Jiu Jitsu Fieldnotes Episode 2
Callum and Cat roll into the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – where sweaty grappling meets surgical precision. They dig into the physical realities of BJJ, how often you should be training (and how often you actually do), and the particular challenges women face on the mats. Cat talks through her journey from traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu into BJJ, sharing how it’s helped her navigate personal hurdles, find her people, and fall in love with the grind.
Along the way, the conversation bounces between competition nerves, the mental chess match of grappling, and the simple joy of training with good humans. Cat also brings her day job into the mix, offering a behind-the-scenes look at sports injuries, recovery, and how being an orthopaedic surgeon shapes her approach to looking after her own body.
With plenty of laughs, honest reflections, and shared enthusiasm for the sport, Callum and Cat explore how martial arts culture is changing – especially for women – and why an inclusive, supportive gym can make all the difference. It’s thoughtful, funny, and reassuringly human – whether you train every day or just like hearing smart people talk about hurting themselves in controlled environments.
Jiu Jitsu Fieldnotes – Podcast Introduction
Jiu Jitsu Fieldnotes is a podcast about what really happens on the mats.
This show captures the stories, lessons, and quiet transformations that happen through Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – not just the techniques, but the people behind them.
Each episode explores the personal side of training. The friendships formed through shared struggle. The setbacks that force growth. The moments where something clicks – physically, mentally, or emotionally – and changes how you see yourself.
This isn’t a podcast about champions or highlight reels. It’s about the everyday practitioners. The early mornings. The injuries. The small victories. The long road from confusion to clarity.
Whether you’re a white belt stepping onto the mats for the first time, or a black belt who’s spent decades refining your craft, these are the stories that connect everyone who trains.
Because Brazilian Jiu Jitsu isn’t just something you do.
It’s something you live.
You can subscribe to the podcast here: https://jjfn.buzzsprout.com/
Transcript
I feel like saying hello and introducing myself even though I’m not introducing myself. You know who I am. Yeah, I know who you are. But starting again and saying thank you Kat for coming onto the podcast. You’re welcome. This is very exciting. Damo’s done quite a few of them now. I always look at Damo. He doesn’t have a microphone. would quite reassurance. he’s here. it’s quite nice. But this is our second second episode. And yeah.
I was very excited to have you on because you’re very interesting. That’s funny because I don’t think I am. Well you wouldn’t. And you asked me and I was like, yeah okay. If you like. But why? Well first off, I know you’ve been training this morning. Yes. Why are you a weirdo and want to train in the mornings or is it literally that’s the only time you can? It’s the only time I Okay well that’s
So I’m a doctor and I technically work full time. Thursdays are my research at home day. ⁓ So I assumed it was your actual day off, but it just means… No. So we’re eating into your precious downtime. Well, no, it’s fine because I fit it in elsewhere. OK, fine. But yeah, so Thursday mornings and then either Saturday or Sunday. OK. you get two in, you try and get two in. Yeah, fair. think two is the like, one is not enough. We see that as well, anecdotally with people who join.
So I pause quite clued up people join, I’ll come once a week and it’s like, you’re not going to stick the course because you just everyone else is getting better. Right. It’s really because I’ve had periods where work was really busy or my kids were being hard work and I couldn’t go that much and you feel really frustrated because you’re not really progressing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely that. Yeah. And then so the I miss as well the you do other stuff. You do quite a lot of like different sports as well. I do a little bit. Okay.
But I find when I try and do other stuff, nothing quite sort of hits in the same way as like sparring, for example. So if that’s for me, I guess I’ve been doing it quite a long time.
I’m less concerned about getting better, which probably the wrong thing to say. Just more like… You can say that though, as a black belt, whereas I’ve got a long way to go in terms of how much I can get better. We can all definitely always get better. So I shouldn’t say that because there’s so much to learn. That for me was actually just me talking for a minute. was, it was so, it’s mad when you look at little things that happen and ⁓ Ongie…
So I used live in Wokingham and I started training like once a week in a school over there. That’s where I met Chris. And then randomly in COVID I was running, cause it’s like, I do something, walk from the door. And he was at the end of my road on a phone. I was like, oh, Chris, like what are you doing here? And he’s like, I’ve just bought that house. And that is funny when you look at little forks because I did like literally no no-gee really. And then…
it was me and him would train a little bit and then you realise how much there is to learn in like a whole other fashion. There’s always something, always something to learn. Yeah. Do you prefer doing gi or no gi or not too fast or? I really like a choke. So I like gi for that reason. More options. Yeah. But I really like the movement and the flow you get when no gi. I really like that. Yeah. It is a bit, I can’t quite figure it out. I like.
As I’ve got a bit older, feel like Nogi weirdly is more forgiving on my body, but I prefer it. Anyway, let’s, your job, because I find it amazing. You are, stop me if I’m wrong, orthopedics? I am an orthopedic surgeon. Fantastic. And how long does it take to become an orthopedic surgeon? For most people, probably about 10 years. Yeah. Okay. But I’ve had three kids in my training, so it’s taken me 16. Mate.
That’s mad. So yeah, how does that work then? You have to just study in your own time. Was it like, yeah, yeah. And then you have to do X amount of time, like on the tools in, hospitals. so you have like, like criteria you have to meet in terms of how many cases you’ve done in specific things before you can get signed off to have completed your training. Yeah. Dame, I just nudging the mic close to my face.
Sorry. But ironically as well, you seem to have ended up in a field of surgery, right? Near an ankle that you have so many people constantly. It’s really useful actually. So I’m a foot and ankle and lower limb trauma specialist, ⁓ which is really useful in jiu jitsu. And it’s also really good because I can empathise with a lot of my patients with their sporting injuries and a lot of things that they’ve done are things that I’ve done. And most of the people you’re seeing
I always just assume when you think about this kind of injuries, it’s all sport related, but it won’t be, it for you? It’s a total mix. And honestly, you can do the most horrific injuries just falling off an uneven bit of movement. Yeah. Yeah. Just twist your ankle in the wrong way.
Suddenly you’ve broken everything. Yeah. Yeah. Literally. In fact, yeah, my blessing, my late next door neighbor, he did something really bad, just complete, like slipping on a step. Yeah, honestly, that’s all it is. Yeah. You are also, in our gym, ⁓ like open mat group. feel like you’re the everyone, if anyone, everyone who’s got any kind of ailment, they throw it out in that group and I can just tell everyone’s just waiting for cat to chip in. Everyone’s got an opinion like, yeah, it’s this, it’s this and this, but it’s like, whatever. What does cat think?
That must be semi annoying at times. No, I don’t mind at all actually. So basically ⁓ one of the few things that I think is quite useful being a doctor is knowing other people when you need something. And so asking my colleagues when I need something. Like I’ll always fit in a colleague if they have injured themselves. And I think I don’t mind at all if people want to ask me stuff. The worst that will happen is I don’t know. And I’ll go and ask someone else.
I was thinking this one’s coming over here. was like, oh, maybe like cat must just get asked everything like blanket that they think you could ask a doctor as well. Right? Sometimes I do. I’m like, it’s not, it’s not really. It’s not like, um, someone coming up to me and going, cow, how would you do a spinning ax kick? was like, I know it’s a martial art, but I’m not quite, but I guess you do when you start your.
When do you learn to like specialize? what point is it like, you know? So you have med school where you do a bit of everything and then your foundation year. So that’s two years where you do a little bit more of everything. And then most people start to specialize. Quite deep into your actual training. Well, not for you, I guess. Well, 10 years. Yeah, that is, that is absolutely crazy. And then what made you want to pick like trauma and you know that
I don’t know. really enjoyed it. Did you? And actually what I said in my interview for my training job was I really like power tools. It’s honestly, it’s carpentry with people.
