Students grapple with holiday seminar
A kickboxing and grappling seminar were recently held at the Brakpan XKT headquarters and Rio Grappling Centre during the school holidays.
The seminar was broken down into three separate sessions and was conducted by sensei Ryan Phillips (semi-contact), shihan Raymond Phillips (K1 kickboxing) and Jurgen Pitter (No Gi grappling). Brakpan XKT (kickboxing) and Rio Grappling Centre (Brazilian Jujitsu) invited students to a workshop to keep them sharp for upcoming events.
Students came from as far as Thabazimbi to join the seminar and all walked away with a wealth of knowledge to apply to their future events.
The seminar was also held to help fighters from kickboxing to mixed martial arts (MMA) to sharpen up their standing skills as well as their ground fighting skills for those who were interested in MMA or just grappling.
The sport of MMA is evolving at a tremendous rate and Raymond Phillips, who is the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) director to Africa, recently came back from the IMMAF European Open held in Romania.
Also read: Phillips proud of protégés
“IMMAF has a progression scheme running and we are planning a coaching seminar later this year that will be conducted by Danny Corr from Ireland on behalf of IMMAF,” said the director.
Raymond, who travels overseas for the fighting game on a regular basis, said: “If we want to compete with the rest of the world we have to up our game.”
He added that as a result of his travels he gets invited to many training seminars with international federations allowing him to sit in on their training camps.
His next major event is happening on August 25 when he hosts the popular Great North 2 kickboxing tournament at the Brakpan Indoor Sports Centre.
“We expect around 400 athletes,” said the shihan.
“We are planning to host more training camps and seminars throughout the rest of the year.”
Contact Raymond on 083 701 2154 or email to rayforce@xkt.co.za, for more information.
Follow us:
