Bulldog Academy - Our Training

Bulldog Martial Arts Academy

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu | Jeet Kune Do | Mixed Martial Arts | Karate

Our Training

At the Bulldog Academy we take a “no nonsense” approach to our training. That means “over fancy” techniques or stuff that simply doesn’t work in the real world goes where it belongs, in the bin. Over the years and through the various disciplines we have studied we have been able to select the best parts of several martial arts and combine them into an extremely effective fighting system that is fun to practice but also has a very practical use on the street for self-defence.

We use the punches and kicks from Western boxing, Muay Thai, Kung fu and Karate, the knees, elbows and clinching from Muay Thai, the throws and takedowns from Judo, Ju Jitsu and Western Wrestling and the groundwork from Brazilian Ju Jitsu and JKD. This is the true spirit of Bruce Lee’s JKD which is clearly present in today’s UFC. Cherry pick the best bits of many arts and “if it don’t work, don’t use it”. As has been proven time and time again in the UFC cage fights, no one traditional martial art holds the answer to the complete fighting system. To be an effective, well-rounded fighter you must combine disciplines. You must be good on your feet with strikes, be able to takedown your opponent and defend his takedown and also be good fighting on the ground with both striking and submissions.

Many martial arts practitioners these days are constantly looking for the next technique and the next and the next and spend very little time training each one to make sure it is effective. What is the point of knowing 500 techniques but being unable to pull any of them off because they haven’t been sufficiently practiced? Better to have 20 techniques (or less) that you can do first time every time. That ability only comes through repetition. Drilling the same technique again and again until it becomes like second nature.

Keeping with the realism theme, many martial arts spend a large portion of their lesson “warming up”. While in theory this might be a good idea as it minimises the chance of injury the problems with it are twofold. One, it takes up a sizeable chunk of the lesson that could be spent learning technique and two, the problem with only training after a lengthy warm up is that your body becomes accustomed to this. When a situation develops for example in a pub or club and a fight occurs, how long do you have to warm up? No time at all. If you train with a minimal warm up your body soon becomes accustomed to this and can, without warming up, work effectively to its full potential without injuring yourself. That is why we keep our warm ups to the minimum possible and get straight into teaching so you are getting the maximum benefit for your money.

In order to cater for everyone’s taste we have broken down our teaching method into various disciplines. That way, those who just want to grapple can grapple, those who just want to strike can strike and those who want to do both can do both. This obviously depends on what areas of your training you want to work on most or simply which areas you are most happy doing. Some people just hate being punched, but some love it. We therefore have lessons in pure BJJ, no Gi grappling, MMA and pure standup JKD kickboxing. There are also dedicated lessons purely for sparring where students get to try out the techniques they have learned in real time, under pressure and with full resistance.

Conditioning and fitness also play a big part in our training. You can know all the techniques in the world but if you tire after 30 seconds of fighting, what’s the use? Alternatively if you have no resistance to pain or are not use to having your joints manipulated to the extremes, then you will tap out in a fight very easily. When Royce Gracie fought Matt Hughes in the UFC he was so conditioned that although Matt Hughes had Royce’s arm in a very powerful armlock, he had enough resistance not to tap even though his arm was close to breaking. In the end, Matt gave up the hold because Royce would simply not submit. That only comes with conditioning. When 2 fighters are evenly skilled and evenly fit, the fight will often be resolved by who has the better conditioning.