And I like the whole biomechanics of it. Yeah, yeah, fair. And if I wasn’t a doctor, I think I’d have been a joiner. Yeah, really. Very similar stuff, I guess. And actually a lot of the bone cuts we do to say correct deformity, they’re named after carpentry cuts. Scarf osteotomy is a woodworking osteotomy. Well, it’s not. It’s a cut you do on wood. No way. Honestly, I was saying before, maybe it was on eye,
I am actually, wouldn’t have known, also full circle, Kat helped me hugely with my knee injury. Number one, getting me to see Dr. Patel. you still work in the same hospital, Kat? No, no, I’ve moved now. Okay, cool. So I was going to talk about that hospital and that experience. So I’m petrified of hospitals, which is pathetic, I know. But this is why I have so much admiration for anyone in the…
like ⁓ care and medical field, really do because I’m petrified of them on a number of levels. It’s one, I’m scared of everything like needles and all that stuff that’s ridiculous, but then I’m also just like…
Hospitals in particular. I think a couple of bad experiences when I was younger. They just remind me of like being sad Do you know what mean? Yeah, so I’m always in awe of people who work in those environments and can almost differ like
not take that home with them, do know what I mean? Is that something you struggle with or not so much? don’t know. I think I’m probably quite good at compartmentalizing. Yeah, you have to, guess. And occasionally something bad will happen at work that I will sort of ruminate on for a while. But normally I try and think of the positives. like, try and…
help someone have a good experience through being there and be that person who try and supports them and makes it positive. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And well, that’s why because my experience in the hospital you went before and the whole thing ⁓ was amazing. Like I have to say, it’s a particularly good hospital. Right. Okay. It felt it. It did feel it. The whole process was was so nice. And I know my surgery was on the very minor side of things as well. didn’t have a little bit.
like there was no carpentry work going on in mine but the whole experience was phenomenal but yeah I was kind of just in awe of that and how…
Well, it is every day. in surgery, how many times you in surgery a week then? Once or twice, once one or two days. Okay. And then you have a research day and then a consult. then I have two days of clinic. Two days of clinic. So that’s just reassessing. Yeah. So seeing people either fractal clinic, so injuries or long-term for an ankle problems like arthritis. Okay. Yeah. That sort of thing. What’s the longest surgery you’ve ever done? So
The longest surgery I’ve ever seen is a scoliosis correction, which is like an all day deal. It’s massive. The longest one I’ve ever been involved in was a really difficult tibial fracture, which took five hours. Scoliosis is pretty grim, isn’t it? stuff. She won’t mind me saying my sister-in-law, she’s got ongoing stuff and I feel for her with that kind of thing. I was reading the thing the other day about a new surgery that’s all the rage.
shortening toes. I do shorten toes. Do you? Yeah. Well, if your second toes much longer than your big toe, I have that then you weight bear sometimes through your second toe. Okay. And your foot’s meant to be a tripod. So you’re meant to have the weight through the big toe, the lateral border of the foot and the heel. Right. And if your second toes longer, it takes too much weight and it causes pain. I won’t show you.
I’ve got, I broke my, so on this foot, I’ve got a big toe. Bigger second toe. And I broke it quite badly. Yeah. Yeah. one. Deimo’s now looking at his toes. Mine, it right angles off from where I broke it. But yeah, I think it’s cosmetic fad apparently, Kat. That’s a bit weird. It’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Yeah.
But it’s a funny old world we live in. It’s funny because I think we see a lot of people with bunions, just, they want to wear heels. Yeah. Toes to look nicer. Yeah. Don’t underestimate how long an operation can go. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. Right. Just for making your toes shorter. Yeah, absolutely. The, it’s funny you say that the I begrudgingly I’m 41 now. ⁓ and I have a history of, is it hereditary thing bunions?
What was that? It can be. My nan, bless her. Yeah. She’s got like Blair Witch feet, you know, they’re her real, they’re like pretty, and then my dad. Blair loves. Sorry, Margaret.
But I’ve started wearing like barefoot shoes a bit more. Yeah, same. I can’t believe how comfy they are. It’s mad, isn’t it? Then I’m like, right, we’ve just been doing shoes wrong for… Yeah, no, I totally agree with that. right? Yeah. I have a bit of a bunion. Okay. A few years ago, it was really sore. Yeah. And I now wear barefoot shoes and the pain’s pretty much completely gone just because I don’t have shoes that squash my toes. Just squashing your toes, right? Even shoes I thought were good, like I a pair of New Balance that cost me way too much money. I’ve worn them like three times. I’m like so uncomfortable. It’s like I’ve been wearing heels, I imagine.
like my own heels all day. Could be, could be.
I guess that’s good as well in Jiu Jitsu. It’s weird, I was thinking about that the other day. I quite like that, you know that whole like grounding or whatever. I it’s nice just being like barefoot like and doing martial arts. Should we talk about martial arts? Let’s do it. So I know you did traditional Jiu Jitsu first, didn’t you? I did Japanese Jiu Jitsu for three years. Nice. was that in London? It was in Oxford actually. Is that what you studied? Oxford Oxford. Yeah Oxford Oxford. Jesus, why have we got so many clever people around? I love it. To compensate for us.
I didn’t want to go to Oxford. Did you not? Yeah, I didn’t think it was for me. Where are you from, Staffordshire. Okay. I wanted to go to Nottingham. Okay. And they didn’t give me a place. no way. I’ve got to go to Oxford. I know.
How was it as an experience? It was odd actually. it? Yeah. I went to a state comprehensive. Okay. And there were some really posh people. Yeah. And then there were quite a few normal people. Yeah. Yeah. It was interesting. I can imagine. Have you met, I have not seen her for a long time, which makes me a bit sad actually, but my friend Nino, who’s one of the first women who I remember.
really being around to be honest, Jiu Jitsu. And God, why am I blanking on Nina’s last name? Nilo Far, have you met Nina? So she’s a black one of Roger’s black belts. ⁓ She’s just the rock star to be honest. So she is, ⁓ man, actually, I think she went to Cambridge now. But she went, same thing. She’s, I think like second generation Iranian immigrant. ⁓
went to either Cambridge or Oxford, I can’t remember which. I she studied law. She now works for Amnesty International. She’s on the BBC talking about foreign policy and just doing really good stuff. And at the same time, ⁓ she’s like a black belt and competed ⁓ a lot and sort of whatever. But she was a working class family and…
and all that so it must be quite weird have you seen that film is it salt bay no that’s no not that’s the guy the salt man is that yes i have seen salt that is the most fucked up film where are we going i don’t know i don’t know yeah i’ll backtrack on that quite hard but yeah that was one of those movies and you get to the ends of it and you’re like what am i allowed to swear yeah yeah what the fuck have i just watched
I was a bit unsure. I think I quite enjoyed it, but my wife’s with a pretty good litmus test and she’s like, no, that’s just weird. It’s pretty weird. Yeah, honestly, you’re like, I don’t know why I’ve watched I know why I’ve watched that, yeah. Can’t rewind time. Let’s put friends on. Japanese jiu-jitsu. Yeah. So it’s quite different, isn’t it? I don’t want to blanket it, but yeah. What were you on? So I started that at uni.
maybe a few weeks into my first term and basically I was depressed. I’d moved away from home and I wasn’t really coping, but I knew I was. ⁓ And I knew I needed to get out and do something. And so I went through all the leaflets I’d picked up at the Freshers’ Fair and started going through different activities. ⁓ And the Japanese Jiu-Jitsu club there was really great because although it was run on a university site in the sports hall, it was not just for university students. So actually it was loads of normal people.
with jobs and then a few students and I really liked that it was because it was outside the stress of the normal university environment ⁓ and it was really fun ⁓ I think like BJJ it’s very hard physically and I really like that ⁓ and it’s quite practical yeah yeah because I think there’s a bit of an unfair misconception ⁓ maybe not as much but it used to be quite
people would really talk down on traditional jujitsu as like a not.
