We all want to accept somebody that promises something, because we have no light in ourselves. But nobody can give you that light: no Guru, no teacher, no saviour, no one! We have accepted many athourities in the past, we have put our faith in others, and they have either exploited us or utterly failed. So one must distrust, deny all spiritual authority. No man can give us the light that never dies" - Krishnamurti

Congrats to Rodney "Chico" King, and his brilliant and beautiful wife Louis on the birth of a new baby boy. To quote Rodney "My boy is here, Egan Rodney King, the next BJJ world champ. He was born on Mon at 8:15 and weighed 2.86kg." You can send congrats to Rodney at this address: jkdrsa@icon.co.za

Straight Blast Gym holds Anual Fall Camp September 22nd & 23rd.

Congrats to Rodney 'Chico' King for becoming one of only five SBG Coach/ Instructors in the world

Due to the recent tragedies in New York and Washington this year's SBG camp was smaller then in the past. Nevertheless, although the number of participants was smaller the level of instruction was bigger than ever. Over the course of three days and one night the camp was taken over by four world class coaches.  Friday started early with Rory and I helping Rodney King film his new video set.  If you do not yet know Rodney, trust me, you will.  Rodney is one of the best standup fighters and coaches in the world.  His simple defensive methods improved my game just by being his demo partner.  His tape set is definitely going to show you the cutting edge in standup fighting for both the NHB ring and the street. Over the weekend Rodney taught a session each day and showed some of his material from the tape and more.  It was easy to see the camp participants standup games improve over the three days.  Rodney's material is some of the first standup material specifically developed for the NHB ring or street as opposed to just a conglomeration of other methods.  It is an evolution in standup training. 

Chris Haueter and UFC Champ Randy Couture

The UFC Heavy Weight champion and National wrestling champion, Randy Couture coached  Saturday morning.  It must be due to his work with high school wrestlers, but you have to see to believe how good a coach he is. He breaks down the details, walks through the room, corrects people, and answers all questions.  Randy covered some takedowns and concepts from the clinch as well as discussing some of his mental preparation methods.

Congrats to SBG Coach Adam Singer (second from right) for recieving his purple belt in BJJ at the camp. Well deserved!

Matt covered the basic standup curriculum from the gym.  The most important concept Matt taught was all standup work needs to incorporate an awareness of takedowns.  For example, Matt incorporates level changes into all standup drills.  What this does is get us away from thinking of boxing plus wrestling plus BJJ plus etc.  We must think in terms of a smooth flow between standup, clinch and ground as a system and not just putting things together.  Training in all ranges, not crosstraining. To round out the weekend, Matt and Chris Hauter (American Machado Black Belt) taught the ground portion.  Chris has an interesting game, incorporating a smooth BJJ style with wrestling.  He is also a great coach.  One of the weekend's highlights was Matt and Chris teaching some moves together.  Here were a brown belt and a black belt teaching moves together, improving and refining the techniques as they taught.  It is not often that people get a chance at a camp to be taught by two such quality grapplers. 

Congrats to newest SBG Instructor Forest Griffin. Forest
will be fighting former UFC Fighter Dan Severen in the upcoming weeks.

I was so impressed and enjoyed Hauter's instruction that I plan on hosting him in GA for a seminar.  The last highlight of the weekend was Chris giving out BJJ belts and Matt adding new names to the tribe.  Rodney was moved up (more than deservedly) to Instructor/Coach and Forrest Griffin of Georgia was made an instructor. Forrest's promotion was particularly special for me since he has been my student, training partner and friend for the past two years.  Last but not least, Matt played tour guide again to us out of towners and showed us a GOOD time. - Adam Singer

SBG Prez Matt Thornton also taught at the Camp. Here Matt is seen holding the future BJJ Champion Luca in Africa

Matt Thornton completes Florida seminar

Matt boxing with Chicago Instructor Paul Sharp

On August 4th and 5th Matt taught his annual seminar at SBG Coach Luis Gutierrez's One Dragon Martial Arts Gym. The usual suspects where present, and the fact that Matt sees the same faces plus more at every FLA seminar is testimony to Luis's coaching skill and the family like atmosphere at ODMA. Also attending the seminar was Chicago SBG Instructor Paul Sharp, and his brother Dave Sharp. Every Year the skill level of the ODMA athletes reaches new heights, and this Year was no exception.

