You're a Wizard

My first post in a long time but I felt recent events deserved a quick update. So why the title?
Let me explain.

The first time I ever attended a Jiu-Jitsu class (that’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) I had been training Judo for just a few months. However due to my rather large size and general athleticism I was already giving many of the higher belts at Judo a hard time in Newaza.

I had been studying groundwork since I first watched Royce Gracie win those early UFC’s and Judo was the closest thing, both in terms of distance and similarity, to BJJ in my vicinity.
However Nova Forca in Epsom wasn’t a million miles away so when my Judo club was closed for one of the school holidays I rang the instructor and asked if I could come down for a class. I explained to him that Judo was my thing and that I was hoping to make the occasional foray in to BJJ only when my Judo club was closed and he was fine with it.

In my first proper BJJ class I got to roll (spar) with many BJJ students of all levels. Against some of the new guys who had but a few weeks of training, I did ok, managing to submit some of them. Against the white belts who had been training a few months things were pretty even. I remember thinking at this point that I was quite good. I was half expecting the instructor to single me out as a great example to others. Then I rolled with a blue belt.

This blue belt moved effortlessly on his back as he submitted me with a succession of armbars, triangles and all other manner of weird chokes that I had never seen before. He was also able to take my back with ease, sweep me and basically do whatever he wanted.

I quickly came to the conclusion that Blue belts were basically wizards and I aspired to be one.

Roll forward many years later and on Saturday I was awarded my blue belt by my instructor Martin at Reigate Martial Arts. It felt great to be acknowledged for all the hard work and training I had put in and whilst I felt I was ready, due to how I performed when rolling with the other students, I certainly didn’t feel like a “Wizard”.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that Purple belts are “Wizards” and I now aspire to be one……

Knee Op

1 month until I get the first of two knee operations which I hope will allow me to return to training as good as new. My knees have definitely gotten worse recently so there is no doubt that I need the operations.
I haven't actually done any Judo for months now which i'm quite sad about considering how big a part of my life it has become over the last 6 years. The only thing keeping me sane is BJJ which I am now as enthusiastic about as I once was about Judo. The advantage BJJ has over Judo, with regards to my dodgy knees, is that the vast majority of the training and focus is on groundwork. Being thrown repeatedly, even if  tori is an experienced Dan grade and knows how to do the technique properly, puts a massive strain on the body, just from getting up off the mat time and time again.

So will I ever return to Judo?
Assuming the operations are a success, I would like to but probably only for the odd class. I feel my future lies with BJJ now and the club I go to offers me everything I need. 

Meniscal tear

I’ve been having some knee pain recently which I only noticed when kneeling down, or I should say that I am unable to kneel down. Anyway after a visit to my GP, a hospital referral and an MRI scan I got the results from the surgeon who told me that I have a medial meniscal tear and a meniscal cyst on my left knee and the posterior horn of the medial meniscus in my right knee is torn a long with a rather large bursa which is on the lateral aspect of the tibiofibular joint. In addition a localised area of signal change is seen in the cartilage of the patella which raises the possibility of a cartilage defect.

 

I have been offered keyhole surgery to repair the meniscal tears but the surgeon recommended that I only do that if I was in pain with my knees all the time or they were stopping me from doing certain activities (like Judo). At present the only thing my knees are stopping me from doing is kneeling down, like when I bow at the beginning of a Judo class, but I’ve bought a couple of knee supports which I’ve been wearing in the gym and more recently when I did BJJ.

 

I have been advised by the specialist not to do any impact sports, like running and although he didn’t specifically say not to do Judo, I would imagine tachiwaza could be an issue.

 

So where does this leave me? At the moment I’m giving Judo a rest and concentrating on BJJ where there is less chance of injury, however I still love Judo and miss throwing people so maybe I’ll do one class every two weeks, just to stop myself from going too rusty, and then if I decide I want to try and get my 2^nd dan sometime I can up the training accordingly.

 

So for the time being I’ll be training BJJ exclusively and trying to improve my knowledge of the ground game.

BRIAN JACKS MASTERCLASS 2015 @Yoshin Ryu

Who can spot me?

