Where to find BJJ Gis in the UK

I keep having this dilemma of browsing for new gis online and finding some really kick ass ones, only to find out that the shipping is almost the same price as the gi! However, there are a bunch of online retailers based in the UK or Europe who sell top quality kimonos. Since I am planning to buy a few more gis in the near future, I thought I'd put up what I find and, where possible, give a quick review of the gi in question :)



Feral Gis
This is an ebay based company that sells single weave gis for just 45 pounds, with shipping included! I have had my Feral gi for a couple months now and am very happy with it. They are NOT preshrunk, so I highly recommend buying a size up. I originally bought an A2 size and this turned out to be a bit on the small side, even though my A2 Koral gi fits perfectly. I am definitely going to get another Feral gi as they are a great design, good quality and amazing price, but this time an A3. Also, the customer service is excellent with Mr Feral answering emails almost straight away. A few posts down is a more in depth review of my feral gi if anyone wants to read anymore on them. To find them just plug Feral GI into the ebay search and they will come up!



Koral Lightweight Gis
My first gi was a Koral double weave which has been great! I've worn it to all my competitions and for many months it was my only gi so its had its fair share of being worn, yet it still holds up great. The MKM series and double weave all sell for between 105-140 pounds, which is a bit steep for me these days, but for those interested in getting a very good gi and have money to spare I would definitely recommend them. The new Koral lightweight gis also look pretty slick and come in at 80 pounds. I managed to try this gi on at the last competition and was very happy with how it fit and looked! both the MKM double weave series and the lightweight series can be found at www.grabandpull.co.uk If you want a seriously flash Koral gi (e.g.: camo, red, urban, etc) www.mmafightwear.com sells them for around 150 quid.



Faixa Rua Classico Gis
I am not too familiar with these gis, but I have heard good things about them! At 60 pounds a pop, they are a great price. I'm not going to say too much on these, as Meerkatsu has an insane review for this gi. Enough said. Here is the link:

http://meerkat69.blogspot.com/2009/07/geek-gi-review-faixa-rua-classico.html

If you like these gis you can get them at www.faixarua.net



Big Dog Fightwear Gis
This is a brand new company based in the UK with some hot stuff. Since they are based out of Eastbourne, alot of the BJJ, MMA and Muay Thai schools in the local area have been getting alot of exposure to their products. They have a huge range of great stuff, from hoodies and T shirts to BJJ gis and MMA gloves. At least 5-6 of the guys at BTT Eastbourne have bought some of these and the gis look gooooood! The black gi is especially nice and has some nice patches in the form of Brazilian and UK flags, and a cool company logo. I don't own one of these gis so can't give an in depth review and they havn't been around long enough to see how the gis stand the test of time, but they definitely look promising! At just under 80 pounds its another great bargain for someone looking for a high quality gi that looks good and is a reasonable price! Check out there stuff at www.bigdogzfightwear.bigcartel.com



Blitz Lutador BJJ Gi
Personally, I am not a fan of these gis. This was the only gi available at our club when BJJ first started so alot of the guys have them. The patches seem to come off and the fit seems to be a bit baggy on most guys. Priced at just over 60 pounds, there are plenty of other gis which are higher quality and look better for less money. Here is the link http://www.blitzsport.com/Products/Adult-Jujitsu-Suits_2



Manto BJJ Gi
I like these! No one I know owns one, but I have tried them on at the British Open competition as they had a stand there. Fit was nice and snug with no wizard sleeves or baggy armpits! The design looks nice and the logo kick ass! I have a Manto BJJ T shirt which I think is great and if the gi is anything like that then this will be a quality gi. http://www.fightshop.com/GIS-Category-156.html



Lucky Gis
Do I need to say more? Probably the coolest gis ever made! Excellent design with loads of cool bits. Amazing print on the inside of the gi, ace of spaces on the wrist, 'get off my back' printed on the rear of the jacket and other cool bits and bobs. Some subtle but sweet colour schemes such as black with red and a brand new blue one too! However, priced at 200 pounds these gis will leave a huge hole in your financial pocket. If anyone wants to get me a Christmas present, you need go no further :) find them at www.mmafightwear.net/gis



Tatami Fightwear Gis
Again, priced at 45 pounds you can't ask for more. Simple, clean designs with a nice trim on sleeves and the bottom of the jacket. Plus, you can buy a kick ass red gi for 50 pounds! You also get a free gi bag with any gi purchase. I can comment on quality or fit as I don't own one, but these are definitely tempting me if I don't go for another Feral. Find them at www.tatamifightwear.com

Edit - red gis do not look good




Black Eagle Gis
Not a huge fan of these. They seem to fade loads from the original colour and the patches are not that great. Then again, it may be that the only ones I have come across are old and have been used for ages! If they want to send me a free gi to review I would be happy to :) www.black-eagle.co.uk

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!

