Gorilla Press #10 - Summer 2003

Matt Thornton Seminar report (Submitted by: Carl Fisher - Posted On 03/20/2003)

Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy, Batley, UK, February 10th 2003: Only two months have passed in 2003, yet for the UK it’s already been a busy period, with a large number of high profile seminars and MMA events been and gone and lots more lined up for the future. BJJ black belt Matt Thornton was recently in the UK at the invitation of SBG UK Director Karl Tanswell, and it was standing room only at Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy as Matt gave a four-hour seminar of outstanding technical detail. Concentrating on the gi for the evening, Matt covered the basic techniques, including guard passing, combat base, knee rides, arm bar set ups and a number of easy to use high percentage submissions, workable from all ranges and positions. The emphasis was on position before submission and the use of the hips at all times, which Matt pointed out to the class time and again. Matt went on to discuss the theory of aliveness in training and how by applying this to your training, rapid improvement will be the end result. Flashy submissions were not on the menu in the seminar, he explained to the class, more so attention to detail to situations all grapplers find themselves in, regardless of grade and it’s paying attention to the finer points that make all the difference to your game. Matt ended the seminar with a well received question and answer session for the students, before receiving a well earned round of applause.

Two days later, Matt was at the newly opened Combat Base Academy in Pontefract, permanent home for Darren Currie’s students, together with Matt’s teacher Chris Haueter and another four hour seminar culminated in Matt and Chris rolling and grading a number of students who walked away with well earned blue and purple belts (see future article for more details).

These are new and exciting times ahead for the SBG group in the UK, with chances to gain genuine BJJ grades from two of the best in the business; anyone interested in training under the SBG umbrella can contact SBG rep Darren Currie at sangokui@hotmail.com.

Matt teaching his infamous “rolling pin” knee ride.

Karl Tanswell, Matt Thornton, Neil Hall & Darren Currie

Matt getting ready to sit into the pin.

Here is a recent interview with SBGI UK director Karl Tanswell:

Interview – Karl Tanswell, March 16th 2003, Southampton, UK (Submitted by: Carl Fisher - Posted On 03/19/2003)

It’s been a while since we last spoke, so let’s start with your eagerly awaited Submission League event that got under way last weekend.

Thanks Carl; It took so long as we wanted to get it bang on with as little hiccups as possible and the league format is quite hard to arrange and we had to work out the right formula that ensured all the fighters had at least a couple of fights on the day. We had 160 fights on the day and everything ran like clockwork, the fighters knew what they were doing and who they were fighting well in advance and after the fight tonight with Rosi, my student, we are going to work out six more dates and announce them in the not too distant future.

How does the league work Karl? We got sick of going round arguing about decision in matches, so there are no decisions in the matches in the league; a lot of people were confused last time as decisions were given for gold silver and bronze places but it does not affect the league. You get three points for a win, one point for a draw and nothing for a loss, so if you win all day and rack up a few points we average them out and if you miss a few events you can drop two scores a year and we do an average system on the scores and that’s how the league works and then there will be a champion at the end of the year and we’ll start to build on that over the next few years.

What was the level like at the event? It was superb, we had guys who’d been training for only a few months right up to the likes of Braulio from Gracie Birmingham and there was not one injury on the day and respect was shown throughout the day and I have received a lot of encouraging feed back from the competitors.

What have you learned along the way, in setting up something as big as this? Never to follow up any of my big stupid daft ideas again (laughs), it burnt me out. I respect anyone who promotes anything in martial arts, it can and is very difficult and at times a very thankless task. Hopefully the league will be there for a while and become an established event in the MMA calendar.
How is the academy and your fight team progressing? We are well and truly flying high at the minute; I’m now the regional UK director for SBG and am back and forwards between here and the States; Rosi takes a few classes as does Gavin Boardman and I still teach one class a day when I’m in the country.

