The Christmas Holidays are here, and while many of you may be taking a hard-earned break from training, I'm sure some of you want to stay active and maintain your skills and conditioning over the holidays. Bellow are some training ideas which you can use to stay sharp during the break, and everything can be done at home, so no excuses!

General Fitness/Combat Conditioning:

Choose five of your favourite bodyweight exercises (or use weights if they are available). The protocol is, you perform each exercise as intensely as you can for one minute, then move onto the next one until you've completed a five minute round. Rest for one minute, then complete another round. Complete three to five rounds (15 to 25 minutes working time) for a short but intense workout. An example circuit is as follows:

- Push ups [1min]
- Burpees [1 min]
- Bodyweight Squat [1 min]
- Prone hold/ bridge [1 min]
- Squat jumps [1 min]

Grappler's Workout:

Use your time away from the gym to fine-tune important skills that you may neglect during a normal training week. Use a similar protocol as the circuit above, but substitute grappling-specific movements, and perform each for 2 minutes at a time. Some useful movements/exercises for grapplers include hip escapes, shoulder escapes, sit-outs, Judo push ups and bridges.

If you have a Swiss ball/stability ball handy, use it to practice your knee-ride. Not only will it improve your balance and coordination as the ball moves, but will also engage your core for a great workout. A punching bag placed on the ground can be used to mimic an opponent, allowing you to practice transitions from side control, knee ride, mount etc. Flow between all positions, using good technique to keep your mind and body sharp over the break.

Striker's Workout:

Like the Grappling workout above, use the break as a time to drill fundamental skills, and iron out any wrinkles you may have. Start with some shadow boxing, but instead of endless combinations, limit yourself at first to a jab and a cross. Focus on perfect technique, keeping the punches straight, whipping them out and back. For even more technical focus, place a tennis ball between your chin and collar-bone of your lead shoulder. Now do your shadow boxing rounds without letting the ball fall out, which will make sure you're keeping your chin down!

For more specific striking conditioning, perform a set combination for one entire round. During the 1 minute round break, perform a bodyweight exercise. Choose a different combination for the next round, and follow this circuit for four to six rounds. This will push your cardio, and by devoting an entire round to a single combination, your rate of improvement of that technique will be much faster. Just never sacrifice good technique as go get tired! An example is as follows.

- Round 1: Jab, cross, hook [3 min]
- Sit ups [1 min]
- Round 2: Jab, Jab, Cross [3 min]
- Push ups [1 min]
- Jab, Cross, Uppercut, Cross [3 min]
- Bodyweight squats [1min]

So as you can see, there's no excuses to lose skill and conditioning over the break. Remember to take enough rest to heal up any niggling injuries so you come back fresh and strong for 2011!!!

The Machado Asia Pacific Titles are over for another year. As with previous years Advance had a strong team in attendance, with 7 Athletes stepping up to test their mettle against Asia Pacific's best. Quentin Taylor, Brett Page, and Stu Gray all performed extremely well in the purple belt divisions. Brett scored an awesome standing sweep in his first match where he caught his opponent momentarily with one leg in the air. Brett swooped and knocked the other leg aside sending his opponent crashing to the ground and scoring the points. Brett went on to score a hard fought and well earned bronze medal in a division stacked with talent. Stu Gray put in an awesome performance dominating his matches until, he was a little unlucky to have his match stopped early - Stu the consummate gentleman and good sportsman took this set back in his stride. Stu shone with pride as he was presented with a silver medal - well done mate.

Quentin Taylor was unlucky to come up against a tough opponent in his first match - he got caught in a triangle attempt early on in his match - and spent the remainder of the 7 minutes defending that position - it was a zero-zero draw with Quentin losing by an advantage. He later took on another tough opponent and was unlucky to lose. He put in a solid performance that demonstrated skill, stamina, and determination - a great effort mate, we are all proud of your indomitable attitude.

The blue belt division saw Kale Cheeseman and the battle hardened veteran Sam Russell carry the flag for team Advance. Both guys came up against eventual winners in their first round, and put in very solid and creditable performances. Sam pulled off some classic poses throughout his match.

Warren Darragh, scored a workman like 5 - 0 victory in the final of the brown belt masters division to bring home the gold medal.

Coach Matt Cooper put on a grappling clinic to take out gold in the 94kg+ black belt division - completely dominating the final match with solid BJJ basics - this match was refereed by Rigan Machado himself. A true leaders performance. Fantastic effort coach!

The overall medal tally was - Gold:2, Silver:1, Bronze:1.

The highlight of the event was the outstanding degree of team spirit and camaraderie displayed by team Advance - when an Advance team member was competing - they enjoyed the most vocal support.

The weekend was a great success and all of the participants had a great time - including enjoying a couple of informal social events off the mat. Regardless of the outcome of matches all of the participants learnt a lot from the experience and will be better grapplers for it. They are all to be congratulated for stepping up and putting their egos on the line. For those of you who haven't made the trip to Melbourne you should take the time to have a chat with those who have. Put it on your bucket list!

For those who want to go next year - start planning now!

Official results can be found here.