A couple of months ago, when I attended the Michael Langhi seminar a couple of us guys - who happened to be of Chinese descent - thought hey, let's form a Facebook group where guys and gals of similar cutlural background, and who train BJJ in the UK can all join and we would like, I dunno, just sort of be.
I thought it was an excellent idea and thus the Chinese BJJ Group (UK division) was born. So far we have over 30 members. Today was our very first Chinese BJJ open mat - kindly hosted by Simon Chan at Jude Samuel's Legacy BJJ gym in Hoxton, London.
Now some folk think that forming a minority group within a minority sport might seem a little odd. And in fact our little group had a few vocal comments from some who we invited, citing that they objected to any form of positive discrimination, no matter how well intentioned. Poppy cock I say. It's just a bunch of BJJ lovers who happen to be Chinese, no big deal, the chance to roll some jiu jitsu and have a laugh, why would anyone not want to do that?
Anyhow, with only a week's notice, members turned up from as far afield as Southampton and the farthest reaches of Greater London just to attend. We all had a immense blast with some ego-free rolling and swapping of techniques and ideas. Then we all went for food - can you guess what cuisine?
Yeah, we ate Vietnamese food ha!
So roll on the next Chinese BJJ gathering open mat...we think the sunny beaches of Brighton beckon us.
Some photos...
:)
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