Lachlan Giles Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Camp 2019-Recap
By Physiotherapist Matt Ho
Like many weekend warriors, I have always wondered what it
would be like to train like a professional athlete. Watching world class jiu-jitsu players and
MMA fighters ply their trade and improve their skills at the gym only to go
away, recover and come back in the evening made me think about how I would fare
if given a similar chance. So, when
Lachlan Giles, the world class Brazilian jiujitsu blackbelt, renowned coach and
physiotherapy PhD, announced his next yearly camp in Thailand, I jumped at the
opportunity.Â
As much as I would hate to admit it, I knew deep down that
it wouldn’t be quite the same as being
a full time jiu-jitsu player. The camp
was to take place in the veritable island paradise of Phuket, and we would be
pampered. Multiple sports massages,
island hopping and a luxurious resort would combine to detract from the rugged professional
athlete experience. Â Regardless, I made
the small sacrifice of leaving a gloomy Melbourne winter to slum it in a resort
and do jiu jitsu twice per day with the occasional massage thrown in.
The Gym
The actual instructional element of the camp took place in
Absolute MMA’s Phuket location. Formerly Lion Muay Thai, the gym has recently
been transformed into an MMA facility, complete with bags, two rings and an MMA
cage. The BJJ mat area is quite large, and easily accommodated the 40 odd
participants. As a reminder of the gym’s past,
the rest of the facilities are rather rustic, without amazing toilet/shower
facilities. Like most Muay Thai gyms, it
is also open air. This sounds cool, but
in reality it makes the training pretty tough until your body acclimatises and  I don’t
remember being more drenched in sweat than my first few days of this camp. Personally, I enjoyed the struggle, but I
could see how the oppressive heat and humidity could detract from the
experience. The whole camp was thankfully no-gi, and  I’m not
sure how I would cope in a gi given the conditions!
Instruction
Anyone who takes BJJ even slightly seriously will recognise
the name Lachlan Giles. He is a
distinguished BJJ competitor, having been to ADCC (the consensus highest level
of grappling) and competed at the Eddie Bravo Invitational (EBI). He also runs a popular YouTube channel with
in-depth instructional videos, has released his own sets of BJJ DVDs, and is active on (and loved by) social
network/forum website Reddit.Â
Those who have trained under Lachy at Absolute MMA St Kilda,
or anyone who has viewed his instructional videos will be used to his
direct and clear teaching style. There is a certain economy of words that true
masters display, and Lachy is very much in this category. But this isn’t at
the expense of detail, and Lachy also explores the minutia of the subject; this
week it was Half-guard.Â
I have been lucky to train with Lachy occasionally, as I
regularly visit St Kilda whilst being a member of Absolute MMA
Collingwood. His class structure is
familiar for the camp, with a heavy emphasis on specific training and details
in drilling. You can opt to roll/spar
after specific training, and Lachy made a point of rolling with everyone on the
camp at least once. Personally, I opted
to avoid rolling more than 3 rounds per session in the first few days upon
recommendation from previous attendees, as it can be easy to run yourself into
the ground early and not be able to recover (turns out it’s not that easy being a pro athlete
after all!)Â
The structure of the week’s
instruction worked very well, and its obvious that a lot of thought has been
put into how content is presented.Â
Morning sessions are dedicated to guard retention/sweeps/subs, whilst
evenings are all about passing the same position we drilled in the morning. The
positions explored became more complex as the camp went on, meaning the information
was progressive and your knowledge built upon. Â
This really improved my personal information retention, as well as my
depth of knowledge in particular half-guard positions. I usually use a journal to remember specific
techniques, and I did so for the camp.Â
This also helped me download information, but the whole camp was
recorded which will be incredibly useful as my memory becomes hazy.Â
The general structure of the camp meant that many different
experience levels could be catered for, and I would recommend anyone from noob
white-belt upwards to attend. The majority of participants were blue belts, and
I certainly learnt a lot just rolling with people who had different styles from
the myriad of other gyms.Â
It would also be remiss of me to not mention Liv Giles, Lachy’s wife. She is an accomplished black belt and
competitor herself and would chip in with her knowledge and expertise where
relevant which was fantastic. Liv was
the D’Arce to Lachy’s Anaconda.Â
Accommodation
There are a few levels of accommodation, but I opted for the
luxury resort. This was only a ten-minute
walk from the gym, or you could be a classic Thailand tourist and hire a
scooter. After hearing many horror
stories of people crashing (and crashing myself on previous visits) I opted to
walk, and this wasn’t an issue. I would call it a nice warm up to
class, but with temperatures above 30 degrees and 80% humidity, the walk more
closely resembled a sauna session (particularly coming from a freezing
Melbourne winter).
