BJJ Black Belt – Geoff Grant
An extensive profile of GSW and Geoff can be found here >>
I first met John Will while in Australia in October 1995. I, along with my good friend and training partner Ko, travelled to Geelong for a private lesson with John.
In 1996 Ko and I once again travelled to Geelong for a seminar, this time with the legendary Jean Jaques Machado at the Geelong academy. It was an experience that I would never forget.
The seminar with Jean Jacques was great and John’s Geelong guy’s were unreal. Their skill level on the mat was beyond anything that I had expected and left me stunned and speechless for days. They kicked our arses! Ko and I made the mistake of going to Geelong in our Zen Do Kai shoot Wrestling uniforms and worse than that we put on our Zen Do Kai Black Belts
At the time I was training in the Martial Art Zen Do Kai and was a 3rd Dan Black Belt.. in 1996 I was forced to preform two High Dan Gradings in one day. Although I passed the gradings and was awarded both a 4 Dan and a 5th Dan in the space of a few minutes the events of that day left me questioning the whole process and direction of my training.
In 1999 John Will contacted me about the possibility of running a BJJ seminar in Wellington. I jumped at the opportunity and GSW was born.
BJJ is now a huge part of my life and GSW is now in two locations with affiliates around New Zealand.
Gone are the “traditions” of the Martial Arts, there is no bowing or learning Japanese, there are no gradings, all ranks are awarded based on ability on the mat. There are no extra fees, just your monthly AP.. thats it no hidden costs. We don’t spend 30 mins warming up or do 100s of push ups or sit ups. Everything that “normal” Martial Arts use to fill out there classes has no place at GSW. Just BJJ thats it.
