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Travelling and Training Martial Arts in the 90’s

October 22, 2023/in Blogs, Uncategorized/by Tammi

Before BJJ

Back in the mid 90’s in my late teens/early 20’s I wasn’t aware Brazilian Jiu Jitsu existed. I was training other martial arts. I started with Taekwondo but soon lost interest in that when my best friend Rich introduced me to Wing Chun.

Later I would also mess around with a little JKD and Kali and much later Boxing and Muay Thai, before finally giving up all forms of striking in my late thirties for pure grappling only.

I don’t know why I’m high kicking this dummy, there’s no high kicks in Wing Chun 😆

I trained Wing Chun with Rich for around six years, at first with Sifu Anton Van Thomas in various parts of London and Surrey and then Rich and I left for Hong Kong to train with the late Grandmaster Ip Ching, the youngest son of Ip Man, who’s since been cemented in martial arts history with a string of part biographical, part fictional movies.

His older brother Yip Chun was more famous but was getting pretty old and frail by then and we were far more taken by the much younger, more sturdy and robust brother who taught at the Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association in Mong Kok where we travelled to classes by bus, ferry and then MTR, twice a week from our beachside apartment on Lantau Island.

We also arranged weekly private lessons at his home, a modest apartment where he and his wife lived, which also housed his father’s wooden dummy, the same dummy Bruce Lee had learnt on many years before, which felt like a ridiculous honour for two young foreigners obsessed with martial arts.

Terrible quality photos but it’s all we have, this was pre smart phones and it’s only due to Rich having a camera that we have anything at all.

Training in Hong Kong

There was only just enough room in that apartment to complete all three hand forms, Mook Yan Jong (wooden dummy), Baht Cham Do (butterfly knives) and Lok Dim Boon Kwan (6 and a half point pole), though I’m sure we almost put holes in their wall on a few occasions.

Grandmaster Ip Ching did not speak any English so a student of his was kind enough to join almost every session to translate for us. There were a couple of occasions where he wasn’t there and we muddled through but there was definitely one very memorable time for me, where both the translator and Rich were not able to come and I found myself alone with the Grandmaster for our private session. The training was fine but a two hour class is a long session and we’d always stop for a break half way through where his wife would bring us tea and we would sit for a few minutes before resuming training. I had spent a year previous to our first trip trying to learn Cantonese but now I’m trying to learn French I know that an hour’s class once a week was next to worthless. In that awkward break I got my notebook out and tried to say a few basic things. Suffice to say he politely shook his head and hand, very clearly saying “I don’t know what you’re trying to say and I never will, please stop”. I did stop and never tried again 🤣

We spent six months in Hong Kong and a year or so later we returned again for another three and a half months. Both trips we were able to stay at my Godmother’s little holiday apartment on the beach, which was as memorable a part of the whole experience as the training.

It was pretty dirty and basic with cockroaches, geckos and other wildlife often shacking up with us but we absolutely loved it. We ate instant noodles at the beachside cafes and played a lot of frisbee on the beach, the cleanest beach in Hong Kong at the time. We waited tables and bar tended, taught English and played a lot of pool at a bar near the ferry, sometimes winning enough prize money to pay for our food and drinks. Rich practised his magic tricks on the giggling local girls, we played chess late into the night, listened to music, watched movies, played table tennis at a local club and practiced our forms on our rooftop terrace.

Aside from our three trips into the city to train every week, we ventured further afield here and there too. We visited the Bruce Lee Cafe of course, a few other Wing Chun clubs including one at a University and we bought our own original Wing Chun Poles and Knives from a famous shop specialising in martial arts weapons.

We visited my Godmother every now and then, who lived with her young son in an apartment up in the hills and she sometimes invited us out on her friend’s boat or for a meal at the fancy Hong Kong Yacht Club. Through her we landed a job painting and decorating a beautiful house while the tenants were away and to this day I’m pretty sure we did a good job, even though we were so young and inexperienced.

At the end of our second trip Grandmaster Ip Ching gave us photocopies of his father’s recipe for Dit Da Jow, a famous blend of dried plants which are left for years to soak in rice wine and the resulting tincture used to treat bruising. It smells… unique… but it’s actually quite effective. Our friendly and helpful translator took us off to the Chinese medicine shops to buy the ingredients, which were vacuum packed for us and we managed to get home in one piece. That pack of dried bark and spices sat in my cupboard for years but eventually I did actually make a big flagon of it and it even made it out to Myanmar with me when I moved there years later.

After that second trip Grandmaster Ip Ching said he didn’t have anything left to teach us and we had to just keep practising what we’d learnt. He presented us with our Instructor Certificates and off we went to a local mall to have business cards made with shiny metallic embossed lettering with both English and Chinese characters.

I never really intended to teach but Rich returned for a forth trip a few years later and taught Wing Chun in London for many years. He always excelled at anything physical and was and still is an outstanding teacher. He’s a qualified swimming and tennis coach and now a BJJ black belt coach too and puts a lot of thought into his teaching.

On that second trip I had already started a business plan for a martial arts social club, which eventually did come to fruition a couple of years later, albeit in a slightly different form. Rather than try to describe Ginglik, the club in Shepherds Bush London which I owned and ran for 11 years with my boyfriend and business partner Colin, I have a video on my channel which will give you a good idea.

Play Fighting to BJJ

Before I discovered BJJ I had returned to Wing Chun after an eight year hiatus while running Ginglik, this time with Rich as my coach instead of training partner.

A bunch of Wing Chun buddies were round at my flat in London one evening and we started play fighting as we often did, which is always tricky when you only train a striking art. You can’t generally punch and kick your friends, though I’ve suffered plenty of dead arms and legs and dished a few out too. Not for the first time I found myself pinned to the floor and in that moment I knew the time had come to learn some grappling.

Having someone bigger and stronger sit on me and then pin my hands to the ground, was frustrating and scary and it made me appreciate how lucky I was to have only ever experienced it with my brother or other martial arts friends, whom I trusted. I never wanted to be in that position with someone I didn’t trust or who intended to harm me.

One of the guys told me a very reputable gym had just moved premises from Hammersmith, which wasn’t too far away, to a street just a short walk away. This gym was Carlson Gracie London and I soon rocked up one evening for a free trial class.

