Back to the Bosch

Rickson Gracie – Holland, 26 & 27 October 2013

So, once again, the Rickson Gracie Holland guys re-affirmed their relationship with and commitment to, Rickson with another visit from the Master.

With good connections now in Holland, and an established base in ‘S-Hertogenbosch, cheap ferry fares and good hotel prices, I planned my second trip of the year.  With it being half-term, I was also able to take along my wife and kids and was also joined by Simon, Mike (Carlsons) and my old friend Jim (who has been training for about 6 months now at Carlson’s in Essex and is now thoroughly hooked on BJJ).

After a pleasant ferry crossing (apart from losing my Rickson cap to the wind whilst on deck – much to my children’s delight!) we drove across Belgium and Holland.  Last time, this drive took only a few hours, but this time took around six due mainly to being stuck in horrendous traffic around Antwerp – note to self and all…do not drive near Antwerp on a Friday afternoon!

After arriving at our hotel in Rosmalen, Simon and I headed straight back out to meet up with Michel at his gym for a private lesson.

During the preceding week, Rickson had been staying in Holland running sessions for the Instructors that make up the Rickson Gracie Holland team.  Michel was keen to show us some stuff on passing butterfly guard, beginning with a very neat technique but then expanding into the various principles around the technique and also then into the principles of attack from the bottom.

The session was gold.  I’ve done a lot of coaching as part of my work and I’m a RFU qualified coach, so I like to think I know what I’m talking about when it comes to coaching and this session was one of the most effective coaching sessions on Jiu Jitsu that I’ve ever had.  For both Simon and I, the progression that we made in that session from start to finish was exponential.  A really great session and on a very useful subject.

The next day started with a relaxed trip into Den Bosch for breakfast, leaving my wife and kids as we headed off for Roermond – the location for the first of our two sessions with Rickson.

On arrival, it was great again to see so many of the people I’d met on my last trip and also properly catch up with a couple of people I missed – Raoul (Black Belt that runs the school in Amsterdam) and Russ (ex-pat purple belt that runs the school in Leiden).  There were also a few familiar faces from the UK around.  After doing the rounds, grabbing a bit of loot (including replacing the cap that I’d lost at sea), Rickson called order and began the now familiar formalities of introducing the seminar.

As before, I’m not going to go into detail with what Rickson taught, but will list what we covered, so that the curious can at least understand the span of what Rickson teaches.

Day 1 - content overview

• Defending base
• Defending grab and drive from behind
• Cross-side escapes
• Revision on armbar
• Taking the back from guard
• Elbow escape

I was pleased that during some of the drilling, Rickson recognised me and came up and said hi and at another point came and sat with us, remembering us from his time in the UK.  To be honest, given the number of people he must meet around the world each year, I had no expectation that he would remember us, so was really pleased when he did.

After a much later start on Sunday, we headed off straight from the hotel for Roermond, this time with my wife and kids on board.  Ever since they can remember, Rickson is a name they’ve known through me and now that they too train Jiu Jitsu, Rickson is a legendary figure in their lives as well.  I’d already cleared with Michel for my kids to tag along and meet Rickson after the seminar, so, Gi’s at the ready, they watched the seminar from the bleachers waiting for their chance.

Day 2 followed a similar format to day one, covering:

• Movement and connection in the clinch
• Holding clinch from the side
• Entrance to the clinch against a striking opponent
• Vale tudo guard against a striking opponent
• Holding cross-side - connection on top
• Hip movement in Seo Nagi
• Posture in guard

At the end of the session, Rickson spoke at length at his belief in the fundamentals of Jiu Jitsu as he understands it, his perception that Jiu Jitsu is facing a split with the more sport oriented branch and spoke with disdain at techniques that live only in competition, describing them as “shit”.  He spoke with pride at Kron’s recent clean sweep at the ADCC in china with 4 submission wins, clearly feeling that this demonstrated his case perfectly.

After the seminar, Michel was great at ensuring that my kids got to meet Rickson and get their belts signed – a really proud moment for me, and one, should they continue their journey, that will form part of a memory that many adults, let alone kids will not have the opportunity of.

Michel also spent some time with them both teaching the elbow escape, rolling with them and watching them roll together – something I’m really grateful for as it cements their learning and enthusiasm – hopefully a real investment in the next generation. 

The seminar was very similar in content to the others I’ve attended, but this was of no detriment – it reminded me of key details and I also understood better this time round, whereas it all seemed too much to remember the first time.

Rickson was in great form – very relaxed and did an amazing job of spreading his time and attention amongst the attendees.   I also really enjoyed Jim being there too – because he’s my mate, but also as I know that as a martial artist, he views Rickson as the legend that he undoubtedly is, so it was really great to experience someone else’s excitement at meeting Rickson and experiencing his teaching.

During the 2^nd session, Rickson talked about how he felt that Jiu Jitsu was great training for life as it conditions you to find comfort in uncomfortable situations.  This philosophy was put to the test as we left Roermond with the wind and rain beating down and news of the predicted storms hitting the UK coming through.  The news of Dover port being shut on Monday morning didn’t look promising, but we made our way at a sedate pace towards Dunkirk anyway with the storms seemingly crossing over us as we headed through Belgium.  We arrived at a windy but sunny Dunkirk, expecting huge delays, but to our surprise, the port was almost empty and we sailed 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.

The crossing was pretty uncomfortable but we got home safe and sound and earlier than anticipated.

I like to think, touched by the hand of Rickson, we attained maximum efficiency from minimum effort and stayed comfortable in what could have been a very uncomfortable situation.  Or maybe we were just lucky – whatever the case, long may it continue!

Breathe with me!

 

I've talked in recent posts about Rickson's demonstrations and explanations of his breathing techniques.  Ever since I've been training with Dean, I've noted the train-like, rhythmic breathing he practices when training hard.  It's something that a lot of people that have trained with Rickson imitate and I've personally found, even with a poor understanding of the physiology of breathing, breathing in an audibly rhythmic way, at the very least, creates a focus on the breath.  A focus that's easy to forget when you're training hard and if you lose that focus, it can become very hard to remember to actually breathe - something a lot of beginners will identify with!

So, on the recent occasions that I've trained with Rickson, he spent some time explaining his belief in correct breathing method and the benefits he draws from his own education in this area.  Neither explanations were particularly about how  to do it, but more why we should do it.  In the sessions at our club, Rickson went further in talking about how he combines his breathing with movement to create a unique workout, which is documented in "Choke".

Just after the seminar, Richard sent me some links and details of books related to the things that Rickson had talked about, which have been great (cheers Rick), so in this post I aim to give an overview of some of the things that I've gleaned from listening to Rickson and my subsequent reading.  I'll start with the breathing and then move on to Bio-Ginastica, something which Rickson gave great credit to for his own conditioning.