Matt's new "Functional JKD series two" - a BIG success

Matt's new five tape video set has been on the market for only sixty days and is already into its tenth duplication run, becoming the fastest selling videos of SBG productions! If you have not ordered your set yet you can do so by calling: 1-877-932-5278 today.

Here is the first review to come out so far on this new series:

Not to long ago I bought and posted a review of the Dan Henderson instructional videos offered by Straight blast gym.  I thought that set was  very good and Dan really showed some great stuff.  I'm suppose to be saving  money for my upcoming wedding but as soon as I got my tax refund check, courtesy of George W, and before the future Mrs. had a chance to get her  hands on it, I ordered the new Functional JKD, series 2 from Straight blast  gym.  I wouldn't have done it (and if I'm found out I'm a dead man) but   Henderson set was so good that I was willing to buy again from Straight  blast. Matt Thorton is a very candid and philosophical individual and I  always enjoy hearing his opinions.  If I had the opportunity to meet two  people involved in martial arts it would be Mr. Thornton and Roy Harris. The tape set has interviews scattered throughout the series and I always like  hearing students and teachers (along with well known names) talk.  I'm posting a review as there seems to be a lot of interest in the series and  if you're anything like me, you like to know as much as you can before you commit the $.

There are five tapes in this new series by Matt Thornton.

They are:
The Ground: Top game
The Ground: Escapes from the Bottom
The ground: Guard game
Advanced stand up fighting
Intermediate Clinch

The two tapes that got me interested in buying the set was Tape 2:"Escapes from the bottom" and tape 5 "intermediate clinch".  Here are some notes I made as I watched the series.  Let me say that I don't know Matt Thornton or  work in any way for Straight blast gym and this review was completely unsolicited.

The Ground: Escapes from the Bottom
Again, this is one reason why I bought the tape series as I'm always looking  for a way to escape a bad position and reverse the situation to my advantage. Matt discusses hip movement and how it is necessary to escape, especially  against a bigger, stronger opponent.  Shrimping drill is shown, positioning of the hands and then several variations when escaping from side mount. Matt  also shows how to escape from 1/4 position, both when your opponent is in front of you and when he's behind you, front headlock escape and knee mount. A very good tape.  I expected great things from this tape and I was not disappointed. I was hoping Matt would show a counter to the cradle position that wrestlers will often use.  Along with aliveness, Matt always emphasizes using your mind.  What I mean by that is Matt won't show you 100 moves with 10 variations of each, instead he shows the way and then you can blaze your  own trail.  I think that is why Matt's tapes are more concept oriented and I  really enjoy his teaching style.   This tape is a very good compliment to the  escapes tape that Michael Jen and Roy Harris offer.

The Guard:
Matt shows 3 principles of the guard, drills to master those 3 principles.  He then shows some sweeps that you've seen before with some slight variations.  He briefly discusses guard for street situations but alluded to a future tape on that subject that sounds promising.  Without  going into great detail on this guard tape Matt emphasizes having an active guard and that the moment you pull guard you are attacking.  When he said  that I thought of Frank Shamrock's fight with Kevin Jackson and how Frank quickly went for the armbar as soon as he hit the ground and was in the guard position.

Advanced stand up fighting:
This tape started a little slow for me but it  eventually picked up.  Matt outlines the steps to learn and use strikes.  Matt focuses on boxing and following the idea of aliveness, the need to get the person acclimated to throwing strikes against a real opponent.  Matt shows the ACE principle and then some defense.  One of these defensive moves is one that Matt states was the best possible defense for fighting a bigger guy.  Let me remind you that Matt has a sense of humor before trying this move!

Intermediate clinch:
This is a great tape.  Matt shows the basics of tie ups and counters (i.e. neck tie) and how to really mess someone up in the clinch. Too many techniques and counters to discuss.  Robert then shows how to pummel correctly, snap downs from the underhook position, etc.  Matt shows some arm drags, more control positions, hand fighting and how to combine them all. Again, this is a great tape and in my opinion, the best in the series.

Well, the review was longer than I thought it would be.  One last thing, the first stand up tape was flawed.  About half way through it it played in fast  forward mode.  I called and then sent me a replacement, no questions asked,  very quickly.  The customer service was very good.  I don't have the telephone number for straight blast gym handy but if you check the website at  www.straightblastgym.com you can find ordering information.  I hope you  enjoyed this review!

