| Double
impact seminar Seminar 
Carlson
Gracie in the UK! by Carl Fisher BJJ
continues to grow and expand in the UK and instructors in other disciplines are
fast becoming aware of the effectiveness of the techniques and are adopting them
into their training syllabuses. The latest instructor to do this is Wing Chun
Master Samuel Kwok, who teamed up with BJJ legend Carlson Gracie to present the
Ultimate Double Impact System Seminar. Held at the Y Sport Club, Manchester on
Feb 21st and Crystal Palace National Sport Centre on Feb 22nd,
Master Kwok introduced his students to a completely new realm of martial arts
fighting, one that works in tandem with their own Wing Chun. The
seminar was packed out with over sixty students, with Master Kwok taking the first
half of the seminar; Kwok demoed his unique brand of fighting on Paul Smith, head
of the Scottish Wing Chun Organisation and as I was there as attendee and participant
I thought I’d give it a whirl, in for a penny in for a lap sau, as they say.
Using Wing Chun methodology, I was shown how to close the combat range and get
into grappling range and go for the takedowns. This being my first ever time in
Wing Chun, I found it hard to adjust at first and just kept shooting in for the
clinch but after an hour or so I started to get the hang of things and would like
to say carried myself off as a decent novice in the art. First
part over, it was time for lunch and onto the ample sized mats courtesy of the
Wrestling Club over at Great Clowes Street, Salford and into the hands of Carlson
Gracie. Carlson had travelled across with Phil Nearing and Dave Baura(?) and the
emphasis was on Vale Tudo style attacks from the ground and the session started
off with a basic guillotine defence. From here, the students went on to practice
arm bars and kimuras from the guards and got to grips with rear choke attacks.
Arm bar drills followed and bearing in mind this was for many their first ever
exposure to BJJ, most of the students picked up the techniques pretty quickly. As
ever, the fun came to an end way too soon and the session ended with the usual
Q+A’s before photographs and autographs galore. Billy Davidson and Dave Mc
Keown ensured that the day went according to plan and between them all, they aim
to be bringing Carlson back for more seminars in the near future. For
more info email Billy on chingmoschool@aol.com
or Dave on northwestwingchunkuen@ntl.com.
Special thanks to Dave Mc Keown for allowing me to use his pictures from the day,
brought about by the death of my old laptop.
It been great pleasure i been asked to Interview Grandmaster Carlso Gracie (The
Legend Of brazilian Juitisu). Interviewed
by Master Danny Khalid 21.02.04
On the 21 and 22 February 2004, Grand master Carlson Gracie, the "Legend of Brazilian
Jujitsu", visited the UK by personal invitation from Grandmaster Samuel Kwok,
for a series of groundbreaking 'Double Impact' seminars. Combining the skills
of two great Masters, himself, and Grandmaster Samuel Kwok, of Yip Family Wing
Chun.. I had the great honour, along with Grandmaster Kwok of spending some time
with him at the lancaster hotel,and at the Manchester seminar the following day.
My initial reaction to him (Grandmaster Gracie) was "What a scary looking guy!!!".
(until he smiled, that is....). He is a great big bear of a man, with an easy,
approachable demeanour. Initially we discussed why he was here, and what the seminars
were to be about, translated by Sifu Phil Nearing, GrandMaster Kwoks' representative
in Chicago. Carlson,
he said, became involved quite by accident .
(Phil Nearing) : I think before we start we should address one or two questions
that people might be having in the UK, such as "Why are Wing Chun people doing
a seminar with BJJ people"? "Why is this"?, and of course, there can be positive
and negative aspects, so why not concentrate on the positive. A lot of ground
fighters will be saying that BJJ can't be complete or it wouldn't need Wing Chun
and Wing Chun people have been saying obviously GrandMaster Kwok's Wing Chun lacks
groundwork capabilities. Rather than get into political things, lets just say
that the seminar was the result of one or two chance encounters. A friend/colleague
(Jeff Neal) used to train Wing Chun, and we had a young Judo instructor in our
school about the time that the whole Vale Tudo thing came to life In the course
of his training with the young Judo instructor (Leo Valdez), Jeff wanted a little
more so he went out and made connections with Carlson Gracie, and brought the
Carlson Gracie team to town, with some very high ranking fighters. Eventually
the result of Jeff's hard work was that the Carlson Gracie direct approach to
things hit Chicago. About two and a half years ago, I hadn't spoken to Jeff in
several years, but he came to my studio and we had a coffee, (a latte), and we
discussed training Vale Tudo. But we encountered the same resistance and questions.
