Featured affiliated academy: White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA

Jiu-Jitsu USA

Where is the gym located?
The best address ever – 420 S 1st street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

How many people train there?
14

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
The gym is growing really fast. Since we’ve been open for 3 weeks as of writing this, that is 5 students a week :)

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
Our school is for experienced grapplers, so our lowest is 4-stripe white belts with multiple black belts.

When did the gym open?
September 6th 2022

Some facts about you:

Name: Joshua Janis
Age: 39
Belt: Black
Profession: Interpersonal Communication Coach with www.myodisee.com
Years in BJJ: 19
Other martial arts: TKD as a kid
Currently living in: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Originally from: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
Like any good story, it starts with trial and tribulation. After coming out of Covid I ran into some unexpected internal conflict with the gym I had been at for 15 years. Having done a good bit of travelling, watching other coaches, other gyms, and listening to a plethora of different perspectives made it hard for us to fit into any gym’s culture. We felt that there could be a school that focused on the hobbyist, whose culture was a bit nerdy, and where you could focus on learning in a roll instead of winning.

Once we committed to creating a home for us, the universe provided. We found a perfect spot, in the perfect location, for something we could afford. We got to work, putting in the long hours to create a brand that was congruent with who we are as people. Then building the comfortable environment that we felt was super important to our culture.

White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA is different. We cater to the experienced BJJ hobbyist. Our classes are principles-based over individual methods. Our gym is open 24/7 to members and couples as a co-working space. Our lounge allows for a space to come together to watch grappling, fights, Avatar the Last Airbender, or even House of the Dragon.

While it is still very early, I consider ourselves very lucky. It has been an amazing experience to create something with my partner Meghan. Her ability to listen to her emotional voice balances my logical voice perfectly. While it has been a lot of work, I look back at what we have accomplished so far with fondness and pride

Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
One common thread with our students is their open-mindedness and intelligence both in their professional and Jiu Jitsu lives. Mix these traits with helpfulness and pour into classes that encourage discussion on what works for the individual and you have White Lotus.

Why do they train in White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA?
I believe our people start training for many reasons, however they stay around because of the dojo culture. If the dojo culture matches what the student wants then they will stick it out.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
In general, it is just like any business. Staying organised, keeping the facility clean, how to handle student challenges, how to get people in the door etc.

We have a very specific challenge in that we are opening as a dojo for experienced grapplers only, which means no white belts (which is normally the blood of a dojo). It isn’t that we are against white belts, it is that we want to teach advanced BJJ principles so you need to have basic methods somewhat understood. This makes our pool of possible participants smaller. We also don’t want to be perceived as “poachers”, so we created an auxiliary membership that can easily be paired with a home gym of students.

White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
I believe that we are still at the tip of the spear in regards to the popularity of Jiu Jitsu. It is a tool that fixes so many of the challenges we face as a society. When done right, It inspires confidence and develops strong relationships. As people develop their own expressions of the art it will continue to explode both in Milwaukee and all over.

What’s the best thing about White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA?
I’ll answer this from my perspective…

Spiritually: Creating something with my the love of my life.
Emotionally: Watching students interact with something you have created.
Physically: The lounge. It’s so cool to have a place to chill. It’s like a living room in a dojo!

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym ?
Depends on the time of year. Summers in Milwaukee are perhaps the best in the country. We have huge music festivals, we are the home of Harley Davidson, and if you have never seen Lake Michigan it will take your breath away. In winter, the best part is our winter BJJ camp :)

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit White Lotus Jiu-Jitsu, USA you can find them here.

Featured traveller: Marju Kern – BJJ Globetrotters

Marju Kern BJJ

 

Age: 45

Belt: 4-stripe white belt

Profession: I identify mostly as a full-time mom. All legal work experience, telco business, and investments feel kinda irrelevant compared to parenting.

How many years in BJJ: 6

Other martial arts: I started with MMA after my 4th child was born. I guess I was a bit overwhelmed with the chaotic life with kids at home and I was looking for a place where I could release some stress (sometimes moms need to kick something for their sanity). A 3-month introductory course for beginners seemed just the right thing, because I thought 3 months is doable and by that time I’ll have gotten the stress out of my system. However the club also had a 3-month follow-up course, and as a young widow I had new reasons to keep going. During MMA classes I sometimes saw people doing BJJ on other mats. BJJ looked awful, sweaty, and embarrassing. Not for me, I thought.

Where do you live: Tallinn, Estonia

Where are you from: I was born and grew up in this lovely town Pärnu, where this year the BJJ Globetrotters beach camp took place.

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I like real letters and postcards. I have a penpal in Finland with whom I’ve exchanged handwritten letters for 32 years. I was on a school trip to Finland and a girl asked my address when we were visiting a local school. The next time I saw her again in person was 27 years later during another trip to Finland.

A few years ago I discovered postcrossing. This is also a cool way to send and receive postcards from all over the world.

Marju Kern – BJJ camp in St. Barts

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I think the first time I read about BJJ Globetrotters camps was on social media, when someone from Estonia shared her experiences. I was immediately mesmerized by this – imagine that! The two best things combined: travelling somewhere and training with friendly like-minded people! Then Priit “defensivebjj” Mihkelson started participating in camps and was very un-priitly happy about that. As a curious person, I wanted to go and see in person what it’s all about. Finally in the summer of 2020 the planets were all correctly aligned and I could go to my first abroad camp in Iceland.

Participating in a camp is an excellent chance to squeeze more training hours into a smaller time period. At home I can go to the gym 2-3 times a week, if I’m lucky. At the camp I can take 3 classes a day, plus open mat time. Accordingly it’s all win-win for me. I can see new places or familiar places from new angles and have more mat time. Plus hopefully there are more people of my size to train with.

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
The last one was the Faroe Islands Camp. I arrived a couple of days earlier because I wanted to look around. The nature in the Faroes is breathtaking and it’s worth taking time to enjoy that.

A trip that I’m looking forward to next August is a 10-day expedition to Greenland on a sailboat.

Marju Kern – BJJ Globetrotters

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
I enjoy being in a new environment, where everyday chores don’t haunt me. New tastes, different smells, light from different angles, different landscapes – when travelling I notice more details around me and that changes the perception of time. Days feel longer and that in itself is really uplifting considering how regular days tend to slip away too fast.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Here I can only tell about travelling to BJJ Globetrotters camps, since those are my only training destinations – at least so far.

When travelling to a camp I always have this feeling that I get more local inside info on what to visit and what to do. For example, I hadn’t heard of summer tobogganing before the family camp in Austria, and that was really fun to try with kids.

Of course, travelling to Caribbean Camp pays off price-wise. The camp is the cheapest option to stay on this wonderful island for a week.

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
The most colorful experiences are definitely from trekking trips to remote places like Kamchatka and the Kuril islands (far east of Russia) or Torres del Paine in Patagonia. Apparently I am very naive and I believe everything they write in ads. I went to my very first trekking trip with a small organized group to Kamchatka. It was said that no special skills are needed, only that I have to be morally prepared to walk 8 hours a day while carrying supplies for 1 week in my backpack. There were moments where I cried (inside) and would have definitely preferred to have had certain mountaineering skills. The lesson I learned from there is that when there are no other options I am able to do so much more than I ever thought.