I was partnered with a brown belt guy who was around my size. He was so nice, patient and helpful and maybe if I’d had a very different experience that first class I would not have wanted to return. I wish I knew who he was so I could thank him now. Partly due to him I immediately fell in love with Jiu Jitsu and definitely wanted to keep training.

Carlson’s policy at the time was to encourage only serious students, so there was no drop in fee (even now this is discouraged with a very high drop in fee) and membership was priced such that only training several times a week made it reasonable. I was only able to train once a week at that time but I noticed that you didn’t have to be a member to take private lessons and that if you shared the private lesson with a friend you halved the cost.

I convinced several of my Wing Chun buddies to join me for private classes. Rich was one of them and our great friend Ash was another, now a brown belt. The others didn’t take to it quite the same! It’s not for everyone 😆

After about six months of these weekly classes, give or take a few, I left to go travelling for six months, intending to head straight back to resume training somehow, though with the club in London closed I wasn’t sure how I would earn a living or even afford to live in London. Turns out I never had to.

Thanks for reading,
Tammi

Next Time…

My first BJJ experience abroad, alone in Pattaya, Thailand on a Muay Thai camp with a visiting Aussie black belt teaching BJJ and some crazy Russians trying to break me, a week before I move to live in Myanmar and discover there’s no mats to train on, anywhere 😅

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Building a Jiu Jitsu Tour Bus

September 26, 2023/in Blogs/by Tammi

Hey Fellow Globetrotters!

I’m Tammi, a brown belt currently training and coaching in the UK but itching to travel again after a lucky almost half a century of travel and experiences around the world.

The Impact of a Book

I started training at Carlson Gracie London back in 2012 when I was 36, but had to stop temporarily while I had surgery for a condition called Hip Dysplasia. While recovering I was travelling in South East Asia and read Christian’s book. I was so inspired and I realised I didn’t have to go home to get back to training, I could train anywhere with mats and other willing bodies.

So I moved to Myanmar where there were absolutely no Jiu Jitsu gyms and no mats either!

There were however, a handful of guys who also wanted to train and we had use of a hard studio floor in a local fitness gym at weekends. It was tough on that hard floor but we were all dedicated and trained there for months before I managed to ship some judo mats over.

You can read a Jiu Jitsu Times article here about how I turned my apartment there into a gym and how Christian helped us get coaches from all over the world to visit and coach in return for hospitality.

If it hadn’t been for Christian’s community of people who loved adventure as much as Jiu Jitsu, I don’t think I would have lasted there as long as I did.

After a few years there and many excellent visiting coaches, I decided to move to Bangkok Thailand and join Morgan Perkins and his team at Bangkok Fight Lab. BFL was an established gym with a full daily class schedule and 20-30 regular students on the mats. Even a few girls!

Returning Home

I had many happy years in Bangkok. Morgan and his then partners allowed me to build a cafe inside their new gym and it was finally starting to take off when the pandemic started.

Unfortunately the last lockdown forced me to eventually close that business and move back to the UK in late 2021 to live with my Dad in the countryside. My sister and her husband live next door and she was pregnant with their first baby when I returned, so the timing was as good as it could be.

However, dealing with that first winter after 8 years abroad in the constant heat of Asia, was a massive shock to my system and I had to make sure I could somehow spend future winters in warmer countries.

I wanted to convert a vehicle into a home and travel to gyms across Europe, inspired by other BJJ Globetrotters.

I found a local job and soon had enough money to buy an old Mercedes Vario ex-school bus. I drove it back to my Dad’s and with help from a friend we stripped it and got to work dealing with the rusty chassis and replacing engine parts.

I knew to make my dream of travel across Europe work that I would need to earn money while travelling and travel vloggers were starting to earn a decent living from their content so I signed up to a course and spent several months learning how to make videos for YouTube.

I’m still learning and always will be but I really enjoy the creative process and I’m determined to keep improving my videos and growing my channel. I feel like a white belt again, entering a new realm, learning new skills, looking for mentors and inspiration, trying hard to innovate, progress and grow.

You can see how the bus is coming along and also enjoy some purely Jiu Jitsu content there too. At some point it’s where you’ll also find…

The Grapple Travel Show

I have an idea for a YouTube show to help promote friendly gyms and the idea of training while travelling or on holiday. I hope to start releasing episodes on my channel soon, even before the bus is finished (which could be another year or more). The pilot episode will be on the gym I currently train and teach at, VT Jiu Jitsu in Wiltshire UK.

Some of you might already know Sabine from Grappletoons and the BJJ Open Mat card game she made with Christian’s assistant Vara. I’ve known Vara for years as we both lived and trained in Bangkok and I met Sabine when she visited Bangkok Fight Lab.

I asked Sabine to make me a logo for the show recently and I’m really happy with the result. If you haven’t already made yourself an avatar at Grappletoons then get yourself over there, or make one for your favourite training partner or coach 😃

Relying solely on YouTube for income would be dumb, so I’m trying to do various other projects too, in the hopes one of them takes off, or perhaps they all just help contribute a little.

I write a free weekly newsletter on Substack all about my attempts to be a solopreneur.

This is the first of my blogs here but I’ll write more as the bus and The Grapple Travel Show progress. If you’re reading this then you probably love Jiu Jitsu and travel too, so hopefully you’ll be interested in the show.

I’m very open to any ideas other people might have for the show and I hope in time I can get other people to present their own show using the format too, so we can go global and encourage more gyms to give visitors a good experience, help them promote their gym, give travellers a good idea of what to expect from the gyms they’ll visit and show people new to the sport that they have ready made friends all over the world, just waiting for them to drop by for some rolls and share with them the best things to do and see in the local area.

I hope to connect with you on your preferred platform for now (see links below) but hopefully soon I’ll be asking for recommendations for gyms with space or a nearby spot for the bus for a few weeks and if I visit your gym I hope to connect with you IRL on your mats 😃

Thanks for reading,

Tammi

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1st academy of the journey!

August 22, 2023/in Blogs, Travels/by Laura Lahti

How it all began

July 16, 2023/in Blogs/by Laura Lahti

Hi you! Wow this is exciting, my first ever blog post in BJJ Globetrotters. First let me introduce myself and my project; BjjBiili.

