Congrats to Mike Baskis. He submitted Robert Browning last night in a great fight. Baskis was winning the striking with some crisp kicks and punches. Browning managed to take Mike down several times. Mike successfully worked for armlocks and triangles the entire time. Finally in the 3rd he caught Browning with a straight armlock. The fight was exciting with both willing to exchange strikes and also both very skilled on the ground. At one time Browning threatened Mike's back but Mike managed to safely slide out and back to guard. These guys are known to be the best 145ers in the region and it was a much anticipated fight. And it ended up being a classic. Also, Chad Rimsek fought on short notice. He came out hard seduring a couple takedowns in the 1st round. He had good positions but was unable to capatilize. In the second round he took some hard strikes and the ref was forced to stop it. Rimsek will leave for Ft. Leonardwood Sept. 4th as he joines the military active duty. Tipton was unable to fight again due to his opponent disappearing into thin air!!! I heard Tipton was walking around flexing Swackhammer style and scared his opponent. Congrats to 4Seasons for taking home another title. It always seems we end up fighting them in big fights!!! We love to fight the best and they certainly have some of the best fighters around. Win or lose, that's how it's supposed to be.

Saturday, August 2nd the Bowling Green School conducted a 2 hour training session inside the Greenwood Mall. The event was put on by Dillards to push their Tapout and Affliction Gear. The training was a blast. Thanks to all those that attended.

Congrats to big Brandon Kessinger for placing 2nd in the Sinster Tournament Saturday in his Gi division. Also big props to our friend Nate Jolly for knocking Merritt Warren out in only 38 seconds. Merritt suffered a broken jaw in 2 places and is still hospitalized as of Sunday Night. We wish him luck in his recovery. However, many people in Western Kentucky, specifically Owensboro and Evansville, have been bad mouthing Nate Jolly for some time now. It was refreshing to see him win easily over one of the top fighters from Hook n Shoot.

Warrior Fighting Challenge Shepardsville We went 5-1 for the night. Mike Cayo opened the night with his 6th win with a heel hook in 29 seconds over a 4 Seasons purple belt. Cayo landed some effective punches and kicks before the ending leg lock. Matt Martin won his second fight with a rear naked choke in round 1. Matt landed some hard shots, great takedowns and executed great control in every position. Mike Baskis dismantled Jeremy Pender with kicks and punches. Then Pender tried to clinch Baskis but Baskis was able to sink in the guillotine for his 7th straight submission win in route to upping his record to 8-0. Corvin made short work of Brandon Shepard with some ground and pound. Casey Shewmaker dominated Bobby Carter and contrary to protests by the Team Animal contingent Shewmaker did not throw nor land illegal shots to the back of the head. Shewmaker takes home the belt. Little Brandon D. from Bowling Green fought hard. Unfortunately, his opponent was able to land effective strikes throughout the match. In round 3, despite Brandon's willingness to go forward, the corner threw in the towel.

Saturday night in Iron Warrior Cage Fighting, located in Muncie, Indiana, Jon Rigdon fought for the featherweight title. Jon spent much of round 1 effectively defending the guillotine choke. After releasing his Head Jon transitioned to the back and slide into the armlock to win the title near the end of round 1. Congrats to Jon.

6-1 on the weekend and 2 more titles. Congrats to everyone for the great fights.

We are back in the store front at 605 East Dixie. The renovations are fantastic. The building interior looks great. All classes are up and running as normal. We have the regular Monday, Wednesday Saturday, and Sunday classes as well as the morning classes from 9-11am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Get in the gym and train.

Josh

Scott Porter is famous

Taken from the WNKY Bowling Green News

http://www.wnky.net/younews/19890644.html

Matt Morgan Afghanistan Report (Matt Morgan is one of our old School purple belts)

Just a non-combat update. My Jiu Jitsu team here is doing great. We are getting some great practices in. As a huge bonus Dana White sent four UFC fighters our way, Michael Bisping, Carlos Conduit, Urijah Faber, and B.J. Penn. They came and rolled with us for awhile, Michael Bisping (undefeated in the UFC) called me out, so I put an old school US Army beat down on the British Fighter (yes hes wearing a royal marines shirt). Great Times!

Professor Luiz Palhares has a web page that lists all the association students names.

