Ground Control BJJ Championships!

It's been a very busy last few weeks here at HQ, training hard and preparing for competition with the students; I'm a big believer in competing and the benefits one can get from it, but I've never forced any of my students into competition. If they show an interest I am more than happy to help them on their way and I'm pleased to say a large number of students have decided to take the plunge and compete.

I have a number of seasoned white belts who regularly compete in gi and no gi events and they have been joined by a number of teenagers and a 'Dad and lad' duo, both first timers, as are a couple of the teenagers. Having the experienced guys competing at the same events as the beginners, I feel this has helped them make the choice at this point in time; everyone that competes, whether they win or lose are always winners in my eyes, as it takes guts and a fair size of brass balls to step up on the mats and go at it against a total stranger.

However, by the end of the match, win or lose, two strangers become friends, united through the pursuit of jiu jitsu and for me, this is one of the best reasons to compete, to test yourself and to make new friends along the way.

Saturday May 21st saw a number of students travel down to the NEC in Birminghma to compete in the Ground Control BJJ event, where I was also reffing, alongside my mate Jim Mc Sherry; three lads entered and came away with a gold, silver and two bronze medals, so well done Alex Cannon, Tony Riley and Mike Ng for their impressive performances.

As always, nice to see the usual suspects at the events, too many to mention everyone, but shouts out to Ebe Ghansah, Mark Bottom and Martin Bentley whose photos are below, a pleasure as always gentlemen :)

Next stop is the up and coming UMA BJJ competition on Saturday May 28th, which is the UMA's first BJJ comp run under IBJJF rules and is for white belts only. I'm really excited to be refereeing and entering a large number of students into the comp, it's gonna be a cracker!