People are doing
one thing or people are doing another. I think there are a lot of ways to fight,
however I think that we felt it was a good idea to start using some of the very
effective things in WC in the Vale Tudo arena, though obviously there are some
techniques you can't use, for example eye gouges, chopping in the throat and things
like that, these aren't very sociable and I'd like to think we haven't sunk to
that level yet. What I think is important is things like continuation of attack
(fon sau), breaking the hands free, getting into that range where you can take
down, Wing Chun lives there. Also use of the different angles.
We did some preliminary work and have been training some guys for Vale Tudo who
should be ready in the next 6 months. This was all done very casually in one sense
and very seriously in another, for example, I've gone to the trouble of taking
up JJ myself at the age of 50 (mumble) years so I can coach better. We have the
privilege of working with Carlson Gracie, one of the great teachers of all time.
He's also a great Vale Tudo teacher. So we arranged for him to see some Wing Chun
whilst Samuel Kwok was in town. We
brought Carlson by the seminar and Grandmaster Sam Kwok did a beautiful aggressive
demonstration, (as only Sam can do), and Carlson thought ....'this is marvellous,
this is great stuff' and said, 'These 2 systems together, Vale Tudo..............?'
Within several months we established a more aggressive programme, with a very
small group of people. We are dealing with 5 or 6 people here, that, you know,
have good Chi Sao, good fighting skills, stand up, clinch, ground. Hard work,
everybody's suffering, everybody's contributing, everybody's making commitments,
you know? A
few of these guys pulled me aside and said I want to make a commitment to Vale
Tudo fighting and I want to work with Jeff Neal and Carlson Gracie, that's what
I want to do. Carlson showed them what to do,( train hard and prepare). It's pretty
serious, and he was very impressed with Grandmaster Kwok's demonstration, and
so we talked about doing a seminar in the UK, we even toyed with the idea of going
to Germany with some of the guys in the association but one thing at a time. Grandmaster
Sam Kwok is the guy that organised these seminars." When we got a little further
into the conversation it was suggested to me that "we wait for Rufus to translate"
Sifu Nearing agreed as he wanted the words to be Grandmaster Gracie's words, not
a clumsy translation from his limited knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese.
We all then adjourned to the "Sultan of Lancaster" Restaurant, for a memorable
nights food and conversation. The proprietor, Mr Naim (very close friend of mine),
laid a banquet out for us. The surroundings, a converted chapel, were absolutely
beautiful, and the conversation deep and inspiring.. The next day at the Y Club
Manchester, Grandmaster Gracie and I were able to spend a little time talking
again, translating through Rufus I was able to talk to him at greater depth.....
I asked Carlson to tell me in his own words, now that we had a translator, what
exactly was behind these seminars and how this fusion of skills had come about
(Carlson Gracie)..."nowadays all the people, they know many martial arts and enter
all these competitions and if you just know one or two, you're not going to do
very well. Nowadays you need to have knowledge of all martial arts or as many
as possible, if you are a boxer and someone just grabs you and throws you on the
floor, like a JJ man would, you are stuffed! JJ has many different parts to it
and I believe some of the best fighters in the world are JJ fighters. If you just
have legs you are at a disadvantage, if you just have hands you are at a disadvantage,
if you mix many arts to take advantage of a certain set of rules in a certain
arena then you have a greater chance of winning. You have to have an understanding
of all martial arts in order to have good fighting and be successful in martial
arts competitions"
(Danny Khalid)... What qualities would you look for in a personal student?
