Brandon Mccaghren seminar exceeds ALL expectations! (long read)
So I took a day to write this review, because I wanted to process and do it justice.
Saturday at Kmaa in Knoxville I competed in my first tournement since I blew my knee out years ago, and that was a real mixed bag of emotions for me that I won't bore you with here, but what was NOT mixed at all were my feelings about Brandon Mccaghren seminar followed... It was my first 10p seminar and I LOVED IT.
For one thing, Brandon's a cool guy. That helps a lot more than people think because his stories and anticdotes, and ways of connecting concepts to each other make it easy to remember the TON of moves he covered. I can tell you I'll be thinking of "picture day" and "turn it up" for years to come while I roll.
He started the seminar with a few words about exelance, that I can honestly say resonate with anyone who's ever trained with a Kmaa head coach Eric Turner, and so he had my attention from the word go...
Then he very humbly added "I am not a world champion or anything, just a guy who loves martial arts"
Now let me tell you, as someone who trains with a multi time world champion on the daily, I was in no way disapointed with his understanding or teaching ability.
He teaches a different game, but it's so fundamentally sound I could imagine easily the same techniques being just as impressive in any black belt seminar nogi or gi for that matter.
Because what he taught most of all, were concepts.
When the topic of the seminar was announced "head and arm choke defense" I mentally groaned.
I wanted leg locks, I've seen his great leg lock vids, or lockdown... Something... But head and arm choke defense? I am a big strong (if out of shape) heavyweight. I can count on one hand the people who have finished a head and arm choke on me. To say the least I expected to be disapointed.
I could not have been more wrong.
What Brandon Mccaghren taught in the space of 3 plus hours uner the guise of "head and arm choke defense". Was a whirlwind guide to what a head and arm choke is, at it's core. It was like looking into the soul of that choke. As someone who prefers leg attacks, then chokes, to all other submissions... This was AMAZING.
Eric has been drilling in me for months this concept that it's not about the techniques... It's not about a box of pokemon cards, it's an ocean flowing from one to the next. The coolest thing was watching Brandon Mccaghren go through his series was he GETS THAT.
What he taught about defense, was about more than chokes, and when he taught about the Japanese neck tie, it was about every choke. I loved that.
I am not gonna go into every technique it would take all night, but I will end with this. Brandon Mccaghren gives world class instruction, that might just change the way you think of grappling, or if your fortunate enough to train with someone with a similar philosophy, he will give you a chance to see how a high level guy puts that into action.
If you have a chance to train with Brandon and you miss it, because he's "just a brown belt" or "just a nogi guy" your missing out. I would train with him again in a heartbeat, and this from a proud and loyal Gracie Barra student and Mma devote.
Ps. To add to his awsome, he stuck around after people started leaving and endulged my questions on the sock lock. And I think he would have stayed all day, I know if obligations hadent tore me away I would have.
If you read this, thanks for a great seminar.