What have we become?

 

It seems that a lifetime of poor practice, posture and lifestyle has reduced our natural ability to breathe to a series of shallow and inefficient breaths.  Just stop for a second and think about how you breathe normally.  Chances are, like me, that you breathe into the top part of your chest.  As you do, you chest expands and your collar bones and shoulders raise slightly.  Occasionally you'll take a "deep" breath where your chest expands more fully and your abdomen raises too.  Have you ever considered why your body makes you take these additional deep breaths?

Rickson focussed on the shape of the lungs.  Take a look at this picture.

 

 

Fig1. Diaphragmatic Breathing

As he pointed out, a lot of the volume of the lungs is in the lower parts of the organs.  So, by breathing at the top of our lungs we are not utilising the full capacity of our lungs.  This is particularly clear when we are "fighting" for breath due to fatigue.  With our minds fixed on the sensation of fatigue and the need to get more air, we normally breathe harder and faster, but still only at the top of our lungs .  The fight for air is one we'll surely lose, as, breathing in this way, we'll never take in as much air as we really need.  Watch someone who's been exercising hard - chances are their shoulders will be up and down like a yo yo.

Now, we all know that to live, we need to breathe. But in his book, "Hatha Yoga - The Yogi Philosophy of Physical Wellbeing", Yogi Ramacharaka gives a detailed explanation of the physiology of breathing and the health impacts of not breathing properly.  I'm not going to spend a great deal of time going over this but suffice to say that we know that putting oxygen into the blood is vital for proper function.  It follows that the more oxygen we have, the better that function will be.

He talks about the misunderstanding of deep breathing and abdominal breathing, whereas he, and Rickson, advocate diaphragmatic breathing, which, to the uninitiated looks like abdominal breathing.  Ramacharaka also talks about "Complete" breathing, which I'll take a look at now.

In "low" or abdominal breathing, we are drawing air into the lower and more voluminous parts of our lungs.  Now, this is preferable to shallow and inefficient high breathing, but the lack of movement of the diaphragm means that we are still not expanding the lungs to full capacity and we are still not utilising the mid-space, or the top of the lungs - we are far from breathing at full capacity.  Take a look again at figure 1.

The thoracic diaphragm is a sheet of muscle that separates the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity.  When we breath in, it contracts and creates more space in the thoracic cavity for the lungs to expand.  It stands to good reason then, that if we can manipulate or control the diaphragm, then we can create additional breathing capacity (interestingly, both Rickson and Ramachakara also talk about how controlled movement of the diaphragm also facilitates a beneficial gentle massage of the internal digestive organs).

Ramachakara talks about being able to manipulate the diaphragm to facilitate deep breathing and then, in one continuous breath, also facilitating breathing into the mid part of the lungs (thoracic breathing) and finally drawing up the shoulders to facilitate high or "Siphon" breathing.  In this way, we are able to utilise the entirety of the lungs, or "complete" breathing.  I've now tried this quite regularly. It is relatively easy, but requires a little bit of mindfulness (a clue that we're not normally mindful of the most fundamental action our body performs).  When achieved, you do feel good - refreshed and alert and the proof is in the exhalation.

 

Fig 2: Three types of breathing

Try this:  breath high, then exhale slowly and count.  Breathe low (abdominally), exhale and count - it's probably longer than the high breath.  Now do a complete breath, exhale and again, count.  I bet it's longer still - testament to the extra capacity that you've created and life source that you've inhaled.

Ramachakara advocates practicing this and over time developing this as a new breathing habit. - seems sound advice to me.

A second feature of Rickson's approach to breathing concerns exhalation.  It's natural to fixate on inhalation - we need air to live, but in order to breathe in effectively, we also need to be-able to breathe out.  The air being expelled from our lungs is also doing a vital job in exporting waste from our bodies and in order for new air to enter, space needs to be created.  We often consider that the "working" phase of breathing is the inhalation - we "fight" for breath when we are exhausted - a very active notion.  And yet, it is Rickson's belief that the opposite is true - the most active phase in exhalation.  We must manipulate our diaphragm to expel what Rickson calls the "black gas" from our lungs (a very good visual analogy).  Ramachakara talks in his book about "cleansing" breaths which involved strong and rapid emptying of the lungs.  Inhalation is actually then a very voluntary action as air rushes into the empty cells of the lungs.

So here, we have two parts of the whole and something to bear in mind the next time you are fatigued - by focussing on breathing we can find far more effective ways of both inhaling and exhaling and I think this philosophy really shows how it's a natural skill that, for all of our apparent civilisation and intelligence, we've somehow unlearned .

So with breathing explored, Rickson went on to talk about movement.  Now, I've spoken about fundamental human movement before in this blog and the link with Ramachakara continues in that Rickson's chosen source of movement also stems from Hatha Yoga.  In conversation, he credits much of his own journey into movement, breathing and Yoga to a guy called Orlando Cani - the creator of Bio-Ginastica.  Cani, a Brazilian, is, amongst many other physical education accomplishments, a Hatha Yoga adept.  Combining his physical education knowledge, with elements of Tai Chi, Meditation, and gymnastics, he has created a system which works around the principles of animal-inspired movements.  Again, some of this is display in the clip of Rickson from Choke and there's more information on Cani's website as well as some nice examples on YouTube.

Readers of this blog may recall that in a previous post, I talked about Ginastica Natural under Alvaro Romano.  Until I heard form Rickson about Cani, I'd never heard of him, but, it transpires that Romano originally worked for Cani and, it seems, took Cani's work and re-branded it.  Read more about that in this interesting article.  Cani seems more bemused and disappointed in this turn of events than angry, but it all seems to add perhaps an air of well-marketed emperor's new clothes to Romano's work.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe Romano has moved in a different direction or evolved in some other way.  It's just interesting to note.

Packaged as a whole, hearing Rickson talk about his philosophy on breathing and physical conditioning and seeing in person his condition as a 54 year old, it's compelling stuff.  Stuff that I've enjoyed looking further into and stuff that I feel can only be of benefit to me in both general health terms but also in my Jiu Jitsu.

The best meal I ever tasted...

Rickson Gracie Private Classes, Kent, UK: 14th & 15th Nov 2012

Looking back on last year, it was an amazing one in terms of Jiu Jitsu.  Who'd have thought it could get any better?  Well, it did.

With Rickson in Europe (Seminars in Holland and his first UK Seminar in Glasgow with Royce Gracie Black Belt Scott McVeigh), Dean contacted Rickson to ask if he'd have time to visit our club. And so, the date was set.

