Hi All,

Here are some updates about exciting things happening at MSDC:

1)  Photoshoot
2)  Wesleyan BJJ
3)  Rickson Seminar 3/31
4)  Roy Harris in Erie, PA
5)  JKD Instructor Course
6)  Roy Harris at MSDC
7)  Roy Dean at MSDC
8)  Krav Maga in NYC
9)  Class Schedule Changes
10)  Instructor Program coming soon
11)  MSDC Board Shorts
12)  MSDC BJJ Gi
13)  Congrats to Ralph Purificato
14)  Congrats to our Parkour peeps


1)  Many thanks to everyone who helped out with our photoshoot!  We had an incredible weekend of shooting pictures for the book, and everyone worked tirelessly and cheerily through two long days.  Yesterday, I had an opportunity to see the photos, and they are AMAZING. 

I'd like to thank Ryan, Meagin, Meg, Hope, Eric, Paul, Matt, Scott, Jose, Lena, Morgan, and Ralph for all their help during the course of the weekend.  You guys were outstanding!  I think you'll be really pleased when you see the pictures. 

Also, there is one photoshoot still to come.  I don't have details yet, but it will be in the first couple weeks of April.  So if you'd like to be a part of the fun, let me know. 


2)  The Wesleyan BJJ club has returned from Spring Break, so for those of you Blue Belts who've been coming down to help out, I welcome you to continue.  The club will meet from now until the end of April.  I encourage you to come down and help the new students over there.  I know that they, and I, greatly appreciate it!


3)  Next Wednesday, I am excited to say that I will be attending a 5-hour seminar in Sterling, Virginia with the legendary Rickson Gracie.  I'm still not quite sure how I made the guestlist, but I did.  There will only be 50 of us at this exclusive workshop.  I'm pretty excited.  As a result--there will be no classes at MSDC on Wednesday, 3/31 while I am traveling. 


4)  After my "warmup seminar" with Rickson Gracie, we begin this year's "Roy Harris seminar season".  Mr. Harris will be teaching a 2-day seminar in Erie, PA on April 17th & 18th from 12-4pm each day.  We will be driving out on Friday the 16th, and driving home EITHER late Sunday night or Monday morning (This year, the seminar is running later than usual on Sunday, so we may not want to start our 9-hour-drive-home until the next morning).  The cost of the seminar is $120 for both days if we preregister before 4/9.  Please let me know if you are planning to attend, so that we can make travel arrangements.  The topics are the Six Grips of Guard Control (Sat) and Bare Arm Chokes (Sun). 


5)  Roy Harris will also be teaching his Level 1 Jeet Kune Do Instructor Course in Erie, PA from July 7th-11th.  We have some students at MSDC attending, and I will be accompanying them to retake this course (I first took this 40 hour course in September 2004...wow, that was awhile ago!).  The course focuses on training methods for the Boxing & Kickboxing ranges, drawing from Savate, Muay Thai, Jun Fan Kickboxing, Pananjakman, and much more.  It is an incredible and unforgettable course!  I am excited for the folks who will be experiencing it for the first time.


6)  Roy Harris will teach a 2-day seminar at MSDC on August 7th & 8th this year.  The topics have not been announced yet.  He will have some availability for private lessons and belt tests during his time here.  Mark your calendars now!


7)  Roy Dean and I are working to set up a good time for him to visit MSDC this year for a BJJ seminar.  Right now, it looks like "fall".  You'll hear more as we narrow it down.


8)  The next visit to the Krav Maga Federation headquarters in New York City will be on Monday, April 12th.  We'll be taking the train from New Haven this time.  If you'd like to attend, please let me know.  The cost of the class is $30, and you will need some equipment.


9)  The MSDC class schedule has some minor changes coming.  Most notably, the Tues/Thurs Savate Kickboxing class is going to transform back into a Jeet Kune Do Kickboxing class.  This means that while we will STILL train a lot of Savate in the class, we will ALSO bring in some training methods from Muay Thai, Western Boxing, Jun fan (chinese) kickboxing, and more. 

Also, wednesday nights have been veeeeeery quiet lately.  With the exception of this week's (awesome) spring break rounds class, it's been a ghost town.  So, I am toying with the idea of eliminating the Wednesday night class, because this day is so tough for many of you.  If you have an idea for the Wednesday night timeslot, and it's something that you and others would attend, please let me know. 


10)  I am pleased to announce that I will be moving forwards with a program that has been on the back burner for a long time:  the MSDC Instructor Training Program.  I will release a lot more juicy detail in the near future, but for now, here's the basics:

Members will attend a weekly training session in which we'll be covering a variety of topics, including presentation of information, instructor energy and charisma, reaching all of your students, teaching various age levels, teaching various ability levels, professionalism, teaching faster and more effectively, keeping classes exciting, group dynamic management, and MUCH more.  ALL members accepted into the program will also be given their own class to teach every week at MSDC. 

If you're interested in this program, please drop me a line.  I will make some decisions soon regarding minimum rank or experience levels.  I promise that this will be an eye-opening experience!


11)  MSDC will have some custom board shorts coming in this spring.  I will offer a pre-sale on these shorts very soon, including a discount for folks who pre-order.  Watch for the clipboard at MSDC very soon!


12)  I am also preparing to launch our first line of MSDC custom BJJ uniforms.  These uniforms are going to be pretty sweet!  I'll have more info on those pretty soon. 


13)  Congratulations to Ralph Purificato, JR on his new online adventure:  The New Haven register will be adding his blog to the sports section of their website, and have given him a desk at their office.  If you'd like to read his blog, you can find it at:  http://mmact.blogspot.com/ 


14)  Congratulations to Scott Hoffman and all of our friends in the Adaptive Movement Parkour classes at MSDC--they had some cameras filming last night for ESPN.  No word yet on when you'll be able to see the footage, but I will keep everyone posted.  I'm thrilled to see the excitement of this program continuing to spread.  Well done, Scott!


Whew!  That's all for now. 

Enjoy the day.


~Chris

PS - Don't forget to follow us on Twitter:  Mod_SelfDefense!