SBGi News, for intelligent primates
 SBG history is about to be made, as Conor McGregor becomes the first home grown SBG fighter to win a UFC title!

Conor has been in the spotlight of MMA since his debut. We’ve been warning you to be on the look out for McGregor. Some said the SBG hopeful had not been “tested”, even though he was already a multiple title holder in Cage Warriors – one of Europe’s largest MMA organization outside of the UFC.

Conor was recently presented with his SBGi Brown Belt, a true achievement that very few have received!

Make sure to tune in to UFC 189 on July 11th to watch Conor become the first SBG athlete to win a UFC TITLE!
Spring Camp 2015 Our Biggest Event Ever!

This years Spring camp was a one of a kind event. Every camp gets more amazing, with more diverse content, more coaches, and more students. For the first time EVER the camp SOLD OUT a full month before the event took place!

Leah Taylor & Matt Thornton, opened up camp setting the stage for the solid fundamental training methods that would run through the entire event.

 

Lily Pagle focused on one of the main go to guard passes, the dreaded double under pass. Lily has some experience dealing with larger partners. With that experience she turned this pass into a spider guard players dream. A quick escape directly to a full on assault of sweeps and submissions. A great starting base for those new spider guard players, and a treasure chest of options for those that already play it.

Chris Haueter broke down the five rules of grappling. Not the five rules of Jiu Jitsu – but the five rules of grappling that must be adhered to in all of the grappling arts.  Covering everything from take downs, guard passes, and what a guard pull ACTUALLY MEANS.

Amanda Loewen, one of the newest black belts of the camp, covered in detail the most fundamental principle of Jiu Jitsu, Survival! Her segment was a hit, captivating everyone that attended.

Matt Thornton gave us a break down of his seminar material this year, as well as the thought process he uses when deciding what to teach. The students learned that although not all types of guards are fundamentals, all types guards use the same fundamental principles – and in the end that is what makes those guards work.

Ray Price was able to offer easy to impart principles of weapon training, and gave everyone a dose of reality as it related to handgun retention and use.

There is fighting and there is self defense. The better fighter will have an easier time defending themselves. This is exactly why Matt and SBG has always put the focus on the fundamentals of the delivery systems.

However the most prectical “self defense” happens before anyone touches you.

This is exactly what Paul Sharp covered.  Awareness and the ability to deter the situation is paramount. Although we practice to fight, the best self defense is to stop the altercation early, and not being an easy target.

Cane Prevost is a well known secret of SBG Portland. Most of the top coaches are well aware of Cane and his methods. However Cane took it to a whole new level this year. His approach to his segment at camp was something we had never seen before. One of the first ever to be titled “master instructor” by head coach Matt Thornton, Cane covered no martial arts, no jiu jitsu, no striking. Instead Cane broke down, piece by piece, the systematization that he has used to create classes. Cane walked us through beginning conceptualization all the way to trouble shooting midway through class. He then finished by covering a system to judge your own success in the class and how to make sure that you improve that class before teaching it again. Everyone walked away with a better understanding of what it means to teach.

John Frankl brought fire. If you were there then you are now purposely frustrating your partners by teasing them with kimuras and arm bars that they for some reason just can’t finish. If you weren’t there then good luck…

Travis Davison covered something we all tend to learn in the first month.  The hip bump. It took about 10 minutes to cover. It was good. Then he proceed to break down the key elements to it’s success, and covered a myriad of options, from direct attacks, to complete positional changes, including taking the back.

Rick Davison, the butterfly master, turned that single guard into a banquet.

And Priit Mikhelson grilled a turtle.  Revolutionizing the teaching process yet again for another position with his 1/4 bottom game.

John Diggins covered a single half guard posture that allowed for movement in all directions, giving it’s user a vast plethora of options from just one position.

Steve Whittier took us deep into the rabbit whole of Muay Thai clinch with a great control and strike drills.

Adam Singer brought the ground and pound! And in a true standing with SBGi training philosophy, he broke it down to it’s core – how the weight is distributed in order to make your opponents life miserable, and some top notch methods for drilling it without making your training partners life miserable.

The coaches all focused on how easy their information was to impart. They understand what it means to be a coach, and how to define real success. It is about the ability to impart something that is useful, to everyone there, in a manner that is easy to remember.

