Loic Jaillat is a brown belt from Lille, France who has just completed a tour of France on bicycle visiting all BJJ academies. In this interview with BJJ Eastern Europe he tells us more about his adventure:
1. Hi Loic, can you please introduce yourself to the BJJ Community of Eastern Europe?
Hi guys, my name is Loïc Jaillat, I’m 24, and a BJJ Brown belt from Lille in northern France where I train at the academy AAM under delariva’s black belt Guy Chautard. I’ve just finished my bachelor in SKEMA Business School and since 4 month my project « JITS THE ROAD » is my main activity. I haven’t yet fought in an IBJJF tournament but for my two first tournament at brownbelt ( BJJ Spirit in Paris and The challenge AAM in Lille ) i’ve finished third twice.
2. How do you spend your days at the moment?
Since i’ve begun the « jits the road » adventure, jiu jitsu training took the main part of my agenda. Every day I begin my journey with some easy exercices like sit ups and push ups, if I can I run for an hour, then I edit the technique videos recorded during my trip all around France during the main part of my day. From 7pm to 8 :30 pm I train in Wrestling and Grappling with Wallid Seguir and From 20 :30 to 22 :15 I train in BJJ with Guy Chautard and all the AAM team.
I train 4 days by week and during the day off I do Skateboarding and Fixed Gear bicycle .
Loic on the road
3. You have recently completed a tour of France by bicycle visiting BJJ academies. What was the idea behind the trip and how did you realise it?
At the end of my studies last june, I had two choices : find work and begin my professional life like most of my friends, or do what i really love in life : jiu jitsu ! So like most of us, I had the idea to travel in Brazil and train every day for 5 or 6 months, but at that time I had no money and i didn’t speak Portuguese. Some friends of mine who had already trained in Brazil told me that the French jiu jitsuka had a really good level and that most of the time , a French who trains in Brazil is one of the best guys from his rank in their academies. So I said to myself « why travel in brazil and spend lot of money if the level of BJJ in France level is so high ? », that was the very beginning of « Jits the road ».
I’ve been very influenced by the « jiu jitsu globe trotter » christian Graugart who had travelled all around the world just praticing jiu jitsu and sleeping on the couch of his training partners.
So I decided to develop my own project around France, but with my personnal touch : I ride everyday with my fixed gear, I did a lot of race in France and I’m invested in global warming, so I decided to do a trip all around France, sleep every night on my partners couch and travel only with my bike or train when the distance was too big (more than 100 km). I contacted Raphael from « Jits magazine France» and he helped me to find sponsors and academies contacts. 2 month later, I had a map with 47 academies and 4000 km of travel … my dream began reality!
4. What were the highlights of the trip? What did you learn from the whole journey?
Everyday was a highlight, because day after day I was discovering the history of Jiu-Jitsu in France. I’ve trained with a ibjjf world champion, with the first european practitioners with brazilian masters in jiu jitsu and luta livre, with surf and bmx legends etc… and the most important thing is that every day I was improving my jiu jitsu ! every night I was going to bed with new techniques in my game and many new friends. Before « jits the road » my game was to play on my back with open guard, now, I’ve seen so many techniques that I work on passing the guard or takedowns. The academies and teachers were amazing, they gave me their best techniques with a lot of sincerity and passion, like brothers help each other. That’s why I want to give this generosity back with my videos, everybody from all around the world would see what I’ve learned during these two amazing month and be a part of this global project.
Loic visisting GFTeam France
5. Please tell us about your BJJ academy in Lille and the BJJ scene in the North of France.
My academy is managed by Guy Chautard who trained from the early beginning of jiu jitsu in France. He is a black belt under Ricardo Delariva and has 7 black belts under him in Lille. We are about 130 practiotioners and have more than 70 children in our child course, wich is i think, the biggest child academy in France. Some great competitors come from the AAM like Wallid Seguir who fights in no gi and MMA.
Jiu Jitsu is implanted since more than 10 years in Lille because of my master and nowaday there’s I think 4 academies in the Lille Area. We are lucky beacause Paris is at only one hour by train, so it’s really easy to go training with big champion or to invite great teachers for seminars in Lille like Hakim Ait Ouaret or Flavio Peroba.
6. What is next for you and your team in 2013/2014?
The next for me is to edit en publish all my videos on facebook and youtube, then to compete in most of the competitions that I can in my division.
And for my team, we have the pleasure to welcome the great master Ricardo Delariva in our academy in January 2014.
7. If you want to thank somebody or sponsors, feel free
First of all I would like to thank God for everything, then I would like to thank all the academies and people who welcomed me , this project is not mine , it’s theirs ! And a special thank to my sponsors : Kraken and fixie factory for the quality of their products and their generosity, they trusted me from the begining and without them this project won’t have been the same.
8. Thanks Loic and all the best!
Thanks you BJEE for this article and the attention.
If you want to follow the project you can like « jits the road » on facebook , i will publish almost 50 technique videos from the best french Black Belt. Keep rollin !
Doucmentary in French about Loic’s trip:
