DEAN IS LIVING THE DREAM AT ARNKELL
Popular Jiu Jitsu academy goes from strength to strength in Arklow
BRENDAN LAWRENCE at Arnkell Jiu Jitsu Academy
ONE of the first things you notice about Dean Barry is the calmness.
Stepping through the doors of the well-proportioned Arnkell Jiu Jitsu Academy in Arklow of a Thursday evening, you’re met with the energy and noise that 20-odd children bring to any occasion and there in the middle of it all are the coaches, Dean Barry and Brian Kelly, looking effortlessly calm, controlling the energy, guiding the young patrons in the skills of the sport that Dean Barry quite simply lives and breathes.
For the most part, the lesson is filled with the enthusiastic voices of the coaches, extolling the virtues and pointing out where improvements can be made. Occasionally there’s a need for a stern tone to return order and bring a mischievous scamp back from the edge of divilment, but mostly there’s openness and the unmistakable sounds of children who are really happy. That’s a sound that can’t be faked.
The Arnkell Jiu Jitsu Academy is open seven days a week, and it is thriving. There are four classes for young children every week, two for teenagers, there are three fitness classes, 15 Jiu Jitsu classes for adults and plenty of fun and learning for good measure.
Head coach Dean Barry wants to spread the Jiu Jitsu gospel. As well as the sport being hugely beneficial to a person’s fitness levels, Dean feels that the benefit in terms of self-confidence, self defence, respect, humility and sporting passion is massive, and that it is a sport that is open to everyone regardless of athleticism or size or speed.
The Arklow native is a brown belt, one away from the black, and has given the last 10 years of his life to the sport, winning European and British National titles on the way. He still competes, training in Dublin with his coach Daragh O’Connell of East Coast Jiu Jitsu Academy in Monkstown three days a week, before hightailing it back down the motorway to be there in time to welcome in the first flock of Jiu Jitsu disciples at 4.15pm.
It all started for Dean when he took up MMA in 2009 with some friends. A dislike of getting punched in the head and a real connection with Jiu Jitsu directed him down a path that now sees him doing this as a full-time job, but watching Dean Barry in action on the mat as he coaches a class of children would tell you that this is more of a vocation than a job. This is living the dream.
“I started doing MMA in 2009. We were kind of part-time, nothing too serious. There was a group of us. I had four pro fights, the other lads had the same or a few more. We always enjoyed the training, we travelled around different places trying to compete as much as we could,” said Dean.
“We were in the Leisure Centre, over there at the running track, we were in there twice a week and at the weekend we would try go up to Dublin to train or out to one of the lads’ sheds to train or something like that. So that was the origins of it. I gave up MMA, I didn’t want to do the cage anymore, I wanted to just do Jiu Jitsu. I started Jiu Jitsu full-time in 2011, which is a traditional way, you wear the gi, the uniform, and that would be considered Jiu Jitsu at its purest, there’s nothing else involved. I’ve been doing that since then, I haven’t had to take any time off, aside from the odd month here and there from injury.
“There was training in Dublin four or five times a week, just up and down, just competing all over Europe, Ireland, the UK, and then in 2015 I was getting heavily involved in teaching Jiu Jitsu in Arklow, in a smaller little spot, we were just renting by the night, you know, you pay your tenner for the hall and that was it. Then the numbers were growing and growing, and I was kind of between jobs, I was transitioning from one to the other, so I said to myself if I can give this 100 per cent of the effort I’m going to get 100 per cent of the return off it, which is the members. That’s kind of how I phased it in and phased it out.
“It’s difficult to open straight away and just put something brand new, so I think you need to do it part-time, and phase it in then. We’ve been here doing it fulltime since January 2016, classes seven days a week, kids teams, adults. There are four kids classes a week, two teenage classes, three fitness classes and there’s 15 Jiu Jitsu classes for adults. I’m here every day. On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday I go up to train with my coach in Dublin. I’m up there from 12 to 2pm, get back here for 3.30pm, get some food, and then we’re straight into the classes, get home then about 9.30 or 10pm.
“I know it’s a cliché to say that it’s not a job if you love it, but it genuinely is a job (I love). If all these kids here, if there was no fee, or membership, obviously you need to make money for yourself to survive, but I’d still be teaching Jiu Jitsu regardless of the money part of it.
For Dean there’s an honesty and an integrity to the sport of Jiu Jitsu that seems to really suit his personality. He believes that the sport boils down to technique and that that is something that levels the playing field in terms of size and athletic ability, opening the sport to a wider spectrum. All those things and the not getting punched in the head made the decision an easy one.
“Not getting punched in the head is a big thing. You definitely end up with a sore neck and a sore back and sore hands doing Jiu Jitsu, but, I think it separates from getting punched in the head and kicked in the head, because we can go 100 per cent here every night, train, try choke each other, try arm bar each other, full lock each other, and you’d never know any different the next day. If you’re boxing or kickboxing or whatever 100 per cent every night of the week there’s a price to be paid. And long-term as well, you have the whole brain trauma thing coming to light as well.
“And then Jiu Jitsu itself as a martial art is very humbling. You see some of the kids here and they’re very small. I could pick them with an older student, a taller student, and know that they will be more than capable of looking after themselves, and even getting control and forcing the other person to submit with a choke or an arm lock.
“There’s almost an equality to it. When I go train in Dublin, there’s smaller guys up there who give me a nightmare of a time. So, the big strong thing, if the technique is going to be evenly matched, it’s going to come into it. But a lot of people, you’ll see the smaller guys, when they come into the gym, they have no strength anyway, so they’re going to have to learn proper technique anyway, it pays off dividends in a year or two. You could be a great athlete, but the best Jiu Jitsu guys I know are highly unathletic people, but they’re very smart on the mat, they’re technical.
There’s an informal atmosphere to Jiu Jitsu. Dean explains that there is no formal grading system and that making your way up through the belts comes about from a holistic consideration that takes in training, ability, attitude and other aspects.
“I’m a brown belt now. You start as a white belt, I got my blue belt in 2013, I won the European championships as a blue belt, I got my purple belt in 2015 and then my brown belt in 2017. You never fly through belts in Jiu Jitsu. If someone walks in with me and starts training, it’s going to take them 10 years to get a black belt. Everyone wants to get a black belt, but if that’s your primary focus, if you’re driven by it, it’s not going to last you 10 years. You have to want to do it for yourself and enjoy the martial art and what comes with it.
“There’s no formal grading, you see some martial arts and you have to line up and there’s five judges judging you. In Jiu Jitsu it’s more down to the consistency of your training, your competition performances, are you doing well in competition, are you putting the effort in to go to competitions. The big indicator is when you win a competition, if you’re in a division full of blue belts and you’re beating all the blue belts consistently, it’s probably signifying that you’re ready.
“It’s great that way. I always say that some people just don’t test well. There’s a lot of intelligent people and they go into an exam and they have no idea, so that’s a good thing. It’s the same with the kids, we don’t put them through a formal day or a big promotions day, we feel that when they’ve put the work in and the effort in and they’re here for the right reasons that’s when they get rewarded.
“There are some people who like going down the formal way, the promotions day, but I just don’t think it works, and I think this is a fairer system, when people can be judged on effort, consistency, longevity, and their overall interest in what they’re here for. If you look at it from a broader point of view it makes more sense – rather than sitting someone down on Saturday, August 21, and they’re