Archive for September, 2007

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) – it may sound like a painful method of hair removal, but it’s one of the fastest growing martial arts in the world. At the foundation of the growing Mixed Martial Arts craze – the craze that looks set to overtake boxing as the worlds most popular combat sport- BJJ is widely held to be the most effective fighting style on the planet. And Brent Lang of the Howick GroundControl BJJ club is now the Heavyweight Australasian champion.

Brent recently traveled to Melbourne with coach Michael Fooks and 3 other competitors from GroundControl to compete in the Will/Machado Australasian championships. Will/Machado is the largest BJJ organization outside of Brazil.

With competitors coming from all over Australia, Auckland, Napier, Wellington Christchurch and even Malaysia it was a significant event.

Although this was Brent’s first effort at competing outside of his club, an illustrious career in rugby means that he is no stranger to competition.

“In many ways Brent is the ideal student” says coach Mike Fooks, “he is friendly, treats others with the utmost respect and takes instruction very well. But once he steps on the competition mat his focus is scary to behold.”

That focus was evident in Brent’s quick victories. It took him only a total of 2 minutes and 18 seconds to submit his opponents with choke holds – barely 1/5^th of the allotted time.

So what does he put it down to? “I put a lot of work into it, I’ve had really good coaching, and great support from the team in the club and my family. And also a big dedication, I’ve been doing a lot of training outside of BJJ as well, speed work, stamina work so it’s been quite a committed effort, planned out and executed.”

There is no doubting the effectiveness of the execution. And with Brent’s wife just starting her own training, GroundControl about to open children’s classes and 3 Lang children waiting in the wings – there may be more trophy’s yet to find their place in the Lang home.