Refugee Women of Bristol GrappleThon, 7th-8th March 2020

Class #1229
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 07-08/03/2020



I'm writing this up the following week, when the coronavirus pandemic has really begun to hit Europe hard. I was uncertain about how it would affect the GrappleThon last week, but seven days ago (the 8th March feels like a different world now!), the situation did not seem as serious. There were definitely less people than usual, but enough to keep us going through the night.



In terms of rolling, I had a great spar with Piotr, who is always great to train with. He's much bigger and stronger, but has that rare skill of being able to adjust his intensity level to whoever he is sparring with. I also got to roll with one of my best friends, Weronika. It was so good to see her again, it's been too long! Last time was Summer 2019, I've missed her.

My favourite part of the GrappleThon, as usual, was playing DnD. My student Dan is a fantastic DM, he runs most of the games at GrappleThons (I still need to finish the write-up from last year's event). Due to the smaller numbers, there weren't enough people to keep the grappling going without us. As I REALLY wanted to play DnD, I went with the 'why not both' approach: a surprisingly tiring combination. ;)



Another major highlight for me was something I've been waiting to do for a number of years. Weronika has moved around quite a bit since I first met her in 2016 (when she was training in Wales). She's been through multiple countries, currently in France. That means she has been under multiple instructors. I have rolled with her many times over the years, plus watched her roll with people of all sizes, from white to black belt. So I felt totally confident to promote her to blue belt. Supremely proud, and quite emotional. ❤️



Naturally the most important part of the event is raising money for a good cause. Given all the nasty xenophobic behaviour that's been unleashed by Brexit and the right wing government that have been pushing the country to shoot itself in the foot, I wanted to pick a charity that represented the better nature of the UK. So, I went with Refugee Women of Bristol, a great local charity near to the gym. So far, we've raised almost £3,000, with more due to come in over the next month. If you'd like to help out, you can donate here.

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A post shared by GrappleThon (@grapplethon) on Mar 7, 2020 at 9:20am PST

1st GrappleThon Germany at Nexus Fighter Academy, Hamburg

As usual, I spent most of my time engaged in social media and chats. Cool to catch up with BJJ Globetrotters friends, plus Tom from Liverpool, who went to the Artemis BJJ Camp a couple of weekends ago. It was especially nice to hang out with my Winter Camp buddies John and Eva.

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 27, 2019 at 4:30am PDT

There were also lots of terrifying wrestlers at the event, most of them training in Hamburg. They were booked in for their own shift from 1pm to 4pm. No way in a million years I would want to spar with any of these monsters (I like my limbs where they are), but it was fun to watch. Also yet another reminder of just how much more intense wrestling is by comparison to BJJ. ;)

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I continued to just watch and chat in the daytime and afternoon, then into the evening as well. Annoyingly my phone data doesn't seem to like going outside of the UK these days, it's own personal Brexit. It is a relatively old phone now, so perhaps I need to upgrade to get proper data. I need to call the phone company to get that sorted. John, who is a techy guy and had a look, confirmed that the setting were all in place. He engaged in a mighty Battle of the Beards at 6pm.

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As it got into the night, I could put my plan into action. Surprisingly, my plan actually worked: try to nap at 9:30pm, sleep until around midnight/1am, ready to roll when it gets quiet at 2am. I spent 1.5hrs rolling with Ana, Eva and Lilo. Which was cool, although they were super tired, so not a very balanced roll. Something I'll remedy at the new camp I see them at. ;)

Lots of fun, trying to work on a tight mount, head up passing and my usual framing from guard. 😉

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This is when I started to appear in the photos. Ana set a pattern of a photo every hour, much like at the Southampton GrappleThon that the Rainha crew did back in the UK a few months earlier. It's a nice idea, I might start instituting that at my own events. That meant I got to be part of the early morning crew photos. ;)

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Apr 27, 2019 at 9:59pm PDT

Ana ran an impressively well organised event, particularly given this was her first one. I hope she makes it a regular thing at Nexus Fighter Academy, it's an awesome excuse to head over to Germany. Helpfully spaced between my usual camp activities too: Winter Camp in January, some kind of GrappleThon at my place a few months later, then Ana's, then my camp, onwards to Summer Camp, another GrappleThon and/or Artemis BJJ Camp, Halloween meetup, then we're back into Winter Camp. Perfect solution to stopping those nasty Post Camp Blues. ;D

Womankind GrappleThon, 9th-10th March 2019: Final MYGYM event

For some reason I forgot to write this up at the time. It was a stressful time for me leading up to the GrappleThon and for a while afterwards, as our venue was closing, so I had scrambled to find a suitable replacement. I did eventually managed to secure a location, which is where we've now been for a year as I write this, but it wasn't easy.

So, our final weekend at MYGYM was emotional. Saying goodbye to the building that had built my club into what it was, as well as changing my life from an office-worker to a full time BJJ instructor. I had a lot of great memories, from training, seminars and previous GrappleThons. MYGYM had served us very well: the building no longer exists, waiting to be replacement by some more faceless flats. Developers are always on the prowl, though I can't be entirely negative about them, as after all I am part of the gentrification problem (given I'm not originally from Bristol ;D).

