On May 4 & 5, 2013, I conducted a seminar in Sacramento at Monster BJJ (http://www.monstergym916.com/). Here are some thoughts from some of those attending, as well as my thoughts at the end.

AAR Summary for IAJ/IAP NorCal

First, let me just say that for those of you miss out on training with Cecil, you are missing a great opportunity to put together your empty hand structure of the physical component of ECQCish training – but under Cecil’s very capable, real- time performance coaching. Wow that was quite the run on sentence.

Overall, the beauty of taking IAJ together with IAP is that you can see how congruent this platform of training is. From the standpoint of the importance of surviving the initial “ambush” or initiative deficit impact event and the importance of moving to regaining initiative from a solid defensive platform, the underlying concepts and even some of the physical structure expressions are consistent.

Having now taken this coursework three times, I have seen how each time I continue to learn and pick up additional tweaks and major pieces to augment my empty hands training. Cecil continues to refine his messaging and delivery all for the better. One of the big “light bulb” gems was how he communicated the structural similarity of the “default” structure and CM structure, as well as the ground survival structure.

One of the interesting circumstances of the weekend was that my coach came in and rolled during the end of the IAJ weapons portion. We discussed this a bit thereafter and during my private lesson last week. Needless to say, I’m personally going to truly benefit from his exposure to this material. He adapted very quickly to weapons- based and probably in two cycles he was really starting to get it. His take on it was that he thought of “weapons” as just another technique/submission – once he gained positional control, albeit with a priority to hand monitoring, weapons access was there – that is accessing his opponents weapons.

Same thing during IAJ, my coach came in and worked with me in a “moving” wall drill. He is a skilled attribute based boxer, but was unable to penetrate my defensive structure. He commented that he really sees the value of this structure, especially for guys like me that don’t train this for hours a day.

Because our class consisted of all ECQC alums and experienced jits or MMA guys, we were able to move along and cover quite a bit more material than from previous courses. We were then able to go thru a lot of cycles and evos with Cecil watching and giving us individual live performance coaching – which he excels in. I’m certain I speak for all the attendees that all of us benefited greatly from this course!

Thanks again Cecil, for putting together this material and flying out to NorCal!
Byrren

I enjoyed Byrren’s comments, especially where he talked about the congruency between the standing default, the standing striking game, the vertical clinch, and the grounded game. It is one of the most important things I try to get across. The more congruent we are across all those elements, as well as when weapons are in play, we can streamline our training, while still maximizing it.

It was a great class, and especially the CM stuff was very eye opening to me and not what I was expecting based on the clips I’ve seen on YouTube. There’s a lot more to it than just moving your arms like that.

Drew

And my own comments:

It was great getting out there this year. As always, Byrren is a great host, as well as a talented and hard working athlete.

It was great to get some feedback about my evolution as a coach and the materials’ evolution. It is one thing to think I am on the right path and doing some good things, but it is something else entirely if other people don’t share that belief. To have such positive feedback was very gratifying.

I also enjoyed being able to go beyond my fundamental coursework and at least get a “taste” of the next level by being able to work some offensive stuff from the ground, and to go a little deeper into CM than I usually am able to, because of the attendees already having trained with me before, or had a good game already.

Thanks to everyone who came, and to Byrren for jumping through hops to put ti together, and to Seth for coming out and giving his deep insight and analysis not just to me, but freely to everyone at the seminar. I am looking forward to the video clips that will come out of it!

That was a pretty gratifying moment. Watching B deal with someone far younger, stronger, far faster hands, and an ungodly amount of superior experience. He really tried to amp up what he was doing to try to land even one clean shot and couldn’t, and you could see his frustration mount. Afterwards, he volunteered to write a testimonial for CM to put up on the CM main website. That’s how impressive Byrren’s performance was!