Surprising experiences in random order:

  • How many steep and slippery cliffs I can climb (without any safety ropes).
  • How easily you are given a gun in Russia when you have to wait in the woods and there is high probability to meet a bear. No questions ever asked about whether you know how to use it.
  • How my body feels after a 10-hour boat trip on a heavily crowded boat, sitting on a hard bench when legs could be moved only when the entire row of people moved their legs together.
  • How many midges are in Scotland in a quiet morning.
  • How rainy the rainforest is during raining season.
  • How friendly people are everywhere and how many interesting stories they have.

Marju Kern – BJJ Globetrotters

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
Not so much. At my age I prefer comfort and I’m not looking for the cheapest options possible. I usually don’t have the liberty to wait until last-minute cheap offers or discounts pop up.

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Pack less and see more.

Thank you to Marju Kern – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Featured Camp Instructor: Jorgen Matsi – BJJ Globetrotters

Jorgen Matsi bjj

Jorgen Matsi – BJJ Globetrotters

Belt: Black
Profession: Personal coach / sport psychologist
Started training (year): 2003
City/country: Tartu, Estonia

 

Main achievements in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu:

Lots of (very mostly non-default:) medals on the regional scene

 

 

Which Globetrotters camps have you attended:

Leuven 2018, Heidelberg 2019, Tallinn 2019, Iceland 2021, Tallinn 2021, Spring Camp 2022, Beach Camp 2022, Zen Camp 2022

 

Which camp has been your favorite so far?

Heidelberg 2019

 

 

Favorite stories/moments from the camps?

Me getting my blackbelt totally unexpected in Tallinn 2019 was pretty cool. In general I like the overall camp vibe in every camp, not very specific moments. 

 

Your favorite class/classes to teach at camp?

I like to teach something conceptual every time. Mostly have been doing “wrestling in context of BJJ” stuff thus far.

Anything else you want to add to your profile:  I like to talk about things :) If anything I’m interested in interests you – I’m easy to find on the mats and in the good ol’ interwebs.

***

Jorgen Matsi – BJJ Globetrotters instructor

 

Trekking, the Camino and How the BJJ Globetrotters Network Brought Me Home

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter Five: Boston BJJ-Newton, Massachusetts

-On focusing on the journey instead of the destination and the importance of being a beginner

This is Chapter 5 of what I’m calling the Expat Files. If you want to know more about what this project is, you can read more about it in the first article here.

After Denmark, Rachel and I made our way to Germany, Spain and Portugal. By the end of our four month journey, we had explored mountains, tried surfing and obtained official documents absolving us of our sins (Neither of us are Catholic, but it can’t hurt). Each place was amazing but we had a special mission for  Spain: the Camino de Santiago.

I’ve previously written about my love for trekking. Living out of a bag and only eating what you can carry gives you a simple daily structure . For the Camino:

 

7am: Wake up, roll up your sleeping bag, lace up your boots, wolf down a pastry, slam back an espresso and start walking
9am: Stop for second breakfast
9:30 am: Keep walking
1:00 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm: Keep walking
3 or 4 pm: Find your hostel, claim a bunk bed, take shower and a nap
5 pm: Get dinner with some strangers and have the best conversation of your life
8pm: Bed

 

It’s a hiking trail that’s like no other. You walk over the pyrenees, through the desert and then to the ocean. As a pilgrimage, these different parts of the trail have meanings. The first part, over the mountains, is good for the body. The second part, the Meseta, is devoid of scenery and it forces you to turn inward and examine your mind. The last, toward the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, is for the soul. 

 

Three years prior, I had started the Camino on my own. The whole thing takes six weeks, but in 2015, I only had three. I remember agonizing at the time about what I should do. Should I take a bus to the last bit? Perhaps I could skip the meseta. Maybe I could rent a bike.

I had fallen in with a group of hikers who gave me different advice. My assumption was that I would not be able to ever come back to Spain so I needed to get to Santiago now. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with this older French dude named Jerome.

Jerome: Ah so you will coupé (cut it) with a bus?

Me: I’m considering it

Jerome: But you will ruin it! Just walk to where you can and come back. You will see, it’s amazing! It will be just as you left it!

Me: But I’ll never be able to come back!

At the time, I was annoyed with him, but he was totally right. The best part of the Camino is starting it and looking forward to the journey. I remember meeting people who skipped the first few days so that they could make it to Santiago. I actually felt sorry for them. Like Jerome said, being a beginner is the best part. In contrast, the end of the Camino, in 2018,  was totally sad. The hope that we would reach Santiago is what got me out of bed each morning, now we didn’t have that. Rachel and I actually labeled it Post Camino Depression. But the beginning, the bonding with other travelers, the arduous hikes, is what made it special. 

After the trail, we flew to Boston from Barcelona. The cool thing is that we flew to Korea out of Los Angeles so since leaving the states, and then went to Europe and finally to Massachusetts. That meant that since leaving the USA for Ulsan in 2017 we had actually circumnavigated the globe. 

 

It had been six weeks since I had trained any Jiu JitsuBy the time we arrived in the states. Luckily I knew exactly where I could go. Boston Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy caught my eye years before going to Korea, but I was always too nervous to go in. But here I was, six months into training. I had already been brave enough to start the process and continue it in other people’s gyms. This would be my first foray into establishing myself as a BJJ practitioner in America. Interesting how for some, the globetrotters network brings them gyms all over the world. For me, it literally brought me home.

All that  confidence crashed after I stepped onto the mats and saw a wall of people wearing black belts. At Ulsan Fight Gym in Korea, my instructor was a purple belt. In Thailand, I met black belt instructors but nobody else was at that level. This was the first time I saw black belts learning from black belts. To this day, Boston BJJ is the most black belt heavy gym I’ve been to. 

The class was at 7 AM. I dragged myself out of bed to get there. In late November, a few guys were freezing at the door. The instructor, John, finally showed up late and herded us inside. Since none of the guys complained, I figured this must be normal. Nobody even noticed me enough to find out if I was a member. They just rushed on the mats and started a twenty-five minute game of King of the Guard.

If you haven’t played it, King of the Guard works like this:

  • Everyone pairs up with one person being put in guard
  • The person in guard has to pass
    • If he makes it, he stays down and somebody new comes to him
    • If he doesn’t he finds a new person
  • The person who has guard needs to sweep or submit
    • If he sweeps or submits, he stays where he is
    • If he gets passed, he gets up and finds a new person

I got swept and submitted less than 30 seconds with each person. It wasn’t even close. These guys were toying with me like a cat with a ball of yarn. 

One guy showed up late. He walked slowly, had wrinkles under his eyes and looked frail. He made the loudest old man noises as he stretched. Once he was on the mats, I walked over to him and he looked deep in my eyes. He spoke extremely slowly to me. “Listen. You are young. I am in my fifties. Okay? Be aware of our age differences and that I don’t heal as fast. OKAY?” Five seconds later I was in the tightest armbar I’ve ever felt. 

I had never felt such a gap in skill. In Korea most people were beating me, but it didn’t feel like a shutout. This felt like being in a tornado. I got swept and submitted by everyone in less than a minute. One guy put his hand over my mouth and nose. I remember asking him if it was a legal move. “…no. Just something we like to use for newcomers.” 