Ever since Dean first started training with Rickson back in April 1998, it's been his avowed wish to have Rickson teach at his own club.  Last week that dream came true.  And it was a dream come true for fourteen others, including me.  The sessions were closed except to those that have trained with Dean over the years - a reward for loyalty to Dean, and Rickson's style of Jiu Jitsu.  And it was this that made it a unique experience.  It was basically classes with Rickson as our instructor.  Because of the size of the event, whilst it was Rickson and some of the content was the same, it was entirely different from the seminar, and through this post, I'll say why.

Unusually for our club (;P) everyone arrived early, mats out, photo of Helio on the wall, nervously waiting for Rickson to arrive.  Eventually, in he walked with his swiss ball under his arm.  Rickson was with us, in our club!  But somehow it felt like it was always that way.  He was so relaxed, it just seemed like another training session.  We all warmed up, watching out the corners of our eyes as Rickson did his own extensive warm up using the ball.  Then we started.  Dean gave a heartfelt speech about his allegiance to Rickson and Rickson returned the favour with a warm speech about being with Dean and his students, then after a quick bow to GM Helio and each other, we began.  Again, it's not my intention here to talk about the techniques, or to even attempt to explain execution, except to say that every movement, every position, leverage and connection were the order of the day.

Rickson was clear and exacting in his delivery and here was the first benefit of this small group experience.  Rickson was able to watch every single pair like a hawk and often stepped in with hands on, minor corrections.  With just a movement of a hand, or leg,  by two inches, suddenly, everything worked.  Effortlessly.  It was almost like being hypnotised - "when I touch you , you'll be able to execute perfect Jiu Jitsu".  Sure, you can do a technique and make up for doing it badly by being strong or aggressive.  But this proved that when done correctly, it almost feels like cheating (in fact I think Rickson used those words).

THIS is Jiu Jitsu.  After this experience, I'd have to say saying that a good many people (and I still include myself in this as my skill level is still quite low) do not train Jiu Jitsu in the way that Rickson understands it - many people train grappling whilst wearing a gi, using techniques that come from Jiu Jitsu.  BUT, the Jiu Jitsu is in  the details, in the connections, in the effortless and undeniable execution of techniques.  I'm sure (in fact I know) that there will be people out there who will read this blog and dismiss this as more dogma from a Rickson adherent.  And if you've trained with Rickson and still think that, then cool, you're welcome to your opinion.  But if you've never trained with Rickson and still want to believe that what you're doing is Jiu Jitsu and all this is just hype, then, well, I guess that's OK too, but I promise, you're deluding yourself.  As Rickson would say, "no my brother...you got nothin'."

The other difference in this small group setting was the ability to have Rickson show you first hand.  He actually did a pretty good job in Holland, given the numbers of getting round people, but here, everyone had the chance to feel what Rickson was looking for.  And this is why it's "invisible" Jiu Jitsu - you can see a technique and kind of understand what is happening, but unless you feel perfect execution, you can't appreciate the technique in its fullness.  It's like looking at a cook-book.  You can see a nice picture of the food and you can read about the ingredients.  You might even be able to imagine what the end product will taste like.  But,unless you actually eat the meal, then you'll never really know how good it tastes and smells.

Looking back over my notes, we got through quite a lot on that first night and it whizzed by in double quick time.  At the end of the session, I was able to give over something quite special to Rickson.

Knowing that the visit was on, I got in touch with Seymour Yang, (AKA Meerkatsu), BJJ artist extraordinaire to see if he would do a special piece of artwork for Rickson's visit.  We settled on a design of a bear, in Rickson's trademark fighting stance, wearing Rickson's red and black belt.

The reasoning behind the bear was due to an account I'd seen of Pedro Sauer talking about a T-Shirt Rickson had printed back in the early 90s which showed the Gracies and Prof. Sauer as animals, based on the animal nicknames given to them by Helio.  Rickson was represented by the Bear.

Take a look at the clip here:

Amazingly, my instructor Dean still has one of these T-shirts from one of
his earliest visits to LA - quite a museum piece!

Anyway, after a few emails, Meerkatsu's final designs arrived and went ontoT-shirts for the lucky attendees and a limited run of fine art prints (10 only).  More on the prints later.  I'm sure you'll agree that Meerkatsu's
anthropomorphism of Rickson is up there with his best designs - and great for him to have such legend wear one of his designs! 

Big thanks to Seymour for his time and efforts!

On the second session, everyone felt a bit more relaxed around Rickson after our experience the night before.  Whilst warming up, Rickson explained how he uses the swiss ball for his warm ups and conditioning, along with other props such as elastics for resistance.  He then spent 20 minutes talking about his breathing, which was every bit as captivating as it was in Holland.  In fact, he went further and talked about his training in Bio-Gymnastics with
Orlando Cani - the original stuff before Alvaro Romano left Cani and started Ginastica Natural.  Fascinating stuff and definitely worthy of further investigation.....more to come in another post sometime.

Then on to the main session.  More great stuff and a defence against being grabbed and driven forwards from the rear which was brilliant.  Not much else to say - as before the instruction was brilliant and Rickson gave all of himself to the session.  I never felt that he was giving anything less than 100%.  He did speak at some length on his philosophy of Jiu Jitsu and the direction of travel for the art and the sport. It was nothing particularly that you can't find on YouTube, but seen in person, you could feel his conviction that Jiu Jitsu competition is driving Jiu Jitsu away from its roots and served to reinforce my view that Jiu Jitsu based on strength, athleticism, aggression and scoring points is not Jiu Jitsu as I understand it from Rickson. When asked, he also talked with knowledge and enthusiasm about teaching kids Jiu Jitsu - something I would love to do at some point and gave an interesting insight into his family culture.

After the session, Rickson was generous with his time in taking photos and signing stuff - another benefit of the smaller session (I didn't even try in Holland as there were so many people trying to get their shot).  Two of the things that Rickson signed was a copy of the aforementioned print of Meerkatsu's work and a patch from Tap Cancer Out.  Please check out their website and go buy one of their great patches (it won't cost you much, looks great on your Gi and raises money for a great cause!) or a t-shirt, again designed by the ubiquitous and ridiculously talented Meerkatsu.

Anyway, both these items were sent to Tap Cancer Out and were auctioned off to raise important funds.  Check them out on facebook to keep up with their work.

Of course, I kept one of those bad boys for myself and it now has pride of place in my front room:

After both sessions, I found it really hard to sleep - just thinking about what he'd said, what I learned...just the buzz!  I am very fortunate to have been part of it all - fortunate to be Dean's student and fortunate to be around at this time.  Rickson is a legend of our art and he's alive right now....not some black and white photo on the wall - he's here and he's passing on, in person, a lifetime of accumulated experience and knowledge.  And I'm in the middle of it!  Don't get me wrong, I'm under no illusion...this will not suddenly make me a great Jiu Jitsuka, but it will deepen my knowledge and understanding and will definitely contribute to my journey to become the best Jiu Jitsuka that I can be.

