From the Feb 2004 Berkeley CA seminar:

Matt just finished up a two-day seminar here in Berkeley, and I have to say I was very impressed. We received about 10-11 hours of excellent instruction, and I absolutely feel that I got my money's worth. I paid $120 for both days - prices were higher if you weren't an SBG member, or if you were attending only one day.

Day 1: On Saturday we worked ground, clinch, and standup. He began by teaching us some basic defenses from common "street attacks" i.e. bodylocks and Average "I'm not a grappler" Joe headlocks. The headlock escapes he showed us were very impressive in their simplicity, and much easier to pull off than the ones I'd been shown before. Bodylock defense basically consisted of some simple throws from a whizzer.

All these drills were practiced with Matt's three I's technique: Introduction, Isolation, and Integration. The introduction phase consists of learning the technique, and the integration technique is when you add it into your sparring game. Matt pointed out that most BJJ schools only use these two phases. His famous "aliveness" comes in during the Isolation phase, which basically consists of drilling the learned techniques, but at full resistance.

Clinch work focused on the Thai necktie - getting into it and getting out of it. Not much to say here - I just want to emphasize that Matt has a gift for explaining difficult techniques so that they seem obvious. Throughout the weekend, a number of moves I've been having trouble with kept "clicking" into place, and I heard the same from everyone else at the seminar.

During the standup portion we covered phases 1 and 2 of his "crazy monkey" boxing style. Phase 1 was basic defense and basic offense. Phase 2 covered stalking and counter punching. Again, after each technique was introduced, it was drilled against a resisting opponent. The drills he used for learning how to stalk an opponent were especially good.

Day 2: Sunday focused on BJJ. We started out with guard passes. Matt divides the guard pass into stages with specific things to focus on in each stage. This allowed me to immediately pinpoint the most serious problem in my guard passes and I know what I need to do to fix them. I think it will also make my passes more consistent.

After guard passes we moved to side control. Matt explained a number of details to make your side control much more effective. Some of these I had figured out through sparring, but I wish someone had just listed them off for me at day one. There's 5 main points, things like "block out the guard" (which I had figured out), or "control the opponent's near side arm" (which I hadn't). We drilled side control for a while, and I was able to feel mine improve drastically over the course of 15 minutes.

And of course, he showed us some nifty submissions.

After breaking for lunch, we focused on the butterfly guard, which is completely absent from my game. The lack of an open guard game was a serious problem for me, but after all the sweeps and submissions we learned today, I feel much more comfortable, and I look forward to integrating into my rolling in the future.

Each day ended with a Q&A session. I asked him how to escape from north-south, which has been driving me crazy ever since I stated BJJ, and finally got an escape that I think I might be able to pull off. He also talked for a while about "aliveness" and the importance of training against resisting opponents. I should mention that he never said that he invented "aliveness", or that TMA's were worthless. He just said that 99% of what's currently marketed as martial arts is worthless as far as making you a better fighter, which I think we would tend to agree with.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. After most BJJ classes I come home with a new move and I think "This move is cool, I'll definitely try it when I get a chance." I came back from this seminar with a whole new dimension to add to my ground and standup games. And everything was something I could incorporate immediately (like the butterfly guard), not a crazy submission that I'll have to wait until I'm perfectly set up for.

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Review from Nov 2003 NY seminar:

Hi All,

What a fantastic weekend we had with the guys from the Straight Blast Gym. At first I was going to write this about my experience with Matt Thornton, but I then realized that the greatest thing about this weekend was that it was not “Matt Thornton” that made it so good, rather it was the atmosphere created by Matt and the nature of the people that seem to enjoy Aliveness. Of course Matt was the catalyst of this gathering, and training with him was amazing.

This was my first time training with Matt or any of the guys from the SBGi, I was a bit nervous of course, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from them as coaches and as people. Let me say that any concerns were laid to rest within 5 minutes of meeting them. I picked up Matt and Luis Gutierrez at the airport and was immediately stuck with how nice they were. They seemed really laid back.