Reigate Martial Arts – Checkmat BJJ

Since deciding to train BJJ properly at Nova Forca a couple of things have changed in my life. One being my job and the other my Daughter starting school. This has meant that getting to Nova Forca in Epsom was becoming difficult. A quick Google search brought up a fairly new BJJ club in Reigate, which is literally a 2 minute walk from where I now work. Reigate is also a lot nearer to my house as it takes 15 minutes by car. So I’ve made the difficult decision to stop training at Nova Forca and start training in Reigate. I can think of nothing negative to say about Nova Forca though, it is a great place to train and the standard of the students there is very high.

Reigate Martial Arts is run by Martin Hollis who is a brown belt under Keith Mckenzie. The gym is a permanent matted dojo big enough for 20+ guys to comfortably train. So far I’ve attended three classes and have been made to feel very welcome. The Monday class that I’ve attended is two hours long, the first hour focusing on teaching beginners and the second hour for slightly more advanced students, although there are still plenty of white belts present.

The format for both classes I’ve attended has been the same thus far which consists of a warm up with the usual shrimping and breakfalls etc and then on to techniques. This is usually one technique and then either a variation of that technique or a continuation. Then towards the end of the first hour there is some situational sparring, both classes I’ve attended so far have focussed on guard passing so one guys starts on the bottom and the other starts in his full guard. The guy on top has to try and pass the guard and the guy on the bottom has to try and sweep or submit the guy on top. The winner stays on. I’ve found it really beneficial to practice guard passing and also guard retention and I think this is a good way to introduce rolling to complete beginners.

The second hour of the class will then follow on from the earlier technique and finish with around 30 minutes of rolling. Martin chooses who rolls with who, which isn’t a bad thing as far as the instructor assessing the students skill level.

I’m really enjoying the training at Reigate Martial Arts and who knows, this may even inspire me to start updating my blog more regularly.

Uchimata: Practical vs Classical

As Uchi Mata is one of my favorite throws I had to post this video. Not a lot I can add other than watch and learn.

Survival

It’s said that the role of a BJJ white belt is to survive and the last couple of classes I’ve been doing just that, surviving. When I started doing BJJ a few months ago I was really surprised just how ineffective my Judo newaza skills were against all but the very new guys. I was getting tapped a lot, seemingly with ease and this was more than a little demoralising. However I’ve been tapping less lately, in fact last night I didn’t tap at all, but I don’t think that means I’ve suddenly become a grappling god, I think it means I’m slowly eradicating some bad habits that BJJ guys seem to capitalise on even at white belt level.

When I do Judo newaza with lower belts I probably exhibit a number of these bad habits, however these are only  capitalised on by the higher belts, usually other black belts and let’s face it you expect to get tapped by black belts so it’s still not obvious whether they are subbing me due to a mistake I made or because of something they did.

So what does this all mean? Well in the short term I need to ensure I don’t get sloppy when I roll with lower grades in Judo. I should use those roles to work on a specific area of weakness but still keep everything tight. In BJJ I need to continue what I am doing, keep turning up and training hard, absorb as much as possible and ask questions when I get tapped by the higher belts.

Some things I need to add to my game are guard passes and opening a closed guard. Also my armbar from mount is poor, I really need to practise that as much as possible even if it means I end up losing a good position, after all its only practice.

And so it begins – Nova Forca BJJ

For the last 6 weeks I have been training BJJ at Nova Forca’s new headquarters in Epsom. They now have a fulltime dedicated dojo which includes a reception area where they sell training equipment and sports drinks, a well-equipped gym, toilets and of course a fully matted area with kick bags and a half cage for those also training MMA.

I’ve been training at Nova Forca for almost 5 years now but usually my training consists of a few classes in the summer when my Judo club is closed. However this time it’s different, I am here to stay. Unfortunately I am not able to commit any more time than once a week which does put me at a disadvantage especially when you consider that some of the guys train 5-6 times a week. So what I need to consider is that I need to measure my progress against myself and not the other guys who are currently at or near my level as its likely they will improve faster than me.

So what are my aspirations and goals in BJJ? I think I need to be realistic here and understand that getting a black belt in BJJ will take me forever if I’m only able to commit to one class a week but that’s ok. What I’d like to do is to get to a decent level of groundwork ability and I think a blue belt represents just that level. This doesn’t mean that I would quit once I got to that level it just means that blue belt is an achievable goal if I consistently train for the next couple of years.

This doesn’t mean that I will be giving up on the Judo though, I will still continue to train and try and make myself a solid 1^st dan.

