Hello BJJ Underground, it is I, the Ginger Ninja, and I have a full report on my evenings training with Antonio Estepanian.
Firstly I want to start out by saying that I was a bit of a childish troll in this thread when it started and since going to train in Guildford martial arts center, I kind of feel my behavior was not that of a thirty something martial artist and for that I apologies (not to anyone in particular but more the team I represent).
I know what many of you are thinking, "shut it already ginge and get to the good stuff. Did you smash him and did he say who gave him his belt"? All of which I'll get to. But firstly, after seeing how upset and distraught Antonios wife was, I promised her that all I was going to do was to present what I found honestly, fairly and unbiasedly.
Firstly, arriving at his dojo (I'm only a blue belt for what it's worth, so clearly not bullet proof and a half decent grappler could of left me with a broken arm, out of anger about the situation, so I did get last minute butterflies, but then had a quick shot of 'man the fuck up' and went in.
Once inside, I have to say that the facility was pretty awesome and the staff were all really friendly. Antonio himself met me as I walked through the door and again was very welcoming. To my right were a bunch of MMA guys that were fairly new to Gi BJJ (like 4-8 months on average) and again, were all polite enough, although it turned out that they were waiting for a group of brown and black belts to actually turn up 'dojo storm style'and take his belt from him.
So from their perspective, I get the feeling that Dan and I were kind of, well, an anti climax for them?
(That's just how it seemed/felt).
I was very upfront about my motives for being there and I was very friendly the whole time (as were they). I said I was going to write a blog post, but my blog seems to be down and so I'm just posting it here.
The first thing that I didn't like was the fact that Antonios wife was constantly taking pictures of myself and Dan (I know I'm sexy, but it felt a bit over kill), on her smart phone. She looked very uneasy at first and restless.
The warm up started and it was standard stuff. Jogging, rolls etc and then some stretching (the stretching was actually very good and this 41yr old guy put me to shame).
After this he showed the class just one takedown and one submission and then it was sparring. Although this is not what I'm used to, I hear in Brazil it's often the case that only one or two techniques are ever taught per class (I've never been so can't say from first hand experience) and the class was only an hour long, so could of been a time issue. One thing that bothered me a little was Antonios wife again with the pictures. Antonio demonstrated some moves on Dan and myself and his wife was taking pictures of this. I am being factual in this write up and I hope she does the same and doesn't start posting them as evidence that he smashed us, as it really was just him demonstrating take downs and a kimora to the class (oh and if the kimora didn't work, he did some rear naked on me that I think she snapped too).
Straight away Antonio picked me to spa with for the first round. The first thing that struck me -- for a class that was so small -- was he only wanted to do 2 minute rounds. Again, I don't know if this is normal for his class or not, I'm just used to five minutes, or if Wilson is pissed about living in the UK that day, ten to 15 minutes ha ha. But I digress.
The round began and Antonio pulled guard which (again, I'm just being honest Antonios wife, don't hate me) I passed in seconds to side control, then to knee on belly, to mount and then attacked for a choke which he defended and then I finished in close to a straight arm lock (me applying to him) as the 2 minute round ended. I think it's fair to say that I was totally dominant in this round. But I also want to point out that I'm ten years younger than him and about 15kg heavier.
After this he sadly injured his elbow and couldn't spar anymore and I sparred with about 6 white belts (not all at the same time). To be perfectly honest, they were very good for their level of experience. For 8 months tops of Gi training, they really could grapple (read into that what you will).
Sadly in my last round, I pulled something in my back and was unable to continue. Antonio, the staff and his wife were all lovely and fetched me water, pain relief and were very attentive.
After the class I asked Antonio if I could have five minutes to ask him some questions, he immediately said sure and we went and sat down. I told him that I only know of his gym from the BJJ UG witch hunt and that there is only one question that needs answering and it all goes away (the witch hunt). At this point I could see his wife getting upset and distressed. I was as empathetic as I could be and she walked out of the room. Antonio asked me what is was that I wanted to know, so I asked "who gave you your brown belt?" He said he trained all over the place and essentially never answered the question. I asked again, "yes I get that but the UK BJJ community just want to know who your instructor was that promoted you and I'd love to put your side of the story to them" He then said that he was upset about pictures of his wife being on facebook and that's not the way of a martial artist. I agreed and said there have been some childish antics but in the interests of stopping it, all you need to do is tell them who gave you your belt and it all goes away, you get on teaching and your wife stops being so upset. He responded that he's just coming back to training after a motorbike accident and again never gave me a straight answer to a simple question.
At that point I could see that I wasn't going to get an answer and so decided to leave things in as friendly vibe as I could.
In short, the gym in lovely, the staff are really nice, Antonio seems like a nice guy, his wife is visibly distraught by the whole thing. Does that make him a legit brown belt? Well I'm not the judge or jury, I'm just a Carlson Gracie blue belt that thought this would be an interesting story.
I'll leave it with you guys.
Train hard, tap before you snap, Ooooooosssssssssssss
Ginger Ninja
