David Meyer Seminars are a Hit in Portland, OR.

I try to take advantage of any opportunity I can to get on the mat with one of BJJ’s “Dirty Dozen” (first 12 non-Brazilian black belts), and this weekend found David Meyer in the Rose city teaching a few seminars.  Dragging our asses out of bed at 5am (different beds of course); Brian, Denise, and I attended David’s first seminar at Sensei Ronald Schubert’s Martial Arts Fitness Center. 

A nice academy tucked in the corner of a strip mall, Sensei Schubert is a TKD cat who is getting a BJJ program in works for his students and knows David from back in the day.  This was a perfect introduction for the students to BJJ, as most of them had little to no experience with grappling.  Ingeniously David split the seminar between guard work and mount work.  A well thought out curriculum is essential for successful seminars and David worked it perfectly showing the fundamentals of breaking down your opponents posture and attacking the neck / arm immediately. To top off the guard work he also taught how to safely and effectively get back to your feet.

All too often modern teachers forget that BJJ is based on self defense and they can sometimes neglect the fundamentals of doing a proper technical rise.  That is what I love about training with the likes of David Meyer, John Will, Tim Cartmell, the Machado brothers; they are always considering self defense first and foremost.  It is important to know and understand your roots and though competition grappling is very exciting and fun, we need to keep in mind that BJJ evolved as an effective method of self defense.

Fast forward two hours at the gorgeous Ecole de Budo Dojo where owner / operator Michael Selin and his crew welcomed David for an afternoon of training the Pillow of Doom and how to make sure one does not get pinned on their back.  I cannot go into the details of the POD but rest assured it is essential to ones survival in self defense or competition.  David shared some of the principles he finds most important to ensuring one does not get caught on their back in any situation.

For those of you who may have missed this great opportunity, don’t fret as David will be back in the Pacific NW next month with stops here and in Maple Ridge, BC.    March 15th David will be teaching a competition strategy course with open rolling afterwards from 6-8pm.  Then March 16th he will teach a 12-3pm seminar on Open Guard Attacking!  I will post an official announcement this week, so stay tuned!

4th Degree black belt David Meyer with black belt Denise Holcomb

In case you have not noticed Brian Johnson and myself are dedicated to bringing you only the best in top level training with some of the most experienced grapplers on earth!