Summit Grappling Academy travelled to a training camp with Total BJJ Nottingham last week, a world class academy that Summit holds a long-standing and close alliance with.

Total boasts several full-time professional BJJ athletes, IBJJF World Championship medallists and current IBJJF European champions.

Four of these athletes visited the island in recent months to teach and train at Summit's academy, while coach and former multiple world champion black belt medallist Sean Coates has been a regular visitor to the Summit Grappling Academy team for the past eight years.

A group of 18 juniors and adults travelled to Nottingham and benefitted from four days of advanced training and coaching, with and from top-level athletes and coaches.

To round off the trip, five of Summit's junior competition squad attended Empire Grappling's Midlands Open in Wolverhampton on Sunday.

Clearly spurred on by the training camp, all competitors put on a performance. Oscar Nation took a first-round points win 7-0 to claim silver, his strongest result at grey belt level.

After his recent success in Manchester, Nathan Ferns claimed another gold medal with two strong wins, one on points 6-0 and the second with a cross-collar choke submission finish.

Aden Dunkley-Nation, with an ambition to gain as much competition experience as possible, took a win on referee's decision after an active second match to also claim a silver medal.

Alan Greenhalgh, a regular on the competition circuit, displayed his usual calm and collected style, making a comeback in his first match from being down on points, only to pull off a sweep to mount in the last 30 seconds of the match to take a 6-2 points win.

In his second match he built up a big points lead of 12-0 before executing a submission finish for a more than convincing win and a gold medal.

The island’s Hana Henson, current IBJJF European junior champion, was the star of the day as she continues to enjoy the spoils of her hard work and training.

As a grey belt, Hana was unable to obtain an opponent at her belt level and as a result was merged into the most advanced category on the day.

In her first match she faced a yellow belt competitor. Undaunted, Hana showed control and determination, dominating the match and securing a slick kimura submission after a controlled and precise positional sequence and setup.

In her second match, she faced an even higher graded orange belt, with 10 years of training experience.

Many wouldn't have accepted a match with such a grading difference, but Hana channelled her nerves and her well-known fierce refusal to be beaten, scoring 2-0 to claim gold.

Hana is the first junior competitor in the island to achieve a result of this level and continues to push the standard of Isle of Man jiu-jitsu as she gears up to fight to retain her European title next month.

With only five competitors, Summit Grappling Academy brought home three gold, two silver and a bronze, placing them as fourth ranked overall Gi academy champions, only missing out on third place by a single point despite having 13 fewer matches than the third-placed academy.

A big thank you goes to the Crown Group for their kind sponsorship of the competitors, assisting them to access opportunities such as this.

Find SGA at Hills Meadow with sessions on everyday including Jiu-Jitsu, judo, kickboxing, striking and mobility. For more information, visit www.summitgrapplingacademy.com