 

 

It’s not that black belts are inherently more athletic than everyone else. When you start Jiu Jitsu, you’re not used to moving around on the floor. The movements don’t have access to potential energy. Once your body gets used to that, you have a major advantage over somebody who isn’t. Think about what it’s like to run a race against somebody who doesn’t even know how to walk. 

With more advanced people, the intimidation comes more from the sense that they always seem to know something you don’t. Now think about how those people are with each other, how much misdirection they learn to get what they want against somebody who sees their moves coming a mile away. It’s this learning curve that gives Jiu Jitsu its mythic status as the martial art for the little guy. 

BJJ people love comparing jits to chess. “You get better by rolling with people who are better.” But these guys were honestly too far out of my league. I would get home feeling like I had never understood anything. They rarely even taught techniques unless the instructor felt like it. The schedule said they had a fundamentals class. I had not yet been to a gym that had separate classes for beginners. A prideful part of me didn’t want to think of myself as a beginner but I knew I had to give it a shot. 

I actually ended up really liking the beginner’s class. There’s a split in the Jiu Jitsu world over how much time should be devoted to warm ups. Some feel it robs you of valuable time you could be focusing on Jiu Jitsu. But our instructor, Alex, led them in an interesting way. He would say “20 jumping jacks.” First he would count to ten then we would count in unison from 11-20. When you are new to a gym and a group of people, yet you find yourself moving in the same way as them, you inevitably feel a connection. That team feeling is what was missing from the class with all the Black Belts. Those guys weren’t trying to be exclusive, but the reality is they had all probably known each other for at least 10 years. Just like on the Camino, it’s easier to connect with people who are on the same leg of the journey as you. 

Alex also explained some of the basic moves in a way that made me realize I had never understood them back in Ulsan. Alex’s class structure helped me feel like I did in Ulsan, that I was learning something new each day. (He’s also a good writer. Check out this article he wrote about Anthony Bourdain and BJJ or his sci-fi series on MMA. He writes about a dystopian world where wars are fought through MMA matches. The practices he describes in the book actually describe the kinds of methods he used at Boston BJJ).

I spent every day for almost a month at either the advanced or fundamentals class. And I I learned a lot. I like to think I was getting better, but I was more likely learning how to identify what I had been  previously doing wrong. Here again, I found it interesting to be around such advanced folks. The advice I got from black belts was great, but the advice I got from blue and purple belts was honestly more helpful. Those were the folks that were most recently in my shoes. 

Boston BJJ ended up becoming a second gym to me. I would soon move to Burlington, Vermont. My coach there had gotten his black belt from the Boston BJJ head coach, Roberto Maia, which meant I didn’t have to pay for drop ins. I would train there whenever I was visiting my parents or working in the area. I always looked forward to it as well. I still got crushed by the black belts each time, but I started learning from them as well. 

Unfortunately, I think they took a hit during the pandemic. I’m not sure the full story, but all I know is that they don’t exist at that location anymore. I hope they get back on their feet soon and I can see those folks again. Since they closed, I’ve had to look for other gyms to train when I visit my folks. At a few places, I’ve seen some of the Boston BJJ diaspora. I always approach them and commiserate about how much we miss the academy. 

The folks I walked with on the Camino DeSantiago will always have a special place in my heart. But similarly, the black belts who crushed me, the blue belts who mentored me and the white belts who grew with me will forever be a part of my BJJ journey. 

 

The Dust Mop Takeaway:

 

Part of the reason for me writing this blog is to reflect on what it feels like to be a white belt after so much time. When I started BJJ, I remember hoping that I would make it to blue belt before I got to the states. But there’s something comforting about being a white belt. Nobody expects anything from you so it’s a win-win scenario. If you do poorly, nobody looks disappointed, and if you do well, everyone seems impressed (or annoyed depending on who you roll with). It’s honestly something that I think I will miss if I get promoted, that feeling like I’ve got nothing to lose. 

At Boston BJJ, I learned to love being a beginner. I got the mindset that there’s always more to learn. Just like being on the camino, there’s always more trail to cover. It’s what inspires you to wake up at 7am, lace up your boots and get walking right away. For jits, it’s what inspires me to get to training five days a week.

My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected].

If you want to read my articles as soon as they’re published, you can follow me here.

Treat Everyone Like They Will Be A Black Belt

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter Four: CSA-Copenhagen, Denmark

-On fitting in, reconnecting to nature and BJJ as a communal endeavor

 

This is Chapter 3 of what I’m calling the Expat Files. If you want to know more about what this project is, you can read more about it in the first article here.

After Thailand, Rachel and I went to Nepal. I found literally no traces of BJJ existing there. We spent two weeks there trekking and breathing fresh air. This was a detox we sorely needed. Ulsan, the city in Korea, where we had lived, was incredibly crowded. Most nights we had to keep our curtains closed to keep out the neon lights. The first time we slept in our apartment, we heard the screaming cries of a stumbling drunk. But for two weeks in Pokhara, we woke up and saw mountains for days. Missing Jits was honestly worth it. 

Rachel’s parents are both academics. Her mom gets consulting jobs all over the world to help museum’s with their exhibits. It’s really impressive because she can tell you all about the cafeteria in each one and what you should be ordering. Right after leaving Nepal, we met up with them in Copenhagen where she was working with the natural history museum. 

Copenhagen is a beautiful city with beautiful people. A little…too beautiful maybe. Let me explain. Rachel and I had spent a year where we were, quite obviously, not Korean. People just automatically knew to switch to English when they saw us, or, at the very least not try speaking Korean.  We thought that going to Europe would be the end of that but…no. People there all seemed to be a foot taller than me and incredibly stylish. We were planning a backpacking trip in Spain so we only had hiking clothing. But as the Danes rode their bikes through the streets, they all seemed like something out of a Gap commercial only wearing black or charcoal. I swear I saw a woman riding a bike with a scarf on where it waved behind her like a flag. Not a care in the world. No worry, for example, that it would turn into a game of tug of war between her neck and the bike chain. I think most people could tell without speaking to me that I wasn’t a local. I’m too short to be a Dane.

The food was amazing, if not a shock to the system. Good bread is hard to come by in Korea. Most apartments I saw in Ulsan didn’t even have an oven. And cheese options were limited as well. But here we were eating smoked salmon on the richest cheeses and the hartiest breads we’ve ever encountered. I lost a lot of weight in Korea not having access to that stuff. I gained it back in Denmark.

For Jiu Jitsu, I knew exactly where I wanted to go. CSA, home of the BJJ Globetrotters! I knew that was where the whole project of politics-free Jiu Jitsu started. I made sure to get myself over there. One morning, I hopped on what seemed like the world’s most advanced bikeshare and made my way to the class. (Biking in Denmark is awesome, and there are good views everywhere.)

When I arrived I saw a building that looked huge. I knew it couldn’t be 100 percent dedicated to BJJ. It turned out to be a community center with art studios, education offices and gym space. The hallways looked all the same and I wasn’t able to find CSA. I even stopped by a Karate dojo in the building wondering if they shared the mats with them. 

Finally, I found the place. They didn’t have a bathroom in the gym space so I went down the hall. It didn’t have a gender on the sign so I went in and saw a room full of doors, each leading to a private toilet. In the middle was the sink with the soap. I went into a toilet stall and changed into my rash guard. When I came out, I saw a woman washing her hands and I was taken aback. Up until that point in my life, I had literally never seen a public restroom set up that way. Why don’t we do that in the US? It would probably save space and make some culture war issues moot. It’s honestly seeing things like Danish bathrooms that make travel worth it.

