Archive for month: July, 2018

Hey globetrotters

 

After leaving my grandparents house I headed to Bari.

 

 

It was a long 4 hours ride under the burning sun with 35 degrees. In the south in Summer it barely rains, which is beautiful when you’re chilling at the beach and can be really exhausting when you’re doing a vespa trip to the south.

 

After arriving in Bari I took a little tour through the old city, just to get to know the city a bit. Nothing especially beautiful in my opinion, since I already saw many Italian cities. On the next day I went to the beach that my host from Airbnb recommended me, it had a beautiful natural pool and the waves in Bari were pretty strong. There is to add, that Bari has really delicious Panzerottis (fried mini calzones).

 

 

On the evenings I drove to Bitonto, a place near Bari, where Roberto awaited me in his huge Crossfit Box. On the way to Bitonto there was a garbage incineration plant which made my drive there really unpleasant, my face always turned like a was biting in a lemon. The guys were really welcoming and on Tuesday night I joined them for the Teamdinner, which was a lot of fun and they gave me the feeling being part of the team. On one sparring session we listened to Italian music which I really appreciated (mostly in Europe you get to listen to Oldschool, new school or pop songs).

 

I also visited a gym in Bari itself, a tribe jiu jitsu school, led by a brownbelt.

After 3 days I drove to Lecce and well, it happened. My. Vespa. Broke. Down. In the middle of the highway. On 3 o’clock in the afternoon. No shades anywhere. At first I was like: okay, deal with it. After 2 minutes when I sat down to the ground I thougt: This trip is so damn tiring and difficult, I just join my girlfriend on her “Camino de Santiago” and fuck this shit!!

 

 

After 15 minutes I reached the first Mechanic on the phone, tellin him my situation and after 1 hour a guy came to take me with my vespa and drove me to the mechanic. Apparently, a cable landed on the exhaust and burned down, nothing fatal luckily. After 4 hours I was again on my way to Lecce.

 

 

So after the recent event’s, my motivation was really down and then I saw on facebook the words from BJJ Bitonto, saying that what I’m doing is hard, but you cannot think, that HE IS A GREAT MAN! And that I inspire them for doing my vespa trip and that “I am Jiu Jitsu”. After reading this, I was so thankful and more motivated than ever to finish my trip and take the last hop.

 

In Lecce I was being hosted from a dutch/Bulgarian couple from couchsurfing. At the beginning I didn’t know what to think about them, but after continuous talking with them for 3 days I really started to love them. We went to the beach together and on the last day they even drove me to the openmat and have a look at what this jiu jitsu thing actually is.

On my second day in Lecce I did a trip to Galipolli, Otranto & Leuca, the 3 last villages in Puglia. The vespa trip took me 4.5 hours & I ate raw seafood for the first time in my life. The fish was delicious, but I like the mussel & oysters rather cooked than raw.

 

 

I went to training in the evening and after some sparrings I felt the day I had on my shoulders and on my stomach. I was trying not to vomitate and my head felt like it was 50 degrees hot. For everyone who tries raw seafood for the first time in your life: it’s highly recommended to take it easy that day! :D

 

 

 

On Saturday there was an openmat in an outdoor sports festival at 22:00 in the night. After the openmat we went to dinner till 1:30. Somehow it happens many times, that I join the team right in the moment, where the whole team goes for dinner together. Or Italians usually go often to dinner together and I just happen to be around that time, I don’t know honestly!

 

 

After Lecce I stopped one night in Matera. Apparently, Matera is the oldest city in the world, where people still live since 9000 years (I don’t know that, I’m lying to you like they lied to me). Matera is just wonderful, for everyone who’s in the south of Italy, Mater is a must-do! It has also BJJ, but since I was on Sunday there, no training for Christian…

 

 

Oss

Christian

With all the moving now done, we settled into Galway. I had already made contact with the fantastic team at Point Blank Submissions in Galway city, Christmas was just over and I joined in for some of their open mat sessions with the crew from Strange Wolves MMA and Point Blank and the level here was just as high as it has been in all the gyms I have trained in, I was stoked to find a high level gym here in my new home city!

