Fair week

Douglas County Fair is August 3-7. We will have a booth there again. Last year it was a blast. We met tons of people interested in getting involved in martial arts and others that have already been practicing martial arts. We had great conversations with a lot of really cool people. We also had memorable conversations with some odd characters. Anyway, we are putting together a list of volunteers to help out that week with the booth as well as helping take care of the dojo during the hours I will not be there. If you wish to help out, let Olga know so that she can put you an the list and fit you into a shift.

Sensei Keith

hot weather and hydration

Hot weather is upon us and will be for the rest of the summer. We are in the process of installing the A/C unit in the main mat room, but it will be a few more days until it is complete.

We are trying to keep the cooler stocked with cold water and G2 Gatorade to help keep everyone cool. We are also allowing more water breaks than usual. Be aware, you should hydrate yourself throughout the day before coming in for your classes. By the time you are feeling dehydrated in class, it is too late. On hot days, you should drink 16-24 oz of water 2 hours before practice, 8-16 oz 10 minutes before practice, and 8 oz every 15-20 minutes during practice.

If you are dehydrated during practice and start to feel light headed or dizzy, be sure to let the instructor know and stop your practice.

Also, we please ask that you throw away empty bottles at the end of your practice and if you bring your own bottle with you, take it with you when you leave.

certified SMAC

I am now a certified Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning through the International Sports Sciences Association.

certified SMAC

Sensei Larry Keith (that's me) is now a certified Specialist in Martial Arts Conditioning through the International Sports Sciences Association.

Jason Houston

Congratulations to Jason Houston for winning 1st place at the Corvallis Judo tournament yesterday. Jason has only been back to training for a few days and has a sinus infection on top of it all. Yet, he managed not only to compete, but to win 1st place. Awesome job Jason...and welcome home!

May 8th Family Safety Day

We will be helping out with the Optimist International annual "Family Safety Day" on May 8th. We will be doing martial arts demonstrations and talking about our martial arts programs. Dynamic MMA member, Tiffany Netz will be a speaker for the "heroes corner" talking about her academic and martial arts successes.

The Roseburg Martial Arts academy will be there and I am sure they will do an impressive demonstration. It would be awesome if we could put together a demo team that would rival theirs. If you are interested in being part of the demo team and helping out, let me know by Monday and we will set aside some special times to choreograph a demonstration.

This is a great way to support your dojo and encourage youth in our area to better themselves through martial arts. It is also a fun way to practice and develop your skills as a Judoka or Mixed Martial Artist. Get in touch with me asap if you would like to take part.

April 29

Small MMA classes today. I think we have quite a few people out sick with the flu. The Judo classes were relatively small too. We had great practices in Judo. We did grip fighting drills and lots of throws. Hopefully everyone has a chance to get well over this weekend and get back to training next week. See you at the dojo.

student instructors....

Two of our instructors (Ryan and Tommy) for the kids' classes were out sick yesterday. Tony Pepe and Justin Johnson stepped up and did a great job helping Ashley and me with the kids.

Teaching is a very important part of being an advanced student. It helps one to better understand the art. If you can explain to another student how a technique works, it means that you must know the intricacies of it. If you can explain to another student why we do things a certain way, you must be knowledgeable of the strategies the art entails.

When a student/instructor runs into a wall and is unable to answer the questions of the junior student, the Sensei is available to help meet that challenge. This enables both the junior and senior students to continue growing in the art.

Is teaching part of your curriculum? Yes, it is indeed. Even as an intermediate student, you are a mentor to beginners.

So, if you are called on to help teach another student, or a class, consider it both an honor and a learning experience. Just like everything else we do in martial arts, you will get out of it what you put into it.

See you at the dojo!

Wildlife Safari

Wow! Sooo many kids came by to break a board and earn a 2 week pass to train with us. We even had some teens and adults come by to try it.

I would like to extend a special thank you to everyone from our dojo that showed up to help out. (Tommy, Seth, Don, Justin, Daniel, Tiffany, Sierra, and Kelly) You guys did a great job and kept everything running smoothly.

I also thank the Wildlife Safari for inviting us to be part of the event and giving us such a great spot to set up our booth. (we were right at the entrance) We are already looking forward to being there again next year.

We have several more special events coming up soon. Keep looking here and on the bulletin boards at the dojo to stay up to date. If you wish to help out at any of these events, ask Olga to put you name on the list.

Wildlife Safari

Volunteers needed to help out at the KIDS DAY at Wildlife Safari in Winston tomorrow. We will meet at the Safari between 10 and 10:30 am Saturday, April 24th. We will be teaching kids how to break pine boards and talking to them about getting involved in our martial arts programs. See you at the Safari!

volunteers

We have many outside activities to do over the next few months. These activities include, Healthy Kids Day at the YMCA, Safety Day with the Optimist Club, Summer Jiu-jitsu camp at the Boys and Girls Club, Winston/Dillard after school program, Camp Millennium, and possibly a DSGC tournament. It is always nice when we approach these events as a team. All the help we can get is greatly appreciated.

subleagues...

We have a few students going to the April 3rd tournament. I am going to try to be there to coach and support.

Updates March 26, 2010

--Our self defense seminar last Saturday went very well. Over a dozen ladies showed up to learn. Penny, Sarah, Tiffany, and Ana all showed up to help out too.

--We plan to begin a full Jiu-jitsu program in the beginning of April. This will mean that Jiu-jitsu will be available 4 days a week instead of just one.

nutrition clinic today

We are doing a min-clinic on nutrition today at the dojo.

March 5, 2010

We have a couple of Judo tournaments coming up in May. If you are interested let me know. The tournaments are in Grants Pass and Corvallis. Both tournaments require USJA membership.

