zaiShanghai

Walking into the gym of Shanghai's Tongji University on Sunday, September 11, 2011, I imme­di­ately encoun­tered an aroma of sweat, pas­sion and thirst–thirst for the prize of the Abu Dhabi Pro Trials for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup, all expenses paid.

Frederic, a stu­dent at Alavanca Gym, one of three major Jiu-Jitsu gyms in Shanghai, was part of the staff at the Abu Dhabi Pro Shanghai Trials. "Abu Dhabi is the biggest Jiu-Jitsu orga­ni­za­tion. It is very excit­ing since this is the sec­ond time China has had qual­i­fi­ca­tions," he explained.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a mar­tial art has been expo­nen­tially ris­ing in pop­u­lar­ity within China for the past few years. Shanghai BJJ, Club Hero, and Alavanca make up the main train­ing groups for Jiu-Jitsu fight­ers in Shanghai. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a mar­tial art derived from a Japanese style of Judo that focuses on ground fight­ing and grap­pling. Fighters use chokes, joint-locks, and joint-manipulations to attempt to force the other to tap out. The most promi­nent and the longest-standing entity within the Jiu-Jitsu world is the leg­endary Gracie Family, which founded BJJ in the sec­ond decade of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury; in the decades that fol­lowed, it became one of the most pop­u­lar sports in the world.

Many coun­tries are rep­re­sented at the Abu Dhabi Pro, but China just only made its first appear­ance last year. To earn the right to rep­re­sent China, the par­tic­i­pants in this tour­na­ment must be Chinese cit­i­zens or at least have a green card. Coach and owner of Shanghai BJJ, Stan Tam explains, “I brought less than ten com­peti­tors today. We were not allowed to bring a lot of for­eign­ers, so most are locals and a few Russians.” Shanghai BJJ has, noto­ri­ously, attracted a large num­ber of expats to its gym since it opened in 2004, but unfor­tu­nately it could not bring all mem­bers who wished to com­pete.

Ralph Pinto Quintal, the head instruc­tor at Alavanca, was the head ref­eree of the event. Ralph was in charge of mak­ing sure all of the rules and reg­u­la­tions fol­lowed EJJ guide­lines. A Jiu-Jitsu fighter from Brazil, Ralph rep­re­sents the top of the Jiu-Jitsu world with a third degree black belt train­ing in Brazil since 1997.   “It is a plea­sure to work with Shanghai, I expect really good com­pe­ti­tion today,” he added right before the start of the tour­na­ment.

All of the fight­ers striv­ing for the grand prize showed an excep­tional amount of per­se­ver­ance and exper­tise. Most have been train­ing for years not only within their gyms but also with each other. The three major gyms are run as three sep­a­rate orga­ni­za­tions, how­ever many of the fight­ers within the Jiu-Jitsu world are friends and train with each other. Everyone trains hard with the same goal of improve­ment, regard­less of what gym they belong to. Schools also imple­ment strate­gies such as bring­ing new instruc­tor in every year, rea­son­ing that dif­fer­ent instruc­tors have some­thing truly unique to offer stu­dents.

In the end, the sense of unity within the gym was amaz­ing. Even as qual­i­fied com­peti­tors fought to win the spot, they all stood together as Shanghai Jiu-Jitsu fight­ers.