Seminar with Travis Stevens, 2008 Olympian

Photo: Me, Travis, Jake

Yesterday was a seminar with Travis Stevens, 2008 Olympian, and he came home from training to hold a training camp at his home dojo, Ippon Dojo in Lakewood, Washington.

It was a great session that lasted for 2 1/2 hours. I was tired at the end.

The session covered newaza, counter-attack, gripping, and a general philosophy of fighting.

That was the biggest thing about Travis, was his philosophy and thought process of fighting. He does not run away. Each and every attack is an opportunity for a counterattack. Doing a sprawl is running away, but instead, he meets it up close and turns it to a counterattack. Same thing in newaza, he uses his opponents attack and makes it his own. Each and every move is an opening. You never run away, you counterattack.

For the ground fighting portion, we covered 3-4 different attacks from the turtle. To do a turn over. He then covered defense from a turtle and using the turtle as a counter-attack position.

For the counter-attack, he showed us to meet a throw with a tight block, then counter. Instead of running away, he stops his opponents momentum by being up close. Then he applies his counter.

The Grip-Fighting portion was showing us how to grip properly on the sleeve by making a T, where you are gripping with all your fingers.

The end of the session was just normal randori, I think 2 or 3 minute rounds. Did 6-7 rounds with different people.

The camp was the best thing to come out this weekend, and I learned quite a bit. I'm still quite a bit sore, I crashed later that evening.