Our Instructors

Our club instructors are Senseis Abi Witherden and Kielan Yarrow. Sensei Abi started at the club as a beginner in 1998 and gained her 1st Dan (black belt) in May 2002. Sensei Kielan joined the club in 1997 as a 3rd Kyu (light blue belt) and was awarded his 1st Dan in 1999 and 2nd Dan in Dec 2003. Senseis Joanna Marchant, Caleb Smith and Adam Haycock - 1st Dan also teach some sessions as does Sensei Martyn Kingsbury - 3rd Dan.

Martyn Kingsbury - Bryn Edwards-Jones - Kielan Yarrow Marian Blokpoel - Jo Marchant - Abi Witherden

Abi Witherden

Started Jiu Jitsu at St. Mary's club, Paddington: April 1998
Taught by Sensei Alan Chappell, Sensei Martyn Kingsbury and Sensei Kielan Yarrow

Kielan Yarrow

Jo Marchant

I wasn't interested in self defence, and I didn't particularly want to be like Bruce Lee. But when I started a PhD at Leicester University back in 1995 I figured the best way to find some mates was to join a club.

I was never into team sports but jiu jitsu appealed to me, it sounded interesting and mysterious. My first session was a suitably strange experience involving white pyjamas, plastic bottles and hugging strangers, but it passed the vital test (everyone went to the pub afterwards!) so I decided to stick with it.
A few weeks later I nearly knocked out my housemate demonstrating a backhand strike I had yet to learn to control, and decided jitsu is best left on the mat! (He was impressed enough to come along though.) A few more weeks, and I experienced the satisfying thump a 15 stone bloke makes when you throw him into the ground - I was hooked.

After a year and a half, by which time I was a keen green belt, I moved to London, and started training at the Paddington club. The training was fun, and it was great having some ready made friends in a new city. But I remember complaining to one of the Aiuchi instructors, James Hourihan, about the lack of female role models in the organisation, as at the time there were no women training regularly who were above about purple belt. A year later, I double-graded to dark blue, and James came up to me afterwards. "Now that role model is you," he said.

I got my brown belt in 1999 and was awarded Shodan in September 2001. At the Paddington club we now have a few women of brown belt and above and we're having a lot of fun working stuff out together, adapting techniques so that they work for us. With a high female influence in the club at lower grades too, hopefully there will be a lot more of us soon!

Marian Blokpoel

I started jiu-jitsu when I was 15, a different style, a bit like a combination of Billy Doak and Shihan Komp. In this dojo they also taught judo and being a bouncy teenager I took that up as well. Unfortunately they stopped the jiu-jitsu classes when I was a blue belt, but I continued judo and when I came to the UK in 1994 I was a brown belt.
First I did some Uni judo, but didn't quite like the group. So I found a jiu-jitsu club near where I lived. This was quite dodgy.....They taught jiu-jitsu strictly from a syllabus, and they put the syllabus on the side of the mat and you could only practice what was required for your next grade. I left that club after the sensei told me when I did a variation on a technique on a 6'2'' bloke, which I couldn't reach otherwise, that 'it wasn't in the syllabus like that'.

So I started aiuchi jiu-jistu, as a white belt, in 1996 at the Paddington club, and I specially liked the idea that it was an evolving club, with space to adapt the jiu-jitsu to your size and strengths. I slowly went through the grades and got told every time that the technique was fine but 'you do it a bit judo-like'. But aiuchi is still evolving and I now get told, 'hmmmm, maybe it would work better if you do it a bit more judo-like'.

I was (after a few attempts) awarded Shodan in September 2002 and I feel that I have still lots to learn. I've always been aware that being a small female put extra challenges in learning jiu-jitsu, simply through difference in build and strength. I (and I'm not alone in this) always loathed the dreaded 'you need a bit more confidence' comment, because it doesn't help at all. Doing a technique that is not adapted for your build or strength with more confidence will not make it better. You need to play around and test little variations like an extra step or a bit more twist until the technique works for you.

I'm glad we now have three female dans and several female brown belts and hopefully together we can start adapting the techniques so that they will work better for all of us.

Graham Cox

Biog. coming soon!

Adam Haycock

I started martial arts with the usual compulsory after school judo lessons, and then took up karate (Shotokan) while at secondary school, gaining my purple belt. Unfortunately the excesses of St. Mary’s medical school took over for a few years and I let my interest lapse in exchange for drinking beer, chasing girls (oh, and a little bit of work). However, a friend of mine did this ‘jitsu’ stuff and, knowing my interest, had repeatedly asked me if I wanted to try it. One afternoon I had nothing better to do and so went along. I was immediately hooked.

The most amazing thing about jiu jitsu is it’s huge variety and willingness to adapt any technique or style to fit the individual. It took a while for me to alter my deep low karate stances and stiff punching style to jitsu, but progressed fairly quickly up the grades. What amazed me (and still does) is how much there is to learn and even when you think you have something cracked, you can always be caught out and learn to do it better.

I gained my brown belt (1st Kyu) in 1999 and then my black belt (Shodan) in 2002. Taught sessions at Paddington for a few years then started the Charing Cross club with Caleb in March 2005. I think I have learnt more about jitsu in the last year while teaching than I did while progressing up the belts, and the more I learn the more I realise how much more there is to know. After nearly ten years doing jitsu, I’m still hooked.

Caleb Smith

Biog. coming soon!

Senseis Alan Chappell and Martyn Kingsbury founded the Paddington Aiuchi Jiu Jitsu club in 1995, when sensei Chappell was a 1st Dan and sensei Kingsbury 1st Kyu (brown belt).
Both are now 3rd Dan.

Alan Chappell			Martyn Kingsbury
	1986	Achieved 1st kyu, brown belt.		1988	1st Kyu (brown belt)
	1991	Achieved 1st dan, black belt		1996	1st Dan (black belt)
	1997	Achieved 2nd dan, black belt		1999	2nd Dan
	2001	Achieved 3rd dan, black belt.		2001	3rd Dan

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