I just wanted to post a quick review of the 10th Planet seminar we hosted on the weekend up here in far away happy rock (gladstone).
First of all I need to tell you that I am a beginner in BJJ and that we are fight club school under Daniel Lima. We have no interest in ever being a 10th Planet school. Rather, after many recomendations from people I trust, we got Frank up based on his teaching ability and the hope of having some fun, learning some cool stuff and maybe improving our no-gi game a bit. We did that all and more.
Also, it might be important for some of you to know that we had an experienced purple belt and bjj instructor travel 600 k's to train with Frank, and he went away very happy with his investment and telling us that he in fact learned a great deal in the 3 sessions.
We didn't learn anything over the top, just the 10th Planet systems fundamentals of half guard, rubber guard and twister. Now while I am not into the huge list of funny names for each little move, it didn't detract one little bit from the learning experience and actually made the guys laugh and maybe even helped them remember it.
Frank was very, very good at explaining the rationale for the 10th Planet methods and had a logical answer for all of my many, many questions. It became clear to me that 10th Planet JJ is not just about the techniques but also very much about the teaching methods which is something I always look for.
Again, although I am a beginner (training for 3 years and nearly a blue belt under Daniel), I have trained under black belts, brown belts and purple belts, and I can honestly say that Franks understanding and skills was easily on par with any purples and browns I have trained with. He understands the 10th Planet system throroughly and I have no problem with him teaching me anytime in the future regardless of the bjj level I might reach.
I am hoping that we can bring Frank up again in 2010 finances allowing and hoping that our guys get to train at the other seminars in Gladstone hosted by another school - it would be nice seeing as how they were invited to ours.
Thanks again Frank and thanks to everyone who came along and supported our efforts. I hope to catch up with you again soon.
oh, you can check out the many pics at my photo bucket page here:
http://s748.photobucket.com/albums/xx123/GladstoneMartialArts/seminars/?albumview=slideshow