Matt & Luis were nice enough to give me some training time on the Friday night before the seminar, and the two of them were extremely helpful to me in working on problems that I faced with my ground game. They saw the problems, made suggestions, and then showed me how to use and train those corrections so that they will soon be a part of me.

Matt’s seminars are physically tough, yet safe at the same time. I think that one of the biggest misconceptions out there about the SBGi training (i.e. “Aliveness”) is that it is full out sparring, all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, about 85% of the training we did was in drills, not sparring.

It would be impossible to go into much detail with what was taught at the seminar, but here is a quick look at it. Matt showed how to safely and quickly transition from combat base from being in your opponent’s closed guard, we then worked on passing the guard by going over, under and around our opponent’s legs. This was of course taught (as was everything else) using the SBG’s “I Method” of training.

Matt spoke of the need for having a complete game, and not only in the “Stand Up-Clinch-Ground” explanation that he hear some much of. You must understand the delivery system of each of those aspects of training to make your game complete. For example…if you have good stand up, good clinch and a good guard game, you still do not have a complete game as you are missing two important aspect of the ground game (Top game & Bottom Game). This is true with all of the delivery systems.

Matt then introduced the Crazy Monkey to us, and it is really interesting. I was struck by the ease at which you can defend yourself against strikes with it. I will absolutely have Matt work with us more on that at his next seminar. Matt also work some clinch work and brought us from the basic delivery system of the clinch into snap downs, chokes and then of course we drilled all of this with aliveness.

What many might be surprised of (Unless you actually looked at Matt’s website) is Matt’s understanding and ability of philosophy. He speaks really elegantly and expresses himself perfectly when speaking about image and ego, two factors that many, if not all, martial artist having problems dealing with.

I also had the great fortune to meet, train with, and tap to, one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Paul Hopkins is a special kind of guy who is all heart and ability. He continues to impress me with his wit, knowledge and humility. Paul has no ego, and sets the perfect example of hard work equaling results. I cannot say enough good things about Paul Hopkins folks, he is a real man, and one that all of us can learn from.

Also, I was extremely lucky to get to know (Yes, and TAP to him also!) Luis Gutierrez. Luis is a pleasure to work with. He clearly has class, ability and sense of good ness about him. He really seems to care about your ability and your progress. I will be working a lot with Luis in the future, and I really look forward to it.

Guys like Paul Myatovich, Christian Montes, Jeff Chiu, Kevin Sheehan, Chris Drechsler-Martell and many others made this a seminar to remember. I had never net any of these gentlemen before, but I cannot wait to train with them again. It was unbelievable to experience being in a room with that many fighters/coaches, and not feel an ego anywhere. It really was simply amazing.

I will be training with Matt Thornton again simply because it was a positive experience in my life. There is nothing in that training that was useless. There was nothing taught or trained that in your head you said “Well, this is a waste”. This was effective training with good people…what more can a person want? Matt is a down to earth guy, who can literally be choking you out one minute, and then be playing Super Mario Brothers with your eight your old son an hour later.

Now, since you have read this far, I will reward you with one of the secrets of the SBG! On Saturday Luis hinted at this, but it was confirmed to my on Sunday morning by none other than Matt himself. The core of training with Aliveness sits with the two pillars of health…and these two pillars are called: Advil and Athletic tape…don’t leave home without them!

All the best,

BIG Sean Madigan

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Review of a 2000 seminar in Chicago:

I am going to try and post a few things about the Thornton Seminar held recently at Champion Jiu-Jitsu in Carpentersville, Illinois.

Matt was highly recommended to me by my good friend Luis, (www.onedragon.com). Knowing Luis and having numerous conversations, where Luis basically coached me through the transition from what I was formerly doing into my current training curriculum, I trusted him when he told me to have Matt out for a seminar.

