Sunday 15 November 2009

6 Deuce clothing

Check out this interview with MMA clothing company Six Deuce. Not your usual 'in your face I beat people up’ kind of prints, but much more subtle and, in my opinion, wearable. I first came across this brand when we were in Thailand training at Tiger Muay Thai around 16 months ago and it was nice to see a Mixed Martial Arts T shirt that didn’t have ‘blood stains’ or barbed wire on it. Not that there is anyting wrong with barbed wire, but sometimes it would be nice to wear something that doesn’t scream Affliction! Here is a recent interview below:



Not only was Craig over at Six Deuce nice enough to give us losers a bunch of free t-shirts, he also let me ask him a bunch of asinine questions. This is one of my favorite interviews yet so be sure and give it a look.

Craig, give us some info on Six Deuce Gear and what it is all about.

Six Deuce … a movement without boundaries. A lifestyle without restrictions. An attitude that defines combat.

Just kidding! We hate the quasi-mysterious company descriptions as much as you do. We’re a t-shirt company that sells MMA t-shirts disguised as non-MMA t-shirts. I’ve been around the sport since UFC 2, my high school days. I went to college at Iowa State University, graduated from the graphic design program, and did nothing with the degree for a few years, like most starving artists.

I’ve been a member of the UG (mixedmartialarts.com) for a long time too, and that’s where the company got started. KTFO (remember them?) had some shirts that were really basic when they first came on the scene, so I messed around with their logo on my lunch break and posted it on the UG. Some people liked it, and a few other companies contacted me to do design work for them. After a couple of months I decided to venture out on my own, with no business experience and not much start-up money. I saw an opportunity in the market for more “subtle” shirt designs, because the market had a lot of intense, EXTREME!, and over the top MMA shirts. Not very many hid the fact that you not only had a pitbull, tribal tattoos, and killed people in the cage, but you wore it on your shirt as well! I tried to tone it down a bit.

You have our new shirts set to come out the end of this month, you want to tell us about them?

Fedor Sweater Logo Tee: Obviously Fedor has been a HUGE influence in some of my designs. It has been an absolute joy to watch his career become what it is today. I’ve never seen a better role model…he embodies so many positive characteristics, both in the ring/cage and out. Combat Sambo is one of our favorite martial arts, and I hope that if people like our Sambo shirts, it might introduce more people to the sport. Plus, if Fedor’s sweater is truly lucky, maybe it’s power is found in the color combination of the stripes?

Tiger Muay Thai Tee: These guys are great and awesome to work with. Tiger Muay Thai is one of the best Muay Thai training camps in the world, and head Tiger MMA trainer Ray Elbe has always been a great friend to our company. We’re putting a high quality Tiger MT shirt on the market for fans and former trainees of the camp. If you’re looking for an amazing training experience with all the amenities, look no further. Check them out at http://www.tigermuaythai.com.

Sambo Crest Tee: Our 3rd and most recent Sambo t-shirt. Igor Karaev, (@TSGIGOR) an individual who is very close to Fedor and his group has
been very helpful with all of our new Russian-themed shirts. The translated text reads (top line) “Sixty Two” and (bottom line) “Samozashchita Bez Oruzhiya”, of which SAMBO is an acronym, and means “Self Defense without a weapon”.

Russian Wolf Tee: The phrase (in Russian) on the shirts is: “Volkov boyat’sa – v les ne khodit’” which means, “Don’t go into the woods if you’re afraid of the wolves”. The phrase is perfect for our sport and works in so many ways.

Just Bleed Tee: The shirt is a tribute to the “Just Bleed” guy, a legend in his own right. During an earlier UFC, he summed up the testosterone (and alcohol) fueled fighting rage of every young male in one brief moment on camera. Just Bleed guy, we salute you!

Six Deuce does a lot of shirts that only the hardcore MMA fans will get, why is that?

It’s not intentional! I’d like for our company to be more mainstream, so I could go to the club and make it rain 100 dollar bills. Sigh…I guess I’m doing something wrong. Seriously though, we have the loyalty of a lot of the hardcore fans of the sport, and that’s very important to me. You can wear a lot of our stuff and the general public won’t know it’s an MMA shirt, but people who actively follow the sport will appreciate it.

Do you think Fedor will like your new Sweater Sambo shirt?

hope so, I really do. I’m going to send him one so that if he ever ruins his lucky sweater in the dryer, we’ve got him covered.

What else would you like to say to FightTrends readers?

FRAT! Thanks for taking the time to read our interview, and watch for our new shirts to be released the day after Thanksgiving!

Thanks to Six Deuce for the interview and giveaway. Let us know who you would like to see us interview and we will do our best to get it done. Be sure and give Six Deuce a follow on Twitter. Also, don’t forget to check out the new Six Deuce T-Shirts that will be available the day after Thanksgiving.

De La Riva Sweep 5



1: Boca decides to try and pass the guard by cross-sliding his right knee over De La Riva’s right leg



2: De la Riva places his hooking foot on the ground, grabs his other leg by the knee to support his leg and pivots the foot under Boca’s far thigh.



