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I started my martial art training in 1988 in a more traditional style. By 1996 I had started to realise that real fighting required more than what traditional, one dimensional styles had to offer. I got involved with kickboxing and had a few amateur fights. I had become disillusioned with the management of the club I was training with, and founded my own school.
Shortly after this I saw a few of the early UFC fights, and a friend living in Newcastle, who I had been training with, told me about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
My interest in grappling had started.
At this time, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was still relatively unknown in Australia, and there were very few schools offering any instruction. I attended the occasional seminar and class but, due to my own teaching commitments, and lack of anything local, found it hard to get any regular instruction.
I became involved with a Ju Jitsu (traditional Japanese Ju Jitsu) club, and qualified to compete as part of the Australian team in the sport Ju Jitsu world Championships, held in Leeds, England in 2000.
After travelling to Leeds, I extended my trip, and visited Brazil for the first time. I started in Rio de Janeiro, where I trained at a small club, and then went to Belo Horizonte where I stayed for almost a month.
While in BH I trained at the Gracie school. I remember being somewhat worried about how I would be accepted while training in Brazil, thinking that perhaps the “Gringo” would be a target for all the other students, wanting to show me how much they could hurt me.
Fortunately, this didn’t happen, everyone was friendly and helpful and I really enjoyed the experience. The dubious “compliment” I received from some of the other students was “You very strong.” (a polite way of saying my technique wasn’t very good and I used a lot of strength).
After returning to Australia, I continued teaching and started incorporating more BJJ into my curriculum. I still hadn’t found a local club to train with and most of what I could teach was basic stuff that I had picked up in seminars, my short stay in Brazil, or what I could find in books.
In 2002 however, I attended another seminar held by a visiting Brazilian and met Paulo. I started training with Paulo at Bondi and immediately noticed the advantages of having a quality Instructor and more good students to roll with on a regular basis.
In 2004 Paulo awarded me with a blue belt and in that year I won the state and national titles, as well as attending the Pan Pac in Melbourne, where I finished second.
I had also returned to Brazil to compete in the BJJ World Cup, held in Salvador, where I placed 2nd. On this trip I stayed in Aracaju for about 5 weeks where I trained with prof. André Almeida, 4 time State, 3 time National and World Champion, part of the Marcus Bello team. The “compliments” from my training partners this time were a little more flattering, it was generally agreed that my technique was very good and I should be a purple belt (not something I agreed with).
More recently, I travelled to Brazil for a 3rd time and spent 6 months in Salvador. I trained with Alex Cintra and again all the students, as well as the Instructor, complimented me (and my Instructor - Paulo) on my nice technique.
This time the memorable quote came from a purple belt (with very slick movement and an almost flawless guard) who told me “I like rolling with you because you think a lot instead of using strength.” A huge difference from my first visit and a great tribute to Paulo who has helped me develop this style of game.
It’s always been my goal since starting my own school to teach effective, realistic fighting. This led me to BJJ which I believe is a must, since 90-95% of street fights end up on the ground. Royce Gracie pretty convincingly proved in the early UFC that a fighter with no ground skills can easily be beaten.
These days the whole MMA game has developed enormously and BJJ doesn’t enjoy the dominance it first had. This is due purely to the fact that now everybody knows about it and it’s not so easy to catch anybody out.
The point to realise of course is that if you think it’s not so dominant because it’s no good, and decide not to train BJJ... you will be beaten as easily as the hapless stand up fighters of the early UFC!
My personal philosophy regarding BJJ training can be seen in the feedback I got from training partners in Brazil. I went from an inexperienced fighter using tons of strength to a fighter who values technique over strength.
I think this is the secret of BJJ, it’s always been an art where smaller, weaker fighters are able to beat larger, stronger, less skilled fighters.
My approach is to try to out-think my opponent and catch them with techniques they don’t expect. Mostly though I believe that while “fancy” techniques are great, and a lot of fun, strong basics are the key to success.
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