Diccon Lynes - Kingston BJJ

In 1995, I watched UFC 1 and like many others was impressed with Royce Gracie's fighting prowess. I started buying very expensive VHS video tapes from Brazil and my friends and I tried to understand and acquire the techniques on a living room floor without mats. I started to go to Judo clubs and a Freestyle wrestling club, to get an understanding of groundwork, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu hadn't yet arrived in the UK.

In 2006, I decided to finally learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, at the age of 36. I was only interested in the positions and how to escape when trapped underneath someone. I bought Royler and Renzo Gracie's book, Theory and Technique, which was shipped over from America. The book has an excellent belt by belt chapter format - from white to black belt and this was very inspiring. I decided I wanted to be a black belt.

Royler Gracie's book has a fantastic Introduction where he describes how he was lucky to grow up in a family of fighters with many brothers. He encourages you to create your own Jiu Jitsu family - so I asked several colleagues at work if they would be interested in me teaching them, they liked the idea, so we spent £500 on mats and started training most lunchtimes, including 40 minute continuous sparring sessions. This helped me fall in love with BJJ, so I suppose I've been teaching for 18 years. I taught one of my colleagues virtually every lunchtime for 6 years and he then attended an academy in Fulham and was given his blue belt within two weeks, which was rewarding for me.

If you have an interest in sport BJJ or want to learn how to defend yourself using Jiu Jitsu, please contact me. Lots contact me explaining they have been interested for quite a long time and wish they'd contacted me sooner. Don't think you need to be very fit, very few that visit us are. The environment at Kingston BJJ is all about education and having a nice evening - so your first lesson will be memorable and enjoyable.

My number one tip for beginners is: train consistently, come along twice a week and don't miss a session. Progress is gradual and skipping training sessions does not help you progress.

At Kingston BJJ we equally work on sport/competition focused Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Gracie Jiu Jitsu self defence. I am taught self defence-based Jiu Jitsu by my teacher, Eddie Kone, who was Royler Gracie's first European black belt.

The sport BJJ we practice is fantastic for the mind and body but is more recreational, a very fun and enjoyable way to stay fit and healthy. There are overlaps with the self defence techniques we learn and practice. There are takedowns but they are more suited to competitions.

The Gracie Jiu Jitsu self defence we practice is entirely based around street self defence and defences against surprise attacks. A large part of our training is based on standing scenarios, and we have many techniques dedicated to standing AND ground-based headlock defence. Our self defence system includes a street self defence guard, defences against kicks and punches and many forms of distance closing, clinches and takedowns.

Whatever you want from Jiu Jitsu, we can help you achieve it. We offer the perfect balance between sport BJJ and Jiu Jitsu self defence.

We can help you tick all boxes: learn sport competition focused BJJ, learn Jiu Jitsu self defence, lose weight, get fit, make friends, find a focus and direction, adopt the Jiu Jitsu lifestyle, work towards being an athlete, re-find your former best and become the best version of yourself.