Come watch UFC 130 at Hooters Restaurant in Wayne, NJ Saturday night. Prelim fights start at 8pm and the main card starts at 9pm. Try to get there by 7pm to reserve your seat. The main card is as follows:

Rampage Jackson vs. Matt Hamill
Frank Mir vs. Roy Nelson
Travis Browne vs. Stefan Struve
Thiago Alves vs. Rick Story
Brian Stann vs. Jorge Santiago

The Memorial Day holiday weekend schedule is as follows:
Saturday: Little Spartans: 11am-11:45am
Open mat training: 12pm-1pm
Muay Thai: 1pm-2pm
Sunday:
BJJ 101: 11am-12pm
Monday:
Little Spartans: 5:15pm-6pm
BJJ 101: 6pm-7pm
Open mat training: 7pm-8pm

Take FREE classes for 30 Days at New Jersey’s premier martial arts academy, NJ United Mixed Martial Arts.  If you are looking to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, then come in and try our classes for a whole month.  You will find that our friendly instructors are dedicated to helping you reach your greatest potential.

“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

– Nora Roberts

Congratulations to Tomasz Kander and Matt Schettino for receiving their blue belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Both Tomasz and Matt have had great success competing at the white belt level in local tournaments as well as Grapplers Quest and NAGA. I’m looking forward to them continuing to improve and making a name for themselves as blue belts.

Congratulations to everyone that competed at The Grapplers Challenge II in Redbank, NJ.  This was a great tournament for white and blue belts.  I was very impressed with the overall level of competition in these divisions.  There were some great matches throughout the day.  Great job to everyone that competed.

Ron and Matt both won 1 match and lost 1 to the eventual champion in their respective divisions.  Rorie had a great showing in his first tournament winning 2 matches and losing 1 in a very close decision.  Win or lose I am happy with how everyone performed and you should all be very proud of yourselves.

Preston Gagg: 2nd place purple belt

Brendan Dallas: 2nd place white belt

Good luck to everyone competing in The Grapplers Challenge in Red Bank, NJ tomorrow!!! Bring back some hardware to NJU!!!

We will still be having our Little Spartans class from 11:00-11:45am Saturday.  Instead of our Combat Gold competition team training from 12-1pm, we will be having open mat training for students who have progressed through the BJJ 101 program. There will also be Muay Thai kickboxing class with Chris Jones from 1-2pm.

Friday we have BJJ 101 class from 11am-12pm, the little ninjas class from 5:15-5:45pm, and Muay Thai kickboxing from 6-7pm. Come and train!!!

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
– Theodore Roosevelt

And it’s whether or not you learn from your mistakes that determines if you will improve….

In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu there is a common misconception that in order to get better you need to train full speed every time you are at the academy.  Some practitioners think that if they spend all of their time training in a live environment, they will be better because they will be practicing at the same speed that they fight or compete. While training full speed is a very important part of improving your jiu jitsu, drilling isolated positions and techniques is equally as important when talking about improving one’s overall game.

Drilling positions and techniques along with training in a live environment is the most efficient way to improve your jiu jitsu. The truth is, it will allow you to get a better “feel” for the position and will make you more proficient in executing the technique. The “feel” involved with learning the technique allows you to react at the right time and in the correct way in order to make the move work. When the time is slowed down to 25% or 50%, it allows the practitioner to understand the position better, where rolling with a 100% resisting opponent doesn’t always allow you to execute the technique. Slowing the pace makes bridging the gap between practicing at no resistance to training in a live environment much easier. This also allows you to go a step further and tell your partner to react a certain way, to see if you can adapt to their movements, making you a more versatile grappler.    

The importance of drilling does not end once you are able to hit the technique in live training also. In order to keep the technique sharp, you need to constantly reinforce what you have learned in the past. Because there is so much information to learn, there is also a great chance that certain details on basic moves may be forgetten. This is actually very common among students.     

Drilling can also allow you to come up with transitions and combinations that you may not have seen in a live roll. This is due to the fact that you now have a greater understanding of the position, as opposed to just having a “tough”
guard to pass, or relentless pressure on top. Being able to have these seemless transitions between techniques is the key to reaching the next level in jiu jitsu. These seemless transitions are often improved during “flow rolling,” where students roll lighter, simulating a live roll, but with limited resistance.

Whether you are a new white belt student, or a world class Black Belt competitor, drilling should be a regular part of your training regimine. If it is not, you are severly limiting your potential as a martial artist. So drill, drill, drill, and once you are tired of drilling….. drill some more. There will always be plenty of time to roll hard and get a great workout.

Awesome Combat Gold Competition Team class Saturday afternoon followed by Muay Thai kickboxing class.  Everyone’s mount escapes were looking great in our Sunday 11am BJJ 101 class. Keep training hard guys, see you this week!!!