Hi Guys :)

My name is Marcin Bamburski and I live in Crewkerne (UK) but I originally come from Poland.
My friendship with BJJ started in 2015 at Gracie Barra Yeovil, and after a few weeks transformed into permanently Love.
It took me three years to earn my Blue Belt, but when I earned it was one of the best days in my life!
I’m currently training at Blue Dog Jiu-jitsu Yeovil (UK) and I’m very happy to be able to develop further and explore the BJJ Ocean (it’s a bit tricky in my age :D)
Have a nice time People and keep rolling. Oss

Hello everyone!

My name is Stacy Thompson, and I'm a purple belt under Brady Buckman at Rilion Gracie Green Bay in Green Bay, WI. We have a great little close-knit gym, and I have been training for a little over 7.5 years. I am so lucky to get to train with my family, as all five of us train together. My husband is also a purple belt, my 18 yo daughter is a blue belt, and my teen boys are orange and yellow belts. Now that they are all big enough, it is so wonderful to get to train together. Also, sharing an activity like this means I get to train a lot! :)

I competed some as a white belt and early into my blue belt with success, but I don't enjoy competition, and have set it to the back burner for now. I may jump back in at some point again, but I am enjoying geeking out on technique, movement, and transitions in a way that I would do a little less of if I was constantly training for competition. I teach a few classes each week at our gym--a few morning adult classes and some kids classes. Teaching has really helped me solidify my knowledge and expand my understanding. I am really thankful for that opportunity.

My husband and I have also had a lot of fun training while vacationing. We have visited academies both in the US and in Europe, and have loved the experiences we have had meeting new people and getting new insight from other instructors. (though we are super fortunate to have a wonderful home gym and teacher) We had planned on attending the Austria Globetrotter camp in summer 2020, but those plans changed with COVID. Hopefully we will jump into different opportunities like that soon.

Thanks! Stacy

Hi I’m Latasha from Arkansas. I try and Compete as much as possible. I am running into a lack of competitors. I got into Jiu Jitsu later in life. I wished I had found it years ago. I got in to the game a little late in lie (37) Regardless im in love with this sport and no matter how far I travel for competitions and seminars and occasionally visit other gyms everyone always feels like family!

Hey everyone,
I’m David. I originally got introduced to BJJ in the Army in 2006 and did the spazzy white belt thing of wearing tap out shirts and screaming “stand em up ref” at Buffalo Wild Wings until I actually started learning jiujitsu in early 2014. Since then, I’ve competed in gi, nogi, and amateur mma. I earned my purple belt under Brett Sbardella of Black Tie Jiujitsu a little over two years ago. I’m a dad, husband, soldier, and equal opportunity grappler anyone can come catch these struggle snuggles. I’d appreciate anyone that checks out my profile and votes to verify it. Thanks.

David

Haha. I just donated all my Tapout shirts not that long ago.

I'm Mackenzie, got my brown belt a few months ago. I did karate and judo as a kid, and have always liked martial arts, and I really like that BJJ is such a thinking sport while also being a great work out. Here's a picture of a Smart Defense class our gym offered for free a few weeks ago.

Hey everyone. My name is Tommy Little I am the owner of South Valley Jiu Jitsu. http://WWW.Southvalleyjiujitsu.com we are located in Bakersfield California. I am a 3rd degree black belt under Ryron Gracie. My style of BJJ is still strong in the self defense area. If ever in Bakersfield drop in from free just say you are from beltchecker. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Jonathan 'Chase' Richardson. I started my Jiu Jitsu journey in San Antonio, TX many years ago. I was apprehensive as I began and overwhelmed the first time I stepped on the mats. I nearly quit after a few classes because I was frustrated with how difficult the art was; however, I dragged myself back to class and quickly fell in love with the art. As a member of the US Army, I quickly discovered the difficulty and heartache of having to move gyms every few years due to station changes- and the reason my promotions are from such vastly different places. I finally found my home at Gracie Barra during my purple belt days, and due to the large network of schools the transition between them became much easier because there are many schools available and the Professors know each other. I received my black belt from Fabiana Borges, Gracie Barra San Antonio, TX, and she continues to be my martial arts inspiration and role model. If you're curious about what it's like being a female and coming up in a sport that was largely male dominated at the time, I suggest you google her name...it's quite inspiring.
I am currently stationed in South Korea, and I am the senior instructor for the all volunteer Jiu Jitsu program at Camp Humphreys. I love what I do, sharing the art and making sure members of the military still have access to Jiu Jitsu despite the demands of their job placing them far away from their home. My last competition was the Seoul IBJJF open 2019, master ii, 3rd place. We haven't had much opportunity to compete out here since due to COVID-19 mitigations.

Hello everyone,
My name is Frédéric, i'm a 48 y/o brown belt and BJJ enthusiast from Paris, France. I train under Paulo Sergio Santo, 6th degree black belt.
I started +15 years ago, stopped at one point (who said blue belt blues ?), came back to the mats 5 years ago. I'm also the president of @casadelapel. i started it 4 years ago with 2 black belt friends. We have classes in two gyms/locations in Paris. Feel free to contact me if you want to come and train while you're in Paris. Mi casa es tu casa !

And on a business side i'm the publisher of PUBLIC DOMAIN (@publicdomain.paris), a new art, culture, lifestyle and BJJ limited publication, youtube page etc.
PUBLIC DOMAIN is also the French publisher of Rickson Gracie's upcoming biography : Breathe ;)

Enjoy your day.

Hi everyone. I just recently joined this site. I have been hearing about it from the Pirate Radio and the Bjj Mental Models Podcasts.

My name is Tim. I am a black belt (recently promoted) under John Sanders/Rodrigo Meideiros/Carlson Gracie Sr.

I have been training almost 13 years now, and it is my main hobby. I enjoy playing half guard and like passing with over/under and body lock variations. Favorite submissions are kimura, guillotines, and loop chokes. My current training goal is to better understand heel hooks and add them into my footlock game. Currently, working through Lachlan Giles 50/50 instructional.

Hope things are going well for everyone.

Hello everyone. My name is Jon Waddle. I started my martial arts training at age 5, but tarted my BJJ training in my 30's. I started BJJ under Sean Sarp, a Pedro Sauer black belt, in Kansas City Missouri. I stayed with the school until it was shut down around 2012. I received my blue belt while there from Allen Hopkins. I later switched to training under Keith Owen and was promoted to purple belt in February 2015. After a school split(my school that I started in 2011), I decided to walk away from that association for personal reasons. In 2019, I was introduced to Master Ricardo Cavalcanti, and immediately found a new home in the RCBJJA for myself, and my loyal students. I try to compete as much as I can in BJJ, but I am also active in competition in Judo and Sambo, and retired from knockdown karate and kickboxing in 2007. I have been teaching Karate/kickboxing off and on with my wife, since 1998(she is a retired kick boxer as well). I currently run a small garage gym in Paola, Kansas that has a pretty solid group of fighters and competitors. I am also an affiliate of Welcome Mat Judo & Sambo, through which I compete. I have 2 national championships to my credit, thanks to the great coaching from my Welcome Mat coaches. I have several different black belts in Karate, Japanese Jujitsu, an a few other styles, most of which I don't actively use, or teach. I used to teach American Kenpo, until my training partner and friend, took his own life, at which point, I decided to stop teaching it as a style. I still use many of the techniques, but don't teach it. I am currently a purple belt training under Master Ricardo Cavalcanti, and I am preparing for No-gi Worlds, and Masters Worlds, events that I have not done since 2017.

If you have any questions, just shoot me a DM.

Hello,

Started out in 2008, had no idea of what "BJJ" was. Hadn't done any sports at the age of 26.

Remember my first day very well, I sparred with this guy who was a juvenile around 60kg, at the time I was way past 80kg myself. Was choked out god knows how many times in the 5 minutes rounds. Obviously this was the most fun ever, and I got nickname "Happy David" rather quick.

First year was decent I competed 3 times, lost most of it. Second year I went to Lisbon the first time, didn't go my way there either but I had a great time with the team. Went on to compete in 5 more tournaments that year and eventually got promoted to blue belt. After my first competition as a blue belt I had some schedule changes at work that made training difficult due to the working-/BJJ practice hours. Managed to damage my knee and had surgery. After several years I finally had new changes enabling me to take up training more effective again, I went to a couple of more competitions and after over 6 years as a blue belt got my purple belt.
I wasn't expecting a promotion and had that feeling of "now I feel like a decent blue belt". It was just, a very special moment. And this year I got promoted to Black belt after 13 years and 6 months since my first day on the mats. Looking forward to start competing again after these times of covid.

Here is a pic from my first competition as a purple belt, talking to my youngest kid prior to start. I was the first competitor along with my opponent this tournament and it was at the at the time fairly new "Friends arena" in Stockholm.

Hey everyone! Nice to see so many people with like interests. Our gym trains BJJ and JKD. I have been interested in martial arts since an early age. I very much enjoy BJJ. I like jkd but have to admit I enjoy BJJ more. Anyway thanks for letting me in the community. Have fun and be safe guys.

Hey everyone.

I'm from NYC and am currently a Brown Belt under the Renzo Gracie Academy, training primarily with Mike Jaramillo, John Danaher's Black belt. FUN FACT: I've trained at over 50 schools around the world. Let's connect. Would love to hear about everyone's jiu jitsu journey!

Fellow New Yorker! Welcome!

Hi All, I'm from the SF Bay Area in California. Started training for fun back in college in 2009 and never really stopped. My attendance towards the beginning was spotty due to classes. I eventually found my way to San Jose for work and joined my current gym, Heroes, as a blue belt. I've been training under Alan "Gumby" Marques ever since and he's the instructor I've had the longest (6.5 years at this point). I don't have an extensive competition record (I think i went 2-6 as a white belt) and I never really found the drive to compete after white belt. I'm just a happy hobbyist who blows off steam from work at the gym. I was just promoted to black belt by Gumby and it's a weird feeling. I didn't get any super powers, just a super belly.

Hello everyone. Glad to be a part of this endeavour. I have been training for over 19 years. I am a second degree black belt and the owner of Fluid Jiu Jitsu in Milwaukee Wisconsin. If you make it to my city stop in and train with us. When I started there was no YouTube or verification of belts. We saw a blue belt and thought they were the toughest men on the planet. A black belt was a demi God. It still doesn't feel real to be the rank of my heroes coming up but as they say, the time will pass any way, might as well earn a black belt while it passes. Keep at it my friends.

Hey guys!

Thought I'd share my bio from my academy website ( http://www.9thislebjj.com) to make it easier...

Deutsch Pu'u Sr a.k.a. Dee, SIBAK Dee, Coach Dee or Professor Dee

Born in Landstuhl Germany raised in American Samoa. Dee grew up Fishing, Hunting, and fighting.

Coach Dee is a US Army (retired) Combat Veteran with a total of 9 combat tours.
Coach Dee started his journey in Martial Arts at the age of 4, training in Boxing under his late father who was at the time an assistant National Boxing Team coach in American Samoa, simultaneously he was also training in Sil Lum Kungfu under Master Sunako Simi.

Dee is a former World Champ in Kickboxing, Muay Thai, and MMA. He is a 2nd Degree Black Belt in KAJUKENBO under the tutelage of Professor Joseph Solis, and Grandmaster Bill Sills. He is also a former training and sparring partner to former Undisputed World Boxing Champion Wladimir Klitschko. He began his career as an amateur Boxer racking up multiple Amateur Championships to include American Samoa Jr National Champion, American Samoa National Championship, Hawaii State Boxing Champ, multiple US Army Europe boxing Championships, multiple US Armed Forces Europe Boxing Championships, US Army All Army Boxing Champion, US Armed Forces boxing Silver medalist. He is also a former member of the US Army World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) where he was under the tutelage of former Team USA Boxing Head Coach Basheer Abdullah.
    
