Eastbourne BJJ

Just thought I'd do a quick post on where are the places to train Brazilian jiujitsu in Eastbourne. There seems to be alot of new people coming to class these days so it might help a few more find their way to the various schools. As far as I am aware, everyone in Eastbourne trains under T, currently a purple belt under Ze Marcello of Brazilian Top Team.

At the moment, classes run out of Canton Martial Arts (101 Bourne Street) three times a week and last for 90 minutes. Mondays and Wednesdays start at 8.30pm, Saturdays at 1230. There are also Muay Thai and a small MMA class at the same facilities for those interested.

On Saturdays there is an open mat class run out of Sparta MMA Gym (37 Vine Street), another Brazilian Top Team affiliate. The class is usually run by either T, Adam or the highest belt that shows up. It starts at 2.30pm, but sometimes starts a bit later as if the Canton class runs over then it takes a bit of time for people to wonder over to the Sparta Gym. The Sparta Gym also has a daily MMA/ wrestling class (apart from on Sundays) which starts at 8.30pm.

For those looking to train more than the 3-4 sessions currently available, there are a few of us who go up to Slough with T two or three times a week to train with the Brazilian Top Team under Ze Marcello. Usually this is on Tuesdays and Sundays, but can also be on Thursdays sometimes. Its a long drive but the quality and level of BJJ is well worth the travelling!

And thats about it really! Its a bit scattered all over the place but there is somewhere to train almost everyday of the week! On top of this, we regularly get 3-4 people together who want to do some extra rolling and meet up at one of the gyms, organising a time suitable for everyone in advance. Here is a summary:

Monday: 830pm Canton Martial Arts
Tuesday: 640pm (leaving time) BTT Slough
Wednesday: 830pm Canton Martial Arts
Thursday: 640pm (leaving time) BTT Slough
Friday:
Saturday: 1230 Canton Martial Arts, 230pm Sparta Gym
Sunday: 930am (leaving time) BTT Slough

3rd Brighton Grab and Pull

Crazy times! Last weekend was the 3rd Grab and Pull tournament held at the King Alfred Leisure centre in Hove, right next door to Brighton. The Eastbourne branch of BTT UK, took up a big team for such a small town, with around 12 of us competing across most of the white belt categories. The last tournament saw only 4 of us taking part, so this was a huge improvement and a good reflection on how BJJ is really taking off, especially in Eastbourne!

The venue was set up with 8 huge matted areas and several cameras, which were used for a pay per view on the event - pretty cool hu? As usual, the competition was running a bit late, but once the rooster and feather weights had weighed in, they started the fights quite quickly. One thing I noticed straight away was the level of BJJ was very high, with almost all the competitors demonstrating alot of skill, strength and technical ability. Usually theres quite a few real beginners competing, but not this time!



While I know I should warm up properly, stretch and drill some technique before getting called up, I'v developed a bad habit of doing some half hearted stretches but nothing else before stepping on the mat. I prefer to sit around and watch everyone else fight and just try to relax and chill out. The first fight always seems to be the hardest for me and it takes me some time before I get into the game plan! This first fight was no different - we started and my opponent pulled guard, which I was very happy about :)! I quickly set up my standing guard pass, stood up and passed top side control, before moving to north/south. Then I set up my favourite choke and finished the fight. The next two fights were pretty much the same with my opponents pulling guard and me using the same guard pass and choke to finish the fights! I almost got stuck in a triangle, but thankfully we have been drilling triangle escapes to death and all the hard work paid off! Its strange, but I have only ever used two submissions in competition - the near naked choke and a particular north/south choke.

The semi final fight went a bit differently :P. After a bit of messing around standing up my opponent got a sweet double leg takedown on me. I managed to get a sweep from half guard, but then I got swept and had my half guard passed. Ended up loosing on points. Ah well! The winner of the lightweight whitebelts was some 16 year old Brazilian kid who came and cleaned up with some pretty sick armbars!



Overall it was a great competition! My one complaint was the cancellation of the white belt absolute division because the tournament was running too far behind schedule. It was great to see many of my team mates compete in their first BJJ tournament, as well as other more experienced friends medalling in their categories! Everyone did really well with Pete killing it in the heavyweight division, getting gold, Rach and Sophie cleaning up the women categories with 2 golds, a silver and a bronxe between them, and myself getting a bronze in the light weight!

BJJ British Open 2009 part 2

Well thats the biggest tournament of the year done and dusted! The organisers estimated that the event had around 750 competitors all squeezed into one day of crazy brazilian jiujitsu! While I only managed to film Rach's final, Gus Oliveira was there filming most of the fights and will probably put them up on Cage Film later on in the week. Here are some pictures of the day annd I will hopefully get some videos up soon! :)

BJJ British Open 2009

Yesterday was the biggest competition in the UK, and possibly in Europe, excluding the Europeans. It was a really great tournament with such a high level of jiujitsu! I was quite suprised the distance people travelled to compete, with some competitors coming all the way from the US and many travelling from Europe and all parts of the UK. Brazilian Top Team did very well, claiming silver in the team trophy category and taking quite a few golds and silvers. The guys from the Eastbourne branch of Ze Marcelo won two golds and two silver...there were only 5 of us!

Training for this competition was a little less than some of the other ones I have done this year because I had my final exams and wasnt as focused as I could have been and have been in the past. I checked my weight on the Wednesday (the competition was on Sunday) and was around 4 kg over! This led to some serious sweat sessions and hardly any food over the next couple of days. I was still trying to loose weight on the night before the competition at 1230, even though we had to be up at 3:30am to drive up to Birmingham! I can't tell you much about the drive up there as I was in pretty much a zombie state by this point and ended up sleeping the whole journey up there.

In what is turning out to be a routine for us, we got there way before anyone else - before the place was even open infact! Rocking up at 0730am when the event was supposed to start at 0930am wasn't great, but better early than late eh? After much standing around and clock watching, all the competitors were let in and everyone went off to establish their camps in various corners. While the venue had a huge matted area consisting of 8 mats, the spectator and warm up area were very small and cramped. Basically if you were not fighting, you were stuck standing as there was no room to even sit! Luckily we found a bit of space and used our bags to create a little fortress for ourselves.

I was on quite quickly as the call for lightweight was pretty much as soon as the doors opened! For once I was really calm and relaxed before going on the mats, and had time to stretch as best as I could and run through my game plan a couple times in my head. I was also lucky enough to have Ze Marcello in my corner, which helped out loads! The first two fights were hard and it took me a while to get my head in the game properly, but I managed to get through the first and second round, winning on points. After that I got with the it a bit more and finished the next three matches by north-south choke. Since me and another team mate, Sushi, both made it to the finals, we split the gold between us!

Rach did a great job aswell, despite having 5 stitches in her arm and having a cold, winning Gold in the female lightweight division, adding to her winning streak :). Sophie Cook got silver in the rooster weight female division and Pete got silver in the heavyweight division. Well done guys! Lee Fynch also competed for the first time, doing a great job and representing the team.

Once I finished my fights I stuffed my face with sausage rolls, sandwhiches, chicken, cereal bars, chocolate and loads of energy drinks! Eventually I began to feel normal again and hlped the other guys with their fights. The rest of the day was a mad rush of running from one corner of the hall to the other, screaming encouragement and causing general mayhem. It was great seeing the black belts and brown belts fight as well as all the purple belts from Ze Marcello's team. Oliver Geddes was also there and didn't disapoint, pulling and winning using his great half guard game, something I am trying to work on myself at the moment.

I am going to do another entry in more detail in a couple days when I have got together all the pictures and videos, but that should be enough for now. Happy Training!