Hello everyone!

My name is Jack Siergiej. I’m 41 with three children and have been training for about 4 1/2 years. I received my purple belt about 7 months ago and train at Gracie NEPA. The academy is headquartered in Olyphant, Pa and operated by head coach and black belt Jeff Reese. I train primarily out of their Exeter, Pa location under the guidance of black belt Tyler Calvey. My 10yr old daughter also trains with me and is a 4 stripe grey/black belt.

I’ve been assisting with the kids classes for the past few years and recently started teaching adult classes as well when needed. Teaching is definitely a whole new experience and opens your eyes to what you really know and understand.

I enjoy traveling for work and with my band Strength For A Reason. Whenever I’m away from home, I make it a must to visit a local academy to meet new people and learn new things. I’ve had the opportunity to train around the world in various academies from Marcello’s in NYC and Kurt’s Empire BJJ in San Francisco, to places in Switzerland, Germany, etc.

Glad to meet everyone!

Touching, helpful and well articulated. Really hope you get well soon Greg

Hello everyone,
My name is Mark Fairminer. I am a 44 year old white belt, I have been training at Artemis BJJ in Bristol UK since last June and I absolutely love it! I've really missed training since our gym had to close due to the Covid 19 lockdown, however due to the wonders of technology we've been lucky enough to continue weekly lessons via video calls (zoom). As well as being new to BJJ I'm also new to Forum's having never joined one before. I look forward to chatting with folks on here.

Mark

Welcome to the wonderful world of internet forums! Or at least, this one is good: pretty civil, lots of cool people, relatively active. Only downside is the gender balance on the forums (very male), but to be fair that's typical of the general internet-forum-going demographic. ;)

And you're a well preserved 44! I'd always assumed you were younger than me (I'm 39). Also, bonus points for being the first of my students to post on the forum (I think?). :D

Hey guys, my name is Timur, I live in Manchester UK train at Union BJJ Manchester. Started BJJ when I was 43 years young. Now I'm 47 and managed to compete a bit. No injuries at all and I'm heavyweight...Got my blue belt from Marcos Parrumpa DaMatta from ATT. Can't wait to get back on the mats and compete. About this platform: this is an amazing idea and thanks to you all who is involved in this project.

I am new on this page today and I hade a awesome run with BJJ. I even had and runed my own accademy (just closed down recently because i moved to different city), I have been invited to schools to teach self defence and I meet AMAZING people all over the world. What I love about bjj is that not matter what city or country you are inn. If you find a accademy you instantly got a bunch of good friends.

I am a blue belt and it would be highly appreaciated if you took the time to check my profile and confirm my rank if you find enough evidence for it. Thank you. =)

Hello everyone!
The name is Nathan August but I go by Nate. I've been training Jiu-Jitsu since 2006 and received my black belt from Master Pedro Sauer. I'm an assistant instructor at Top Level Martial Arts under Bill Jones (William). Here's my belt test picture for a little more verification.
A little more about myself, I've been doing martial arts for 20yrs. I received a black belt in a mixed karate style as well as trained judo, aikido, and tkd. Thanks for reading and thanks for the verification votes.

Hi guys, I'm Sean Hough and I have been training off and on since 2012. I'm still a white belt due to my inconsistency but I'm looking to change that because I love bjj. My wife and I am training via instructionals until things go back to normal. I look forward to hearing from everyone and to gaining insights into training.

Hello everybody (Hi Dr. Nick!).

My name's Barry - I live and train in Dundee, Scotland. I've been training Jiu-Jitsu since 2010, when myself and two pals (Grant Cruickshank & Billy Beckers) decided to get a gi and have a play about on a Sunday. We'd attended a David 'Speedy' Elliot seminar on BJJ for MMA, and it opened my eyes to how much I disliked striking (well, getting whalloped in the chops) and how much I actually liked grappling.
As I kid I did a bit of Judo and prior to starting Jiu-Jitsu I did Submission Wrestling / NoGi training for a little bit.

After a bit of training in the gi, we decided to hit the road and go visit Speedy for one of his Saturday morning classes at the Wallsend Boys Club (since demolished, I believe).
It was freezing cold, and we did leglocks. From there, a beautiful bond developed. One rife in sarcasm, fear and respect - just like all good Jiu-Jitsu relationships.

After a few years of grinding away like this, our own little club started to teach gi classes under Billy Beckers (he was previously a blue belt from another coach, but wouldn't teach classes at Dundee Mixed Martial Arts until he got his purple belt). That's continued to grow over the years, and I now also teach classes at Dundee Mixed Martial Arts too, as well as a few other locations if needed. Grant has his own place too, and we all represent Origin Jiu-Jitsu Scotland, which is a part of Marc Walder's Origin Jiu-Jitsu Team.
Both Marc and Speedy have been massively influentual in my Jiu-Jitsu training over the years, as has my longtime training partners Grant and Billy.

