Carlson Gracie in the UK
Mar 25, 2004
BJJ continues to grow and expand in the UK and instructors in other
disciplines are fast becoming aware of the effectiveness of the
techniques and are adopting them into their training syllabuses.
The latest instructor to do this is Wing Chun Master Samuel Kwok,
who teamed up with BJJ legend Carlson Gracie to present the
Ultimate Double Impact System Seminar. Held at the Y Sport Club,
Manchester on Feb 21st and Crystal Palace National Sport Centre on
Feb 22nd, Master Kwok introduced his students to a completely new
realm of martial arts fighting, one that works in tandem with their
own Wing Chun.
The seminar was packed out with over sixty students, with Master Kwok taking the first half of the seminar; Kwok demoed his unique brand of fighting on Paul Smith, head of the Scottish Wing Chun Organisation and as I was there as attendee and participant I thought I’d give it a whirl, in for a penny in for a lap sau, as they say. Using Wing Chun methodology, I was shown how to close the combat range and get into grappling range and go for the takedowns. This being my first ever time in Wing Chun, I found it hard to adjust at first and just kept shooting in for the clinch but after an hour or so I started to get the hang of things and would like to say carried myself off as a decent novice in the art.
First part over, it was time for lunch and onto the ample sized mats courtesy of the Wrestling Club over at Great Clowes Street, Salford and into the hands of Carlson Gracie. Carlson had travelled across with Phil Nearing and Dave Baura(?) and the emphasis was on Vale Tudo style attacks from the ground and the session started off with a basic guillotine defence. From here, the students went on to practice arm bars and kimuras from the guards and got to grips with rear choke attacks. Arm bar drills followed and bearing in mind this was for many their first ever exposure to BJJ, most of the students picked up the techniques pretty quickly.
As ever, the fun came to an end way too soon and the session ended with the usual Q+A’s before photographs and autographs galore. Billy Davidson and Dave Mc Keown ensured that the day went according to plan and between them all, they aim to be bringing Carlson back for more seminars in the near future.
For more info email Billy on [email protected] or Dave on [email protected]. Special thanks to Dave Mc Keown for allowing me to use his pictures from the day, brought about by the death of my old laptop.
The seminar was packed out with over sixty students, with Master Kwok taking the first half of the seminar; Kwok demoed his unique brand of fighting on Paul Smith, head of the Scottish Wing Chun Organisation and as I was there as attendee and participant I thought I’d give it a whirl, in for a penny in for a lap sau, as they say. Using Wing Chun methodology, I was shown how to close the combat range and get into grappling range and go for the takedowns. This being my first ever time in Wing Chun, I found it hard to adjust at first and just kept shooting in for the clinch but after an hour or so I started to get the hang of things and would like to say carried myself off as a decent novice in the art.
First part over, it was time for lunch and onto the ample sized mats courtesy of the Wrestling Club over at Great Clowes Street, Salford and into the hands of Carlson Gracie. Carlson had travelled across with Phil Nearing and Dave Baura(?) and the emphasis was on Vale Tudo style attacks from the ground and the session started off with a basic guillotine defence. From here, the students went on to practice arm bars and kimuras from the guards and got to grips with rear choke attacks. Arm bar drills followed and bearing in mind this was for many their first ever exposure to BJJ, most of the students picked up the techniques pretty quickly.
As ever, the fun came to an end way too soon and the session ended with the usual Q+A’s before photographs and autographs galore. Billy Davidson and Dave Mc Keown ensured that the day went according to plan and between them all, they aim to be bringing Carlson back for more seminars in the near future.
For more info email Billy on [email protected] or Dave on [email protected]. Special thanks to Dave Mc Keown for allowing me to use his pictures from the day, brought about by the death of my old laptop.
