Hard few months, but I'm back!
Can't believe I've been out since April.
I was on quite a roll at the end of last year / start of this year, enjoying some good results in competitions and setting up my own drills class at an MMA gym. Then disaster struck and I totally screwed my knee. It swelled up to about the size of a grapefruit. I presumed it was just badly bruised, totally ignored it as a result and ended up getting a blood infection that took ages to clear. I started training again with a knee protector on, but the class I was going to turned into more of a standup / ground and pound type class focusing on MMA and moving away from Jiu Jitsu to the extent whenever a Jiu Jitsu type submission was locked on it was called a 'BJGay' technique. The people going to my class were having the same things shouted at them from the MMA lot (who, I will add, we would submit 9/10 times when rolling with) and it wasn't fair to ask them to put up with that.
Myself and friends / students ended up leaving and drilling on our own just once or twice a week, intending to join another class or rent some space, but all the gyms I went to were VERY anti-JJ to the extent they were telling me it was a 'gay version of MMA' or 'MMA for people scared of getting hit in the face'. 'No one will be interested in wrestling, they just want to hit stuff', was the most common response I got when asking to rent space - etc.
In the end I decided to speak with a boxing club that was, at first, very against the idea of grappling... they actually had kickboxing classes, but were sure that Jiu Jitsu was some kind of secret homosexual club for men who wanted to fondle each other. I sent the owner some videos and links to Eddie's classes and of Tonon / Geo's recent performances, and eventually he was asking me about Boxing vs Jiu Jitsu. I gave him my thoughts, but explained to him it is like saying who would win a match should you try to combine and set rules for football vs basketball teams - it's just not needed, they are just different sports and can both be enjoyed and admired in different ways.
Anyway, short story is that he has agreed to lend me mat space - FREE - and use his gym to train for competitions 24/7 if I'd like to. It's pretty cool because it means I can begin to get a small team training together locally. I'm a white belt (although I've won / placed in bluebelt gi & nogi comps and have won semi-pro & pro MMA matches) and won't be playing the 'I hold a blackbelt' card. I will be very honest that this is something that, should you want to be a pro at, you need to track a blackbelt down. The people I'm targeting are local MMA people who want to give Jiu Jitsu a go - there's not many of them, but basically 8 people I know who have a good understanding and love of the grappling aspects of MMA. I guess we are just taking the MMA/Martial Arts that I have after having competed since I was 16 and building upon it.
I know it'll be controversial here, I'd prefer to wait a bit longer before 'leading a team', but I would like to bring NoGi grappling to my town and give my friends somewhere to train. Hopefully people understand that.
It's good to be back :-)