I’m Laura and I come from this beautiful Scandinavian country, Finland. Combat sports have been a big part of my life since I grew up, starting with karate, then switching to thaiboxing and then few years ago I found myself having the time of my life being strangled on tatami. It was love at first sight.

My other loves are travelling, exploring, and adventuring. These passions of mine have also been there since the early days. As a kid I could tie a piece of fabric to the end of stick I’ve found to make it a bag for myself and leave for my adventures (well it was usually a forest 3 minutes away). This quality of mine has also turned into a lifestyle when I grew up. The insane amount of curiosity had led me into living in Swiss alps, travelling through Siberia with a train and backpack around Caribbean islands.

Home sweet home

So that’s about me. Then what is this BjjBiili? Bil is swedish word and means car. So basically BjjBiili is my super ugly, neon yellow van, which used to be an ambulance and now is my home. I gave up all my stuff, gave up my apartment and converted the ambulance into a camper van. I finally moved to BjjBiili last April. My mission is to tour all the 82 bjj academies in Finland while living and wandering with my dear Biili.

Lot of people have been asking, where the hell I got this idea from. My brain and it’s ways are mostly mystery to myself, too. But if I really try, I can find few seeds that have been planted in my brain and been there growing into these fulfilled dreams.

One of the first persons to blame for this idea is Finnish (now ex) UFC fighter Anton Kuivanen. It was year 2008 and I’ve travelled to Thailand for training camp (muay thai). I was 15 and never travelled that far from home. I was beyond excited.

It was hot and humid morning with a nice ocean breeze. We took tuktuk to the training center, which was at the countryside of Pattaya. I was so faschinated of the traffic, the smell of spices in the air, people opening their little businesses early in the morning. We got to the camp early and the previous private class was still going on. This athlete was, well, super athletic and was throwing punches to the pads in a way, that you could tell that he’s been doing this for awhile. Then I recognized this man, he was Finnish MMA fighter Anton.

In between our sessions my coach and Anton started talking. I was obviously way too shy to say a word so I was just warming up, so they would think the blush on my cheeks was from warmth and not from the fact that my teenage idol is stretching in front of me.

Anton told about his adventures; he travelled to Thailand all the way thru Siberia and Asia, visiting all the different boxing and wrestling gyms. Now he was cruising around Thailand with a motorcycle. I was blown away. I was inspired. That evening I had hard time to fall asleep. These adventure stories and the inspiration kept me awake. I thought how lucky I’d be if I could have even the slightest piece of that kinda adventurous mindset when I’ll grow up.

Miserable vanlife times in 2014

Then I would also blame French people. I guess it was year 2014. I’ve just turned 21 and travelled to Australia all the way from Finland, via Trans Siberian trailway and South-East Asia. Then one weekend I suddenly found myself sitting in old camper van, with 5 frenchies, holding our sleeping bags on top of our heads as covers since the pouring rain rained inside. Rooftop of the van was working with electricity and that got broken and we couldn’t close it anymore. So it rained inside.

Also the car battery got empty or broken or something. I wouldn’t really know because all the frenchies were speaking only French. I just knew that car didn’t move anymore and by reading this French body language, apparently there were some sort of problem. So we continued our journey by hitch hiking.

Even tho it was miserable and wet and all that, I absolutely loved it. Every miserable moment. After all, I am Finnish. Misery is what we live for. And so the seed of having my own miserable van had planted.

Let’s jump to summer 8 years ahead, to year 2022. I worked A LOT. My elbows were infected. My foot was wrecked and some days even walking hurted, not talking about bjj. I was exhausted. I was lying on my floor deciding, this is the last time I’m spending my days like this.

I wanna roll around tatamis. I wanna explore. I wanna be healthy and recovered. I wanna meet new people. I wanna LIVE. Then slowly it all came together. Fabrics on the end of the sticks. Anton’s adventures. Thailand. The Frenchies. Van. Feeling of freedom.

Before I even noticed, I found myself at this remote gas station in Finland with an old ambulance I’ve just bought. An old ambulance which I drove 30 km before it left me at this gas station. I turned the key and all I heard was a little click. The engine didn’t even try to start. And this was supposed to be the beginning of adventure of a lifetime. Well, this great adventure might haven’t had the best beginning, but I thought adventure was what I asked for and it already seems to be pretty clear that adventure is what I’ll be getting with this van…

So there’s a little background of how BjjBiili was born. I’m currently living in the van and been touring academies around Helsinki. I’ll be quitting my job this week and then hit the road properly. Welcome to follow my journey, hope you’ll enjoy!

Visiting Orion’s Belt Jiu-Jitsu, an academy based in Helsinki

-Laura

Trekking across the world to become a talk therapist

January 22, 2023/in Blogs/by Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter Six: Fairborn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy-Fairborn, Ohio

-On basics, learning to conduct therapy around the world and realizing I’m standing next to Dave Chappelle

This is Chapter Six of what I’m calling the Expat Files. If you want to know more about what this project is, you can read more about it in the first article here. – I’ve referenced a few times that I started BJJ around the same time that I began grad school for Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Right away I felt like there had to be a connection between Jiu Jitsu and therapy. I usually left practice feeling a sense of bliss and clarity that would make any therapist jealous of my coach. But just like at Boston BJJ, in the therapeutic world, I had to learn the fundamentals. In Jiu Jitsu, fundamentals usually refers to the basic moves that everybody needs to survive in our sport. Since everyone knows them, they usually don’t work on anybody but the newest folks. But if you don’t know them, nothing else you do will work. In grad school, fundamentals was the name of a class that had a residency. That’s what brought me to Yellowsprings, Ohio for a week in December, 2018.

My degree was mostly non-residential. That’s a fancy, “chip-on-the-shoulder” way of saying online. I realized I wanted to apply to a program when I was in Korea. But they let me know that I could start working toward it there. In Ulsan, I would wake up early and do practice therapy sessions at Starbucks with a partner who lived in Pittsburgh. For an addictions class, I had to find a substance abuse support group. I found an all-expat Alcoholics Anonymous group in Daegu which is about 45 minutes away via high speed rail. Between teaching full time, jiu jitsu at Ulsan Fight Gym and my Masters, I felt pretty swamped. As I left Korea, I decided I was going to do one class while on the road. Fundamentals is a course where you focus on all of the skills you need while conducting a therapy session. A part of this is having a lab partner where you take turns being their therapist or their client.. Being on zoom, it made it easier to watch recordings of yourself and nitpick everything you say as the counselor. A classic assignment is to pick something you said and answer the following questions.

