The Seminar benefited the Clean Water Drinking Project. www.cleanwaterworld.com Simpson Go recently stopped by One World Jiu Jitsu in Union City, CA to give a seminar that benefited the Clean Water Project for the Philippines. (www.cleanwaterworld.com) Sim Go, as you may know, is Marc Laimon’s first black belt and an instructor at Cobra Kai Las Vegas. He’s also a very successful competitor, and among his titles he was the 2007 ADCC North American Trials Representative. The seminar was both Gi and No Gi where Sim showed some of his favorite techniques. Sim has a very clean teaching style and manages to give little details which make the move more effective as well places the moves in correct context. Even the more experienced grapplers in the room gained a lot from the seminar, I picked up some good tips on the Darce choke which made it that much more potent of a weapon for me. You can watch some of Sim’s instruction on the Darce choke in the OTM videos section: http://onthemat.com/video/watch/1d157d9673ecb926af5a/Sim-Go-explain-Darce-Choke-Variation-pt-1 http://onthemat.com/video/watch/ded7d215102b49d5c09a/Sim-Go-explain-Darce-Choke-Variation-pt-2 http://onthemat.com/video/watch/52b27eda3a12363109e8/Sim-Go-explain-Darce-Choke-Variation-pt-3 After the seminar Sim took the time for a Q&A session, as well as some impromptu rolling with some of the participants. Impressed by his teaching ability, I asked him a few questions of my own after the seminar. Gumby: How is Cobra Kai going these days? Sim: Cobra Kai is doing really good. We basically renovated the gym. We got some new mats from dollamur, we have an office now, a room filled with heavy bags and a nice shoe rack to top it off. We’ve fixed it up a lot and we’re still expanding the gym and theres some more improvements on the way. We might be in the ghetto but we got the nicest spot on that street other than Cheetah’s and Discount Tires Gumby: Do you have a favorite technique? Sim: I would say the rear naked choke. I’ve seen people who don’t tap to leglocks, or armbars just because they’re so flexible or get out of those submissions because their so much stronger. You can’t really have a flexible neck or a neck thats too strong to choke. Gumby: What makes a good instructor? Sim: I think having patience and attention to detail. Just generally caring about the students and wanting to help them out. Also breaking the moves down in a way that people will understand it. Having good analogies helps a lot. I think its easier for a student to do a movement when you say something like “grab his wrist like you’re grabbing a footlong sandwich” rather than saying “wrap your hands around his wrists with your thumb facing you with your other hand grabbing behind it” Gumby: I’m sorry to say, I almost laughed when one person asked about how did you avoid using strength instead of technique early in your career. I’ll rephrase it. How did you keep yourself from getting constantly overpowered in your early days (and now for that matter). Sim: I did get constantly overpowerd in my early days. But even though I was getting thrown around like a little girl, I still found a way around it and I think thats what jiu-jitsu is all about. Its finding what works for you and your body type. One of the things that helped me the most was hitting puberty. As I got naturally heavier and stronger I didn’t get overpowered as bad. I think you just learn to use what you have, non flexible guys find certain ways to adapt and so do smaller guys. Gumby: Tell me about the Clean Water project for the Philippines and why you decided to get involved with that charity. Sim: The clean water project is a non government organization that aims to maintain and clean the environment. Their mission is to promote self awarness, positive action and achieving good habits to clean up the water. Eugene Ditona from One World Martial Arts had the idea of donating the proceeds to that charity. When he told me about it, it sounded like a good idea to me cause I lived in the Philippines for a few years and I know how much help they need over there. It’s a different kind of poverty over there. When you see the families here that are on welfare, they actually are way better off than people in the Philippines who have to worry about whether or not they’re gonna get cholera by drinking the water. So if we can help out a little bit to where at least one family can have clean drinking water then that right there is amazing. If you go on their website www.cleanwaterworld.com there’s more information about their organization. Gumby: How does someone contact you to do a seminar? Sim: You guys can contact me by e-mailing me at simpsongo@hotmail.com. or calling Cobra Kai at (702)395-4567