Fort BJJ club is fighting fit for 2019
The Ultimate Fighting Challenge series of broadcast mixed martial arts fights has seen the sport boom in recent years.
One of the big beneficiaries has been Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which many of the top professional fighters include in their repertoire of skill sets.
Here in Lochaber, Fort BJJ is a ‘No Gi’ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu club based in Fort William, whose members mainly train in the 10th Planet System founded by Eddie Bravo in the United States.
10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu is a non-traditional style which eschews the use of the familiar white gi uniforms, recognisable from other martial arts such as judo and karate.
Fort BJJ has been going for nearly three years now, with a coaching team of Eddie Lopez, Miguel Alvarez, Stuart Fraser and Paul MacGillivray.
Although not an official 10th Planet school, Fort BJJ is an affiliated club under Steven Thompson of 10th Planet Glasgow and as such is the only club in the Highlands were students can train in the 10th Planet system, which now has more than 100 schools around the world.
It was in 2003, after earning a black belt under BJJ legend Jean-Jacques Machado, that Bravo opened his first 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu school in Los Angeles.
Bravo’s system emphasises developing students for submission-only grappling competition rather than points.
Fort BJJ members train in the town’s Nevis Centre where the club has its own matted space.
Members are aged from 16 upwards and the club accepts both male and female members.
Lopez told the Lochaber Times: ‘We are very lucky in that we have a very strong link with the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu school in Glasgow, with our members regularly making trips down to train and, in return, brown belt Steven Thompson, coming up from Glasgow.’
With 18 members on the books, Fort BJJ is steadily growing in strength with a number of its students competing in a mixture of submission-only and submission/points-based tournaments.
Members have visited – and been visited by – clubs and students from as far apart as Ireland, Amsterdam, Berlin and Croatia, to name just a few. Not all of its members, however, take part in competition bouts, with the club also welcoming those who wish to train simply for fitness and self defence.
Fighter
Lopez himself comes from a Muay Thai background and also spent four years as a fighter with Lochaber Boxing Club from 2008 onwards.
A company director who is also a retained firefighter, he says people’s reasons for wanting to try out BJJ are always different.
‘We are a very welcoming club with a great atmosphere. There is none of the bowing and that you strange find in foreign more traditional terms martial arts such as karate and judo. ‘We are very relaxed. We do have grades but that’s not what it is all about for us. We are about learning and evolving and finding ways of grappling which are as efficient as possible. ‘You will certainly get fitter and will see big improvements in your flexibility and suppleness. Everyone has their own personal goals.’ Lopez says the club is exploring female-only classes for later this year and, with each class only costing £5 and a monthly seminar for those who want to attend just an extra £20, it means some of the best martial arts and combat sports training in the
BJJ
Highlands is available right here in Fort William.
For anyone wishing to find out more, Fort BJJ has a strong online social media presence with its Facebook page boasting numerous videos and photos to give visitors a good idea of what is involved.
Lopez added: ‘What I love about this system is the sense of freedom you get, of people training together in a friendly way, evolving, helping each other get better.’