bjjnewberg

The Next Phase

Matt Leech — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:53:43 +0000

After 14 years, five broken bones, one year of missed work, countless hours away from my family, thousands of hours on the mat…….hundreds of new friends made, life changing realizations, challenges I never imagined, inner strength I did not know I possessed, and opening an academy, I was given my black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

On Saturday May 5, 2012 my coach, second degree black belt Michael Chapman of Impact Jiu Jitsu gave me along with Brian Walsh our belts in front of 50 (give or take) of our training partners. The promotion process covered nearly two and half hours of rolling and demonstrations that put us to one last test……..or was it just the beginning of our test?

I can’t imagine what the next 14 years will bring? I can only hope it is more of the same (minus the broken bones).

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Impact Sherwood

Matt Leech — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 01:46:52 +0000

Our latest facility is in Sherwood, Oregon and it is a new venture for Impact. We have partnered with Musa martial arts and provide Brazilian Jiu Jitsu three days a week at their facility.

Here is a picture of our first Sunday roll with a group of our coaches.

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Purposeful movement 2

Matt Leech — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:13:51 +0000

I’ve posted before on the importance of reaching the 10,000 hr mark in your chosen field, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is no different. This week we focused on a combination of three standing guard passes that all linked together. The focus was on those three passes and if your opponet does x then you do y.

The three different passes all started from controlling the opponets legs from his open guard. Controlling the ankles, stopping the De la Riva guard, controlling the lapel. Moving to an X pass, smash pass or S guard pass.

Take one position, look at your options (offense or defense), link three options together….then training the heck out of them.

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Promotion November ’11

Matt Leech — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:37:11 +0000

We had a great week in Newberg, promoting Roger Wolff to purple belt and Scott Bones to blue belt. Both guys have been working hard and putting in many hours on the mat.

Several others received stripes for their great efforts over the last six months.

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The Injury Cycle

Matt Leech — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:36:24 +0000

I was talking to my business partner, training partner and good friend Dewey Nielsen the day after he injured his hip (training with me) and I remember thinking about the times I’ve been injured over the last 11 years.

As practitioners of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu we are all familiar with injuries, “physical setbacks”. I learned after my last major “physical set back” (heel fracture) that the emotional and mental journey can be more difficult than the physical.

Like other trauma whether it’s physical, emotional or mental we go through a cycle of grieving. Shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance are all normal. I found out (through my day job as a F/F) and now as an older practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that this cycle is real and the more I understand about it the better I move through each of stages.

The goal is to keep training, there are many benefits in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but most people do not stay with it long enough to really find out the secrets of the sport. Hopefully understanding the grieving cycle will help keep us on the mat for a long time.

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Purposeful Movement 1

Matt Leech — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:36:54 +0000

My mentor in the fire service, Ed Hartin always pushes his fire behavior instructors to achieve 10,000 hrs of purposeful movement. Studies have shown that 10,000 hrs is what’s needed to become a content expert in a given field of study.

How many black belts have put that much time into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? If my math is correct spending 10 hrs on the mat each week equals 520 hrs a year. It would take over 19 years to reach 10,000 hrs at that pace if mat time was the only way to gain proficiency (and that’s a lot of time on the mat).

Does this mean that it should take a student 19 years to become a black belt? No it should not. The average is 10-12 years and that depends on several factors. I believe that a black belt will be at or near the 10,000 hrs range, it will not solely be mat time.

The BJJ practitioner will spend almost as many hours thinking, talking, writing and watching Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. As we all know BJJ is a chess match as much as it is a physical test.

Where are you on your journey to 10,000 hrs? Probably closer than you know. It all counts, every hour on the mat, every YouTube video watched, every discussion with training partners.

“Gentle pressure reletlessly applied”

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It’s been awhile…..

Matt Leech — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:26:23 +0000

I’ve had some time to step back (been out of sight since April) and see things from a different angle. What I’ve noticed is the community and relationships that have been built at Impact JJ and Impact Performance Training are very strong.
After 11 years of trying to get a solid martial arts academy off the ground (years before joining Impact JJ), what I realize is that building the academy does not happen if you don’t build the family. The physical structure, the curriculum and the equipment are important, but none of that really matters if the people in the building (members and coaches) don’t have a desire to be there that is greater than learning a physical skill.
We are all missing something in our daily lives, and I believe that what’s missing is a strong connection to the people we associate with.
Please look for more posts……I think I have gotten my “prime mover” back!!!!

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Impact Performance Training

Matt Leech — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:51:47 +0000

Here is the IPT commercial that our friends Michael Richeson and John Raven created.

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BJJ World Traveler

Matt Leech — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:56:29 +0000

Christian Graugart was just in Sinapore and from his post it sounds like he had an amazing time. If you have not been following his adventures, please check out his on line diary at BJJ Globetrotter. It looks like he’s been in nine countries since starting his journey.

The plan is still to have him visit Impact JJ in early May. More information soon.

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Week 4 Pan Am 2011

Matt Leech — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:35:34 +0000

Week 4 felt good physically, my strength and conditioning felt good and so did my Jiu Jitsu training. Mentally on the other hand it was again a little sluggish and I think the reason is because I’ve been doing the same training regiment for a month.

The good news is that week 5 starts all new (sort of). I’ll have new techniques/positions to work on for Jiu Jitsu and my strength and conditioning will be kicking it up a notch. Here is a link to my schedule if you have not seen it.

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