Roger Huerta was the instructor for the day. He said he was just filling in for the jiu jitsu instructor. Although Adam Shahir Kayoom at Q23 is an MMA fighter, I had never had a class taught by someone who mostly taught striking. But I was intrigued. MMA is an interesting part of the jiu jitsu journey. Before doing BJJ, I had never been interested in the sport at all. But as I learned more about the history of the UFC and the way it brought grappling to the spotlight, I started to gain more perspective. The first UFC I ever made a point to watch had just happened the previous week. It was the infamous UFC 229: Connor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagamedov.  I had kept my eye on the media hype over it because it felt like the ultimate grappler versus striker setup. I had felt somehow vindicated when Khabib played with McGregor like a cat place with a ball of yarn. My discipline was legit enough to win.

Despite my budding interest in MMA, I was still unsure of what a BJJ class taught by a striker would entail. Roger was the nicest guy. It was me and three Danish guys. I remember one of them being super tall and the other guy being very large. I’ll never forget grappling with the latter and not being able to secure the ever-illusive triangle choke. He said, “Ya don’t worry about it. My neck is too fat. Everybody is telling me so.”

Most Danes I met spoke English better than me so their fluency didn’t really surprise me. Still, what surprised me was that the class was taught entirely in English. It made sense in Thailand since most people were expats. But I still can’t figure out if that’s how they normally do it or if they just switched as soon as I got in the class. Come to think of it, to this day (4/5/22), the last time I’ve been to a Jiu Jitsu class not taught in English was in Korea. 

Roger turned out to be a really fascinating person. After the class we had a conversation about life, fulfillment, mental health and training that covered a lot of ground. It felt like the kind of talk you have with a friend over a series of drinks but here we were sober, exhausted and getting into all of life’s mysteries. A few months later, he messaged me on my birthday. Everyone does that on facebook, but his last comment meant a lot to me. He was the first person to suggest that I could someday become a black belt. 

If you haven’t seen it, there’s an amazing ted talk called lollipop moments. In it, Drew Dudley advocates for thanking people for offhand comments that make us feel special. Even, or especially, when they can’t remember it themselves. 

 

“We celebrate birthdays, where all you have to do is not die for 365 days. Yet we let people who have made our lives better walk around without knowing it.” 

 

Roger might have just been being nice by suggesting that I might one day become a black belt. But my theory is that longevity in this sport has to be a communal endeavor. The common estimate is that it takes ten years to become a black belt. How can you possibly do that alone?

You need people to care that you stick with it and you need to be invested in their success and longevity as well. People care that I show up on the mats. I have to remember that and care that they show up as well. Treat everyone like they will be a black belt and you might find yourself becoming one faster.

So, this one’s for you Roger. Your prediction was a major lollipop moment.

My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected]

If you want to read my articles as soon as they’re published, you can follow me here.

Overcoming the Disappointing Part of Travel at Chiang Mai BJJ

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter Three: Chiang Mai BJJ-Chiang Mai, Thailand

-On the disappointing nature of traveling without a purpose, the connection between BJJ and Trekking and the ways that Jiu Jitsu lets you borrow another life for a day.

This is Chapter 3 of what I’m calling the Expat Files. If you want to know more about what this project is, you can read more about it in the first article here.

Imagine you take a trip to Berlin. You’re there for three or four days. You see the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, a number of museums and eat as many pretzels and brats as you can handle. By the time you leave, you ask yourself, “Did I really see Berlin?” You likely haven’t even scratched the surface. There’s always a sense that you could have done, seen or experienced more. It’s the disappointing part of travel that I rarely see mentioned.

 It’s one of the reasons I love trekking. You always have a goal: get to the next campsite. On trail, you meet amazing people and gain an intimate relationship with the landscape. As long as you made it, every other experience is a bonus.

Rachel and I had no real direction in Bangkok. It had been less than a week since we left Korea so we had no plans or goals. It was hard to see a purpose for us really being there except to say we had been in a new location. We felt aimless as we headed to our next location. 

 

We took a night train north to Chiang Mai. It’s one of those awesome romantic things that you hope to be able to do at least once in your life. You walk through your carriage and everyone gets their own bunk bed with curtains. To help us sleep, we took the most powerful drowsy pills the Korean medical system can give you. “If you’re flying,” Rachel’s doctor said, “only take them once you’re on the plane! People take them in terminals and miss their flights.” They hit us like bricks. We slept like babies. But we really didn’t know what they were. Prescriptions in Korea often just came in plastic bags. You would walk away from a pharmacy feeling like you’ve collected your fix from a drug dealer. It was only a month after leaving Thailand that we realized they were probably opiates.

Bangkok is loud, overwhelming and fairly polluted. Chiang Mai, on the other hand, is this beautiful, small city centered around a number of Buddhist temples. Definitely a more relaxed atmosphere. We tried to be as chill as possible. We saw the sites, went to a Muay Thai fight, got a couples massage and took a day trip to an elephant sanctuary.

These experiences were fun but there was still the Berlin problem. How could I have a goal that would allow me to “accomplish” the city? It’s harder in urban settings, there’s too many options.

Being from New England, I’ve been to New York City several times.  My favorite time going there was for a job interview. I woke up early like a New Yorkers, hit the subway and felt like I blended into the rhythm of the city. In Bangkok, I realized I had felt that way training at Q23. Figuring out the transport, adhering to the Thai schedule and doing the same drills as everyone else gave me the impression that I was borrowing another life instead of simply being a tourist. 

I used the BJJ Globetrotters network again to find Chiang Mai BJJ. Even before arriving at the studio, I could feel my new tourism strategy working. Getting there by foot allowed me to orient myself to the city. Also, I felt like I had a reason to be there.

Unlike the gym in Bangkok that was in a five star hotel, this one was on the second story of an apartment building. I went to two classes and both times felt a specific sensation: a rented, clean jiu jitsu gi hitting a body that’s already sticky with sweat. The humidity in Thailand is something else.  

Everybody there was so chill! I had more time there to meet people and talk with them. That’s something that didn’t happen much in Korea. Most people in the gym were expats. Both times I rolled with this nice British dude, I think his name was Daniel (second from the right on the top row). I remember he was planning on trekking in Nepal,  where Rachel and I were headed next. We rolled and I almost put him in a triangle choke, but it would honestly be another year before I made that work on anyone. Another guy was also from the UK but competed a lot in Israel. Hearing him talk about it, I was intrigued and intimidated. I remember thinking of the competition I pulled out of in Korea.

The guy to the left of Daniel, Kia (I think), was trying Jiu Jitsu for the first time. Bryan, the instructor, surprised me by pairing me up with Kia and asking me to explain some basics. I was thrilled! I had never taught anybody anything in BJJ before. 

He made it very clear that he was just trying and didn’t want to commit to anything. But as I explained the difference between being in guard and passing it, his eyes widened in amazement. I’ve explained the same concept several times over the years, it never gets old seeing the gears turn in people’s heads. I sometimes wonder where Kia is now and if he continued.

The expats in Chiang Mai were different. In Bangkok, the jiu-jitsu folks I met had been there for a long time. They had stable jobs and were married. But most people in Chiang Mai were just passing through on their way to mountains and other adventures. This was another important thing for me to see on my jiu jitsu journey. 

