Nicola
I started Jiu Jitsu in 1992 at Wolverhampton with my first instructors: Daryl Cooper, ...
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I started Jiu Jitsu in 1992 at Wolverhampton with my first instructors: Daryl Cooper, [...]
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NICOLA, 21ST MAR
I started Jiu Jitsu in 1992 at Wolverhampton with my first instructors: Daryl Cooper, supported by Ady Treadwell. My first session was an exchange for some of the Jiu Jitsu women to try out at the rugby club where I trained. Straight away I loved how physical Jiu Jitsu is and it reminded me of the Judo I had done in the RAF as a child. I stayed and became an instructor because I love helping people to improve and because of a determination to prove some people wrong. It’s fair to say that I have faced a fair amount of discrimination from a minority of male grades over the years, but it is improving, and I’d like to think that I’m a part of that work. I left Wolverhampton in 1994 as a green belt and moved to Oxford Brookes where Chris Cooke was the instructor. When Nigel turned up in 1995 and took over the club, I was a purple belt. After spending a year at green belt, I eventually took my blue belt with Pete Farrar and my Brown belt with Dave Walker running the grading in March 1997 - the same year that we moved to London. I continued to support the Oxford Brookes club through the next year or so. I started my first club, Imperial College London, in October 1997 after a long campaign of writing and meeting with the union. They agreed that I could run a stall at freshers’ fayre but would not agree to give me any session times until I had over 30 people committed to training. Eventually with 35 signed up I demanded session times a month into the start of term. 5 weeks later, I had to firmly ask another martial arts club to vacate the room on my first session in order to start Imperial’s journey. Imagine being a female brown belt with 30 new novices trying to face down a whole established martial arts club just to get started. I received my hakama almost immediately afterwards at a very large session at Crystal Palace when Brian Graham received his 6^th dan from Matthew Komp. From then, we referred to him as Shihan Graham. Matthew Komp went down the line of instructors demanding to know how long each had been doing Jiu Jitsu. At the time the maximum being about 25 years. Imperial was not an easy club to start. We were given Thursday 7-9pm followed by Sunday 2-4pm. Every Saturday night the dojo was used as a bar so we had to clean it up before we could start to train, so it always smelled like stale beer. However, the students were keen and so I took 26 students to the first nationals in Nov 1997. It was one of my proudest moments after such a hard battle to get the club opened. The club was a super-tight group of wonderful people, and we got up to a few shenanigans; running breakfalling in a secret location and in the foyer of the local tube station to a crowd. Several students from that time include Robb Kerr, Alexander A’Air, Paul “Bungle” Beckett, Kostas, Elena – many of them achieving brown in time there or in my follow up teaching at Kings. Up until about 2003 I was teaching at Imperial twice per week as well as training and teaching at Kings three times per week. Saddened but proud, in 2003 I handed the Imperial Club onto my most senior student and decided to focus my main teaching interest at Kings, sharing the club with Nigel. This truly was a great time and place to teach Jitsu – a moment that to me, cannot be beaten. We had so many male and female senior grades; many of them blue, browns and dans. Throughout this time and for about a decade, I was attending the monthly national brown and dan courses which often entailed driving all over the country each month. I carried on teaching at the brown belt courses after Nigel handed them on to Colin Mortimore for some years afterwards. I began leading breakfalling courses to meet a need in London and further afield and I was part of the team that helped established NNK within the syllabus after Richard initiated these courses as the technical direction after 2005. I was also organising and teaching at the annual Lakes Summer school, taking over from John Hamer in 1997 through to 2009, when I handed them over to Eric. Our various clubs were always present in great numbers at these events. I also attended every nationals, which I believe is the key to making a really strong club identity. I’ve attended every adult nationals (except one misplaced holiday booking clash) since 2003. My increasing involvement persuaded people that I would make a good London Regional Coordinator at some point around about 2005. I believed it would be better organised as a committee as the job was really too big for one person to do well. This worked well at that time as London was quickly expanding the number of clubs and needed larger training facilities. Somehow, I also managed to squeeze in teaching the London Nautical Junior Club from 2004-2006 after Tony Gill left London. I was supported by a blue belt, David Palmer, who took over after he achieved Brown belt. Awkwardly the club was on a Wednesday 3-5pm which meant sneaking out of my City Lit ceramics course and then training/teaching later the same evening at Kings. This was my first junior club. After moving to Cornwall and becoming a teacher, I opened and taught a couple of junior clubs in my schools from 2012 until covid shut it down in 2020 and I’m planning to restart a new club as soon as it is feasible. Taking my Cornish juniors to the junior nationals in Wolverhampton is a highlight of that time. After achieving Sandan (now Yondan) in 2008, I soon became involved in the work of the promotions board (PB) which is where I now give most of my teaching service. In my day job I’m an assistant head teacher with responsibility for maintaining teaching standards within a school context so it made good sense for me to be involved in improving the standards of coaching within the TJJF. Ian Lambert handed responsibility for leading this board to me in 2012/13 since which the team has gone from strength to strength. This work requires us to ensure candidates meet the criteria for promotion to every grade from hakama through to Yondan. We also form the assessment panel that makes judgement on and coaches the senior instructors through the significant black top process. This work is really fulfilling although it does require pretty much all my time at each nationals event. I feel that the process has become far more rigorous as a test and a really progressive experience for the black top. Currently, I am awaiting surgery for a missing knee ligament after which I hope to return to more actively teaching on the national mat and junior jitsu, so watch this space. In the meantime, the promotions board keeps me busy. It is because of this work that I was finally recognised with a promotion to the tertiary board, being the first woman to achieve the rank of godan in the TJJF.
