Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mixed Martial Arts in Aurora

Mixed Martial Arts in Aurora

MMA Fight Night Pictures and Stories...
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Students, Families, and Friends!


In this Post:
  • NEWS & EVENTS
Important_news
  • Academy T-Shirts - We are almost out of T-Shirts so please make sure to if you are interested. We will not be ordering anymore once we are out.
  • Graduation - Our next graduation will be 12/18th. We look forward to seeing everyone there.
  • Fight Night - What a huge turnout for fight night. We took over BW3's. Some really amazing fights especially BJ Penn vs Matt Hughes. Jab over hand cross is one of the best defense in a really street fight and it really worked in that match up and two others during the night. Also we saw the kimura finish 3 matches during the night with a behind the back variation that had not been seen before. Student got really pumped since that was one of our moves for the month. Check out this link for pictures from Fight Night. http://picasaweb.google.com/Karateisgoodforyou/FightNight2010?feat=directlink 
P.S. Thanks to Holly for making this a great night for all our students and their friends. Thanks to Sarah Case, Holly Collins, Jonah Forte, and Ken Lame for bringing buddies to Fight Night. Sure made it a blast to watch the matches together. 
 
P.P.S. Watch for the chance to work on some of the submissions we saw during the fights over the next couple of weeks in class.

  • Thanksgiving Day- Family Martial Arts will be closed Thanksgiving Thurs Nov 25th - Classes will resume as normal on Monday Nov 29th! Happy Thanksgiving to all and my deepest thanks for all of our students, families, and friends. Enjoy this wonderful weekend, I know I will.
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Thursday, November 18, 2010

MMA Aurora

Martial Arts Family...

MMA Fight Night 
Flyers & Registration Slips are available.
What’s up? Scott Shoen here, just checking in about our MMA Fight Night. The Flyer and Registration Slips are linked below. There are a limited number of spots available and they are filling up fast so be sure to registered so you aren’t left out.

Fight Night will be at Buffalo Wild Wings in Aurora at 8:30 PM. There are going to be some great matches, Rampage Vs. Machida and Hughes Vs. Penn. We will be giving out some prizes for students who bring buddies along with three free months of martial arts to one of our lucky buddies.


See you there!
Scott Shoen

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

BJJ Aurora

In this Post:

  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • Judo's and BJJ': History and Evolution
 MMA Chicago
  • Academy Closed for Thanksgiving - The Family Martial Arts Academy will be closed Thursday November 25th.
  • New Leadership Students - Congratulations to all our new Leadership students. It is great to see so many students set their sites on Black Belt and Beyond.
Alex & Abigail Holbert
Aidan Grubb
Easton & Kaylee Christine
Deagan & Dash Katz
David Hamilton
Alex Shaffer
Way to go!

Kodokan Judo's and BJJ's History and Evolution

Kodokan Judo was founded by Mitsuyu Maeda. Maeda was one of five of Judo's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to demonstrate and spread his art to the world. In 1904 Maeda visited a number of countries giving "jiu-do" demonstrations and accepting challenges from boxers, wrestlers, and other martial artists before arriving to Brazil in November 1914.


Jiu-jitsu is a Do or way of life. Since its inception in 1882, its parent art of judo was separated from older systems of Japanese jujutsu by an important difference that was passed on to BJJ: it is a method for promoting physical fitness, building virtue, and, ultimately, a way of life.

These quotes from Kano Jigoro give you a feeling for the idea of Judo as a way to develop character and virtue.

"Judo is the way of the highest or most efficient use of both physical and mental energy. Through training in the attack and defence techniques of judo, the practitioner nurtures their physical and mental strength, and gradually embodies the essence of the Way of Judo. Thus, the ultimate objective of Judo discipline is to be utilized as a means to self-perfection, and thenceforth to make a positive contribution to society."

"Since the very beginning, I had been categorizing Judo into three parts, rentai-ho, shobu-ho, and shushin-ho. Rentai-ho refers to Judo as a physical exercise, while shobu-ho is Judo as a martial art. Shushin-ho is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue as well as the study and application of the principles of Judo in our daily lives. I therefore anticipated that practitioners would develop their bodies in an ideal manner, to be outstanding in matches, and also to improve their wisdom and virtue and make the spirit of Judo live in their daily lives. If we consider Judo first as a physical exercise, we should remember that our bodies should not be stiff, but free, quick and strong. We should be able to move properly in response to our opponent's unexpected attacks. We should also not forget to make full use of every opportunity during our practice to improve our wisdom and virtue. These are the ideal principles of my Judo."