Here's a picture of Grant, Speedy & myself after getting our second stripes. Also there's a bonus Billy in the background on the far left!

I ve trained since 2005. At the time it was actuallt easier to fight MMA then it was to do jiu jitsu.
Now I run a club and a jiu jitsu competition in my town so people now have the option.
I'm keen to connect to other people that love martial arts. My idea of a dream holiday is lots of food drink and some jiu jitsu!
I cant wait until all of this COVID nonsense has calmed so I can travel again to learn some new things for my students.

Hi all,
I'm Andy and I've been training for 2 and half years. I started training at 34 and I was worried I was a little old to get into another contact sport but the crew a GB Shellharbour (Australia) are awesome and I'm young compared to some of the guys in there.
My history is training different style martial arts sizes since I was a kid until an injury in 2008. After a gap of a few years I figured I'd give something different a try and here I am.

Hello beltchecker folk!

I've been training BJJ since 2008. My first martial arts experience was actually kung fu, which led to me trying wing chun and meeting Kevin Chan, one of Mauricio Gomes' first UK black belts. After a few wing chun sessions, I noticed they also did BJJ after, so stayed behind to watch one of the sessions!

It was super cool, so I joined in the next one. A blue belt girl called Anna choked me out. I thought this was very impressive, and was hooked.

After 10 months or so of fairly dedicated training at Kevin Chan's place in North End, Portsmouth, I moved up to Preston. There I trained for a couple of months with Lagarto's then brown belt, Paul Hartley. I was still a white belt at this time. Lucio Sergio also held a few classes, which was super awesome! We weren't allowed to take drink breaks during the warm-up, which I thought was very hardcore back then.

My girlfriend at the time didn't like Preston, so we moved to Mousehole, Cornwall. I immediately sought out Gracie Barra black belt Raphael Dos Santos, who ran a club near St. Day. Some good guys training there! However, when I told them I lived near Penzance, 3 different people I rolled with told me to seek out Kevin Derrington, who already had a reputation as a great coach.

Kevin was a blue belt under Kenny Baker (then a brown belt himself) at the time, but I had absolutely nothing to offer him!! After a year at Gracie Barra clubs! I couldn't believe it. He immediately corrected half a dozen things I was doing wrong and I decided to stick with him and his club, Pure Grappling.

I competed in the advanced category of the Spartan Grapple Challenge in 2011 and got silver, losing to Chris Jones very quicky in the final (straight ankle lock) :
https://www.youtube.com/w[...]xcTuo4KiJs

I won 3 matches, lost 1 and received my blue belt from Kenny Baker shortly after. A couple of the wins (this is at white belt!)
https://www.youtube.com/w[...]nX4c728384
https://www.youtube.com/w[...]TwqgFAOOpk

After another year or so of obsessive training, I had a several year long hiatus due to having a baby and a rammed personal and work life, but got the bug again in 2018 and made my comeback! I competed at the Devon Open in 2019 (2nd competition) and got a gold medal (2 wins), and Kevin (now a black belt, still under Kenny Baker) gave me my purple belt in June 2019.

I've been totally dedicated since, and teaching a BJJ class in Helston, Cornwall since November 2019 at the judo club there. I got a gold medal at the Somerset Open, although it was only 1 match (but I'm not complaining :)).

My best submission is the triangle.
My strongest position is open guard.
My secret weapon is a savage fist choke from mount (thanks Kenny haha).

Great site, nice one!!

Hi, all-my name is Jehiah...been training since 1994. At that point, BJJ knowledge was tough to come by in the far flung corners of Arkansas, but my instructor (JKDC-type of school) got what info he could, and the training was quite rough, so that helped with certain things.

I moved to Missouri shortly after, trained some on my own, and rolled with everyone I could get my hands on-mostly by challenging martial artists and wrestlers and by recruiting guys to train with.

My first experience with higher level BJJ guys came at Ft Benning in 2002 with Matt Larsen and other guys from the 75th Ranger Regiment (Matt and a couple other instructors were purple belts at the time)...at that same time I had purchased my first Straight Blast Gym tapes, which would lead to another big change in my training approach. I love SBG :), got my blue from Matt Thornton.

