One of Ireland’s premier jiu jitsu practitioners, BJJ Cork head coach and host of the Premier BJJ Championships, Liam Beechinor is undoubtedly one of the most important figures on the national jiu jitsu scene.
Given the amount of tournaments he has travelled to in various capacities over the years, it’s a credit to the Irish competitors that the Pedro Bessa black belt acknowledged that there was “something special” about last weekend’s London Open where the Irish took a record haul of approximately 60 medals.
“Irish lads were just cleaning up over there,” said Beechinor who claimed a bronze medal of his own at the Open. “I think there were more than fifty players at it, I think there were 60 odd competitors from Ireland over there. The scene has changed so much and that’s allowed young players to improve rapidly. When I started training you’d have to go travelling to get to a black belt and you’d have to bring the guy in and pay him for the week.
“I can remember going over to the Pan-Ams with Fergal Quinlan. We were two blue belts spending loads of money, but we still weren’t getting the training that we are now. Now everybody is training, the level has gone through the roof.
“There are online videos for guys to learn from, black belt world champions are more accessible than ever and the level is just a lot different now. It’s far superior. Kids are training non-stop and we have so many clubs training together – before that wasn’t the case.
“Going over to that London Open, it surpassed some of the great showings we’ve had at the Europeans. There was something about London last weekend that was just really special. Joey Breslin and Marcus Phelan were in the final of their purple belt division – that’s amazing.
“All them UK guys over there and all these different world champions, but here’s two Irish guys out ahead of them all. Tom King won in the masters division and we had even more winners in the black belt division. Darragh O’Conaill won double gold – that guy’s level is just shooting up all the time.
“Chris Bowe was so unlucky to have lost that absolute final but he still had great success over there. All of these guys are setting the bar. The wheel just seems to turning so fast in Ireland. These kids are investing money to travel just so they can get these medals.
“That goes on to push the level in training and it helps everyone around them. That’s why we need a big tournament in Ireland. Now is the time to do it.”
The next installment of Beechinor’s and Pedro Bessa’s Premier BJJ Championships will take place on November 15 in Cork, and the Munster man highlighted why he believes that national competitions are not only important, but in a lot of cases they are setting the bar for how events should be ran.
“For me personally, I think they’re warm up events for the international tournaments. If you got the guys competing for the Worlds and the Europeans, competing for IBJF rankings, competing at Abu Dhabi Trials – they need those national tournaments.
“It’s like maintenance for them. It keeps them fresh. What they need is well run local tournaments. These national tournaments need to be run like they’re internationals and that’s what we’ve been achieving over here for the last three years at least.
“The Premier BJJ Championships have black belt referees, there are cash prizes of up to €300 for the black belts and it has the biggest black belt division in the country to date.
“That’s what the Irish international players need. They can’t be turning up to Mickey Mouse tournaments where they’re waiting around for five hours for their divisions to start. They won’t be returning to events like that and once you lose the international players from your tournament – that’s it.
“We’ve got a lot of people who are doing great work. Barry Oglesby is doing great with Grapplepalooza and he did an amazing job with the Irish Open. I was involved in that too but Barry did a lot of the groundwork – it was the biggest tournament in the country to date.
“There were eight matted areas, it looked like the Europeans and it was bigger than the UK’s Abu Dhabi tournament. Then you’ve got Andy Ryan. He’s after coming up with this Celtic Grand Prix.
“It was completely professional. The production was some of the best we’ve seen, it looked like Metamoris up there. One of my students, Brendan McGarry, was down at it and he had nothing but fantastic things to say about it.
“Andy saw something that the blue belts and purple belts would like to do and that he could put a lot of production into. Events like that highlight the talent that’s in the country and when you see the effort that they put in with the setup, it becomes more and more obvious that the shows we are putting on are surpassing the equivalent in the UK.
“There were big screens, spotlights on mat with the rest of the room blacked out – it looked like they’d been putting it on for years.
“Andy set the bar with that competition and now people can try and match that level. Guys like that deserve their kudos. There’s also John Sheridan who is putting on Dublin International tournament, that’s another top tournament,” praised Beechinor.
The BJJ Cork head coach commented on Ireland’s bids to host an Abu Dhabi Pro Trials event, stressing the importance of including the community if the date should come to fruition. To add to that, Beechinor revealed why he believes that it won’t be long before Ireland obtains it’s own IBJJF tournament.
He said: “If we’re going to be hosting an Abu Dhabi Pro Trial event it’s important that it’s run with the support of the Irish BJJ community. We’ve got to be involved. It would have to have the exact same prizes as the competitions in other countries – entry to the competition and your flights and travel paid for.
“There will be an IBJJF tournament here soon, if there’s one in Croatia, there’ll be an IBJJF event here in Ireland. There’s got to be. The Irish players are after proving in London that they can medal in an IBJJF tournament. I can see there being Abu Dhabi and IBJJF events here very soon.
“The Irish went outside the realms of their national tournaments over there, they fought against international players who go to the Worlds and they showed everyone how competitive they are. This is the time to do it. The IBJJF can see the huge results of the Irish.
“Honestly, I think we’re well able to create something of our own here. I have no doubt that we’re going to have major events held here in the next 12 to 15 months, but I would suggest that we could have a go at doing something ourselves too.
“The reason why I say that is because Irish BJJ is constantly setting the bar for itself. When we all get together as a community we can build something huge, a genuinely big jiu jitsu show. With the right sponsors, I think we could do a huge event.”
Finally, Beechinor discussed why he is anticipating one of the biggest Irish medal hauls at an IBJJF tournament at the European Championships that are due to take place in January 2015:
“I believe that we’re going to see some huge results at the Europeans at the end of January. I reckon we’ll see the biggest amount of Irish competitors at a European event to date.
“I would be confident that the numbers would also be reflected in the medal haul. Look at the London Open there were players from all over the place – Irish, UK guys, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish – and that was the biggest haul we’ve ever had at an international event. It was representative of all the hard work they had put in and there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
@PetesyCarroll
Photo credit to Ciaran Maher
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