http://www.adcombat.com/Article.asp?Article_ID=17201

Thanks Jake!

With all of those people, starting kids early, government support, all of their good wrestlers and Judokas...China can become a BJJ force!!

We shall see. I can't wait to hear what the "traditionalists", who have been berating BJJ for years, have to say about this!

China is one of the "powers" in Judo. Making the transition to focus more on newaza(BJJ), should be quite easy.

Chinese people (culturally, generally) despise most things Japanese, including Judo, which they didn't really start seriously competing in until the 80's. Their women are some of the best.

Culturally popular or not, if you can get an athletic scholarship for it in a country of 1+ Billion, they are gonna produce some top athletes. Not tomorrow, but in 5-10 years.

The problem with this is that there is no major international contest; not 'officially' sanctioned. No Olympics. So, what would the Chinese be fighting for? Do they care about the ADCC or Mundials?

it's also really hard to was those uniforms by hand! Those tiny washing machines can't even handle the jacket.

I don't see this spreadin outside Shanghai, w/the exception to the dojo in beijing that caters to foreigners and Chinese people in Chaoyang. TKD and Wu Shu are imprinted in the minds of the Chinese people as the best martial arts on the planet. It'll take a lot to convince them otherwise.

Nothing a well placed Mata Leo, or Go Go Plata could not convince;)

Maybe if Da Shan did a promo for it on CCTV it might catch on?

if hk is technically china then

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JvF03K1-Ia4

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=59hpruxNlMM&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bX3Cdo6WPes&feature=related

It looks like being a Bruce Lee impersonator is no match for the BJJ.

that's what happens when you wear the cup on the outside of your pants.

ha, i wonder who was gonna attack that first, Bob Dos you never disappoint

ha, never what?

BOB
for you the cup is always half empty

thats what happens when you try to fit a watermellon into a pastry bowl.

Thomas, who is the head guy at the Hong Kong BJJ club, is "good people" (in addition to being a skilled BJJ person). I remember him going out of his way to help Taiwan BJJ at several of the tournaments that I was at. Thomas acted as an official for almost the whole day (when I presume he would have rather been coaching his guys or just cooling his heels on the sideline) and always made a point of bringing a good group of competitors to the Taiwan BJJ tourneys.

Hong Kong is lucky to have him.

take care,
Brian

I just saw this topic... Nice to see Thomas, he was my first BJJ teacher and like Brian mentioned, is not only skilled but a super stand up guy.

Nice to see the videos... for those interested, they are a few clips out of many of him and some of his students fighting local kung fu guys. They won every fight by submission or TKO.

Thomas has also trained CMA (Wu TJQ and Mantis) and was a british heavy weight full contact kung fu champion, before he got into BJJ and MMA. I believe he was the first "official" HK BJJ teacher with a school. He now co-runs the Kylin martial arts school in Hong Kong and Macau. People the HK or Macau should check him out.