I think a lot of the things you do are quite staged. You very much allow someone to do the technique. I have to say I really love being thrown across the room and then just getting up again. There’s a lot of focus on really hard break falling. I could throw people twice my size across the room and that was really satisfying. It was all throws and wrist locks. was brilliant. I was going to say you’re not
you’re not fighting in the sense that you are in BJJ the person doesn’t really count to you yeah just like the what do they call it in judo ⁓ like Uchi Kami I think they call it where it’s just you
Practicing the essentially without the resistance. yeah, that does, cause I know you’re rightly as well. We do need to try and do as much as can in the gym. You’d like to do more standup in the gym, right? Like more throws and stuff. But I’m on the other end of the spectrum a little bit now where I do not like getting thrown across the room as much. Cause I, when I was in London, I used to train at the Budokai once a week and they would do Uchi Komi.
but it would literally be, they’d do these like speed drills ⁓ where you would have to, and bearing in mind I’m rubbish compared to them. I would go because ⁓ Ray Stevens, he’s one of Roger’s black belts, but he’s also the last British man to medal at the Olympics. Amazing story behind that as well. ⁓
One of my heroes, like just this guy, and he used to advertise my mag. I’d go meet him in by the Buddha choir for a coffee and then he’d say, come and do my session. be like, okay. And he just ran the randori session. So it was all the hardcore guys. Anyway, he would, their speed drills would be like, we’d have already done quite an intense warmup. And I’m not that, I’m pretty lazy. And then it would be me getting, you’d get thrown at like full clip and then you had to get up as quick as possible to get thrown again, thrown again, thrown again. And then it would be like, right and change. But.
I just remember when it was my turn, it was me throwing, I’m exhausted. And then it was almost when you think you’re getting your breath back. ⁓ It’s literally just me getting launched and like not getting up quick enough for it to happen again. used to find it, I’d get a phone and I’d land on the floor like a sack of potatoes. And that’s how I felt trying to get up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do think the standing grappling arts are way more… ⁓
attritional and not in a bad way. They all bring their own things, Like judo is so I did the British Judo Magazine for a while. So actually I went to Oxford Uni where they did the where they had their old dojo there and did an article. But it’s a hard sport. Like you’ll find most people who do judo aren’t doing it in their like
50s and 60s like in Jiu-Jitsu. We’ve got a few, I mean, it’s mad. I say that and look at our place. We’ve got Dave. Dave’s a 53 year old man, which is mental, isn’t it? But you know, but it is, I find anyone who’s done a lot of Judo, they tend to then come and do Jiu-Jitsu. a bit more cerebral, isn’t it? But I think it’s important to bring a little bit of the, this work, very important to bring the stand up, stand up back in.
But yeah, that’s cool. That’s, I’m sorry, self-indulging. I was really depressed my first year at uni, actually, for different reasons. I moved away ⁓ and I just didn’t really find my…
people. Yeah, no, didn’t. I was really lonely. Yeah. And I knew I needed to get off my ass and go and do something. Yeah. Easy to just sit in your room feeling sorry for yourself. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that’s what got me out. I knew I had to do some exercise and I knew I needed to meet some people. Yeah. And then you started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu all these years later. And was it Ahmed who started first? It was. It was. I remember his second session, but carry on. Yeah. So my husband’s also a doctor and he’s had a few patients and he’s very whole.
He’ll
ask them like everything that’s going on in their lives and he’d had quite a few people in a row whose kids were being bullied And we got three kids and so he was like well What can we do to stop this happening to them? And the answer is try and just instill confidence and self-assurance and bullies don’t pick on people Who are confident and we’ll just tell them to fuck off, right? ⁓ And he did a load of sort of research He’s like, okay. Well, we need to get our kids into some sort of martial arts to give them that physical confidence
And he emailed a load of gyms and Genesis was the, they replied the same day. And he came to visit the gym. And then so he sold it to me like, well, the kids are gonna start martial arts. ⁓
And I said, what do you mean just the kids? You’re in. Yeah, was in. Nice. It’s mad, isn’t it? These little tangents in life and think if we hadn’t have emailed back so quick, if Sian wasn’t so damn efficient. because everywhere else took like nearly a week to respond. But he, the email from the gym was like the same day and he went to visit and it, and like…
It’s a very family run place. It’s got a great atmosphere and he was like, great, this is the place. And did you take to it straight away? Were you like, you did? Nice. Yeah, that’s interesting. Yeah. I’m always intrigued by people’s first experiences in the gym because you can tell, I think, ⁓ quite quickly with people. It sounds bad where I’m like…
Yeah, they’ve got this. I’ll be really surprised if they don’t stick it out. And there are other people that I’m almost desperate to sort of show them like, no, no, no, keep just keep knocking at the door for a bit. know, even last night I was teaching the beginners class and we’ve got, I it’s January as we’re recording. Lots of trialists. And you just forget, you, when you’ve been doing it for so long.
how for some people just even the close proximity and physicality of it is- It’s really weird, right? And I think one of the biggest things I sort of learned in the first year is just learning to be uncomfortable. Yeah, very true. Even, that can be, you know, as you progress, getting, know, ragged on and around and you’re like, geez, I’m just, or for people in like the first few classes just being, it’s all right, I’m gonna be like in side control here, compressing your chest a little bit.
So you do go, you do look at it. think when we’ve been trained, how long have been training now, Kat? Nearly four years. was going to say, yeah. You do, don’t you realise, I do it still now when you look back. had a really, like last night there was, won’t mention the lady’s name just in case, but it was amazing in the session. Saw her first of all, just grasping that it’s all, it’s okay. This, you know, this close proximity. And then by the end of it, I could see, I hope anyway, it looked like she was getting a real kick out of there. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. I can, you know,
You can let yourself go a bit, can’t you? And I don’t know if it you who was saying, I think it is Damo said this before, you forget that most people nowadays don’t even really…
get a hug off people. And then like in jujitsu, you are like right in someone’s space. Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s quite unusual. Yeah. From that perspective and your kids, I’m interested because I know you’ve got three kids. What are the ages of your kids again? Seven. Yeah. Nine and 10. Yeah. Okay. So I’ve got six and four. Yeah. So they’re all a little bit older, but my, how do they, what’s your approach? Is it like you guys are going? Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cool. Yeah. No fair. No, I’m interested. Yeah. I guess like most kids, what they really want to do is
sit at home and play on their iMacs all day, which is not happening. So we have sort of laid it down that they do have to go sometimes and actually the family sessions on a Saturday have been really good for that because even if they don’t want to…
fight each other, I can tell you they all want to choke me. That’s nice though, isn’t it? I taught my middle one a rear naked choke a couple of months ago. So now that’s all she wants to do is arm bar me and choke me. So actually that’s been really good. If we do the family cast, they really love that. That’s nice, isn’t it? Yeah. And they really liked the opportunity to beat me up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that. I really want to get mine down more. think they’re, cause I’m with you. I want them to do.
think because I’m one of the coaches, I’m terrified of being like pushing them to do what dad does. But I also think that just maybe, I don’t know, I’m hesitant to push them just, I think I’m being a bit pathetic to be honest. Now I’m reasoning it, because Arlo loves it, but he’s quite shy, so he’ll wanna come with me. He’ll wanna come and then he won’t want to do the class. ⁓
There’s so many studies, I’m sure, saying this to the doctor, I’m sure you’ve read plenty of bullshit, like studies. But I see loads of stuff on Instagram, Kat. Don’t we all? Don’t we all? Saying how good it is for kids, like the physicality and for all of that. So yeah, it’s cool. And those classes have been great, actually, haven’t they? They’ve been a really good intro. You also love to compete?
