Meet the family

In a parallel universe, the academy would be my home, the instructor my parent and training partners would be my brothers and sisters. BJJ is our food, clothing and warmth. So I want to describe my brothers and sisters to everyone - the cast who are roughly in my weight class and with whom I train with week in week out. To spare their blushes, I'm using their in-club nick-names. So come into my home and meet the family:

Spiderman
Spidey is thin, light and fast. An ideal training partner for anyone except that Spidey is very laid back. An academic sort, he once fell asleep at competition waiting for his name to be called and got disqualified. But when Spidey wants to, he can tie you up in a sticky jiu jitsu web.

Sweet-tooth
Sweet-tooth is one of those guys that just looks like he wouldn't say boo to a goose he's always so incredibly well mannered and polite. Don't be fooled. Sweet-tooth is an assassin on the mat.

Princess Leia
Princess Leia is on the outside quiet and demure. On the mats, she is a devil to pass, with a very tough closed guard and Houdini-like escapes. Rubbery, athletic, fast and strong, Princess Leia definitely has 'The Force'.

Macaquinho (Little Monkey)
Small, hairy but incredibly strong, macaquinho is generous to a fault and has helped me out a hell of a lot for pre-comp training. Little M lets you roll just enough to make you think you are doing well, then, notches it up a level and chokes you at a moments notice. Little M inspires me to improve all the time.

The Bull
The Bull is from Slovakia where fighters are hewn from mountain granite and forest timber - these guys are tough tough tough. Short and stocky, Bull only rolls one way - fast forward with the might of a bull raging towards a red rag (I am that rag). He's the ideal partner for pre-comp training with his never-cease attacking spirit.

Double Cheese Burger.
DCB is one of those kids who hits puberty really young and goes from boy to man overnight. He's big for his age sure, in fact he's big full stop. And sparring with him is a really tough roll. At the moment, I can just about cope. But his youth means he can only continue to get better and better. He does however like to remind people how many Gold medals he has won - just in case we forget.

Superboy
What more can be said about our resident kid prodigy? Winner of billions of medals, the Superboy is now Superman since he's beefed up a weight class and is now too big and too strong for me to even remotely stand any chance of holding my own (not that I did before).

Those be just some of the guys and girls that I partner up regularly with. There are a whole gang of bigger guys who I have not mentioned. I'll save that for another post.