20-05-19 Kingsley: Tournament

Monday 20th May 2019

Two stripes on his belt and Kingsley prepares for his first Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament in early July. He will be representing @gfteambondi in his weight division.

The minute we got to class today Coach Raf asked to see Kingsley just the two of them on the mat. At first I thought Raf was about to scold him (for past misdemeanors) but I was refreshingly surprised: he wanted to give Kingsley techniques on how to manoeuvre out of a near-submission. Kept on repeating ‘you do not want to get submitted King; you must always get out from under your opponent…’

Coach Mike awarded only one stripe today – to little Maddie. She’s got three stripes now. And as Mike reinforce with the 4-7 year olds, he’s looking for discipline and skill when awarding stripes. Maddie was on fire listening to instruction and applying her learning in jousts. Kingsley on the other hand is a big blonde Labrador puppy all tail and big feet flopping about.

The kid wants to let loose in class but he can’t! He was able to straight after class though when Jiji surprised us with a visit to the Dojo…