3: He kicks his right leg up and lifts his hips to raise Boca’s leg…



4: … and now switches legs, placing his left foot under Boca’s thigh, grabbing the leg and sleeve, and sweeps Boca to his right



5: He follows Boca and gains cross side.

De La Riva Sweep 4



1: Boca attempts to escape De la Riva’s guard by standing up



2: De la Riva counters by sitting up using his hooking leg and …



3: …traps Boca’s right arm and leg.



4: He places his left hand on the ground and sit up into Boca causing him to fall backwards.



5: He now comes to the top, clears the guard and achieves cross side position.

De La Riva Sweep 3



1: Boca is back in de la Riva’s open guard.



2: Boca removes de la Riva’s hook by pointing his knee to the outside.



3: De La Riva reacts by swinging his other leg over Boca’s arm and hooking his foot under Boca’s thigh.



4: De la Riva places his other foot on the ground and shifts his hip away from Boca and kicks his hook straight up to sweep him.



5: De la Riva pulls his sweeping leg free and comes to the top position

De La Riva Sweep 2

Part two in the sweep series continues below;



1: De la Riva starts the sweep by controlling Boca’s sleeves and inserting his hook behind Boca’s knee.



2: He proceeds by shifting his hip away from the hooking leg and switching his right hand from the sleeve to the lapel



3: He starts the sweep by pulling Boca towards him…



4: …and then rolling him to his left, immediately working to pass Boca’s guard.



Alternate Finish, Photo 1: if Boca resists by backing out, de la Riva will place his left hand behind him on the ground and sit up…



Alternate Finish, Photo 2: …sweeping Boca backwards, passing his legs as before

De La Riva Sweep 1

I have decided I want to continue to work on my deep half guard, as if I can get it to a competitive level in a school where deep half guard is the speciality, then it will be pretty hard to beat against people who have only come across it a couple times. So thats what I 'should' do. But I am going to do what I want to do and also work on the de la riva! These two positions seem to go hand in hand quite well and I think I should be able to drill them together quite nicely. Here are a few cool sweeps I found courtisy of www.grapplearts.com:

TECHNIQUE 1: BASIC DE LA RIVA SWEEP



1: De la Riva has Boca in the open guard with both feet on his hips controlling both his sleeves with his hands.



2: De la Riva shifts his hips over to one side to hook his foot behind Boca’s knee on the inside of the thigh.



3: He places his other foot on Boca’s knee and grabs his far sleeve with both hands…



4: …straightens his hooking leg, pushes on Boca’s knee with the other foot and pulls on his sleeve to get the sweep.



5: De la Riva swims under Boca’s armpit with his far arm and switches his hip to disengage his legs…



6: …and slides his hip out to gain cross side

Thursday 12 November 2009

Update




Serious blog neglect going on over the past few weeks! Hopefully that will change starting today. Life has been pretty hectic since I left the UK and arrived in sunny Bahrain!

Life has changed quite a bit over the last few months. I got a job doing public relations for the Bahrain International Circuit, hosts of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, which is turning out to be quite enjoyable. It’s a fast paced and hectic atmosphere but I seem to work well under pressure and with deadlines so its all good. The down side is that by the time I finish work at 5pm (8am start), I am usually pretty tired and it is quite an effort to complete the 20 minute drive to pick up Rach and 15 minute drive to the academy, straight from work. But I am slowly getting back to training 5+ times a week! The first two weeks was very frustrating as I wanted to continue with my old training schedule but just couldn’t hack it. But over the last week or two, things have got a lot better as I have found a new routine and tried to make my day as accommodating as possible for evening training. This means making sure I get to sleep by 11pm at the absolute latest, as otherwise by the time 5pm rolls around I only have energy to fall asleep! I also try to keep a bunch of healthy snacks at my desk – stuff like nuts, fruit, alpine bars, etc (hopefully will be adding protein shakes to this once I get paid). One thing that was really letting me down in the first couple weeks was my liquid intake, or lack of. Sitting at a desk all day seems to convince my brain that I don’t need to hydrate! So lots of tea and water through out the day also helps me feel good to go come training time. This week things have come together a bit more and training has been a bit better, and I think next week it will be pretty much back to normal.

Training at RMAC is going pretty good! Brazilian black belt Rodrigo Mangabeira is teaching the class at the moment so I am picking up some great moves. In terms of personal development I have not been focusing on anything in particular for the last month, but due to a majority of the guys pulling guard, I have found my top and passing game is coming along quite nicely. This I should probably save for another post, but I am feeling a bit lost in terms of game plans at the moment. I mean, I still know what I am doing, but I don’t seem to be pushing my game plan on my opponents, and am instead responding to their game. I think this is probably due to life being so hectic and not having time to think up my own little plan for class – before working, I would always have time to know exactly what I wanted to practice during sparring.

Logically, since my take downs are not great, I should focus my game on sweeping from bottom and then implement my new found passing skills to eventually transition to North/ South, where I feel very comfortable. So for the next few weeks I will be focusing on sweeps. Great that’s decided then. But sweeps from what position? Half guard? Closed guard? Open guard? Decisions, decisions….