This month Roger Gracie Black Belt, Kev Capel, recalls his first encounters with MMA/Jiu Jitsu and the individuals who have inspired him.
I started BJJ in 2001 with Legendary Black Belt Mauricio Gomes who is now one of a select few red and Black Belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Mauricio was one of just a few people promoted to Black Belt By the late Rolls Gracie, collectively they are known as the famous 5. Rolls is often described as the champion of the family, the guy that mentored Rickson, the innovator of BJJ, and when I have been fortunate to be present when Mauricio has spoken of him you are left with no doubt that he was an incredible martial artist that had a profound effect on everyone that trained with him. I knew little of Mauricio when I started training with him but now with over a decade under his guidance, I’m left in no doubt he too is an incredible martial artist and human being that has effected my life and many others in a positive way beyond measure. Mauricio Gomes is the Godfather of UK BJJ.
I wasn’t the first guy to start training BJJ in the UK by a long way, Mauricio started teaching in the UK in 1998 and by the time I started the UK already had Blue Belts!! Having been asked to share some early UK BJJ memories Ive decided to tell what led me to Mauricio and BJJ.
I guess my very first introduction to MMA was in 1995, I was in the Army based near Salisbury Plain and I was invited to a friends room to watch some tapes of a new underground no rules competition, Kickboxer style. I declined; although I enjoyed a Jean-Claude Van Damme film as much as the next squaddie I had a certain amount of disdain for martial arts in general. Let me explain, I always considered myself a boxer, I had a couple of amateur fights under 16 years old and was on more than one Regimental boxing team during my 10 years in the Army and I had seen many a ‘black belt’ come unstuck during boxing tryouts and NAAFI punch ups. I hasten to add that I have since learned that it probably wasn’t the style of martial art that was poor but much more likely that the practitioner didn’t train regularly at a reputable gym if at all!
I enquired later as to the result of the fights and a friend told me ‘some new york cop’ had won it, I remember thinking ‘man how tough are new york cops!!’ (I have since watched UFC 1 – 10 a million times and now know that the tape that the lads had watched was obviously UFC 3 where Royce was forced to retire after his war with Kimo, and Steve Jennum ended up entering as an alternate and smashed Harold Howard in the final – also Steve wasn’t a New York Cop but a Nebraskan Cop). So I didn’t experience the whole little guy in a Gi strangling everyone excitement and pretty much forgot about all this until 5 years later.
Fast forward 4 years and I had left the Army and was getting out of shape and a beer belly on a skinny guy was not a look I wanted to try and pull off so I was thinking about starting some boxing again. Not with competition in mind (I never really enjoyed the build up to fights) but just to keep me in shape, my partner Yasmine suggested I try some kickboxing instead as she knew a club near by. I trained an odd blend of kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do with some Tai Chi and Kung Fu mixed in. This wasn’t exactly a professional club with deep roots or real experience but very typical of a lot of clubs in the area that I worked my way around. To be honest, I didn’t really know any different and I guess you have to start some where, but I always felt like something was missing from what was being taught. I could think of at least 50 guys in each regiment I had served with that would beat most of these martial artists with out ever needing to attend a single lesson, this nagged at me.
Early in 2000 a flat mate suggested that if I was serious about training martial arts then I should go and train with Neil Mcleod, Neil lived and taught in Aylesbury where I also worked and lived. I started a new job in a gym and one of the guys there trained with Neil and invited me along.
The difference in the training was incredible. This was what I was looking for, there was realism in the technique, realism in the training and a camaraderie that reminded me of the Army and if I’m honest something that was missing from my civvy life.
I didn’t have access to the internet in early 2000 so I couldn’t just google Neil’s name and see who he trained with but his skill was so evident that I continued training with him at every opportunity which was daily on some occasions and soon learned of his pedigree. Neil travelled to LA twice a year at this time to train with Dan Innosanto, Bruce Lee’s good friend and training partner – I mean he’s the guy with the sticks in Game of Death!! Bruce Lee kicks his ass with nunchucks while wearing that yellow suit! To me this was martial arts royalty! I was now in 100%.
Neil invited me to a Bob Breen summer camp in 2000 held in Dartford, Bob was one of the most highly respected martial artists in the UK at this time (still is today) and had a full time place in Dartford where every summer you could train all weekend with the most accomplished guys the country had to offer. Terry Barnett, Rick Young, Bob Breen, Winston Fraser, Neil Mcleod and David Onumo were just a few of the names I can remember that taught at that seminar. On the last day after god knows how many hours of training Rick Young was going to teach, I vaguely remember that he was going to teach some JKD Trapping (Rick Young has Incredible trapping skills) but a lot of the guys were asking about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and would he teach some, whatever the case we ended up putting some judo mats that had been stacked in the corner all weekend out on the floor – it was a busy summer camp and there were not many mats so I think we shared 4 guys to one judo mat with plenty of banging knees and elbows on the wooden floor. Rick was a blue belt at the time in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which everyone told me was a very high rank for a UK born guy, I knew nothing about BJJ and still hadn’t watched the UFC yet as Id been focusing on JKD and Bruce Lee’s training methodologies. Rick Taught an arm bar and triangle from the guard although it didn’t make much sense to me, I just couldn’t see the shapes if that makes sense but there was something intriguing about what we were doing and I already had the upmost trust and respect for the guys teaching at the camp so I rightly assumed the lack of understanding was because it was new to me and I wanted to do more so I could understand it more, I asked Rick where I could do more of this and he said ‘to be honest theres not many places doing this yet but a local judo club is a good place to start training in grappling and they also train in the Gi so you’ll get something similar’ (Rick is also a black belt in Judo and trains with international players on a regular basis).