Happy days.  I hope it's not too long until we see him again.

Destination: Awesome.

Rickson Gracie  Seminars, Amsterdam, 3 & 4 Nov 2012

Some time back, I connected with Michel Verhoeven  - a Dutch Brown Belt under Rickson.  I first knew of Michel as Blue Belt under Harold Harder, Rickson's only European Black Belt and as the guy that took over the running of Harold's school when Harold could no longer commit the time to running an academy.  Knowing that Michel and Harold have hosted Rickson and Kron in the past,  I asked Michel to let me know if he ever did so again.

Back in September I got a message from Michel informing of a visit by Rickson to Amsterdam and that was it.  Nothing was going to stop me from going.  Ever since I started Jiu Jitsu, I've always wanted to meet and train with Rickson.

After a little negotiation with my wife, (which resulted in her coming too!) I secured my place and made my arrangements.  I was also to be joined again by Steve H and Simon. 

This was always going to be a special trip. The cost of the seminar was €200 (approx £160) for two 3 hour sessions - basically about £25 per hour to train with a legend. In the run up, I saw a few people on various boards suggesting the price was high, but by my reckoning that price was an absolute bargain.  Seriously - £25 is less than I paid to train at Renzo's place in NY and this was Rickson!!!

So, a ridiculously early start on Saturday morning (0300) for a very quick and comfortable flight to Amsterdam.  A short hop on the train into the city to find our hotel, which was a great price and the perfect location. After a short familiarisation stroll in the city with my wife, a spot of breakfast and later, lunch, it was time to hook up with the guys and make the short trip out to Amstelveen for the seminar.

On check-in, I met Michel in person which was nice and then on to spy the merchandise being sold by Rickson's girlfriend.  And there, in the corner, warming up on a swiss ball, was the man himself.  The atmosphere was hushed, excited and reverent.  People made and re-made aquaintances as they changed (and it was good to see Gavin from RGA once again - seems he's the man when it comes to seminars!). 

Rickson walked around and said hello and shook hands with every single person there, looking each in the eyes in a way that conveyed genuine openness and respect. Then Harold called order.  We lined up, had our welcomes, bowed to the portrait of GM Helio and then mutually bowed to Rickson.

Then the seminar began I am not even going to attempt to describe or explain it.  And this is for the following reasons.

1) I can't do it justice - I am not Rickson.  I am not even close so I cannot explain in the way that he can.
2) Explanation is not enough - Rickson calls his Jiu Jitsu "invisible" and whilst some may sneer, it really is.  You can only understand by feeling what he does.  Rickson frequently called people out to help him demonstrate and develop a point and I was lucky enough to be one of them.  Rickson wanted me to hold him round the waist and maintain base.  I tried to do what I understood of what was required but couldn't hold him.  With a few minor adjustments and feedback from the master, everything subtly changed and, not only did I feel rock solid, I was actually affecting his base as he tried to escape my grasp.  It's all fine and minute technical detail, but honestly, it felt like some sort of hypnotic magic.
3) Even if I could explain, It wouldn't be right or fair - and this is on two fronts.  Those that were there paid and travelled (from all over the world as far as New Zealand!) to be there. The session was ours and ours alone  The second front relates to Rickson's philosophy on his Jiu Jitsu.  It's such a tactile thing that he's developed over a lifetime and he explained to us that he will never release DVDs or books as these cannot adequately explain his Jiu Jitsu.  Having felt it and been so close to it, I can assure you that this is true.  I guess these two reasons are also why Rickson requests no spectators, photos or filming during the seminar and I respect and understand this.  The Jiu Jitsu I felt and saw on those two days is inside me, in my memory.  No photos or videos required.

Demonstration generally followed the same pattern.  Rickson would signal someone to join him and then ask them to execute a technique or ask them what they would do to defend or counter a move that he was going to do to them.  With no effort at all, he would repeatedly defend against their technique or impose his intent upon their defence, highlighting, time after time how ineffective people's Jiu Jitsu was.  And this was not down to something highly skilled that Rickson was doing - he was simply exploiting fundamental flaws in most people's understanding of Jiu Jitsu, leverage and connection.  I guess something that will stay with me for a long time was watching brown belt after brown belt and black belt after black belt being made to look like beginners.  It showed that many people, although
undoubtedly more proficient and knowledgeable than most (me included!), do not have the core concepts that Rickson is able to teach.  I've since come to the conclusion that there are many people who grapple whilst wearing a gi and have an outstanding range of techniques with which to catch others less experienced than themselves, but there are very very few who understand Jiu Jitsu in the way that Rickson and some of his closest students do.  I mean no disrespect to anyone who's worked hard to earn their rank in saying this, but I pretty much guarantee that if you asked any black belt that was there, they'd say they felt something special and had to re-evaluate what they thought they knew about Jiu Jitsu.

And of Rickson himself?  Well, they say never meet your heroes.  I've met mine and the aura remains very much intact.  He really does have a presence and an intensity about him, yet is a very relaxed and approachable person. Whilst teaching, he is uncompromising about what feels right and what feels wrong.  He teaches with passion, commitment and energy.  You never feel that he is giving anything less than 100% in terms of his attention or emotional or physical intensity.  When he talks to you he makes you feel like there is noone else in the room and he can captivate an audience like noone else I've ever seen.

This was demonstrated when he talked about his famous breathing technique and also at the close of the seminar when he talked about his life and his philosophy of Jiu Jitsu - it was just one of those moments that demands your absolute attention.

After the seminar had ended, there was the inevitable clamour for autographs and photos and this was done with great generosity and patience - Rickson was still going as Steve and I had to leave to catch our flight back.

All in all, it was a weekend that exceeded all of my expectations.  Even though a short trip, the timings of the seminars allowed me to get out and about in Amsterdam with my wife.  For anyone visiting I'd recommend the Ibis near the station - adequate rooms and a great location, and I also had a great meal here. 

Jiu Jitsu with Rickson Gracie and a weekend away with my wife.  Win win!!!

Who ate all the pies?!

Well, we’re just approaching the end of January 2009. Unbelievable. A belated happy new year to you all and I hope you had a great Christmas.

I really enjoyed Christmas this year. Immediately before Christmas I was suffering with a pretty bad cold – mainly a cough, but this cleared up just in time for me to enjoy my Christmas dinner! Having been ill with colds for the best parts of Oct, Nov and Dec I decided to take advantage of the break and do absolutely no training and I think it was just what the doctor ordered…I returned after Christmas feeling much healthier…although also much heavier! More on that in a moment.

