Greetings from Portland, Oregon! I began training in 2003 under Claudio Franca and received my black belt from Marcelo Salazar Bergo in 2015.

Most interesting things I have to offer this forum:

1) I started a private BJJ club, that's free for members, at an Elks lodge in my community. http://www.elksbjj.org
2) I did a 5 day grappling retreat and trained everyday with Roger Gracie (I'm a huge fan and will happily chat up anyone interested in knowing what being smashed by the GOAT is like)
3) My fingers don't bend right so I do the awkward shaka

Last time I competed was at brown belt, but I figure if I'm going to do it again, 2023 is the year, before I turn 50.

Hi, I'm Alek from south part of Poland.
I'm training bjj since January 2022 and had small episode in 2021 (knee injury stopped me there). I have background in Judo (brown belt), so all standing game is for me easy peasy.
Last week i was competing in my first bjj tournament in Czech and i got my blue belt.

I had an amazing time training in Warsaw in 2016 at Academia Gorila. I'll likely be back to Poland this summer. We will be in Krakow

So im located 75km away from Kraków, if u will have enough time come to our club (Viking Academy)

I might just take you up on that invite.

Hey Everyone,

My name is Chris Christensen and I'm a recently promoted Brown Belt (December 13th actually) out of Spokane, WA and Warrior Camp is my home gym. I started my Jiu jitsu journey at the age of 28 after being a fan of boxing and mixed martial arts for a long time. Once I stepped foot in the gym, I haven't looked back. I didn't realize the type of addiction something like this can have. I've had a couple MMA fights, some local tournament success but never stepped too far out and competed on any major stages at this point. I have done quite a bit of cross training with other gyms in the area and love competing with my team everyday. When I started, we were primarily a no gi jiu-jitsu school, but I have always loved tradition and now train at least once a week in a gi. Might as well learn as much as possible. I have a unique training schedule as I attend 3 to 4 classes a week, but at 6 AM in the morning. It's definitely rough some days, but I have a family and being able to train more than once a week is awesome, so I've made it work. I worked out of town for about 6 years and during that time I adopted a gym away from home down in Lewiston, Idaho as well. I've definitely tried my best to maximize my chances of getting on the mats, but it's never enough lol. I was promoted by Jesse Hardenbrook who is one of our black belts and has competed and won on Chael Sonnen's Submission Underground which is his biggest grappling moment so far. Our head coach is Pablo Alfonso who has had many pro mma fights as well as competed in combat jiu-jitsu worlds, Submission Underground and a few other large events. He was promoted to black belt by Daniel Valverde in Florida before moving up here. We have a few current UFC fighters in our gym. Terrance "T Wrecks" McKinney and Said Kakhramonov as well as some talented grapplers like Zack Schneider who is a regular at Combat Jiu-Jitsu worlds as well. It's nice to see everyone on here and read their stories. Merry Christmas Everyone.

Hello from Willis, TEXAS! I procrastinated on building a profile for some time but the site is a really good idea! I'm loving it so far. I'm one of the original owners/partners in FUJI BJJ and have two academies here in Texas.

At first I thought this was just a site to vote on rank or whatever but I love documenting all of the competitions, training, seminars, etc. I'm slowly putting it all together!

I am Carlos Catania, a 4th degree black belt through the IBJJF. I started under Royler Gracie years ago, and my work transferred me out west for awhile. I started training under Sergio Penha. I run the Carlos Catania BJJ Associatio out of Maryland. Any review of my profile are appreciated. I am on YouTube and bjj fanatics too. Just to give some background. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

My name is Jafet and I started training BJJ in 2019 but quit right before the pandemic. I picked it back up in July 2021 and have been training pretty consistently ever since then. I am a hobbyist but looking to devote more time and effort into BJJ and hoping to compete at blue belt this year.

Outside of BJJ, I love to code, run, and play with my dog. Looking forward to meeting everyone here!

Hi, I'm Erik Anderson and I really like Jiu Jitsu. Have for a long time. I kept showing up to class and eventually they gave me a black belt with a bunch of shit on it.

I've gotten to train a bunch of cool places and I posted pics of cool people I trained with on my profile. I attached a picture of my best day on the mats to this post. I've been partially off the mats the last year with a couple of major injuries ::sadface::

I also run a Discord server for the Los Angeles Jiu Jitsu community. Join us here! https://discord.gg/hFPUzAUBvC

Hi, my name is Justin Nawman and I train under Carlson Gracie in Vandalia, Ohio. In December 2022 I was promoted to Brown barn. I would greatly appreciate the votes check out my profile. Thanks in advanced.

Hi folks,

I'm from Assonet, MA, USA. I've been training in submission wrestling since I was 15 years old (44 now). The past 8 years I have fully committed myself to BJJ at Regiment Training Center in Fall River, MA. My instructor is Tommy Teixeira, a BJJ black belt under Tim Burrill and Carlos Machado.