What did you say?
What skill were you demonstrating? (Options could be: open-ended question, reflection of feeling, summary, paraphrasing, non–verbal affirmation etc.)
What could you have said instead?
What skill would that have been?

It’s incredibly tedious but helpful. The goal is to always feel like you know why you are saying what you are saying to clients. I did work for this class in a number of countries throughout that semester. It must have been fun for my partner who did zoom sessions with me in Korea, Denmark and Portugal. Below you’ll see the places that I did at least some work for Fundamentals.

Similar to Jiu-Jitsu, the fundamentals are what you need to communicate effectively as a therapist. But if you only use those tools in session, you can sound robotic and formulaic. Kids in therapeutic settings can see these rhetorical tools coming a mile away. That’s when the emotional walls come up. The trick is to build an awareness of why you say what you say without sounding like a freaking therapist. It’s like what my friend and teammate Jovan says about techniques, “Nothing works. Unless it’s a surprise.” The class culminates in a residency in Yellow Springs. For that week, you gather with a few other students who took the same class. For five days my classmates and I watched each other do therapy. We got and gave feedback. They need to do this so that they can vouch for us before we do internships. I actually had an amazing time. It all felt very natural to me. During the day we would all practice therapy and at night hit up the few spots you could go to for drinks and pub food. Before that week, I had finally been living my dream of doing BJJ every day. I wanted to get to at least one class before the week was up. Unsurprisingly, there was no studio for it in Yellow Springs. It’s a very small town that has its charm. It’s actually where Dave Chappelle and John Lithgow are from. (I actually realized I was standing next to Dave Chappelle at a crosswalk one of the nights I was there). So the closest place was Fairborn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy which was about a 30 minute drive away.

This was almost four years ago but one thing struck me that I haven’t seen anywhere else. The instructor introduced himself, and asked why I was in town. At first it was just him and me there, but for everyone who walked in the door, he greeted them and said, “This is Adam, he’s just in town for the week and so he’ll be joining us tonight.”

That might seem like a small thing but you have no idea how much going to a new BJJ academy can feel like the first day of kindergarten. All the other children are playing in the sandbox or on the swings and you just know they’re all thinking, “who’s the new kid?” But that introduction really helped get rid of that awkward feeling. If you’re a Jiu-jitsu instructor and you’re reading this, take note. A study I read once tried to find the single highest predicting variable of who at a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu studio will continue their membership. The result: how many other students know your name. The lesson was helpful as well. Like most gyms I’ve been to, I was one of the smallest guys there. They all had that midwest powerlifter look. But the lesson really helped with something I had struggled with. I would often get mount on folks and get launched off right away. But the technique was to make my body parallel to theirs and snake my legs under theirs. Then, without looking, you can feel what direction they are trying to push you and you can resist. It helped me survive a lot longer on top.

A week later, I found myself rolling with Tom, one of the guys from Boston BJJ. Like normal, he was kicking my ass. But I managed to get on top and use the leg-snaking technique from Fairborn. I stayed on for a full minute before getting swept-up. But as soon as the timer marked the end of the round he looked at me and said, “You are a LOT better than you were a month ago!” I’d like to say that it was Fairborn that helped me get that compliment. In reality, there’s no magic technique that helps fix your game. But it’s the slow tweaking of fundamental movements overtime that makes you more efficient and better at the sport. Even the fanciest of moves needs to be built on the awareness of the basics. Similar to therapy, it can be tempting to think that you need some fancy tool to break through to your clients so you can feel like Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. But more often than not, it’s just making a minor switch and then practicing it over and over again. As far as I know, the academy doesn’t live where it used to anymore. If you want to meet those guys and train with them, they merged with Dayton Mixed Martial Arts Academy. I remember them talking about the move when I was there. If any of you are reading this, I hope the transition went well. Dust Mop Takeaway: That leg snaking technique served me for a really long time. So did the idea of being more friendly to new folks at the gym. I always want to be more like that instructor who introduced me to everyone. But more often than not, I was at a new gym where I was waiting for folks to welcome me in. Fairborn is the only place where I didn’t feel that. As I look back, Fairborn is emblematic of the importance of fundamentals. It’s the building blocks of everything in BJJ, therapy and almost everything else I can think of. Building that awareness of what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Using them doesn’t mean that you will win, but not knowing them means almost certain failure.–My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected]. You can also follow me @DustMop_JiuJitsuIf you want to read my articles as soon as they’re published be sure to subscribe below!

Strange Injury. Do I Still Deem This West Coast, Best Coast?

October 14, 2019/in Blogs/by Josephine Tse

TL;DR – Messed up my neck/shoulder, but the recovery is going well. Although I am not training right now so I’m lowkey depressed. You live and learn. Also talking about some gyms in Las Vegas + The Bay Area.

For a recent work trip, I had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas and San Francisco. I was so excited to check out the fight capital and the big-name gyms in the Bay area. All very exciting until I realized:

Traveling for work is NOT traveling for fun
Scheduling is a big issue
Work won’t cover my Ubers/Lyfts to training
So… the conversion between CAD -> USD is heartbreaking
Also, drop-in fees! I was taken aback. Sigh, all done within reasons I understand.
But still.

After taking all this into account, I was only able to drop into 3 gyms – Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu in downtown Las Vegas, Guardian Gym in Oakland and San Francisco BJJ in San Francisco.

Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu – A gym tucked away in a little plaza on Oakley Blvd. You can see the Stratosphere Hotel in the background. I gotta say, walking west on Wyoming Avenue from the Strip was sort of sketchy. I was told that they’re gentrifying the entire area (think – quiet street, boarded up shops everywhere, missing coats of paint) – I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. Glad I made the trek though. It’s a really friendly place. I participated in the no-gi class with their teacher Rodrigo. We were going over side mount escapes. On top of getting decent rolls and no injuries, I was really happy with my experience here. Of course, if I had the time, I would’ve loved to check out Sergio Penha or Robert Drysdale’s gyms too.

