Michael Langhi is a very cool guy. His coolness, and the awesome seminar of his that I just attended stopped my day today from becoming one of complete disaster.
I'm too poor to go travelling. If I did have the time and money, I would travel the world seeking BJJ academies in places where you wouldn't think such dojos exist. But then I thought, why travel the world when I can let the world come to me! So allow me to introduce my new project: Around The World In 80 BJJ Dojos!
Oooh, look what came in today! A postcard from Iceland...shall we see what it says?
I'm off to see spider guard wizard Michael Langhi this Sunday in Brighton. I'm so pumped for this one as he's actually been in the UK for the past two weeks and word from my brethren is that he is teaching some awesome tech. I cannot wait. As usual, I shall bring my trusty sword, in the shape of my camera and notepad and reporting on how the seminar went.
Two lady warriors that I have had the great pleasure of both training with and interviewing - Ana Maria India and Gazzy Parman have their own little fan-made highlight videos.
It was made by fellow blogger Stuart Jones, who produces the Hello Japan (http://hellojapan01.wordpress.com) blog. Stuart trains in Manchester and is a purple belt. Of Ana Maria, he says:
"I trained at the Minotauro Team in Rio de Janeiro for 6 months in 2008, where I met Ana Maria in the Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu classes. She was really cool to me and I was inspired by her dedication to training and Jiu Jitsu, she is a very technical grappler. I learned a lot about her through the interview on your website and thought it was really cool how she started training and dedicating her life to Jiu Jitsu. In my spare time I like editing fighter highlights and seeing as there were so many videos around of Ana Maria, I thought why not make a video of her best moments. So I did and I hope everyone enjoys it."
I noticed he posted the video on Facebook and Ana Maria herself said: "“Wow! Many thanks, I loved it a lot” ~ Ana Maria India.
Cooooool!
Gazzy Parman also has a really cool highlight video made by a fan. The video is called 'Beautiful Assassin' and I nicked that headline for my own interview with Gazzy - which is coming out in Martial Arts Magazine on December 5th. It's my best interview ever so look out for it!
Gazzy did more than just 'like' this video, she...well why don't we let Gazzy explain for herself:
"The most impressive fan I've ever had in my life, has now become a good friend of mine. I didn't know who he was when he contacted me on myspace to have me check out the "Beautiful Assassin" highlight video he made. I was nearly in tears when I first saw it. He touched my soul when he made the Beautiful Assassin highlight clip of some of the things I've done. I couldn't believe someone would spend so much time making such an amazing highlight clip of me.... he did such a great job for the few fights if mine he could find. The music is spot on and the feeling he gave it really shows off my soul. I love him him forever for that. He's called Zen Monkey on YouTube, real name Jakub Bobrowski, from Poland."
Now that's what I called a 'like' !!!
Oh yeah, Gazzy's coming back to the UK in December - watch out for seminar dates to be announced soon.
In part two of my interview with the featherwight veteran, Alain Pozo, he descibes his teaching principles at his academy, Black Label in Colchester, Essex and his impressive competition heritage...
Alain Guerra Pozo may not know this, but he is a very important man in my BJJ life. For most people who began BJJ in the early 2000’s, Royce Gracie was their inspiration. Not me. I had never heard of Royce before, but Alain was the very first person I ever sparred against. I’d like to say he held my hand and introduced me to the arte suave with cotton gloves, but the reality was a very different story...he tooled me in a way only a Brazilian, trained in the old skool hard core ways could ever do with a raw beginner. I cannot remember how many times I had to tap to him within the first twenty seconds but it was brutal. And yet, that experience, over seven years ago, left a very deep and profound impression on me. Here was a small, slightly built man, not much bigger than myself, giving hell to guys twice his size. Ever since that moment, I vowed that I too could be the small guy who kicks jiu-jitsu ass. It’s also nice to know that Alain, who I see at every tournament, is still giving hell to guys twice his size.
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you part one of my interview with Mr Alain Pozo where he discusses his BJJ origins in Recife, Brazil where he met and befriended a young unknown talent called Braulio Estima, plus a whole ton on the early history of BJJ in the UK back in the day...
