Alright, I get the ball rolling then.
Hey, I’m Aleks and I live and train and teach in Singapore, originally I’m from Estonia, a small town called Rakvere to be exact, I think I’m the only bjj practitioner there. I haven’t been competing much for personal reasons which I don’t want to get in to too much on here, but you know sometimes life happens. I’ve been teaching full time since I’m a purple belt now.
As I notice that most people here are from Globetrotters (so it seems), I have to mention that I never been to any of your camps.
Ps! I feel personally offended about mocking lapels on the other forum, lol.

My name is Cameron.

I've been training consistently for 6 years. (Prior to that I had some stop and start training at 2 other schools, but I never stuck around because I was lazy and undisciplined. Now I'm just lazy). The first time I tried to do BJJ, Tim Spriggs was a fellow white belt and Ryan Hall guest taught as a purple belt. I used to lurk a lot on the NHBGear forums.

My competition record is bad, I lose a lot. I compete once or twice a year, although I'm trying to compete more now. My specialty is getting up on points and then getting submitted, or just getting steamrolled and getting submitted. I have fun though, and then I eat fried chicken afterwards.

I just started teaching one of the beginner's classes at my gym and I love it. Teaching is almost as fun as rolling.

I've been to the Maine camp 3 times, and met hundreds of awesome people. 10/10 would recommend.

Hello,

My name is Kristian and I have been training BJJFOR about 13 years. I got my black belt just after I turned 50, so it was pretty big deal for me. I started martial arts in the 80's as a teenager after seeing Karate Kid. :D Went to train Shorin-ji Ruy Karate until my Air Force service. After Air Force I trained several standup arts - from boxing, thai boxing to HokutoRuy Jiu Jitsu.

Then at the age of 37, when I was about to call it quits with martial arts (got tired of getting hit in the head) , my friend got me to try a BJJ class. I was submitted 6 times in 5 minutes by a 16 year old kid and that was it. I was hooked in BJJ and have been training several times a week ever since. Plan is to stop when I die. :)

Really love to study what makes BJJ work and love to teach.

Hey everyone, I'm Will...I train at Renzo Gracie upper west side in NYC under Luca Atalla. I earned my blue belt in September 2019. I've competed three times so far (twice at white belt and once at blue) and am really enjoying my journey. Happy to be a part of this project

Hey guys/gals, I'm Mike and currently with the Jiu Jitsu Brotherhood under Nic Gregoraides. I've been training since 1998, and am currently a 1st degree Black Belt. I began with Julio Fernandez in Burlington Vermont, and stayed with them until Brown belt. I began teaching (with his blessing and paid association fees) at a school in South Burlington VT, at a friends shool; The United Fighting Arts Institute. After many years i broke from the association due to some politics and items i didn't agree with, and was on my own for years. I met up with Nic and Marc who run the JJ Brotherhood and joined up, as they had the same views as i did with Jiu Jitsu!

I've competed in numerous NAGA's and independent events, and have a great student base! I promoted my first black belt a couple years ago (Nic belted and tested as i was only a black belt at the time), and was one of the greatest moments of my BJJ journey! I promoted three more this past year to Black (again with Nic to keep it "legit), and again am very proud to see my students progressing!

24/7 i think about BJJ and always looking to learn new techniques, and tighten up/refine ones i know! Just made my profile last night, so still learning my way around here, and waiting for everything to be approved. I think this is great for those of us who can't make the ref seminars that IBJJF requires you to attend for a "legit black belt certificate". That is the hardest thing as none come near Vermont, and when i mentioned it to them, they told me they are actually working on an online course, but in the meantime i should "fly out to one if i wish to be certified".

Hey...

I'm Tim Deater... I just retired from the Air Force and started training in Guam, USA while assigned there. My journey started at a Carlson Gracie Jr gym under Gabe Baker. Uncle Sam then moved me to Grand Forks, ND where I trained under Progressive Martial Arts and head coach Ken Greer which is a partner gym to the Academy of Combat Arts with Dylan Spicer as the owner/head coach/black belt. Dylan is a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Greg Nelson and Pedro Sauer. I recently retired and moved to Montrose Colorado where I train at Montrose BJJ with owner and head coach Arthur Lujan which is a partner gym with Sonoran BJJ in Tucson AZ and Arron Botelho.

I've competed a few times as a white belt in Guam at the Marianas Open and the Copas de Marianas, but was unsuccessful in medaling. I recently competed at the Utah Open.

Hello,

Scott Allen,

52 y/o just returned to grappling about 4-5 years ago. Was a brown belt in Judo back in the 80's and I competed quite frequently. Even managed to qualify for the Jr. Nationals a couple years. Unfortunately I hadn't practiced since then. During that down time away from Judo, I got FAT, at my worst, I got up to 441 pounds. I have since lost the weight, but I feel the effects of all of those years and after losing that weight I think I lost a lot of strength as well.

I like to compete, but my body doesn't seem to like it any more. I spend more time hurt than healthy. Maybe I'm stubborn, but I refuse to give up. I'm certainly going to be one of the "it's not whose good, it's whose left" kind of guys.

My son was wrestling in Jr. High School and we were looking for something during the off season for him. So after finding a local BJJ school, I decided that I would like to do classes with him.

We both practice at Brazilian Academy of Mixed Martial Arts in Santa Rosa, California.

I'm sure if I ever manage to get my black belt, it will be given to me by my kid. He has already passed me by in skill, which is awesome. Love seeing that kid roll and wrestle.

Have a great day!

Hi. I'm Anthony. I live in the 1000 Islands area of Ontario Canada. I've been training for a little over 14 years. I was an OG for my first club. I discovered that my Muay Thai coach had grappling experience, so I convinced him to start teaching a couple of us a few times a week. That was fun! Before it was serious... Spent 8 years as a white belt because there was no body to promote me. Plus I sucked. lol. I think at one point I went 20 matches in a row without a win. I competed a lot at white and blue belts. I don't really compete any more. I just don't feel like putting in the competition training effort. I haven't ruled out future comps, but it's not going to be anything serious. I pretty much train every day off. My schedule and home life doesn't allow for much more. Still getting 3 days a week min. :)


BJJ isn't my main passion. I really enjoy it, but I don't have the passion for it like some of y'all. If you follow me on social medial, you'll probably understand what I am talking about. :)


Cheers!

hi to everyone

i'm OliV' from Charleroi, Belgium - 41years old

coaching the only "team" in Charleroi and south belgium.

I Began bjj/grappling back in 2004, at first only to be able to submit people in MMA (shooto europe league), at this time guys where almost only kickboxer so i wanted the "ground way" as rickson and royce hahahaha
...but quickly fall in love with the sport.

Trained at nova uniao with "Shaolin", J.Aldo, kiki Melo, etc... and received my blue belt from vitor

Teached no-gi at vitor shaolin team belgium and affiliated with ICON BJJ when shaolin team belgium splitted-up.

I created Blackland BJJ to have sparring partners near home and it became bigger than i expected (even if we are a small team) with guys from pro-mma coming training with us to upgrade grappling level.

can't compete at the time due to neck injury, but still rolling "light" with friends/students and continue to learn and teach.

everybody is welcome if coming in south belgium

My name is Lou Dulien. I've been training for about 8 years. I started training at Art of Jiu Jitsu as a white belt. I was lucky enough to start there from the very first day it opened. Before marriage and kids, I used to train at least 5 times a week. Now I average 3-4 times a week. I recently was promoted to Brown belt in June of 2019 and soon after moved from California to Austin Texas. I was lucky enough to move near an Atos affiliate that is very familiar in style to AOJ. While it is a challenge to switch academies after almost 8 years. I am very happy with the professors at Atos Austin and have found a new Jiu Jitsu home. competed a lot at white belt but was injured badly after getting my blue belt. Knee surgery and another surgery (torn pec and bicep) have kept me from competing. Which is fine, because I am still able to train and learn/have fun. I have made so many good friends on the mats from all over the world. I like the concept of this site and the platform of a jiu jitsu social media site. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets...

Hi, I'm allways trying to know more and lately I've started to want to be able to execute something. It's getting more and more challenging as I might have passed my prime years. Turning 62 soon. I've done some kind of sports all my life and mostly combat based. Second hobby is videography. Filmed a lot of sports:-)
I like Bjjglobetrotters action idea and we have agreed that I'll be joining the filming crew. Atleast spring camp is fixed.

I am Patrick Foley. From Saint John, New Brunswick Canada. Life long martial artist- TKD black belt, Judo black belt, and BJJ purple belt. Turning 40 in a few months. I don't compete much, but train loads, and like keeping my skills sharp as I work as a correctional officer.

My goals are to just keep training, learning, and having fun.

I have been to three Globetrotters camps & wish I had much more time and money to do many many more!