How did you get involved with Matt Thornton? I just liked what he was doing you know, I’d read some of his stuff and it rang true to what I was teaching and thinking and I went over to train with him and he was at the point of expanding and he asked me if I’d look after the UK region and Europe. I organise the seminars in the UK and get people to train in the aliveness side of things.

It’s picking up now in the UK isn’t it? Darren Currie is now on board? Yes that’s right, Darren is concentrating on the jits side and it’s picking up nicely. We have Matt over again and myself and John Kavanagh are doing some seminars and we’ll be arranging some weekend camps and anyone interested in training with us can do through the Affiliated Training Groups programme.

Can you talks out your new STAB program? How has it been received? It’s doing well in the States and Burton Richardson has been testing out and he’s saying that some of it does not work, which is what it was all about in the first place, as I didn’t profess it to be the be all and end all of knife instruction. Once you train it you’ll know for yourself whether or not it works and that’s what it’s about.

Getting back to tonight, you have Rosi fighting tonight? That’s right, she’s fighting Carla O Sullivan, we know nothing about her, but everyone knows how Rosi fights as she’s a regular fighter, but she’s ready to rock and roll and I’m looking forward to the fight.

Rosi is the lady to beat in UK MMA; does this place any additional pressure on her? I think it does yes hopefully not too much but she’s a clever girl and she gets her head down and trains hard, like a professional athlete and does what’s required. She started in the sport ju jitsu arena and became the world champion in 2001 I think and from there she’d had enough of the points scoring and began sparring in Vale Tudo at the gym and she was offered a semi pro match and she’s been fighting ever since.

Well Karl thanks a lot for the time and best of luck to Rosi tonight? Thanks Carl.

For more info on the SW league go to www.sfuk.net

A sheep crossing the road in the UK. You don’t see that in Portland.

Matt teaching a large crowd in the UK; The UK seminars get larger and larger, and they are always a blast.

Matt with Karl Tanswell’s crew. A great crowd of people!

Matt explaining some fine points on BJJ with the help of Machado Black Belt, and SBGI Chris Haueter. Chris has been Matt’s coach for many Years, and everyone that has a chance should take advantage of his amazing abilities and teaching skill.

Some of the regulars from Darren Currie’s SBGI Combat Base BJJ Club. Great folks, and lots of talent there.

Matt demos a counter to a sweep, and a pass. Special thanks to Colin, (the purple belt Matt is demo’ing with) He is a great athlete, and was a huge help to Karl.

Matt teaching the crushing crossides, and counters to biting.

Interview: Chris Haueter (Submitted by: Carl Fisher - Posted On 03/23/2003)

BJJ black belt Chris Haueter talks to Carl Fisher at Darren Currie’s Combat Base Academy, Pontefract, Yorkshire, UK, February 13th 2003.

It’s been four years since we last saw each other Chris; how the hell are you?

I’m fine Carl, in great shape. I can’t believe it’s been so long since we last saw each other. I’ve been working as a cop up in LA and am still training a lot and travelling as much as possible. Lately I have been travelling up to Portland, Oregon training with all t Straight Blast Gym guys, it’s really great out there.

When did you start training in Oregon Chris?

In 1996; I was going up there on a regular basis, as it was a very innovative gym at the time and it helped my own training enormously.

Matt Thornton & Chris Haueter at the beautiful York Minster in York UK.

In what way have they helped you develop?

The guys were kind of isolated from the rest of the quote unquote BJJ community, so a lot of times I could go up there and show them techniques and upon my return in four months, they’d have developed their own counters and modified and adapted what I’d shown them to suit their own needs.

How often do you get to train with Matt? Around two to four times a year

What have you been showing the students here tonight?

It’s mainly been Matt’s show, I’ve come along to assist Matt; we’ve worked a lot on the bottom positions to include the cross side position and the various escapes from these positions. We talked about the philosophy of working with and without the gi, to gi or not to gi as I like to say and my answer is to train them both, as they both in turn help the other game.

Where to next after this evening?