(CG)....." Primarily,obedience! If I say do something I expect them to do it,
train like this, train like that, you see? And discipline, if you don't train
properly, don't get proper sleep, don't eat properly, don't smoke, don't take
drugs, all these things are very important. If they don't do these things, then
I won't accept them as students, they have to be dilligent. They have to look
after themselves and be of good character" (Dk) and loyalty....?
(CG) "great importance!!!..... it is very important, loyalty, to me, and if I
see someone 'scooting' off and messing around with other people, and it's not
all right with me, and they haven't asked permission, then I do not look well
on it!. There's a lot of rivalry in BJJ, that's why loyalty is so important to
me. I have been let down before by people betraying me and playing political games
and I still feel it, it does not go away. People abuse me and betray me and I
can never forgive them.... It's finished! I don't even want to talk about them!.
As far as I am concerned, they are no more"
(DK) Have MMA competitions had the greater influence over BJJ, or has its developement
been influenced more by practical 'street' encounters?
(CG)..."MMA and Brazilian JuJitsu are intimately linked. We basically started
off in competition, it's hard really to remove one from the other because all
the time its evolved in the context of MMA competition, but real life has also
had a lot of influence" (DK)
what I mean is that Gracie JJ is known as a pretty 'in your face system', is this
more down to the famous 'real life' encounters or from experience gained in the
arena? (CG)"it's
real, yes it's real. It has worked in all the competitions in the world, the whole
world can see it but, there's no doubt in my mind that it's a very functional
martial art. It is not fake. It works! "
(Dk) how much has BJJ changed since it's conception, with Relio, and Maeda. Are
you worried that now that it is so big it may stop being a dynamic martial art
and stagnate as some other large organisations have and maybe turn into a 'belt
factory'? (CG)..."Carlson
Gracie's Brazilian JuJitsu is the JuJitsu of my father, Carlos Gracie. Helio is
my uncle" (DK)...
this is what you were saying yesterday? this is not just BJJ, this is Carlson
Gracies JJ? (CG)....."Brazilian
JuJitsu, and this style, were created by Carlos Gracie, my father, but yes, it
has changed, everything changes, that's the way of the world. For example, 20
yrs ago you would not have dreamed that you could stand in a street in Manchester,
England, and place a phone call to Japan on a mobile phone, it would have been
inconceivable. Change is the order of all things and Brazilian JuJitsu is no different.
It has evolved a lot in the last 20 years and will continue to do so. I am not
worried at all that it is changing, as far as I can see there is no problem with
it being a dynamic martial art, it's getting better all the time. I'm still open
to anything, so it's not so much changing as improving, and if I see something
good I'll take from it, to make my JuJitsu better"
(DK)...thank you Grandmaster Gracie for your time and patience and your great
honesty in answering these questions.
(CG) "It has been my pleasure, thank you very much for your interest." .......
and so ended my interview with a great, yet surprisingly down to earth man. At
this point Grandmaster Gracie made his way to the matted area to begin his contribution
to this 'double impact' seminar, undoubtedly one of the best, most exciting and
inspiring seminars that this humble Wing Chun Sifu has ever attended.
As a footnote to this article, GrandMaster Kwok would like to express his heartfelt
thanks to all who helped out on the day to make this seminar the resounding success
that it was.Also Thanks go also to Manchester Olympic Wrestling Academy for the
loan of their superb mats, the Y Club for the use of their excellent facilities.
At the end of the day, the final judgement on whether the seminar was a success
or not goes to the students of Wing Chun, Jujitsu, Capoiera, and many other martial
arts who attended. Judging by the enormous smiles on every ones faces as they
left, I would say it was a success. Grandmaster Carlson Gracie is looking Forward
to come to uk end of the year . UK
contacts about Carlson Gracie people can email bjjlondon@hotmail.com
or tel 07799754618 www.carlsongracieteam.org.uk
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