Happy 4th birthday Checkmat Wimbledon!

Four years ago today, I opened the doors to Checkmat Wimbledon onto an unsuspecting public; four people attended the first class and two of them are still with me today and over the years, the club has grown in numbers and has a dedicated core of students that train week win, week out and are testing themselves regularly in competitions.

It's been a long hard slog over the years, literally starting again from scratch building up a new club and getting new students through the door, but it's been worth it, as we are now a well established club in the UK BJJ scene and also on the competition circuit.

Huge thanks as always to Steve Dixon at Holistic Studios for all his help over the years and to my coach, mentor and friend Luiz Ribeiro for all his support over the years and believing in me, when at at times I wasn't so sure.

Shouts out to Nick Briely for attending my first ever class, much appreciated mate; to Colin Ndawike and his students over at NWA in Croydon for supporting my seminars and being so welcoming to my guys when going to their open mats; to all the LFF crew for their many beatdowns they've handed me over the years and help keeping my ego in check, too many to name but you all know who you are and in coming over to the club and rolling with my guys; to my sponsors Harj Bains at BAIN and Omar Javed at Grapple Kings for keeping me in the best training gear in the business; to Mineiro and Neto Nunes for coming over to teach in the early days and last but by no means least, my long suffering partner Emma, for all her help and support, listening to my endless moaning about aches and pains and helping me get my socks in a morning...

We have a class on tonight, so it's going be a birthday class to remember guys and girls...

Ooooosss!