 

Brian Jacks visit to Yoshin Ryu

I had the pleasure of sharing the mat with a true Judo legend on Monday, none other than Brian Jacks 8th Dan. Mr Jacks is the club president of Yoshin Ryu and close friend of the owner of Yoshin Ryu, Sensei Errol Field 7th Dan.

Anyone growing up in the 1980's would perhaps remember Brian more for his exploits on the BBC's Superstars program which he dominated for many years. He made Parallel bar dips fashionable until people actually tried to do them themselves and realised just how bloody hard they are to do. I think he managed 100 in 60 seconds which was a world record. Funnily enough when I was heavily in to lifting weights I would always end my session doing dips but I never managed to do anymore than 60 before collapsing in absolute agony.

Anyway Brian Jacks was one of my childhood heroes and sharing the mat with him and posing for a photo with him afterwards was a fantastic experience.

Front row from left, Me 1st dan, Danny Hardy 6th dan, Errol Field 7th dan

Back row, Brian Jacks 8th dan, Oliver Bradley 1st kyu.

Newaza @ Yoshin Ryu

Since my last post I haven’t trained that much due to my elbow being popped, however I have being doing stretching and rehabilitation exercises which seem to be having a positive effect so hopefully It’ll soon be 100% again.

Before the injury I started doing the 5x5 stronglifts routine in the gym. For those who are not aware what it is you can find more information here . I liked the look of this routine mainly because it focuses on leg strength which is something I am lacking, especially when I have to get down low to do seoi nage’s. With my injury I had to stop all upper body training but I have recently started doing deadlifts and bench press again, albeit with fairly light weights but I’m already up to 80kg deadlifts, 80kg squats and am pressing 30kg dumbells (Using a bar for bench hurts my shoulders, old injury, long story)

I’ll update my blog with any gains I make and as I’m still in the early phases of the routine I expect my gains to be quick especially as I have, in the past, squatted 130kg and benched 120kg. They do say your muscle has memory so I’m hoping I can get back to that sort of weight sometime, assuming my old body holds together.

Last night I trained at Yoshin Ryu (Newaza night) which is a class I really enjoy. Although I originally injured my elbow in a Juji-gatame I feel that I’m less likely to re injure it doing groundwork than I would if I was thrown and had to break fall using my left arm, which less face most people get thrown by right handed throws so always use their left arm to break fall.

There was a really good mix of experience in the class last night with plenty of kyu grades from white up to brown and then 6 dan grades from 1^st to 4^th dan. Last week I had trouble sweeping a heavy yellow belt from inside my guard so this week I pulled guard again so that I could try and solve this problem. Again I was not able to sweep him. He seemed wise to the flower sweep and being strong it was difficult for me to control his arms. I attacked his neck and got close with a  couple of collar strangles but it ended in a stalemate with no submissions of hold downs to either of us. I complemented him afterwards for having a good strong base and will try again next week to solve this problem. Obviously I could refuse to pull guard and push him down but I like the challenge and besides this a clearly a weak spot in my game that needs working on.

Next up was another stocky guy, an orange belt, but unlike the yellow belt before him I was able to sweep and submit on multiple occasions, changing between playing guard to working on my top game and passing. So I was feeling good and then Sensei Tim called me over for a roll and I was made to feel like a beginner as he constantly passed my guard, strangled and arm locked me at will. I managed to take his back at one point and had both hooks in but he very calmly and slowly reversed the position and squashed me in to the mat.

Next up was a young brown belt (anyone under 30 is young in my book). I’ve rolled with him before and I mentioned in a previous post just how good his newaza is. I think the biggest compliment I can pay him is that he moves like a BJJ’er, very light and quick with a good guard. I’m sure he’d beat the majority of brown belts on the ground. I decided I wanted to play top game and he seemed happy to play guard and so the chess game begun. Most of this roll was me trying to pass his guard, all the while being aware of his sweep attempts and his attempts to choke me. It was a good tactical battle and right near the end I managed to pass to side control but he quickly escaped. However in the scramble I found an arm and got the tap with a belly down juji-gatame. I think I got lucky but will always seek this guy out as he is really technical and presents me with different problems to some of the others.