Love is rather a strong word. I would say I love and hate it in equal measure. That’s literally your fiance’s by the way, but yeah I’m quite competitive ⁓ Yeah You’d never have guessed right I’m quite competitive But I balanced out really difficulty with also being quite lazy. Okay. Yeah, you don’t have time to be lazy Well, yeah, sometimes I’d like to be yeah
And I really like a challenge, particularly a physical challenge. competing is actually a really big mental challenge. I found out that actually has been the biggest thing is.
managing my own anxiety. And the first time I ever competed, I hadn’t gassed out sparring for like 18 months or something. And in my first competition, I found I was just hyperventilating. I was so anxious and actually it’s so much mind over matter and keeping a level head when you’re in this horrible and comfortable position. Yeah, absolutely. So it’s not something that’s natural for me at all. I don’t compete a lot. I’ve always…
wanted to do more. But, and I kind of returned to it here and there. I think exposure is a great thing. think so many people are like, you just got to keep putting yourself in the fire. But for me, what was a bit of a turning point was two things actually. One was, I remember saying to my friend, Dan Strauss, who back, I think he competed at a really good level and whatever. But I remember saying to him, was like, oh, mate, I just.
I just get so anxious. And then he was like, yeah, it’s always going to be there kind of thing. And he was like, it dissipates, you know, sometimes, but he was like, it’s always there. And that was quite reassuring to be like, yeah, it’s not just going to not be there. You know, it’s just almost like, oh, hello old friend. And then trying to control that, right? But you’re right. It’s mad, isn’t it? You know, John, John Collins, he’s raced in an Olympic finals.
and he did his first competition a little while ago and he said exactly the same things. I couldn’t believe how, how gassed I was. Um, and obviously it’s a new environment for him, but I’m just the intensity of it that it can bring. do think I hesitate to say, like I hesitate to sort of push people to competition when I don’t do it enough.
but I have competed at every belt and I do think it’s something that people, just like you’ve come to a Jiu-Jitsu class, you’ve come this far, I’m like, just give it a go, just give it a go because you might absolutely fucking love it, you know? And a good example, I’m sure you won’t mind me saying, I’m pretty sure, I’m 99 % sure Paxton didn’t compete to lose a black belt. I might be wrong, I’m pretty sure, or if he did, it was like one or two. And when we went to the Europeans, he had a really good match.
big back and forth tear up and he lost it narrowly. I’ve never seen someone so pumped and amped afterwards. He was like, that was absolutely amazing. And he said afterwards, I don’t know, I’m gutted. Why have I just started doing this now? You know, so it’s a big part of, ⁓ big part of it. But I people are going to ignore it a bit in Jiu Jitsu because we are kind of, which is fair, like.
It is a combative, constantly combative thing, isn’t it, on the mat, if you know what mean? But yeah, no, so I’m really glad that you do. And I’ve seen you’ve competed against people way younger than you. That wasn’t fun. But you know, it’s all experience, isn’t it? Yeah, competed against someone 22 years younger than me. That was hard. was hard, but you know, put yourself in the fire, didn’t you? That’s it, that’s it. So what does a week look like for you? Because in my head,
you train weekends and mornings. Yeah. How can you, can you tell me what me through your week? I’m intrigued because I’ve, I’m yeah, I am. Cause I think I’m really pathetic about my work. So, okay. Well, I work in Basingstoke and Winchester, which is a reasonable distance away. So I get up at 10 to five. Okay. Yep. That’s enough to be.
And then I leave the house depending on which one I’m going to, probably 10 to six. Basically in Winchester, if you get there after 10 past seven, there’s no car parking. Okay. That’s stressful. Yes. It’s stressful. It’s a pain in the Is that hospitals all around by the way for that hospital? No, no, no, this is particularly bad parking. Okay. So Mondays I have clinic in the morning and then I do admin and research in the afternoon. Nice.
Tuesday is all day clinic in Basingstoke so that starts at 9 but I get there at half 7 because I get my admin done beforehand. I’d rather get to work early do my admin and not do it at home. Yeah fair. Like actually I’m really careful about not bringing work home with me and I try and do all my work at work. Wednesday is operating all day. How many we get through in a day? Depends what we’re doing so yesterday I did trauma and we did six which is really good. Wow, Jesus. That’s amazing.
did you do yesterday? Fixed a broken wrist. Oh, I thought you just did legs. It’s trauma. So a little bit of everything. Whatever needs to be done needs to be done. No shit. Yeah. All right. All limbs. Well, everything. So sometimes there’s stuff that’s too specialist. I’ll be like, I’m not fixing that shoulder fracture. A shoulder surgeon needs to do that. Right. Okay. And I don’t do hip replacements. Okay. So my boss, so we did a, we fixed a wrist, we fixed an ankle. My boss came and did this hip.
and we put a rod down someone’s femur for their broken hip. reduced someone’s dislocated shoulder. My registrar chopped off someone’s infected toe. Jesus. That must like, honestly, you know, you, sorry. Well, I don’t know what you and Ahmed do, but like Ella and I, we’re like ships that pass in the night, be honest, with our schedules. My wife works for a video production and animation agency.
she’s one of the shareholders and she’s busy. And I’m busy, but we almost come home and we’re like ships that pass in the night sometimes, but we’ll almost give each other a look at the end of day and be like, you all right? And then how was your day? But my day’s normally like, yeah, did a few emails, the classes were really good, but you’ll come over and like, man, chopped Blake’s toe off. ⁓ That’s pretty cool.
The funniest thing happened the day before, I was checking on a computer what cases we got lined up for the next day and my son who’s having a period over my shoulder was like what you’re looking at and I was looking at an x-ray and I was saying oh this person’s got an infected toe so we’re gonna have to amputate it and he goes what you gotta chop it off yeah with a knife yeah will it grow back no you didn’t and then what happens to it
it in the bin. It just goes away. Yeah. It’s like what just the normal bin is like well technically no the hospital bin gets incinerated it’s like what’s that? This is I mean I’m learning I didn’t know where the rubbish went that’s pretty cool. incinerated. gets incinerated. Yeah. What happens can you chop off a big toe? Of course you can.
That must be hard to balance. you get a fake one? yeah, it’s not very, no, you can’t have a fake one, but it does upset your balance. It’s 2026. Why can’t we have fake big toes? Yeah, don’t do that. Yeah. That feels like it should be on the to-do list to be honest. Cause that I’d be gutted if I lost my big toe. You know what? Don’t get diabetes. Okay, fair. And if you do look after it. Is that mainly when people lose them? Yeah. I was thinking something cool like they got.
I don’t know. Badly controlled diabetes is how you lose your toes. do it. What’s the hardest surgeon surgery? Who’s the hardest surgeon? What’s the hardest surgery? Yeah, literally. people ask you about what they work? Sometimes. Yeah. I think when you say you do jiu-jitsu and they don’t know what it is, they think it sounds very impressive. They’ve no idea how good I am. And if I could handle myself in a real fight, but they just assume that you can. Just assume you can. Yeah. I had, I’ve talked about this, think on Vin’s podcast.
Do you have, I don’t know you have time, but like social stuff with parents at school. A tiny bit. Yeah, same to be honest. But everyone, I know everyone just thinks that I’m like the karate kid. you what like, oh, cows that guy. And I’m like, okay, if you That’s not really what I do, but it’s fine. Yeah, kind of like that. But yeah, what’s the hardest surgery that in your eyes that would be, I don’t know, let’s say ankle and.
knee specific? The hardest operation I’ve ever been involved in was a tibial fracture. I was like that when you said wasn’t it? yeah. And this person had, they were old and their bones were really brittle and you could see the break on the x-ray but then we did a CT scan which is a 3D x-ray and you could see actually the whole thing had shattered. It was just undisplaced and you know if you try and stick a nail or metal rod down that it’s gonna go which is what it did.
Then you’ve got to play catch up and try and whatever. Try and fit it all back in the right place. ⁓ it’s mad, isn’t it? It’s funny because in Jiu Jitsu, I feel like maybe wrongly people talk about knees the most as like… I would have thought knees and shoulders probably. But I feel like knees are getting more heat than shoulders. I think it’s because of heel hooks and people are like, ⁓ heel hooks. Whereas shoulders and like, camoras and omoplates and stuff to me, I’m like, that’s way more like…
Potentially, you know, I think it’s very easy to dislocate someone. Yeah, you know what you’re doing. Did you hear about Matt’s? Yeah The x-ray that I mean, I’m glad that was him and not me. Yeah. Yeah, all of it was like in his armpit or something
I would have passed out as well. I’m a real fainter. The real problem is the more muscular you are, the more difficult it is to get get it back in, Matt is more muscular than me. Little bit of a shame. ⁓ the next thing I wanted to, quite a big thing I wanted to ask you about Kat, so actually just, I think my perspective of it, just trying to get more women into like combat sports, jiu-jitsu, grappling.
