.
.

Black Belt Urges Fast tracking of Jiu-jitsu for Asian Games 2018 application

Black Belt Urges Fast tracking of Jiu-jitsu for  Asian Games 2018 application

Back in 2015 we reported of The UAEJJ and JJIF action plan with a goal to push the drive towards the ultimate dream of including Jiu-Jitsu in the Summer Olympic Games, starting with Asia and the Asian Games.

Now Viking Wong, a black belt in bjj from Hong Kong is urging them to fast track bjj. Wong led the way for Hong Kong’s delegation of five at the 2018 Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championship in Aktau, Kazakhstan, winning a gold medal in the 85kg category.

The sport is not recognised by Hong Kong’s National Olympic Committee, meaning it cannot be considered for Indonesia. Wong told scmp:

“Although there is still time, I think the chances are slim they’ll let us do it this year, but we have a real shot at gold in Indonesia and we’re ready to jump in and work with the NOC so we can represent Hong Kong,” said Wong, who is hoping an application can be fast tracked ahead of the August event, having received advice from JJAU.

“We have a growing number of people in Hong Kong getting involved with combat sports, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in particular,” said Wong, who runs the “Hurt Locker” jiu-jitsu studio in Tsim Sha Tsui.

“So far, we’ve not been successful in gaining a seat in the Hong Kong NOC as the numbers altogether are still miles away from popular sports such as swimming.

“The politics between gym business owners has also made it more challenging as everyone just tries to look out for their business instead of looking at the bigger picture, which is the growth of the sport to the widest possible audience.”

“I understand building up a new sport takes time and the difficulties we face trying to catch the attention of the big players with such a small sport,” Wong said.

“But we’re hoping with proven results we can become a sport with strong medal contenders and catch some attention to be granted access to participate in the Asian Games.”

“It was a good experience since most Hong Kong BJJ players are foreigners, so we have a pretty small pool of local talent to choose from, and the entire trip was self funded with all competitors having to take time off work with holiday allowance to compete.

“On the contrary, the Taiwan team had a heroes’ welcome with stock companies sponsoring their whole trip and prize money for medal winners.

“This was a small step for us as individual competitors but a huge step for the development of combat sports in Hong Kong being treated seriously.

“A lot of patriotic feelings and duties are lost on the younger generations, together with the etiquette of behaving like a team and having all eyes on you as a representative of your nation.”

If you want to be un-submitable, you need to check out Tom DeBlass’ “Submission Escapes” BJJ 3 volume BJJ instructional from BJJFanatics.com . In this series, he shares multiple escapes from all of the hardest to escape positions. Soon your training partners and opponents will be calling you Houdini.