Coach Dee began his career in pro MMA, Kickboxing and Muay Thai in Honolulu Hawaii after he placed 3rd in the 2003 Western Olympic Boxing Trials in Bakersfield California. He was signed by the world renown "K1" kickboxing organization based out of Japan and was able to travel the world to fight in Europe and Asia. Dee is also known as the "Godfather of MMA" in American Samoa. In 2009 Dee created a local nonprofit MMA gym and introduced the sport in his home of American Samoa where he taught pro bono and promoted the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

In 2010 while He was teaching MMA at another one of his Non-Profit gyms in Waipahu Hawaii, he was commended, recognized and awarded by the then Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle for his work with inner city youth.

In July 2017 and after many years of No-Gi Jiujitsu he finally started training in a Gi in Brazilian Jiujitsu and in June 2021Coach Dee was promoted by Professor Walter Vital to BJJ Black Belt.

Hi I am Sean From UK (Cardiff), recently moved to NL (Amsterdam).

Started training end of 2008 at Chris Rees Academy, later moving to CF24 Jiu Jitsu, also in Cardiff. Due to working in the big smoke, I have spent some time at Carlson Gracie London where I got my Blue Belt in around 2011/12. Now I am training at Carlson Gracie Amsterdam.

Here is a photo of me after I asked the barber if he could make me look like Kit Dale.

Hello,

Chris here from the Philippines.
Been training since 2015 and currently a bluebelt. Wanted to try something new as a means to shed some pounds and jiujitsu happened. now 60lbs lighter and still addicted to this wonderful sport as i was on my first day.

Hello!

I've lived back and forth between Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico my whole life. I'm currently a purple belt (still waiting on verification here) under Fernando Halfeld at BTT Lake Jackson, TX. I've been training for about 3.4 years now. I knew from day one that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life, now all I do is train and teach. Jiu Jitsu is a beautiful thing.

Hi

I’m Aaron Rogers of Rogers JiuJitsu Academy, Gosport, UK.
I originally started training Japanese Jujitsu with my dad Martin Rogers.
We moved over to BJJ in 2013 and I quickly decided this was the sport for me.
I compete a couple of times a year and have taken medals from every competition I’ve entered. My main focus is on helping my students progress and be the best versions of themselves.
When my father passed in 2017 I became head coach and continued through the ranks.
I was awarded my brown belt on 22.08.21 by Patrick Martin (GB Derby).

Hi guys,
My name is Roland Pauletti, I'm from Romania bla bla bla... you can check easily my profile to get all this basic information
What I would like to share with you, is basically how I started and how is now.
I started Jiu Jitsu 9 years ago, trying to come back to my sports life, because I was missing this a long time... I did in my childhood Judo for 8 years, and because of an injure I was forced to stop, and after I was trying to fit myself in a bunch of other sports but just wasn't for me... in the University years I was trying some kickboxing classes, when I saw a Swedish Guy teaching Jiu-Jitsu, and I was just attracted to this so much
My journey starts that day, 2012
2021, Aug 20, I was promoted to Black Belt ⬛⬛

Hello everybody,

One of the many many blue belts here and on this planet.
I've been a bjj enthusiast for the last almost 3 years.
I've been training assiduously in various martial arts since 2007, searching for the one best suited for me. I think I found the proper one in BJJ.
I am older but still interested in competing, striving to continuously improve my abilities and perspective. I am also interested in contributing to an improved BJJ scene in Romania.

Greetings from Romania!

Welcome all,

I have been wanting to start training BJJ for the last few years and always found a way to make an excuse of why not to start today, but I would always cry and complain that I wanted to do so. It was the proverbial self-licking ice cream cone where I was the sole reason for not starting. As soon as some of the covid restrictions started to lift I decided to pull the trigger. I am 37 years old training at Coastal BJJ here in Virginia Beach. I love the atmosphere there I love the culture the only think I am upset with about BJJ is that I didn’t start it sooner. I started in May now heading into my fourth month of training and I train between 3 – 5 days a week and love it. I cant wait till my sons are old enough to start the junior classes as I wont let them make the same mistake I did and start this journey early.

Hello everybody!
Greetings from Norway, I started BJJ 2014.

Hi everyone!