San Francisco BJJ – I heard that Caio Terra would be around. If you don’t want to finish reading this post, I’ll be the first to tell you that he was NOT around the Tuesday I visited. I stayed for 2 sessions of no-gi with Denny Prokopos (I believe this used to be a 10th Planet SF) and had a good chuckle, as Denny’s lessons had a dramatic/comedic flair to it. I drilled technique with the only other girl there. It was nice to drill with someone my size- it had been a while since I’d seen another girl on the mats (which speaks to my inconsistency). Overall, I had some challenging rolls (everyone’s hooks were quite sticky- I had trouble passing one guy for the entire round). Again, if I had the time, Bay Jiu-Jitsu, Empire Jiu-Jitsu and Ralph Gracie were on my list too (oh well, next time!).

Guardian Gym – I found the gym via the Matsurfing map and really supported the nonprofit work they do. Kids train free there and supports a lot of youth programs. They accept donations for drop-ins. A very honest environment and cool space, but they’re apparently moving to a larger location (a bit further into Oakland, though) soon. I attended an incredible no-gi open mat on Sunday with my friend Ivo. I had a great time, and could tell that I landed a great group of higher belts because I came out injury free! I rolled with someone 3 times because we were roughly the same size and weight – I could truly practice my techniques and movement a lot more. So seeing how successful Sunday was, I opted to come back on Wednesday with Ivo’s coworker who actually trains at Guardian.

We did a beginner’s no-gi class. I partnered with someone roughly my size. Everything was going well- technique and drilling all worked fine, it was all great, until the roll. I don’t know what happened (typical BJJ answer) but I was in side control at some point and perhaps it was from the pressure (because there was no hint of submission) but the joints in my neck cavitated (these are all words from my friend in Chiropractor school). Imagine knuckle cracking. Except on my neck. It sounded like a semi-automatic rifle going off (too soon?) and my partner kind of dropped me and screamed. Again, never had this happen to me before. Here I am trying to catch my breath and refocus my vision, and everyone’s stopped to make sure I have no numbness or tingling sensations flowing through my fingers. I was even foolish enough to try drilling with someone, then realizing that the pain had traveled to my shoulder/I could not even complete the motion of leg dragging. I sat out for the entire round, very frustrated but not stupid. It just sucked that it was my last night before going home and I really wanted to get some good rolls in. But I’m not stupid.

If there’s anything I learned, traveling for work is not traveling for fun. I work in media production/marketing/communications/creative. That field. What if I had to run some type of production the next day? Oh sorry, I can’t do my job because I messed up my neck and shoulder in jiu-jitsu? I’m not out here to get fired (especially also since I just started a new gig). I’ve learned that I need to be more careful and stick to rolling with higher belts, especially if I am away from home.

Pro-Tip: Unless you’re on some insanely expensive travel/medical insurance coverage, BJJ is usually NOT covered. My company will definitely not buy me the highest level of World Nomads Insurance, let me tell you that!

Rainy Rolls – Training report of BJJ in Ireland

September 3, 2019/in Blogs/by Josephine Tse

Hi to whoever’s reading! It’s been awhile. I just got back from a short stint of BJJ in Ireland. Can’t shut up about the weather.

There were many firsts on this trip!

1) It was the first time I’ve posted on the members Facebook group and received so many helpful recommendations and replies. I wasn’t able to drop in to every single gym recommended, but I was able to do one of them.
2) It was my first time officially (and successfully) mat-surfing!
3) It was the first time I reunited with someone whom I met prior thanks to a previous globetrotting-involved trip.
4) It was my first time dropping into gyms as a BLUE BELT! I finally got my blue belt after 2 years of BJJ this June, it feels really good !

I’ve been increasingly curious about training BJJ in Ireland because I’ve heard about the abundance of gyms in the country.

I was chatting with my friend Moritz, whom I met last year while dropping into gyms around the Balkans area (in this case, Sofia, Bulgaria). At the time, he moved to Ireland for college and had started training at East Coast Jiu Jitsu Academy. I continued throwing around the idea of visiting for about 7 months and then finally put forth a plan.

During this BJJ in Ireland trip, I visited:

Point Blank Submissions – Galway
I emailed about dropping in and the head coach, Tim, replied very quickly. By then, I had a feeling this would be a great gym (aside from all the glowing recommendations from the members Facebook group). The gym is located north east of the Galway city centre (about a half an hour bus ride for me, assuming the buses came on time). I was lucky enough to drop in twice for their advance classes. I was greeted with lots of friendly faces and an abundance of good rolls. We were working back takes that week- always good to brush up on the fundamentals.

Jorge Santos Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – Dublin
I mat-surfed with Denis, one of the blue belts from JSBJJ. First of all, super hyped that it worked out. For those of you going to Dublin, Denis is your guy! The gym is located conveniently in the city centre and I got to attend one of their Thursday evening advanced classes and the rolls here were definitely challenging. We practiced some lapel techniques from half guard before heading straight into the rolls. Unfortunately, my short trip itinerary only allowed me to drop in for one class- I would’ve loved to train more.

East Coast Jiu Jitsu Academy – Dún Laoghaire
I ended up here for an open mat session on the Friday before Polaris and NAGA Ireland, meaning Ffion Davies wasn’t there (my heart …broke). There was a good handful of people at the gym though, and I was able to get some gi and no-gi practice in. People here seemed to love their berimbolos and lapel guards. I think I spent most of my time trying to untangle myself from pretzel-like positions. More importantly, I got to roll with Moritz again! I’ve never really considered the possibility of reuniting with people I’ve met while traveling- the notion seems more unlikely than likely, in my head at least.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, give yourself a pat on the back. I don’t expect people to read my word vomit.

Tl;dr-I’m very grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received when training BJJ in Ireland and the opportunity to meet more people :-)

Open Mat during Ramadan in Istanbul

May 28, 2019/in Blogs/by Josephine Tse

Hello Globetrotters!

The insanely creative title of this post is none other than what I walked into, word for word.

Potentially because of that, there were only two people at the weekly Sunday open mat at Balaban Solid Sports (Atos Jiu-Jitsu affiliate). PS – beautiful facilities, by the way!

