Last weekend, Dan Shaw (Checkmat) and Lachie Giles volunteered their time and expertise and conducted a seminar at Absolute MMA and Conditioning, to help me get to the World Championships. I am very lucky to have such a supportive, proactive and an encouraging team around me. Besides my coach Thiago, these two beasts have been instrumental in my BJJ journey.

Dan was my first coach, is a walking BJJ encyclopedia and continues to be a very close friend. Lachie is obviously the most important person to me in my BJJ development – not only does he spend time with me every week drilling and specific training, but he also offers emotional support.

Daniel Shaw (Checkmat)

Lachie

So when they offered to run a seminar, I was quite touched. Raising money for the trip means my accommodation in LA will be paid for, but more importantly, I had a chance to share a little bit of my BJJ world with others.

Big Noggin…Big Smile!

About 30 people turned up, all from different clubs and affiliations, which just makes me happy.

Dan and Lachie spend 1 hr teaching closed guard attacks, and 1 hour on lasso spider guard sweeps. There was also time for Q & A, which received great feedback. To top it all off, Dan put the videos reviewing the techniques he taught on the seminar Facebook page.

Closed Guard Attacks

I want to thank everyone for coming… I hope you learnt a little bit and took away some new BJJ knowledge… I know I did! The financial support I’ve received means I have one less thing to worry about as I get ready to compete. Seeing so many different faces from different clubs literally means the world to me. I am certainly one lucky little blue belt.

Thanks everyone for contributing to making it such a good day!

Another token group photo