Featured Camp Instructor: Oliver Geddes – BJJ Globetrotters

Oliver Geddes – BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 36
Belt: Black Belt 3rd Degree
Profession: Formerly full time BJJ instructor, currently waiting for classes to
become legal again
Started training (year): 2005
City/country: London, UK

Main achievements in BJJ:

European Champion, Purple Belt 2009/2010
Abu Dhabi Pro Trials Qualifier Purple/Brown/Black 2009
Abu Dhabi Pro Trials Qualifier Brown/Black 2011
World Masters Bronze Medallist Black Belt 2016
Pan Masters Bronze Medallist Black Belt 2016
Europeans Masters Bronze Medallist Black Belt 2019

Oliver Geddes BJJ

 

Which BJJ Globetrotters camps have you attended?

I don’t even know anymore! I’ve been to an awful lot. Off the top of my head, the USA camp, the Zen camp, Leuven, Winter Camp, the UK Camp, Germany – I had a period where I did almost every one. :)

Which camp has been your favorite so far?

It’s really hard to pick just one. I think as an experience, it’s hard to beat the Zen camp and the USA camp, if only because the immersion there is so much greater. You’re all sharing a space, there isn’t anything else for a long distance in any direction so you can just settle in and enjoy spending time with likeminded people doing silly things to pass the time between rolls. Ever so slightly behind those, I’d probably say the Winter Camp because it’s very similar – shared space, not that much nearby, and you have the ‘slopes in the day, mats at night’ dynamic which you don’t really get anywhere else.

Favorite stories/moments from the camps?

Hard to pick just one. I’m not sure if this counts as even a camp in the way it is now, but wayyyyy back in the early days of the globetrotters, the impromptu MMA event where people who attended the camp agreed to an MMA match, the suit match, children vs adults MMA…all in all, a very silly evening but a fine example of people just showing up to the camps and being up for anything. Probably wise it doesn’t happen that much these days, but was great when it did.

Oliver Geddes – BJJ Referee

Your favorite class/classes to teach at camp?

I think part of the appeal is there is just such a range of approaches and material that you can find a class on literally anything. I can show up and watch a berimbolo expert give a one hour focused class on a series of techniques I don’t have massive experience in, or I can listen to someone explain a theoretical structure for half of jiujitsu and take elements of that into my own teaching and training. And those two classes can literally be back to back with each other. For the teaching part, I honestly really like just having someone ask me about something, and then one thing leads to another and you move through about five different topics and suddenly you realise that an hour has passed. That’s probably my favorite thing, and when I teach classes in camps it’s always good when you finish, the next class starts up and there are people still asking questions about the class you’ve just finished and you can keep going on that in a corner. Genuine enthusiasm is always appreciated, and returned in kind. :)

Anything else you want to add to your profile? 

I don’t think so. Since this is getting published, I just want to say I know that everyone has had a pretty awful year in so many ways, but hopefully 2021 brings better things and everyone who’s currently unable to can get back onto the mats and start doing the sport we love in the way we love it again. :)

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Oliver Geddes – BJJ Globetrotters instructor