Previously, I had the impression that if you want to train, you really need to have a nine-to-five and carve out your schedule. But these folks trained in between, and sometimes as a part, of their adventures. Because of that you heard about places that they had trained before, either in their home country or other places. 

I had only previously experienced that on trekking trails. You share fires, campsites and beers with fellow hikers. There’s a natural comradery in everyone working toward a common goal. You know the trail will be over in a few days. You want more experiences and friendships like this and you ask your fellow travelers where else have they been or where they want to go. The imagination goes wild and you see the world as one big trail. Leaving Chiang Mai BJJ, I saw the opportunity to learn grappling, experience culture and share the journey with folks all over the world. 

I had never connected my love for trekking with my love for Jiu Jitsu. There’s a clear goal, a feeling of slow but constant progress and an affinity for people that are on the same journey. I once met a Rabbi who defined love as just that: people working toward a common goal.  

 

The Dust mop Takeaway: 

Getting the opportunity to teach Oren was what I’ll remember the most. It was the first time I taught anybody else in BJJ. 

For techniques, I remember my roll with Daniel. Bryan saw us and casually said, “you’re not going to get a triangle choke going that direction.” My body had pivoted the wrong way. I remember him as I watch newer folks struggle to configure themselves.

My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected]

If you want to read my articles as soon as they’re published, you can follow me here.

What It’s Like to Use the Globetrotter Network for the First Time: Q23 Bangkok

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter Two: Q23-Bangkok, Thailand

On the pleasures of living out of a bag, trusting your commitment to BJJ and overcoming the fear to drop-in to another academy.

This is Chapter 2 of what I’m calling the Expat Files. If you want to know more about what this project is, you can read more about it in the first article here.

There’s a specific joy that comes with living out of a bag that’s small enough to be your carry-on. You feel like you’ve stripped down to your most basic essentials. Sadly, my bag that lasted me 10 years and 8 countries fell apart on the last day I left Korea. At the Daegu airport, I quickly found an outdoor store, and repacked my stuff. To save space, we only packed quick-dries, easy layers and, since I was still doing grad school, my laptop. For BJJ, I had decided against bringing my travel gi. All the no-gi clothing lends itself easily to hiking. I said a wistful goodbye to my favorite adventure bag and we were on our way!

After one year teaching abroad, Rachel and I were ready to slowly make our way back to the states. Our first stop was Bangkok, Thailand. We made no specific plans since we knew we would be physically and emotionally exhausted. Leaving our job as kindergarten teachers meant saying goodbye to a hundred small children screaming they loved us. Sitting at the airport, I remember reflecting on how many aspects of daily life would no longer be accessible to us. No more bathhouses, festivals about anything and everything or barbecue with unlimited side dishes (it’s just not the same anymore). My gut had grown accustomed to eating kimchi multiple times a day. Would I even have access to that in the states?

At that point I was in the habit of going to Jiu Jitsu three times a week. Would that be another thing that disappeared from my life like random street protests and little kids treating me like a jungle gym?  Not wanting to lose my momentum, I looked up places on the BJJ Globetrotters facebook group. The recommendations brought me to Adam Shahir Kayoom’s gym, Q23. While I was excited to go, I was definitely unsure about what it would be like to visit someone else’s gym. It took me almost 15 years from hearing about BJJ to finally go to a class and now I was just going to waltz into someone else’s club like it was no big deal. Despite my hesitations, something inside compelled me to go through with it.

Bangkok was so different from where we had taught. It’s a mixture between modern developed Asia with skyscrapers and public transport, but with the rustic vibe that comes with motorcycle taxis and floating markets. Getting inside from the noisy street felt like entering an airlock. The gym was on the fifth floor of a pretty ritzy looking hotel. High ceilings, floral patterns, saunas and people wearing tennis whites. It seemed like a country club until I found a door with the logo on it. Q23 operated in a small room and it reminded me of what I had at Ulsan Fight Gym. To date, it’s the fanciest setting I’ve seen for a BJJ gym but the room itself reminded me of what I had in Ulsan.

Adam was a nice guy as he registered me for the class and gave me the rental gi. I remember being fascinated by their routine. Like most gyms, they had some warm up movement drills. But they did partner shrimping and reverse shrimping through people’s legs which actually gave me more context for that specific movement. To this day, I enjoy showing that to new white belts who seem like they’re struggling to get movement right.

“Okay, let’s do some live rolling (Jits speak for sparring).” As soon as Adam said that,  everyone went to the wall to grab tennis balls. From there, they rolled while holding them in their hands. I watched from the sidelines since I was asked not to spar. If you don’t know Jiu-Jitsu, grips are extremely important. The gis we wear feel like bathrobes because you are allowed to grab the fabric. Holding tennis balls means focusing more on using your legs. Four years later, I have yet to try that. It’s always cool to see a gym do something unique. 

Unlike Ulsan Fight Gym, most people at Q23 were expats so Adam taught in English. It felt so strange to be in BJJ class and be able to understand everything.  Not just for the  lesson, but also the small talk. For context, all the international friends we made in Korea had the same experience:

  • We tuned out the conversations around us since we couldn’t understand them. 
  • We stopped whispering since we assumed most people couldn’t understand us. (It’s a dangerous assumption. Rachel and I got into some pretty embarrassing situations. We definitely had some Korean folks chime in on some very intimate conversations around our sex life…). 

The result is that when you return to the states, people think you speak way too loudly and you find the conversations around you incredibly distracting. The class at Q23 had both problems. I am positive they spoke at a normal volume, but to me it felt like I could hear every word in every sentence in every side conversation.  

Despite not getting to do everything, I had a great time. I was also proud of myself for getting to the class. My biggest worry with leaving Korea was that I wouldn’t keep training. Now I knew BJJ would be at least one thing that I wasn’t leaving behind. 

After the class, a few of us were chilling with Adam. We all laughed as he told us his daughter was getting into trouble in school for putting boys into submission holds. “They keep messing with her! I also keep on telling her that it’s going to make boys feel uncomfortable if you make it look that easy. I’m probably just encouraging her.” 

Except for Ho Chun and a few others, I had never really chatted with someone in a Jiu Jitsu gym. I also never worried about personality clashes since those only occur when you have the ability to communicate. Nobody I was friends with did BJJ and I didn’t know if I could make friends with someone who did. As a visitor, I didn’t know if people would be okay with me being at their gym or perceive it as a dojo storm. But everyone at Q23 was nice, and welcoming. I could see myself hanging out with them. 

I remember this British dude being my training partner. He offered  me a ride back to my hotel. He had been living in Bangkok for ten years, was married to a Thai woman and first came to teach English before moving on to doing some business distribution thing. Before doing BJJ, he trained some Muay Thai but found everyone too aggressive. He felt like Jiu Jistu was more welcoming. I had just met this guy, was in his car, drinking a coffee that he had just bought me. I had to agree that the folks who do BJJ are my kind of people.

Getting a ride, shooting the shit with the instructor and swapping BJJ stories would come in many more gyms. At each one, I imagined what it would like to stay and make it my permanent academy. What if I became a mainstay instead of a blip on the radar? What if I were there for birthdays, tournament wins and holidays? It’s not that hard to imagine that as a possibility. Later in the states, my strategy for finding friends would be joining a Jiu Jitsu gym. It has definitely paid off, but that’s for a later chapter. 