Just click on the belt color and the list comes up.
http://www.luizpalharesjiujitsu.com/students/studentlist.asp

Also, check out the crossfit.com site for more details on crossfit and also check out the WOD or work out of the day.
http://www.crossfit.com

Congrats to Instructor Josh Johnson for becoming a Level I Instructor/Trainer of Crossfit concepts. Crossfit is a revolutionary fitness and conditioning movement that has gained great popularity among all forms of combat athletes from Jiu-Jitsu to Judo to MMA!!! Additionally, first responders such as firefighters, enforcement officers and military personal are big proponents of this movement. Josh attending the certification in Jacksonville, Florida on June 7th and 8th.

Congrats to Dirty Dave Gray and Tyler Lasley for stepping up the week of the AFL Caged Inferno in Lawrenceburg Saturday night!!! Both took fights on short notice to help out the show. Dirty Dave quickly took his opponent down, passed, mounted and secured the mounted triangle for the win. Tyler slammed his opponent immediately and both scrambled it what appeared to be a tornado of movement. After making their way back to the feet Tyler was unable to continue due to rib injury. On a side note, both of these warriors are only 18 years of age!!!

Here is part of the gauntlet from the belt promotions last Saturday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMqrhsQfBDk

We just conducted our biannual belt promotions. These are the first major belt promotions since we moved into our store front location Feb. of 2007. We graduated 7 kids to white/yellow belt and we graduated 5 kids to yellow belt. In addition, we graduated 17 new blue belts!!!!! And 2 new purple belts!!!

Here's the breakdown:

Kids white/yellow:
Tanner, Logan, Jonathan, Heath, Josh, Bryant, Ferdinand

Kids yellow:
Caitlin, Kesleigh, Mason, Caleb, Landon

These adults as a group have won 39 MMA fights and contributed to winning the 2007 Bluegrass BJJ Open.

Blue Belts:
Trinity Holbert, Anthony Miller, Chris Biddle, Chris Kent, Paul Tipton, Cody Gibbons, Steve Osmun
Bobby Swackhammer, Mark Ignacio, Steve Harris, Mike Cayo, Aaron Grace NGSF, Mike Clarke NGSF,
Joe Hall NGSF, Adam Ghetto NGSF, Mike Baskis, Ricky Porter

Purple Belts:
"Dirty" Dave Gray
Joe "Tenderfoot" Dibble

Congrats to all. Keep training and getting better.

E-town Location Undergoes Renovation

The E-town store front location at 605 East Dixie is in the middle of renovation that will include a complete new roof, new siding, new sign in the front, a storage room, 2 dressing rooms, complete remodeling inside, heat and air units, and possibly a shower. Therefore, all classes have been moved to G.C. Burkhead Elementary School and will run there until further notification. The schedule will remain the same. Sorry for the inconvenience but it is a positive step in our goal of running a top notch and professional training facility that rivals any in the United States.

G C Burkhead 521 Charlemagne Blvd. E-town, KY 42701 If you have any questions call Josh at 270 234-3961

Mike Baskis and Bobby "Jackhammer" Swackhammer win championships.
Mike Baskis improved his record to 6-0 with his 5th straight submission victory. He armlocked former champion Aaron Walker in the 3rd round of their contest to take home the 145lb. belt. Baskis has another title fight scheduled for the Southern Fight League in May and later in June he will fight for the AFL title.
The "Jackhammer" only needed 1 round to catch his opponent with a mounted americana for the vacant (left vacant by our own Adam Arebalo) 135lb. title. With that win Swack ups his record to 5-0.

We have a new Affiliate in Hazard Kentucky. Jon Helton runs the Hazard Martial Arts Club and will now be working with us in developing Brazilian style Jiu-Jitsu in Eastern Kentucky. Check out their website. http://www.hazardmartialarts.com/about.html

We went 11-1 for the night.

We won 3 more titles
We have moved our record to 122-27 overall and 32-3 for 2008

Ricky Porter won with an armlock in the 1st
John Ballard won with armlock in the 1st
Mike Baskis became the 145lb champ with an armlock in the 3rd
Steve Harris won with armlock in the 2nd
Chris "Brandenburg" Biddle won with armlock in 2nd
Bobby Swackhammer won the 135lb.
title with an americana in the 1st
Donny Wallace won with a kimura in the 1st
Matt "Gracie" Ragan won by TKO from the mount in the 1st
Mike Cayo won by TKO from the mount in the 1st
Casey Shoemaker won by KO from side control
Chad "Globbersauras" Corvin won Heavy Weight Championship by KO in the 1st
Cody Gibbons lost by headlock choke. No shame. He is one of our best fighters and will come back very strong.

