If you didnt get chance to attend the first Lightweight ADCC Training Camp last weekend at Chris Rees Academy HQ in Swansea. This is low down of everything that happened so hopefully you will want to attend the next one! The weeked was hosted by Ashley Williams, it was an awesome weekend filled with loads of great details and hard technical rounds. High level competitors traveled from across the UK to attend this camp to heighten their chances of winning at the ADCC Trials in Moldova this October!

So what was the overall schedule for the weekend?

On Saturday :

The Academy had an open mat 12:00 – 1:00 for all to attend. – This was only for the really keen who got to the academy early as there was still plenty of rolling to happen later in the day. From 1:30 – 2:30 was a ADCC Rules meeting with Sifu Patel. Although this over ran a little as so many people had questions to clarify within the grey areas of the rules. The main point I took away from this was the “3 SECOND RULE” basically everything you do, pause and hold etc for 3 seconds before moving on to get points for the action. Sifu tried to make this Rules Meeting as informative, interesting and enjoyable as possible to give tips that will prove beneficial and give you an advantage within the scoring period of an ADCC match.

At 3:00 – 4:00 Pressure passing techniques were taught by Ashley Williams. – He went through three different ways of passing from different guards which could be implemented into most peoples top game. What was also great about this camp was that all the techniques were filmed and available to the attendees of the camp for later revision. There is nothing worse than getting information chucked at you in a short period of time and then forgetting all of the finer details of the move.

From 4:00 – 5:00 Specific Sparring began, this entailed moving into groups relevant to weight categories going up in 5kg increments, from 55-65kg up to 80kg. This was firstly centred around take downs, after countless rounds we then moved into a group of purple, brown and black belts together and a group of white and blue belts. This camp is aimed at high level competitors with genuine intent to compete at the ADCC Trials rather than a chance for people to get a free training weekend. I think the next camp will be aimed solely for purple to black belt males and blue and above females. Just to ensure there is enough mat space for everyone to roll competitively. When we were split into our groups we continued with specific sparring but this time with one person starting on the bottom with the aim to sweep or submit, and the other person standing looking to pass or submit.

After these rounds at 5:00 – 6:00 we had Competition Rounds this was a chance for anyone to roll with anyone. Using the full two mat spaces and resting whenever needed. This was a chance to roll with a variety of people from different academies and test you jiu-jitsu ability.

On Sunday:

From 10:00 – 12:00 all Black Belts attending were able to use the academy to teach private lessons. These were just arranged directly with the black belt and could of been a last minute booking. Other people also used the mat area in this time to drill their own things.

From 12:00 – 1:00 Ross Nicholls held a workshop on the saddle. Dropping knowledge bombs for entries, attacks, defence and switching to passing. This workshop was originally supposed to start at 1pm however got push forward an hour to start and end our sunday sooner for everyone to get home earlier before going back to work on Monday.

From 1:00 – 2:00 we did Specific Sparring again which was split into weighted groups again, also all the females ended up in a group together as we were simular weights. There was around 15 females there in total, next time hopefully we can double that number to get more more females at the trials.

From 2:00 till 3:00 Competition Rounds took place. Everyones bodies were a little broken from Saturdays training but we kept pushing!

As this was a two day camp, unless you lived nearby you needed to sort out accomodation! There was the option for anyone to sleep at the gym although this would be pretty cold, I think only a handful of people actually ended up staying at the gym. Originally me and my friend were going to do this however when we realised how cold it would be we manage to sneak into our other friends hotel room and camp out there instead! Also Clare Doyle owns a guest house nearby which had rooms for as little as £30 for the night. She was also kind enough to offer that anyone regardless of if you were staying at her guesthouse or not could go shower there after the sunday sessions and enjoy a free tea/Coffee and well earned biscuits before you traveled back.

The camp was and always will remain FREE as long as it’s possible. However if you attended and feel like you would like to make a donation, Ashley has asked that you donate to a charitable organisation like this one.

Sam Crook is making some amazing changes through the power of Jiu-Jitsu. Check out his facebook for the incredible work he is doing in Cameroon and here is the link to donate:

paypal.me/helpingharry

These camps are designed to bring the best athletes together to increase the level of UK BJJ and give everyone attended a greater chance of suceeding at the ADCC trials this October. They are also an oppurtunity to meet new faces and network with other academies so that when you are at the ADCC trials you are not alone. Everyone from the UK can support eachother to achieve as many medalist as possible. All that have attended this first camp cannot thank Ash Williams enough for the time and effort he put into organising and putting on this training camp and im sure we will all be back for the next one in 8 – 10 weeks! Thank You!