One of the great presents I got, which I had hoped for, was a set of Bodylastics. You may remember me talking about these in a previous post. These are a great set of graded rubber tubes with fittings for resistance training. Having seen Dean’s demonstration of how these can be used to practice Jiu Jitsu movements just about anywhere there’s a door, I knew these would be a really useful thing to have. Besides that, there are a whole range of resistance exercises you can perform. They all fit into a tidy little pouch which means that you can take them anywhere. I don’t do loads of travelling, but for anyone that travels for work and can’t always find a gym, I’d say that they have to be an essential item in your luggage.

So after a couple of weeks’ rest, too much food and some illness I returned to training. It was great to be back and the ideal antidote to being back at work. There’s a renewed passion in many of the guys in the club and I get the feeling that 2009 is going to be a great year for everyone in the club so long as we can maintain what we have now. There’s a Saturday session again too, which is a great way to spend a few hours at the weekend. Here’s a quick rundown of the stuff we’ve been doing (more for my purposes):

- A cool variation on the guillotine choke – as the opponent comes forward, guide his head with hand and grab under chin, trapping the pack of his head under your armpit/shoulder. Place the “mound” of your thumb to the back of the chin (above the Adam’s apple) and twist up and into the base of the tongue. This (forgive my anatomical knowledge if I’m wrong) appears to close the Epiglottis over the Glotis (the same action as happens when you swallow food). It simply cuts of air at the source and is far less gnarly than the usual guillotine and easier to get.
- From the knees: creating space – rising up to tempt opponent in to mid-rift, rock back on to toes, fall back projecting your butt to create distance and bringing opponent off balance to create several opportunities for advancement/submissions.
- From standing: opponent jumps to guard, control base and posture, defend space and grips, breaking guard and pass (opponent under hips)
- Revision on Mount escapes: Elbow escape, upa (main point bringing other elbow into play) and practicing these with good movement and adapting between the two depending on opponent’s position.
- From standing (self defence): Defend punch (hair comb), clinch, step in for hip throw, or take back for lift from rear (important to get hips under).

More recently we’ve been revisiting many of our basic movements – teeter-totter, shrimp etc and engagement of the core – this is great stuff to do again and again and get ingrained – it makes such a difference to the movement and flow of Jiu Jitsu.

I’ve managed to get back to the gym too, which is great. I have lost some fitness, but not below what I would consider my minimum acceptable level, so that’s good. Just before Christmas, I moved to a new office, which has showers, so I’ve also started to run at lunchtimes which I also hope will make a difference (by the way, I've found a great little tool for mapping runs/walks and it does so much more at http://www.mapmyrun.com/). Yoga continues too and I can feel myself getting stronger in the poses all the time. All this and 2/3 Jiu Jitsu sessions a week and hopefully (colds permitting!!) I’ll soon be back in shape. This year I really want to get down to 15 stone. For some that’s heavy, but for me it’s a good, healthy weight. Right now I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been and I’ve got to reverse the slide, for health, for my kids and not least, to make my Jiu Jitsu better!

This goal has received an excellent boost by Dean seeming to have taken me on as a project. He’s taken my goal on of getting me down to 15 stone by mid-year and this is just great motivation for me. Now, for all of you that can just eat well and train hard, great for you…me, I need some external motivation. Way back when, it was the RAF, last year it was the Blue belt, now I’ve got my instructor putting his faith and confidence in me to do this. After a Saturday session at about 6 p.m. I got a call from Dean checking that I wasn’t eating any carbs after 6, but mainly to let me know how I’m doing in training. This was unexpected, but this was the turning point for me from vaguely hoping I could lose weight to actually making a commitment that I am actually going to do it. Same again this week – Saturday night a phone call from Dean - “a weekly motivational call” and it was. I don’t need any motivation to train, but to keep on the straight and narrow food wise…another story. And it works! I’ve spent the last week or so eating tons more fruit and veg than normal, and actually enjoying it…enjoying being healthy and enjoying that it’s got to be a good thing for me. Weight loss? I don’t know….time will tell but I’m staying away from the scales until I can see a difference.

Thanks Dean – I will do this...and if anyone else sees me sneaking contraband, you gotta slap me.

On to a couple of other things that have caught my attention in cyberspace this month. Firstly, an interview on the Fightworks Podcast with Rickson. It was great to hear some recent thoughts from Rickson, especially with the focus being Jiu Jitsu. So many of his interviews are taken down the route of MMA, which is old news, so it was nice to hear him talk about where he wants to take his art and about his seminars that he has been doing. Worth a listen.

The other thing that I’ve been checking out is a blog called Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood. There are so many blogs out there that it’s hard to see them all. This one is written by Nicolas Gregoriades who is, I believe, a Black Belt under Roger Gracie. It’s a great blog and one that very much mirrors many of the aspects of Jiu Jitsu that Dean espouses and that I feel. Definitely worth a read.

Got to go – I hope this year works out well for anyone reading this. I hope you stay healthy and achieve your goals. I’m hoping to be able to find time to put up a few more related articles this year and some reviews to add a bit of variety to the blog, so I please keep checking back for the latest.

All the best.

Al.

This sucks...sniff!

I haven't trained at all this last week as on Monday I came down with a cold... (in honour, I'm publishing this entry in green). I guess I'm due one and one of the things of having kids is that they come home with anything that's out there.

It's not the worst cold I've ever had but its main feature seems to be lethargy. It sucks...no gym and no BJJ. All I want to do is sleep. The worst thing is that (I'm guessing I may be better once the weekend's out (I'm hoping to at least get to Yoga on Sunday)) I won't be able to train Jiu Jitsu until Thursday next week as I'm away with work on Tuesday night.

Recent training continues in the same fashion although we've started a bit of stand up - same principles of occupying space/yeilding, controlling your opponent's base with the odd trip here and there. I get the principles but just need to work a little more sensitively - there's still a temptation to over do it and end up wrestling with my opponent. In all of this there's a notion of self defence first and foremost, which is great. It means that the training is immediately transferable to a sports arena without any adaptation required - not neccesarily the case if Jiu Jitsu is trained primarily with sport in mind.

I trained on Sunday with Big Dean and Si - just casual, swapping a few ideas and observations - nothing taxing and good to just throw a few ideas around. Obviously it was good to see Dean again too - mate, it's been too long! I think it was a good thing that the session wasn't too tough as just after the first few signs of my cold started to make themselves known. :(

Another feature of recent weeks seems to be burgeoning numbers with Nuri bringing a friend along and old-timers returning (some threatening) to the fray. One major development worth spending a bit of time on is the news of Richard's (Blue belt, purple stripe) decision to stop training.

This came out of the blue and as quite a shock to all. Richard's not the longest serving member of the club, but is one of the most advanced and ever present guys. I'm only guessing, but I'd imagine a few factors in his decsion. Without going into detail Richard does a job that he's fully committed to both ideologically and in terms of his own career progression. It's a taxing job that most of us, me included couldn't even countenance doing - I'm just glad there are people around like him to do it.