I had my own gym in Joplin, MO for a couple years, fought MMA a couple times, trained some guys who fought, then moved back to Fayetteville, AR and trained more guys who fought (and a bunch of bouncers) at my original instructor's school/gym. After a couple years there, I started coaching at a local gym that had a bunch of guys doing MMA, and eventually moved to just coaching there as my first instructor moved more into teaching gun stuff full time. I did some no gi comps at this time, but nothing special.

The other place, where I still coach (TCB Boxing and MMA in Rogers, AR) eventually developed a relationship with a Black belt named Mike Harris (BB under Renato Tavares), which is where I got my purp and brown. I've competed in gi a little, but mostly just to force myself to do it.

It's cool to see all the stories here and to have a network to connect around the world :)

Hello everyone! My name is Valeriia, I’m 22 y.o. and I’m from Ukraine. I’m in BJJ for 1,5 years now and I’m so exited to be a part of this big worldwide family. My sports club Katran is one of the best martial arts club in Ukraine. I love to compete and can’t wait till quarantine is over

Hi there, im Alex
33 years, Blackbelt

I thought after filling in all my competition record and all its finally time to say hello :)

I started Jiu Jitsu more than 10 years ago
Before that i never had any drive in my life, that is until my first roll happened...
It felt like i was alive for the first time in my life !
So i stuck with it

After looking at my comp record with all the bjj and mma and i even fought Rodolfo and other freaks one might think that i am one of those super serious competitor dudes, which i kind of am...
but at the same time im all easygoing and relaxed and that mostly even when i fight

So if there ever was the slightest bit of seriousness regarding me
let me shatter all of that with this introduction picture of mine:

Some of the descriptions of your opponents and methods in your tournament section, lol!

Hello

I am new to the site, I invite you to consult my profile and see if I deserve to be validated, please thank you ;-)
https://www.beltchecker.c[...]p?id=14328

Oss

Hello. First off, I think this platform is a wonderful idea. I think the world needs more things like this.

Anyway, I'm a fairly new Brown Belt (September 2019) though I started way back in 2001. Muay Thai was my primary focus for a long time. By the time I realized Jiu-Jitsu was my true love — life, health issues, and being a particularly hard-headed Purple Belt got in the way.

All my promotions have been with Coaches with my organization, Straight Blast Gym: Matt Thornton for Blue, John Frankl for Purple, and Lily Pagle for Brown.

There aren't a lot of folks from the SBG here with completed profiles (including a couple of my Coaches).

Please take a look at my profile and Upvote if you think it warrants it. I'd like to get verified so I can start helping out.

Look forward to interacting with you folks as things go on.

Hi Christian, Thanks for the opportunity to be part of this group.

Introduction time - I started out doing Traditional Japanese Jiu Jitsu in 1984 and kept training and teaching TJJ until the Club closed in 2016.

In the '90s I watched the first UFCs and thought that the BJJ looked awesome so started practicing and attending any seminars in the UK that I could find. In '97 I was at a friends wedding in the USA and in the days following had the pleasure of attending a couple of classes led by Royce at the Gracie Academy in Torrence and was introduced to Helio who was there at the time. I attended the white belt class and was asked if I wanted to stay on for the blue belt class.

I thought I'd try my hand at a BJJ competition and saw one in London in 2000 - I was very lucky and caught my opponent in a Morote Jime trap. I did the same competition the following year and managed a guillotine victory.

We hosted Royce at a Seminar in Winchester soon after that and he promoted 3 of my TJJ students to Blue belt in BJJ and promoted me to Blue belt as their instructor.

I competed in the Gracie Invitational in London and only had 1 other in my category and managed to catch my opponent in a deep cross strangle.

Sadly life got in the way and I stopped my BJJ training - It wasn't until 8 years later when I started training BJJ properly under Colin Howells as part of Vitor Shaolin BJJ (VSBJJ) at Gym01 in Portsmouth and managed to convince him to start teaching in Winchester at my TJJ Dojo.

That ran until 2016 when the space we used was no longer available. and I moved to training at Alton BJJ under Brian Livie as part of Andy Roberts BJJ (Andy is a Black Belt under Roger Gracie)

I was honoured and awarded my Black Belt by Andy Roberts in December 2019.

And the rest as they say is history.

There is a best hits video on my profile for a bit of light entertainment :-)

Found an old photo - back from before digital cameras were a thing :-)

Hello Belt Checker Community!