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Eric's
Eric Lau (started in 1996) Since the first mome ...
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Eric Lau (started in 1996) Since the first moment I walked onto a tatami in 1996, I [...]
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ERIC'S, 16TH MAR
Eric Lau (started in 1996) Since the first moment I walked onto a tatami in 1996, I knew I wanted to be an instructor. I lie. It was about 20 minutes in when a mountain of man rei’ed onto the mat and took over from a Green Belt who had been trying his hardest to teach our group ukemi. I didn’t know at the time, but this instructor was actually going to be my Sensei. For 90 minutes, he blew my mind with his enthusiasm, his attention to detail, the story telling and the way he got us to manipulate our partners into throws and locks. From that moment I was hooked. Fast forward three years later, I graded to 1^st Kyu or Brown Belt and the West Midlands Region gave me the opportunity to teach and lead Aston University Jiu Jitsu Club. Something I jumped at and grabbed with both hands. I couldn’t wait for that first taster session and it couldn’t come fast enough. The moment came, my session plan prepped and it dawned on me that I hadn’t actually taught a full session from start to finish. GULP… So, I stalked around the dojo whilst the 30+ students were putting out the mats, I was psyching myself up and trying to control the butterflies in my stomach (something I still do to this day, no matter if it’s a club session, a Regional or a National session). Must be the excitement. The session went OK. The students seem to learn something, they enjoyed and best of all, they came back. From that day on, my passion for teaching and leading a club grew stronger and stronger. I couldn’t get enough, I went from two club sessions a week to four. I introduced the Regional Saturday (Green+) Session and to squeeze more in, I opened the Birmingham City Juniors Club as well. On average, I was up to 6 sessions per week. With me touring around the UK visiting Regions and clubs having a brilliant time meeting all these amazing Jitsukas, I relunctantly handed over the Birmingham Junior Club. Proud to say, it’s still going strong and has over 30 kids training every week. For the last 21 years, I’ve been teaching at Aston at least twice a week while I continue to lead the Region, the Tech Board, the TJJF Summer School and being part of the Promotions Board and Tertiary Board. During this time, my Jiu Jitsu knowledge, experience, communication skills and people management skills have improved immeasurably. Transferable skills that I use in my personal and professional life. For example, I use the coaching skills with my instructors and with my clients. Helping them with their goal setting and plans to achieve them. I’ve been fortunate to teach, coach, lead and support over 40 instructors to get their Brown Belt, haks and Black Belt and above. These have been my proudest moments as an instructor. I can’t describe how I feel when I see them perform in the Grading / Assessment and then when they receive their new belt, haks or badge. So proud. It far exceeds any emotion when I received any individual promotion or award. As an Instructor / Club Lead, I’ve made many sacrifices however it has given me so much back. With the biggest being friendship. 100’s if not 1000’s of students have come through the Aston doors, some have stayed and some have gone. Again, during club visits, delivering Regional, Summer School, National and even International sessions, I have met lots of people that have become my friends, best friends and one very special person, my wife. If you have any aspirations to become an instructor or to open a club, without hesitation I would say DO IT. It’s the most rewarding thing ever.