As I stated before, I do my homework. I had already reached out to the head coach of Point Blank Tim Murphy well before I was in Galway as I had looked online and found it to be a highly respected gym and Tim is an active competitor and a world champion! This is a big tick in the box for me, especially as he is close to my size and will really help push me to get better. I have since rolled with him and found that his skill level is well above what I read and have had some great rolling sessions with him, most ending up with me tapping out multiple times but still great fun and plenty of lessons learnt for me! Tim and Kevin Moran (Strange Wolves) have been great in letting me join in on their sessions but due to a travel restriction of 1 car and me being the stay at home dad, I just couldn’t get to any weekday classes that I wanted to – correction, classes that I NEEDED to attend as my jits addiction is a pretty serious one!

Now, when I started BJJ, I never intended to do it only to get my black belt, to be honest, at the time I wasn’t even sure if I would get that far, I was more interested in training and competing and the competing part was rudely taken away when the old ticker got replaced! Anyway, now, 10 years later, I am sitting on my brown belt, 4 stripes, I had been training nearly every class and I am so close I can see it, sheeiit, I can almost taste it! I am very nervous to level up yes but I also did not want to take off 2 years from training and put myself back a couple of years. I had to find an alternate option that works with my family commitments and so when I return to New Zealand I can hopefully look to the realization that I may be in line for the elusive Faixa Preta!

I reached out to the local towns to see where else I could train. I initially hoped to find a gym that had classes during the day but the day classes I did find were too late in the day for me to get back in time to pick up the kids! Plan C, alternate training. I had always wanted to work more on my standing game and I have trained a lot with the team in Christchurch at Premiere Equip Judo, namely Jason Koster and crew so I thought that would be a good option as they also work newaza (ground fighting) into their training as well and I will still get a chance to work ground game. I found the Athenry Judo gym about 8 minute drive away from my new home and thought I could give it a whirl. I quickly found my judo is more like me waiting to be thrown! I really enjoyed the first class and after talking to the coach Ben Clayden, it was going to be a great fit for me and my situation. Ben is a great coach and the team there are super helpful, I would also say patient as I am quite the beginner! It turned out to be quite a good decision as out of it all, we ended up adding in a Saturday BJJ class to the team schedule with Ben and I and it has been great for me to get another chance to work BJJ, especially so close to my house as a couple of times I have had to bike to the training and race back before the kids finished their pottery class!
I was now able to cross train in judo and slowly (emphasis on this lol) my confidence in the standing game has improved a lot!

We had a lot of help from the BJJ community here in Galway to get the Athenry based Groundworx BJJ Ireland classes going which has been great to see the community working in well together, I still hope to get out to some Point Blank classes if I can get to them! I have managed to attend a grappling Seminar that Tim Murphy held with the judo school and another at Point Blank with 5th degree black belt Rodrigo Medeiros which to this day, is one of the best seminars I have ever been to! He taught closed guard and just small tweaks to the position and attacks that made me feel like I was learning jiu jitsu all over again, it was an amazing opportunity and hopefully there will be more like this! It’s very good when teams work in together like this, it is a small BJJ world out there and the more we help each other, the bigger we grow the community and ultimately the number of people training!

All in all, I have really enjoyed moving to train here in Galway, at first I was a bit worried that I was only going to be getting to roll at open mats but after a bit of groundwork (pun intended) I have made some great friends, I am now learning judo, teaching BJJ and getting to roll on the mats at least 3 days a week and things can only get better right!

