Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Sri Lanka (Colombo, Sri Lanka)

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Colombo, Sri Lanka — In order to get away from the harsh European winter, I booked a flight to Sri Lanka. My “winter” vacation mostly consisted of immersing myself in Sri Lanka’s scenic beaches and green highlands while eating delicious koththu rotti and sipping the country’s famous tea. Luckily after gaining 10lbs in 2 weeks, I had an opportunity to drop by BJJ Sri Lanka in Colombo to wrap up my trip.

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Country
Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia. While its coastline is lined with unpolluted sandy beaches, the mainland boasts compelling landscapes from highlands covered in tea plantations to wildlife-rich jungles. With its famous tea and flavorful local cuisines, the reasons to visit this beautiful South Asian country goes on, not to mention Sri Lanka’s more than two thousand years of recorded culture and history. With various sceneries and activities bottled up into a small island, Sri Lanka provides an array of holiday experiences.

Overview
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Sri Lanka is the first BJJ academy in Sri Lanka under the head coach, Tithira Hiranjith Perera, and is currently affiliated with Professor Rodrigo Teixeira. Established in 2016, the academy is one of the pioneers to introduce Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is a relatively new martial art, to the country. While training Jeet Kune Do, Coach Tithira had an opportunity to train with Professor Arun Sharma who is now India’s first native BJJ Black Belt and the founder of BJJ India. Subsequently, Coach Tithira was asked if he was interested in starting a BJJ program in Sri Lanka, which he gladly accepted. Shortly after that, Coach Tithira went to Singapore to train under professor Rodrigo Teixeira who later promoted him to a blue belt. Although the academy initially started at his house with a few jigsaw mats, BJJ Sri Lanka has grown with 3 in-house blue belts and more than 50 students with its own training facility.

Given the recent introduction of BJJ to the country and its geographical location, Sri Lanka has rather limited resources for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. However, that did not stop Coach Tithira from running a successful academy, and he has been going above and beyond to spread the gentle art to his home country including hosting the Invictus submission grappling tournament. Further, one of the ways was to promote and strongly encourage the exchange of knowledge and experiences by combining Sri Lanka’s famous hospitality and Jiu-Jitsu. When I got in touch with Coach Tithira, he welcomed me to the academy with open arms and hosted an open mat for me. With its visitor-friendly environment, I had a pleasant experience with my new friends, and I was happy to share my limited knowledge with them. Coach Tithira even came to hang out the next day with his son!

Sri Lanka is already an amazing country to visit and will remain one of my favorite countries. If you are in Colombo, which you are most likely due to the airport, I would highly encourage you to reach out to BJJ Sri Lanka and enjoy an experience at the academy. I cannot thank Tithira and everyone at BJJ Sri Lanka enough for their hospitality and such a memorable experience. I will be back!

Location & Facility
BJJ Sri Lanka is located approximately 20-minutes away from Colombo’s city center next to the Nugegoda Railway Station. I would personally recommend taking a tuk-tuk since it would be the most convenient way to reach the academy. The facility is located within the martial arts academy called “The Shed”. (Google Map: Link)

Schedule
BJJ Sri Lanka offers classes every day including morning and evening classes. The academy’s most recent schedule is posted below:

Visitor Pass
BJJ Sri Lanka did not charge anything for training. However, it is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit.

Miscellaneous — BJJ Sri Lanka’s Website

Travel Highlights

  • Mirissa — Surrounded by palm trees swaying in the sea breeze and turquoise waves, Mirissa, a small town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, is a magical beach town to let the days pass by without a care in the world. From whale watching tours to a handful of notable restaurants along the beach, Mirissa has it all for you to soak up the sun in peace. Don’t forget to take a picture on the famous Coconut tree hill!
  • Ella — Tucked away in the misty Sri Lankan high country, Ella is everyone’s favorite hill-country town with spectacular views. The train ride from Kandy to Ella through the tea plantations and mountain passes are considered one of the most scenic train rides. That’s not all. With its iconic Nine Arch Bridge and stunning 220m tall Diyaluma Falls, many of the Sri Lankan adventures can be found in Ella.
  • Sigiriya — Often referred to as Lion Rock. Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress in Sri Lanka. Built on top of a massive column of rock around 200 meters, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has a historical and archaeological significance. It is the most visited tourist destination in Sri Lanka providing unique harmony between nature and human creation. With its spectacular view and the remains of a royal palace on the summit, Sigiriya undoubtedly remains the star attraction in the country.
  • Galle — A city on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka known for the Galle Fort, Galle is a fortified old city in Sri Lanka. With stone sea walls and historical architecture, the city embraces its ancient and colonial past. The Galle Fort is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a living monument, and the city connects European architectural styles and South Asian traditions.

