Hello everyone!
As some of you already know, I had the opportunity to join my first seminar. It was a last minute decision but was worth every penny of the $5 I paid to attend. The first thing I was recommend to bring was a notepad and a phone with a video recorder. The 10th Planet seminar was 4 hours long and there were a lot of different little details that you don’t want to miss out on or forget. Usually in these seminars the leading instructor will focus on 1-3 different moves, techniques and positions. The goal is to better yourself in that certain position over the time you have during the seminar.
Grappling class started off normal. We started off with rolling exercises to warm our bodies and get the blood flowing. Once everyone was ready, we started to stretch then continued on with the lesson we were learning. Skipping forward to the end of class, we were all sitting around our instructor Nabil, who dropped a nice surprise on us all. Nabil decided to set up a last minute 10th Planet jiu-jitsu seminar. I was extremely excited as I have never been to any martial arts seminar of any kind!
We worked on a 10th Planet position called the lock down. The lockdown is an unorthodox technique where your opponent is on a top position side mount, which leaves you on the bottom position in half guard; you wrap your leg around their leg, interlocking your foot with theirs then stretch your legs out. This causes pain to the opponent and traps them in your half guard. Over the course of the next 3 hours we learned how to maneuver into the lockdown from different positions, reversals from lockdown, how to attack and defend submissions – again all from the lockdown position. By the time I had finished with the seminar, I had 2.5 hours of video and a chapter book of notes to study. I recommend to any and all students of various martial arts to try and attend at least one seminar. The time spent nit-picking the same position, technique or drill with a professional will help shore up holes in your skills and training.
You can find out more about 10th planet’s programs and seminars on their website:
-Tylor “NINJA” Nicholson
Canadian Sport Sanshou/WKL 140lb Intercontinental Muay Thai Champion
WKL BC 130lb Junior Lightweight Muay Thai Champion
Comb Sport 140lb Super Lightweight Boxing Chamion