marc walder mixed martial arts fighter interview

After returning to the UK from the Mundials this year with a second stripe to his brown belt, Marc Walder continues to assist in the expansion of GBUK throughout the UK; teaching out of Gracie Barra Essex, Marc invited me down to the club for a training session to round off a three day stay in the Big Smoke and, as ever, I managed to grab a quick interview…….

Carl : Marc, congratulations on the new stripe to the belt, when did that come about?

Marc Walder : I got it after this year’s Mundials and have been a brown belt for a while now and have entered a few competitions and won a few medals and I think this has been my reward and recognition of my achievements.

Who gave you the stripe?

Marc Walder :We went to Brazil for three weeks, although I didn’t win any medals, I did very well; we come from a country where the jiu jitsu levels have not yet reached their full potential. You’re going to a place where the Brazilians themselves need to qualify to compete so you’re fighting the best guys around and I more than held my own, I also think maybe my style doesn’t suit competition as you’ve have to be very aggressive and have an all out attack strategy. My style is more relaxed although I am working on being more aggressive to suit the competition style

What were the guys like out there?

Marc Walder :The standard in Brazil is just awesome and I’ve been lucky enough to train with the best people in the world, but when you go and train at somewhere like Barra, some of the blue belts are tasty, so you’ve got to watch your back you know, there’s no pretend belts out there, every one’s a fight for your life and if you make a mistake, then they’re gonna jump all over you.

When did you make the jump to Barra?

Marc Walder :I wouldn’t say there was a specific time when things occurred, as I have been training with Mauricao for some time, four or five years; the position in the UK when I first came back from the US as a blue belt, was that Royce would come and visit here but it would be sporadic, every six or eight months etc., the training I needed at the time to make me improve in Jiu Jitsu would only come from me getting consistent high level instruction. The only person available in this country at that time was Mauricao, I actually gave him a call as I had a lot of people phoning me enquiring about training BJJ and Mauricao was closer to them than I was, so initially I got in touch because of that. I ended up meeting him then thankfully we became friends. I started to train with him which resulted in me getting beat up a lot, this was a good thing, as it was something I needed. The only way to improve is to train with people who can kick your backside. The problem for me was I had an association with Royce. Royce’s commitments increased rapidly with his inclusion in pride and it became difficult to get him over to teach and train. A number of other things occurred that made our association difficult, by this time Mauricao was now teaching me on a regular basis and not only did I look up to him for guiding my Jiu Jitsu I considered him a very close friend. I felt hypocritical, saying I was in Royce’s network, when I was actually getting most of my training from the Barra camp. I decided to make the jump but I didn’t cut the association altogether and to this day still remain good friends with Royce. He still comes to my school to teach as well as visiting Roger’s club, they’ve become good friends and there’s no animosity at all.

I see that Barra are now putting stripes on the belts; when did this occur?

Marc Walder :In the belt syllabus there’s only four belts and there’s a long time between each belt and sometimes disillusionment can come when you’re unaware how far you are from the next belt and what you need to do to get to the next step, but if you have a guide that tells you roughly where you are, it makes a difference to how you train and also to your commitment in class. I think in Brazil, the guys don’t really care that much about the belts but in the Western world we want to see progress and people want to gauge themselves against other people in the class. Also it’s important for the instructor to know what level the students are at, the stripe system helps to keep a track of things.

How did you get involved with Andy Smith?

Marc Walder :Andy was a friend of mine from another style of jiu jitsu and he heard I was coming back from the US and opening a school and he came over and started training with me and when found out I was to open a school, he asked me if I’d like to share a property as he’d always wanted to open a martial arts store and train on the side and we came to an agreement that I’d do the teaching and he’d do the selling and we’ve been together about three and a half years, it’s not always been plain sailing I can tell you (laughs).

Quick comments on SENI ’04?

Marc Walder :I’ve got to be honest, we’re going to be even better, we will have more people fighting next time, although there’s a few things I would like to change for next time, but the response I had was awesome. Unfortunately I was also let down at the last minute with some heavy duty scales, which would have settled a few arguments on the day, so that’s my must for next year! I did have the official score cards organised, but again I was let me down at the last minute, which I wasn’t happy about, but next year I will have them for sure. Other than that, all the helpers were fantastic! The referees, the judges, the score markers all deserve a huge pat on the back, these guys did it voluntary and had they not been there, the event could not have gone ahead. No names as they all know who they are.

What’s the future hold for GBUK?

Marc Walder :Organisation wise, we’re in a great position because we’re going to have better communication and organisational structures in place, which have been lacking, now we can start to build and grow from what we have set in place. The clubs can communicate with each other better which will help get more inter GBUK club and National competitions started that will be separate from the regular comps, we aim to stage the first this November. From this, we want to get together a GBUK competition team, so it will be a selection competition as well, but the internal competitions will only be open to Barra students, other associations have these competitions and they are integral to the growth of Barra clubs in the UK. We also have Mauricao at the helm guiding us, with Roger, Felipe and Braulio teaching and training us on a regular basis. The future looks bright, the future looks Barra! J

Marc, thanks for the time and best of luck with everything.

Marc Walder : My pleasure.

For more details on GBUK events and BJJ email marcwalder@ic24.net