A Ballarat aficionado of the martial art of Brazilian jiu jitsu is hoping to raise enough funds to get himself and his coach to Las Vegas for the international Masters Tournament in 2017.
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Tony Watson became a fan of the judo-derived sport as he recovered from injury and was looking for a way to lose weight.
He said growing up watching the films of Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, and Jackie Chan led him to start practising taekwondo when he was 15.
“I stopped when I was 22 due to a knee injury,” says AJ.
“My injury took me out for about a year and I just never got back into it. I sat around doing nothing and the weight piled on. I was 175kg. I was needing a form of exercise that wasn’t too strenuous. I had back injuries because of my weight.”
The 38-year-old credits the sport with getting his weight down and his fitness up.
“I’m down to 92kg now,” he says. “I learned about Brazilian jiu jitsu from John Campbell, a friend I had when I was doing taekwondo. I drove to Melbourne every week to train out of his shed. Then he opened a club in Ballarat.
“I was needing a from of exercise that wasn’t too strenuous. I had back injuries because of my weight. I was overweight and I need a sport to help me lose that weight.”
Brazilian jiu jitsu is a fighting sport which focuses on combatants getting each other onto the floor, giving smaller opponents the chance to overcome larger. It has a series of joint-locks and chokeholds that are derived from early Japanese martial arts.
Similar to judo and jiu jitsu, it is comprised of a series of bouts.
“A bout runs between five and 10 minutes, depending on your belt level. I’m a purple belt, so my bouts are seven minutes.”
“There’s no striking, it’s basically just wrestling,” says Tony.
“It’s high intensity, there is a lot of energy needed. We’ve had world champion ironmen and triathletes come in and they’re wiped after half an hour. It’s completely different to running. There’s a lot of strength and conditioning training to avoid injury.”
Tony has set up a gofundme.com page to help raise funds for his title tilt next year, as well as doing club fundraising. He’s also seeking to grow his sponsorship base. He’s currently supported by Rocktape Australia, but would like to broaden his support.
“Depending on how much sponsorship we get, we may be able to take more people. It’s more than a sport really. It’s a way of life, too.”