He also lives in Whitstable so I guess a minimum hour and a half round trip twice a week is tough.

Whether this is forever, I guess time will tell and ultimately, only Richard knows. All I can say, and this is purely selfish, is it's a shame. I've definitely benefited from training with, and under Richard - he's able to feel exactly what you need to do to improve or make things easier and coaches really well. Maybe a long break will reignite whatever it is he's lost (assuming he has of course, or even that he wants to).

The other by-product of Richard ending his training is that Craig won't be around either as he got his lifts with Rick - a shame as I enjoyed rolling with Craig as he is much smaller than me so challenged me to roll with technique rather than strength.

Richard, if you're reading, thanks for the training, the coaching and the pointers and all the best for all that you do in the future.

Update to "Where is Rickson?"

Today, Dean Taylor, my instructor sent me a couple of links that make reference to recent Rickson activity that I thought was interesting so I thought I'd share it here:

The first is a recent (this month) interview with Rickson himself (in Portuguese):



No huge surprises in what he says, but it's interesting to see his views on Jiu Jitsu as a martial art above and beyond the sport and its links with MMA. The rough translation provided is:

“He said that he will probably not fight again, if he fight again he wants to get paid more than any other fighter (he said that he does Not need the money but he has too much to lose) and he doesn't need to prove nothing to nobody. He said that he is not impressed with anybody at this moment in BJJ in MMA, he said that he adores Minotauro but he is should be training more BJJ he has great BJJ but he should train less boxing or MT and more BJJ, because he should not have to take so much damage in a fight to win in the ground, when he is on the ground he usually wins but he has a hard time taking the fight to the ground. He said that he wants to change the image of BJJ in Brasil, he wants it to be a martial art that is effective like it is today but he wants everybody to do it, not just fighters, because he believes that, BJJ should be used to make people more confident, better citizens, make people more respectful, BJJ need to bring back some of the traditional martial arts ideals.” [sic].

Also, according to GracieMag, Rickson is running a seminar this weekend (11th/12th Oct 08) in Rio - “Rickson has reached a point in his life where he has decided to share with everyone, indiscriminately, his knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu. It’s a unique opportunity to learn the Jiu-Jitsu he has dubbed as "invisible", but that, although abstract, will be taught for application not just on the mats, but also off them”.

If this is true (aligned to the plans for a seminar series in 2009), this is going to be an awesome time for anyone that can attend these seminars.

The second is this interview with Shane Rice (scroll down the page)(Rickson Gracie Black Belt and main instructor at the LA Academy). What's interesting is Shane's take on what it's like to train with Rickson and the difference in the way Rickson approaches BJJ compared to most people. Some of the stories (like the legendary closed doors fight with Yoji Anjoh) are cool too. I've never met Shane (or Rickson!), but I recognise what he's saying in the philosophy that Dean brings to the way we practice Jiu Jitsu at our club. Some will dismiss this as just more Rickson propganda from a loyal student, but it's hard not to be inspired. Enjoy.

Where is Rickson?

Training this week has been more of the same and it’s going well – a couple of sessions this week just working hard on the principles we’ve been covering. Am I making progress? Yes, I think so – I may not have fluid, instinctive movement yet, but every so often I get something that feels great and works really effectively. My marker is that the frequency of such events is steadily on the increase week by week. I’m really enjoying myself at the moment.

For some reason, and I may have mentioned this already, my back is giving me a little trouble at the moment. Nothing like the “old” days, but I start out sessions a bit restricted then warm up into better movement during the session then it seizes up as I cool down. However, I’ve thought back to my time at the Osteopath’s and the hold/cold therapy that I was recommended so when I get in I’ve started using a hot water bottle and an ice pack alternately (always ending with ice) and it’s really helped – by morning I’m moving pretty freely. There must just be something that gets a little inflamed – I’m hoping that staying active, doing Yoga (my back always feels great after Yoga) and losing weight will gradually improve my back health.

On to the topic at hand. I thought I’d try and broaden the scope of the blog – mainly for interest but also as there are a lot of other things that surround BJJ – books, DVDs, news, products etc so I thought I’d try a few different pieces, reviews and so on. So today, I launch a pretty poor investigation into the question “Where is Rickson?”.

Rickson’s is a name that looms large in BJJ folklore and everyone’s got an opinion on him. To many, he’s a legend and an icon. Check any internet forum and there are many threads discussing how Rickson would fare against today’s MMA stars. It seems that as we approach the end of each year, rumours abound that “next year” Rickson is stepping into the ring for one last time, usually with the name of Sakuraba, “The Gracie Hunter” mentioned in connection. These rumours spark excitement, disbelief and their own speculations about who would win and how, and the inevitable discussion on Rickson’s age (he’s 49 at the time of writing) and whether he could still cut it in a professional Vale Tudo/NHB fight.

For an angle on this, we can look at a story from 2006, regarding Paulo Filho training with Rickson stating “I have trained with the toughest guys formed by Carlson Gracie. They were all great and I for sure don’t want to diminish anybody, but I have to say that no one ever did to me what Rickson Gracie has done during training these last days” suggesting that Rickson’s fitness and technique is as supreme as ever. And why wouldn’t it be? For sure, Rickson is genetically gifted, but why would anyone assume that he has stopped training, evolving, improving, just because he is no longer under the spotlights?

So where is he? Fitting with his legendary status, it seems that sightings of him and knowledge of his activities are fleeting. Every time he surfaces, there’s news or clips on the intranet and I guess there are two major things people want to know – is Rickson ever going to fight again and where/when and how can they train with him? It's a question that occupies my mind as a member of his association - especially since pretty much everyone else at my club has met Rickson and trained with him at least once...everyone except me!

Here are a few of the main sightings and rumours:

Rickson quits the US

According to this interview, Rickson has quit the US in favour of his Brazil homeland. Many observers speculate that the death of Rickson’s eldest son, Rockson back in 2001 in a Motorcycle accident (although rumours persist around the cause of death that I won’t grace with any mention here) prompted a retreat from public life for Rickson (and why wouldn’t it? The adage that no parent should ever have to bury a child springs to mind - take a look at this sympathetic interview which sheds light on Rickson's life straight after the death of Rockson). Rickson had this to say about his life in the US:

"There I feel that I am being sucked and I do not have a way to recycle that. "

I heard 2nd hand from someone that had spoken with Eddie Kone, who had trained in Brazil recently with Royler, that Rickson was at Royler’s Academy, just training and hanging out.