Great Showing. We tried to find some of the toughest competition we could. We fought some of Oxendine's guys. But we had a great showing. Thanks to all the fans and I hope to see you all again May 16th.

"We took a team to the Bluegrass BJJ Open in Louisville, Ky yesterday. We had mixed results (you know I'm never happy). It's not about winning or losing it's about executing your game as close to perfect as possible. We have a lot of basic work to do in the upcoming months. So put the rubber guard, body triangle, and spinning chokes away and let's get back to the stuff that works. Posture, posture, and then some more posture, hip movement, base. Executing the basic passes and sweeps correctly.

Here are some of the results:

Brandon Kessinger won his blue belt division and the open weight as well. Best I remeber he went 7-0 for the day.

Matt "Gracie" Ragan won his blue belt division with 3 quick submission wins. he won with a cross choke, a triangle, and a knee bar

David Chism finished second in his division. He had a couple tough matches that were really close.

Mike Cayo finished 3rd in his division. He looked awesome at times but unfortunately gave away some early points in 2 of the matches and was unable to overcome the difference.

Big Steve Harris came in 2nd in his division and 3rd in the open. Steve looked really good. I think he had 10 matches for the day!!!

Trinity took on a monster in the open weight (the eventual winner) and almost finished twice and almost picked him up for the double leg once.

Sean Westcott will be on highlight footage everwhere. Some kid from Southern Indiana pulled off a flying armlock on him!!! It was a beautifull move. Sean did manage to knee bar a guy in the open weight before being defeated by the eventual runner-up.

Ashcon looked tough in his matches. He pulled out some tough wins and looked good in his first competition.

AJ fought tough and and did some good things. AJ will continue to work hard in practice and improve.

Landon had a really close match with a kid from the CORE.

They both traded submission attempts but the CORE kid was able to sweep Landon"

Not our best performance by far. We WILL improve.

We divided forces Saturday night and fought in 2 different shows in 2 different towns. In Madisonville Ultimate Cage Championships, Adam the Igg knocked his opponent out in the 2nd round to up his record to 7-0. In the main event Matt "Gracie" Ragan made short work of home town boy Kwinn Davis with an armlock about 30 seconds in. Ragan is now the UCC champion at 145lbs. In Walton, KY Hardrock Higdon won with sweet double leg to back mount to rear choke. "Irish" Rob Mooney won his 10th fight via head and arm choke in less than a minute. Congrats to these warriors!!! We are now 26-0 for the year and 107-24 overall.

We are loaded with 45ers!!!! Baskis won in AFL and is now the number 1 ranked 145er in the AFL. He also has a big WFC title fight April 19th in E-town.
Matt "Gracie" Ragan is living up to his name and is now the UCC 145 champ.
Adam the Igg is now 7-0!!!!!
Paul Tipton fights for the Ring of Rage title on April 5th.
All these guys are undefeated and hungry for some heads to rock!!!
We are 17-0 at 145 lbs.

E-town BeatDown results from AFL (americanfightleague.com)

The show was top notch. Many UFC vets. 4 Brazilians on the card. 7 pro fights. We had 2 fighters in this event. Mike Baskis and Dan Christison. Mike Baskis defeated Ryan Jones of 4 Seasons in 2:10 of the 1st round by gullotine choke. Mike roughed him up pretty good in the stand-up and floored him about 30 seconds into the first round. Mike forced Ryan to stand back up and Mike continued to punish him with more striking. Finally, Ryan secured the clinch and took Mike down. Mike secured the grip around the neck established the guard and finished the fight!!!! Ryan Jones was the number 1 ranked AFL 145er and a purple belt in BJJ. This is a big win for Baskis!!!!

