The story of my trip around the world to train, teach and compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and other grappling arts.


First Cyprus trainings are in the books

This afternoon, I had our first training here in Farmagusta, Cyprus. Most of the guys were in school, so we were only a small group, which suited me fine.

AcademyCyprus is the first and, so far, only BJJ gym on the Island. Selman and his wife has started it without any instruction, but what they have been able to find on the internet. So the gym is really just taking it’s baby steps with the instructors being beginners themselves. It is interesting to be here and help them out a bit, sharing my experience both in regards of teaching and in how to build up a gym from bottom.

The island is an interesting place with an interesting history. We went for a bit of sightseeing today to the beach, ancient roman ruins of a wrestling hall / bathhouse (awesome, will post more about that later), a giant ghost town (scary!) and the (really) old town.

In the evening, we had a larger group. Most of them were beginners, some of them even had their first class there, so it was a little challenge to make everything work. We did lots of sparring (=I sparred with everyone, phew) in the end, and I think all the participants enjoyed that though.

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