Following on from our interviews with the Head coaches of the BJJ Teams in the Asian region we would like to introduce Niko Han  from Synergy BJJ Indonesia.

 Thank you Niko being a part of these interviews.

Could you tell us about your background how and where did you start in
 BJJ.

I briefly studied Judo, Japanese jiu-jitsu and Kung Fu as teenager.  It was only much later when I watched the UFC and witnessed Royce Gracie that I became determined to learn the gentle Art of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.  I started training with Rickson Gracie on October 28, 1996 in Los Angeles.

Can you tell us about your instructors, training partners and about your Team  

I really have a great group of students at Synergy Jiu-Jitsu, we are all good friends and share a passion for BJJ/MMA.  Synergy Jiu-Jitsu now has over 100 members.  There are no big ego in our team, we just train hard and constantly try to push each other to improve.  All the Synergy Jiu-Jitsu instructors are very experienced in BJJ/MMA competitions and a lot of them hold multiple championship titles. 

You recently received your Black belt can you tell us about this and about your Team Synergy BJJ based in Indonesia.

You have just moved to Bali and we have heard it is a great looking school.

The dojo in Bali is really amazing, the training environment is great and it’s centrally located, plus only 5 minutes from the beach.  What more can you ask for!

Can you tell us your move will it affect your Jakarta based students and how do you see the future of BJJ in Indonesia

All the Synergy Jiu-Jitsu locations are taught by my students that are very familiar with the Synergy Jiu-Jitsu curriculum, and we always keep in touch and see each other as much as possible to make sure everything is heading the right direction.  BJJ is slowly getting more popular in Indonesia, it’s just the beginning.  Through the BJJ competitions and workshops we’ve been organizing with the help of Djarum Super, we are reaching people that never heard about BJJ, and the response has been great.

You are also a major promoter of MMA events can you tell us about this and any upcoming  MMA events.

I formed the Indonesia Grappling Federation and Indonesian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation and have started organizing BJJ/submission grappling events in order to socialize and popularize BJJ in Indonesia.  This year will be our 4th annual national BJJ/submission grappling competition, the Indonesian Submission Championships.  2008 is the first year that we held a regional competition leading up to the ISC, the Java Submission Championships, which was held on July 26, 2008 in Jogjakarta.  Last December I organized the first-ever MMA event in Bali, Battle On Bali.  This August we also just held an amateur event, the Bali Backyard Brawl.  The plan is to organize smaller amateur MMA events in Bali every 4 months or so.  I hope that through these events MMA and BJJ will gradually become more popular in Indonesia.

How do you see the BJJ scene in our region.

BJJ in Asia is gradually becoming more popular.  I think it’s really great that all the BJJ clubs in Asia are working together as a community and supporting each other.  Thanks to Luke Chaya’s BJJ-Asia website (http://www.bjj-asia.com/) the BJJ community is becoming very tight.

Niko, you have fought in many local and International comps, could
You tell us about your competition background and any highlights.

I started competing in BJJ on June 1997 at Joe Moreira’s International BJJ Championship, California.  I mainly competed in Southern California in such events as the California State, Rickson Gracie’s International, the Copa Pacifica, Pan Am Submission Wrestling, and Machado’s International BJJ Championships.  When I moved to Las Vegas I started competing more outside of California in such events as the Grapplers Quest in Las Vegas and the Desert Quest Championships in Phoenix, Arizona.

Do you find it hard to compete and coach at the same time.

It’s difficult to teach and competing at the same time.  I spend most of my time teaching my students and helping them improve their game which leaves me little time to training for myself, but I try to train with my students as much as possible.

How often do you train and do you prefer Gi and No gi.

I teach 5 days a week so I train during class whenever possible.  I teach both gi and no-gi, but I believe training with the gi is the only way to establish strong basics:  solid defense, positioning and technical sensitivity, something that’s not possible without gi.  On the other hand, I think it’s also very important to train no-gi in order to get used to the different grips and the faster pace.  Personally, I prefer training no-gi because it’s a much more dynamic game.

Do you have any favorite MMA / BJJ Fighters

B.J. Penn, Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro, Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, Josh Thomson, Miguel Torres, Georges St-Pierre, Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral, Ronald ‘Jacare’ Souza, Marcelo Garcia, Roger Gracie, Jeff Glover, Bill Cooper, Fernando ‘Margarida’ Pontes, Andre Galvao, Rubens ‘Cobrinho’ Charles and Leo Vieira just to name a few.

One of your students Nicolai has competed in Manila many times and is very popular over here. He has also been a very successful competitor can you tell us more about Team.

Team Synergy has an amazing group of competitors, such as Ryan Campbell, Vincents Evans, Jonathan Greek, Nicolai Holt, Leo Krishna, Hardian Kristiady, Roy Kurniawan, Bramono Lunardi, Vincent Majid, Mashadi, Max Metino, Stanley Pesik, Solihin, Alexander Sumardi, Hansen Theja, Fransino Tirta and Patrick Winata, just to name a view.  All of them have placed multiple times and hold multiple championship titles in major local and international BJJ and MMA competitions.

How do you see the competition and standard of the comps based here compared to say the states.

I notice that at every competition the level of BJJ is getting higher, it’s really nice to see that.  We still got a long way to go compared to Brazil and the States, but we are definitely catching up.

Is there any news you would like to tell our readers?

The Indonesian Grappling Federation would like to invite everybody to the 2008 Indonesian Submission Championships on November 29-30 in Jakarta.  It will be our biggest grappling event ever, with plenty of prizes and prize money.

We thank you for taking the time to share your information about you and your Team to the readers of BJJ Philippines and wish you the best of luck.

Thank you, and let’s keep on working together to spread BJJ around the world.