The Combat Academy held their Christmas party and awards ceremony at Saxtys (14/12/14). The awards started with a review of our achievements for 2014.
We started in January with a huge result for Ash Amos who took a silver medal in the IBJJF European Championships. Other major achievements include 17 British Champions and a total of 201 medals won in striking and grappling arts. The breakdown can be seen below.
BJJ
Gold 71
Silver 50
Bonze 43
Karate
Gold 6
Silver 19
Bronze 12
Total
Gold 77
Silver 69
Bronze 55
In the UKBJJA rankings we had 9 juniors in the top 20, 2 adults in the top 15 and 1 master in the top 4.
In addition to this Alex Quinn, Dali Hopkins and Ryan Hill were selected to be part of the UK BJJ Elite Youth Squad. Alex and Dali were further selected to represent the UK team at The IBJJF Pan American Kids Championships being held in America next year.
The Combat Academy 2014 Awards were made as follows.
Most improved karate student: Hollie Hoult
Most improved BJJ student: Dali Hopkins
Most promising karate newcomer: Chelle Banes
Most promising BJJ newcomer: Kelly Hopkins
BJJ Medal Hunter (Joint): Baz Hopkins & Alex Quinn
Karate Medal Hunter: Ryan Hill
Overall Medal Hunter Ash Amos
Adult BJJ Student of the year: Ash Amos
Junior BJJ Student of the year (Joint): Alex Quinn & Jackson Quinn
Karate Student of Year: Jamie Baker
Fighters Fighter Award: Baz Hopkins
Carl Keates Corner Award: Marcin
Overall Student of the Year: Ash Amos
Appreciation Award: Emma Baker
Christmas Opening Times
December
Monday 22nd Combined class Karate training 5:30 - 7:00, Open Mat 7.00 - 8.30
Tuesday 23rd all lessons on as normal.
Wednesday 24th Closed
Thursday 25th Closed.
Friday 26th Closed.
Saturday 27th Open Mat 11:00 – 1:00.
Monday 29th Combined class Karate training 5:30 - 7:00, Open Mat 7.00 - 8.30
Tuesday 30th all lessons on as normal.
Wednesday 31st Closed
January
Thursday 1st Closed
Friday 2nd Karate lessons as normal.
BJJ Open Mat 7:30 – 8:45
Saturday 3rd Open Mat 11:00 – 1:00
Monday 5th all lessons on as normal.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Beginners Course (Adults)
Our next beginners course for adults The course starts on Friday 6th February 2015 and runs for four weeks.
Combat Academy Juniors Selected to Represent UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Team
Alex Quinn, Dali Hopkins and Ryan Hill have been selected to be part of the UK BJJ Elite Youth Squad. Ryan was selected to represent the UK team at The IBJJF European Championships and Alex and Dali were selected to represent the UK team at The IBJJF Pan American Kids Championships being held in America next year.
Blue Belt Promotion
Ash Amos promoted to Blue Belt (27/01/2015).
Ash has been training with us for just under two years, during which he has consistently trained 5+ BJJ sessions per week, including regularly making a 2-hour round trip to train with our affiliate club Tillery Combat, and attending seminars throughout the country.
Ash supplements his BJJ with a rigorous strength and conditioning programme and he helped several of our team with their S&C prior to the Euros.
Always willing to contribute to the growth and development of our club, Ash is as interested in the progress and achievements of his team mates, as he is his own, he is a real team player.
Some of his achievements are listed below, it is worth noting that many of his wins were via submissions, and for some of the NoGi events he fought above his belt/experience level.
2013
NoGi British Open Champion
English Open Champion -100.5 kg
English Open Champions Absolute
Hereford BJJ Open -100.5 kg Champion
2014
IBJJF European Championships -100.5 kg Silver Medalist
2 x Hereford BJJ Open -100.5 kg Champion
Hereford BJJ Open Absolute Silver Medalist
Bristol BJJ Open Champion
Welsh Open Silver Medalist
NoGi British Open Champion
Welsh Open NoGi Champion
Ranked number one white belt in the UKBJJA rankings
Voted Combat Academy BJJ Student of the Year and Overall Student of the Year.
2015
IBJJF European Championships -100.5 kg Silver Medalist.
IBJJF Pan Kids
A huge congratulations to Combat Academy fighter Dali Hopkins who has just returned from America where she competed in the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation Pan Kids World Championships.
A pupil at Our Lady's School, Dali has been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for around 2 years years, and most weekends can be found traveling the length and breadth of the country to test her skills.
Following her competition successes in the UK in 2014, including becoming English Open, Nottingham Open, Bristol Open Champion and a Silver medalist at the British Open, Dali was invited to try out for the UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Youth Squad.
Her commitment and effort in these tough training sessions, led to her selection for the UK Team.
Dali trains Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 4-5 times a week at The Combat Academy and supplements this with 2-3 conditioning sessions at one of her sponsors, The Point4.