Great, this will be short and sweet, I told myself.

Background context: my only goal was to get a roll in before my tattoo session the next day. Which, by the way, came out great and I highly recommend Pokey Poke Studios. And I only mention this because 1) I absolutely love it and 2) it’s BJJ related.

But realistically, I had just spent over an hour and a half commuting from Sultanahmet (so I took a tram to the ferry, the ferry from the European to Asian side of Istanbul, and then a bus into the Ataşehir neighborhood), so it didn’t feel right to stay for less.

I met Yasar and Can, both of them relatively new to BJJ. Yasar told me he started in Spain, took a break, and decided to take it up again. Can just started recently. I rolled (no-gi) with both of them, and to be honest, I felt pretty out of shape (I blame it on the state of my vacation mode body) ((but if you read my last posts, I always blame it on the state of my vacation mode body)).

Unfortunately, I’m not a long term traveler. It’s really difficult to fit in gym drop-ins when you only have a couple of days in a place! I only have 10 vacation days (huge bummer as an emerging adult in the workforce in North America, I’m looking at you Europe) so strategizing how to use them is what I do on the daily. But no matter how challenging it is, it brings me great joy to be able to meet BJJ practitioners from all over the world. So naturally, drop-ins are ingrained as an important part of my travel process.

Empty Stomach Rolls in NYC

April 10, 2019/in Blogs/by Josephine Tse

Hello world! I managed to pull off a quick weekend trip to New York City last weekend. I try to drop by annually to say hello to a few friends. It was abnormally warm as well (at least 10 degrees celsius warmer than Toronto), so walking outdoors without a coat was also a blessing. I’m trying to change, but I’m naturally a very go-go-go type of traveller. I’m curious. I want to see EVERYTHING. So when I reach a point where I don’t need to check out anymore touristic destinations, I know that I’ve gotten comfortable with a place and can take it slow.

I took it so slow that I found time to drop into Clockwork BJJ for their Sunday morning beginner and mixed classes with Sebastian. The gym is located near Washington Square Park. I also brought my friend Jen along for her first class! We came in from Brooklyn and it was super accessible by transit. I found it to be a very friendly and welcoming training environment. Someone was always around to lend a hand whenever we had trouble with the technique.

I always love bringing someone to try this sport. Jen is very open-minded and I thought she did pretty well for her first BJJ class. She stood out and watched the rolls during the beginner class, but by the end of the mixed class, she and I were beginning to roll lightly. When I first started, I personally didn’t roll until after my 3rd class, and I was still pretty intimidated.

We also chatted with some of the gym regulars. We met Che, who was two months into her jiu-jitsu journey. She was telling us how she was a bit nervous starting out, but she jumped right into the mixed classes and it helped with her confidence in rolling with people of all weight classes. Now jiu-jitsu is an important part of her routine.

Empty stomach rolls wasn’t a great idea. I did not eat or drink anything in the morning after staying up until 4AM consuming alcoholic beverages. I don’t get hangovers, but trying to roll with purple belts proved to be next to death. My advice? Don’t… do… that… anyways, the meal below was so satisfying entering my stomach. Sorry, getting off track.

Next time I hope I get to stay longer so I can train more. There are so many top gyms in New York City and of course, they are on my list to visit. But in the meantime, I’m compiling my gyms to check out in Istanbul next month!

A Taste of Training in México City

January 7, 2019/in Blogs/by Josephine Tse

Hello! My name is Josephine and I train in Toronto, Ontario at Action Reaction MMA, under Team Gringo JJ/Cicero Costha Canada. I hope I got that right. I work in the media/communications/entertainment industry, so I have a lot of pent-up stress to relieve. And all I can say is, I definitely should’ve been documenting my BJJ Globetrotter adventures from the very start.

I flew to Mexico City over the winter break. It’s about a 5 hour plane ride from Toronto. I have my reasons to believe the pilot was probably speeding. If you’re interested in reading more about my actual trip, you can check it out on my website.

Throughout my time in CDMX, I ended up dropping into two gyms – and yes, I consider this an achievement because this was the first time I’ve done that. I’m so used to staying in a city for a couple days and doing multi-destination backpacking trips crammed into a week or two, so I’ve only ever had time to drop into a gym for one class per city. I can now relate to people who take it slow. Or maybe it also comes with age. My aching back at 23 tells me it’s time to take it slow.

The first gym I dropped into was Top Brother Mexico. They’re located in the Condesa neighborhood and right around the corner from my hostel, too. The coach, Angel, opened up the gym on the morning of the 26th and drilled with me for 1.5 hours just because I asked him about dropping by. This level of hospitality is still so shocking and foreign to me, even though I’ve been convinced time and time again that the BJJ community is one of the most supportive and kindest communities out there. We drilled some knee cut details and moves that’ll help me get past knee shields, drilled triangle set-ups and omoplatas from lasso, talked about the importance of head pressure and the purpose of the de la Riva guard. He told me that I need to incorporate drilling into my training schedule if I want to get better. I do want to get better, compete more and tighten up my technique this year. Nevertheless, this is on my 2019 New Year’s Resolution already.

I also dropped in on the evening of the 27th and attended a class. I was told due to Mexico City’s high altitudes and thinner air, training becomes even more demanding for those who aren’t used to it (… Toronto is so flat). I definitely gassed out quicker even though I wasn’t giving it my all during the rolls… but I cannot 100% confirm whether or not it’s because of the difference in altitude. I could just be severely out of shape, given the holiday season and my incessant devouring of street tacos.

——

The second gym I dropped into was Promahos BJJ & MMA. The gym is located in the Narvarte Poniente neighborhood, just south of the downtown core. I found them through word of mouth on the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group. Everyone speaks highly of this gym. I totally understand why. I dropped in on the evening of the 26th and attended a 2-hour no-gi class with coach Itzel (also the first female black belt in Mexico). There’s something really empowering about watching a female coach teach guillotines to a group of predominantly guys. The drills and exercises were demanding (again, air thinness or excess taco weight?) but the details were eye-opening for me. My schedule doesn’t align with no-gi classes back home, but they are definitely the easiest classes to drop into while traveling. For the last hour, girls and guys were separated and we all rolled in rotation from different starting positions. I rolled repeatedly with this really good 15 year old girl and my training partner for the day, Natalia. I also dropped in for their Saturday lunch class/last class of the year. David from New Zealand taught that class, and we drilled some back takes and different control positions from there. Another thing about this gym- I wasn’t expecting so many girls here! There were about 6 or 7 other girls that showed up on Saturday. It was refreshing to see girls attending class and having female partners my size to roll with.

