posters were being printed. Here's what he would have looked like if he were included:
