Prodigy MMA Blog

The Benefits of Martial Arts Training

I Got Third Place The BJJ grading is just around the corner and that’s the reason why there’s always more people on the mats. I had one of the members saying they’re all worried about going for their illustrious blue belt and don’t think they deserve. I can totally relate, I was always getting beaten by training partners and every time I levelled up my belt I never felt like I deserved it. Even I refused to go for my brown belt one time, because I rolling like shit and didn’t think I was ready, my coach understood and respected my decision. It’s funny how this all shit works, every time I levelled up I had a bigger target on my back, I became a blue belt and all these hungry lower belts wanted to beat me up. The exact same thing happened at purple, brown and black belts, oddly enough when the target was bigger it actually forced me to improve. Yes, I still think I didn’t deserve any of my belts, I still consider myself a white belt, I love learning and every day is different on the mats. Having a bigger target on your back is good and bad at the same time. It’s bad because if you lose to a lower belt it hurts the ego. There’s a saying that some Jiu-Jitsu gyms quote it says to “leave your ego at the door”. How is that possible? We all have an ego? Does your ego liked getting smashed all the time? I bet you it doesn’t, you humanoid’s have been programed to win, it doesn’t matter if it’s at school, at sport or at work, you must excel at everything that you do. We get rewarded for doing well, and by getting rewarded it triggers a chemical in your brain called dopamine. It’s the chemical responsible your mood, it’s conditioned to like rewards, it makes you feel good, it triggered by drugs and alcohol and is one of the main reason people develop addictions. Now onto the good things about having a new belt, firstly you deserve it you’ve been training hard. I see all the stuff you do on and off the mats. Yes, the target is bigger on your back but when the newbies come in and want to rip your head off. Unfortunately some will beat you, some of them won’t. The end result is you’ll get better because you’ve been rewarded with a new belt and you’re going to defend it, because dopamine makes you feel fuckin great and you love rewards. I remember my high school swimming carnival, I did my bronze medallion at school and knew I could swim 50 metres. The brackets went in age, height and weight, I was a large awkward kid, and I still am to this day. I couldn’t swim very well but a few of my mates were egging me to enter the 100m freestyle as they needed three people in that division or the race was off. The old dopamine kicked in, first and second qualified for the state finals and third place was a reserve just in case someone couldn’t swim. Oh shit, it didn’t take me long to realize I get a day off school even if I came third, to me that was my reward. Fuck yeah let’s do this, there’s only three in the race. The starting gun goes off, I belly flopped into the pool I could hear everyone laughing at me, now swimming 100 metres I thought would be easy, but being a rebellious teenager, I had recently started smoking. Swimming the first 50 metres was hell, but all I could hear was the people laughing at me, by the time I finished the first 50, I was getting lapped, and I could hear some of that laughter turning into cheers, at one stage one of the teachers asked me if I needed help, I said no. I kept going, being stubborn has it benefits and I just kept going. I was hearing a few more cheers, some people actually wanted me to finish the race. I dog paddled the last 20 metres, I did it, I finished the race I was a reserve for the state finals. I quickly ran over the people that section that was laughing at me, I gave them the double bird and yelled out “fuck you, I’ve got a day off school”. Yours always Darko Bloggins

Be an individual, just like the rest of them Now this is a funny subject! The lovely people that run this country are making life difficult for us small business owners. You either comply, get vaccinated to do business or you won’t be able to do business at all. I know many people that work in construction, hospitality or work in red zones that were strongly encouraged (practically forced) to get vaccinated. I seriously believe it should be your choice because it’s your body, but also believe that people should be doing the right thing as the vaccine “may” save lives. The other problem is I’m on social media, like most people I have various accounts. I don’t know about you, but I constantly get conspiracy theories sent to me, and I’m also a huge Simpsons fan. Oh shit! Lo and behold some of these conspiracy theories and episodes from The Simpsons have actually come true. There’s heaps of bullshit out there from the Royal Family who are really lizard people, 5G towers, Bill Gates micro chipping the whole world, the freemasons, event 201, to the rich and powerful that sacrifice babies in front of a giant wooden owl at Bohemian Grove. Gullible people will believe anything Alex Jones tells them. Why? Because he speaks with conviction. Now, I have received heaps of conspiracy theories about the “vaccination of the nation program” the government has been shoving down our throats. I started to believe some of it and it started to piss me off. How dare they force me to put poison into my body? They are trying to scare us, so they can control us. Look at all the side effects. Pretty sure a lot of you had the same thoughts, it’s quite normal to question everything. Now I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m anti-stupid. In life I always approached things with logic. We are actually quite lucky to have access to information at our fingertips, so I did a bit of investigating. These vaccines are approved by some smart people, and in order to be approved the ingredients have to be listed. I looked at every single ingredient in the vaccines, absolutely nothing suspicious there. Yes, there is a slight chance something could go wrong. But there’s also a slight chance I could get hit by lightning, which actually happened to me once I was lucky to be in my car when it happened. The right ear still rings sometimes because of it. Oddly enough it was a short documentary about the least vaxxed place in the world, a little place called Mountain Home, Arkansas, in the Ozarks region that convince me to get vaccinated. Those poor stupid rednecks, I actually got a little emotional when Christopher Green who’s 53 years old, he has covid, on his deathbed, he refused to get vaccinated. Poor redneck died 9 days after they finished filming, so much for Southern Hospitality. One of my favourite shows is Oz, it’s a series about life in Oswald State Correctional Facility. The series wouldn’t get released these days as it covers subjects what most producers wouldn’t go near. One of the main characters is a guy named Tobias Beecher, an alcoholic lawyer, he’s a total nerd. Unfortunately he was drunk when he ran over a girl and is stuck in jail. Oh boy, did he suffer because he didn’t fit in. Until one day, Beecher confronts Schillinger at basketball court who’s been giving him a hard time. He assaults him, ties him down, and shits on him in front of the other inmates. Beecher earned respect from the inmates and finally fit in after that. We are not being forced to get vaccinated, it’s seriously your choice. I want travel again, I want things to be normal, I want my local pub back. But most of all I want Prodigy MMA back! Hopefully one day, I’ll do the Beecher and confront these bullies and shit on the front lawn at Parliament House. Yours always Darko 'Vaxman' Bloggins

Deja-Poo, I’ve seen this shit before Warning this isn’t my usual words of wisdom and angry at the world blog. I feel real dirty but will admit, I have watched a couple of those NSW Health press conferences at 11am. You know the ones that make you feel like a bad person full of slogans and catchphrases. So I’ve decided to have a little fun with a few of those words that they keep repeating. The slogans and words are in bold for humanoids out there. Next Question! As the premier said some of you extra vigilant people who have been wearing your masks. We offer sincere condolences to the businesses hit with the hardest lockdowns. Talking and gathering is not allowed, in relation to the virus as some have come forward because we’re all in this together as we only offer slogans but no solutions. The other day I walking as quickly as possible, being followed by a bunch of contact tracers. I was looking for my grass roots in a cluster at my LGA, as I wanted to get jabbed but my Service NSW app wasn’t working so I couldn’t get vaccinated. I wanted to do the right thing as I have a morbid fear of super spreaders so I had to social distance to reduce those numbers. On a positive note this shit doesn’t make sense, I’m confused about police compliance. Can I stress, as you all know, I don’t have that figure but someone said 70%, wish it was 69% it would be funny to hit that target. If you’re feeling unwell please get tested, but what if you are waiting in line next to someone that is positive? One day I wish to leave Gladystan, but there’s an international travel ban as covid-19 has mutated she is all grown up, her name is Delta, she’s a lean mean viral machine. Hopefully the pretty half English-Swedish AstraZeneca, her strong half German-American friend Pfizer and the fucken confused non-binary Moderna kill the Delta. At the end of the day life isn’t that bad, I have a roof over my head, I’m not starving, I have other essential work. I miss watching UFC, enjoying a beer and a schnitzel at the pub with mates from the Prodigy. I really want this lockdown to end, as I miss teaching, and seeing you people improve. But we’re all in this together, it feels like I’m fourteen and in trouble again, the difference is when I was fourteen I knew exactly what I had done wrong. These days I’m on knifes edge sometimes I’m on high alert. I don’t know where to stand or where the line starts. Oh shit, wear your mask or stay at home but don’t forget to scan the QR code. Yours always Darko Bloggins

What to Do During Lockdown? Most of you humanoids are creatures of habit. You get up the same time every day, probably eat the same meals, do the same shit during the day, rinse and repeat until you die. Boom, just like that! We’re in lockdown again. It’s all a little weird for me suddenly there’s a bunch of professional runners and cyclists around. I can’t tell if people are smiling or angry as I can’t see faces, people are getting out of my way, there is oddly shaped lines to get in and out of places. Some businesses are essential, some are not. “The only thing that’s essential is confusion”. People are confused because you’ve taken jobs, daily habits and routines away from them. There’s a quote from Madeleine L’Engle that has been resonating with me during lockdown “Because to take away a man’s freedom, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person”. What to do during lockdown that isn’t running, cycling or illegal? I’m sure there’s plenty of you that are quite bored. Read books people, there’s millions of them out, learn a new language, learn to play an instrument. It’s a perfect time to further your education, listen to podcasts, set goals and smash them, clean your house throw out the clutter, take up photography, learn to cook, go for a hike, nothing beats nature. There’s plenty of places within the 10km radius, so you don’t get in trouble with the fun police. What I did last lockdown, as I realise quite quickly I wouldn’t be travelling anywhere for a while. I paid off my debts, being debt free is pretty fucken awesome. No more debt, no more worries. Whatever you do? Please do something! There is absolutely no reason you should be feeling sorry for yourself. I remember at a tournament, Bryan (he talks a lot) who’s been training for over a decade didn’t get off to the best start, he was sitting there just playing around in guard. He was down on points and there wasn’t much time left, I know he’s got the best armbar and triangle game in the whole gym as he’s tapped me plenty of times. I could see that both options were there, but I couldn’t actually say it. So I yelled out “DO SOMETHING” from across the floor, and it was like he read my mind, boom perfect armbar from guard, he won gold. Everyone at the tournament thought it was funny how two stupid words changed the outcome of his match. You all should be doing something during lockdown. Yes, it sucks as Prodigy MMA is shut for a little bit, go out and find something to do. Go learn something new, it’s the perfect time for it. You humanoids learn by reading, writing, listening and doing. Trust me on that learning thing. I’ve been sent here from Uranus to study humanoids. Did you know Uranus is only planet with a name derived from a Greek deity? Uranus is bizarre. Uranus is unique. Saturn may be pretty, Jupiter may be huge, but everyone is intrigued with Uranus. While all the other planets spin like tops around the sun, Uranus lies on its side. It isn’t the farthest planet from the sun, yet it manages to be the coldest. Please get off Uranus and “DO SOMETHING”. Yours always Darko Bloggins

Cogito, ergo sum I share a birthday it’s March 31 st for the people that want to buy me presents, with Rene Descartes he’s consider by many the father of modern philosophy “cogito, ergo sum” is a statement he made in latin in his book the Discourse on The Method, in English it translates to I think, therefore I am. I actually have “cogito ergo sum” tattooed on my right forearm no point of getting a tattoo if it hasn’t got meaning. Why not I share a birthday with Descartes and just like him “I exist”. I often hear beginners say “I’m not fit enough to train” sometimes they say “I don’t know what I’m doing” or “I feel like a retard”. You know what I wasn’t fit enough and didn’t know what I was was doing and still feel like a retard. Staring my martial arts journey was the best thing I’ve ever done. Watching martial arts movies growing up is what really got me into it, and as soon as I had stable income I started training. The attitude I’ve always had was a “fuck it, I’ll give it a go” has gotten me in trouble many times, but also helped me get a job whenever I wanted one. I used to change them often because I could, I thought I wanted a career, but at the end of the day all I wanted was money. I use to fix, build and sell computers, I’m sold office consumables, I’ve sold mobile phones, I’ve sold cars, I have door knocked for Optus, telemarketing, worked in numerous call centres, I was a removalist and delivery driver. These days, I drive Uber during the morning and teach martial arts at night. Fuck it, I gave it a go and so should you. I have never refused a job I got, even if I hated it. Why...because it could turn into something great, and starting martial arts shouldn’t be any different. Give it a go, stop thinking about not being fit enough, not knowing what to do or feeling like a retard. Everyone is a beginner when they start, and don’t worry about not fitting in, we have people in the military, doctors, lawyers, accountants, all types of trades people, even have a few strange ones in the corporate world.  The weirdest person you’ll have to deal with is the good looking eccentric owner, he has a glassy stare and the world's best dad jokes. Yours always Darko Bloggins

A Change Is Gonna Come Yes, I just quoted the Sam Cooke song. Quite possibly one of the greatest songs ever written. The song was inspired by various events in Cooke's life, most prominently when he and his entourage were turned away from a whites-only motel in Louisiana. Boy, has this world been going through some changes the last couple years, and quite frankly I fucken love it, I get excited not knowing what’s going to happen. I love not being prepared for any of it, I love the unpredictability. I also love the fact I could climb a tree, be totally reckless, disregards orders and use violence to solve my problems just like John James Rambo. One change that surprised me was that Prodigy MMA has doubled its members in less than a year. We officially took the business over on August 24 th 2020, we took a risk not even knowing if we could to open but business is currently booming. I’m only good at teaching and dad jokes, but having access to a whole bunch of smart people in various industries has been priceless. The reason they get paid really well is because they know what they are doing, I use to pick on nerds at school but now they tell me what to do. So as things have been going really well. We, too, must change as circumstances evolve. There’s going to be a few changes to the timetable real soon. Haven’t changed the timetable is ages, but we will be running three back to back classes from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. The MMA classes will be more focused on MMA, we will introducing No Gi BJJ classes for all the Eddie Bravo loving pot smokers. Saturday’s will be starting an hour earlier and we’ll have another open mat class for the people that don’t listen. But most of all you’ll get to spend more time on the mats with me because I’m fucken awesome. Yours always Darko Bloggins

