Jiu-jitsu club prides itself in having all members ‘contribute equally’

A Newtownabbey-based martial arts club, which is home to European and national champions, is nurturing talent ahead of this year’s finals.
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Merville Jiu-Jitsu Club was formed in 2005 and has been based at Merville House for the past 17 years.

It is the headquartered club for the wider Kaizen Jiu-Jitsu Association and is a full member of the UK National Governing Body - the UKBJJA.

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The club has two main sections: Junior Club caters for seven-15 age group, while Senior Club has actively training members currently ranging from 15-64. For safeguarding, all U18s train in a separate designated area and only interact with adult members when they become 18.

The club has been operating from Merville House in Merville Garden Village for the last 17 years.The club has been operating from Merville House in Merville Garden Village for the last 17 years.
The club has been operating from Merville House in Merville Garden Village for the last 17 years.

The club’s head coach Robert Cullinan said: “We’re proud to be one of only three Jiu-Jitsu clubs in NI who have been accedited to Sport NI’s Clubmark standard, recognising excellence in club management and best practise opeartion. We have a large coaching team with over 140 years combined experience of martial arts and all coaching staff are fully vetted for safeguarding with valid first aid and coach education qualifications.

“Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the fastest growing martial art in the UK, largely due to the ‘Conor McGregor/UFC/ MMA‘ effect, as martial artists from a wide variety of disciplines agree that the resistance-based methods used in BJJ (along with a complimentary striking system) are the best method of developing practical, solid self-defence and combat sports success.”

The club trains members in a number of discipines for various outcomes, including weight loss and self defence.

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Robert explained: “Fundamentally we practise Jiu-Jitsu, both the Brazilian and Japanese variants, for both sporting, fitness and self-defence reasons. This involves learning grappling techniques to throw or unbalance an uncompliant opponent and to successfully control an opponent with a wide variety of combat sports strategies.

Junior Club caters for seven-15 age group.Junior Club caters for seven-15 age group.
Junior Club caters for seven-15 age group.

“We spend time practising Thai Boxing and Panantukan (Filipino Boxing) techniques involving the use of hands, feet, elbows and knees. This may sound violent and dangerous, but the club has an extensive range of protective equipment to allow safe practise with full contact and accidents or injuries are thankfully very rare as all classes are expertly delivered and closely coached. Members actively compete regularly at inter-club, provincial, national (both Irish and British events) and at the annual European Championships in Lisbon or other European cities.”

The club, which has more than 80 members, caters for people from a range of backgrounds.

Robert said: “It’s safe to say that as a fundamentally ‘individual activity’, we attract a varied range of people and of varying abilities, but they all raise their game by training together with an assortment of club members. Jiu-Jitsu is physical chess. Everybody has the same pieces (limbs/techniques), but how you string them together (experience/timing/strategy) determines if you win or you learn.

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“From the highest qualified black belts to the white belt beginner, it takes a special blend of courage and commitment to walk through the door every week and continue the journey in any combat sport, so it’s unfair to pick anyone out particularly- literally everyone in our club contributes equally to our club community.”

As with many sports clubs, activities were curtailed at Merville Jiu-Jitsu at the height of the Covid pandemic, with the club’s doors remaining closed for 16 months.

Detailing the impact of the health emergency and the club’s aspirations, Robert said: “Due to the close contact nature of our sport and past-time, we followed strict govermental guidance at the time and remained closed for 16 months throughout three lockdowns. Our coaching team finally felt it was safe to resume in early May 2021 and we’ve been training continuously ever since.

“We’re opening a small 24/7 local training facility to compliment the structured classes at Merville House, where members can train privately in smaller groups in preparation for our entry to the European Championships in September in Birmingham as well as the UK International Open in mid-October at the O2 Arena in London.

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“For those not wishing to compete, and there are many, we’ll focus on developing knowledge and skills to undertake belt testing at two sittings this year, where up to four current members may, at some point, earn the coveted black belt in Jiu-Jitsu.”

The club has enjoyed success both at local, national and European level, with Robert stating: “We’ve twice won Antrim and Newtownabbey’s Sports Award as Junior Club of the Year in recognition of our wide and varied programme of successes.

“We have two European and seven national champions within our ranks as the Merville Club is the HQ club and many of our high performance athletes train here with our regular members. We have won so many medals and titles it hurts your head trying to remember them all, but just as important are the mental and physical health benefits this club brings to every member who has walked through the door over the last 17 years, whether they want to just exercise more, lose weight, learn self defence drills, compete outside their comfort zones or just come down for the craic- and there’s plenty of that.”

New members are always welcome, with Robert adding: “Structured training takes place on Thursday evenings at Merville, with other taught classes every day of the week in other sister club locations around greater Belfast. We operate a structured waiting list for places in our Junior Club, due to heavy demand, but always encourage interested parents and children to call down to watch a session and get their details recorded so they can be contacted when spaces become available.”

For more information, check out the club’s Facebook, Instagram or website.

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