Rickson at the Mundials…

…and other assorted tournaments. Wherever Kron fights, Rickson’s usually around. Kron’s a big name. Not only is he Rickson’s son, but he’s also a pretty good BJJ prospect. OK, so after getting his black belt, he lost his first match at the Mundials. This created inevitable glee amongst far less talented people on internet forums all over with accusations of “sandbagging” at Brown Belt. From where I sit, these people conveniently miss the fact that Kron almost finished that fight by choke within the first two minutes but his opponent managed to tough that out – fair play, but it stands to some reason that a young guy (late teens) who’d been a Black Belt literally months, might lose out to an older guy with more experience. Kron isn’t Rickson, something that seems lost on detractors. I’m sure Kron will take lessons from the Mundials and return to dominate in future years. And Rickson will be there, coaching from the bleachers.

Rickson launches Budo Challenge

I think this was launched back in 2005 as a pilot with the prospect of more competitions to follow this foray. The notion behind the event was to promote Gi fighting with a rule set which encouraged submissions with core martial arts values such as honour and respect. This was seen as a rebuke by Rickson of competition Jiu Jitsu which allows competitors to play a tactical game of stalling and holding positions for points rather than seeking to end a fight by submission, which, ultimately, is Jiu Jitsu’s aim. It was also seen by many, with its production values, as an antedote to the rise of promotions such as the UFC, which many feel are now well removed from the core spirit of martial arts, something that Rickson quotes as his reasons for solely fighting in Japan during his “prime”. Take a look at this article which gives a pretty good overview of what Budo Challenge is all about.

I bought the DVD via the website and got pretty quick responses to emails to the producer, so there is an air of it not being completely dead, but almost three years on little else seems to have happened. I’ll review the DVD some other time, but suffice to say it’s a great spectacle for anyone that loves the Gi game.

Rickson joins Carlos Gracie Jr in Celebration

At the award of Carlos Gracie Jr’s Red and Black belt (8th Degree), in April 08, Rickson made an appearance as a guest speaker. This was a significant gathering of some of the best known names in BJJ and the promotion of a man who heads up the largest BJJ organisation in the world (Gracie Barra). Rickson’s presence was seen as significant by many because of a perceived “split” between those who believe that Carlos Gracie (Jr’s Father) is the true founder of BJJ and those that believe that Helio (Carlos’ brother and Rickson’s Father) forged what we now recognise to be BJJ. Such argument, if indeed any exists, is ultimately nonsense and was effectively buried by Rickson’s pesence at the ceremony, showing family unity between him and his cousins.

Rickson in Japan and launches the Jiu Jitsu Federation of Japan

Rickson holds a special status in Japan and has said in many articles he feels at home there amongst people who have a high appreciation of the martial arts. Because of his many Vale Tudo fights there in the 1990s, he is something of a celebrity in Japan and appears to spend a reasonable amount of time there.

Rickson has spent some time this year in Japan with one of his black belts, Takamasa Watanabe of Axis Jiu Jitsu running seminars with his son, Kron, which must be one of few, if not the only seminars or teaching he’s done recently.

Rickson (President) has also entered into a venture with Takamasa Watanabe (Director) called the Jiu Jitsu Federation of Japan. It seems that in addition to organising many tournaments, seminars and offering affiliation to clubs (for FREE and the list of current members is impressive), this organisation has, at it’s core, the desire to propagate the martial traditions that Rickson has spoken of many times and that are held in esteem in Japan, which is, afterall, where BJJ originated – almost a return to the roots.

Take a look at the website and you’ll get a better idea of what it’s about and here’s a little clip of Rickson talking about the federation:

Rickson slaps The Hulk!

Rickson makes a brief appearance in the 2008 film version of The Incredible Hulk, starring Ed Norton. In his short scene, Rickson plays a Martial Arts Instructor (a big stretch!) – confusingly labelled as “Aikido” in the end credits – teaching Bruce Banner a breathing method to control his anger. Quite how Rickson got this part (could be his famous breathing scenes in “Choke” caught someone’s eye), or whether this signals a wider interest in acting I do not know, but it’s still pretty cool that Rickson gets to slap the Hulk, thereby nullifying any arguments that he isn’t what he once was ;P LOL. Rickson beats the Hulk by Armbar! Here’s a clip (crumby quality but the only one I could find):

So there’s the best of what the internet has to offer…Still none the wiser, I decided to contact the Association Headquarters in LA and, as a member, ask simply “Where is Rickson?”.

I got this answer:

“Rickson pretty much living in Brazil, he spends only few times a year over here. He has a project for 2009 of seminars in the main cities of Brasil, US and some overseas. The Rickson Gracie Seminar Tour schedule is not available at the moment but we will post on the web. Rickson is not teaching in regular bases anymore or thus he has an academy in Brazil.” (sic)

I take the last part to mean that he doesn’t yet have an Academy in Brazil, but may be wrong on this.

So there we go – there may well be more info out there or people that know stuff for certain, but this is what I’ve found. I’d be happy to hear from anyone that has factual information on where Rickson is and what he’s doing. Let’s see what happens in 2009 with the Seminar project. I’m planning a trip to the US in 09 anyway so if there’s a dovetailing of plans there that would be awesome, but we’ll see…

Rickson… where are you?!

Absolutely Fabulous!

So, a new year. I hope everyone reading this had a great Christmas break and I wish you lots of success over the coming year.

I had a pretty good break – two weeks off work, just spending time with my family. It was great this year as my kids are now old enough to go in for the full Santa/Christmas experience so it was a fun time. We even had snow whilst we were in the North East – a decent amount too so the kids even got their first dose of proper winter. I didn’t do a whole lot of training over the break – I managed a few very good gym sessions and I was set up to train with another club whilst I was up in the North East, but that fell apart due to a breakdown in communications – shame that, but no-one’s fault.

I managed to avoid the worst of the seasonal excesses, but am more pleased that I managed to avoid the many illnesses and colds that seemed to be doing the rounds. I put it down to more or less overdosing on fizzy Vitamin C & Zinc tablets. Placebo, or real, I don’t care – I’m just pleased I’ve stayed well.

Anyway, with the new year in full swing, I went along to training on Monday, knowing that it would be just me, Big Dean and Si as usual, half expecting that we would be discussing how we were going to wind things down. More on that in a moment.

We decided to just roll – blow out a few cobwebs, and it was great to be back on the mat and in the company of friends – especially as Monday had been my first day back at work and I was feeling less than enthusiastic about life. I was trying hard to work on some decent escapes and my main objective was to just keep moving...and it worked. Si commented on this so it was good to know it was noticeable and I even managed to replace guard from under mount a couple of times – really pleased with that. I got tapped as usual, but felt that I gave a good account of myself and was moving with a bit of purpose so was pretty pleased.