I am currently a brown belt. I am also a martial arts instructor in JKD and Filipino Martial arts under Paul Vunak. BJJ has been the most comprehensive and long term improving martial art I have ever participated in. I look forward to continue learning for the rest of my life. I have a16 year old daughter that just graduated from the kids class to the adults class and I am so amazed to watch her defend herself and attack in real time.

Look forward to hearing from everyone. Thanks!

Hi All,
My name is Marc Partridge and I was recently promoted to Black belt at Christmas after roughly 15 years of training. I started in the mid 90's back in the day with the MMA/wrestling era as most of us OG's did. This then evolved into training BJJ from 2008 at a mixture of Gyms as I was still feeling young enough to train and spar MMA also.
As age took hold I realised that I couldn't keep up with the youth of today and so jumped into just training BJJ from 2015 at Gyms in Darlington UK, before settling at Origin BJJ Darlington in 2017 under Dom Szikora who's lineage is Dave 'speedy' Elliot - Marc Walder - Mauricio Gomez.
The friendly family atmosphere is amazing at Origin hence why I love training there, and everyday is a learning day no matter what belt you wear.
I feel privelidged to wear the belt but also a little daunted and excited. The growth of BJJ is rising rapidly and from this a new breed of technical practitioners the future looks awesome.
My 2 eldest children both train too so my chosen picture is of my Daughter and I at Christmas 2021. She's fast becoming a little savage on the mat which humbles me more.
If you have time take a look at my profile and tell me what you think, any tips would be grateful as this OG isn't the most tech savvy with the online way of today.
Anyway this is me, keep training, rolling and learning. The journey never stops.

Greetings! I have been training in various different martial arts systems since 1995, and I’ve been doing BJJ full-time since 2005 (though I did some Jiu-Jitsu in the context of MMA for several years before that). My main instructor in BJJ is Burton Richardson, though I have trained with other instructors at various times, including Renato “Charuto” Verissimo (Nova Uniāo Hawaii) and Kiko France (American Top Team). I’m currently a first-degree black belt in BJJ and a level 3 instructor in Jeet Kune Do under Burton Richardson, and I’m also a 2nd-dan in judo under Randy Russell and Glenn St. John of Mid-Missouri Judo. I teach BJJ at Westminster College, where I also work as a philosophy professor. The attached photo is from my black belt test in 2018: Burton Richardson is on the left, then me, and then Shelton Yamashiro (Burton’s first black belt) and Scott Ishihara (Burton’s second black belt). It’s great to be a part of this community!

Hello all!

My name is Michael Karam, I've been training martial arts since a very young age. Started at 6 years old at my uncles TKD/Hapkido school YJ George TKD. After many years of training and competing, I earned my JR Blackbelt. In my teen years, martial arts were looked at as a little kid's activity and being young and influenced by the opinions of others I stopped. This is where I started playing scholastic sports (football/basketball). Even though I played those sports as a young child also, the time has now come to wear I would need to try out for the teams. This is where my story becomes interesting. Winter of 1998, I tried out for my school basketball team. Though I wasn't good enough to make the team, I was still eager to compete in sports. I went through my other options and saw that the wrestling team didn't have tryouts since it was a very small program.

Come to find out I had a somewhat natural talent for wrestling. After digging into my family history, it turns out that my cousin was our schools very first state champion wrestler. Going undefeated in my only 2nd year of training, I was confident that this was my sport to excel at. I continued to compete at a high level all the way through my high school years. When it came to college, I unfortunately never dedicated my efforts to the books that I did on the mats. Taking a couple of semesters of a local community college I decided to drop out, work and run my family's restaurant. Enjoying to early 20's revolved around work, gym life, girls and partying. This came with its share of getting into trouble. I needed something that has been missing in my life since wrestling. In 2010 at the age of 24, some old wrestling friends from HS mentioned they have been training jiujitsu and thought I would be good at is since I was a seasoned wrestler. My first session training I was hooked. I dedicated my all into training not only Bjj but Muay Thai and MMA. I have always been very good at teaching whatever it was I was good at, and martial arts was no different. I quickly became and assistant instructor at my home gym. Doing everything from fundamental adult to youth classes.

I knew if I wanted to be the best instructor I could be, then I needed to test my skills as much as possible. Bjj competition as well as an amateur/professional mma resume lasted from day one up until 2017. When the time of fighting went in my rear-view mirror, I really buckled down and honed my craft of teaching. After earning my blackbelt in March of 2020, my dreams of having my own academy felt like it could become a reality. Taking all steps necessary in July of 2021 MK Martial Arts was born. I have done my very best to continue the excellence of my predecessors while paying respect to them.

Thank you for taking to time to read about my journey.

here is a group picture of my school during our first blue belt ceremony

Excellant journey and great profile. Osss

Hi everyone,

I have been training for over 15 years and I am the head instructor at Kingston Jiu Jitsu. I was recently promoted to 2nd degree black belt by my instructor Mauricio Gomes. I previously worked as an Emergency Room doctor, but left medicine about 8 years ago to teach jiu jitsu full time and it has been an amazing and positive life change for me!

