Dissent newsletter (volume 1) | Page 5

For the love of Grappling (an interview with Abang Dzulqarnaen) By Ushah Kazi This semester has seen a number of student initiatives. Perhaps a culture of adventure has nestled itself into our minds. And keeping with this culture Abang Dzulqarnaen, started a Grapling club to support the recent surge in popularity for mixed martial arts (MMA). “Since I will be here for three years or so, I thought I could introduce one aspect of MMA that is not too violent.” Recalling the initial hardships he encountered, Abang says, “when we tried to get the club officiated, we were told that a martial arts club would not be popular in Monash. It took some time for us to convince the management.” The club became an official Monash club in the first semester of 2014, “we started small. We had five people, and none of them were new to martial arts.” By the end of the first two days of signups however, the club had more than thirty-two people signing up. This was a welcome surprise for Abang, who acknowledges that one of their main concerns with starting a new club was that ‘Grappling’ as a technique and sport is not well known. “Grappling is an alien concept in Malaysia,” he says, “it is more well known by foreigners. But it is good to see that a majority of the people who have signed up for our club are local. And many of them are completely new to the sport.” And this, really, is at the heart of what Abang wants to achieve with the club, “ I want to take advantage of the recent boom in MMA here in Malaysia, and make the art of grappling widespread.” A purple belt in Brazilian Jujitsu himself, Abang says that the basic idea behind the club was to promote an art that is incredibly effective for self-defense. As the technique centers around gaining an advantage over your opponent rather than harming them physically, Abang feels, “Grappling is very effective, because you can defend yourself without physically harming your assailant. It is particularly effective for ladies, and we encourage everyone to take part in understanding it.” In his efforts to make the club attractive to anyone and everyone, Abang insists on not charging anything for the classes that the club will be providing, “we are required under the rules to charge RM5, but we plan on taking the fee and then returning it by the end of semester. Because many places that offer martial arts training are either expensive, or they lack quality training. We plan on bridging that gap.” For more information about the Grappling club, send an email to [email protected] and we will get you in touch with Abang and his team. Above: Abang Dzulqarnaen, at the WPJJC trials. Source: Abang’s personal photos. Left: with some of the members of the Monash Grappling Club.