 

The Dust Mop takeaway: 

There’s a unique kind of insecurity that comes with starting Jiu Jitsu. People get instantly hooked. You might know you want to train forever, but you can’t ensure that you will be there one year later. Life and work might get in the way. But at some point, you do something that gives you evidence that you’ll be in this for the long haul. For me, I knew that getting my ass to a lesson in the first week post Korea was proof that I would continue on. Going to Q23 was proof. It was not a passing fad. I had gone out of my way, on a vacation, to train jiu jitsu. From then on, I was able to trust my own commitment.

This was also the first time I dropped into another community’s gym. Before starting BJJ in Korea, I had been scared to walk into a studio. After Korea, I was intimidated to step into somebody else’s. But since visiting Q23, I no longer have that fear. Instead, I had the feeling that these were all people I would want to know better if I had more time. I knew dropping into gyms was going to be a staple of my jiu jitsu journey as long as I train.

My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected]

If you want to read my articles as soon as they’re published, you can follow me here.

Featured affiliated academy: Tórshavn BJJ, Faroe Islands

BJJ Faroe Islands

Where is the gym located?
The gym is located in Tórshavn, the capital city of the Faroe Islands.

How many people train there?
We currently have approximately thirty members.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Yes, the gym is growing but not in a linear way. Throughout the year, we grow by a small handful of people while some existing members might pause or cancel their memberships. All in all, we have a strong core community while membership ebbs and flows in a positive direction.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
We have one purple belt, seven blue belts, and the rest are white.

When did the gym open?
In the summer of 2015.

Some facts about you:

Name: Luis Antonio Pellecer Jr.
Age: 38
Academy: Tórshavn BJJ, Faroe Islands
Belt: Purple
Profession: Sales/Service Management & Landscaping
Years in BJJ: 14
Other martial arts: Muay Thai/Boxing
Currently living in: Iceland
Originally from: Michigan, USA

Please tell us the story of how the gym came into existence
I moved to the Faroe Islands as an early blue belt and quickly realized no one was training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. With no one to train with, I resorted to tying a gi onto a pillow and practicing guard work, but this style of training obviously got old quickly. I decided to begin advertising some BJJ 101 classes, and with the help of a local gym and the local judo club, Tórshavn BJJ was born.

Tell us about the people that train in Tórshavn BJJ, Faroe Islands – who are they?
Our club is made up of people from all walks of life, from teenagers who want to build their self-esteem to adults in their 50s who want to work on fitness, flexibility, and self-defense.

Why do they train?
I can confidently say the primary reasons our members train are: self-defense, mental health, and community. BJJ is world-famous for its practicality and efficiency for self-defense, but something the BJJ community had known for a long time is how it can play a transformative role with mental health. We have members who discovered BJJ to be therapeutic for their anxiety, depression, ADD/ADHD, and PTSD. Whether it stems from the discipline, fitness, confidence, community, or some combination of these factors, our members have found BJJ positively impacts their lives in various areas of life.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Of course there are the practical challenges of running this sort of operation e.g. finding a system to handle membership fees, creating and adjusting the training schedule to fit most people’s needs, etc. However, the biggest challenge for our club has been breaking through social preconceptions of which sports are appropriate/acceptable and which are not. The Faroe Islands is a fantastic place for many reasons, but it has been isolated from the outside world until relatively recently. So when locals see adults rolling around on the floor in compromising positions, self-defense and fitness are not the first things to pop in their heads. This matter is combined with the fact that the Faroes are heavily invested, socially and financially, in their most popular sports, namely Football and Handball. So yeah, it has been a slow process for us, but we are making progress with gaining headspace in Faroese sports consciousness.

How do you see the future for BJJ, Faroe Islands?
In the near future, we hope to get recognition by the Faroese Sports Authority which would provide our club, and the sport throughout the country, with funds and greater legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

What’s the best thing about the gym?
The best thing about our gym is the community of kind people who are always willing and ready to choke out a friend in need.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of Tórshavn BJJ, Faroe Islands?
We have some wild and magnificent nature in the Faroes, so I would recommend renting a car and spending a couple days exploring the beautiful fjords, waterfalls, mountain hikes, and ocean views. But make sure to leave time & room for the local food, especially the fermented meat! Oh, and also important, book your hotel & restaurant reservations MONTHS in advance if possible. This is a tiny country, so things fill-up quickly, especially during tourist season. Either way, enjoy!

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Tórshavn BJJ, Faroe Islands you can find them here.

Featured traveller: Volkert Doop – BJJ Globetrotters

Volkert Doop – BJJ Globetrotters Camp in Faroe Islands

Age: 39

Belt: White

Profession: Project Manager

How many years in BJJ: Almost three years

Other martial arts: Four classes of Myanmar Lethwei boxing back in 2017

Where do you live: The Hague, Netherlands

Where are you from: The Hague, Netherlands

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: This year I fought my first two competitions.

Volkert Doop - BJJ Globetrotters

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
After starting to train BJJ in January 2020, I immediately found BJJ Globetrotters online, and I felt that this could be my thing. Travelling and learning how to shoulder roll and perhaps even some arm bars while traveling to locations I’d never been to, sounded way too exciting. That month I immediately booked the Arizona camp for March 2020 and the following Zen camp.

As we all know, 2020 was a tough time for travel-hungry pajama-fighters and the Arizona camp was off. I had a tough time getting through those first few lockdowns. I had no idea about basic techniques, and suddenly I wondered if this was the right thing to have invested my money in and committed my time to. Though during the following Zen camp I realized how I was going to try and progress through Jiu Jitsu: slowly and steadily, while enjoying the scenery.

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
This year my calendar bulged with travel. I had my third (Iceland), fourth (Faroe Islands), and soon my fifth camp (Zen). I travelled a couple of weekends to Rome, Berlin (shout out to Jack!), Switzerland, and the UK. And work travel to Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and Ethiopia.

In November I plan on travelling to Goma, DRC. There is no BJJ there, but the local boxing champ invited me into his gym. Apparently also some Congolese judo guys have volunteered to teach me some takedowns.

Volkert Doop – BJJ Globetrotters

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been fascinated about languages, cultures, and travelling. Now I’ve visited more than 60 countries and have lived in more than half a dozen. Many of the places I visited and lived in were touched by violent conflict or raw dictatorships. I managed to visit Syria just before the war started there in 2011, and I lived in Sudan, Central African Republic and Congo, and visited places like South Sudan and Myanmar. Every place I visit provokes these questions about where I come from and how the world is organized. Wherever I travel, I try to experience a part of daily normal life, because even though the political situation can be chaotic, there is always some normality to be found which helps to bridge the gap between me as a visitor and me as a part of society.

Although I had never trained any martial arts, in many places I’ve experienced it as part of the local culture. Just like the Netherlands is known for its kickboxing, in Sudan there is a lively Nuba wrestling culture and there I attended some matches. In Kinshasa, I saw teenagers training boxing in the early morning on the streets. So when I visited Myanmar, this led me to also take up some classes of Lethwei boxing. Without being able to understand a single spoken word, I trained along and I got a sense of the kind of discipline it would take to become any good at that sport.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Whenever I now travel, I try to find a local gym. Since I travel to rather far-flung places, this isn’t always easy. Though this July when I was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I found KAO BJJ, the only place to train Jiu Jitsu in Ethiopia. Being able to just join in and feeling the same excitement as in other classes at home or at the camps is so rewarding. The familiarity of Jiu Jitsu, while being far away from home, is perhaps for me one of the great things about travelling and Jiu Jitsu. And afterwards we could just sit down, break down sparring sessions, talk upcoming matches and just general weird Jiu Jitsu stuff over Ethiopian beer and Italian pizza.