Against Sensei Neil and Sensei Paul I faced a familiar problem. They both like to use the same technique to pass my guard, ie one arm under my right leg which leaves them open to the san-gaku-jime. However each time I try this I get stacked, folded in half and eventually passed and subbed or just held down. To be fair against Paul I’ve been close to getting the san-gaku-jime but against Neil he never seems in trouble. I need to look in to ways of either perfecting my san-gaku-jime or  defences against that particular guard pass.

Another excellent Wednesday evening at Yoshin Ryu which is now my favourite class of the week.

Maven BJJ - Woking

I felt compelled to write my first post in quite a while as I met up with my old sparring partner Jadon, who was back from Worcester for a few days visiting family and friends. I had intended to take Jadon to Yoshin Ryu on Wednesday night for their newaza class but unfortunately he was only staying for a few days and wouldn’t be able to attend. However he did tell me that he was going to a BJJ club in Woking which is run by an Andy Roberts brown belt, Dan Geoghegan, who Jadon had started training BJJ with many years previously.

We arrived early and were made to feel very welcome by some of the members who were waiting to go in. The club is located in a room in a very large gymnasium in Woking, so not a permanently matted area. However the jigsaw mats were very quick and easy to lay down unlike those heavy large mats most Judo clubs seem to favour.

The warm up was made up of the typical shrimping, breakfalling, commando crawling and sprawling type of exercises that seem to be quite normal at most BJJ clubs. I think this type of warmup was the right amount of balance between a warmup and a light workout that one needs, especially as the class was only one and a half hours long.

Dan showed us first the flower sweep and then a flower sweep set up to triangle. I’ve been having some success recently with the flower sweep at Yoshin Ryu but the version Dan showed me was slightly different but just as efficient. I think we drilled it enough so that I would remember it again in the heat of battle, which is something that BJJ gets right in their teaching. When you drill only 1 or 2 techniques in a class you normally remember them forever. The flower sweep that Ricardo showed me almost 5 years ago at Nova Forca is still something that I use today and a technique I will never forget.

We finished off with about 30 minutes of rolling or sparring and I was lucky in that I got to roll with Dan. He has a very relaxed and calm way about him and most of his transitions and movements were very smooth and deliberate. He didn’t embarrass me, although I’m sure he could have if he wanted to, but he did just enough to make me work hard to survive. He spent a while going for an ude gurami and as he was being nice he allowed me time and space to defend against it several times until eventually he got the tap. It was a nice roll and one that I could definitely learn from given more opportunity. The standard of the students I rolled with was, in my opinion, high. The only gripe I had was that I got arm barred by one of the guys who slapped it on a bit too fast and hard for my liking. So hard in fact that I felt my elbow pop. There was no malice intended though it was just one those things that happens from time to time.

Overall I really enjoyed my time at Maven BJJ and will try and get back there sometime, maybe when Jadon is next in town or when my elbow has healed.

A Rich reward as Dorking Senior earns black belt

It appears I have gained a certain amount of notoriety as the local paper printed an article about my black belt presentation here. Actually I can't act too surprised as I was asked to write the article myself. It's a good advertisement for the club especially the seniors.

  

Black Belt Presentation

Although I have been wearing a black belt since the 16th of November, I've only been wearing a plain black belt that I bought online. I knew that the club had ordered me a nice embroidered belt because Graeme asked me what I wanted written on it. however a belt like this takes a little time to make so I've had to wait until now to receive and be presented with it.

 I blame Mr Miyogi for not bowing properly when receiving the belt from Graeme. "Always look eye"

A firm handshake is certainly more preferable to the belt whippings some of my BJJ friends receive when being awarded with their new belts.

Tying my belt in front of the whole club, including the parents of the kids, meant I did a rush job and therefore my name and the kanji for Judo is round the wrong way.

A nice club photo, something we don't very often do.

I just wanted to add a few thank you's for those who have helped me on my Judo Journey so far.

Peter Leach and Stuart Mcdougall were responsible for coaching me through my early grades and without them I wouldn't have stayed with the club.

Oliver Bradley was the best Uke I ever had and gave me encouragement and also taught me lots. He also followed me on my numerous club visits to Yoshin Ryu and my many BJJ excursions.

Ynes Anderson taught me that everything ends with a Juji :)

Stewart Park helped keep the club running with Stuart McDougall and taught some old school hard Judo. It was a real shame that he had to give up coaching.