So just after the summer of 2000 I started Judo, there was also a lot of talk on the camp about the UFC so I ordered the tape and like everyone else that watched the tapes at this time had that WTF moment and started to grapple at every opportunity. In late 2000 I went to Edinburgh with Neil to train at a Dan Innosanto weekend being hosted by Rick Young. I trained under the guidance of Dan Innosanto, Eric Paulson, Rick Young, Neil Mcleod and we even had some of the Scottish Judo team drop in and teach some ground techniques. Dan Innosanto was a brown belt in BJJ at the time and he showed some drills and positions and at 65years old I was blown away with his fluidity on the ground. I needed to start BJJ! Even though I had been training with Neil for less than a year I was starting to get a feel for what was often called functional martial arts, sometimes MMA or combat submission wrestling were the terms used and often still this was all called Jeet Kune Do, but like Bruce Lee said don’t get caught up with the name.
On the way back from Edinburgh, Neil was telling me about his upcoming MMA fight in High Wycombe, Neil had already had 1 MMA fight in March 2000 just before I started training with him, making him a true pioneer in UK MMA. I offered to work the corner for the upcoming fight as I’d done this before whilst boxing and as his corner man was also fighting on the show he agreed an extra pair of hands would be helpful. December 2000 and within a couple of months of watching the UFC for the first time I was at an event at High Wycombe Judo centre with what seemed like a load of football hooligans and guys fighting in very tight shorts. There was intermittent crowd trouble and during the interval Dave Courtney raffled off a knuckle duster for children in need! Neil Fought Danny Batten in a 3 round war that ended with Danny catching Neil in an arm bar in what is still one of the best fights in UK MMA history. It was a very inspiring experience with notable names of UK MMA on that card such as Mark Weir, Gaz Roriston, Alex Evans and Alex Reid. Once more I was in 100%. I spoke to the promoter that night and asked to fight on the next show – he said yes with out asking for any credentials – brilliant.
The next show was scheduled for October 2001 so I had some time to train. I turned up to training with Neil at some point early in 2001, I was now training daily, he said ‘you still interested in doing some BJJ? There’s a guy called Mauricio Gomes just started near Marylebone Station and apparently he’s legit.’ Marylebone station has a direct link to it from Aylesbury and was just an hour ride so with an MMA fight booked in for 9 months time I figured this was as good a time as any to start supplementing my 11months of JKD and 4 months of Judo with some BJJ (finally).
I had a day off work so I jumped on the train and headed for Seymour leisure Centre near Marylebone station.
I arrived on time and was shown the changing room, I was greeted with a changing room full of what seemed like mostly Brazilians talking in Portuguese very loudly. They were standing around in tight MMA shorts the same as a lot of the fighters on the Wycombe MMA show Millennium Brawl had been wearing. It was like a scene from Day of Zen (although I hadn’t seen this documentary yet) and was about as intimidating as you could get in a north London leisure centre.
The guys hardly paid me any attention at all as I put on my Blitz Judo Gi and tied my white belt.
The first part of the lesson was a bit of a blur except how massive and friendly Mauricio was, we did some guard drills, pretty sure we did some technical stand ups and lots and lots of sit ups.
Then came the sparring. Bearing in mind I had my first ABA bout in 1986 when I was 11 with 8oz gloves and no head guards, I had boxed a fair amount in the army and been training with guys connected directly to Bruce Lee for the last 12 months it is very difficult for me to put in to words exactly how unprepared I was for the arse kicking I got. I got choked A LOT. I got armbarred A LOT and I’m pretty sure my ribs were squashed completely flat at one point. I clearly remember thinking I’m glad that this isn’t prison.
I pretty much crawled back to the train station after Mauricio had patted me on the back and laughed, saying ’make sure you come back sir’.
I sat on the train tired and emotional from exhaustion, I was fit again now, very fit as it happens, I had started running again in preparation for my fight and was beating old times from when I was in the Army, but in Jiu Jitsu the harder I fought the more I got tapped and if I didn’t put up much of a fight I got tapped even quicker!! It was clear there was something different here – almost magic, I couldn’t see me beating a blue belt if the fight went to the ground in a million years and I had seen the UFC and the guy with one boxing glove so I wasn’t arrogant enough to think that I could guarantee to knock these guys out.
As the train left Marylebone for Aylesbury I figured I had 2 choices 1. Pretend that the BJJ lesson never happened and hope that this BJJ thing would pass as some kind of fad or 2. Accept that I knew nothing about this part of a fight or BJJ as an art and throw myself in completely. Once again I was in 100%.
A huge thanks to Kev for taking the time to send us his story. You can find Kev at RGA Bucks where he teaches, click here if you would like to contact the club.
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