I'm Tom Ko and I'm a first degree black belt under Renzo Gracie at the main academy in NYC where I've been training for 13 or so years. I've trained no gi mostly under John Danaher and gi under Zed Chierghini and now Mike Jaramillo at RGA. I train exclusively in the mornings so if you've ever visited Renzo Gracie Academy it's likely that you've met or seen me. I haven't done any Globetrotter camps but my friends Aaron Milam and Jeff Knight have been active with Glovetrotters.

Tom, keep your hands to yourself around my feet and legs, damn it....

I'm Daryl Cutler, from the Portland Oregon area.
I grew up boxing and doing muay thai, but as with a lot of folks I was able to witness the effectiveness of BJJ and started training regularly in the early 2000's.
I've been training for sixteen years or so earning my blue belt from Impact Jiu Jitsu (SBG Beaverton back in those days).
I went to Team Quest in the middle of my training when I chose to make a go at an MMA career and got to enjoy that period with some awesome coaches and training partners. I earned my purple and brown belts while training under Fabiano Scherner (great guy). As things sometimes go, a couple of serious injuries sidelined my goals and training which resulted in a bit of a hiatus from jiu jitsu (had to take about a full year off), but I kept on training and returned to the original gym I called home, Impact jiu jitsu, where I received my blackbelt from my original coach(es) Michael Chapman and Armand Debruge.
I haven't competed in years, but train on a regular schedule with some fantastic people here in the PNW.

Hello Everyone from Tokyo,

My name is Gerald and I started training in 2015 with my son. I'm 46 and I've spent half of my life in Japan, first coming here as a 20 y/o and starting with some Judo. I've always been into martial arts, but I got addicted to BJJ like nothing else. I've trained consistently 5x a week 2h sessions for the last five years, and I obsessively study instructionals in between. I started down the rabbit hole of hunting the conceptual underpinnings of BJJ via Ryan Hall, and since then I've devoured the free material put out by... Priit, Christian, Jonathan Thomas, Keenan, Rob Biernacki, the SBG guys, Henry Akins, Tim Peterson, etc. I've also spend well over a grand on BJJ Fanatics (Danaher, Ryan, Tonon, Lachlan), and I keep an excel sheet of both the videos I've studied and a self-assessment of my progress among various dimensions and techniques.

My wife also started training recently, so we our 16 y/o son that's the entire family into Jiu Jitsu!

I also started a blog a couple of months ago to sort out some of my thoughts, but between a full-time job and family it's not very active.

http://www.kuzushi.xyz/

still, the pursuit of Kuzushi is one of my main focus.

Looking forward to meeting people from this community over the coming years, I love the vibe and mindset.
Give us a shout if you visit Japan.

cheers!

gerald

Hello everyone. How do we update our profiles with pictures, etc?

Thanks

hey all

i have been training Gi for about 5 years...but beforehand 2 years no gi and 2 years doing krav maga......i enjoy bjj cause it helps my mind chill the eff out....from oakville Ontario Canada. only been to maine camp last year and will be going to maine again this year... have not competed....have no interest to do so....strickly doing bjj for the love of it :) happy days and hope i get to roll with you all and have fun and no ego LOL

Hi Y'all... been training and doing things wrong and getting squished for longer than most have been alive.

Started in judo in the...wait for it 70's.

Mid eighties trained TKD for three years at Jong Park in Toronto.

Late eighties trained for about fours years kick boxing with Twin Dragons in Toronto.

Mid nineties trained Hapkido in Toronto with Terry Riggs. He advised me of another club he trained at which had BJJ called 'The Samurai' club-home of the first Canadian UFC champ Carlos Newton and other legit monsters. Been training BJJ ever since on and off (life, injuries and the regular detours).

Hi there!

My name is Scott. I've been training in earnest since 2005 with a few years before that as a "dabbler".

I've been teaching martial arts since 2004 and teaching jiu jitsu since 2008-ish. I love nerding out on teaching and learning methodologies. I try to stay on top of recent research and trends in the general teaching discipline and apply those findings and methods to BJJ. The actual process of learning, and by extension teaching, is fascinating to me and doing little things to try to optimize the process a bit has become a bit of a passion.

I attended the 2016 Summer Camp in Leuven for my 40th birthday (a gift from my wife). I met so many awesome people and learned so many things (almost a full notebook of notes) that it has stuck with me and remains one highlight of my overall training to date. I have a few friends/students who have attended camps and are looking forward to this year's offerings as well.