Also having been part of the first Faroe Islands camp was a great experience. Not only were we, as humble visitors, excited, but the genuine excitement of the local BJJ community was palpable. I guess there is something about the traveling Jiu Jitsu community which doesn’t only make traveling exciting for the visitor, but also for the host.

Exchanging techniques from home and blending in those from abroad… for me it connects me both to my roots, where I come from, as well as to the town, the country, and the people that I’m visiting.

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
Last month, when visiting a friend in Woking, UK, I walked into the local gym. To my surprise, fellow Globetrotter Seb opened the door! Is it that the world has gotten very small, or is it that BJJ Globetrotters has gotten very big?!

Volkert Doop – BJJ Globetrotters

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
My best advice is to make a lot of friends. Both at the camps, but also wherever else you can. It has allowed me to visit so many places I otherwise would have never been able to visit. And of course, I try to pay it forward. So please come and visit me in The Hague!

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Follow your curiosity and don’t hesitate to reach out to any local gyms. So far I’ve only had good experiences.

And if you happen to visit gyms which have difficult access to BJJ materials, bring them with you! In Ethiopia for the new students, they really had a tough time getting enough training materials: gis, white belts (the pieces of fabric), and higher belts (the persons).

Thank you to Volkert Doop – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Starting Jiu Jitsu as an Expat in South Korea

Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu: The Expat Files: Chapter One: Ulsan Fight Gym-Ulsan, South Korea

-On getting better each day, hacks for remembering Korean names and staying calm while being choked.

What is this project?

At current count, I have done at least one lesson at thirty separate Jiu Jitsu studios. In 2018, I started BJJ in South Korea and moved to Burlington, Vermont. The pandemic brought me to the Berkshires (western Massachusetts) and then, in september 2021, to Amherst (same state but more East). Throughout my journey, I’ve tried to keep up with going to class at least three times a week. If I found myself out of those four locations, I went to lessons wherever I could find them. Visiting family in Nebraska, attending academic residencies and visiting potential universities with my wife gave me the opportunity to see Jiu Jitsu in multiple states, countries and continents. 

Partially because of all the moving, I’m still a white belt. I’ve been trying to make sense of all the time I’ve dedicated to my sport. I’ve gained so much with regard to physical health, confidence and social connections. Yet I keep focusing on the Blue Belt that has continued to elude me. People love to say that Jiu Jitsu is great for keeping your ego low, but I have to admit that I get uncomfortable when people ask me what belt I am. After four years, it can sometimes feel embarrassing to say white. 

If you stick around at one gym, my assumption is that eventually you will get a Blue Belt. The gyms I’ve been to don’t want to give one to a guy who’s only been around a few months. They want to be able to take stock in your progress and see your journey. That leads me to this project. I need to take it upon myself to reflect on that journey rather than waiting for someone else to do it for me. Without the promise of a belt, I’ve had to find more subtle ways to mark moments of growth.

The name “Dust Mop Jiu Jitsu” represents my belief that I’ve taken crumbs from everywhere I’ve been. I’ve told myself that seeing all of these gyms has been good for my Jiu Jitsu. But I haven’t really taken the time to reflect on how attending classes while globetrotting has actually helped me. I can’t claim to remember everything I learned from each place. That’s why I feel like a dust mop as opposed to a sponge. But my thought is that, through writing, I will be able to remember at least one way that each gym has contributed to my BJJ repertoire in the form of a technique, a life lesson or an interesting story. 

This blog is dedicated to the coaches and students who I’ve learned with along the way. You’ve influenced me more than you can know. 

This is the first chapter of what I’m calling the Expat Files. It starts when I was living abroad until I found a permanent gym in the states.

I began my Jiu Jitsu journey in Ulsan, South Korea. Growing up I had always loved Martial Arts. As a kid, I did Karate and watched every Jackie Chan movie. I quit by sixth grade and rediscovered my interest in my teens. My older brother got really into watching Bruce Lee movies and we would break things around the house trying to recreate our favorite scenes from Drunken Master. 

Arthur, a highschool buddy of mine, got jazzed into it too after I introduced him to Human Weapon. We roped in our friend Rae’e and would practice sparring in my parents house or outside the cafeteria at school. Looking back, we must have looked like absolute jackasses trying to pull off flowery kicks on each other. 

Arthur heard that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was this mysterious art where a little guy could beat a bigger person. He ended up trying Jiu Jitsu in college for a year but I was too intimidated. Ten years passed by and I pulled every excuse in the book not to try it out. I told myself that I was too tired after work, too out of shape to start and not aggressive enough to make it my hobby.  It didn’t help that Arthur, forever a gym rat and always in way better shape, had made his practices in college sound like the most intense workouts he’s ever done. There was even a gym around the corner from my house near Boston and instead of going to it I waited until I was halfway around the world to give grappling a shot.

I know I’m not alone in starting later than I wanted. Almost every BJJ practitioner I know delayed starting because they weren’t strong/fast/good enough to start. Those same people always wish they had gotten over that and started earlier.

I moved to South Korea in the fall of 2017 to be an English teacher. After being there a few months, my girlfriend (now my wife) Rachel, asked if I wanted to try Taekwondo. “It’s the national sport after all” she said, “we might as well try it.” I hadn’t done a martial art since Karate in elementary school. But doing kicks with a few Korean teenagers and some extremely awkward expats made me realize that it was BJJ that was calling my name. 

I was thinking of sticking with Taekwondo and maybe trying BJJ once I felt strong enough. That’s a moving goal post. I still hear this all the time from friends that are flirting with joining. “I’m getting stronger, I think I’ll do it once I feel ready.”. Every BJJ practitioner I know thought they weren’t strong/fast/good enough to start. They all wish they had started earlier and gotten over those fears sooner. One Chewjitsu video in particular helped me realize that I would never be ready, but I would kick myself for hesitating once I started. On facebook, I found the closest academy which turned out to be Ulsan Fight Gym.

The first lesson, Jang Jiwoon, the instructor took me aside and gave me a brief intro. Jiwoon’s English was good but the class was entirely taught in Korean (which I don’t speak). We then started the class with shrimping (which I couldn’t figure out), reverse shrimping (which I couldn’t figure out) and the move of the day. My first ever technical lesson in Jiu Jitsu was the Kimura from a closed guard (which I couldn’t figure out). At the end of fifty minutes, they always did five minute rounds for half an hour. I didn’t expect my instructor to allow me to spar on the first day. I shakily walked over to a nice dude with glasses and a bowl cut who smiled and gestured for me to sit down. I panicked and bucked around. I somehow got the Kimura and my first ever tap. From that moment, I was hooked. That night, I lay awake in bed and I couldn’t sleep. It felt the same as when you start dating someone and you think it might be true love.

I started with two days of training a week and did my damndest to make it three. I already fantasized about doing it all day every day. Only problem was, I couldn’t always understand the lessons. Almost all of them were in Korean. The instructor spoke English but I couldn’t make him give me private directions each time. 