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Jaimin
I came to Leeds thinking this time I HAVE to take up a martial art but with so many o ...
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I came to Leeds thinking this time I HAVE to take up a martial art but with so many o [...]
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JAIMIN, 19TH JUL
I came to Leeds thinking this time I HAVE to take up a martial art but with so many on offer which do i choose? At the Jitsu Give It A Go session, the friendly welcoming faces, helpful and encouraging members and the interesting techniques made this decision easy for me. 2 and half years later I now have a light blue belt which I thought would be impossible to achieve. BUT with the help and commitment of everyone in the club, I did it. I've met some lovely people through Leeds/Regional/National Jitsu events and at Leeds we're almost like a little family - I've thoroughly enjoyed being part of it all. The positive atmosphere, enthusiastic instructors and the general vibe at Jitsu really makes you want to succeed and develop, not only as a jitsuka, but also as a person. For anyone contemplating giving Jitsu a go, I can't stress enough why you should try it out!
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Anna's
I started Jitsu at Leeds University because I wanted to learn something that might be ...
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I started Jitsu at Leeds University because I wanted to learn something that might be [...]
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ANNA'S, 19TH JUL
I started Jitsu at Leeds University because I wanted to learn something that might be useful at the moment and in the future. I was not a big fan of Martial Arts before but after a couple of sessions I was already in love with it. The great thing is that I met new friends and training with them helps me to enjoy practices even more. Thanks to Jitsu my confidence and self-discipline have improved as well. Lastly, Jitsu takes people out of their comfort zone and forces to deal with problems, and consequently helps character to grow.
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Som's
Hi I’m Som. I study Business and management in Aston University. I first found o ...
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Hi I’m Som. I study Business and management in Aston University. I first found out [...]
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SOM'S, 19TH JUL
Hi I’m Som. I study Business and management in Aston University. I first found out about jitsu club from students’ fair. I was determined to join a sports club so that I could keep my self fit. So when I found out about Aston Jitsu, it was like hitting two birds with a single stone. I could keep my self fit as well as learn self defence at the same time. The very first day I went Jitsu, I was nervous and curious but everyone in the dojo was so friendly and generous that I even forgot it was my first time meeting all these new people. After the first session, Jitsu completely hooked me in and I was suddenly a jitsuka. The club is blessed with two great Senseis, Eric and Paul who never leave anyone behind and teaches us with great enthusiasm as well as Grades(seniors) who are always there to help. Its not just kicks and punches that you learn here, you learn how to defend your self in real life situations which is very handy as well as easy to learn. Jitsu has definitely been a huge confidence booster for me and after 10 weeks of hard training here I am with a ‘Yellow III’ belt. And then there are the weekly after session socials which everyone loves. Between all these cool features what I love the most about this club is how it has grown to be a second family for me rather than just a club with friends. Now I plan to be with this club for rest of my time in Aston university.
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Suraj's
I started Jiu Jitsu when I was 6 years old. I have used this martial art as a tool to ...
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I started Jiu Jitsu when I was 6 years old. I have used this martial art as a tool to [...]
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SURAJ'S, 26TH FEB
I started Jiu Jitsu when I was 6 years old. I have used this martial art as a tool to gain the confidence; fitness and determination which has helped me achieve my academic, musical and sporting ambitions. I’ve made many, strong long-term friendships nationally and internationally through Jiu Jitsu. Jiu Jitsu has made me become more resilient as a person. It’s given me the confidence to face bullies, holding my own voice, being articulate in interviews, having humility and strong self-discipline. Turning 18 and crossing over to the adult jitsu world has been an amazing experience. Holding a senior first dan and officially being called “Sensei” is a great feeling of success and responsibility. It’s a great feeling to know all my previous experience in teaching and training so far has been credited by the Jitsu foundation. I am excited for the future; especially when I move to university to train with a new jitsuka family. I feel this martial art will always benefit me in life and will benefit me more and more as I continue to progress. I’m currently looking forward to my year out teaching the Beckfoot Jitsu club as my main club to develop the Adult and Junior Grades there but also teaching regional courses and competing in the senior competitions. There’s been some amazing experiences in my Jitsu Career, but so far but one of my proudest moments was being awarded my junior second dan grade by the grading panel and Sensei Dave walker mentioning that I will be a great ambassador for the Jiu Jitsu Foundation in the future. Suraj, 18
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