We’re going to hang out with Karl Tanswell another night and then we are off to Ireland to join John Kavanagh; this is my first time in the UK and so far I’m having fun. I’ll be with John for three days unless world events shut the airports down (laughs). After that it will be back to LA.

Do you still see John and Rigan in Torrance?

I still call it my home school, but I have a load of mats in my garage and have a bunch of students who work out with me and I get over to see Ryan Greg and Bob Bass whenever I can.

Chris Haueter demonstrates the brand new SBGI Vale Tudo Gear!

How has the garage developed, as I recall I helped you concrete the garage base when I was in LA in 99, nursing a bad hangover? (Laughs)

I remember that man, you were destroyed! Yes the garage is going great we work out and I teach the classes and when I am away I usually send them on to either Ryan’s or Bob’s for their training, as well as Rigan’s.

I still have the copy of Grappling magazine where they ran a feature of the Machado black belts and you were among them; the article also included guys like Dave Meyer, Bob Bass and Fernando Vasconceles. Do you still keep in touch with them?

Most of them yes, we are all still friends, but just like everything when people start to grow, they tend to move on and you see them less and less. At Bob’s school on a Wednesday it’s kind of a black belt night where a lot of the old faces show up.

Are you still training yourself or concentrating on your students? I would say at this point of my life, being thirty-eight, I plan on grappling the rest of my life, but I look at myself as more of an instructor/coach, rather than a competitor anymore. My last competition fight was against Andre Pedenairas and we fought to a draw, no points, but they raised his hand, some people cheered some of them booed. What I realised half way through the fight was that I didn’t have that drive in me to put the energy into the pre training homework that makes up a competitive fighter.

Do you do your own gradings?

I do them all yes; Matt is my first black belt and Matt is the first black belt from any other Machado black belts. Not only do I rank the person’s ability to hold his or her own against a higher grade, I also rank the ability to understand the art as well. Matt is well over six foot six and about 220, well I can roll with him and he doesn’t have to use his strength, it’s game on game and that to me is the essence of the art of jiu jitsu. You have your attributes, your mental will power and your skill and the art is in the skill; your attributes, conditioning, your size, age, speed and strength are all perishable skills but the actual technical training and understanding of the art, those always grow.

Which students are graded in your garage?

I have a few good blue belts, some guys close to the purple belts and to me the jump from blue to purple is a pretty big one, so I like the purple belt to be a skilled purple instead of an attribute purple belt.

When were you awarded your black belt?

1996 from Rigan Machado and it was after a lot of training; at the time when I received my brown belt I felt like I’d deserved it after all the work I’d done, yet the black belt sat kind of heavy on me in the beginning and that was true with a lot of guys. I had my first match as a black belt and I won it, so I realised, yes I am a black belt and at that time in the American BJJ scene it was difficult to gauge if we were black belts, as the black belts we knew were very skilled black belts and they still killed us on the mats. Then there was a time when me and the original six Machado black belts, Mark Eccard, Chris Brennan and a few others, we were at the top of the US students and our coaches in turn cream us, so it was difficult to know if we were really black belt level until we actually got to compete against other black belts.

You were the first US black belt to compete in the Mundials?

Yes that was in 1996 or 1997, I lost my first match, he pretty much killed me and he went on to take third place, he was pretty damn good.

What do you think of the level of BJJ in the US now; has it exploded as predicted in the magazines?

It’s definitely exploded, there are a lot of different Brazilian black belts running schools and a lot of American black belts running schools and the tournaments now are just huge out here. A lot of the Brazilian black belts think the US scene has exploded as well and I think the American influence on BJJ has been one of the wrestling background, collegiate and Greco and I think it has added a new dimension to the strategies and techniques of BJJ. The stalling that you see in the American game comes from the wrestling, to score points and hold and that negates the art and the only other thing I’d say I don’t like about the American BJJ scene is the lack of the spiritual side of things, it’s something felt not taught. With the NHB now, it’s kinda like the WWF, people come in and talk a bunch of shit and the art gets lost along the way. You get to think it’s all about you rather than the art.