The accommodation itself was fantastic. The resort was clean, the staff friendly and
the rooms large. I was only metres away
from the pool, which had its own bar and sun lounge area. This was perfect for
a midday recovery swim or post session beer/debrief. The resort was made up almost entirely of
people from the camp, which gave the week a friendly, community atmosphere, and
was also conveniently located within a short walk of numerous restaurants,
which made refuelling much easier.Â
As is always the case with BJJ, washing was an ever-present
issue. I was going through rashies and
shorts at a rate of knots. Thankfully
both the resort and a local laundry took the hassle out of washing, although I
would still soak my stuff in soap immediately after I returned from the gym
because I like to smell nice.Â
Activities
If you haven’t been
to Thailand before, there is plenty to amuse yourself with off the mats. The camp was  located in the South of Phuket, which is less
popular with pesky Australian tourists.Â
But this also means accessibility to attractions is reduced
somewhat. Thankfully, Absolute organise
most of the outings and transfers. The
less thinking required, the better in my opinion!
The trips were all quite standard; visiting the Big Buddha,
night markets, Muay Thai fights and a longboat ride around the islands. To be fair, I had been to Thailand previously
and none of these seemed exciting, but I attended a few of the excursions and
they were fun enough. The transport to
and from the attractions left a bit to be desired, and was almost always
late. This was frustrating but not
unexpected, as the Thai’s tend
to work on ‘Island Time’.Â
The other drawback of going out on the trips was the lack of recovery
between sessions. Most of the outings
were organised early in the week, which meant reduced recovery between the morning
and afternoon sessions. It doesn’t seem like much, but those few hours of lying down or recovering in the
pool really helped to make the second session easier, and I would probably skip
most of the outings if you have been to Thailand before.Â
Two sports massages were included in the week’s package, and I saved these for
later in the week. These were surprisingly
firm, and I was amazed at the ability of a 45 Kilogram Thai woman to manipulate
and contort my body. When I suggested
she should try Jiu-Jitsu, she just gave me a blank smile. She must’ve been
a Muay Thai fan.Â
The Vibe
Whilst the instruction was a highlight and the main reason
for the trip, the atmosphere created by those who attended made the whole week
genuinely fun. As previously mentioned,
there was a diverse range of experience levels on the camp, but the people were
amazing.  It turns out BJJ nerds have a
lot in common! It was great to get to
know people from around the world with a common interest, and to have meal or a
few beers and share stories. The
majority of attendees were Australian, but there was a healthy European and
North American presence also, which added a different dynamic and potentially
extended my couch surfing network.
A great testament to Lachy was his commitment to get to know
the camp’s participants. I have chatted to Lachy briefly after class
previously (we share the physiotherapy profession), but we never really hung
out. It was fantastic to see Lachy off the mats and have several in depth discussion
about a range of topics (Lachie insisted he could apply his training
philosophies to carp fishing. Look out
pro carp fishing circuit!)Â
Conclusion
The week was generally well run and a credit to the organisers whilst the instruction was structured brilliantly and catered to all levels. While there are a few things that I would do differently next time, I will be hassling Lachie about his plans for the next camp, because I will be very quick to sign up. Â
If you have any questions about physiotherapy for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu please contact us or book online for an appointment.