Jadon, for pushing me hard when we trained together,

All the coaches at Yoshin Ryu, you know who you are (Neil, Tim et all). Even though I was not a member of Yoshin Ryu they always treated me as one of their own and gave me some excellent advice and coaching, not to mention a few bruises.
Pete at Witley for giving me some great advice just before my dan grading contest at High Wycombe "just do your Judo Stuart"

Lastly Graeme for believing in me and making me believe in myself. I wouldn't be a black belt today if it wasn't for him.

And there we have it. My Oscar speech. I wonder who i'll be thanking when I get my 2nd dan!

Two Gis for sale.

I've decided I need to make some room in my wardrobe so i'm selling two of my gis. The first is an Adidas J500, size 200 which has shrunk so that its more like a 190.

The second is a Mizuno Shiai size 5.5 jacket only.

The links to both of them on ebay are below

Adidas J500

Mizuno Shiai

If you need any more details then let me know

Happy Bidding.

Got it!

I haven’t posted anything for over a month now and there is a reason for this which will soon become apparent so please read on.

On the 16^th November I made my way to the Judo club where I would be attempting to pass my Dan grade theory test. For those of you who are not aware, in the BJA there are two parts to the 1^st dan black belt test, the Dan grade theory is usually done first followed by the competitive part which is to obtain 100 points in competition against other brown belts. This basically equates to winning 10 fights via Ippon. As I had already passed the competitive part of my dan grading I had just to pass the theory test and then I would be officially a black belt.

I arrived on a Sunday morning at 9.30am and was told to expect the day to last until approx. 4.30pm, which is quite a long time to be doing Judo. I was thankful that, in this room full of twenty strangers a familiar face appeared that of big Russ from Witley.

The course was quite informal despite both the examiners being 5^th dans. They went over a variety of techniques from the syllabus and allowed us all plenty of time to practise them. Having Russ as my uke made things like the first set of nage-no-kata particularly easy for me as he is roughly the same height as myself. This meant I didn’t need to bend down quite so low when executing the Ippon seoi nage and the kata-guruma and likewise when I was his uke.

Just before we were both tested all the techniques went out of my head. I was watching the other judoka doing their tests and when the examiner called out the technique they wanted to see I had no idea what it was. It was like I had never done Judo in my life. All the Japanese names suddenly made no sense to me. Then when we were called every technique suddenly did make sense and I nailed every throw, counter and combination first time with ease. The pass mark is 190 out of 270 points and I scored 242 so I felt like a really deserved to pass.

I got more out of this days course than just my black belt, I got a lot of confidence. I am able to perform every technique in the Gokyo to a reasonable standard, which when you consider how many throws and strangles and arm locks and hold there are is no mean feat.

What I didn’t get from passing this course was the elation that I got when I won my line-up, or batsugun as they call it in Japan. This was more of a relief.

Now back to why I haven’t posted about this until now, well I was to be officially awarded my black belt by my club and I wanted to take photos and add them to this post but there has been a delay in getting the belt embroidered so I won’t get it until the New Year now. In the interim I am wearing a plain Adidas black belt which feels a bit strange and I do find myself keep looking down at it. I still have tons to learn but I feel like I am now ready to start learning Judo, if that makes sense? I know the basics and am able to apply them to anything new I learn. I’m also ready to start refining my Tokui-waza and will try to become something of an Uchi-mata god over the coming years.

So what now? Well I’m not sure what else I can add to this blog. It was always about my Judo journey from white belt to black and beyond. Now that I am a black belt I don’t feel I am ready to turn this in to an educational blog like this one which is an excellent resource if you are nearing dan grade level, however I also don’t think I want to continue the blog in its current guise where I write about each class I had and each technique I learnt in that class. So for now I will add the odd post when something interesting happens but you can expect posts like this to be a lot less frequent from now on.

British Judo announces new sponsorship deal with Ultimate Fighting Championship

This will upset a few people.

The below is taken from the BJA website, the link can be found here 

British Judo today announced mixed martial arts promoters Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as title sponsors of the 2015 British Open Judo Championships, as part of a new partnership.

The Championships, which will take place at Wembley Arena on 12th of July, will be supported by the world’s largest mixed martial arts organisation which champions all forms of combat sports.