My name is Antoine Hood. I’m a brown Belt under Elias Gallegos / Albert Aguirre at Alliance Jiu Jitsu Eastlake out of San Diego. I am the owner and head coach at Flawless Victory MMA in Ridgecrest, Ca. I’m active in the California mixed marital arts scene as a coach, matchmaker for 559 Fights and I have done work as a cutman for LFA, WFC and California cage wars. I’ve traveled and trained all over the country die to being former military, but the I’ve been taking BJJ seriously in the gi for the past 7 years. Loving this journey and having a great time.

Hi!

My name is Kenneth Dehouwer. I'm a purple belt under Steven Royakkers at Brasa Dessel, Belgium.
I started judo at a young age (6 years old) and did that for 11-12 years, quit at brown belt. After my judo experience, I wanted more. So I started doing MMA in 2005 and continued doing MMA for 4-5 years and did some amateur and semi-pro fights. After my last MMA fight (2009) I was injured on my knee and stopped doing sports for quite some time. In 2012 I reached my top weight at 94.5kg (208lbs), while I normally competed at 75kg (165lbs). When finally realising I couldn't continue like this, I hit the gym doing weights in late 2012 and did this for 1.5 year. Early 2014 I reached my goal, 75kg with 9% body fat. After that I needed a new experience, and I was lucky because the gym I was doing MMA before quitting, was going to start BJJ classes. And the rest is history, still enjoying every second of it. :)

Hi! I'm Vince Millett.

I started BJJ at age 52 and I'm now an almost-59 year old purple belt. I've been to six Globetrotters' camps and I'd attend a lot more if had the money!
I trained in various martial arts in my teens and early 20s and achieved no significant belt ranks or anything else. Took three decades off. Then found BJJ. I train at Carlson Gracie in Surrey, UK, which has grown amazingly in the six years I've been there. We have two or three classes every day and we now have seven black belts. I train a few times a week and I like to go to camps and grapplethons and charity fundraiser open mats. I've competed a little, with mixed results but a problem is finding opponents at my age. I'm reluctant to be placed with opponents much younger than me, although I got a silver medal last time that happened so maybe I should be more bold. I love the Globetrotters' community and have met a lot of amazing people. Can't always remember their names but...
Away from BJJ, I make music and release maybe four albums a year, to no acclaim whatsoever.

Hi I'm Ben Shearon from Sendai, Japan (originally from UK). 42 year-old new blue belt. I went to the Spring Camp last year and the 3D Treening autumn camp.

I'm trying to work on my defence and pin escapes etc at the moment, and also trying to find that sweet spot between training as much as I want to and not getting injured every five minutes.

Hello!

My name is Tommy Merino, I am 50 years old. I Started Jiu Jitsu in 2003 with John Hassett a 4th Degree Black Belt under Phil and Rick Migliarese ( Relson Gracie ) I was promoted to Black Belt in 2017. I am a retired Police Officer and currently teach at local Police Academies in NJ. I teach for John Hassett at his school in Williamstown NJ. I have been teaching at Police Academies since 2000 ( all types of instruction ) I started teaching Jiu Jitsu in 2010. We currently have two schools, one in Sewell NJ and one in Williamstown NJ.

Hello All,
Joe Miller from Stoughton, Wisconsin. I am a US Army Veteran and started training in 2009. Did the Blue Belt break for a few years and got back to it. I got promoted to Purple Belt under Mike Velotta in Feb. of 2019 and started a nonprofit school in April in 2019. We give free training and gear to Veterans. Going well and I will be at the Arizona Camp in a few weeks!

Mr. Miller, that is awesome.

I also train active duty, vets, LEO, and other emergency responders for free.

It seems like the least we can and should do, to say thank you.

Hi guys,
Im Rauno ”Rane” Tiukkanen, in a month 49 years old filmdirector, father of two teenagers and bjj brownbelt from Helsinki Finland. I started train almost 15 years ago. In my early years, I was kind of on and off trainer and didnt really know if this was for me. I did some swimming and cross country skiing besides of bjj and felt bjj might be too risky and I would get injured. But it was so damn fun, so in some point I put everything else on the side and started focus more on bjj. 2013 I moved to HIPKO, my current academy where I found my home. Spiritual and physiqal:) since that I have been training regularly 4-6 times per week. I also travel alot because of my work and has found very nice way to relax a bit out of filmshooting by visiting inndifferent academies around the globe. I have trained in more than 20 academies and 15 countries during last 10 years. So I consider jiu jitsu as best way to get to know new people around the world, with no politics or titles. Just sweat and laugh.