Featured Traveller: Seb Egan – BJJ Globetrotters
Age: 30 (yes, I know, surprising!)
Belt: White belt – 4 stripes
Profession: IT Lead Officer, but used to work in theatre as a lampy!
How many years in BJJ: 5 years. However, it feels longer with the amount of injuries that I have.
I started to train after I worked on a teaser trailer for a film based around MMA called ‘Law of One’. This is where I met one of the lead actors, Steve ‘Spartan’ Obe (a brown belt under Andy Roberts). Steve became my personal trainer and helped me a lot with core movements. At the gym Christmas party I met Tim Radcliffe, my coach, and long story short I made a dodgy deal: sold my soul (which is why I’m a wristlocker nowadays) and started training BJJ.
Other martial arts: I did judo once as a kid. I had no balance and that’s where my shoulder issues started. Well, either that or falling off a horse too many times!
Where do you live: Woking, in the UK. It’s a really leafy part of Surrey (countryside in England) and it’s where the Martians landed in the H.G Wells classic The War of the Worlds (which we’re all made to read!)
Where are you from: Woking, UK. Never moved
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I coach and manage U13 & U14 girls in cricket, and score for a local men’s team. I’m also sponsored by Woking & Horsell Cricket Club, which is why you’ll see me walking around in a cricket top. I’m ambidextrous due to the tremor in my right arm. I’m an avid competitor and love going to competitions and, having competed several times in the South of England, I’m now looking for the right opportunity to compete internationally.
Seb Egan – BJJ Globetrotters
Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
When I started travelling and training, FOMO (fear of missing out) was real and a big problem for me. I just wanted to be in the gym training when I was on holiday. I was in Myrtle Beach, SC on a family holiday and I just needed to train. I found a local gym where I was welcomed with open arms, and ever since I’ve looked at gyms within a short distance of where I’ll be staying. Even whilst doing a group travel tour holiday, I still managed to find the time to train.
BJJ Globetrotters was a lucky find for me. After spending a weekend in hospital during the pandemic and staying in a COVID-19 geriatrics ward, I started looking for somewhere to lie in the sun and do some Jiu Jitsu, that’s when I found BJJ Globetrotters. Which really takes FOMO out of holidays since I can now train and travel at the same time.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
My most recent trip was to Austria for Winter Camp via Kauai, Hawaii for a beach trip and to let some of my injuries recover. This was the first time in five years that I’ve had a holiday without some Jiu Jitsu! And Christmas in Hawaii was too good to refuse. A big mistake not doing anything but lying on a beach and training the muscles in my left arm picking up a glass of beer over and over again! I really suffered in the first few rounds in Austria!
My next trip is going to be a short trip over to Wexford, Ireland for Micheal Currier’s seminar. Also one of the guys that used to train with me now trains there (and I owe him a wristlock or two!).
Currently on the books already are camps in Tallinn, Maine (where I’m spending a week either side of the camp in Boston/NYC for work), Poland for Zen Camp, Arizona, and a trip to Kansas City for work before travelling to St Barths – yacht owners lock up your yachts!!!
I do want to get over to Ukraine and train there, but this may not happen for a while. Other places that I want to go to are South Africa and South America, in particular Peru.
Seb Egan – BJJ Globetrotters
What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
I enjoy seeing different places, meeting new people, drinking with them, and sharing stories. I also enjoy the culture in new places. I love going on adventures – especially those with adrenaline, like throwing myself off bridges or jumping out of planes!
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
I was travelling to Florida after Christmas 2021, which is where two fellow Globetrotters, Matt and Cynthia, live. I got in touch with Matt for a post-Christmas meet up. This ended with us doing a private session with Charles Harriott in a park just outside of Clearwater, one of the best travel and training experiences I’ve done – where else are you going to go to roll and have a private session?
On the training front, you can’t train at your gym the way you do when at camps. Your training partners grow accustomed to your style, and your game stops evolving. Somebody at your gym has to be learning from someone somewhere else, otherwise you’re still drilling the same techniques as each other with no exposure to how others are training.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
The general kindness of people. How they can act with so much care for you if you tell them that you’re alone, turning up to a restaurant and saying table for one and then strangers going out of their way to come and talk to you (maybe that’s just me though!)
Also when getting blackout drunk in a foreign country and finding local people to take you back to whatever accommodation I’m staying in, usually helped by having my address scrawled across my arm with a sharpie.
Seb Egan – BJJ Globetrotters
Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
No to the budget travelling, but I do look for cheap deals and I do this by planning early and rebooking hotels last minute. I would normally class myself as a middle-luxury class traveller. I don’t stay in hostels very often. I prefer hotels and Airbnbs even if it means that I have to be on my own.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Keep doing you, keep travelling, and generally say yes to most things – it might be an experience that you would never have otherwise. The most important piece of advice is, whatever you do, don’t listen to Michael or to Francesco, as that’s usually where chaos begins. And if they’re both together, just enjoy the ride – it’s going to be a crazy one (Michael gets slapped and pubs get set on fire)!
