mixed martial arts chris brennan

A fine weekend and great for Mauricao to come down and see how the academy is progressing. Even better was the new promotions, I didn’t really expect anything to happen so am well pleased for the lads here and now Guernsey have a blue belt, another string to our bow and it’s been a great turn out from all over here and the guys who missed it due to work are totally gutted about it all.

Time to name the lucky people.

Yes, first one is my long standing girlfriend Jane Appleby, she’s been training two to three years; Jeff Fairley, Luke Daniels, Anley Richardson and Chris Goldsborough from Guernsey and also two junior yellow belts Natasha smith and Craig Berthou. The majority of the guys have been training here for two years and got really involved in it all September 2001 when I invited Mauricao to come over to host the first seminar and it’s gone from there. Roger came out April 2002 for his first trip and went up to London to train and met Jude Samuels and he came over with Sal and Roger’s been over again and now Mauricao’s been here for the first 2003 seminar and hopefully we’ll have Souza over in July.

How did you get involved with Gracie Barra?

I used to fight Sport Ju Jitsu events for the ISJA way back when and we had a team in the US and my fellow instructor Andrew Toporis found a card advertising BJJ, so we checked it out. The teacher was Gary Grate, who’s featured in this month’s Grappling mag in the KOTC event and we trained at his club and he’s now a purple belt under Charles Gracie and lives in Reno, Nevada. We came back to the island and started from there and it’s really taken off being involved with Gracie Barra UK, it’s made a difference.

How did you attract the guys on the island to come and train?

Most of the martial arts training here has been the trad karate, Thai and kick boxing things like that; BJJ was something of an unknown quantity, how we were going to market it you know. Judo was active here, but was only a small club, so it was a matter of getting the posters out and advertising and now we’re getting some good names out here to support us and now the academy is starting to grow with twenty five members, most of whom you’ve seen here this weekend and now I want to push it up to thirty to forty members this year.

How did you and Topo react to the exposure of BJJ, coming from Sport JJ background?

We trained our submissions with the Judo guys back here and that’s where we started and really enjoyed it, but we were lacking in the information stakes, so we went down the usual road of books and videos. Judo guys came in and had some over from the UK and Gary Turner came over to help us and we had help from the guys from the SJJ team in Leeds and the guys that started the club here, Stuart Mc Intyre kick started us into the BJJ and it’s gone from there.

Are you still active in SJJ?

Our team came second in the last World Championships, beating the US which was a great coup and losing to England, who are hands down the best, as they have guys like Gary Turner fighting for them. We still have guys that will pursue the tournaments and the next World event is in Canada next year, so we’re looking at putting a team in, not so sure. We are looking more towards BJJ this year, so now we have more blue belts I think the academy is going to head that way and eventually after our commitments have finished with Canada, we’ll just stick to BJJ.

How was BJJ received here on the island?

The usual blinkered attitudes; we held a ground grappling tournament open to everyone; bit of a headline, the poster stated ‘so you think you can grapple?’ which upset a few people as a number of guys came up and found out they weren’t as good as they thought and since then we’ve not had any other guys from the other arts coming over to lend a hand or train. It’s their loss but hopefully as time goes on they’ll see it’s a valid martial art.

When do you train?

We split the classes between myself and Topo; we teach five classes a week. Fridays is a no gi class and we try to train there ourselves and the academy is our own so we can train when we want for as long as we want.

Where is the academy?

At the Fort Regent Leisure Centre, St Helier, Jersey; we have two matted areas and lease from the leisure department and the centre is a great venue with plenty of passing trade which is good for recruitment as well and excellent for holding competitions.

Who’s out there in Guernsey?

Chris Goldsborough is out there and it’s an even smaller island than we are and are in the same position we were in ten years. A group of guys got together and started to train and all they were doing at the start was beating the hell out of each other. Chris got his blue belt today and his mate Chris Hyatt is a good kickboxer and is fighting next weekend and they now have a good gym and a good student base for the kick boxing and Chris is now pushing the BJJ side of things which should improve now he’s a blue belt.

Any feedback from Mauricao about the weekend?

I think he’s quite happy the way it’s growing as there were only five of us the first time he came over; in 2001 we had about 18 people attend and this year we’ve had about twenty five training.

How do you feel about the promotions?

I wasn’t expecting so many blue belts; I’m proud of all the guys they have worked hard and deserve their belts. Andy and I have put in a lot of time travelling about the place to get the knowledge and we are both blown away with it all.

What’s planned for the future?

Talking to Mauricao before we left, it looks like we’ll have Philipe over for fifteen days in the summer and if it goes well, we’ll try to extend it to a month when Mauricao gets back from Shanghai, but at least we’ll have a black belt here for fifteen days which will be great for the academy and great for myself and Andy, so we can get more info and good training in. Roger and Mauricao will be over October time for another seminar so that should be a good weekend.

Do you receive any help from sponsors here in Jersey?

We are lucky as one of the guys Richie Jhune used to train with us and his company Evolution Systems has been doing pretty well and he’s sponsored our SJJ team for the last two years and he’s agreed to carry on this year and we hope this will extend to getting out to competitions that kind of thing. Richie’s a black belt in the traditional arts and he loves the sport and wants to promote the sport more.

You have one student worthy of mention don’t you?

Yes we do, Luke Daniels, nickname Zippy; last year he had a huge cancer operation to remove a tumour the size of a rugby ball and at one stage we thought he wasn’t coming back from the operation. Now he’s been awarded his blue belt and is a great guy, good competitor and athlete and is back to more or less full fitness. He said he couldn’t have done it without the guys here at the gym pushing him, he could have curled up and died or kept on going and he chose the latter and to me he’s one of the strongest guys I know. He wasn’t one of the guys that I asked Mauricao to look at, Mauricao picked him out which was event better and that’s good enough for me.

Rob thanks for having me here for the weekend and taking time for the interview.

My pleasure

Interview and photo Carl Fisher

Related links: Interview with Mauricio Gomes

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