There's no "I" in TEAM

Tonight’s session marked the end of the Wednesday classes with Kevin. It was a situation that was saddening to me, at least, as I won’t be seeing some of the guys who can only come on Wednesdays. Like I mentioned in my previous post, Dante will still facilitate the Thursday classes, though he is hoping that he could get a discount from the Croydon Martial Arts Academy to make it financially viable.

On this last session, we did a lot of positional/technical sparring – guard passes, side control escapes, mounts, and sweeps. I felt that I did well today – oh, yes, I still did get submitted (a nasty “Steve-o-tine” from 3B himself) and several more from various partners throughout the session. The reason I was pleased with myself is that I felt I made them work for it and have managed to escape some compromising positions. I was even attempting my own submissions (“attempting” being the operative word, as I never got to be successful with them, haha). I feel like I am making progress. Slowly but surely.

Towards the end, Kevin spoke with us about the Croydon school’s future plans.  Nothing was set in stone yet, but I (we) are hoping that we can relocate by the beginning of next year. Some of us guys have made plans to continue meeting up on Wednesdays to drill and spar. Kevin gave us his blessings to train on other schools, notably BJJ School (Leao Teixeira) in Battersea and other schools within the Gracie Barra umbrella.

That is certainly an option for me, and I know these schools provide high quality instructions that I would benefit from, but my initial loyalty remains with Kamon BJJ. Not only for the skills that I have learned these past few months, but more importantly (for me), the friendliness and camaraderie I experienced from the Croydon crew. Elliott, Keith, Steve B (3B), Big Steve (Galvatron), Purple Belt Steve, Dante, and the rest of the guys, are people who genuinely want you to learn BJJ. There is no competition, one-upmanship, nastiness with them. They bring in what they learned, saw, practiced to the mats and demonstrate/teach it to others without hesitation. They will let you know what you did wrong during sparring and on many occasions, show you how you could do it better the next time. Unless you’re a total douchebag, there is no other way but to reciprocate the help that has been shown to you. That’s being part of the team.

I am sure other schools have the same level of camaraderie as above, but this is what I’ve experienced, and I will be eternally be grateful to these people. I hope Kamon BJJ in Croydon (or Crystal Palace) will still survive and flourish. If not, I hope we are still able to meet up regularly to train – or better yet, go to the same school.

Here ya go, Santa. That’s my wish this Christmas.

Important point to note:

Fellow Pinoy BJJ Group member, Diosa Atienza won Silver in last weekend’s English Open. Her little daughter, Jodi, won Gold in her division. I am sure that hubby and dad, Jonathan, had a big hand in training them to near perfection! Congratulations, guys. You do us proud!