Andy’s Blog

The Asia trip has been terrific thus far, four weeks of teaching and training away from home has helped a lot.  It’s also great to see so many of the guys that started with me four years ago and despite the fact that they have not had steady instructors the past few years, most of them have remained hard-workers and dedicated to improving themselves on the mats. 

Most of the time has been spent preparing the team to compete in Hong Kong on April 26th and 27th.  There are several clubs set to participate and we expect good competition, especially now that there are so many more Black Belt instructors in the region.  You can almost feel the growth of the sport across Asia as it used to be that only Japan would have veteran BJJ teachers and competitors, but now almost every country that practices the art around here has a good level of instruction.

 I’m also planning on attending the “Contenders Asia” final event, which is set for April 12th in Singapore.  I have not really followed the show, but those of you not familiar with it, it features Muay Thai fighters from around the world and under the same format for the Contenders show we had in America with the boxers.  I’ve only seen bits and pieces, but am following John Wayne Parr who is originally from Australia but has trained and competed extensively in Thailand, as well.  In fact, when I visited Sangtiennoi a few years back, the gym had a bunch of photos of Thai guys on the wall, and then one white guy.  I asked Sangtien who it was and he told me, “John Wayne”, who was one of his best fighters ever, regardless of race, which is saying a lot.  He also mentioned to me that some of the other Thai camps had despised the fact that they were training a non-Thai champion, but Sangtien, being the terrific guy he is, didn’t mind. 

Ironically, I bumped into John Wayne Parr at Erik Paulson’s academy while he was getting ready to do an MMA event.  I immediately recognized him from the photos and we talked a little bit about his training and time in Thailand.  Great guy and hope he continues to do well in Contenders Asia, and will be there to root for him soon.