I am lucky to be able to train with my entire family and I have a wonderful group of students in Kingston. I have attached a photo of us after a training session with Mauricio here :)

Gotta love people with the same spelling name as me, training Bjj and in the UK lol

Hi everyone!

Fresh fresh blue belt under prof Rob Veltman residing in Ontario Canada. It was 1993 and I was in the throws of puberty and was flipping through some porn channels on my parents cable box. As I was browsing I came across two men beating the shit out of each other which peaked my curiosity (I was a big WWF fan but this was different).

What I later realized was that I was watching the beginning of what would become my favourite sport (UFC 1).

I joined the wrestling team in high school and really enjoyed grappling but didn't pursue it after high school and enjoyed the sport of MMA as a fan.

It wasn't until my son was 5 when I started thinking about getting back into grappling. My son and I started Judo/BJJ on the same day and those feelings of wonder, engagement, and curiosity that I felt as a kid were later re-enforced by feelings of support, enrichment, wellness, and community that BJJ/Judo provide.

The BJJ community has been amazing and I'm glad to be on this path with my son and extended family.

Hello,

My name is Andrew Pardee I am a BJJ Black Belt under Shawn Hammonds. My school is located in Weirton, WV feel free to stop by to train any time.

Also please take a minute and verify my account.

Yeh boi!

Shawn is a great guy. I trained with him many years ago at Nashville MMA back when he was a brown belt and I was a new purple belt. His Jiu-Jitsu was amazing and he was very welcoming to me (as was everyone at the school).

Hi guys,

I'm Matthijs from the Netherlands. I'm a purple belt under Michel Kragten and Remco Pardoel. If any of you are in the vicinity of Utrecht/Amersfoort you're welcome to come train with us @ Theo Meijer Sport in Leusden --> MAEDA BJJ LEUSDEN https://goo.gl/maps/fnynL[...]TBj61JXMn6.

I prefer teaching over competition (I only competed at white belt (video in profile)) so for now I'll keep on training, learning and teaching!

I am from a small town in Kansas I started training in 2008. It took me a few years of screwing around and thinking videos, and wrestling mats would help me excel at bjj, then I realized I needed to find proper instruction. I met my Professor Shawn Hammonds through one of his affiliates in Missouri about an hour and 15 minutes away. There was no looking back at that point I dedicated myself to training, my team, and am fortunate enough to have been promoted to black belt and own my own academy. I love teaching, competing and seeing people grow!

Hi. my name is Jack Benfield and I’ve been training since 2009ish and in the Gi since 2011.

I received my Brown belt in December 2021.

If anyone could spare a moment to verify me that would be amazing :)

Hi everybody!
My name is Annette, I'm 32 years old and a white belt from Pennsylvania in the United States. I'm a private English and music tutor and I'm also a musician. I started BJJ at the age of 31 in November 2021. I had heard about BJJ from the Joe Rogan Experience and I had considered training but was a bit too scared to try, then one of my students (who is a purple belt) encouraged me to try. I'm so glad I did! My teammates in our dojo are super awesome and supportive! My goals for the upcoming year include progressing to blue belt. I'm enjoying the journey and the process, even on days where it seems like progress isn't being made, ha! I'm on the far right in the pic with some of my training partners.

Hi there, my name is Sebastian Ellinghaus and I am a 48 years old guy from Germany.
My journey started in 1984 with Judo, where I earned a black belt in 1992 and continued with training until 2010, when BJJ hit my Judo-cosmos.
The Judo-years included some interesting and helping experiences like more than 500 matches on the mats as a competitor and round about 1.000 matches as a referee.
In 2010 I had a car breakdown on my way to a training lesson. A guy picked me up and asked some questions about my Gi I had with me. Later on he told me some stuff about „BJJ“ and invited me for a training. I did so and BJJ came in my live.
12 years later and exactly 30 years after earning my first black belt I earned the second one in BJJ.
That 12 years were full of interesting people and awesome experiences. I trained with so many nice guys and girls all around Europe and met lots of different teachers.
During that time I started a small own team, called „hug & roll“, where we teach Judo and BJJ including some kids-classes. Since round about 5 years we have a new built gym for that purpose.
The basic source since I earned a blue belt was Nicholas Brooks from London. But unfortunately Nick passed away in 2021, one year before the black belt was awarded to me.

Hi Everyone!
I’ve been training BJJ since 2013, got my black belt last summer at the age of 54.

I’m not much of a competitor, but got out there a few times. Had much disappointment at purple belt when I signed up for many comps and never hd anyone in a close enough bracket to have a match.
Meanwhile, I love being active at my school and in the jujitsu community locally. Lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, California, where there is an active women’s jujitsu scene, and lots of open mats and events to attend.
I look forward to connecting here!!

Hey guys! Pierre-Eric Cazeau, blue belt under Koji Murakami at Mile-End BJJ in Montreal, himself a 4th degree black belt under Julio Foca Fernandez.

I started BJJ almost 6 years ago, had to take a break following retinal detachment in my left eye, wasn't suppose to come back but I was just way too addicted, the art just kept coming back to my mind again and again so I decided to come back. Been back at it for a year and a half now, simply in love with it.