Dan "Sandman" Christison won via TKO in the 2nd round over a very game John Leblanc of Tennessee. Dan took the opportunity to work on his striking during the 1st round. Dan used a some nice straight punching to the head and body coupled with some great front and round kicks to the legs and midsection to wear out his opponent. In the second round Dan wasted no time taking the fight to the ground where he ended it quickly with dominate positioning and some brutal ground and pound. Congrats to all 4 of these warriors!!!! Ryan and John were very game competitors. Undoutedly they will be back better than ever.

Haystan Submission Grappling Tournament went down Saturday the 16th. We took 7 guys over there and kicked butt!!! The level of the tournament was very high with nearly 200 competitors. They have a unique hybrid set of rules that don't favor any particular style. And all submissions are legal including head cranks and leg locks. 6 of our 7 finished in 2nd place.

Dirty Dave beat BJJ black belt Josh Cates 2-1. Dave was working the gogo platta and settled for the omo platta sweep and took Cates back!!!!

Joe Baize was beaten in his first match with a sudden death takedown in the overtime round by a Jacare brown belt who has won several Haystan tournament absolutes. The match was incredible to watch as the brown belt escaped at least 8 leg lock attempts. Several of which were very very tight. Joe then went on to beat Darren Durham, Carlson Gracie brown belt in less than a minute by knee bar, Jason Jones a 4 seasons purple belt in 4 seconds by knee bar and then a Josh Cates purple belt by heel hook in less than 30 seconds.

Brandon Kessinger displayed the most heart and smarts in his 2nd place win. He used superior takedowns and guard passing throughout the day. He became so exhausted that he reverted to playing a strategic game based on scoring last second points for the win. It worked perfectly. In the finals he just was too exhausted after being forced to fight in 3 straight matches.

Sean Westcott looked very good in his matches. He landed a sweet knee bar, secured a mata leao choke from the back and had a tremendous finale match with a purple belt from Josh Cates only losing 2-1 on points.

Steve Harris came out a little slow and lost his opening match before securing a couple submissions to earn the 2nd place finish.

Little Landon who just moved into the adult classes looked great. He was very aggressive and landed several submissions including an armlock, triangle choke, and rear naked choke. He was simply bested by a better kid in the finals.

David Chism also competed in his first tournament. He had a really competitive first match in which he dominated most of the ground action. In his second match he was caught with an armlock.

Overall the tournament featured some great mat skills. Honestly, I thought some of our matches were the most entertaining of the day and our guys looked extremely technical. Congrats guys!!!

Check out the event calendar for upcoming events.

This is the calendar as of now. I'm sure there will be more to come later.

I have recently overheard some ridiculous conversations on physical fitness/conditioning. We currently are not holding separate classes for conditioning but I just want to remind everyone that I do have a Masters of Science in Exercise Sport Science. If anyone has any questions I will be glad to answer them. I am also a big believer in Crossfit training. Check out crossfit.com for more details and ideas on that. Our Bowling Green School is located inside a Crossfit gym now. Here are some things to remember when conditioning for combat sports or fitness in general.

Training Principles:
Overload- Manipulate frequency, intensity and focus on mode of exercise to induce great responses to training
Specificity- Type and mode of exercise should mimic or copy that of performance needs. For example, a typical MMA round last 3-5 minutes. Therefore, you should not exercise for a duration longer than your typical round because you may be using a different energy system and not receiving benefits from it. Combat sport athletes should be lifting odd shape objects while under metabolic/cardiovascular stress. In other words, you should be lifting while your heart rate is very high and your ventilation (breathing) has increased.
Individual Difference Principle- Beginning fitness level/ strengths and weaknesses/needs factor into and should shape your training.
Reversability Principle- Studies show in only 1-2 weeks detraining reduces both metabolic and exercise capacity, with many training adaptations lost within several months. In other words, use it or lose it.

Things I do not advocate:
bench press
biceps curles
Triceps extensions
or any other bodybuilding isolation exercises
Running over 3 minutes or trying to be explosive for more than 2-3 minutes

Things I do advocate: Kettlebells
Bag Swinging
Sandbag lifting
Olympic lifts
Squats and Deadlifts
Jump Rope
Dot Drill
Balance Ball Drills
Bosu Training
Plyometric Box Jumps
Rope Climbing
Gymnastics
Dips/Pull-ups on Rings
Medicine Ball Drilling
Rowing Machine
Agility Ladder

Fortunately, we have many of these items in the gym in E-town and Bowling Green has the entire Crossfit program. I will be glad to show you ways to use this equipment and give you some training ideas.

