Eddie Kone was awarded his black belt from none other than Royler Gracie and is head of the EKBJJ Association that has clubs in the UK, Ireland, Romania and Brazil; as a result of these clubs, Eddie spends a lot of his time travelling to deliver seminars to make sure that his students get the best tuition possible, which in turn sees Eddie travelling the world to hunt down the best teachers on the planet, year in year out.
Eddie was invited to take a gi masterclass at the EKBJJ Northern HQ in Rotherham, at the invite of instructor Mark ‘Monkey’ Bottom; a number of affiliated clubs were also present on the mats, supporting the event and looking forward to an afternoon of quality tuition.
Eddie started the session with a quick warm up comprising of grip fighting, which did not take long for everyone to warm, as we were blessed with that very rare UK phenomenon, a clear and warm sunny day. From the warm up, Eddie highlighted Royler’s trademark ouchi gari takedown and before long, we were onto the ground and to the main part of the session, guard passing.
More Seminar PhotosI have trained with Eddie over the years on various seminars and at his clubs in London and he is one of the most technical instructors around, which isn’t surprising when you consider the fact that he is 65 kilos wet through (his words, not mine). This is one of the main reasons Eddie chose to train under Royler, as he believed his style of jiu jitsu would match Eddie’s body type.
Everything Eddie teaches relies on methodical and progressive technical skills as opposed to brute force and makes for some very slick jiu jitsu; on the topic of guard passing, Eddie covered a number of passes from standing and from the butterfly guard. Eddie showed the ways that people normally pass from these positions and a number of easy counters, before showing the new and improved ways of passing the guard that comes from travelling to train with people like Kron Gracie and Saulo and Xande Ribeiro.
From guard passing, Eddie went on to side control and showed ways to secure a strong side control, before showing a number of ways to get to the mount position and finish them off with a number of submissions. Once again, these were positions everyone were familiar with, but with the updated tips and pointers from Eddie, the students were now armed and dangerous, which led to the conclusion of the seminar – rolling.
With the sun shining and everyone in high spirits, students rolled and tried to put into practice everything Eddie had been teaching that day and I had a great time rolling with old friends from previous seminars and made a number of new friends on the day, which is what it’s all about, making new friends and having fun and of course training jiu jitsu.
Eddie’s main gym is in London and if any of the readers happen to visit the UK, you’ll be made most welcome there and at any of the affiliated clubs in the UK. For more info on Eddie and his style of jiu jitsu visit www.ekbjj.com
Carl Fisher is a UK based freelance BJJ and MMA journalist and photographer and a BJJ purple belt with Combat Base UK.