Dali traveled to Los Angeles with the 21 strong squad to compete against around 2000 youngsters in the Worlds biggest BJJ competition for kids.
Following a quick submission win in the semi-finals, Dali faced the 2014 World Champion Elisa Arroyo, and in a highly contested fight against a very game opponent, Dali took the victory by 6 points to 0 and was crowned IBJJF Pan Kids World Champion.
Another Combat Academy youngster was also part of the UK team. Nine year old Alex Quinn quickly defeated his first opponent from the Atos Team with a submission hold, but unfortunately he lost his second fight to the eventual bronze medalist.
Marcin Grzeszczuk has been awarded his Purple Belt after taking double gold in his weight and the absolute at The Hereford BJJ Open. (28th March 2015).
Marcin joined the Academy as a Blue Belt just over one year ago, and during this time he has proved himself to be not only an excellent fighter, but also a tremendous asset to the club. He will always roll with the beginners, taking time to help them and is always there helping out at our events.
In training he often doubles up on the exercises in the warm-up, he gets on with the drilling getting in as many reps as possible and he never misses a round of the sparring. He always looks to stay on after class for additional rolling or can be seen hanging from the chinning bar!
Over the last year some of his major achievements include:
2014 British Open Silver Absolute
2014 NoGi British Open Champion Blue Belt
2014 NoGi British Open Bronze Absolute Blue Belt
2014 Welsh Open NoGi Blue Belt Champion
2014 Welsh Open NoGi Purple Belt Absolute Bronze
2014 Welsh Open NoGi Blue Belt Absolute Champion
2014 Hereford BJJ Open Champion
2015 Hereford BJJ Open Champion weight and absolute.
The Purple Belt is a huge belt at The Combat Academy, and Marcin becomes only the 11th person to be awarded a Purple Belt in our 12 year history.
Kleos High Wycombe BJJ Open
Bristol BJJ Open
Congratulations to the team on an awesome performance at The Bristol BJJ Open.
Ash Amos Gold in his weight and Gold in absolute.
Marcin Grzeszczuk Gold in his weight and Bronze in absolute.
Baz Hopkins Gold
Dali Hopkins Gold
Alex Quinn Silver
Robynn Quinn Silver
Dominykas Gaigalas Silver
Ryan Hill Silver
Ben Oliver Bronze.
Welsh BJJ Kids League
A fantastic day for our junior team at The Welsh Kids BJJ League held in Cardiff. Our team of 5 came back with, 6 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
Boys -27kg
1st – Alex Quinn – Combat Academy
2nd – Guy Purnell – Pedro Bessa BJJ
3rd – Jayden Grey – CRA
Boys -50kg (13-15)
1st – Dominykas Gaigalas – Combat Academy
2nd – Dylan O’Brian – Bristol dojo
Boys -60kg (13-15)
1st – Ryan Hill – Combat Academy
2nd – Billy Hayes – Carlson Gracie
3rd – Connor Griffiths – NPMMA Pedro Bessa
Boys/girls -65kg (13-15)
1st – Ryan Hill – Combat Academy
2nd – Jack Browne – CRA
3rd – Kasey Lyon – Fightworx Academy
4th – Madison Murphy – Fightworx Academy
Girls -46kg
1st – Dali Hopkins – Combat Academy
2nd – Elle May Griffiths – NPMMA Pedro Bessa
Girls +46kg
1st – Dali Hopkins – Combat Academy
2nd – Robynn Quinn – Combat Academy
3rd – Ffion Lewis – NPMMA Pedro Bessa
Belt Promotions
Congratulations to Ty Husbands (Purple Belt) and Barry 'Baz' Hopkins (Blue Belt) on their promotions.
Ty was promoted to blue belt in April 2011 following a very successful run at White Belt. Since obtaining his blue, Ty has competed at many events throughout the UK and the IBJJF European Championships held in Lisbon.
Ty's achievements at Blue Belt are shown below:
2012
Welsh Open Silver medal
2013
British Open Silver medal
British Open No Gi Silver medal
Hereford BJJ Open February Silver (weight)
Hereford BJJ Open February Silver (absolute)
2014
Newquay Open Gi silver medal
Newquay Open NoGi bronze medal
British Open NoGi Champion
Welsh Open NoGi Bronze medal (Purple belt)
English Open Bronze medal
Hereford BJJ Open Champion
Hereford BJJ Open Silver Medal
2015
Kleos High Wycombe BJJ Open Champion, recording three submission wins to take the gold medal.
Baz started training BJJ in December 2012, his achievements at White Belt are shown below.