Despite what I optimistically wrote in the Instagram post below, sadly MYGYM did not return. However, fortunately Ibb has managed to continue sharing his enthusiasm for helping people get fitter, still at the same Facebook page as before. I wish him the very best of luck, he was a great landlord and massively important to Artemis BJJ's growth. :)

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It's been a wonderful 5 years at @mygym_bristol. @ibb1982 has been an excellent landlord, always super supportive of what we've done at @ArtemisBJJ. Thanks to how MYGYM was set up, we grew organically onto that big main matspace. 👍 Like upstairs, the downstairs mats have a lot of memories for me too. Our first club gradings, teaching ever larger classes, and of course the annual @GrappleThon. It has become an amazing community of grapplers from loads of schools, all sharing technique and raising money for charity. 😎 So although it's sad to see the building go, the community is not about a building, it's the people. I look forward to that community going on to bigger and better things in our new homes: Artemis BJJ continues (with an expanded timetable!) at 7 Lawrence Hill, while MYGYM will be back soon. 😍 #nostalgia #endofanera #timeflies #MYGYMBristol #bjjclub #slideyclub

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Mar 10, 2019 at 10:44am PDT

We eventually raised almost £5,000 for Womankind, a great total. Once again, couldn't have done it without the fantastic support of Seymour 'Meerkatsu' Yang, who has been integral to the GrappleThons since the beginning. I had the pleasure of rolling with him once again, where as usual he voraciously went for my legs. One of these days I'll get comfortable with footlocks, but for now, still terrifying. ;)

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Mar 9, 2019 at 2:41pm PST

Also as ever, lots of DnD! This has become my favourite part of the GrappleThons, as we essentially do a simultaneous DnDaThon, which is still rolling of a sort. Just rolling dice rather than people. Dan is such a great DM, plus we had remote DMing from the magnificent Eva once again via the joys of the internet. I love how that DnD group has grown over the years: there are so many fellow geeks in BJJ, truly a wonderful thing. ;)

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Hooray for introducing people to #DnD! One of my favourite things. All while raising lots of money for #charity at the @ArtemisBJJ @GrappleThon: rolling dice with #DungeonsAndDragons, plus rolling people with #BJJ. 😀 _____________________ #WomankindBristolWomensTherapyCentre #ArtemisBJJgrapplethon #charity #fundraising #bjj #brazilianjiujitsu #grappling #jiujitsu #bjjforeveryone #brazilianjiujitsulifestyle #dsgear #SupportWomensBJJ #BJJDungeonTrotters #BJJDungeonTrottersLive

A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Mar 9, 2019 at 8:04am PST

Ghent and GrappleThon Belgium 2018 at Aorta BJJ

I'll take any excuse to go to Belgium, so when Weronika announced she was organising a GrappleThon in Brussels, I was very excited! That meant I could indulge myself in some wonderful Flemish and Dutch art after the GrappleThon. I've been meaning to go to Ghent/Gent for ages, so finally took the opportunity to pop down with Kirsty.

İ was heartily impressed with Ghent, very attractive city. Previously, I'd just wanted to go because it has the van Eyck altarpiece, but having finally made it, I now know there is a lot more. Gorgeous buildings, a massive castle, interesting museums, tasty food and awesome people (like Leen). I'll definitely be back! 😍

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 15, 2018 at 1:44pm PDT

The Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavos Cathedral is one of the key works of Western art. For that reason, particularly as I love FlemishArt, I've wanted to see it for years. Jan Van Eyck was a massive influence in the development of oil painting. Though he certainly didn't invent the technique (it has been erroneously credited to him by art critics in past centuries), he was an absolute genius with oils. The Gent Altarpiece is probably his masterpiece, though there's a strong argument to instead point to the Arnolfini Portrait in the National Gallery.

As it's an altarpiece, this is huge and wasn't done by Jan alone: his older brother Hubert was also involved. İt's difficult to say who painted what, but most likely Jan did the donor portraits on the outer panels, which I particularly enjoyed given their secular nature (in that these are normal humans, not biblical figures 😉).

The altarpiece is housed in a gigantic glass vitrine, so unfortunately you can't get very close to the inner panels. However, walking around the back, you can get pretty close to those donors, plus the #risaille saints stood by them. John The Evangelist is one of my faves (depicted here by the donor) along with St Catherine (not here, but I think in a group on the lower central inner panel), as both of them fit into a fantasy setting due to their attributes. John has his poisoned cup filled with dragons (because poison 😉), Catherine has her big sword. 😍

You're not supposed to take pics, so I was being a bit naughty, but I tend to find it irksome when pics are banned. As long as you don't use flash, I think it's ok, but meh, still naughty. 😜 İt's only €4 to get in, plus another €1 for a stripped down audio guide. İt purely gives you the description of each panel, so one of the most concise audio guides I've listened to. The cathedral is also worth a look, but I was mostly just there for the altarpiece. Then it was off to meet my friend Kirsty for waffles and waffling.

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 16, 2018 at 1:32am PDT

Monday is closing time in #Belgium, but fortunately there were a few cool places open in Ghent yesterday. Along with St Bavo's, I was also able to check out the Design Museum Gent: hooray for chairs! Also chandeliers, but mainly chairs. There were all sorts of materials used, from cardboard to 3D printed plastic to 18th century wood, even a #chair made out of fungi. The info was pretty thorough too, with snazzy themed booklets you can take away. Well worth my €8. Gent Wins Again! Or wins a-Gent? 😉

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 16, 2018 at 3:00am PDT

Class #1059

The first edition of the GrappleThon Belgium was a big success, so I hope it becomes an annual event. In terms of the actual rolling, as ever I didn't do all that much. I flow rolled for over an hour with Kirsty, relaxed and staying loose so I could go longer. Tougher roll with Kenny the next day, but he was still taking it easy. Trying to keep everything in place, remove from attacks. I think he eventually got a toe hold, can't remember? On butterfly guard pass, be sure to control at least one of their hooks.

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A post shared by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Oct 13, 2018 at 8:53pm PDT