Leverage is a concept Vivaddhana Khaou knows well. The 27-year-old holds a French master’s degree in law and worked for several years in the finance and energy sector.
But now, he’s teaching people about a different brand of leverage: that of Jiu-Jitsu, an ancient Japanese martial art transformed by the Gracie family in Brazil and designed to give smaller or unarmed pugilists a fighting chance against a larger foe.
The French-Cambodian Jiu-Jitsu teacher was born in Paris but went to high school in Phnom Penh, eventually heading back to France for his university and Master’s degrees. After taking jobs in the finance industry, he soon realized it was not his cup of tea and thought back to his brief introduction to Jiu-Jitsu in Japan while on an academic exchange.
“I’ve been back in Cambodia for a while now and really taken to Jiu-Jitsu since starting with BJJ Cambodia,” he says. “I find it intellectually stimulating, in that I have to figure out what my opponent is contemplating from his position and I have to consider all his possibilities and be able to counter each one of them. It’s like a game of chess.”
He can trace his admiration of the martial art back to a single moment during a Jiu-Jitsu competition that served as a watershed moment for him. It was his second competition, his first in Japan, and he was dead tired.
“I went out there and thought to myself, ‘why am I doing this?’ I didn’t do so well, but one of the referees came up to me and said ‘it’s not about how good you are but how much heart you have’,” he added.
“That’s always stuck with me. I’m not a natural athlete but I do find it important to have heart in anything you do and undertake. When you find a passion for whatever it is you do – be it Jiu-Jitsu, reporting or whatever – it becomes your art.”
He trains under the Axis Jiu Jistu banner in Japan and opened the H/Art Academy this summer in Phnom Penh after running Jiu-Jitsu classes out of the Prokout fight gym behind Aeon Mall. He moved to his own studio in an effort to reach a larger audience.
“We were teaching mainly foreigners and even then only the ones who could afford $70 or $80 a month. That wasn’t really my goal because I know expats are only here for a short time. I wanted continuity,” he said.
“For me, I decided to get my own place allowing me to take charge of the schedule, what is being taught there as well as the prices – especially for Cambodians.”
Anyone over the age of 13 is allowed to start with the basics classes at H/Art Academy, and Khaou caters to fighters of all levels. One of his dreams is to set up an Olympic Jiu-Jitsu team here, but first, he has to start at the bottom. The majority of his classes now begin with a focus on self-defense.
“My basic class is what my students would need to know [how] to fight a layman for example,” he said. “But then there’s a regular class which is a bit more advanced – for people who are thinking of competing and thus need the reaction time and a wider array of techniques to outsmart their opponent.”
The gulf between sport Jiu-Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is wide. The moves you would try in sport Jiu-Jitsu, Khaou says, would get you punched in the face in a street fight. His classes and own fighting lineage focus mainly on Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, but he dislikes efforts to differentiate between the different styles and believes each brand contributes to the martial art’s overall lessons on how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
One of the signature facets of his fight school is an all-women’s self-defense class designed to teach them techniques they can use against any potential attacker.
“The key of Jiu-Jitsu is underpinned by the knowledge of leverage and knowing how to use body mechanics in close combat with an opponent. Our basic classes prepare our students, who are often much smaller, to pit themselves against bigger and stronger opponents and [teach them] how to deal with someone who is much larger than you – something which is ideal for women,” he said.
Vivaddhana Khaou shows a student Jiu-Jitsu moves during a class. (Photo: KT/Yeun Punleu)
Despite his belief in the martial art, he takes pains to stress to his students that when dealing with attackers armed with knives or guns, it is better to give up your belongings than risk injury.
Khaou now has about 20 trainees and runs group classes as well as private sessions. His students, coming from all walks of life, say his classes are a revelation.
“H/Art Academy is the very first Jiu-Jitsu oriented dojo in town and you could not ask for more from the group of people we have, a group of diverse cultures sharing one common passion in life: love for the art,” said Cedrick Ragel, a 23-year-old Filipino living in Phnom Penh.
Salla Mankinen, a 36-year-old Finnish woman, said the Jiu-Jitsu classes improved her coordination and understanding of her own body.
“Practicing Jiu-Jitsu trains all muscles and parts of your body… in a much more holistic way than other sports that often only have focus on certain muscles and movements,” she said. “As a bonus, it’s always nice to be able to spar with guys bigger than you and deliver moves that take them by surprise.”
Khaou hopes that once more people improve on the basics, they will be interested in taking more advanced classes and learning tougher moves. But in the meantime, Khaou is happy just to provide a physical outlet for anyone living in Phnom Penh.
“Some of the people who train here don’t want to be world champions – some of them train to be better fathers, better friends, better bosses and employees. They do it for themselves and their own betterment. So I don’t push anybody to seek something they’re not after,” he said.
H/Art Academy is on the corner of Street 81 and 109, 3rd Floor – Next to Wat Koh and Wat Koh High School.