What other buyers have said about the tapes:

Dear  Matt,

I'm  just  starting  the  intermediate  clinch  tape  from  the new  series  and  all  I  can  say  is  hot  damn!  I  have watched the first  four  tapes (and  rewatching, and  rewatching)  and  have started to  apply  some  of  the  concepts  and techniques.  Damn but  your  skill  level  has  grown  since  the  first tape  series. Now  I  am  going  to  have  to  make it  a priority  to visit Portland  when  I  finish  college.  You  instruct  the  way  I wish  I was  instructed  in  my  previous  years in  martial  arts.  You teach  by  example  and  modify  things  to help  suit  the individual's  body  type.  You  don't  go "well  this is  the  way the  grandmaster  does  so  we  cannot  deviate  away  from that."  I really  wish  I  hadn't  wasted the  previous  four  years  on  that crappy  training.  Anyway,  how  in the  hell  are  you  going  to  put out  a  series  3?! With  all  the info  on  series  2,  you  could spend  a  lifetime  just  working  that stuff  only  and  improve  your game tenfold.  Thank  you  for  continuing  to  put  out  the  BEST QUALITY in  your  tapes. Also,  thank   you  for  not showcasing Tom's  dancing ability  like  in  the  first  series. That  was  the only  disturbing thing  from  those  tapes. - David

Matt,

Checked out your second series of tapes and I cant say enough good things about them. the escapes from bottom (boxing hand position) has helped my bottom game . Even as a combat jiu jitsu instructor most of the concepts on the escapes and guard tapes were informative and practical.  You have made me look hard at my curriculum  and do a little house cleaning  and for this I am thankful. - DANNY

The NAGA sanctioned Florida State Grappling Championships were stacked with over 185 competitors from 31 different schools locked in some intense and often rival competition. The overall kids and teens divisions were dominated by State Champions One Dragon Martial Arts who also went on to take the adult super heavy weight division.

“Something that has to be mentioned was the kids division!  The kids were phenomenal!  Many of the kids competed in our last event but came back ten times better!  The future of our sport looked very bright as these young competitors showed their courage, technique, and sportsmanship on the mats." - Marcos Avellan / NAGA event coordinator & referee

Heavy Weight State Champ Eric Marich continues undefeated.

Shawn Gage becomes new Kid's State Champion

Undefeated Amanda takes State Titles in both co-ed and girls kid's divisions all by submissions.

Light Weight Richie Bilbao about to spin under for a leg attack.

Luis coaches Daniel right before she takes First Place.

We here at Straight Blast Gym receive well over 100 e-mails per Month. Many of these e-mails involve questions about training, diet, exercise, etc. To help expedite the answers to these questions we have composed a panel of three experts. Good gorilla, Bad gorilla, and the false idol. These three panelists will attempt to regularly answer your e-mail questions:

Question of the Month:

"SBG, I am a Martial Artist with over ten Years of experience in Wing Chun Gung Fu and more recently White Crane style. I have recently been offered the chance to fight in a NHB event against an amateur wrestler. The rules will allow punches, elbows, and knees to the face and body, standing, and on the ground. What additional preparation, if any, would you recommend."

(Bad gorilla says): Okay, I would forget all this stuff. Pick up a fifth of Vodka and a pack of cigarettes. Grab a cute girl, and find the nearest dark chinese restaurant. If you can't be a rock star, at least live like one. This Martial Arts stuff is a bunch of friggin crap.	(Good gorilla says): Unfortunately, your training was surely not "Alive". Therefore you will probably be in for a major beating. My suggestion is that you postpone the fight and begin a serious training regimen of boxing, and some ground fighting such as BJJ. In addition, work lots of conditioning, that's half the battle. But kudos to you for being humble enough to recognize the fact you may need additional preparation and good fortune to you!	(The false Idol says): I, the false Idol of Martial Arts posses the knowledge you seek. You need not look past your present level of training. You only need to discover the secrets hidden in your 'forms' by the ancient Chinese Masters.  Send $89.95 to false god PO box: 190 Portland Oregon 97209 And I will reveal all to you.

If you would like to ask are panel a question e-mail it to info@straightblastgym.com and we may post the response. - SBG Staff

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If you have not seen Hendersons new video series check it out. We at the SBG use virtually everything he shows in are curriculum, and I personally feel that in terms of pure functional material, these are the best videos I have ever edited and produced - Matt Thornton

Matt with Max the cat in Africa

Matt uses his mystical 'charisma' to hypnotize and charm the lions

You don't want none