Where in Stockholm are you staying? Close to the Globe?

And what kind of training are you looking for? Sparring with top competitors, meeting a lot of other black belts or more generally just getting social and getting in some fun and relaxed rolls together with your son in a friendly environment?

We will be staying in Globe. Just looking for relaxed rolls. Im in my 40s so the days of being competitive are behind me now.

Here are the closest ones I found.

Hilti I think is the biggest academy in Stockholm and one of the oldest. Focuses quite a lot on competition. They have been quite aversive to guests, but have opened up in the last decade or so. A lot of black belts and BJJ veterans.

Panda Dojo displays the Globetrotters logo and have written on their homepage that they put much emphasis on friendliness and having fun. I don't know if and how many black belts they have.

Stockholm BJJ Center is also very chill and with a very friendly atmosphere, although not many black belts.

You'd hopefully enjoy the other academies too.

thank you bro. I appreciate it.

No problemo!

Btw, I took a look at your profile and there seems to be a few errors. Usually, I dispute right away to help uphold high standards on Beltchecker, but I thought I'd give you a chance to clear things up or proactively change the belt history information if necessary.

Carlos Gracie died in 1994, so he can't have given you the blue belt in 2000. Is it perhaps a typo and is supposed to be Carlson Gracie, as with your purple belt? Or Carlos Gracie Jr? I would love to see pictures from your training in the early 00:s in either case!

You haven't written locations for blue to brown promotions, which makes it difficult to verify.

Google shows no substantial hits what so ever for James Nakamura or Mike Merkulic, who you wrote were promoting instructors for your brown belt. Nothing turns up on IBJJF:s BB searcher either. Could you give me links to their academy homepage or academy FB-page? Do you have photos or other documentation from the promotion?

Can you upload sharper diploma images for the BB grades? Looks like 2018 (not 2017) on first degree (which would then be the official 2015 BB promotion+3 years). Although Nic, based on getting his own BB 2:nd degree in 2014, could have promoted you to 1:st already 2017 (but then you couldn't claim 3:rd until at earliest aug 2023).

Time served for higher BB degrees don't add up, counting from the earliest that Nic could award you the BB (2008+3+3y=2014). Was the degree officially from Nics own teacher, Roger Gracie, in 2012?

Thanks bro, I totally missed the spelling errors. The promotions should say Carlson, not Carlos...pretty sure my phone keyboard autocorrected it my name. As far as Nic, he took over out promotions for our academy when we affiliated the Jiu Jitsu brotherhood. Initially Roger was helping him with signoffs when he started the brotherhood. As other members of Jiu Jitsu brotherhood can attest to, there was some issues on the way Nic was handling things such as promotions, specially when he was living in between South Africa, England, and Tucson. I dont really want to speak any more shade on Nic, because he is a good dude but was clearly going through some stuff at the time. As far as the cert dates, all my cert dates dont reflect any of my actual promotion dates, they reflect when I paid for IBJJF and Jiu Jitsu brotherhood for the certificate....which is something most people who deal with IBJJF are extremely familiar with and the reason belt checker was created.

So Roger Gracie was the promoting instructor in 2012 and Nic the promoting instructor in 2015, when you registered for IBJJF?

In your promotion history now, it says 2012 but with Nic as promoting instructor, which would invalidate the promotion if we are to uphold the IBJJF equivalent six year standard for when BB:s can promote other BB:s. But you could still be up for third degree next year (or already in August this year, if Nic promoted you to BB as early as he could).

Would you agree on evidence of Roger Gracie having promoted you in 2012 would be needed to validate third degree in 2021 within established standards on who can promote?

Do you have evidence from/with Roger Gracie or could you get it? Otherwise, I hope you'd consider revising the Promotion history. You're maximum 1½ years away from a standards compliant third degree anyways, which would bring you on track for future degrees too.

No my blackbelt was from Nakamura in 2012 who was a local California black belt who was involved with SJJIF. My promotion history goes primarily though that federation and I believe the federation has me listed as a 3rd degree.
The only reason Nic is on our promotion history is that I had a fall out with my previous instructor when I moved out of California and Nic/Roger signed off so we could register the academy with IBJJF. Unfortunately for a ton of guys here in the states, we have significant discrepancies between our actual promotion dates and the promotion dates listed with various federations. Hence why we have shifted to beltchecker and away from IBJJF. In other words, I am a pretty well known black belt in Arizona and could care less if my promotions are in line with IBJJF. That being said it is a good idea to update my profile.

As James Nakamura is totally unverifiable through internet searches (do you yourself know his lineage and when he got his own BB?) and there seems to be no evidence from any promotion in 2012, it does seem like a good idea.

You wrote "SJJF//IBJJF promotion date 4/20/15" on your profile, but the IBJJF diploma says something in March (which I guess was in 2016 then). Still, the diploma pictures used as evidence on Beltchecker really should be readable when magnifying. Do you have evidence of any earlier date, e.g. a copy with date of the IBJJF registering document signed by Nic? I guess there was ni ceremony around it, but would you guess Nic and Roger has records of your promotion, so they could confirm the date if contacted?

Nic's signature is clearly on the IBJJF diploma anyways, so the date on that (if you make it visible) should be safe to claim in either case.

Naka was a Carlson Sr. Blackbelt and came to Cali in the ‘mid 2000s and was pretty well know in the area. Plenty of guys here knew him. Nic can confirm he signed off on mine Gilbert Olivas IBJJ docs when we joined the jiu jitsu brotherhood and there are pics of him promoting us. I went ahead and updated my profile as you recommended. While I do appreciate you pointing out the spelling errors and such on my profile, plenty of guys know in the AZ and California BJJ scene have know me since the early 2000s and I am easily found on the IBJJF and SJJF black belt registries.

Is the SJJF record based on James' testimony then?

I'm afraid there is evidence that point towards James not being truthful about his merits, but I put up a thread asking the community what they know about him. Hopefully, there is a natural explanation.

I have fond memories of Stockholm, I think 2016, when I was there for a weekend and dropped in at Prana. What I didn't realize beforehand was that it was a few weeks out from the IBJJF Worlds, and they had all the Europe-based Checkmat black belts and top competitors sparring there that weekend. I was a competitor but nowhere near Worlds or black belt level, and that was one of the most one-sided series of consecutive asswhoopings I've ever received.

I believe the core group of Prana has split since then, and some of them (Lindblad etc.) formed Stark.

I'm traveling to Stockholm again in about a month, after a couple year's break, but will likely visit some smaller gyms of my new Swedish friends, if any. (My back is still giving me issues.)

Team Gringo is a must.