Review of Matt Thornton seminar

Michael O Leary

Hi all,

If anyone is interested I thought I will give a brief review of the recent Matt Thornton seminar which I attended about 3 weeks ago. As far as I aware I was the only non-believer to attend and as it was more or less my first introduction to BJJ some of you might be curious to see what you do from my eyes.

I was particularly interested as it was stated in a recent post advertising the seminar that it catered for all levels and would be a good introduction for beginners. I thought initially that 65 euros was a bit steep however there was a reduction for attending two days.

So on the Sunday morning with a bit of a hangover I arrived in Harolds Cross. It was bloody freezing but the heaters were on when I went inside. Got changed and waited for the show to start. I felt a bit weird in someone else training environment but hey, we all have to stretch ourselves. I didn't know if everyone else knew each other and if I was sticking out like a sore thumb. Anyway I introduced myself to John and got a warm welcome despite all the bickering we were doing on the forum previously.

The warm up was good, lots of fun. I tried to jump past Travis but he neatly put me in a head lock. It was strange how quickly we got warm especially cause it was bloody cold outside. I think we went onto pummelling with our head. Forgive me if I get the sequence wrong but I remember patches of it. Anyway the pummelling with our head was interesting but my head was sore for a few days afterwards. I had a big bruise and my scalp started to peel. I also lost a bit of hair which was stressful due to me being follically challanged. I can see now why some wore those mad looking caps.

Matt also gave a good verbal introduction to BJJ. What particulary interested me was his statement that beginners BJJ is only the fundamentals done badly with them being done well in advanced BJJ. For me this is a core concept of Wing Tsun and I believe that the advanced drills in WT are only there to make the basics better.

We also worked on the clinch drill focusing on slipping our arms underneath that of our opponents. These drills were fairly simple to apply especially as the key concept seemed to be to keep your elbows close to your body. Again this is a core concept in what I do so the drill did not feel too strange. However the moving around your opponents body and tripping did feel strange and was difficult for me.

The concept of holding onto your opponents head and moving them from side to side was very familar to me and the method of bringing your hands to the inside of your opponents arms to better control them is a key part of Wing Tsun's 5th student programme together with the kneeing that accompanied it.

Another interesting thing that Matt did was let us work on what he told us to do for a few minutes and talk about it to try and work it out for ourselves. However then the music went on, Kaiser chiefs and away we went with no talking and without pausing. I now know what they mean by aliveness.

Matt's assistant instructor Travis also presented some stuff for us which we trained. I found it a bit difficult as it was more advanced however my partner helped me and I got by. I have to say I thought Travis was a real nice guy and while we didn't really get to talk I warmed to his manner a lot.

We also did a bit of stand up (boxing) and added the transition from that to clinch and later the transition from clinch to ground by jumping into guard. Again dynamic and good fun and no real problems. We also worked on passing the guard and defending with no strikes. This was fairly easy and while I don't know if I was doing it right I wasn't doing it too differently from my partner who I think competes in the MMA league. We also worked at striking gently in the mount and guard and I had no problems with this however once the strikes were taken away it got more difficult and eventully my partner tapped me out more than once. Actually he partially dislocated my shoulder twice. About 18 months ago I was attacked my 3 fellas in Blanchardstown and while they ran off after things started to go against them at the end of it I had a dislocated shoulder. This means that with little pressure on the shoulder it can dislocate again. Anyway Karl the instructor from the UK popped it back for me and JudoMick rubbed some cream on it. Thanks guys;)

So three hours into a four hour seminar I am feeling a bit tender. I have blood on my shirt, my shoulder is pretty sore and my head is fvcking killing me with the pummelling exercise but what the hell, i'm not going to stop and have it said the WT guy can't hack it:p

Anyway we rounded off by putting everything together. Boxing, transition to clinch, clinch drills, jump into guard and down to the floor. Worked with two partners doing this and then Jk jumped in. Thought he went a bit hard initially and was wondering if he was trying to prove something. He later said that he just wanted me to know what it was like to train with a Brown belt in BJJ. Thats fair enough and I take him at his word however I would have preferred he informed me of this beforehand so we both sing off the same hymesheet. He increased the intensity about 100% over my two previous partners suddently and while we were doing the movements that Matt was calling out I had difficulty understanding Matts accent and also trying to remember what the hell a single hand neck thingy was. Anyway he said there was no bad intention in it so thats fine.

Towards the end we had a bit of a Q & A session and Matt used this to talk about his approach to martial arts. There was a lot that I didn't agree with but that is ok and I am sure he will not lose any sleep over it. It was because I covered some these aspects in another thread that I wanted to post this to give my overall impression and to highlight the things that I did like. Anyway I thought it was pretty good overall and I will follow up and do some more training in the new centre in Tallaght in May once my exams are over. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in MMA particulary BJJ. And even if you are not it will give you an appreciation as to what others do.

Regards all (especially Tim):p

Michael O'Leary
www.wingtsun-escrima.ie

Millionaire

What is Matt Thornton?.. (his approach to martial arts, his background)

I do not mean that in an "ignorant" way .

Is he a BJJ man, or a MMA Sports Coach for example.

I read in Black Belt mag (USA edition) a few years back, a real good article on Matt Thornton, and it was very much stand up punches, kness, elbows, kicks, he was showing, and made many references to Jeet Kune Do.

Is he from Dan Insanto JKD roots?

He did read a few articles about Paul Vunak a street orientated JKD man, and he made a few references to Thornton too.

I have read his articles on this web site, and he is defo very interesting,....I just cannot figure the bloke out!!!???!!!

Musashi

His Instructors lineage thingy can be viewed here

Roper

Tim,
What did you do to Michael?

Roper

I've heard a few people now remarking about the price of that seminar. I have to say I'm a bit surprised. A TKD guy was over here about 2 years ago and charged €90 for 3 hours and there were about 150 people at it, most of them happy to pay. Here you got 2 coaches from the states, Matt and Travis, +Karl Tanswell and it's €65 for a day, or €50 a day if you go to both. I suppose it depends on wether you think you got value Michael.

Oh yeah, and the stuff Travis showed us on the 2nd day? I couldn't get it to work, and then lo and behold, next training session someone's trying to pass my guard and I find myself in that position and sweep them. How about that? Chuffed I was.:D

Ali H

Hey Michael.
Hope your shoulder is a better it was me you were rolling with at the seminar when your shoulder popped (twice :eek: ) but I never knew you had dislocated it recently before that. That seminar was excellent I attended both days was well worth it. Matt Thornton is excellent. It was my first seminar with him and I thought he really explains things well. Who is the Tim lad your on about is it Tim Murphy?

Tim_Murphy

Tim,
What did you do to Michael?

I have no idea!

I thought the seminar was really good. It wasn't cheap but was less expense than plenty of others I heard of/gone to. well worth the money. In general the best seminars I've gone to have been SBG ones. I always take someone thing new away with me, instead of others where I did loads and loads of techniques and had most of them forgoten in a day or two.

Tim lad your on about is it Tim Murphy?

What's it to you boy?!