When I started, the only woman who grappled, so I started at Kev Caples gym was his partner, Yaz, and that was it. And then when I moved to London, which was a big school, there was literally Joanna, and that was it. There’s like one woman who, you know, she’s like really going against the grain there to sort of to get in. So I think things have shifted.
shifted a fair amount. But yeah, I don’t know, what’s your perspective? Do you think that there’s a lot of work to be done to make it more inclusive? Or what do you think are the things that make it an easier thing for a, you know? Yeah, it’s a really difficult question because even now there are not many women. No, no, relatively. And I routinely enter competitions and don’t have someone to compete against. Just because, and I think, hydration. I think a little bit of it.
might be personality that as a whole, I don’t want say, well, I’m going to say women are generally less aggressive, but actually I’m quite aggressive. You’re an outlier. And combat sports isn’t historically a very feminine thing. No, I got you. So I think there’s a lot of perception about it. I’m wondering how much of it is, like you say though, is it women aren’t as aggressive or is it just that, this hasn’t been made as
It’s not as like culturally acceptable to be a woman who likes to fight. Yeah, yeah. think that’s still the door that needs to be pushed a little bit further open, isn’t it really? Because all the women I’ve met that have started have really enjoyed it. And I think a lot of it is women needing to encourage other women when they get there. And I’ve met some great people ⁓ at the club and at competitions, which has been fantastic.
And actually they’ve been one of the biggest inspirations in wanting to compete. Yeah, that’s great. Because I always want to, obviously we want to do as much as we can for everyone at like our place to make it perfect really for everyone. And what I’ve noticed as well, and I noticed this in London, say like a women’s only class, it was…
Even in London, they’re like, it’s great for ⁓ say, beginners who are a bit tentative about trying. But for the women who’ve been training a little while, they’re almost like, I just want to go and smash up the boys. I want to go in and mix it, just do normal. You know, I don’t want to say even that’s quite nuanced, isn’t it? It’s quite difficult. ⁓ But I do think ⁓
things are changing, but I don’t know if that’s, I don’t think that’s Jujitsu being an outlier. think that’s just in a good way, the world changing, right? And things being more acceptable. But I do look back and I think about like Nina as an example. So Nina’s like tiny as well. And she, I do look back and think, Blimey, you’re, you know, you’re a real, can see why you’re an outlier to stay the course and actually do it. And I think, I think we’ve got a fairly, you know, welcoming.
environment at our place. yeah, I was just intrigued if there’s anything you think, oh, you know, not us specifically, but the sport could really do with X, you know, and there’s some great people in the sport now who I think, you know, pushing it in the right direction, just with their actions, like Fionn being one, you know, like, think she’s my mate, like, the way she talks about the game, the jujitsu and the things that we can do, I think there’s a lot of
positive stuff from that perspective. So hopefully it will keep going, keep evolving. So how long until your, Rohan’s your oldest boy, it? He’s my only boy. Your only boy, sorry. Yeah. How old is it? Nine.
He’s seven. Seven, sorry. Sefi’s about to turn nine and Ara’s 10 and a half. Okay, so you’ve got a little while until they can actually join the main classes and you have to worry about them properly. Yeah. Being able to, and Ahmed’s got quite a bad injury now, hasn’t he? He really injured his neck nearly a year ago. It’s so much better than it was, but he’s still aware of it and the risk of it happening again at the moment is just too much. It’s not normal. That’s the thing in that you…
One of my good friends he Kind of ignored his neck for way too long like you look back when we were younger I remember him he was always they’d be quite often was like your own next bit stiff. Yeah, and then not long ago
he finally got an MRI because he couldn’t lift a five kilo dumbbell in one hand. And it’s like, ⁓ man, that is, you not good from that perspective. But yeah, that’s the only thing with Jiu Jitsu as well. think, you do like any like rehabby or like gym work or anything like that? You do. Yeah. Largely because my husband made me. Because it’s good for me. So I really like trail running. Okay. And that’s what I’ve been doing for like, I don’t know,
15
years. ⁓ But you just end up with loads of injuries if you just do the same thing. And actually starting to jitsu exposed a lot of my muscle weaknesses that I’d been deliberately neglecting for years. So now I do do weight training and strength training, which has made a big difference. Okay, that’s interesting.
Yeah, I’m so lazy with that. And there’s so many people at our place that are really good at it. I stopped you so Wednesday surgery, obviously you were in surgery yesterday. yeah, Thursday is research at home. Nice. Which is, it’s normally jujitsu in the morning, rush home, take the kids to school, then go for a run. Nice. Double sesh. can’t do that anymore. I’m ashamed of myself. I’m going to tell you my busy day in a minute and you’re going to laugh at me. Friday.
Friday alternates week on week. So it’s either double clinic or operating. Okay. I find what do you prefer? Do prefer being in operations? Yes. Yeah. Saying that though, the thing I really like my job, like about my job is meeting people and actually clinics quite good. You get to meet loads of people, make a difference. Yeah. Talk about.
what you can do to make them better, what they can do to make themselves better. Yes, I mean, it’s a cliche, you’re a doctor. Yeah, it must be unbelievably rewarding as a thing. That’s where I’m quite glad teaching Jujitsu, you see real changes in me.
The kids, right? that’s hilarious. Oh, you guys do such a phenomenal job. I’m petrified of the kids. Absolutely petrified of them. But I think it’s because they can smell my fear. They look at me. I can see they’re like, he’s an easy target. Good job. He’s not in charge. going to listen to that one. no. But I have seen big changes in people with with jiu-jitsu, but God, you must get it all the time. I mean, it’s only I say it’s a little thing. It’s not like my knee. kind of suffered in silence with it for a good while, really. And then I got very, very, very lucky again, the community that you
guys you know it kind of helped me but ⁓ it was like it was even though it’s a pretty minor injury it was pretty life-changing and I could train again you and so it’s it’s ⁓ it is pretty amazing that you can do that for for work yeah I’m quite jealous so do you have we’re going to talk more jujitsu specific stuff now ⁓ what’s your favorite like
position or technique or thing you like to do? there something you like? That’s my favorite thing is an Ezekiel from Smash Half. I thought I had a feeling that was your thing. And ⁓ I like to pretend I’m trying to get the leg out. So they’re all worried about keeping my leg. And then you, you know, you sneak an arm across the throat. Did Anna show you that? Anna is like the queen of loves them doesn’t she? Yeah. is like
I thought she’d be like a little bit calmer at the moment given what’s going on and she just absolutely mullered me on last week. thing is when you’re all with her I love her control. Everything is so, don’t want to, slow’s not the right word but it’s so measured ⁓ and then all of a sudden I’m wrapped up like a pretzel and I can’t breathe anymore. Anna’s really good. Anna’s really good.
I’m sure sometimes she’ll do stuff where I’m a bit petrified. She’ll roll a certain way and I’m like, my God, she’s dead. And they say, no, she’s fine. And she’s, her profession as well, it’s like, she’s used to, yeah, used to doing that. I don’t know if Anna’s had any really bad injuries actually.
Has she? Jesus. about Joe? you? Did you introduce? I did a medial sternoclavicular joint last year. just like the techie words. I say techie, biological words. Anatomical. There we go. There we go. like it that we both couldn’t think of that word then. A ZQ from half. Roger’s good at that. So Roger thing. The old ZQ.
Have you seen the one he does? No, sorry, it’s a different joke. The one where puts a ghee in his mouth though. I’ll you next week. If you’re happy with putting the ghee in your mouth. Yeah, as long as it’s my ghee. It’s your ghee. It’s their ghee.
