Eddie Kone Seminar @ EKBJJ Rotherham!

Eddie Kone was up North in Rotherham last weekend, to host a seminar and to officially open the new Rotherham BJJ HQ, run by Jon Keeley; over twelve months in the making and enduring much heartache and pitfalls along the way, Jon and his team of helpers now have a purpose built facility for fitness and strength and conditioning, as well as a permanently matted area for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts.

Group photo

After a quick warm up, Eddie thanked everyone for supporting the event, which was well attended with a large number of blue and purple belts on the mats and started off proceedings with a few takedowns; from there Eddie showed some variations on the guard passes that Rafael Lovato Jr had shown at Eddie's place a few weeks before, which led nicely on to side control attacks, before finishing off with ways of taking the back and finishing from the back.

Open guard sweep

All that remained was an hour of rolling and I had a very enjoyable yet tough hour rolling with purple and blue belts, which is a credit to Jon, Monkey and all the other coaches in Eddie's group, the standard remains very high and at the end of the hour, some new blue and brown belts were given out.  Dan Taylor, Danny Harding and Iain Bushby were promoted to blue and Jon Keeley, Harry Jenkins and James Harding stepped up another level and entered into the land of brown belt.  Huge congrats to all involved, as well as a handful of guys that received stripes on their belts.

Jon Keeley (l), myself, Eddie, Monkey and young Harrison

Now the race is on for the first black belt to be given by Eddie, so place your bets, there are a number of contenders and will be a well deserved promotion when the time is right.  I'd like to thank Monkey and Jon Keeley for the continued friendship over the years and and giving me the chance to come over and train with all the guys and of course to Eddie for keeping me in the loop with his very busy teaching schedule.

Second helpings please!

With the training over, all that remained was refuelling at the Flaming Dragon all you can eat buffet, which is the law after every seminar in Rotherham; Eddie and myself gave the Teppan Yaki a thorough going over and Eddie was up to his usual tricks, playing practical jokes with everyone, myself included, to much laughter from all at the table.  Overall, a super day out, a combination of jiu jitsu training and fun and games post training, which is what the jiu jitsu lifestlye is all about.  Having fun.

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