Keep It Simple Stupid Back when I started training BJJ we only had dial up internet in Australia. I originally had to get another phone line installed so I could use the internet without disconnecting the parent’s phone. It was awesome when the phone line splitter came out and we were able to share the same phone line. I remember the noises the modem use to make, imagine the sound of two fax machines on four day meth bender having a domestic dispute. Browsing the internet at a lighting fast 56K was the best thing ever, a 10 minute clip use to take two weeks to download. Then suddenly, like it was overnight things got a whole lot quicker, faster internet, mobile phones, youtube, social media, influencers, news at your fingertips and all my favourite musicians had all died. We had martial art magazines and videos on VCR and some nerds out there took notes. A Brazilian who offered $50,000 of his own money to anyone that could beat him in a martial arts magazine and the first UFC on VCR that got me started. We seriously didn’t know much, my coach was a blue belt, his coach was a purple belt at the time there was no BJJ black belts in Australia in 1997. We only knew the basics but no one complained. As for other resources I got weekly private lessons and attended as many BJJ seminars as I could afford. We had footage of comps we competed in, videos of UFC, a Mario Sperry BJJ Vale Tudo instructional and my old favourite the old Gracies in Action 1 & 2 documentary, there was others but those three are the ones I remember really well. You people have got it easy these days, you have access to content that you can stream at will and youtube. One thing that really grinds my gears is people trying techniques they just saw on youtube, don’t get me wrong I often check youtube for content myself. But trying inverted guards, lapel guards, worm guards, heel hooks, silly baseball chokes and whatever cool exotic stuff you saw on youtube is seriously a waste of time. I remember my first swimming lesson they showed us how to dog paddle before they showed the freestyle.  Your BJJ shouldn’t be any different, learn takedowns, supplement your BJJ with striking, understanding the positions in BJJ, distance management is really important, know how to get up correctly, learn to pass guard and get top position and of course have a few submissions you’re great at. All I do is kimura’s from everywhere, arm triangles and butterfly sweeps, I guarantee you watch me roll you will see me always go back to the fundamentals. Stick to the basics, learn to walk before you can sprint. Why? Because they fuckin work! Yours always Darko Bloggins

Want To Become A Master? Well it’s no secret, there is plenty of articles and books on this very subject. It’s really easy! Get your repetitions in people. I get annoyed when people have done a technique three times and look at me waiting for the next technique. You silly humans, don’t you know it takes over six months to develop a new skill if you want to master something? Feel free to Google it, there’s articles and books that say it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. 10,000 hours is roughly 9 years, if you train five days a week at four hours a day. Find me a professional athlete that isn’t training a lot, sure there’s freak athletes out there but I guarantee they put in the hours. I had an old training partner that use to be a world class swimmer. He was in the pool five hours a day, the same person ate twelve cheeseburgers in one sitting but that’s another story. Hands down the best BJJ competitor at the moment is Gordon Ryan, he’s training between four to five hours a day. Yes, his life revolves around BJJ, he eats and sleeps on the mats but does weights a few times a week and also squeezes in some MMA training as well. There is some plenty of rumours out there claiming that he’s on steroids because of his workload. Who the fuck cares! Which elite athlete isn’t using something or has used something in the past. Want to become a Master? I’m giving out free information or at least show you a few brain hacks that have worked for me in the past. The first one is teaching because when you teach, you’re going to learn it again. It’s all one big experiment for me some days are great, others not so great. The other thing that has helped me is people asking questions - I’m on autopilot when teaching and it forces me to think outside the box. Taking notes can also help if you can be bothered taking notes Filming is better as everyone has a mobile phone with a camera these days. I’m a big fan of using a mnemonic device, to help me remember. A mnemonic device is a system such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations which assists in remembering something. Pretty sure people that have attended my classes have heard me use terms such as the phoenix fist, retard hands, t-rex arms, put your thumb in the hole, use your stumps, climb the mountain, put four fingers in the wizard sleeve, the third hook, the power hook and everyone’s favourite the gay rainbow.  As I often tell people “don’t be a stranger, just be strange” think I’ve mastered being strange quite well. Yours always Darko Bloggins