In other words all the coaches try to improve the entire tribe.
 
SBG Women’s only camp comes to Whitefish

This year the SBG Ladies camp will be held in Whitefish, MT. 2014 Ladies camp was a great success bringing in women from all corners of the SBG empire. Check out Powered by she review below, and ladies… Do not miss this event. The coaches roster is stacked.Click hereBetween Lily Pagle, (SBGi’s first female black belt) Leah Taylor (One of the first female black belts in the north west) and Aisling Daily (UFC fighter and star from The Ultimate fighter) This event is a must have experience for any woman that trains.Click Here to Register.
Matt’s seminar tour kicked off in Boise
 
Matt’s seminar tour started off strong with a visit to one of the newer SBGi’s, SBG IDAHO.
The coaches and students of SBG Idaho are top notch. They have an academy filled with great MMA and BJJ competitors, devoid of any bad attitudes – and filled with nice humans – that’s SBG! They had a great turn out at last years Oregon open, immediately after joining SBG, and they have continued to be a force ever since.

SBG wins best team in the Northwest!

 

SBGi Wins Three of Four Team Awards

The SBGi tribe converged on Boise, Idaho for the Northwest Submission Challenge 2015. Competitors from SBGi’s gyms in Portland, Seattle, Montana and Elko, NV joined the SBGi Idaho contingent in an effort that saw Straight Blast Gym dominate proceedings.
SBGi walked away with a host of individual medals, and secured three of the four team awards. They won Top Overall Team, as well as Top Gi Team and Top No-Gi Team, only narrowly missing out on the Youth Team title, coming in second.
SBG Canada going strong, as Matt completes his Edmonton Seminar

We’ve seen a boom in Canada over the last few years with Edmonton,

Drayton Vally, Toronto, and Niagara all growing fast. 

Matt’s seminar tour of Canada was a hit. Fundamentally sound, easy to impart, and yet still “mind blowing”. That’s what the SBG curriculum is all about. 

Big props to coach Steve Winjet, for being a great host and leader. And coach Bill Campbell, for bringing a lot of support and bodies to the event. What a great group of people!
SBG west coast keeping pace with Canada

It’s not just Canada that’s been growing. Matt visited SBG Elko NV – which opened it’s doors just last year and has been killing it not only in competition, but in their local community as well. Chris has been doing a great job building a team in NV, and we are excited to see what his future holds.

Matt also just camp back from SBG Norcal (formally SBG Berkley). Lily and Alan Pagle have been going strong for nearly two decades now and we expect many more great things from SBG NorCal!
Gorilla Cup Fundraiser in PDX
Competition is an important part of the pressure and testing

necessary for progress. But this doesn’t mean that it can’t all be in good fun. In fact, it shuld be.Last month SBG Portland held a fundraiser for a local dog shelter.The Gorilla Cup gave 100% of the proceeds directly to the shelter.

Thanks to every tribe member that contributed and to those around the world that contribute to events like this at their academies.

A fast growing tribe!

 Each year SBGi expands more and more, and 2015 has been no exception so far.

To the East-

After visiting this years Spring camp in Portland a good friend of the Singer brothers, Phillipe Gentry owner of Gentry MMA entered the fold and became SBG Atlanta.

 

To the North- 

Long time SBG student and SBGi Business group member Jun Dazai opened SBG Scarborough in Canada. 

To the West-

Long time member of SBGi and co-coach/owner of SBG Norcal (formally SBG Berkley) Alan Pagle earned his brown belt.

 In the Far East-

John Frankl promoted THREE new black belts. SBGi Korea/John Frankl jiu jitsu is definitely not slacking in the growth department.

If you don’t already know Frankl’s story CHECK IT OUT. When Frankl comes to the states it’s not to be missed, and this is just a short video to show you WHY.


The John Frankl Story from Paul Jean on Vimeo.
Whats Next

This summer is going to be PACKED with seminars and events.Grandfather of SBGi’s jiu jitsu, Chris Haueter will be visiting the HQ in Portland this month. This is going to be one for the scrap books folks.
Between the Vulcan’s Grilled turtle and Grandpa Haueter, SBG Portland and the American SBGi’s have been studying hard. A wealth of material has been thrown in over the last few months but there is even more to come. Head of SBGi Korea / John Frankl BJJ, John Frankl will also be touring some of the American SBGi’s. Swinging by Portland in July, and in Montana shortly after in August, 
SBG founder Matt Thornton connected with Oregon state Congressman Earl Blumenauer held a dinner in Portland earlier this month drawing attention to the failed drug war. Does this mean coach Matt will be looking into politics?

