Our Fighter of the week is Siddharth Singh who recently became the First ever Indian to win Silver at World Masters Jiu Jitsu Championship at Brown Belt at -77 kgs
ADCC is one of the most prestigious grappling tournament in the nogi world. It stands for Abu Dhabi Combat Club and was started by the Abu Dhabi royal family. The Royal family had close relations with the Gracie family and other BJJ royalties and they were bought in to train at ADCC. Ultimately those athletes influenced the club to organise the ADCC tournament.
ADCC World championships have featured grapplers like Kron Gracie, Kyra Gracie, Fabricio Werdum, Demian Maia etc.
The full details of the ADCC Nationals regarding the rules and registration can be found here.
Siddharth Singh is the pioneer of MMA in our country and has been the face of the sport In India for some time. Specializing in Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (Mixed Martial Arts), he is the only Indian to have a competitive Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He is also India’s most reputed fighting and self defense expert who has coached more than 100 currently active amateur and professional fighters in South Asia
Here are some of the excerpts from one of his interview with the MMA India Show
You have seen the growth of MMA and BJJ in India, how do our grappler compare to the elites from Brazil, US etc?
Ans: They are obviously at the infancy. So grappling has been in India for the longest time, you know Kusti, Wrestling has been around forever. But in essence, it’s quite different from what happens in North America or Brazil. Because in our Khusti, you have to put your opponent’s shoulders to the mat but in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and grappling pinning shoulders does nothing.
There is a point system and there is a submission system. So even though people might have a wrestling background in India. It’s not comprehensive enough because there are no submissions, joint lock etc. That is to say, people with a wrestling background definitely have a foundation and can do really well. But for them to be competitive with the Brazilians or Americans, they need to add submissions to their arsenal. So our wrestlers are very good at takedowns, pinning the shoulders on the mat, but not as good in getting submissions and chokes.
Is there a way to find out which grappler should be competing at the beginner, intermediate or the pro level? As you earlier said that grapplers with different years of experience are characterised in different categories.
Ans: In Martial Arts, we sort of expect a level of sincerity. So when a fighter says that they have five years of experience we have to take them for their word.
If someone comes and says that……. ‘I am a beginner and I have been doing BJJ for less than two years and I lie and I win it but I have doing BJJ for four years, so what happens in that next year I cannot take part as a beginner’.
So if you win the beginners category, next year irrespective of your experience, you cannot take part in the beginners. You have to move up to intermediate.
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