Feral Gi Review

Got my Feral Gi today! Its a blue one and an A2. First impression is that it looks ALOT better than it does on the ebay pictures. The shoulder patches are a great black/yellow and look very slick! I tried it on before washing it and it was literally a few centrimeters too big. the trousers are definitely made for slimmer guys and are very fitted, with almost no extra material around the upper leg, leading to a narrow sleeve at the bottom. The jacket has perfect sleeve length for me (I am 5'9/ 177cm and 75kg), with the skirt being on the short side compared to other gis I have seen. To be honest it fit quite perfectly on me - no complaints!



I soaked it in a bath of cold water with a good sprinkling of salt for an hour to help the colour set and let any exccess dye come out (apparently a couple cups of white vinegar sets the colour quite well but I didnt have any). After that I stuck it on a 20 degrees long wash with extra spin cycles to get it semi dry. When I tried it on after, the sleeves had shrunk a very small amount and the trousers were still a good fit. However, I think I am going to have to be careful with this gi as even a semi hot wash or dryer might see it shrink more than I want it to, as right now its perfect!



Overall, this gi seems to be a really good buy. At only 45 pounds (with shipping), it seems to be made of high quality material, good design and an excellent fit for slimmer guys. I had a bad feeling that I was going to end up with a Blitz type of Gi but was plesantly suprised to find it was comparable in feel and fit to my Koral. Give it a few weeks and I will do an update post to see how it is holding up with training and a few more washes to its name! The pictures were taken after it was soaked, washed and air dried.

300 Brazilians!!!

Todays class was hard! Hard enough to deserve a blog entry anyway. We had a quick warm up, break falls, abs circuit and some stretching before everyone was told to go get their protective gear, water, etc. Then for the next 2 hours we rolled constantly till we got a cumulative 300 rolls! Out of a class of 17 people, that means alot of rolls. We divided up into a lightweight mat (under 65kg), a middleweight (under 85g) and a heavyweight mat (85kg+). As usual, even though I weigh around 74kg, I was told to to go over to the heavyweight mat!

For the first hour, thing were going well and I managed to stay on (winner stays on and no time limit - basically till someone taps or gives up) with 3-4 wins before being beaten and circulating back in to win a few more and eventually get tapped again. However, after 60 minutes we were still at only 80 rolls across all three mats so a two minute time limit was introduced, and then for the last half hour a one minute time limit. While this meant very short rolls, it also meant a maximum of 3 mins between each roll, which was considerably shorter if someone managed a submission in that one minute.

After 2.5 hours we finally got over 300 rolls and held a final on each mat between the two people who managed the most taps throughout the session. I got a good guard choke on, but had my guard broken so I switched to half guard and managed to squeeze out the choke from there! Quite happy that at 74kg I can tap 90kg+ guys! Rach won the lightweights easily, and also got the most taps out of everyone. So all in all, a good training session :)

BJJ British Open 2009 Videos

There are a few videos around of the British Open and I managed to find a couple of my fights! I had 5 fights on the day and am not too sure of the order of the videos but here are two videos:



This fight was a hard one! I tried passing his guard a couple times but got stuck in half guard. Then my opponent got a nice double leg take down and I knew I had to start doing some serious BJJ if I wanted to win. Still, managed to pull off two take downs or one take down and a guard pass - not sure how they awarded the points as the board at the end said 3-2 to me? Not sure what happened there! :)



The second fight video is quite boring to be honest - I was waiting for him to pull guard but it took a while. I nearly got a take down but I didnt have his trouser leg secured properly and he managed to hop his way across the whole matted area and back again! Ended up going straight to side control, then north-south and finally a choke to finish it.


Hopefully a few more of my fights will come up on www.cagefilm.com as its great seeing what mistakes I made and what I need to work on. One obvious areas is takedowns - I really need to work on this!

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! :)