The sponsorship deal will also see UFC take advertising on the British Judo website and social media as well as other advertising opportunities as they look to support and promote sport and the national governing body.

UFC is one of the fastest growing event organisations in the World, creating a huge following of the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) of which judo is a core discipline. The partnership will support the promotion of combat sports and is expected to have a positive impact on grass roots participation in judo.

Speaking on the sponsorship deal, British Judo Chief Executive, Andrew Scoular said: "We are absolutely thrilled at our new partnership with UFC, which will bring about many mutual benefits for both the organisations and the sports of MMA and Judo in the UK. We look forward to developing other sponsorship and advertising opportunities with UFC in the future.

“By partnering with such a leading martial arts brand as UFC, we will receive significant added exposure for British Judo as a core martial art and the partnership will be instrumental in raising the profile of the sport of judo, ultimately leading to increased participation for young people.

“British Judo's values include discipline and responsibility. These along with respect and ethics are shared by UFC.”

Garry Cook, UFC Chief Global Brand Officer said: “The 2015 British Open Judo Championships will be a fantastic event and an important stage on which athletes can perform and promote their sport. Judo is a key component of mixed martial arts, and we are excited at the prospect of bringing together UFC fans, Judo supporters and practitioners of both sports.”

Judo is one of the combat sport disciplines widely used by MMA fighters within The UFC, a link which is demonstrated particularly well by UFC Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey (USA) who won Judo Bronze medal at the Beijing games in 2008 and made her MMA debut in 2010, before becoming the first female fighter to sign a lucrative contract with the UFC in 2012.

Neil Adams randori

I stumbled across this the other day and had to share it especially as it resembles my Judo very closely (My tongue is firmly in my cheek btw).

BJA Dan Grade Theory

This is the Dan Grade Theory Examination Form which I am currently studying whenever I have a free moment. Graeme is also currently running through any of the techniques which I am not comfortable with in the class, which essentially means that everyone is doing dan grade theory work, but i'm sure no one is complaining. Looking at the Examination Form I will be asked by the examiner to perform a single throw from each set under Nage-waza. There are 8 throws in each set and there are 5 sets so I have to know 40 throws.

Then I will be asked to perform 1 Ne-waza technique in each of the 5 sets, which is 27 ne-waza techniques.

Lastly I will be asked to choose 1 set under the following sections:

Renzoku-waza - 3 combinations in the same direction
Renraku-waza - 3 combinations in the opposite direction
Kaeshi-waza - 3 counters
Renraku/Kaeshi/Nige-waza - 2 combinations

Oh and then there is the little matter of doing kata, of which I have already decided to do the first set of Nage-no-kata, as I already had to do this for my brown belt.

I found the below on Youtube which appears to be all the Renzoku, Renraku and Kaeshi- waza as well as the Renraku ne-waza. All I need to do now is to decide which sets i'm going to choose but I've got a fairly good idea already. Simples

This is how you do Tai-otoshi

High Wycombe Dan Grading

So the time had arrived for my first dan grading contest. I did compete in February at brown belt in a points scoring competition but this was to be my first actual dan grading. Graeme very kindly drove me to High Wycombe and I was very thankful for that especially as I was extremely nervous.

On arrival I did what most people do, eye up the competition. This wasn’t a good idea as sat next to me was a giant of a man who stood at least 6ft 6 and weighed in at 113kg. Then there was the French guy, full of muscles, who weighed in at 115kg. Both of these guys I felt sure would be opponents of mine; however I only weighed 89kg so I would be giving away a lot of weight.

Also present were some guys from Witley Judo club which was nice as I was able to warm up with them before the fights started. Unlike the competition I attended in February where I weighed in and that sat around for 5 hours waiting to fight, this was well organised and no sooner had we warmed up than we called over to the mats to start fighting.

What normally happens at dan gradings is that they split you in to groups of light, middle and heavyweights. I normally weigh anywhere between 89 – 94kg so I’m usually classed as a HW, albeit one of the lightest ones. The fights soon started and there was some lovely Judo on display. I was particularly impressed with the newaza skills of a couple of the lighter guys and was surprised that the referees gave plenty of time for the newaza to progress before calling matte.