The major event of the evening was when Dean Taylor showed up. It was really good to see him. He looks well and relaxed We spoke about how we were unsure of what was happening to the club, Dean (T) said that he was looking to train again (as his back allows) and there was a general consensus that everyone wanted to try and keep things going if possible. Dean said that he would train when he could and hoped that may attract a few of the old faces back to the club, which it undoubtedly will. It may even attract a few new members. This will be great from a number of viewpoints. Firstly, it will mean that there is more money going into the pot than just that which Me, Si, and Dean have been paying for the last 9 months. Secondly, it will mean that we have got someone with superior skill and knowledge to coach/teach again (which will help the Blue Belts develop)and lastly, I hope it will mean that everyone can just get on with what’s important – i.e. enjoying training together. So, with this news, we take our first tentative steps to getting things going again. I don’t say this with any huge expectation, for fear of disappointment, but it would be great to see things get a bit of life back into them. We’ll see – fingers crossed.

Wednesday night – well, what a turn up – literally. There were 7 of us – count ‘em, SEVEN! Me, Big Dean, Si, Mike, Rick, Craig and Dean Taylor. It was so good to see a good number, good to see Rick and Craig again and better still to see Dean back and teaching. I heard him say that he’s looking to train around 3 times a month, which will be just great. We started off with Big Dean, at my request, showing how to pass around the butterfly guard. The key factor here was connecting to the opponent and pinning one of his feet to the floor – this prevents him getting a hook in which is always the thing that stops me passing round – so simple…if you know it.

Dean T showed a slight variance in this, bring one knee up to create even further space to prevent the hook but also made the point that defence needs to be more proactive – defending one’s own space which will cause the opponent to overstretch or off balance himself in his attempts to get close. Dean said that, due to his back he’s been working on Jiu Jitsu principles and making them work so that he has to do the least possible to affect his opponent.

What followed was a masterclass in sensitivity and simply making your opponent his own worst enemy. Fascinating to watch, even amusing at times, as Dean managed to have people falling all over the place with only the merest of touches. I felt it myself – as I moved to take up grips on Dean, he’d positioned himself in such a way that I was immediately off balance – had I persisted with my forward aggression, I would have been on my back in no time. It’s so simple, but really difficult to explain – it’s just something you have to experience and then try and replicate for yourself. The only thing I can try and liken it to is imagining that you have a sphere of energy that you are trying to stop your opponent penetrating – you do this with a light frame using arms and legs depending where you are. As the person moves to you, you just have to try and maintain this sphere, yet yield to the attack and then re-direct it at the appropriate time. I’m by no means proficient at it, but I gave it a go and was surprised by the results, even though I was still pushing at times.

It’s this stuff that Dean T teaches so well, and makes the difference to the Jiu Jitsu that we practice and that I’ve experience elsewhere. It’s this subtlety and sensitivity that threads between the positions and techniques and enables them to happen – it’s the glue, the DNA of Jiu Jitsu if you like – and it all flows from Rickson. It’s why you hear comments like this from guys like Paulo Filho: 'I've never seen Jiu-Jitsu like that in my life! …no one ever did to me what Rickson Gracie has done during training these last days.” (Source)

I think that this rejuvenated input from Dean T, combined with the coaching on the techniques and positions that I’m getting, will be the next leap in my progression and couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I think I know (even if I can’t always execute!) enough of the basics for this stuff to have an impact for me now. I suspect that, great as it was, I may not have been in a position to identify how what Dean was teaching us back when I started could be used as I was too concerned with positions and techniques. I feel like now I can see how it is going to fit into the other stuff and make it all work so much better. It remains to be seen how competently I can do this, but right now, I feel like a new door has been opened – the room is dark, but what I can see looks pretty interesting.

From this revelation, we sunk swiftly back into the depths of tabloid obsession discussing the various merits of Girls Aloud, including, to my dismay, details of which one’s going out with who. It was like everyone had turned gay and was reading “Heat” or “Hello” or “Yowzers Weekly!” or something. Next week, we will be mostly discussing “A New Year, a new You: how to make colour work for you in 2008!”. Christ, just what BJJ needs to enhance it’s reputation as the gayest martial art ever created!

Get set, Go!

So, here we go, first post... likely to be a long one this, so bear with me...

About a month ago I decide that I'm gonna set myself the goal of achieving a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Blue Belt, in Los Angeles, with Rickson Gracie, in late 2009. This blog will chart my preparations and thoughts in trying to achieve this. My aim with this blog is threefold; to reflect on what I'm doing, keep a log of my progress, and hopefully it may just be of interest to anyone else interested in BJJ, either as a beginner, or a more experienced person who may relate to what I have to say. Hope you enjoy the ride as much as I know I'm going to.

Some quick background....

I'm Al and I'm 32. I'm married with two great kids, both 2 and a half (twins - boy/girl) and a Border Collie. I'm an Organisational Development Manager for a large privately owned insurance company.

Aside from my family, one of my greatest passions is the Martial Arts. I did Choi Kwang Do for over three years, getting my 1st Dan and Instructor certificates. Without going on about it (not what this blog's for), I left CKD after finding the politics and syllabus limitations too great. Nuff said.

I've also qualified as an Advanced Level Instructor with the UK Self Defence Federation (SDF) under Dave Turton - one of the nicest guys you'll meet in Self Defence and one of the most knowledgeable. Most of the self defence training I've done has been with Stuart Rider, founder of Taishindo - another great guy and one of Dave's top instructors. I've also recently been training (not nearly as much as I'd like) Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)/No Holds Barred (NHB) with Steve Morris - again, one of the purest, fiercest most knowledgable fighters I've ever seen or had the pleasure to be in the company of. At the time of writing, Steve is 63 and still packs a punch, kicks and moves like the best of martial artists that are, or ever were. If you want it pure from a man that knows, you NEED to seek Steve out!

Anyway, at some point during my time with CKD I rapidly realised that my lack of a ground "game" was a concern in the effectiveness of my training. I'd heard of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so looked into it and did some searching on the web to find out what schools were near me. There was only one listed at that time and that was a school under Rickson Gracie's Association based in Northfleet, Kent. The school is run by Dean Taylor, (more about Dean another time) Rickson's only UK rep. Now, obviously, I knew the Gracie name, but that was about it. So, a bit more Googling and I came up with the DVD "Choke", charting Rickson's championship campaign back in 1995. If you haven't seen it - get it...NOW. I knew there and then that I HAD to be doing this art and that it had to Rickson's style. How lucky was I to have the only UK school 30 mins down the road!?!?! A school run by a guy trained by the most widely acknowledged pure BJJ practitioner and fighter alive today!!

Off I went and 2 years later I'm still training and now have my sights set on a blue belt in two years' time.

More reflections on the "early" days to come, but for now, that will do. Suffice to say, this is the beginning of an exciting journey and you're more than welcome along on the ride.

Laters