In Matt’s own words- “Forget chokes and armbars for a second. Could I take this guy in an election? Not a chance” 


“The experience of grappling with an expert is akin to falling into deep water without knowing how to swim. You will make a furious effort to stay afloat – and you will fail. Once you learn how to swim, however, it becomes difficult to see what the problem is – why can’t a drowning man just relax and tread water? The same inscrutable difference between lethal ignorance and lifesaving knowledge can be found on the mat: to train in BJJ is to continually drown – or, rather, to be drowned, in sudden and ingenious ways – and to be taught, again and again, how to swim.”  -Sam Harris
Matt Thornton Feature in the Art of Living Blog. -Click here
“This post will be dedicated to the man behind the famous Straight Blast Gyms, Matt Thornton. Over the last couple of years especially SBG Ireland with head coach John Kavanagh has been featured in MMA media almost daily, both due to Conor McGregor’s extreme starpower and the sheer skill of SBG based fighters (McGregor, Gunnar Nelson, Cathal Pendred, Paddy Holohan etc.). The man who started it all, the founder of SBG however, is Matt Thornton. His approach to MMA and Martial Arts in general is very unique and has a solid base in philosophy. Thornton, being one of the pioneers of American Mixed Martial Arts, has developed his very own philosophy to accompany his Martial Arts training, taking ideas from e.g. Jiddu Krishnamurti among certain other schools of skeptical thinking and philosophy. In this article, I want to focus in this philosophical approach – as the title indicates – which underlies his training methods. Since his philosophy is the result of years and years of research, this text will attempt to be a first glance at one of the core principles to which Thornton refers rather often. The concept of Aliveness. 

 

“It is about Authenticity.” – Matt Thornton
SBGi raising Competitors and Heroes

Most if not all SBG fans and tribe members are well aware of SBGi’s success in competition. However most of the students of SBGi do not compete. So why do they train? Exercise, and community are just a couple of the reasons. Some folks even come in for “self defense”, but the one I love hearing the most is “I want to train so that when I see something happening, I want to be able to help those in need”. 
 
 Pawel Kozlowski may or may not have said or thought that when he first walked into SBG Ireland for training, but he did live it. SBG has a bright future ahead with strong courageous folks like Pawel Kozlowski among it’s ranks.
 
The first ever “black belt couple” of SBGi – did a tour of the European SBG’s!

SBG Manchester had this to say“From the off it was obvious that Amanda was not only a world class competitor, she also had coaching skills to match. Firstly she worked and drilled a survival position that she has been working on with great success recently from bottom side control. From there she used this position to work on escaping back to the guard. The fine details she worked during this section were game changing to say the least and everybody on the mat improved their escape game. Not only that, they did so with less energy expenditure and improved mechanics.
This was without doubt one of the most productive workshops to be hosted at SBG Manchester recently and I would recommend training with John and Amanda Diggins whenever you get the chance. In fact, create the chance and get them in, you won’t regret it.
On behalf of SBG Manchester and Straight Blast Gym UK I would like to say a huge Thank You to the Diggins’ for a great week of training and we all look forward to seeing you again soon.”
SBG’s Karl Tanswell on the rise with The Essential Pad Man
Top notch review by Jay Furness at YourMMA.co.uk
“Karl Tanswell is a name most of the UK MMA scene should be familiar with as coach of UK standouts Matt Inman, Saul Rogers, Martin Stapleton, Jordan Desborough and more. Karl heads the Straight Blast Gym in Manchester where he recently hosted a coaching course, ‘The Essential Pad Man’. Karl has decades in martial arts, including being a licensed trainer with the BBBoC.
Karl spoke openly about the reasons for sharing his knowledge with others, he was simply horrified with some of the “pad work” he sees at local MMA shows.”  -Jay Furness
To be honest EVERYONE in the SBG coach sphere was excited when Karl announced this and everyone is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the DVD version.
 Check out some of the free tips and up and coming info at Karl’s site. http://www.sbgcoach.com/

 

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