Brian Ebersole is extremely humble for someone with over 70 professional fights. With a record like that it's hard to imagine him being such a down to earth guy. Brian undoubtedly has top-tier skills when it comes to fighting and yet he appeared in our gym with no grand entrance, with his gi and blue-belt tucked under his arm.
Brian's seminar was slated for two hours, but two and a half hours in he was still showing us new techniques. I'm positive that if he didn't have a lunch appointment afterwards he would have kept coaching for well beyond the two and a half hours.
One of the first things I noticed about Brian is how playful he is. His first words at the seminar were a joke at the expense of our head coach. Throughout the session he was constantly making quips and funny self deprecating remarks. He showed us some really interesting ways to close distance and initiate some awkward but effective throws and take downs. His wrestling oriented take on BJJ was really interesting and it was awesome to see stuff from that perspective. Brian constantly kept telling everyone to 'stay playful', meaning to not take everything too seriously. Brians idea is that if you keep it playful and mess around with the technique you'll learn it in more forms rather than with a static partner that offers no resistance. One of the things that really stuck with me was Brian's comment about the partner that's having the technique used on them. Ordinarily this person will offer little to no resistance so the other person can get their reps in on a technique, so as to better learn it. Brian mentioned that in a real life scenario, be it competition or a street fight, the other person would invariably resist in some way. With this in mind Brian suggested that whenever you're having a technique practices in you, always put in some form of resistance and defense. It doesn't have to be much, but it has to be varied. No two attempts at anything are exactly the same, so if you prepare for this in drilling, you'll be more prepared when it's finally used. This wasn't something I'd thought about, nor had I had this idea explained before and I found it really interesting. All in all it was a great seminar and I tool a lot away from it. We're hoping to have Brian around for some more coaching over the next few months and if he comes back I intend to make the most of it!
An interesting thing is happening in that a lot of my friends are taking notice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts in general. One of my good friends is coming down to The Arena to start a 30 day free trial today, a work colleague is considering doing the same and one of my oldest friends and original training partners (from the shed days) is starting BJJ again. It honestly gets me really pumped to see people I know and love getting involved in this incredible way of life.
After being injured and having so much time off, I was worried that I'd come back to the gym a little gun shy or scared of ahgravating injury. Worse yet, I thought that my enthusiasm had diminished somewhat. I'm really happy to say that my worries proved to be unfounded and that I'm more excited than ever about training. We've got a lot of great coaches potentially coming down to visit in the next six months as well as a second striking coach on board. Our numbers at boxing sparring are at an all time high and everyone has an incredible attitude. I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for training and I'm going to squeeze everything I can from it!
Stay safe all,
/Anthoney.
Brian's seminar was slated for two hours, but two and a half hours in he was still showing us new techniques. I'm positive that if he didn't have a lunch appointment afterwards he would have kept coaching for well beyond the two and a half hours.
One of the first things I noticed about Brian is how playful he is. His first words at the seminar were a joke at the expense of our head coach. Throughout the session he was constantly making quips and funny self deprecating remarks. He showed us some really interesting ways to close distance and initiate some awkward but effective throws and take downs. His wrestling oriented take on BJJ was really interesting and it was awesome to see stuff from that perspective. Brian constantly kept telling everyone to 'stay playful', meaning to not take everything too seriously. Brians idea is that if you keep it playful and mess around with the technique you'll learn it in more forms rather than with a static partner that offers no resistance. One of the things that really stuck with me was Brian's comment about the partner that's having the technique used on them. Ordinarily this person will offer little to no resistance so the other person can get their reps in on a technique, so as to better learn it. Brian mentioned that in a real life scenario, be it competition or a street fight, the other person would invariably resist in some way. With this in mind Brian suggested that whenever you're having a technique practices in you, always put in some form of resistance and defense. It doesn't have to be much, but it has to be varied. No two attempts at anything are exactly the same, so if you prepare for this in drilling, you'll be more prepared when it's finally used. This wasn't something I'd thought about, nor had I had this idea explained before and I found it really interesting. All in all it was a great seminar and I tool a lot away from it. We're hoping to have Brian around for some more coaching over the next few months and if he comes back I intend to make the most of it!
An interesting thing is happening in that a lot of my friends are taking notice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts in general. One of my good friends is coming down to The Arena to start a 30 day free trial today, a work colleague is considering doing the same and one of my oldest friends and original training partners (from the shed days) is starting BJJ again. It honestly gets me really pumped to see people I know and love getting involved in this incredible way of life.
After being injured and having so much time off, I was worried that I'd come back to the gym a little gun shy or scared of ahgravating injury. Worse yet, I thought that my enthusiasm had diminished somewhat. I'm really happy to say that my worries proved to be unfounded and that I'm more excited than ever about training. We've got a lot of great coaches potentially coming down to visit in the next six months as well as a second striking coach on board. Our numbers at boxing sparring are at an all time high and everyone has an incredible attitude. I have a feeling that this is going to be a great year for training and I'm going to squeeze everything I can from it!
Stay safe all,
/Anthoney.