I was chatting with Itzel and Natalia after the first evening class, and Itzel told me they recently moved to this location- everyone was training at her house before that. That’s incredible dedication right there. She said she barely had any privacy before (again, I can only imagine).

I am now back in Toronto, typing this on my bed. My next stops in the coming months should hopefully be New York in April & then eventually (fingers crossed) Turkey in May. I’ve also started tracking all the gyms I’ve visited since I started Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu! Please check it out here- it’s just a Google Maps list. ‘Til next time!

Goodbye Canada and Hello Australia!

August 15, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

So the final days in Canada were everything we could have hoped for!

We arrived in Vancouver and I was still on crutches. Our friends Jacques and Paula took us out for an amazing boat ride on one of BC’s beautiful lakes and we spent the last days trying to fit all of our worldly possessions into four 23kg suitcases. It didn’t work! we managed three 23kg cases and one 33 kg case.

Since starting the plan to move to Australia there has been so much getting in the way of me moving there. First off it was delays in submitting a visa through work. Then there was visa delays and now I have actually resigned from work so am here on a 5 week holiday instead of actually working down here.

Regardless of all these issues, we hit the 16.5 hour flight to Melbourne with gusto. The idea was to just get on the plane, fall asleep and hope that there aren’t any other random obstacles in the way.

Luckily we slept most of the flight and woke up somewhere near Sydney with an hour to go.

We are now here in Melbourne and have been loving life!

I met up with two old training partners from Wimbledon BJJ in the UK. The have been training at Absolute MMA and I have signed up for classes. Such a great place. Upwards of 30 people every lunch hour for BJJ and there are a slew of other classes to do also. When the ankles are better I will be starting some Boxing and Muay Thai training.

A lot of people have told me that Melbourne is not a very good tourist city and that sort of thing then you should go to Sydney. It didn’t make sense until I got here though. There isn’t a lot of overly touristy things to do but, if you live here, there is more than enough restaurants, bars, wineries, BJJ schools and activities to keep you going.

The city has a great vibe and I have been having a great time exploring. I hope to fit in a couple more BJJ schools in the coming weeks before I head to Bali and then the UK for a stint.

Please have a look at some native Aussie animals that I met along the way.

Alberta, Canada

July 19, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

Calgary

Have you ever been to Calgary? It is awesome!

The people are incredibly nice the food is brilliant and the Rocky Mountains are on your doorstep.

Sarah and I are here until August 4th and have been taking in all of the sights and sounds!

We were in Calgary at the tail end of the winter and, at the time, I considered the place hell on earth. Minus 28 celsius when I arrived early in the year. Now we have been having 23-29 degree days and have definitely started to enjoy the place.

To begin with, I have found a killer BJJ gym to train at. Gigante Brazilian JiuJitsu is absolutely amazing. Professor Fernando is old school Brazilian and he makes us suffer through every class.

In my time there I have improved considerably and gotten my ass kicked by some of the nicest guys in Calgary.

So far in Alberta we have managed to visit some super touristy places.

Drumheller seems to be the home of every Dinosaur ever found. It even has the world’s largest fibreglass dinosaur that you can climb to the top of.

We were given good advice by the tourist attractions lady, learned how to properly pronounce the word “diplodocus” and managed to get at least 1 speeding ticket on the trip.

TOP TIP: Canadian Police officers are the nicest in the world when it comes to Irish people. You can go considerably faster than the speed limit and still get off with a fine that the rental company will never charge and zero points on a European licence. You just have to make sure you can offer good recommendations of where to visit when they go there next year!

We took a helicopter ride over a canyon, which was brilliant, and also learned what a Hoodoo is. (see pics for that)

Calgary is also home to the Calgary tower, which is less impressive than a lot of it’s newer and flashier cousins, but still cool in it’s own way.

Calgary has a whole heap of other fun stuff to do while visiting. A few great viewpoints, archery tag, 1000 escape rooms to name a few.

The pub scene is also pretty good with 17th ave having some genuinely good cocktail bars and some excellent American-Irish style pubs.

We have been incredibly fortunate to have some visitors here. My brother came over and was welcomed by everyone in Calgary. The guys a Gigante BJJ have accepted him as one of their own and we have been taking in the Rocky mountains as often as possible. It is trips like this that remind me how fortunate we really are. Some people wait their entire lives to get 1 glimpse of this ridiculous scenery and we have been taking day trips out every weekend!

We also had an old Alabama friend come and visit from Denver Colorado.

John O’Brien is a Black belt from Triad Martial Arts in Cullman, AL. HE popped up for the weekend to help Ger and I train. He got in Friday, we drank until 5am and managed, do NOT ask me how, to get to the 9am open mat. Albeit 28 minutes late.

John literally destroyed my hungover self and made it look like a tiger tossing around a kitten. It was bad.

The guys at the school enjoyed it and, I believe, took some lessons from John along the way.

We then headed to the best Brazilian BBQ joint that I have visited. Minas in Calgary. Go there. You know it is good when most of the clientele are actually from Brazil. The weapon that is “Gigante” even showed up for his lunch while we were there.

We headed back uphill to Banff to get some Rocky Mountain Jiujitsu classes and photo ops in with the best backdrop that you could ever think of.

Next up we have the Calgary Stampede. It is an epic festival that has all kinds of events- Both styles of music too – Country AND western!

In this week I have seen so many men, women and children wearing denim hot pants paired with cowboy hats. I wasn’t sure if I had been transported to the deep south of the USA in the 1850’s.

We managed to get some quality food – steak on a stick, see some interesting music – (Sheryl Crow who’s guitarist looks suspiciously like Christian Graugart in double denim) and learn how to line dance like the best of them!

From here we have headed north to Edmonton for a weekend where I managed to fit in a session at the Hyabusa training Centre. A great bunch of guys and girls who were happy to exchange tips on how to strangle another human.

