The History of Lakeland Jiu Jitsu
Lakeland Jiu Jitsu is the modern incarnation of Mullingar Grappling, which first brought the art of BJJ to the town in 2008. The original coaches, Pat Connell, Christian Finn and Kevin Durkin, trained with Coach John Kavanagh in the now legendary SBG Shed around the turn of the millennium.
Nowadays, Lakeland Jiu Jitsu is run by a team of experienced ranked belts headed by Coach Tyrone Quinn, assisted by Ruairi Keena, David Hynes, Nuno De Gouveia and Lyndon Quinn.
Tyrone and Ruairi joined Mullingar Grappling in February 2009, having previously trained in a variety of traditional martial arts. Within eight weeks, they both made their competitive debuts in the old MMA League run by Mark Leonard.
In 2010, Mullingar Grappling slipped out of public operation, but its core members continued to train in a spartan industrial unit affectionately referred to as Fight Club. It was here that David and Ronan joined the crew, laying the foundations of the strong team that is still together today.
Four years later, the club decided to open its doors once again, and moved into a space in the local Crossfit Gym. This venture coincided with the boom in modern combat sports in Ireland, as awareness of the UFC and BJJ went mainstream and Irish athletes began to make a mark on the world stage.
At this time, Tyrone had been training and climbing the ranks in SBG HQ while attending university in Dublin. He received his blue and purple belts from Coach Kavanagh after a string of stellar competitive performances. With links both historic and new, affiliation with SBG was the logical next step for the club, and in September 2015 Mullingar Grappling became SBG Mullingar.
The SBG era is remembered fondly for its many great occasions, and for the many friendships made along the way. Strong relationships were established with fellow midlanders SBG Tullamore under Kieran Davern, and particularly with Tom King of Team KF (formerly SBG Swords.) Tom has since become a mentor to the club, and has awarded belts to Coaches Ronan and Ruairi, among others. Coach Tyrone represented Ireland and SBG at the IMMAF World Championships in Las Vegas, narrowly losing to the eventual champion despite a crippling knee injury. He has had a superb run of victories in grappling, striking and amateur MMA and hopes to join the professional ranks in the coming months.
During this time, South African black belt Nuno De Gouveia joined the team in Mullingar. In yet another coincidence, Nuno had been one of the senior coaches at Rodney King's SBG affiliate in Johannesburg. Rodney was briefly Matt Thornton's VP of SBGi before going solo with Crazy Monkey Defense. A pro fighter himself, Nuno made the acquaintance of John Kavanagh when the Irishman was in SA to compete in the Pride and Honour championship.
In September 2019, the club decided upon a return to independence and relaunched as Lakeland Jiu Jitsu. With Coach Tyrone's decision to go full-time, and a committed and enthusiastic team, the club has gone from strength to strength in a very short time. Numerous outings at competitions both near and far, some invitational wins on Irelands main Grappling invitational event Grapple Kings for both Coach Lyndon and Tyrone, and numerous wins in MMA at both pro and amateur, most notably rising star David Zamora who has amassed over 65 wins in both MMA and BJJ since he joined the club in 2020.
While specialising in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the club offers instruction in all the modern combat sports. All ages and experience levels are catered to, from kids and raw beginners to prospective competitive athletes.