Interview with Andy Pi [part 1]

Andy Pi was nice enough to answer a few questions. He was the first person to open a BJJ class in mainland China, as well as the creator of China's main MMA venue, Art of War Fighting Championship. Here's what he had to say on topics ranging from MMA's future in China, to Rickson Gracie (ok, I admit that last bit was just a shameless attempt to draw people in).

About BJJ

China Combat: How were you introduced to BJJ ? Did you have any previous martial arts training before that ?

Andy Pi: I was introduced to BJJ by my younger brother. It was 1995. He showed me a tape of UFC4, where Royce Gracie fights Dan Severn. I saw the fight and thought to myself, it was the most incredible performance that I had ever seen from a martial artist. I had to learn it right away. As I child, I studied a variety of martial arts, from kung fu, to karate, to taekwondo. However, BJJ was the one martial art that I truly fell in love with and have been training since 1995.

How did you decide to open a BJJ school in Beijing ? What made you think it would work ?

I opened a BJJ academy simply as a way to continue my own training. I moved to China in 1997 and at the time, I couldn't find any other BJJ practitioners in China. So as a way to maintain my own training, I needed to have training partners. So I started teaching BJJ to my friends, just so that I would have some training partners. My friends would bring there friends to class, and the word started to spread around the Beijing community that BJJ was available in Beijing. I had not considered it to be a money making venture at the time, and I was doing it for the love of the martial arts, and also as a way to introduce BJJ to the Chinese martial arts community. Nobody in China had really seen BJJ in person, except for maybe some downloaded UFCs or some black belt magazines. But there weren't any Chinese martial artists who had gotten on the mat and rolled with any BJJ practitioners before or seen the art up close and personal. I wanted to change that.

Are there any Chinese BJJ championships ?

At the current moment, there are no BJJ tournaments in China. There have been some tournaments organized in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but none in mainland China. I am working closely with the Chinese sports administration to change that. We are currently forming the China Federation of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and this organization will be fully sanctioned by the Chinese government. Hopefully by the middle or end of 2007, we will see the 1st China Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Open Championship.

Do you have any plans to open BJJ schools in other cities ?

We have plans to open BJJ academies in all of China's major cities, and also in the more impoverished areas of China. Martial arts are a great way to discipline and challenge the human spirit and also educate the youth. There are so many martial artists in China and they are all potential practitioners of BJJ. We hope to give the masses a chance to learn this great martial art. Some will decide to get into professional competition. Others will decide to get into coaching. Regardless of their chosen path, we believe that martial arts has a lot to offer the Chinese public. The knowledge to defend oneself and the confidence gained from learning jiu-jitsu is very empowering. It should be available to everyone in China who wants to learn, and for free if need be. Again, we are closely working with the Chinese government to make sure that instructors are properly trained and that the spirit of both Chinese martial arts and the Brazilian martial arts are well-preserved and passed on to successive generations.

second part