My name is Bryan Alvarez and I've been training jiu-jitsu since 2006. I actually started out as a pro-wrestler when I was a teenager, and wrestled all over the US and Canada through the early 2020s. I was a big fan in the early days of the UFC, and in 2006 I decided I wanted to learn jiu-jitsu, largely because I loved the technical aspect of pro-wrestling and was a big fan of the Gracies, Kazushi Sakuraba, Frank Shamrock, etc. I was also getting hurt a lot in pro-wrestling and figured jiu-jitsu would be easier on my body (spoiler: it was). I lived in Lynnwood, WA, at the time and looked in the phone book (I'm old) and there was a Pedro Sauer affiliate right down the road from me. Back then, BJJ schools in this area were few and far between, and I couldn't believe there was a school so close. I started training with Justin Angelos, a purple belt who had trained with Pedro at his original school in Salt Lake City for years until moving to Washington. With the exception of a few weeks when I got LASIK, a month when I broke my orbital bone (again, pro-wrestling) and for a period of time during the pandemic when everything was shut down, I have been on the mat every week since, both training and teaching. I actually first started helping teach beginner classes as a blue belt around 2008 and was running my own classes as a purple belt around 2010. In 2011, I approached a karate school near my house and offered to run a jiu-jitsu program, and from 2011 until today I've been the head instructor at Evergreen Karate and Jiu-Jitsu in Bothell, WA. I am so fortunate to have received every belt and every black belt degree directly from Master Pedro Sauer. From 2011 through 2020 I ran the entire kids and adults programs, 18 hours a week on the mat in addition to a full-time job as co-owner of wrestlingobserver.com, but since the pandemic and having two kids, I've had to drop teaching the kids program in an effort to live something more resembling a normal life (I have a wife and would like to remain having one). We have a great staff of people, including the new general manager of the gym, Beau Richards, and our program currently has 160 BJJ students, both adults and children. I'm proud of what our school has become, I hope to continue to teach for many years to come, and I am thankful to be part of this community.