"Yes it is actually an old building, like over 50 years old, located on the Kowloon side (Shum Shui Po) of Hong Kong. It is my good friend's home rooftop, we bought mats from China, and store it just behind the iron door of the rooftop (just to get rid of some cats, who will jump on the mats and scratch them). Normally the door will be closed until we come to training, and we have to remove the rooftop's stuff that belongs to my friend's family, including some very old tables, old chairs, plants, wet clothes hanging, BBQ accessories etc. (you have to understand, old people in Hong Kong always store a lot of old stuff even in such a super tiny living place). And in Summer time, like right now, we have 1 fan for the whole mat area, and we regularly have at least 4 people training together. The mat area is around 4m x 5m (roughly), so 2 pairs rolling together is the maximum capacity.

 

It is very Chinese Kung Fu movie style. It is a no facility rooftop, only mats, and no washroom, so we have to utilise the water pipe to wet our towel to clean our sweat before leaving the rooftop every time after training. Before we can train on  the rooftop, please note since it is an old building, there is no lift have been installed, we have to walk the stairs for 9 floors, walk through my friend's home to the back door, and walk 1 more floor until arrive rooftop, it is quite a warm up for us before we arrive the rooftop."

"In Hong Kong, there is 1 Hong Kong person black belt, 3 Brazilian black belts, 1 South African black belt and 2 Japanese black belts. I have to say, Hong Kong is still a conservative city for rolling together with others on mats, most of them feeling it is disgusting with sweaty men or women. I'd estimate there are about 100 people training BJJ regularly in Hong Kong and half of them are people coming from all around the world."  

I think that the Kabaddi training has benefited my MMA in relation to takedowns. At the time I started training kabaddi, I had a small injury in my biceps so I couldn't do any striking not even my overhand right :-) So MMA training was out of the question at that time. So the kabaddi was a convenient alternative. As I play the position as stopper my role is to attack the opponent (raider) and take him down and pin him for 30 sec. preventing him to return to his own side of the field. So in a training session I would do 50-100 doubleleg takedown attempts against opponents that knew exactly what I was going for. So my timing, speed and sense of the distance to my opponent improved a lot. And that have indeed benefited my MMA and submission wrestling in relation to takedowns. Besides that it was fun to do a team sport for the first time in my life. And playing at the World Cup in India was a great experience. Walking in to a stadium with 35,000 spectators and hearing the crowd cheer was awesome. And all the matches were broadcasted on live TV for millions of viewers as well as on the TV companies youtube channel. Here is our match against Scotland:
 

"I started wrestling way back in 1989. I started late for my area. After a successful high school career I attended Lock Haven University. I was one of those guys that was good in the wrestling room but couldn't bring it to competition. A broken collar bone my senior year ended my wrestling career. I never stopped loving grappling. In August of 2010 I found BJJ from a wonderful instructor Kaleo Auwae who is a Relson Gracie black belt."

You became an 'accidental teacher' at the Summer Camp, how did that come about?

"The last day of camp rolled around and we had 3 hours of free sparring. Some of the guys throughout the week had rolled with me and found out about my experience and wanted to "pick my brain" about some wrestling things. So, I started showing some stuff to two or three people...then it became 12-14 with others watching from the side. What was supposed to be me getting destroyed by Oli turned into two and half hours of instruction with 45 minutes of stand up."

You've decided to travel full time and teach wrestling, is that correct? Was it hard deciding to 'take the leap', so to speak?

"It wasn't until going to the summer camp and reading Christians book that I even began to formulate my plan for what I wanted to do with my life. I am currently trying to pursue this. Luckily I am not trying to make a living doing this, just come as close to breaking even as I can. If I didn't have my wife none of this would be possible. Without her support I wouldn't be anywhere."


Have you done any BJJ travelling?

"I have only traveled in the BJJ community for a few tournaments. I travelled from Hawaii to the mainland US and from where I am currently in Italy to other parts of Italy. Oh, and to Lisbon.

"I think the best advice for globetrotting is to just put yourself out there. The guys in your gym at home are actually a good representation of BJJ people everywhere. We are generally kind, sharing and humble people who want to share what we love. Get on the Globetrotters page and see if there is a gym where you are going. It's that easy."

"Funding the travels is challenging. Luckily right now I am in Italy so flying around Europe is a lot cheaper. Let's be real for a second. Most people have no idea who I am. Why? Because I am just some guy who teaches wrestling... I want to be way more than that, but that takes time. So I charge the lowest prices imaginable for seminars and I wait for discount travel tickets etc. Like I said. I just want to approach breaking even. Lol, so yes."

"Of any of the sports people do before BJJ, I believe wrestling has the best base. Specifically Folk style (also known as schoolboy) wrestling. The focus of Freestyle wrestling is to throw your opponent very high to get more points. Controlling them is not important. Greco Roman has more control, but no leg attacks are permitted. Folk style has it all. Some of the downsides... an unrelenting, illogical paranoia and fear of going on your back. You can get over it eventually. Leaving arms out of position. That is probably the hardest to get over."

Any funny incidents you've experienced on your travels or during training/competition?

"I think the funniest incident was when I was training in Hawaii and people around the island started to hear about me. At a tournament a group of about 7 native Hawaiians had gathered around the back of my car as I was getting my backpack out... I thought I was toast. Then the biggest guy said, "Hey you dat haole (dirty racial slur against white guys) train up wit Kaleo?" All I could say was, "Yep." Then it was hugs all around and wishing me good luck."

"My friends call me the "Crazy Cat Lady" because we have 4 cats. They ask why 4. The simple answer is that in order to get one cat to pay attention to you, you need to have a bunch"

"The number one question I get is, "Why should I have you out for a seminar?" The real answer is because I teach what I love and I love teaching it. Hope to see you on the mat soon."