Matt gives a Roman soldier some hassles.

I will never forget the time in LA after a session when you likened rolling to moving Zen; can you explain this concept?

I remember being a purple belt and I was married at the time and it was on the rocks; I lived in Imperial Beach and had to drive up north to Nelson Monteiro’s house to train. I was always stressed about the bills, etc and I was still stressed when I got to training. However when I got back to my car after training and was driving home I realised that for ninety minutes none of those things existed and when your grappling in that mode, nothing exists but the game and that’s the meditative state of jiu jitsu that’s so addicting.

Chris, great explanation and great interview, great to see you again.

Thank you Carl, great to see you too.

Thanks much to everyone who helped make this last UK trip a memorable, and fun experience. We will see you all soon.

Interview: JOHN KAVANAGH (Submitted by: Carl Fisher - Posted On 03/13/2003)

Straight Blast Gym Irish Director John Kavanaugh talks to Carl Fisher, 8th March 2002, Combat Evolution, Milton Keynes, UK

John it’s been a while since we last spoke to each other, I think it was at Cage Wars at the start of last year; what have you been up to since then?

I joined the Straight Blast Gym Association and I’m the Regional Director for Ireland; I met Matt last February and we’ve been working on setting it all up, he has a thing called ATG, Affiliated Training Groups, so we’ve been introducing BJJ to the karate clubs and I have my own gym in Dublin city centre, as well as six or seven satellite clubs that I visit once every six weeks, where I introduce a ground programmed for the students. That’s kept me busy and I’ve been bust teaching in Ireland as well as having Matt over to teach and have been over to the UK and Scotland, as well as looking after the business side of things, as I teach full time now.

I believe you were awarded your purple belt from Matt? Congratulations.

Thanks Carl, that was last September, no formalities, just rolled with the guys and I was given the belt from Matt, no ceremony or anything. I have been training for four years, the last 18 months rolling every day, so I think I’ve put the hours in and try not to let it get to my head (laughs).

Why Matt Thornton and SBG?

I met Matt after fighting one of his guys in South Africa and got to know him afterwards and I like his attitude; he came up to me the first time I was training and he said hey let’s roll. Many instructors can be cautious when it comes to rolling with guys they don’t know, but Matt came on and trashed me, it didn’t make any difference (laughs). I stayed with him for three or four weeks in Oregon and stayed on the camp and he asked me if I’d be regional director. I’d been approached by a few other associations but I liked the way Matt was upfront about it all, there was no secrecy, it was like this is the business side and this is the sport side, both sides didn’t get confused along the way, you need that if your going to do this for a living. I like the SBG philosophy, no rituals, no titles, no bowing etc, he’s a mate and helps me when I need it.

How’s the gym coming on John?

Really well, it’s in the centre of Dublin, a small place and I have about thirty five students and the last time Matt was over he awarded twelve blue belts, so it’s definitely the top gym in Ireland and one to rival the UK academies; there are two purple belts, myself and Dave Roche, so we’re doing something right and we have Paddy Clint for the Thai and am in talks with Alexis Dimetriades’ old wrestling coach from Kensington, in the hope I can get him teaching here as well.

Who do you have here tonight from your gym?

A guy called Adrian Dagorski, he’s a good fighter from my gym, a white belt on the ground, but is developing a game plan, but he’s almost Olympic level with his boxing, representing Poland for four years in the National boxing team. He’s got scary hands and is in great shape, so I’m looking forward to see how he shapes up in the cage. I have Dave Roche fighting Paul Ramsdale in June and we have the first cage fight event in Dublin in April and that’s pretty much my gym against the rest of Ireland as there’s ten fights and there’s one of my guys in each fight, so that’s going to showcase training the right way and training the wrong way.

Anyone booked in for seminars?

I am bringing over Saulo Ribeiro March 22nd and his brother Xande, along with Alex De Souza and in May, I’m looking to bring over Karl Tanswell to teach his STAB program, which I think will go down well and we’ll go from there.

