Royce Gracie seminar Kelvin Hall
The long awaited seminar with Royce Gracie took place at the Kelvin hall took place over the weekend of 28th and 29th July 2001. after a short introduction Royce got straight into groundfighting techniques. He was happy to speak of his practical experiences over a wealth of competitive fights and even spoke of his recent defeat by Sakuraba. The whole event was videotaped for his new website Royce Gracie.tv.
The class consisted mainly of groundfighting techniques, there was very little standing techniques. A lot of time was spent passing the guard and fighting from the guard. the techniques were very efficient and easy to perform. different picked picked out difficulties that they foresaw but Royce had an answer for everything. It makes a difference training with someone who's 'walked the walk and talked the talk'.
On the Sunday Royce asked everyone who had over one years experience of grappling to participate in some groundfighting. This would have been about a third of the class. (there were representatives there from a number of martial arts other than grappling styles).
At the end of the course Royce awarded blue belts in Gracie Jiu Jitsu to the following members of Yama Bushi Ryu:
| Derek McCutcheon | Jamie Hennessey | Mark Gordon |
| Karl Burns | Ian Stewart | Paul McConnel |
| Tim McConnel | Scott Anderson | Shaun Duffy |
The whole group at the end of the course on Sunday
The seminar having been cancelled in 2002 as Royce had a fight arranged, even the last minute change of venue couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of having the opportunity to train with Royce again. It took place over the weekend of 1st and 2nd March 2003.
On the day there was a lot of familiar faces and a lot of new faces as well. The venue on this occasion was The ARC at Glasgow Caledonian University. This was an ideal venue. Royce as, usual, was a gentleman and showed us a wealth of techniques.
It was interesting to watch on the Saturday Royce and Marc Walder get to grips with a couple of guys, whom I didn't recognise, who seemed determined to test them out. It seemed to get a bit serious but it was a pleasure to see them being 'taken to the cleaners' by both Marc and Royce. They certainly proved their point. For those that were there the guys I am talking about were the ones wearing combat trousers. does anyone know who they are?
Photos from the seminar are posted on the photos page.
