This year for the first time, our annual GrappleThon was over two legs in two different locations. We began in Bristol at our home in MYGYM, with numerous clubs taking part. Our wonderful returning sponsors gave us lots of support once again, with Seymour ‘Meerkatsu’ Yang popping down in person to take part in GrappleThon 2016. The Tatami Fightwear shirts were well received, with Laura winning the grand prize of a GIMONO gi. Lisa Chappell was also back to massage, a very popular choice for all the aching grapplers on Sunday morning.

A photo posted by Can (Jun) (@slideyfoot) on Mar 28, 2016 at 5:00am PDT

The massages continued into the second leg of GrappleThon 2016, held a couple of weeks later at the London Wing Chun Academy, along with a ‘donate to play’ arcade and plenty of healthy food on sale. Mike Cowling organised an excellent event that helped to boost the fundraising grand total even higher. At the time of writing, we’ve raised over £5,000, which climbs to a fantastic £6,000 including gift aid (you can still donate here). Very well done to everyone who has taken part across the two One25 GrappleThons, whether that was fundraising, rolling and/or donating!

A photo posted by @grapplethon on Apr 10, 2016 at 12:46am PDT

There are full write-ups of both events over on slideyfoot.com, here and here.

Grappling for 24hrs is hard. That much BJJ results a lot of aches and pains. But there is an answer. She’s called Lisa and will once again be offering free massages on Sunday morning (27th March). Perfect after a tough night and day of sparring.!

Remember, you can still join the fundraising team, not only raising money for a wonderful charity, but also putting you in the running for some great prizes (including your very own GIMONO gi)! To get the full details for the GrappleThon, click here. To learn more about Lisa, click here.

What: The concept behind a GrappleThon is very simple: at least two people are grappling at any one point over a predetermined period.

When: 14:00 on Saturday 26th March 2016 until 14:00 on Sunday 27th March 2016.

Where: At our central location in St Paul’s, which is MYGYM Bristol, Unit B Dean Street, Bristol, BS2 8SF

How: To take part, simply turn up and roll. If you want to earn a fantastic custom Meerkatsu t-shirt (kindly provided by Tatami Fightwear), there’s only one way: join the fundraising team on JustGiving! Full guide on how to do that here. If you want to keep updated via Facebook, the event page is here.

Why: We will be raising money to support One25. They support vulnerable women, helping them to break free and build new lives away from violence, poverty and addiction. To learn more about One25’s important work, have a read of their website, here.

Donate: Head to our JustGiving team page, here.

Press: Take a look at the Artemis BJJ press page for upcoming articles and interviews about the GrappleThon (as well as previous events), here.

Thanks to our wonderful sponsors, renowned BJJ apparel brand Tatami Fightwear, top BJJ artist Meerkatsu, NZL based gi innovators GIMONO, local fitness specialists MYGYM and purveyors of premium hygiene products, Idee Pure.

Thanks also to Lisa Chappell, who will once again be offering free massages to all grapplers taking part. David from MoveStrong is also offering up his services for free, giving you the opportunity to try out kettlebells and kaatsu training. Both of them will be down on Sunday morning, don’t miss it!

Finally, we’ll be tying in with the UKBJJA #UnstoppableGirl campaign, which aims to encourage women into BJJ. So, if you’re a woman in Bristol (or you can get to Bristol), the upcoming One25 Charity BJJ GrappleThon would be a great opportunity for you to try out BJJ. There will be lots of other women from various clubs around the country, meaning you can ask questions, learn some technique and (if you want to) give sparring a go, in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Give it a go!

#Women in and around #Bristol, come and try out #BJJ on the 26th/27th March! As part of the @ukbjja #UnstoppableGirl campaign, we want to encourage more women into #BrazilianJiuJitsu. Not only will you experience a great #MartialArt, you can help out a wonderful local #charity at the same time, #One25!

A photo posted by @grapplethon on Mar 17, 2016 at 1:30pm PDT

On the 12th December, Artemis BJJ will be taking part in the ROLLforROWW event, organised by Chantelle Martin over in the US. She’s set up a global GrappleThon, with clubs from around the world holding simultaneous charity open mats to support Reach Out Worldwide. ROWW is a non-profit set-up by the late Paul Walker (who also happened to be an avid BJJ practitioner).

The donation link is here. If you’d like to take part in the sparring, check out the event page over on Facebook. Everyone is welcome! We’ll be running our charity open mat from 12:30-16:30 at MYGYM, who have once again kindly agreed to let us use their venue.