Champ Oliver Geddes
In 2014, in an interview with reporter Ivan Trindade, English champion Oliver Geddes published an article in GRACIEMAG about his achievements and his routine as a Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
Oliver, who passed away at the age of 40 this week after a brave battle with bowel cancer, listed the dreams he had achieved in the sport – such as visiting unimaginable corners of the planet or training with some of the most respected fighters in the history of the sport.
Check out and learn from the eternal teacher Oliver, one of the pioneers of the gentle art in England.
Living the Jiu-Jitsu road trip dream
Black belt Oliver Geddes shares his experiences and proves it is possible to be a globetrotter of the gentle art
By Oliver Geddes, with Ivan Trindade
“If you have told me in my first year of university that I would be spending the next ten years of my life traveling and making my living through martial arts, I would never have believed you. I doubt my parents would have been all that impressed either, after years invested in the education for a more conventional path.
Through Jiu-Jitsu, I have been able to visit dozens of countries around the world. I have shared the mats with some of the greatest practitioners of our era, and received my black belt from the greatest competitor in history, Roger Gracie.
I have met hundreds, even thousands of people united by their passion for a shared sport. These people have opened their homes and academies to me for no reason other than the art we all hold in common.
That said, it’s not always been easy.
In my first year of living the dream, I spent six months crashing in an apartment rented by some friends. I slept on the floor in the corridor just in front of the bathroom, and every couple of weeks I would get woken up when one of my flat mates would accidentally kick me in the head as he stepped over me.
In the years since, I have acquired at least one impressive cauliflower ear, fingers that look like gnarled twigs, and a whole list of other minor injuries that will likely stay with me for the rest of my life. In turn, I have also had experiences that will stay with me just as long.
I have stood by the mats in an open air arena in Abu Dhabi at night, and watched members of the Royal Family cheer on their favorite fighters as television crews broadcast the matches live across the country.
In that same stadium, I found myself warming up next to Marcelo Garcia and, still an impressionable purple belt, I asked him if I could shake his hand for luck. He looked at me slightly strangely, but obliged. It did not bring me enough, sadly.
I translated my way through ordering a pizza from room service for the Miyao brothers. I watched in disbelief as Rafael Mendes submitted me in under twenty seconds. I spent eleven weeks on a whirlwind tour of the USA and Canada, staying in nine different cities and competing in tournaments in each one of them.
Every week I would spend time with a new group of people, new training partners and a new environment before fighting, refereeing, and moving on to a new city to begin the cycle anew.
As for refereeing? Well, that could be a whole catalogue of experiences by itself. I have been threatened, insulted, and been told innumerable times that I am blind or do not know the rules. But there have been a share of good stories, too.
To pick just one from the Worlds Championships, I was refereeing in 2014 a match where Bernardo Faria faced off against an opponent who I did not recognized. After dominating him, he turned to me with a huge smile and told me that he would lost to him in the final of a competition years earlier, and had finally got his revenge. His opponent smiled too, I raised Bernardo’s hand, and they walked off the mat as friends, chatting and joking together.
So how to end this little piece of journalism? I do not know, simply because the lifestyle is something that does not have an ending.
Jiu-Jitsu has opened doors and pathways that I couldn’t even have imagined the first time I stepped onto the mat.
But the best thing about it is that the journey, amazing though it has been, is far from over. There is still so much left to do.”
And you did it, Oli. You did it.