Back to the present and you’re on the bill tonight; who’s your opponent?

Robbie Olivier; I’ve seen two of his fights, seen him fight Danny Batten; he looks good. I’m confident going into the fight and have trained for that specific type of opponent, he’s small and stocky and he’ll be looking to get a clinch to take me down, and I know he’s been working on his stand up, but I feel my stand up is a little bit sharper and I suppose it will be a bottom guard game for me if he takes me down and we’ll see how it goes from there.

What next fight wise, if you win tonight?

April 19th I have the Dublin show and am fighting Shane Lynch from Ireland who’s four time world kick boxing champion, but has never heard of grappling so I hope it’s going to be like UFC 1 (Laughs)

John's SBG Juniors program is going strong.

Well, best of luck tonight and for the future.

Cheers Carl.

For more info check out www.irishbjj.com

SBGI hits New York City with a seminar & tour.

Matt recently completed a well attended two day seminar at Progressive Martial Arts Academy, run by Nick Sacoulas.  Nick is a certified instructor under legendary Dan Inosanto. As well as a (trainer) in the art of Muay Thai with Surachai Sirisute, and an instructor in Dog Brothers Martial Arts having also appeared at several "Gatherings of the Pack". Nick is known as "Raw Dog".

Nick seen here with Mr. Inosanto.

The seminar was well attended, and everyone had a good time. Here is a brief review written by Kevin Sheehan, who attended the seminar. Assisting at the seminar was BJJ/Machado Black Belt Chris Haueter, and SBGI Coach Adam Singer, and SBG

Instructors Christian Montes, and Paul Myatovich.

The Seminar was great.  I think that anyone who was unsure about aliveness walked away with a better idea of what it is and why it is necessary.

The debate is not "Aliveness vs Drilling" in fact we spent a good amount of time working drills.  The difference is they were all alive drills, never in a pattern always with some resistance and motion.  We drilled boxing, the necktie, the clinch, and the guard, bottom game.... Always alive.

It was a good time.     -Kevin Sheehan

*(Note from Matt: I would like to especially thank Nick Sacoulas for being a great host, and tour guide, and Paul Myatovich with his generous help and hospitality while I was in NY state.)

From L to R, Chris Haueter, Nick Sacoulas, Kevin Sheehan, Christian Montes, Matt Thornton

The NY skyline from the top of the Empire State Building.

Matt at the top of the building.

The Empire State Building from below.

The Natural History Museum of New York

Berkeley CA hosts SBGI seminars

Matt Thornton recently completed a workshop at the newly formed SBGI Berkeley CA location. Hosted by Alan and Lily Pagle, and Jude Ludesma. The seminar was a blast, and they have since had SBGI West Coast Director Tom Oberhue out for an additional workshop.

If you are in the Bay Area and looking for SBG training, this is the place! There are great people, great training partners, and plenty of future workshops ahead for the SBG Berkeley crew. You can reach them at:

N.C.M.A.A.
10082 San Pablo Ave.
El Cerrito, CA 94530
(510) 527-2400
Friday 7 pm ~ 9 pm
Sunday 5:30 pm ~ 7:30 pm

Riekes Center
3455 Edison Way
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(650) 364-2509
Wednesday
6:30 pm ~ 8: 30 pm

Team ODMA NAGA Champs again!

It's coming as no surprise to those that follow the East Coast no-go submission grappling championships that Team ODMA/SBGI, coached by Luis Gutierrez, rocks these competitions once more. Keep your eyes on these young athletes from www.onedragon.com  they have a bright future ahead!

Coming Soon In Issue 12:
- Review from the SBGI Headquarters Fall Camp!

From L to R. Tom Oberhue, Matt Thornton, Luis Gutierrez, Paul Sharp, and Chris Haueter.

-Review of west coast ISR Matrix Law Enforcement clinic.

And much more!

Stay tuned or be square

And please don't feed the monkey

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