Hi,

I hope you’re enjoying training in the new facilities. Thank you so far for all your support over the summer months and the work you’ve put in on the mats.

New Mats

I’m currently sorting out the finance for a new set of mats. These mats will be thicker (2 inches) and either Judo style of FILA wrestling mats. Once purchased, our current mats will go against the wall, to provide a slightly softer surface should the clinch work get a little over zealous.

Website

The website (www.spartanmma.com) is growing into a nice little resource, as I’ve been adding more techniques, matches, and training advice each week. It’s perfect if you’ve missed training, want to go over a teaching point from class or see your tasty kneebar when you’re not at training.

Have a look and let me know what addition content you’d like to see on the site.

MMA League Antrim & Dublin

September 15th will see the MMA League in Antrim. Some of you have already commited to this, and we’ll be training fairly intensely for the next few weeks for it.

The Dublin leg is scheduled for December 1st, in UCD Sports Hall. Again anyone interested in competing let me know and we’ll start training for it.

For rules and info please visit www.mmaleague.com

Dublin Open Submission Tournament

The Sub Champs kicks off again on Saturday, October 13th in UCD. This is a submission wrestling tournament, which means no striking, just wrestling for submissions.

There are separate weight and skill level categories to make it as open and fair as possible, and anyone of your training partners will tell you their experiences of the competition. For more info check out subchampsirl.bebo.com

Entry fee is €25 and all you need to do to enter is let me know! (It’s nice having a coach who runs the National Championships)

Training Schedule

It would seem everyone’s content with the current training schedule so Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays will continue as normal

Tuesday classes will start on September 4th at 8pm. These classes will be MMA sparring drills involving more stand up, clinch, and jitz with hitz. However, if there is a competition coming up, we will focus on sparring for that event. I’d encourage everyone to get involved in these classes, regardless of experience or prowess in these ranges. The sparring will be skill based, not a slugfest.

Monthly Payments

Starting this month, the unlimited training fee is €60 and the once per week fee is €40. The fees haven’t gone up in two years and I don’t ask for an annual membership fee.

From October onwards we will be moving on to Standing Orders for your monthly training fees. This commitment works out best for both you and the club. You will not have to worry about when your fees are due and also we’ve found that when people make a commitment like this, they’re more likely to turn up for training. It also allows me to focus on coaching and improving the service you get, above all else.

For those of you who do not wish to go onto a Standing Order (which, can be cancelled at any time) a €5 fee will apply to your monthly payments.

Crossfit Ireland

I’m very pleased to announce that I am the affiliate for Crossfit in Ireland. Crossfit is a strength and coniditioning program that delivers fitness that is by definition broad, general and inclusive. Since MMA and Submission Wrestling rely on a broad range of physical components, Crossfit has been adapted by MMA fighters such as BJ Penn as their training program.

Crossfit classes will run 6 days a week at Crossfit Ireland/Spartan MMA, and members of Spartan MMA who wish to sign up get a discount on training. If you know of anyone who is fed up with the gym, or wants to improve their fitness and health, please let them know about it.

More info on www.crossfit.ie

Paintballing

We figure a trip out to Skirmish to shoot the living crap out of each other is in order. This will take place sometime between the Dublin Open and the Dublin MMA League. Let me know what dates suits and we’ll get the ball rolling.

Once again thank you for your continuing support and training ethic over the last few months. If you’ve any feedback, comments or suggestions please let myself or Daniel know.

Thanks,
Colm