Episode 14: A long walk on the beach with Ben Westrich for a talk about IBJJF, hierarchies, belt promotions and other weird things. [Quarantine special]

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Quarantine special! The first in a series of podcast episodes I’ll be recording while under lockdown due to the Corona virus. I can’t record at home, so I took a long walk on the beach and called my friend Benjamin Westrich for a talk about IBJJF, belt promotions, hierarchies and other weird things that humans take seriously.

BJJ Globetrotters banned from the IBJJF

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A little over three days ago, I received an email from the IBJJF, letting me know that BJJ Globetrotters, as an association, has been suspended from their federation. The accusation is that we have been approving and signing for athletes that have no relation with the signing black belt instructor. According to them, we are going “against the integrity of the martial art and safety of the athletes” since “it is important that athletes train under the overall guidance of a Black Belt professor”.

Naturally, I immediately responded to their email:

  • We sign IBJJF forms for all our members to be able to compete, just like any other affiliation in the world.
  • Our team signing the forms are high level, highly decorated black belts with decades of combined experience in the art.
  • We verify the belt ranks of anyone we sign for with their day-to-day instructors. For black belts, we require rank confirmation from five black belts. Last week, we announced that all members must have verified their belt ranks with www.beltchecker.com, which will ensure even more trustworthiness of their rank, as well as allow us to always keep up-to-date with any controversy around their promotions, should this arise.

This is not different than how pretty much every major BJJ affiliation around the world works. The head black belts who sign the forms for their affiliate academies’ members have, in most cases, no more relationship with the athletes than we do. In fact, our community is very tight knit, as more than 1,800 of our members meet around the world at our camps over 10 times every year. Everyone at all levels train hard, network and make friends. On a regular basis at the camps, I see and train with countless of the athletes I have signed IBJJF forms for. These are people I consider great friends and valuable training partners. Some of those who do not have instructors at home, choose to receive their belt evaluations from the combined opinions of the camp instructors. But apparently this is not enough to qualify as “overall guidance” from my and the other black belts’ side.

At the end of the day, the main difference between BJJ Globetrotters and any other large affiliation is, that we charge no money for what we do.

I have to this date still not received a reply to my email, but all our members’ IBJJF memberships have been abruptly cancelled and we are getting a lot of emails from concerned athletes with upcoming competitions, so we can not postpone this announcement any longer.

I am deeply sorry on behalf of our many hundreds of athletes around the world who are actively competing for BJJ Globetrotters, producing fantastic results at all levels, from white to black belt, from amateurs to professionals. While we are not an affiliation in the traditional (IBJJF-)sense, we ARE a community of highly passionate practitioners who believe that training relationships in Jiu Jitsu should be based on friendship, not business. That everyone should be treated equal on and off the mats. That people should be allowed to train with who ever they want. And that access to competition should not be based on contractual agreements with anyone at the top of an imaginary hierarchy based on pieces of tape on cotton belts.

While IBJJF is a private, for-profit company that can make whatever rules they like, I don’t think anyone should have monopoly on how a BJJ affiliation is defined. For those who agree that what we do also qualify as one, we are in fact the biggest in the world, with more than 750 registered academies. And I’m incredibly proud that we are so many who stand up against common perception of how things are “supposed to be done”. We’re not going away any time soon.

If you are affected by this recent decision by IBJJF, I suggest that you email them directly on [email protected] and let your opinion be heard. I’ll keep doing the same for you.

– Christian Graugart