It depends who it is. I think we’re quite, I don’t think we’ve got too many stinkers. No, we don’t actually. I think it’s good actually. That’s one of the biggest things, man. Actually, one of the things I really quite like about the gym is I think all the weirdos get weeded out. Yeah, I agree. Someone senior has a quiet word with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s hard. It is hard. I’m touching wood as you say that because I’ve been around a lot of gyms and yeah, it doesn’t take a lot to, you know, fuck.
the equal, you know, what’s going on. But on the whole, we seem to have quite nice people come through, don’t we? We have been lucky, honestly. I think we’ve had one like really glaringly like, okay, yeah, that’s, you’ve got to leave kind of thing. But like, we’ve been on the whole, we’ve been pretty good. But it’s mad, when I look back, I was never, I never saw this myself, but just a funny story. So my friend, late friend, Oli Geddes, who was incredibly like,
intelligent guy, brilliant jiu-jitsu, but he’s a workhorse, he wasn’t natural. Roger had a gym on Kilburn High Road, so it wasn’t there for that long. I used to live in Queen’s Park, and you walked onto Kilburn High Road. And it’s quite a vibrant road, quite a lot going on. ⁓
and the gym was there and I wasn’t there for it but back when I was in London you would get you would still get the sort of guy coming off the street looking for a Gracie challenge kind of thing so you’d get all sorts you know and I think the the admin around the sort of weeding out the
the crazy is we don’t have an awful lot of it. I’m cursing it now, aren’t But Oli, there’s this really famous story, right? So he was famous for like pulling half guard. He was a half guard guy. And in competitions, that’s already get taken down super quickly. It’s just like Oli’s at two points down straight away. Cause he couldn’t, it was just like, was almost a running joke. He starts at a deficit. Apparently this guy came in.
And you know, like you look at like traditional Gracie challenge videos, it’s like going in clinching and taking them down or whatever. And Ollie went so sportive, you see like this guy’s like swinging at him and he just sort of shuffles in and pulls half cards. But still gets on top and you know, does whatever. But I just wish I was there. And he was so, yeah. But we’ve not obviously we don’t get that on the hard streets of Marlowe really. Yeah, exactly. So no, no one coming in asking more just angry. Where do I park my Porsche?
Yeah, enough room enough room without absolutely fine. Do you have any favorite? Do you like watching jujitsu out of interest you watch much like in my spare time? So sometimes there’ll be something like a technique I want to get better at and I’ll watch some technique videos. I’m not much of a sport watching person in general. Yeah, I don’t what I don’t watch much jujitsu. I used to slice up a magazine. I used to watch a lot. Yeah. ⁓
And now that I don’t have to do it, I don’t think I like watching it. I think I finally come to that conclusion. It has to be the biggest ⁓ matches. But you learn a lot from watching. I do, same as you, if there’s something on my mind or I do Roger’s website and Fionn’s website and Ryan Hall’s website. So if there’s any sparring clips, you learn a lot from watching actually. ⁓
Fionn actually is interested in watching her roll because most of the time she’s rolling against guys. ⁓ But she’s like, just obviously I’m like unbelievably technical, but she’s got like, she’s only got one gear, which I admire. You look at people, I do think you’re a bit like that to be honest, Kat. You roll. I’ve been told that. Yeah, you got one, but I honestly think you, it’s a real balancing act, but all the people that I know that are really good or…
lean towards competition, they, you that whole thing you train the way you compete. I think it’s true. And cause we don’t have a comp class yet either where like, you know, you kind of, another one like Robbie Morris, always brings the intensity, doesn’t he? And Robbie’s always done really well in competition cause he’s just used to that, you know what I mean? Whereas I’m lazy. So I’m usually doing as little as possible to justify my croissant, you know.
While enjoying it, obviously. Keeping the wolf from the door. But yeah, do you have any grapplers that, like aspiring grapplers, know, or like their style of grappling or like, or? There are people at the gym that I like to roll with because I will learn from rolling with I know you like rolling with me. That’s fine. Yeah. I am the best coach.
Damo is one of my favourites. Is he? Yeah. Damo likes to threaten a leg lock. I love that. Damo loves a leg lock, doesn’t he? You do love a leg lock? Because my upper body strength is not there. I don’t, that’s not what it is. It’s just you’ve got a nice little foot lock on you. Yeah. He does like a leg lock actually. Do you like leg locks? Well you’re like, no, that’s my job. No. That’s the way you do everything. I thought you were just legs and ankles. Don’t discriminate. Who else is good at leg locks at the gym? Omi obviously. Yeah. Yeah.
I think people at Mason, yes, yeah, Mason likes a leg lock, doesn’t he? I think now at our place, in a good way, people are less scared of his exposure to it, isn’t it, like leg locks and heel hooks and stuff, because you were getting shown it. But I do remember on his first Sunday, did you go, everyone’s just cringing, he’s like showing a heel hook and everyone’s just like, ooh, you know, and in your head you’re going, it’s no worse than like this, it’s just a different joint, right?
But am I right in saying you can’t feel, you got less nerve endings and stuff in your knees? Or am I talking? I actually don’t know.
supposed to know everything. Probably. Well, the reason I say that, rumour has it I don’t like to tap, Kat. I think I’m getting a bad reputation. Oh really? Yeah, I think I get a bad rep. think I There are definitely some people that never tap. Yeah, there are. There are a few I’ve actually had to say to, like listen, they would, or like at least letting them know that the other person…
stopped there. Do you know what I mean? And sometimes I’ll be joking to someone like, is this not on? They’re like, yeah, it’s on. I’m just not going to tap. That’s a bit weird.
Cause it’s like the next step is you’re asleep. And I’m always petrified that I’m going to wet myself because I’ve seen it a few times. ⁓ I can say it’s an anonymous story, another one of my, God, I feel like I’m just talking about people who’ve passed away. Let’s see, another one of my good friends and brilliant teacher, Nick Brooks at his school. There was a guy who, little tanky blue belt, was wicked, really lovely to train with. And he had this, can’t remember from what position he had a really sneaky choke.
that like every pretty much everyone he rolled for the first time would fall for it and a big visiting black belt came in and he was not gonna tap and ⁓ so he went out and he had blue key bottoms on they were very quickly becoming very dark blue just from you know. The moral of this story is go for a wee before you train. Well that as well.
That’s the only thing I don’t like about the new gym actually. Is the toilet downstairs. So far away. So far. And Matt is lovely. He would let everyone use his toilet if we pushed him, but I don’t think it’s fair. Cause you know, he’s got his office to the side. So I don’t like having to go so far for a wee. Yeah, you’re allowed though. Why are you allowed? work with You do, that’s true. I don’t think you’d mind if I went, but I feel like it’s a bit of dodgy ground.
Yeah, who else do you like to over in the gym then? I know you can’t pick out, everyone obviously, but. I have to say, Pete Jupp is one of my favourites. He’s great. He’s really big and really controlled. And I find I learn loads with him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this morning after class, I rolled with him and then I rolled Steve Vinyls loads of fun because he’s really fast. Yeah. And we’re roughly the same size, which is nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You do need all sorts of training partners as well, actually. I think that’s quite important. There are some days, like, so for example, I don’t know if you’ve listened to this, but one of my good friends, Kev has just started training. Kev’s quite a big boy, and he’s a former professional rugby player.
and he brings the heat, he trains, he’s going. But I’ve seen it with people that he knows he can be, do you know what I mean? And not in a bad way, some people, even people go to me like, cool, Kev’s getting really good, and he’s like, oh, he brings it, it’s like first thing in the morning and he’s bringing the heat. But I think you need that, like, I don’t have a problem with that, I never have, like if you’re, you need all sorts, do know what I mean? I think sometimes if there’s someone who wants to go.
they’re going at a hundred percent. Like it’s still your ego at the end of the day. It’s like, cause I could just play possum. Do know what I mean? So it’s even when I’m not up for this, like, don’t then just relax. But I always rise to the rise to it. And then you go, Oh, that’s good actually. Cause it’s the equivalent of like a PT shower and that you, isn’t it? And go in just come on, we’re here to fight. But there we go. I’m going to check my phone, see if I’ve missed anything exciting. I wanted to ask you about.
this, oh, there’s a few philosophical ones. I don’t like philosophy. Do you not? It’s a waste of time. My husband will tell you I’m so unphilosophical. Like he’ll try and start like a really in-depth conversation with me. I’m like, what’s the point? Thing is, it’s like almost the complete contradiction of like your, your profession in a sense, isn’t it?