First off, Matt is a great guy. Totally down to earth and approachable. He is honest, which some misinterpret as rude when they read his articles, but everyone found him to be just the opposite. When asked questions Matt answered honestly and bluntly but also made sure that the person asking the question fully understood Matt's response, going into great detail as to why Matt had formed this opinion.

I won't go into technical detail, that would take up a lot of space and time. Instead I will give an overview.

Day one began with Ground game. Matt really focused on improving our game from the guard. We worked several techs from here but Matt's real focus was on key principles and concepts that make your guard game hard to beat. We began to work Clinch with Matt introducing some of the attendees to the Pummel and Hand Fighting. Guy's were really starting to sweat now. Again, Matt focused on principles and concepts that will make your Clinch game better. We finished the morning session with some sparring.

After lunch Matt reviewed the morning session and then we moved into some more Clinch work. Matt continued to stress Aliveness. Several times during the training Matt would call everyone in to sit down and discuss "Aliveness". Each time Matt did this you could see an immediate improvement when the guy's would tie up again. We also continued to work our Ground game, but now it was being put together as part of the Clinch. Start in the Clinch work your game, if you go to Ground continue until sub or time.

Matt called everyone in for a Q and A. After answering numerous questions we broke for the day. Even after we broke, guy's continued to ask Matt questions in an attempt to really grasp the concepts and principles outlined earlier. As a testament to what Matt is doing you have to understand these were advanced martial artist having trained in JKD for a considerable amount of time. The concepts and principles Matt shared really challenged these guy's to examine the what's and whys of their JKD.

Day two continued with more Ground game. Now we focused on Top game and escapes from the bottom. Matt's principle of teaching what works from the beginning was really appreciated by all in attendance. As Matt said, why wait until you are a purple belt to learn something. Why train one way for four years only to have your instructor say, okay forget that, now do it this way. Everyone improved their Ground game as a result of this approach. We also continued to focus on Clinch as well. Really reinforcing the principles learned the previous day.

One undeniable testament to Matt's methods, during the training sessions the guy's were using, in sparring, the stuff they had learned the day before. Simple, direct and easily applied.

After lunch Matt reviewed everything from the previous sessions and we began to work Standup. We focused Boxing, Takedowns and Sprawling. We moved into the ring to do a little Vale Tudo. The guy's really seemed to enjoy this. We started in Standup and went until sub, knockout or time. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting smacked around. :~)

We stayed in the ring to correct some of the fundamental flaws Matt saw in our Standup games. We also worked the Boot kicks. Which one of the guy's has already used in a real situation to defuse a would-be fighters plans.

We than moved back out to the mat to work the Boxing Blast, which I find much more effective than the normal straight blast. Matt showed us a way to work it which is much more effective than using mitts, thai pads or other variations. After several blast drills Matt called us in for some more Q and A.

During the Q and A many questions were raised concerning Matt's training methods and opinions of other training methods. Matt was very forthright in his responses and never derogatory when addressing the differences in approach. Everyone came away with the understanding that this is the approach that Matt and several others of like mind have chosen. It's not for everyone nor are we trying to win everyone over. Those that get it..., well they get it, those that don't...., they don't. No hard feelings and no criticisms toward them. Matt also explained his position on certifications and affiliations. His open and honest opinions were appreciated by those in attendance.

It was an all around excellent training experience. Matt has the benefit of having world class athletes in his gym on a daily basis. Matt willingly gives of his experience with these athletes.

I am looking forward to having Matt out here again and continuing to train with him and the athletes of SBG.
To sum it up, one guy turned to me at the end of the second day and said "I don't think I have ever been this sore in my life, just from training. But I have never laughed as much and had such a good time while training".

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"I found the Matt thornton seminars to be the most informative and the ones that I take the most out of. I think that the key thing is the effort he put's into trying to improve your game. The seminar had overun by at least 3/4 of an hour yet he kept saying 'I really need to show you guys this'  He wasn't there to get his money and run." - from someone on a BJJ forum

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