Matt Thornton Seminar Review! (Includes Secrets!)

[BIG Sean Madigan]

Hi All,

What a fantastic weekend we had with the guys from the Straight Blast Gym. At first I was going to write this about my experience with Matt Thornton, but I then realized that the greatest thing about this weekend was that it was not “Matt Thornton” that made it so good, rather it was the atmosphere created by Matt and the nature of the people that seem to enjoy Aliveness. Of course Matt was the catalyst of this gathering, and training with him was amazing.

This was my first time training with Matt or any of the guys from the SBGi, I was a bit nervous of course, and I wasn’t sure what to expect from them as coaches and as people. Let me say that any concerns were laid to rest within 5 minutes of meeting them. I picked up Matt and Luis Gutierrez at the airport and was immediately stuck with how nice they were. They seemed really laid back.

Matt & Luis were nice enough to give me some training time on the Friday night before the seminar, and the two of them were extremely helpful to me in working on problems that I faced with my ground game. They saw the problems, made suggestions, and then showed me how to use and train those corrections so that they will soon be a part of me.

Matt’s seminars are physically tough, yet safe at the same time. I think that one of the biggest misconceptions out there about the SBGi training (i.e. “Aliveness”) is that it is full out sparring, all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, about 85% of the training we did was in drills, not sparring.

It would be impossible to go into much detail with what was taught at the seminar, but here is a quick look at it. Matt showed how to safely and quickly transition from combat base from being in your opponent’s closed guard, we then worked on passing the guard by going over, under and around our opponent’s legs. This was of course taught (as was everything else) using the SBG’s “I Method” of training.

Matt spoke of the need for having a complete game, and not only in the “Stand Up-Clinch-Ground” explanation that he hear some much of. You must understand the delivery system of each of those aspects of training to make your game complete. For example…if you have good stand up, good clinch and a good guard game, you still do not have a complete game as you are missing two important aspect of the ground game (Top game & Bottom Game). This is true with all of the delivery systems.

Matt then introduced the Crazy Monkey to us, and it is really interesting. I was struck by the ease at which you can defend yourself against strikes with it. I will absolutely have Matt work with us more on that at his next seminar. Matt also work some clinch work and brought us from the basic delivery system of the clinch into snap downs, chokes and then of course we drilled all of this with aliveness.

What many might be surprised of (Unless you actually looked at Matt’s website) is Matt’s understanding and ability of philosophy. He speaks really elegantly and expresses himself perfectly when speaking about image and ego, two factors that many, if not all, martial artist having problems dealing with.

I also had the great fortune to meet, train with, and tap to, one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Paul Hopkins is a special kind of guy who is all heart and ability. He continues to impress me with his wit, knowledge and humility. Paul has no ego, and sets the perfect example of hard work equaling results. I can not say enough good things about Paul Hopkins folks, he is a real man, and one that all of us can learn from.

Also, I was extremely lucky to get to know (Yes, and TAP to him also!) Luis Gutierrez. Luis is a pleasure to work with. He clearly has class, ability and sense of good ness about him. He really seems to care about your ability and your progress. I will be working a lot with Luis in the future, and I really look forward to it.

Guys like Paul Myatovich, Christian Montes, Jeff Chiu, Kevin Sheehan, Chris Drechsler-Martell and many others made this a seminar to remember. I had never net any of these gentlemen before, but I can not wait to train with them again. It was unbelievable to experience being in a room with that many fighters/coaches, and not feel an ego anywhere. It really was simply amazing.

I will be training with Matt Thornton again simply because it was a positive experience in my life. There is nothing in that training that was useless. There was nothing taught or trained that in your head you said “Well, this is a waste”. This was effective training with good people…what more can a person want? Matt is a down to earth guy, who can literally be choking you out one minute, and then be playing Super Mario Brothers with your eight your old son an hour later.

Now, since you have read this far, I will reward you with one of the secrets of the SBG! On Saturday Luis hinted at this, but it was confirmed to my on Sunday morning by none other than Matt himself. The core of training with Aliveness sits with the two pillars of health…and these two pillars are called: Advil and Athletic tape…don’t leave home without them!

[Thai Bri]

Sean, that sounds like a great seminar.

Can you tell us any more on what this "Crazy Monkey" is all about? I've seen it mentioned, but have no idea what it is.

Thanks in advance.

[kengar]

Sound like you had a great time. I as well would like to hear more on this 'Crazy Monkey'.




Ken

[swan104]

I'd like to know more about Crazy Monkey boxing also. I had a look at the videos advertised on the website, and they were a bit pricey!

[swan104]

This link was posted on another forum:

http://www.straightblastgym.dk/vide...seminartour.wmv

I believe some Crazy Monkey stuff is demonstrated in the clip.

[BIG Sean Madigan]

Hey,

Yes, there is some Crazy Monkey on that video clip. Basically, the CM is a defensive method of Non Attribute based stand up. It is simple to learn, and train, and with very little time you can use quite well against an aggressive opponent.

BIG Sean Madigan

Combative Solutions

SBGi ATG