I started jiu-jitsu in Savannah, Georgia under Justin Flood with Gracie Barra. After about 8 months, I moved to Brazil where I trained at various places because I couldn't afford Gracie Barra in São Paulo, but that was an amazing experience and I made some great friends that I still speak with on the regular. I did however rip my big toe off just weeks after Jon Jones did the same thing in the UFC, but all better now. It didn't keep me off the mats very long. Then I came to Knoxville, Tennessee where I picked back up with Gracie Barra and Samuel Braga. It has been an amazing journey learning under him, receiving my blue, purple, brown and black belts under him. He has brought superstars like Romulo Barral and Felipe Pena in for seminars so I have added some amazing things to my game through the years learning from monsters and living legends in jiu-jitsu. Now I own my own school, Morris Self Defense, and one of the first things I did was bring in Dan Severn to do the first seminar at my school. It really set the pace for the type of teaching I have been doing ever since. My next seminar will be a Berimbolo Seminar with Samuel Braga - The Creator of the Berimbolo.

This is awesome! Love to see it!

My name is Adam Stacey aka: Randy. I’m a Black Belt in BJJ since 2015.

I started training while in the Navy back in 2003 under Romolo Barros and James Tanaka of Brazilian Freestyle (Hawaii). My first comp was April 2004 where I was rapidly subdued by RNC. :)

From 2005ish - 2011 I trained under Heitor Abrahao of Abrahao BJJ. He took me from white to purple. During this time I competed A TON and lost more than I won. I had some dubs tho - none worth noting. But during this time I found out how much I love sharing Jiu Jitsu. So, I started teaching as a Purple belt.

From 2011 to NOW… Nic G has been my instructor. He has taken me from purple to black. He intends to take me to my second degree as well. But, more importantly, he’s been one of the best influences on my Jiu Jitsu journey. He’s a life changer. During this time my only win of note was when I double-golded in the Blackbelt division at the Ontario Provincials in Toronto Canada.

Presently - I teach at Custom Jiu Jitsu. I have a small academy full of great people. I am blessed. I have zero social media (besides this) but I promise: I’m not trying to fool anyone. Gil Olivias recommended I get on here and set up a profile. So far this is a pretty cool thing.

Other things to note:
The JJB and I wrote Teaching Kids Jiu Jitsu.
I invented grapple buddy and Century Martial Arts put it into production.
Custom Jiu Jitsu started in my living room… see attached.

Hey!

Finally created a profile here on beltchecker. I really like the concept.

I started my BJJ-jurney in august, 2011. Been in love with the sport ever since. I have competed alot in local tournaments as a white and blue belt back in the days. This before I started my MMA-career. I was recruited to "The Norwegian National amateur MMA team", and fought in both "the IMMAF European Championship 2015" (where I got silver), and "the IMMAF world championship 2016". I've also competed in "Swedish Open 2014" (got silver) and the European IBJJF Championship 2016 as a blue belt (lost the quaterfinals). In 2016 i got some health issues that made me "retire" from the competition scene. I've manage to keep up with the trainings, and I have been focusing all on coaching for the last 5 years. Now I'm running Kimura Gjøvik next to being the head-coach for BJJ there, and I aslo writing my master thesis in sports and physical education where I'm going to do some research on stress and coping for full-contact martial arts competition within BJJ, boxing, MMA, muay-thai and wrestling. 3 days ago I got promoted to brown belt by professor, Jose Carlos, who are the founder of Kimura Norway. The same professor who has promoted world famous athletes in both Espen Mathiesen and Tommy Langaker. This was a big honor for me.

I will encourage my studens and teammates to create profile here as well, and I will also upload some pictures and videoes later on.

I would really appreciate some votes, so I can get verified :)

Hello,

I started training out in Kansas city and was there for just under a year ,moved to California and trained in Paradise CA for a year then finally the last 3.5 years I have been in Sacramento. I was able to do 2 tournaments at white belt but since then issues with my psoriatic arthritis has made it more difficult to train consistent enough to compete. I normally train with sambo shoes on to keep my feet from being torn up these days, and with that I also don't play alot of top game as basing off my feet tend to make them crack and bleed. I am looking forward to just staying on the mats as long as my body allows and hanging out with all you savages.

Stay sweaty my friends!