Update: https://www.reddit.com/r/[...]ama_recap/ Tl;dr: Someone posted a threatening letter supposedly from Deborah Gracie of Gracie Sports Fairfield to Joe Oppedisano of Fit Club bjj on Friday. We took it down to check it out but now it will be reinstated. The gym owner (by phone) says the letter is real, but is nearly a year old, and that he did not post this content here because he does not want to get involved in social media drama. Others (likely former student of Joe’s or Deborah's) may be stoking this drama online. While this issue has enough credibility for us to leave the post up, please don’t go taking advantage of other people’s troubles for your own gain on the internet. Report any more posts on this topic, please.

Yes I had my account deactivated for a while. I was spending too much time arguing with people. When I saw this thread, it lured me back. Anyways... A couple of weeks ago, we had a seminar with my coach's black belt. I decided before the seminar to talk with my coach about how I'm doing working towards my black belt. Like what he'd like to see as far as teaching, drilling, competing, etc goes. He said to me, 'Are you even under me and Elliot (his bb)? I don't know.' In June of 2022 I received my brown belt at a Globetrotters camp. At that time my coach was a brown belt himself. I had been a purple for 7 years almost. He always said to me that he felt bad that he couldn't promote me to brown belt. At that time he wasn't technically under anyone. Just before the camp, maybe a week before, I messaged Christian and asked him if I could have an evaluation of my skills. He said yes and told me he'd message the instructors to let them know that I would like an evaluation. AT NO POINT DID I ASK TO BE PROMOTED OR TO BE TESTED! I want that made perfectly clear. All I wanted was the opinion of a well established black belt. Several of the instructors are my friends, and they knew how long I'd been training and how long I'd been a purple belt. When I was promoted at camp, it was a complete surprise. Once I'd realized what happened, I was worried what my coach would think. I was half drunk, but I sent him a long message about it and he said that he was excited for me and congratulatory. He asked that I come in to the next class still wearing my purple belt so that he could tie the brown around me. I was completely happy with that. And sure enough that's what happened. He told the class that I was promoted at camp and he was proud to tie the belt around my waist. Since then I have helped with the academy however I could. I basically give privates to white belts, I cover classes when asked (I work shift so I can't commit to a regular class), I help people game plan for competition, I completed the paperwork to commercially import new mats, etc, etc. When he said that to me I was very hurt. Then it was like we didn't talk to each other for several weeks. I lost a fair amount of respect for him. I was under the impression that he was not only my coach but my friend. Now I'm injured and can't train for several weeks. When I informed him he just said, 'I'll put your account on hold'. I don't pay for an account anyways. My wife teaches the cardio kickboxing at the academy, and instead of paying her, they just give me a free membership. I have always hated BJJ politics. I never understood why people didn't want cross training or sharing of knowledge. It makes no sense to me. Now it's something I think about daily unfortunately. I'd like to hear what people think. Please no unkind remarks about my coach (or me). Anthony

Yes I had my account deactivated for a while. I was spending too much time arguing with people. When I saw this thread, it lured me back. Anyways... A couple of weeks ago, we had a seminar with my coach's black belt. I decided before the seminar to talk with my coach about how I'm doing working towards my black belt. Like what he'd like to see as far as teaching, drilling, competing, etc goes. He said to me, 'Are you even under me and Elliot (his bb)? I don't know.' In June of 2022 I received my brown belt at a Globetrotters camp. At that time my coach was a brown belt himself. I had been a purple for 7 years almost. He always said to me that he felt bad that he couldn't promote me to brown belt. At that time he wasn't technically under anyone. Just before the camp, maybe a week before, I messaged Christian and asked him if I could have an evaluation of my skills. He said yes and told me he'd message the instructors to let them know that I would like an evaluation. AT NO POINT DID I ASK TO BE PROMOTED OR TO BE TESTED! I want that made perfectly clear. All I wanted was the opinion of a well established black belt. Several of the instructors are my friends, and they knew how long I'd been training and how long I'd been a purple belt. When I was promoted at camp, it was a complete surprise. Once I'd realized what happened, I was worried what my coach would think. I was half drunk, but I sent him a long message about it and he said that he was excited for me and congratulatory. He asked that I come in to the next class still wearing my purple belt so that he could tie the brown around me. I was completely happy with that. And sure enough that's what happened. He told the class that I was promoted at camp and he was proud to tie the belt around my waist. Since then I have helped with the academy however I could. I basically give privates to white belts, I cover classes when asked (I work shift so I can't commit to a regular class), I help people game plan for competition, I completed the paperwork to commercially import new mats, etc, etc. When he said that to me I was very hurt. Then it was like we didn't talk to each other for several weeks. I lost a fair amount of respect for him. I was under the impression that he was not only my coach but my friend. Now I'm injured and can't train for several weeks. When I informed him he just said, 'I'll put your account on hold'. I don't pay for an account anyways. My wife teaches the cardio kickboxing at the academy, and instead of paying her, they just give me a free membership. I have always hated BJJ politics. I never understood why people didn't want cross training or sharing of knowledge. It makes no sense to me. Now it's something I think about daily unfortunately. I'd like to hear what people think. Please no unkind remarks about my coach (or me). Anthony

Do we know on what basis the gym owner says the letter is real?