Saturday, December 20, 2008

Catching Up

Gradings


Attended the gradings at Extreme HQ with young Nick and Trav last Wednesday. Dave and Jason came along to make sure we didn't disgrace ourselves and Jeroen came along a little later after some back cracking!! Trav and Nick both did very well and got there first runs on the board with a stripe a piece!!! Well done boys well deserved.
I must say I was extremely surprised and honoured to be moved up to 4 stripes. It's quite daunting because the next step being blue belt seems ridiculous at this point in time and obviously thats because it is and I'm a long ways off (if ever) achieving this goal. Having said that I take comfort and a great degree of pride in the fact that having Jeroen as a coach i will get there one day. It's funny when Dave got his blue belt I told him not to take it so easy on us (what was I thinking??) because he has to represent that standard and show what is expected at that level. I feel the same as a four stripe white as well because I respected Dave's ability at that level and I believe its important tp represent the abilities of an Extreme member in any arena. I also love encouraging and imparting a bit of what I've learnt and the mistakes I made, etc on the newer guys as has been done and is still being done to me along my BJJ journey.

I agree with Jeroen's comments on the guys who didn't attend the grading. This is a great sport and we have a great club and I encourage every one to really jump in and get as much out of it as you can. Having the opportunity to be graded by the best BJJ black belts in Australia is something I believe is an honour you can carry with you wherever you train or compete. It's also a sign of respect to Jeroen who will only tell you to attend if he thinks you are ready. So no bullshit excuses next time!!!!!!!!

Dominance MG December 2008 Gi Competiton

Great day well represented by Extreme Students from Ringwood, Chadstone and of course Mornington. Daniel and Ricky fought very well in their division against some very tough competiton that included Pierre from Mornington Judo (well done mate for having a crack, taking the silver and impressing the rest of us with some bloody nice takedowns) and Dave (took the gold) and John from Chadstone. Peter popped his competition cherry in the heavier weights and against some seasoned competion. All of his opponents have had a heap of comp experience as I've seen them competing in everything I've been in. I managed a silver medal behind Kit from Ringwood Extreme who went on to win the Absolute Division by tapping out a blue belt and then two purple belts!!! He also got graded to blue at the gradings. Well done Kit.

Thanks to Dave CASSAR for coming with us for support. Dave is one of those one in a million people who honestly means what he says and although laid up with an injury still makes the treck to encourage and mentor the rest of us. Cheers mate.

Have a look on youtube for some of the fights under "Dominance MG December 2008 Competition"

Have a great and safe Christmas to you all and see you on the mat in 2009!!!!

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