SLAVE TO THE CLOTH

Any one who truly knows me knows how passionate i am in relation to Brazilian jiu jitsu, Especially that taught at the RGDA.

BJJ is my passion, my self defence,  my sport , my martial art and most of all my philosophy, every time i am on the mat,s teaching or training i feel a huge energy not just in my physical but in my spiritual too.

It is an energy which allows me to forget about problems in my life, its an energy which has taught me a lot but most of all it has taught me compassion,respect, honor, sacrifice and most of all it has taught me how to yield.....

among many questions i have been asked one i am asked a lot is "which is better gi or no gi" and i usually answer like this...

I prefer to train with the gi, because it tightens up my game and teaches me the technicality's and intricacies of bjj, when wearing the gi one has to be careful of variations of attack given the pace is also a lot slower with the kimono plus the kimono can also be used as a weapon.

No gi is a much faster pace, there is less to grip, and the opponent is slippery  yet it is still as technical as the gi but in a different way.

most of the champions at world level have trained with the kimono at some point and some to a very high level (Royler is a perfect example) he is a multiple time world bjj champion and also a 6 time abu dhabi champion, (Saulo is also a very good example ) there are a lot of others too.

Everyone at my academy wears the kimono, all of the guys whether they are mma fighters or no gi fighters they have to learn to train with the kimono after all we are a Brazilian jiu jitsu academy first, then a no gi and mma academy after , we all train with the gi right up to the fight, (alongside the other classes ).

because in my own opinion to be the complete fighter one has to be able to enter any arena and be able to hang in that arena , i believe at RGDA UK  we have that combination because our mma team can enter a bjj comp, our no gi guys can fight wearing the kimono, and all of them can fight mma yet they all train with the kimono ?.

so don't become slave to the cloth, let the cloth become slave to your game.......

E.K