I heard from a friend about a new no gi bjj class in Telford. He spoke highly of the instructor, and I had met him at a couple of open mats, so I thought I'd check it out! I've been doing traditional Jiu Jitsu for a couple of years now, so the warmup, shrimping, breakfalls, and granby rolls, wasn't too challenging technically, but it was good to do, especially with the skill mix. We then moved on to drilling, escape from side control and mount, using the principles he had spoken about in the warmup. Then it was rolling time! A quick talk about rules and safety, and we were underway. My first roll was with the heaviest guy in the class, and I partnered him for that reason. I wanted to work my guard game, and as he had some experience he was a good test. I almost got a couple of arm bars and triangles, but he stacked up and I was forced back to closed guard. I tried a couple of sweeps, but again, no go. He got one kimura locked on, and managed a pass into side control, but with an estimated weight difference of 40-50 kg,(65 ish to maybe 110) I was pretty happy with my guard game overall. Then, I got to roll with the Instructor. I was not happy with my guard game anymore! He would pass, submit, then explain. Quite a good roll, learning wise. I need to slow down, and not panic flail. Then I rolled with a day 1 beginner, and absolutely battered him, smashing his head open on a wall. I AM THE ALPHA. only joking! Had him working from mount, getting used to staying stable, then from back, with slight resistance with him locking in a nice rear naked!
I really enjoyed it. I just found out that 'he never wears a gi, so he never gets graded'... which strikes me as odd, but I'll probably keep going for now because he actually did alright at teaching, and despite the lack of a belt, he did seem to know what he was doing. Bit annoying though. I'm going to an MMA place on Wednesday morning, so I'll see what the ground work is like there.
yeah, I won't be following him blindly, but it's cheap, gives me a variety of rolling partners, and (as far as I can tell with my limited experience, and from talking to other people) he is a helluva grappler.
Did you ask who who his coach is / what gym he trained at? The majority of ungraded nogi guys are self trained.
I've been doing a mix of Gi & No-Gi BJJ and enjoy the no-gi more. But I have prior experience (decades ago) wrestling, so maybe that helped. I find the grips/positioning comes more naturally to me in no-gi. I find myself getting easily overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do when someone has me locked up in a bunch of grips on my Gi with counter-pressure from their feet/arms/whatever pushing while maintaining a grip with the other hand. I imagine that with time I'll be more comfortable in Gi as well... trying to shuffle my schedule a bit to get to some fundamentals classes.
No, but I can find out As for the MMA class, the website says that their submission grappling class is class is 'coached by a multi Gold Medal winning Sub Grappler & MMA Champion' can't see the name at first glance. It's the gym Tim 'the experiment' Wilde fights out of, so they have some pedigree. I'll find out more in the morning. Link is here, if anybody knows them and has any input let me know! http://utcstaffs.co.uk/
Well if a guy has only trained no gi and never worn a gi, why or how on earth is he gon be graded? Belts mean nothing son, skill, it means something.
http://www.utcuk.com/news?id=274 UTC main gym has a blackbelt teaching, (and utc have a good rep) which should mean the sub grappling at a branch club will be ok, its also very likely they're coach is graded.
luta livre, tenth planet and next gen manage fine. Skills mean something, (and a BJJ Black belt means skill) if youve not got credentials, competitions wins at a decent level are the next thing to look at.
Unfortunately no one else turned up, but as I'd driven up Mr. Roberts gave me a private session, just a little fitness and basic boxing padwork. It was very good, and I also got to watch two of the pro fighters doing pads. I had serious movement envy! I'll be trying get up there once a week if the session will be running. As for the other place, I'll stick with it, try and find out about his tournament history, but in all honesty I'm mostly rolling for cardio, training for a *whispers* physique contest, so it's a cheap way of getting that
If your interested in BJJ, I'd find an actual BJJ gym, and take a trial class, so you can at least compare it to the other places you train at.
If I decide to go down the competition route I will, there's a SBG gym near me, but with my current work schedule and finance, it's just convenience, fun, and fitness that decide where I go. Work should be changing at the end of the year, so I'll think about it then, and see what's happening.
good plan, going somewhere with actual bjj coaches can only aide you in getting good, quickily. And getting good is where the fun is!
Quick update on the instructor, he won gold at sub zero Birmingham 2017, intermediate at welterweight, so that's some proof he can roll and his ability to pass on concepts and demo moves is good too.