Before long my name was called out along with my first opponent who didn’t appear to be a heavyweight, in fact he was considerably shorter than me, although he was fairly stocky. What I didn’t notice at the time was the GB patch on his back so perhaps I shouldn't have been too surprised when I was thrown not once, but twice with a drop seoi nage for wazari scores. Bugger I had, as I always do, lost my first fight. On reflection I could have done better and probably would have done had I been better prepared mentally. I’m not saying I would have won but I was just caught cold a little.

I walked over to the side of the mats with a look on my face which said “here we go again”. I was now thinking that if I can just win one fight I’ll go home happy. Before long I hear my name called and again my opponent was smaller than me. I would probably guess he weighed around 80kg. This guy was someone I recognised from the tournament I entered in February at Worthing so I figured he was competition hardened. When the ref called hadjime I quickly took a dominant grip and was able to really bully him. At one point I threw him to the mat just using my arms. It wasn’t long before I was able to do that again but this time I got my foot in for a sort of Kosoto gari and he fell flat on his back. “IPPON” shouted the ref and all of a sudden I was a happy man. I had achieved my goal of getting 10 points at my first dan grading. If Graeme had said lets go home at that point I would have probably gone home content. However winning my second fight meant I had another fight and even if I lost that I might still be in someone else’s line up.

My wait for my next opponent went really quickly as all the fights in between seemed to end in Ippon. Yet again my opponent was smaller than me and I knew him, it was one of the guys from Witley called Jack. Jack was just under 80kg so was giving a lot of weight away, however he was, at 17 years old 25 years my junior so I figured that evened things out a bit. Now I have never done tachiwaza randori with Jack before but I have done Newaza and I felt I definitely had the edge should we go to the ground. When the fight started we were both a little too defensive and the ref stopped us at one point and told us to attack more. With less than a minute on the clock I managed to throw him for Ippon. I couldn’t believe it, 20 points at my first dan grading and now I had a line up and the chance of actually getting all 100 points.

Out of the 20 or so guys that were present I think there were five who qualified for a line up. The tall giant guy and the French guy had both gotten a line up so I knew I wouldn’t have to fight them. The guy that beat me in my first fight had also gotten a line up so I knew I wouldn’t fight him. I think the organisers had a hard time matching us all up to be honest as a couple of other guys had been choked unconscious, one to the point of fitting, so they were not allowed to fight. Eventually my line up was called and of my three opponents two were ones I had already fought and beat. My first opponent however was what Graeme had called “a stopper” he was 102kg and was designed to present me with a problem, a real test, which after all this was supposed to be.

I was quite quickly able to establish a good grip and felt confident that I was going to be able to throw him. I probed him tentatively with some foot sweeps and noticed that he had his weight mostly on one side of his body so I tried a Hiza guruma and he toppled over for ippon. Within seconds I was fighting my next opponent, the guy I had beaten in my second fight and this time he had upped his game and was moving around quickly, making it a lot harder for me to control him. He attempted a drop seoi nage but I was easily able to step off and attacked his turtle. I was trying for the Juji-gatame turnover but his arm was stuck in good so I baited him by sliding off his back and hoped he would take the opportunity to attack me on my back. When he did I quickly pushed his left arm outside my guard and slapped on a really tight san gaku jime and got the tap almost immediately. That was two wins and I needed one more to get my 100 points. I was fighting Jack again and to be fair he really went for the win but I was coming off of 4 ippon wins so my confidence was sky high. Again it was a cagey affair and I was really reluctant to over commit to anything as I feared being countered. Then, in what appeared to be a blink of an eye, he attacked me with Kosoto gari and I was able to counter with Uchi mata for the Ippon. I was stunned; I couldn’t believe I had actually done it, 100 points and within touching distance of being a black belt. Jack had been my hardest opponent by far and I’m sure he’ll get his 100 points at his next dan grading. He ended up being in the tall guy’s line up and actually beat him with two wazaris. I called him Jack the Giant Slayer afterwards and told him he should have that put on his black belt when he gets it.

Next up for me is the dan grade theory test so I need to swat up hard. As I didn’t expect to be in this position I assumed I would have at least a year to prepare but now I want to grade quickly, in a month or so, so I have a lot of work to do. In the gym on Monday I felt a severe pain my left bicep whilst doing chin ups which is exactly the same injury I had this time last year. Hopefully it won’t keep me off the mats for long but at least I don’t have to worry about shiai and fitness now, just technique.

Below is the video of my line up