Another academy was fit in on Sunday with the Rodrigo Resende academy. This is the largest matspace in Canada from what I understand! Ridiculously friendly and I genuinely can’t wait to get back to see them in the future.

While up here we managed to see roughly 6 million Bison, 3 Moose and a few coyotes. It definitely ticked a few names off our list of “must see” animals for Canada.

Next week we have some fun with some white water rafting, a UFC to attend and a few more mountain trips before we leave Alberta.

On our next road trip we will be attempting the drive from Calgary to Jasper, Kelowna &Vancouver before finally flying on to Australia!

I hope to keep you all posted if not eaten by the wildlife.

London/Dublin/Toronto

June 27, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

So another week of random travels passed and some more random adventure. This time a drunken conversation led me to book some last minute flights from Calgary to London and back to Toronto.

A quick overnight flight and straight into things in London, UK.

If you haven’t been to London then you need to get there. It was my home for several years so I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do; Train and eat Vietnamese food.

I was met by a non BJJ friend named Terence. A loud South African who has recently gotten the gym bug. So we immediately hit the weights. Probably a bad idea after a red eye flight from Canada.

We promptly went and had a drink.

Sunday rolled around and I met my brother over at a ridiculously Globetrotter friendly academy. New Wave Academy in Croydon is one of my favourite places to visit on a lazy Sunday. They run an open mat and the guys there are welcoming to all comers. I have personally learned a lot each time I am there and their higher level guys are more than happy to show you what they just used to tie you into a taut line hitch. A few shoutouts have to go to Paul Forrest, Rob Hughes and Danny Anderson. 3 top class blokes!

I met up with some friends who flew in from Dublin to hang out for a few days and we took in some of the sights. There are a million blogs and articles that have all the cool stuff that London offers but if you have to just do a small few things I would recommend you hit up South Bank market for some food. Have a stroll down along the river and get pissed in some fancy pubs. I would recommend The American bar at the Savoy if you want to feel like a rich person (followed by feeling extreme poverty after you pay the bill!) Also, get to Flatiron Steakhouse in Covent Garden. £11 for a steak and salad. Genuinely one of the best steaks in London. .

During the trip I then decided that I cant fly half way across the world to London and not stop off in Ireland. I jumped a quick flight to Dublin, cooked some steak on a bbq for the family and got to visit the home of Conor McGregor (also home of Ireland’s first BJJ black belt, John Kavanagh),Straight Blast Gym on the Naas road the following morning for a quick session with my brother, Ger. Some of you will meet him at the Iceland camp in a few weeks. He is still new to BJJ but, so far, has definitely benefitted more from the art than almost anyone I have ever met. We had some tough rolls and both of us left SBG a sweaty mess.

Have a look at what a Summer BBQ in Ireland entails!

So after a total of 18 hours, an almost lost passport and 2 flights, I made my way back to London to get in a second session with Checkmat Wimbledon and Carl Fisher’s merry bunch of Jiujitsu-ers.

Going back to the Wimbledon club was great. An awesome welcome and a chance to roll with some of the old crew was exactly what my travel weary brain needed. It just takes so little mental effort when you get to a club where you feel at home!

So a 7 day trip to the UK&Ireland was closed out with a LOT of alcohol while meeting up with friends over the weekend. My Girlfriend Sarah made it to London with her family for a couple of days on the Friday and we got to celebrate with some good food and drink. Sarah and I jumped on the plane back to Toronto and I managed to get in a couple more sessions at Checkmat Toronto with coach Chris Greenwood.

He is a legend and his guys really looked after me.

I am now back in Calgary and will be moving on from here in around 6 weeks. I look forward to seeing what there is to see in Alberta before hitting British Columbia. We will then be hopping a flight to Australia to continue our adventures. Anybody in AB,BC or AUS please feel free to hit me us as I will be heading your way and visiting as many academies along the way!

facebook.com/mckennagraeme or graememckenna11 on IG

That is all for now. Stay tuned for the upcoming Calgary adventures!

Ala-fricken-bama

June 18, 2018/in Blogs/by Graeme McKenna

Alabama –

I decided to take a quick trip down to the deep south of the US to show Sarah where I once lived as a travelling musician in another life.

It seemed like it would be a welcome break from the extended winter that we had been experiencing in Calgary and then Toronto.

Alabama at this time of year is usually sunny and warm. We could not have been more wrong.

The day we arrived there were unseasonably bad storms. Hail stones as big as your head and hundreds of millions in damage to buildings, cars and people.

We got in to Huntsville and made a beeline to Dreamland Ribs. Some of the best Ribs in the south of the US. It has been 8 years since I was here and it still stands up.

As for the rest of the trip – we drank, got to see a shed load of actual rockets at the NASA space and rocket centre, met some old friends, bribed our way into bars after hours with McDonald’s cheeseburgers (par for the course down there) and all round had a great time.

We also got to make a trip to Cullman, Alabama to take a class with one of the best BJJ practitioners that I have ever met.

I met Daniel O’Brien 12 years ago when he was a blue belt under Johnny Lee Smith (Tiger Claw- from WMAC Masters for those who remember)

Daniel has dedicated his entire life to Martial Arts and runs Triad Martial Arts down that way.

He received his Black Belt from Carlos Machado and is considered by many to be one of the most prodigeous BJJ practitioners in the world.

All of that being said – He is, above all else, a great friend. 8 years had passed since I was back and he welcomed me into training like it was yesterday.

His students immediately began to train and give me a solid southern “ass whoopin”. So much so that Daniel went and grabbed me a Triad hoody to wear as some sort of talisman to save my slightly hungover body from complete destruction.

After a great session at Daniels we headed to Huntsville’s very own underground dungeon of a bar. If you ever make it down that way I will highly recommend the Voodoo Lounge. Cheap booze, live music and an incredibly welcoming vibe.

Unfortunately Sunday rolled around and we had to catch a fun flight back to Canada. It wouldn’t be a proper flight if it wasn’t delayed so we got a great chance to sleep at the Washington DC airport Hilton for 4 hours. Courtesy of United Airlines of course.

Back at it up in Calgary now and with a few good trips coming up, I will keep you all posted. You can expect some sort of dinosaur adventures!