Happy birthday Checkmat Wimbledon!

Two years ago, Checkmat Wimbledon opened its doors for the first time at Holistic Fitness Studios in Wimbledon town centre; with the help of Stephen Dixon and Dickie Wilkinson at the club, plus ongoing help and support from Luiz Ribeiro at London Fight Factory, the club has gone from strength to strength over the past two years.

Luiz has helped out by bringing over black belts to come and take classes, namely Neto Nunes and Mineiro and has believed in me from day one and is always on hand for help and advice. The students at LFF have also been of immense help with many of the senior grades popping in for a training session and helping my students out with any questions they might have.

My own personal training down at LFF has been of huge benefit, finally finding a gym to do my own training, as opposed to teaching all the time and the knowledge then trickles down to the students back in Wimbledon.

Students have entered LFF Interclubs and a few BJJ comps, namely the Brighton and Southend Open and tomorrow, we descend on Canterbury to compete in the Kent Open, so hopefully a few medals there tomorrow will be the ideal birthday present for the club, together with cake. 

Huge thanks again to Steve, Dickie and Luiz for all their ongoing help and support, everyone I've trained with at LFF and of course to all my students for sticking with me, when the numbers were low and most of all, enormous thanks to my long suffering BJJ widow and partner Emma, who has had to put up with all the mood swings, constant moaning about injuries and helping me put my socks on and off pretty much every day. You are the best xxx