GUEST INSTRUCTOR SERIES, VOL. III
We’re excited to announce the next instructor in our Guest Instructor Series will be Carsten Carlsen of Renzo Gracie Des Moines. Carsten will be teaching a No Gi Octopus Guard clinic. We will be hosting this clinic on the evening of Friday, October 20th in lieu of our regular Fundamentals and Competition Class, from 6 P.M. to 8 P.M.
This event is FREE! to all Sanctuary and RGA Des Moines members. Non-members will pay the standard $25 drop-in fee. Carsten is a great guy that has been to several of our Open Mats and No Gi classes and truly has some of the most beautiful, efficient, effective, and strong Jiu-Jitsu I’ve ever felt. I’m really excited for this clinic and really grateful that Carsten is making the trip to share his Jiu-Jitsu with us.
DCHS DONATION!
We made the announcement previously, but we were finally able to schedule an appointment with Dane County Humane Society to forward the $2,180.00 that we raised for them in our last Guest Instructor Clinic with Matt Morin of Freeform Jiu-Jitsu. We just wanted to again thank everyone who donated and/or came out to support the event. Thanks to Matt for donating his time to a great cause and organization, and while he wasn’t able to be at the check-handoff, he was definitely there in spirit (and it’s easy enough to photoshop someone in!). If you attended the seminar, I would encourage you to head over to Freeform’s Google page and drop Matt a review.
I love seeing the Jiu-Jitsu community come together in collaboration not only between academies and teams but also in support of something outside of our somewhat insular and niche sport. Thanks to everyone!
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Coaches Jordan, Karen, Ryan, and Masha all traveled to Milwaukee this last weekend where the aforementioned Matt Morin hosted a Lucas Lepri seminar at Freeform. It’s incredibly important to us that as coaches we are continuing to learn and absorb as much new – and different! – Jiu-Jitsu as possible. Not just to elevate our own games, but also to bring back to the academy to share with all of the students here. As instructors and coaches we must always remain students, because this art is never truly mastered. There is always something to learn, and always room for growth and improvement. That’s the beauty of Jiu-Jitsu, it just never ends.
The seminar was great and we’ll be going over the techniques and concepts that we learned during advanced class this week – and will be sure to circle back around to them so they aren’t lost in the memory hole!
Fundamentals: the last two weeks in Fundamentals we spent studying the armlock from various positions and then moving on to studying how to achieve, maintain, and understand the importance of the head & arm position. For the armlock series we learned how to isolate and attack the arm from the Technical Mount position, mounting and attacking the arm from Side Control, and attacking – and defending! – the armlock from the Back position. The following week we drilled the Tripod Pass from Half Guard, utilizing a strong head & arm control to flatten our partner and pass their guard, using the same head & arm control from Knee on Belly to achieve the Mount, and finally utilizing head & arm control from the Mount to isolate the arm and attack the Keylock and counter Armlock.
Advanced: in Advanced class these last two weeks we studied the CTA Advanced curriculum (CT-C), focusing on the De La Riva (DLR) Guard. The first week we drilled basic off-balancing and sweeping from the DLR, focusing on the concepts of maintaining a strong DLR guard. The second week we studied the Leg Drag from the DLR and preventing the Leg Drag by working two variations of the Babybolo.
No Gi: in No Gi we circled back to working on entering and finishing the Anaconda choke from top Half Guard, and also utilizing the Head & Arm position to achieve Mount and finish with a strong Mounted Guillotine.
The first week in kids’ class, we focused on passing the guard, taking mount, and stabilizing the mount position. In no gi, we practiced back control and learned two variations of the rear naked choke. We have been discussing setting clear, achievable goals to help us grow. Jiu-Jitsu isn’t a sprint – it’s a marathon.
Our class has been growing! It is great to see students welcome and assist kids who are new to class. Sanctuary Jiu-Jitsu is full of young leaders!
The following week, we worked on half guard. This is a complex position, so our primary focus was when to use it and how to maintain the position. We also continued our exploration of mount by practicing the key lock and an arm bar from the key lock defense.
Learning to advocate for yourself can be surprisingly challenging, but it is also a very important life skill. In Jiu-Jitsu, we can practice this by talking to our training partners. The most basic form of that is the “tap,” but it may also look like asking for a “look” you need to practice a technique or letting your partner know if they are going too hard. We also talked about how to ask for feedback from our coaches. A few kids tried this out right away!
Congratulations to Mya, Charlie, Valerie, and Esmay for earning their next stripe! We are proud of the progress you have made!