2013
Hereford BJJ Open silver medalist
Welsh Open Champion
British Open bronze medal
Hereford BJJ Open Silver medal (weigh)
Hereford BJJ Open Silver medal (absolute)
Nottingham BJJ Open Silver medal
Hereford BJJ Open Champion
2014
Bristol BJJ Open Champion
Welsh BJJ Open Champion
British Open Champion
Hereford BJJ Open Champion
Newquay BJJ Open Bronze (Gi)
Newquay BJJ Open NOGI Champion
British Open NoGi Champion
English Open Champion
Nottingham BJJ Open Bronze
Hereford BJJ Open Champion
2015
Kleos High Wycombe BJJ Open Champion
Hereford BJJ Open Champion (weight)
Hereford BJJ Open Champion (weight)
Hereford BJJ Open Champion (absolute)
Bristol BJJ Open Champion.
In addition to attending regular classes, both regularly get in extra sessions at the club and Ty regularly makes the 2-hour round trip to train with our affiliate club, Tillery Combat.
Over the years, they have contributed to the growth and development of our club, helping out with work at the club, helping out beyond what is expected of them at our Hereford BJJ Open events, and helping the new members of the club in the beginners class or with the juniors.
The Hereford BJJ Open
Entry to our next event on Sunday 13th September 2015 is now live.
The event is for Juniors (-16) & Juveniles (16-17) and Adult (18-35) & Master 2 (36+) White Belts
Nine members of our team traveled to the Blackpool BJJ Open and Kleos NoGi events and returned with a total of 4 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals.
Competing at her first NoGi event, Kelly Hopkins stepped up a weight division and took gold in the White / Female / Adult / 61.5kg category beating her very accomplished opponent in the final 11-0.
Steve Wood collected a hard earned silver medal in the White / Male / Adult / 79.5kg category.
Rufus Spiller put in a very good performance to take the silver medal in the Blue / Male / Adult / 67.5kg.
At the Blackpool Open Dominykas Gaigalas stepped up two weight divisions to take gold in the MALE WHITE TEEN 2 -60KG category.
Performance of the day went to Ryan Hilll, who despite still being eligible to fight in the junior division, stepped up to compete in the adult Gi and NoGi categories, in addition to the Juvenile division. Ryan took Gold in the Adult Gi, Silver in the Adult NoGi and a Silver in the Juvenile Gi division.
Dali Hopkins had some tough fights on her way to the silver medal in the girls under 50 kg category.
Baz Hopkins put together some good wins to take bronze medals in both the Gi and NoGi events.
Belt Promotion
Dominykas Gaigalas has been promoted to Grey belt.
Often having to step up an age, weight and belt division, Dom has been tearing it up at events throughout the country, most recently taking the gold medal at the Blackpool BJJ Open. Despite being only 13, in addition to the junior classes, Dom also trains 2-3 sessions a week in the adult class. Well done from all of your team.
The Karate Team in the Medals
The Karate Team were recently invited to take part in the ECKA Bletchley Dragons Interclub tournament. The competition which hosted 7 clubs from within the English Contact Karate Association featured the disciplines of Semi Contact point fighting and Light Continuous kick boxing.
18 members of The Combat Academy Hereford made the 250 mile round-trip journey to take the competition by storm. For some of the team it was their first ever competition, for others their first time in a new discipline and three of them stepping up in to adult divisions for the first time, so a lot of new experiences for the team.
They were not phased by this one bit and every member of the team won fights and got placed in the top three showing great spirit, skill and determination at an exceptional level, with amazing team spirit and support from family and friends.
With most of the fighters taking part in two disciplines, the total medal tally came in at a whopping 31 trophies out of 18 fighters. 14 Gold, 10 Silver & 7 Bronze.
Individual results:
Semi Contact
Aiden Huttel Gold
Erin Edwards Gold
Craig Huttel gold
Ryan Edwards gold
Chelle Banes Gold
Declan Barrett Gold
Ryan Hill Gild
Mantas Saulevicious Silver
Kyle Huttel Silver
Lisa Huttel Silver
Daniel Gwynne Silver
Liam Gwynne Bronze
Josh Small Bronze
Kay Parker Bronze
Darren Huttel Bronze
Light Continuous
Aiden Huttel Gold
Josh McMillan Gold
Kyle Huttel Gold
Liam Gwynne Gold
Chelle Banes Gold
Daniel Gwynne Gold
Ryan Hill Gold
Mantas Saulevicious Silver
Erin Edwards Silver
Craig Huttel Silver
Ryan Edwards Silver
Lisa Huttel Silver
Declan Barrett Silver
Aimee Farley Higgs
Chelle Banes Bronze
Simon Day Bronze
Black Belt Promotion
Jack Dodds has become the latest member of our club to earn himself the rank of black belt within the English Contact Karate Association. Jack who has trained with The Combat Academy for six years, undertook the grueling grading in Coventry at the ECKA Headquarters, consisting of a two and a half hour training course and then straight in a two hour technical grading on the ECKA syllabus, freeform and sparring.
Jack performed with others in a similar position in the quest of Black Belt, in front of a grading panel consisting of Sensei Dev Barret 7th Dan, ECKA Chief Instructor and former World Kickboxing Champion and Sensei Red Walcott 6th Dan.