That’s interesting though, because Ahmed’s bit of both, isn’t he? Yeah, he can be very philosophical actually. He quite likes a theoretical discussion. And I’m like, well, if it’s not real, why am I talking about this? Yeah, fair. I’m on the other end because I’m not very clever.
I like philosophy. I like philosophy. It’s funny because I think I’m not clever enough for philosophy. Like I don’t, I don’t like to think. I think you can hide in philosophy a bit. Like I wouldn’t ever say I was like, I wouldn’t talk with authority or anything. Even if people go, what philosophy do you like? that’s one of the things about philosophy is you can make up whatever you like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, true. There’s an author, a guy whose book I’ve read like four of his books, Nassim Taleb. He did like the Black Swan and like, and they’re all amazing, but I’ve, I read
while I’m reading them I’m like I think this is a bit too clever for me and then I’ll read a page I’m like I think I’ve got that bit that’s quite I quite like that and then I’ll dwell on that little thing but I’ll still finish the book and go if someone said what was the book about but I don’t really know not sure yeah but on that line so how does jiu-jitsu help you away from the mats at work or at home? So like I said earlier I think it really has taught me to be calm
in really uncomfortable positions. ⁓ So like your immediate response is when you’re squashed, is you want to tap out, but actually, ⁓ fact, little Sam taught me, just don’t tap, take a minute and think, can I get out of this? Rather than your knee jerk reaction being, you’ve got me, but take a second and think about it. And actually I find that really helpful in everything is if something’s hard, stop a minute and think.
how am I gonna get out of this? Instead of just wanting to bail on it. Yeah, for sure. And I think as well to chip in with that, you know, when people go, how do I get out of this position? Quite often I’ll go one, yeah, just put your foot on the brake and hold fire for a second, right? Like relax, take a step and just consolidate. And that’s, very philosophical, Kat. You like to compete.
Kat did my knee, did do my knee. did. It was, you know. You know what? was luck at the time. I happened to be working with a knee surgeon and I happened to get on really well with his secretary. And honestly, never underestimate the power of asking for something nicely. Honestly. So full contact. I say, so what happened with that? Yeah. Hurt my knee. I went to, and I’m not knocking. is, I hope this doesn’t come across as like a.
NHS are terrible because it’s not supposed to be. It just shows you where it’s at I Went to the doctor, we went to the doctor’s, saw a physiotherapist. So as best diagnosed, I think you’ve done some medial meniscal stuff. I’m going to refer you to a physiotherapist.
got a letter through saying physiotherapy session literally in six months time. So I was just like, okay, crack on trying. And I think Ahmed got wind and he said, come to the house, I’ll diagnose you. And I’ll never forget you both were sat on your sofa and you were like, can you just do this? I think you me do like a deep squat or something. I was like, yeah. And I did a deep squat and then my knee went like, donk, donk, donk, donk, made all these noise coming up. I And both Ahmed and I were like, yeah, I know what that is. Yeah, you went, I know what that is. And I went, yeah, I think it’s all right.
went, I don’t think it is. That’s not supposed to make that noise. But then, yeah, Ahmed literally on his phone, you’ve got a scan tomorrow in London, had the scan next day. Ahmed, have you got time for a call yet? This is what you’ve done. And then even like, yeah, and then just bomb, bomb, bomb. And then that surgeon like two weeks later or something like that. ⁓ Yeah, so unbelievably lucky. ⁓ So yes, cat did do my knee.
Any people that you look up to in the sport or so could be at the gym or and you can’t say me. Obviously that would be my top answer. course. Do you know what I think the people I look up to most and that challenge me most are some of the other girls at the gym.
And actually I started competing after Siobhan did her first competition and she didn’t tell anyone. She just snuck off and did a competition and then sent us all pictures afterwards. And honestly, I was really jealous. I was like, I wish I’d done that. But she was like, Kat, you’re going to sit down on Smoothcom today and at the end of the day, you’re going to tell me that you’ve booked a competition. That’s amazing. Yeah, no, it’s like, I kind of wish we, I know you’re talking about not pushing people into competition, but I think…
Encoding people. There’s a fine line between that. And anyway, she was like the turning point and me being like, right, I’m going to do it. ⁓ And then Anna and Sam.
are both brilliant. Brilliant at Jiu Jitsu. And particularly Sam is she’s always exposing holes in my game. I think she enjoys it actually. They’re both very good. But rolling with her is such a learning experience because she will be no, if you do that, I’m going to get you every time. So that’s good. You need that bit of feedback. It’s nice from people that you know, and you’re right. Like I think I look at the gym and you know, obviously moved into a new space. Definitely an area where we can do more work is
competition side of things and trying to encourage people and also like a space where it’s like we tried it and probably the wrong time like a comp class as well. There’s stuff we can definitely do. I think even just talking about it more regularly like the people that do it getting other people to come along and the coach is saying yeah if you want to talk about what it involves grab any of it. Yeah I think that’s yeah definitely and
There’s people in the gym, the irony being like, you know, now we have people in the gym who I said, like from, I always feel guilty because I don’t do it that much. But then you have like Dave who doesn’t do it that much, but he’s done it a lot, you know, and he can talk from a place of authority. ⁓ Paul in another martial art, Evelyn in another martial arts. So there are, there are, are people there, but definitely, you know, cause I do think.
doubling down on that. do think it’s something that is worth people doing at least once. Yeah, it’s absolutely an experience. to see, even if it’s just the day where you write it off and go, you know, because I’m still in that area where I’ll finish the competition and then be like, I’m not sure if that was worth it. But I had one last year where there was no one in my category and I was merged with the adults. So I had one competitor 17 years younger than me.
He’s a second Dan in judo. Yeah. And then the other one is 22 years younger than me. Roger Gracie step sister. Yeah. And that was a hard day because we’d all entered everything. So, Gee, No Gee, the Absolute. And I just got smashed up five times in a row. And it was one of those competitions where at the end of it, I was like, I don’t.
I don’t think I enjoyed that. actually I think it took me six months to get over that. think I’m glad I eventually I’m glad I did that. the yeah, I think the this is the thing with like, you could be so lucky or unlucky if you’re say just doing something once as well. an anecdote, he’s talked about it. Do you know, do you know who Boushechia is? Marcus Almeida. So Boushechia is the most he’s the guy who’s won the most black belt world title. So he’s got 12, I believe black belt world titles at Adam
so more than Roger. He was the guy and he’s never won the ADCC but like silver medalist. He’s a phenomenal competitor, heavyweight competitor. I can’t remember the number, ⁓ I’m saying I remember when I spoke to him he lost like his first, it was a lot of competitions first round at white belt. He’s like I lost like 10, 15 competitions first round as a white belt.
⁓ And he went on to be the most decorated IBJJF competitor guy ever.
And there’s loads of stories like that. There’s another guy called Felipe Costa, is, he used to compete at rooster weight, so 55 kgs. And the first competition he ever won was the IBJJF adult black belt world title. So, know, but you go, you know, you could, or but then on the flip, can have a comp, you could just go and be really talented and steamroller a load of people. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying, but like, you know, James Jackson, who doesn’t train anymore, like very, very gifted and he would just have a field day in competition.
one of the last matches he had was against a guy, I don’t even know the guy’s real name, guy called Caveman’s his nickname. He’s a full-time jujitsu athlete right and James lost, he got leg lock which can happen to anyone at that level absolutely but I think for James that was probably a little bit of a challenge because it’s the first time that’s happened that could have been his first match and he’d be like actually I’m not doing this anymore you know so there’s a lot of nuance to it and that’s where you’re right you need someone probably to be like get back on the horse you know or you know so yeah I’m with you I’ve got here training in the morning weirdos
but that’s obviously because that’s just necessity. You know what, I like getting my exercise done in the morning. Yeah. If it gets to the afternoon, I start getting a bit lethargic and also I think if it’s too late, I find it really difficult to relax at the end of the day then. So I think actually getting up and going is really good. I’m with you to be fair. I know, listen, I’m privileged now that I can train at lunchtime through work and schedule, but for a long time.