March 2, 2010

We worked some more on lots of sweeps from full guard, butterfly guard, and opponent standing in guard in the Judo class tonight. MMA class got to work some pretty sweet set ups for knee bar and ankle lock.

Tomorrow is Jiu-jitsu, randori, and kickboxing day. Lots of cool stuff.

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

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See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

Monday, March 1, 2010

Great classes today. I'm not just saying that. I love it when I see light bulbs come on over students' heads. We tied up some combination attacks and defenses in the MMA class and worked on smoothing out some ground transitions in the Judo class. It's nice to see things starting to connect for people...even the advanced students.

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

Nice weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We had some nice weather. I hope you got a chance to get out and have some fun or get some work around the house done...I know I did.

We'll be doing some light sparring this week in the MMA classes and light tachi-waza randori and ne-waza randori in the Judo classes.

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

good training tonight...

We did some really good setups to leg knots and leg locks in our MMA class tonight. Some of them seem very challenging at first, but once you work through the mechanics a couple of times, it gets much easier. Be sure to practice these things while chain grappling next week.

In Judo, we worked breaking the closed guard, a guard pass, a butterfly guard pass, a counter sweep to the inside guard pass, and half-guard inside lockdown. We also did a very unique strangle and a double armlock from kuzure-kesa-gatame.

Classes were very technical tonight, but that is one of the things that separates us from the rest. Superior technique!

Remember, Jigoro Kano said that there are only three ways to improve your skills...

1. Practice
2. Practice
3. Practice

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

ground and pound

Last night we got to work some g-n-p drills in the MMA class. This is a good way to create a sense of urgency in our submission grappling. You can't lay on your back choosing between juji-gatame, ude-garami, sankaku-jime, etc. when there is the constant threat of someone striking you.

We return to leglocks today in the MMA classes. Judo classes will concentrate on guard passes, sweeps, and submissions.

Dynamic MMA members,

Please be sure to post your comments about our training sessions below.

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Larry Keith

Great practice...and more

Morning and evening classes were intense today. In the Judo classes we did fast uchi-komi, 5 minutes of grip fighting, and then 5 minute rounds of throw for throw for the remainder of class.

In the MMA class, we did 50 Thai kicks, 50 front shove kicks, 50 skipping knees, parrying drill, kick blocking/countering drills, and finished the class with 3 minute rounds of sparring.

At the end of the Judo class tonight, it was raining from the condensation that had gathered on the ceiling's steel beams. If you missed today's classes, don't worry, we'll be doing it all week.

See you at the dojo,

Sensei Keith

Busy weekend

Busy weekend coming up...Ashley, Tiffany, and Kacy are heading to Ontario, Oregon to compete in the Ore-Ida/Oregon State Championship Judo tournament. Jessee and Matt will be fighting in Roseburg on the Brass Knuckles show. I am confident we will have good results all around.

Good classes

Really good classes tonight. The Judo class was packed. We worked throws and a kataha-jime from standing. The MMA class wasn't quite as full but it was still good. We worked entry to leg locks from standing. Fun stuff...

Rogue Warrior Cage Fights

Well, unfortunately, things did not go as planned at the fights. Jessee did not win the title, but he is bringing home more experience. This loss was pretty fast due to the explosiveness of the fight. Jessee was in good shape and had been training well, he just got caught. It was a move he has practiced many times over at the dojo and in grappling competitions. MMA is a game of capitalizing on your opponent's mistakes. Jessee made a mistake and his opponent got his back and choked him with a technique that Jessee is very familiar with. He knows what he did wrong and will work to correct it. He said that even though he has been training more than in his previous fights, he needs to dedicate himself to it even more. I agree. If you choose to compete in this field, you need to prioritize your training at the top of your list.

Some of the things you might hear me say in the dojo regarding this mentality--

--If you want to be a champion, you must train like a champion
--Champions are willing to do what others are not
--You get out of it what you put into it
--The work is done in the dojo, the payday is the fight
--The work you do in the dojo should be harder than the fight
--The more you sweat in the dojo, the less you'll sweat in the ring
so on and so on...etc...etc...

Anyway, I will leave you with this....When Jigor Kano was asked how to become more proficient in Judo, his answer, "three things....practice, practice, practice."
Alexander Karelin was a famous wrestler from Russia. He went six years without anyone ever scoring a single point on him. He was undefeated in international competition for 13 years. When asked how he did it, his answer was this, "train like a mad man."

See you at the dojo...

News...

January 16th--
Jessee "flyin" Filan will be fighting for the 135lb title tomorrow in Medford for the Roque Warrior Cage Fighting promotion. If he wins this title, he will be the first of our members to bring home a title. We have had many title shots, but the fighters in the past have taken the opportunity too lightly. Jessee has been training hard and is very prepared. I have a lot of confidence in him for this fight.

Boot camp--
The Shugyo Boot Camp start date has been postponed until February. If you would like more information call Olga at 541-229-JUDO or email me at hadakajudo@gmail.com

Winners of the Referral Contest--
Joshua Parnell won the Ipod touch
James Miller is the winner of the Wii Sports package
Congratulations you guys! Well done!

January 23rd Sub tourney--
Mathea Wooten will be representing DFCC in the kids division at a No Gi submission tournament in Salem, Oregon. If you want more information on how you can compete, go to www.subleague.com

January 30th fights in Roseburg--
Brass Knuckles Promotions will be at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. DFCC member Matt LaRocque will be fighting for the 185 contendership. Go Matt! If any of our other members are interested in trying out for our Fight Team, just let me know. There will plenty of future shows to compete in.