Jitsu 1 – Hurdles 0

“Nothing good ever comes from worrying or sitting there feeling sorry for yourself… Keep positive and keep pushing on and things will turn good.” – Conor McGregor

 

Kowloon, Hong Kong — After spending about two months in South Korea, I decided to take my journey to new countries in Asia. My first stop was Hong Kong. There I had a chance to reconnect with Hayley who I met while training at Tri-Force Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Osaka, Japan. She personally invited me to Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu where she currently trains.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Hong Kong is an autonomous territory under China. As a former British colony, Hong Kong itself possesses a unique Chinese culture shaped by British influence, not to mention its ability to control the trade and market regulations. Also, as one of the important hubs in Asia, the city attracts tourists from all around the world with its iconic and modernized skyline. To be honest, I felt claustrophobic in Hong Kong which is one of the most densely populated cities in the world despite previously living in New York City and Seoul. Regardless, with its delicious cuisines (Especially, dim sum) and its interesting culture, Hong Kong was a memorable place to visit.

Overview
Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu was founded by Makoto Aramaki who is a Jiu-Jitsu and Judo black belt from Japan. Beside Professor Aramaki, classes at Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu are led by six other Jiu-Jitsu and Judo instructors who have proven themselves in recent Asian Jiu-Jitsu competitions. With instructors’ backgrounds, the academy offers not only Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but also competitive Judo classes.

The classes are all taught in English, but Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu’s multilingual instructors are fluent in various languages including Cantonese and Japanese. As diverse as Hong Kong itself is, students and instructors at the academy also come from diverse cultural and national backgrounds which create an exceptionally interesting training environment for us BJJ Globetrotters.

Unlike other gyms I previously trained around the world, Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu is not located near the city center. Instead, you will find the academy in the “real” part of Hong Kong surrounded by worn down buildings apart from high rises and tourists. It was rather relaxing (?) to train in such a friendly environment and be away from other tourists after a hot and humid day in crowded Hong Kong.

Location
Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu is located in Kowloon in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong itself is not massive, the academy can be easily accessed via public transportation. It is approximately 10–15 minute walk from Mong Kok or Prince Edward station. Please note that locating the entrance to the gym could be tricky. The picture of the entrance is posted below, and Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu is located on the second floor of the building. (Google Map: Link)

Facility
Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu has a rather compact mat space, which is understandable given Hong Kong’s real estate market. The facility includes men’s and women’s locker rooms and showers. The academy offers gi rentals for your training while traveling. 

Schedule
Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu’s weekly schedule is posted below:

The detailed daily schedule is posted on the website: Schedule

Visitor Fee
The drop-in fee is $200 HKD (~$25 USD) per class. 
<<Exchange Rate: $100 HKD =~$13 USD as of July 10th, 2018>>

Miscellaneous
Hong Kong Jiu-Jitsu has an English website that you might find helpful.

Tourist Attractions

• Victoria Peak — The Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island which offers a scenic view of Victoria Harbor and Central. I would highly recommend taking a tram ride up to the Peak.

• Tian Tan Buddha (Ngong Ping 360) — Tian Tan Buddha, which is commonly known as the Big Buddha, is a major center of Buddhism and tourism in Hong Kong. You can ride a Ngong Ping 360 cable car, which provides a panoramic view of Lantau Island on the way to Tian Tan Buddha. 

• Lan Kwai Fong —This party district packed with nightclubs and bars is located in the heart of the Central Business District surrounded by skyscrapers. This area is known as one of Hong Kong’s loudest hangouts. Brace yourselves before going out in Lan Kwai Fong!

• Macau — Macau, a Portuguese territory until 1999, is another special administrative region one-hour speed ferry ride (or a short helicopter ride if you can afford it) away from Hong Kong. Macau is known for its casinos, which generate 3 times the gambling revenue as Las Vegas. Besides gambling, there are historical tourist attractions influenced by Portuguese culture. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to train Jiu-Jitsu in Macau due to time constraints, but it is worth a visit. 

Hyperlinks
– Google Maps
– Website (English)

Source
– Hong Kong Map
– Lan Kwai Fong