Some Workout ideas borrowed from Crossfit include.
Combining 2-3 exercises together and completing as many as possible 3 times in a row without stopping. Or "Fight Gone Bad" includes a new exercise every minute for a round (MMA round) with a minute break repeated 3-5 times. There are an unlimited number of possibilities on www.crossfit.com check it out.

We reached 100 wins!!!!

Campbellsville
7-0 for the night
21-0 for the year
102-24 Overall Team Record

Congrats to the Campbellsville winners
Mike Cayo, Mike Baskis, Chris Kent, Chris Biddle, Joe Dibble, Trinity Holbert, and Steve Osmun

I recently overheard a big and semi successfull MMA instructor from Louisville stating that Jiu-Jitsu doesn't win MMA fights. Many people want to place blame elsewhere for their lack of skill, lack of knowledge, and lack of discipline to train properly. As Luiz says, Jiu-Jitsu is MMA. Train hard, prepare youself, examine your game, and continue to improve your positions. Jiu-Jitsu doesn't lose fights, when executed properly it is flawless. Don't be satisfied with your level or your game. Continue to improve and tighten your positions. We will continue to train properly and win fights. Hold on tight, 2008 is going to be one heck of a ride.
-Josh Johnson

Sensei Eb Kieslich (6th degree) has graduated his first two Shodans (black belts). Zach Smith and Matt Kitterman have both trained for nearly a decade and were well deserving of the promotions. Congratulations to those guys and Sensei!!!!

Cody Gibbons won his second MMA fight with a 3 round decision over 4 Seasons' Mike Jacobs. Cody showed great cage control and dominated with takedowns and punch flurries to win a unanimous decision. As a team we are now 13-0 for 2008. Check out the fight on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5vp83ggaRY

Luiz seminar was good! 1-13-07
Luiz showed us some great positions as usual. Thanks to those who supported the seminar. It was cool to have Soneca and Caser, Luiz's son there as well.

Joe Baize is purple after his fight!!!

But it's not bruising. Baize is wearing the purple belt now. All the upper belts can take a deep breathe now and relax. hahahahaha After discussing it with Luiz we decided that Joe has earned the faixa roxa!!! He ran like a little girl through the gauntlet!!!

It was another E-town BeatDown:

12-0 on the night.

Heck of a show guys.
1 Mike Baskis by 1st round armlock in :41 seconds
2 Dirty Dave Gray won in the second round at 1:53 with a rear naked choke
3 Matt Ragan won at :59 seconds of round 2 with a triangle
4 Ricky Porter won in the second round :54 seconds with an armlock.
5 Cody Gibbons won in the 1st round by ground and pound
6 Joe Baize 1st round :33 seconds hell hook BABY!!!!!
7 Caser Palhares 1st round victory in :31 seconds with a rear naked choke.
8 Aaron Pile won 2nd round armlock at the :46 second mark.
9 Scott Porter won 1st round kimura in :57 seconds
10 Bobby Swackhammer won in 1:15 of round 1 by strikes to the stomach
11 Jared Wright won in round 1 americana in 1:05
12 Chad Corvin won in 2:10 of round 1 with mounted strikes

Nice Guys:
Bryan Bennett won in 1:33 of round 2 with a rear naked choke
Venessa Bohleber :37 seconds of round 1 mounted strikes
Joe Baize (read above)
Jared Wright (read above)

Saturday Jan. 6th Sensei Sensei Eberhard Kieslich (6th degree Judoka) from Brandenburg via Germany conducted belt testing in our academy!!! Zach Smith, Matt Kitterman and tested for their black belts while Shawn also from Brandenburg tested for his 3rd grade brown belt (3 browns before black). Also, our very own John Ballard (who has trained with Sensei regularly) earned his yellow belt. The test was exciting and very long, nearly 2 1/2 hours long. Here are some pics of the Nage No Kata.

Don't forget we have an army of guys doing battle on Jan. 12th at the E-town Armory. Get your tickets from the school to help out financially.

In addition, we have several friends from Nice Guy Submission Fighting gloving it up.

Joe Baize
Aaron Grace
Bryan Bennett
Venessa B. "Warrior Wear"