Eddie Kone guest instructor at Combat Base Bolton, Sunday March 30thThe old saying ‘time flies’ certainly rings true for the Fighting Photographer and Eddie Kone; in what feels like the blink of an eye, four years has passed since we last hooked up in London, where we spent a weekend training together, calling in at Marc Walder’s club and spending time with Andy Smith from Evolution Fightwear. Four years!
Eddie was invited up as a guest instructor at Combat Base Bolton, to take a three hour no gi class, showcasing the Royler Gracie/David Adiv style of jiu jitsu that Eddie teaches at his club in East London six days a week. Eddie and Royler share the same weight and build and their jiu jitsu reflects their unique teaching styles and methodologies and is a very unique style of jiu jitsu.
Holding nothing back in the session, Eddie took a quick warm up and went straight into technique work; starting with the double leg, Eddie showed a number of ways to take your man down and from this position, Eddie showed a sequence of moves from the ground, including taking the opponent’s back and gaining mount position.
From the mount, Eddie showed a number of ways to enhance the position and correctly and effectively increase weight distribution to make life difficult for the man underneath. This method was also demonstrated from the side control position, a few adjustments to make the position stronger for the man on top, before moving to the mount position itself.
From the mount, the s-mount was given the Eddie Kone treatment, showing a number of submissions, as well as well as ways of tightening up the s-mount, plus a few ‘what if’ scenarios, Eddie always asking for questions from the students at each position.
Satisfied everyone was au fait with each move and position, Eddie looked at the half guard, with a number of ways of passing the position with minimum effort and a few cool ways of taking the back from the half guard. Once again, Eddie went through ways of tightening up the half guard and a number of escapes and counters.
Then the fun began. Eddie was recently at a weekend training session in Washington, USA, where Royce Gracie hosted his 2nd annual gathering, which boasted Royler, Ralek, Rodrigo Gracie as well as Saulo and Xande Ribeiro in attendance, with 200 brown and black belts in attendance. Holding nothing back, Eddie showed a number of counters to common submission attempts that were only showcased at the event in the US, barely a month old, these new moves had been developed by the likes of Saulo and Xande and Royler and impressed everyone in the class, myself included. You can’t get fresher than that!
No secret moves with Eddie, he tried to show as much of the new material as he could and from there went on to show more neat ways of countering common submission attempts, once again real slick and impressive moves to be playing with, quoting from Royler, saying that what the man can do on the top, the guy underneath can also do, showing an attack from the top and then a counter to the attack from the top and that no matter what position you are in, there WILL be a counter, it’s a matter of spending time in looking for these moves, they exist, they will be there!
A question and answer session ended the technical side of the session, going well over the finishing time and there was still time for rolling; after a four year absence, Eddie and myself had three rounds of fun, fast paced rolling, Eddie always smiling and flowing from position to position with ease, with him avoiding a sub by the skin of his teeth from yours truly (damn stopwatch!) though I’m sure it’s wishful thinking on my part!
A quick march into town followed, where we refuelled at the local tapas bar and I made interview history with my first ever interview conducted by candlelight in the restaurant, what can I say?!
One thing’s for sure, it’s sure as hell not gonna be another four years until we meet again! Eddie will be coming back to the club in the near future for another guest slot at the club, where he will be passing on more of his unique style of jiu jitsu, that has given him a first class reputation not only in the UK, but in Europe and the States, where he received high praise from Ralek Gracie himself after his weekend in Washington.
In addition to the session, attendees were also graced with the presence of pro MMA fighter Ian Butlin from Quannum Gym, where Ian kindly took time out of his fight preparation schedule to come down and support the event with his brother Andy, as well as UFC veteran Ian Freeman, who is also preparing to face Paul Cahoon in Cage Rage 26 in May. Thanks guys!
For more info on Eddie check out www.rgda-uk.com