"Don't think about what to do after you become strong -- I have repeatedly stressed that the ultimate goal of Judo is to perfect the self, and to make a contribution to society. In the old days, Jūjutsu practitioners focused their efforts on becoming strong, and did not give too much consideration to how they could put that strength to use. Similarly, Judo practitioners of today do not make sufficient efforts to understand the ultimate objective of Judo. Too much emphasis is placed on the process rather than the objective, and many only desire to become strong and be able to defeat their opponents. Of course, I am not negating the importance of wanting to become strong or skilled. However, it must be remembered that this is just part of the process for a greater objective... The worth of all people is dependent on how they spend their life making contributions."

Maeda first trained sumo, and after the interest generated by stories about the success of judo at contests between judo and jujutsu that were occurring at the time, he went from sumo to judo, becoming a student of Kano's Kodokan judo. He was promoted to 7th dan in Kodokan judo the day before he died in 1941.

In 1914, Maeda was given the opportunity to travel to Brazil as part of a large Japanese immigration colony. In Brazil, in the northern state of Para, he befriended Gastão Gracie who helped Maeda get established. To show his gratitude, Maeda offered to teach traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu to Gastão's oldest son, Carlos Gracie. Carlos learned for a few years and eventually passed his knowledge to his brothers.

At age fourteen, Helio Gracie, the youngest of the brothers moved in with his older brothers who lived and taught Jiu-Jitsu in a house in Botafogo. Following doctor’s recommendations, Helio would spend the next few years limited to only watching his brothers teach as he was naturally frail.

One day, when Helio Gracie was 16 years old, a student showed up for class when Carlos was not around. Helio, who had memorized all the techniques from watching his brothers teach, offered to start the class. When the class was over, Carlos showed up and apologized for his delay. The student asked for Helio to continue being his instructor, Helio Gracie then gradually developed Gracie Jiu Jitsu as an adaptation from Judo as he was unable to do many Judo moves. Helio now holds the rank of 6th Dan in Judo.

I find it interesting that these life long masters who are truly one out of ten thousand Judo practicianers hold ranks of 7th and 6th degree black belts. Many instructors in our humble town of Cleveland there seem to be 7th, 8th, 9th, and yes 10th degree black belts! Different systems have different ranking but these ranks for me indicate a truly unique level of dedication, skill, and virtue.





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Friday, November 5, 2010

Aurora Martial Arts

In this Post:
  • NEWS & EVENTS
  • Instructors Corner w/ Sensei Shoe
 MMA Chicago
  • Academy Closed for Thanksgiving: Victory will Be closed Thursday November 25th.
  • Leadership Training Tryouts - These students have passed with flying colors our Leadership and Black Belt Club tryouts.
Bruna Vilela
Fred Fennell
Patrick Griffith
Aidan Grubb,
Alex Holbert
Abigail Holbert
Dash Katz
Daegan Katz
Joseph Shumway
David Hamilton
Alex Shaffer

Watch for our list of new Leadership Students.

Instructor's Corner
Mis-communications and What to do about them.
By Scott Shoen 

Mis-communications develop between people so easily. We all live in our own unique worlds. Words can have different meanings; ideas and intentions can be miss understood. Here are some tips to help avoid these mis-communications.
1. Be ready to invest regular time speak and be with the other person.  Fifteen hours a week of communication is the average necessary time to maintain an exceptional marriage. This is your biggest relationship, but it gives you a feel for the effort that good communication requires. 
2. First understand what they say and make sure they agree with your understanding. 
3. Repeat back in your own words what you think they have said to you. Then make sure they agree with your understanding. Then express your side of the story.
4. Be aware of the person's voice, body language, and actions.
5. Communicate regularly and be sure to remain friends as the business of living can get in the way very easily.
6. Assume a positive intention or need behind all behaviors. This is very difficult when all appearances point to the person just being against you. Try it anyway it can work miracles.
7. Realize the longer you know someone the more likely that mis-communications will arise so be ready to talk them out and you will likely find that there was a big mis-understanding.
8. Never give up on developing good communication. It is not easy and can take many years, but it is worth it.

Pick one of these keys and try it out for three weeks. See if it makes a difference and comment below. 

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