Well another training year almost in the books. And it was another standout. We welcomed a host of new students onto the mat, bid farewell to some old ones and all in all had a great time rolling round hugging each other.
Stand out seminars again from John Will this year in both BJJ and MMA. Everytime he comes he gives us a new way to think about our training and new ways to open up our game. Truly an inspirational coach.
With seminars come grades and we awarded some very well deserved grades this year – of particular note Gareth Terry and Andy Mui taking the big step up to purple belt. Both of these gents have been around since the garage days and both of them are obsessive about their training. And it shows.
And then what better way to finish off the year than with some absolute gold from multiple world champ Robert Drysdale. And as if that wasn’t enough the women got to spend time with Robert’s wife Sophia -an outstanding black belt competitor in her own right who delivered a cracker of a session on how to beat up the boys.
Speaking of competition this year was another great one. Andrew competed at the worlds in Abu Dhabi and also put on a dominating display in his first pro class MMA fight, good enough not just to win by rear naked choke, but also to win a well deserved fighter of the night. Mike came home from the Australasians in Melbourne with a gold in his division and other GC members won countless other medals in local gi and no gi competition and we continued our winning record in MMA. Not be outdone the juniors stepped up and had some standout performers in the growing juniors competition circuit. Supported by Drew and Amy they came back with fists full of medals and often it was an all GC final. Of special note was Hannah’s performance in May where she not only took out the mixed girls/guys division but also came away with most technical fighter of the day.
So how do you wrap up a year like that? With a party of course. And what’s the best way to start a BJJ party – rolling around hugging each other. So 17 December is our end of year party -come along to the club from 1pm and celebrate a great year. We’ll be rolling, playing grappling games, calling each other out for death matches and then at some point fire up the bbq and break out the beers. Looking forward to seeing you all there.