Highland Martial Arts Centre confirm affiliation with Marcos Nardini Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
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A new partnership for a mixed martial-arts gym in Inverness will help the club grow, according to owner Ross Houston.
Highland Martial Arts Centre has stood on its own for the last couple of years, but has now announced an affiliation with Marcos Nardini Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Houston is confident the link will help HMAC's men, women and children training in jiu-jitsu and grappling reach the next level.
"Marcos Nardini is probably the most established jiu-jitsu practitioner in Scotland," Houston explained.
"We were looking to get affiliated to a black belt for a while. HMAC has been affiliated with others before, and it worked for us, but I didn't want to jump into another one.
"I know Marcos, he's a great guy who is highly renowned with a lot of experience. He produces top level talent, and he's a great guy as well. He can give out black belts, and then the club can grow from there.
"To be able to connect with such a high level jiu-jitsu practitioner, it's the start of something big for us in the Highlands I think. It has all lined up.
"We're not turning into Marcos Nardini Jiu-Jitsu Inverness – we're still HMAC. People will still enter competitions under the HMAC banner, but when you register you can put in an affiliation, and that's what we'll be doing."
Nardini's current gym is based in Glasgow, which was another factor in Houston's thinking.
He could have reached out to experts from all over the world, but having the two clubs relatively close to each other will allow for more opportunities for the athletes involved.
"It's not a million miles away so he will be able to come up quite regularly and we can go down to Glasgow as well," Houston added.
"We're probably going to head down in February to his competition class, because he's got a lot of high level grapplers.
"We'll take a group of guys and girls to get some training and touch base, and then after that Marcos Nardini will come up and do gradings and stuff like that.
"Obviously I'll be speaking to him as well, so I can mention people who are progressing. Marcos is a sound guy, so it's all looking good for us this year."