I'm not really big on the whole post-match analysis thing. But I'm posting this fight at the English Open of my final with Mark Phung because it's pretty hilarious stuff. Check out Mark's audacious cartwheel at around 2:20 and my ONE good sweep thingy at around 3:10. Apart from that, I get pretty much owned every second of the way, but it's all good fun.
In the video, I'm the little guy, no, hang on, we're both little, okay, I'm the Chinese guy, no, wait...okay I'm the one wearing the white gi (Faixa Rua leve if you must ask) - enjoy!
This is an instructional video by my good friend and instructor Oli Geddes on behalf of his sponsor Black Eagle. Regular readers may recall that I dubbed Oli both 'The Half Guard Wizard' and 'The UK's Most Prolific Competitor' when I interviewed him for the Fightworks Podcast last year. Yeah, I like my headlines, it's all I'm good at.
To be honest, I really wish he wouldn't do these videos, it means all those sessions where he teaches us, in class, these same techniques is being shared by all and sundry and really, I need all the help I can get haha! Joking aside, Oli is a legend and it was good to see him in action at the English Open this weekend, cleaning up his division and taking gold in the brown absolute too. A monster, and a Gent!
Expect more Oli media coming soon. In the meantime, did I post this picture before? Not sure, anyway, here's my photo of Oli posing in his Scramble (for he is also a Scramble sponsored athlete) hoodie. I love it because I had literally five minutes to shoot it and it just all came together nicely. I love the fact that the mat and wall splits the image into three thirds, plus the climbing lugs in the background look like stars or explosive shrapnel caught mid-flight. Anyway, I've got the same hoodie but don't look half as cool as Oli.
I had a blast at yesterday's English Open BJJ Championships - had a couple of great fights, met up with a huge bunch of great people and witenssed some mouth wateringly tasty fights. All in all, a grand day out.
Here are some choice photos from Day Two of the fights:
Alain Pozo v Roger Middleton
Vicky Todd v Tiff
Black belt superfight 1
Alex De Souza wonders what Bruno Melo (below) is complaining about
Graham Welsh attempts an armbar
Zagham Younes fights with huge spirit
Judo genius and now BJJ brown belt, Graham Welsh maitains calm
Delroy McDowell in high flying action
Rachel McMillan storming her way to absolute gold
BTW Tiff here (above) is not showboating, the ref halted the match but kept position so Tiff smiled at me while waiting
How did I do?
Oh well ifyou must ask, I won silver in my category. It was such good fun to compete - I think I've shaken off those early purple belt nerves and I can now go out there just to try and do my stuff. I didn't take any videos sadly, which is a shame as I think you would have enjoyed watching the pint sized maestro that is Mark Phung flip and cartwheel around me in the final match heh heh!
Oh, and I forgot to bring my contact lenses - you could say I fought my matches completely blind, which I almost am with out my lenses or glasses. But hey ho, luckily the nature of BJJ contests mean far sightedness is not such an issue.
I want to thank my fellow purple belt master fighters James Carey and Mark Phung for our fights and a big thankyou to David Onuma who popped up out of nowhere like a guardian angel and gave me a thoroughly brilliant pep talk before my fights. I want to also thank Andrew Marshall for all those early Saturday morning conditioning sessions which paid off today. And of course thanks to my coach Nick Brooks. Cheers and well done to all my Mill Hill BJJ team mates who fought with such amazing spirit these past two days, I'm so proud to represent the badge. Days like these make me smile the biggest BJJ smile. Onwards and upwards!
Summary
New fightwear brand Masaru launch their debut BJJ gi alongside star name endorsements. With a decent pearl weave fabric, light weight and sensible cut, this gi promises much and delivers in most areas. However my review sample exhibited several quality control issues and I was not convinced by the quirky logo designs.
Here's a little interview I did with fightwear company Black Eagle on all sorts of questions about the BJJ scene in the UK. I hope it's an interesting and informative read, I actually had to try to think hard and come up with sensible answers for a change hahah!
My name is Seymour Yang and I am an artist and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fanatic. I write and draw content under the name Meerkatsu. You can buy my art prints, BJJ fightwear and clothing over at www.meerkatsu.com or click on the Store links on the navigation bar.