The only time that I could train was evenings and I’m with you then I just wouldn’t sleep. You do it when you can, You’re buzzing too much. are, yeah. I’ve still not even like I taught last night, I didn’t actually roll last night, but I still got home and thinking about everyone else’s session actually. quite, it’s nice, but you know, time management, you got enough time, you got enough time, do manage? There’s never enough time. There’s not really is there? Like fitting everything in is really hard. There’s not enough time for jiu-jitsu and all the other things.
have to be super organised. Yeah. I do. Do you ever feel I worry sometimes that I’m not like, I think some of I’m older than you, but like physically I’ll be like a bit shot at the end of the day for anything other than like my kids and we’re worried I’m not giving enough, but you know, I think you’re only about five minutes older than me. I’m not going to ask you your age on camera. I look young.
someone said I looked haggard the other day I was like that’s not appropriate yeah that’s not nice did Deimo say that was it him? no wasn’t it was someone at the gym she’s quite funny though so it’s alright ⁓ what’s the most challenging part of your job probably chopping toes off I reckon? toes off is easy
I think dealing with complications and the patient, ⁓ complications will happen to everyone. And that’s something that even the best surgeon in the world at some point will have a complication. The more you operate, the more likely it is to happen. ⁓
And then for your patient, that’s really bad. ⁓ Sometimes it’s just bad luck. High stakes, isn’t it, I guess, for you? Stop me if I’m wrong, there’s another guy who a jujitsu club in Kingston who used to run Jujitsu Brotherhood, maybe still does. Not Nick, his partner, Mark, his name is, he was a doctor.
can’t remember if he’s a GP, I can’t remember. But he was saying, it was like, I know I so unaware of this, but it makes sense, like the amount of doctors who are just continually being sued. That must take its toll, must be stressful if, I mean, I’m saying, I don’t know that’s happened, but just, like you say, that kind of thing. That’s where I’m like, I’m in awe of what you do really, because the stakes are quite high, aren’t they, from that perspective? But yeah, my brother works in mental health care and he’s a, can’t.
I’m doing him a disservice and I’m not sure where he lies within the field now, but he has to deal with some really difficult things where like, he’s had instances where someone who’s sort of under his care has taken their life and then he’s like, he’s obviously personally, so what could I have done better? But then he has to go through the formal process of checking his due diligence, et cetera. So now I’m massively in awe of what he does. It’s amazing.
All three your kids, do you push them? Yes. A little bit. Sometimes it’s not worth the argument. I think as long as they’re doing something right. I just want my kids to be active. I’d love them to do what I do. I’m more wary because it’s like what dad does for a living. yeah, I think that’s the main thing.
I think we’ve covered everything I wanted to ask you, Was there anything you wanted to ask, Damian? Me? Yeah. You know everything.
You are… You could have just done it with Damo, he’d have told you all my answers. No, but it gets weird if me and Damo talk on our own for too long. Yeah, it’s three minutes. Has anyone been watching Pluribus? Pluribus? Oh, I started it. Keep going. Oh really? Because I think I got three episodes in and I was like… Not feeling it. She’s such a fucking bitch. I just want them to assimilate her. She is a bit bitchy, isn’t she? Yeah. A bit angry. She’d be so much better if she was taken into the hive mind. Yeah, she probably would be. But I’m quite enjoying it.
started it because we caught up with the episodes for the other things so we needed something else. Something new. And then we started that and then after a few episodes I like I don’t really care what happens to her. Yeah. I don’t like her. No empathy for her. And then there were new episodes of the other stuff I was watching so I was saved. What are you watching? Landman. ⁓ I’ve heard about that.
Is that, like, that’s the guy from, did you watch 18… 1883 is the best thing I’ve ever seen on TV. So good. Yeah. I do quite a good impression of the lady. Oh really? There is death everywhere.
That’s not bad. It’s brutal. really beautiful. It’s one of the best written things I’ve ever seen. So Taylor Sheridan, who wrote that, who I’m now a huge fan of, he did Yellowstone. He did Yellowstone as well, didn’t he? yeah. And 1923, which is the one with Harrison Ford in.
I’ve not, that’s the only one I’ve not watched. Yeah, it’s got Anne Helen Merrins in it. That’s good. that. I love that. Is it 1883? it? Yeah. So 1883 is the one. 1923 is the one with Harrison Ford, which is like the next generation of the same family. And we’re watching Landman, which is Billy Bob Thornton as like an oil guy in Texas. It’s got one of the main characters from 1883 in it, hasn’t it? Or it looks like it has on the…
But his stuff is really the characters are so well written. I think it’s really good. Okay. Yeah, that’ll be good. Do you guys watch series together? If you know me? Yeah. Yeah. Like we don’t have much time. So honestly, we’ll do like 20 minutes a night. That’s good. That’s probably a nice and but yes, we’re watching that and we’re watching Fallout, which is really entertaining. Yeah. Series to have more series to actually we’ve started. Okay. couple of episodes in. love Fallout. It’s really good. Have you watched that? Season one.
Yeah, think that’s where we are. Okay, at least we’re going to season two. Wicked, thank you Kat. Sorry to take so much of your time on your research exciting change to the plan. Yeah, it’s nice. Yeah, wicked. How do we end it? Do I say anything? Do we just say the end? Yeah. mean, is there anything you want to say about the gym? About the gym? Not really. Well, at the time of this going out, which is January. Yeah, it is January. We have got a promotion on the gym.
So try, yeah, it’s like 40 % off, I believe for anyone who joins within these three months. So that’s quite a nice incentive if anyone wants to come down, but it’s quite a lot. But yeah, just in general, think it’s any suggestions really, like I think especially as we’re talking to you Kat and that, know, we’re trying to do as much as we can, but that, you know,
trying to balance out the playing field a bit and getting ⁓ more women through the door, know, just making people aware that it’s fun and it’s like a safe. I think we’ve got a really nice bunch of women that come. I agree. And I think everyone’s very encouraging and friendly. Yeah. And I think it’s really important for the higher belts to roll with the new people. Yes. Yeah. I must say on that front, actually, I won’t call out anyone individually because they’ve all been great. mean, Damo is always there as well. But like with the beginners course, it’s been really,
It’s been so nice to see how many of the senior students have come in to sort of help. And that, you’re right, my first ever class, my first ever role was with a black belt. And because it was a tiny club, but that it like, I was.
instantly hooked. because I was like, I know I was one of those, sorry, we’re wrapping up, I came with a bit of research, like I knew what jujitsu, what Brazilian jujitsu was, I knew what triangle choke was, I was gonna get my blue belt in six months. Honestly, I was like, I was like, no, I’m going all in on this. I was actually so yeah, I was, I did a master’s degree in Brighton. And I was very lost. Didn’t know what I was doing. And then I started jujitsu and it was such a crush. But also,
Yeah, all my attention into it. But yeah, first round with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, which is just, mean, as a white belt, you could roll with someone who’s trained for six months and it’s pretty humbling, right? But six months training to a newbie, but it was just insane. And I remember thinking, oh, this is magic. need to learn it. But yeah, but no, you’re right. Everyone’s nice. Everyone’s nice. Yeah. No, no, honestly, the gym’s amazing. It feels like, like where our tribe is. Yeah, it’s nice. It’s Community. Yeah, it is.
The end? Yeah, the end. The end. Lovely.
