Royce Gracie Seminar Review

Royce Gracie took the time out of his busy schedule and came to a town near me. Being the UFC and Gracie jiu jitsu legend that he is, I had to go see him and train with him and learn from him. Just as importantly, I had to go thank him.

Full Mats!

In fact, there was a second matted area!

Line up

Getting rolled around

Catching up with friends

"A couple of hits - then you attack!"

"Kick the hip - lean away from the punch"
Royce Gracie

The triangle from hell

The team: Danny, Royce and Ross

The very busy 1st of May seminar was organised by my friend and Royce Gracie representative (now) purple belt Ross Hudson up at Forca Combat Academy (see academy visit report here).

Royce taught a great set of Gracie jiujitsu techniques from stand up, controlling the distance and closing it safely against a punching and kicking opponent to body lock takedown and mount maintenance. He then proceeded to look at some closed guard safety against a punching opponent and then transitioned into three simple, direct and effective jiujitsu attacks (the kimura, the triangle and the omoplata shoulder lock).

After the seminar, Royce conducted a stripe and belt grading. I was very happy to see some of my friends advance in the art after learning directly from the source. A very happy day.

Royce's assistant for the day was his recent jiujitsu black belt Danny McMillan from McMillan Martial Arts Academy down in Plymouth. I'd met Danny previously at a Rickson Gracie seminar up in Glasgow not too long ago and he's always been a gentleman and fantastic technician. The two off them walked around and made sure everyone was doing the techniques correctly and to Royce's stringent standards.

After the seminar, I had the pleasure to do a quick interview with the man. Watch this space for the upcoming Royce Gracie Part Time Grappler Interview where he gave some very surprising answers to how he thinks Part Time Grapplers should view their training.

You could tell my questions were making him tense!

I would like to thank Ross for arranging the seminar and inviting me to it, Gareth for getting us there and back and for being an awesome training partner and great travel company and of course to Royce Gracie, without whom we would all be jumping through the air doing flip kicks thinking we're bad ass.

I look forward to training with Royce again soon.

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