Here is my bio off my Dojo’s website:

Randy Chung, Founder, Combat Sports Coach

Randy began his journey at a young age through traditional martial arts. As an adolescent, he was involved in breaking and tricking which inspired him to pursue his studies in human movement and exercise science. His passion for martial arts drew him back to the Dojo and began training and competing in combative sports in his early adult years. He challenged for the Hard Knocks Fighting Featherweight Championship title. He won the Canadian National Wushu Sanda Championships and represented Team Canada at the World Wushu Championships (International Wushu Federation). He was awarded a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under Professor Josh Russell of Gracie Barra. Martial arts has afforded him the opportunity to travel the world to train and compete across Canada, Brazil, Thailand and China. Along with his regional, national and international competitive experience, he is also a certified sports coach and fitness trainer. Randy has a gift with connecting with people and is passionate about helping others through martial arts, sports and fitness.

Hello there!
I am Joseph Browning from Letcher Kentucky. I started my grappling career in a Japanese Jujitsu class around 2002 and got my black belt in 2006. I competed in 2 local MMA competitions (Extreme Fighting Championship) with 1 win and 1 loss. I then began going to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu seminars and doing some training at a friends BJJ School. I took a much too long break and finally got started in real a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class on 3-28-18. I got my first stripe on 8-29-18 and my 2nd stripe on 3-09-20. It's been a humbling experience and I had had some bad habits to unlearn but its been worth it.

Hi Christian and all the community

Thank you very much for this initiative, and I am really impressed how fast this community grows.
My name is Philippe, a 41 years old french guy who used to live a couple of years in Ireland, originally from a taekwondo background during my younger days ( and some judo in my kid years) , I started BJJ in Ireland by chance with a brazilian black belt Jorge Santos more than 7 years ago and I stayed with him for a little more than 2 years graduated to blue belt before returning to live in France where I continue to train in the gyms of my hometown under the black belts Baptiste Landais and Yohan Bonnet whom I got promoted to purple belt. I am currently assisting my instructors during the kids class and part of the volunteer staff of the gym, enjoying my training sessions rolling with everybody young and senior people, leasure and competitor, did some seminar with Claudio Calasans, Cicero Costha and his students like Paulo Miyao, Jonas Andrade or Nildo Pimentel, Sandro VIeira...etc . It 's incredible how fast the kids and teens are learning, and growing to give you some hard times :)))) but we have so much fun and learn every training sessions. I try to train smartly to reduce the chance to get injured as the years will catch me in a couple of time.

Hello, and thank you.
I think is pretty awesome that there is a site like this, not only that but the people who run the site are bjj enthusiasts.
Here is a little bit about myself.
My name is Javier ( Javi ) Silguero. I’ve been training bjj for +-4 yrs. I’m currently a purple belt under Ruben Arredondo at Renzo Gracie BJJ in Corpus Christi, Texas.
I first started training with my middle child who is currently a grey and white belt at the same academy.
She started before I did and one day the Professor used me as a dummy for the kids to choke, them he invited me to the adults class. The rest as they say is history.

Hello all, 57 year old, 2 strip Blue Belt from Columbus GA, will be 3 years into my BJJ journey on 15 Aug! Retired US Marine and worked in Africa from 2007 to 2018. As a 50 plus grappler I sure wished I started it earlier in my life. Started with my son under Professor Josh Bowlin.
Semper fi

Emmanuel & Frédéric Fernandez arrived on the beltchecker :-)
They have been my teachers for over 15 years
Vote them ...
Thank you
Manu : https://beltchecker.com/p[...]p?id=14825
Fred : https://beltchecker.com/p[...]p?id=14839

Hello friends, I am Frederic Fernandez, I am a French practitioner newly arrived on beltchecker.
Can you help me validate my account please thank you :-)
I also a pro veteran in MMA : https://www.sherdog.com/f[...]ndez-10019
We have 27 clubs in France, you are welcome to come and share a training session with you ;-)
https://www.pythagorejiujitsu.com/
https://www.facebook.com/[...]Pythagore/
https://www.instagram.com[...]pythagore/

Hello everyone,
I am Emmanuel Fernandez also known as Pythagoras.
I manage one of the biggest team in France with soon 30 clubs.
I am also an MMA veteran with several titles to my name.
My teacher is Master Ricardo De La Riva.
It was one of my students who encouraged me to join this community, so here I am.
Please help me confirm my account.
Oss
https://www.sherdog.com/f[...]andez-8131
https://www.pythagorejiujitsu.com/
https://www.facebook.com/[...]Pythagore/
https://www.facebook.com/[...]fernandez/
https://www.instagram.com[...]pythagore/

Hello everyone, can you vote for my friend please thank you
https://beltchecker.com/p[...]p?id=14462

Hello,
His name is Franck, he's a very old friend and training partner.
He has just validated his account, all he needs is the points.
Can you vote for him i guarantee his 100% brown belt :-)

https://beltchecker.com/p[...]p?id=14876

Thank you so much
Oss