The people in the gym were always nice to me. But it was mostly an athletic experience and not a social one. Most South Koreans learn English in school. At the same time, most in my city didn’t really feel comfortable speaking it. There’s an interesting dynamic at play. If you look at test scores, South Koreans have really high grades in English but don’t really need it to have a stable career. It’s like learning advanced math in school and realizing that you’ll never use it beyond your college exams. Asking someone there to speak English is like asking an American to do calculus on the spot. The exception was Ho Chun (red rash guard above), who quickly became my favorite training partner since he loved to make crazy inappropriate jokes in English all the time. With that language barrier, most of my friends that year were American, French, Italian, British and South African. I think Ho Chun was the closest thing I made to a Korean friend. 

Of course there were other characters that I grew to love at the gym. The two teenagers on the right of the picture would always chase each other around like dragon flies trying to mate. The kids were really fun and would always pull out their best English with me. One heavyset blue belt would practice shadow boxing with one of those low-oxygen masks and collapse in a puddle in the corner before practice. This old truck driver would try to snap my achilles in half and laugh hysterically whenever I tapped to the pain. Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t like that last guy too much. 

Part of the obstacle to getting close to people is also the Korean names. Every Korean name, without exaggeration, has three syllables. The first one is the family name, and then the personal name i.e. Kim (family) Jong Un (given name). That makes it really hard to distinguish people’s names from each other. Remembering names is a prerequisite for friendship in my book

Another peculiar thing is that it’s common for Koreans to pick English names in elementary school and stick with them throughout their education and sometimes their career. I did that in the states in Spanish class but only for the first year (for the record, in sixth grade, I went by Alfredo). There, they did that much earlier, used them for longer, and it seemed like a bigger part of their academic identity. Sandra, a Korean teacher at the school, and I had a conversation about that naming process. I noticed all of the kids call her Sandra, even when they are speaking Korean.

Me: How did you come by the name Sandra? Did you choose it?

Sandra: Actually I changed it in middle school. I started with the name Monica at age five. My parents picked that name. But as more kids started to learn more English, they made fun of me by calling me Harmonica. So I made the decision to change it to Sandra. 

I saw a huge variety in these chosen English names. It was only two years post Frozen so there were a lot of Elsa and Anna’s. There were plenty of biblical names like Daniel and Isaac. Some parents opted for using the Korean names (like one of my favorite kids, Ju-Ha). But sometimes parents let the kids pick their own names and the results could be pretty entertaining. The following are a list of names that I, or my coworkers, actually taught:

  • Pikachu
  • Black Joe (Named after a candy bar)
  • ABC
  • Dragon
  • Luigi
  • King’s Guys

It bothered me, however, that I could not remember Korean names. I pride myself on being able to remember names no matter the culture, so I found a good work around. My BJJ coach explained that all I had to do was remember if people were older than me or younger. Apparently it’s totally acceptable to just call somebody by their age honorific. It’s a pretty simple system.

 

Are they… Call them: Translation
Younger? Dong-Sang Younger Sibling
Much younger (boy)? Alla Not sure, never looked it up
Same age? Chingu Friend
Older (man)? Hyun Older Brother
Older (woman)? Noona Aunt
Much older (man)? Appa Uncle
Much older (woman)? Ajima Old lady/bag/bat. Actually, don’t call them that…But that’s kind of what it means

 

Still, even if I was getting a handle on addressing people. I was clearly missing key concepts since all the instructions were in Hangul. To learn more, I started finding as much content online to help explain the fundamental concepts. Joe Rogan, Sam Harris, Jocko Willink, Nick “Chewy” Albin, Stephan Kesting, Rokas “Martial Arts Journey” Leo and Budo Jake became my English speaking mentors. I started to understand more and got fascinated by the principles that were so critical in the sport. I watched a Rolled-Up episode with Jeff Glover that helped me do a mounted triangle for the first time. “Remember guys, it’s not called a tri-in-front-of-the-guy-choke, it’s a tri-angle choke, you gotta pivot.” Those little details helped me learn how to survive.

Like most over-excited newcomers I got a few injuries. I bruised a rib and did something weird to my elbow. It forced me to pull out of what would have been my first competition. I still went, watched, and wondered if I would ever get the opportunity to compete. The thought both exhilarated and terrified me. I’m not a very competitive or aggressive person, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. It would be another year until that happened.

 In hindsight, it’s a good thing I pulled out of that competition. I had started intermittent fasting and was losing weight rapidly. Being an American, I never really got a handle on Kilos as a measurement so I was not sure if I had given an accurate number for a weight class. But I know I lost 15 pounds easily. It was not just the IF that did it. I’ve never considered myself fat but I never had that much control when it comes to food either. Early on I learned that BJJ makes you crazy nauseous if you eat right before coming to class. I remember wanting to puke my second lesson. I ate an hour before the class because I didn’t want to train hungry. But I learned to make a buffer of two hours between meals and rolling. Additionally, I started to avoid sugar on days I attended class. Because of this, I remember turning down a free donut before heading to UFG and thinking that I had never in my life refused a pastry. The pictures below will show what I looked life before and after I started doing BJJ. 


In July, our contract with the school was almost up. Rachel asked me what I wanted to do when we eventually returned to the states. Before getting to Korea I was actually pretty lost in my life. I worked in outdoor education for a while and got tired of that. I had earnestly looked into becoming a Rabbi but ended up deciding that it wouldn’t be a good fit for me. A few weeks after starting BJJ, I started a masters in Mental Health Counseling but didn’t have a plan for anything related to work. I also didn’t know if I wanted to be a therapist or just enjoyed learning about the concepts. All I knew for sure was that I wanted to continue doing Jiu Jitsu. After all, this felt like the best therapy I had ever received.

It’s the tap that really makes Jiu Jitsu special. In outdoor education we talk a lot about trust building. Mostly we do that through climbing and belaying and learning to trust. But I felt that getting submitted is what really builds the most amount of trust in any sport I’ve ever done. When you tap to a choke, you are communicating clearly that if you keep going, I will die. The fact that you let go instantly builds a feeling of safety that I had never experienced prior. 

My first week, I remember how quickly I would tap as soon as somebody put their arm around my neck. But after a few weeks, I would start to notice I was still breathing. Just because the arm is there, doesn’t mean they have me. I don’t need to panic. I have options. That realization has carried me in stressful moments outside the sport.

At Ulsan Fight Gym, they did skill demonstrations for their stripes. I prepared with a wiry Korean dude who went by the English name Adam. I worked hard and got my stripe but honestly what I’ll always remember from that night was waiting for everyone to be done. This older dude, Jae-Min, tapped me on the shoulder and said, “This very boring!” We both burst out laughing. 

After four months of training at UFG, I was about to hit the road. Schools in South Korea usually give you a finishing bonus when your contract is over. Most people take that money and travel a little bit before returning home. That was our plan. We wanted to see a little more of Asia, meet up with Rachel’s parents in Denmark, go to Spain for the Camino De Santiago and then get home in time for Rae’e’s wedding in Boston. But I wondered how I would continue my training. That’s how I discovered BJJ globetrotters. One google search of, “how do you train BJJ while traveling.” Finding the site, I was so relieved to know that I could keep my progress while training! I used their website and facebook pages to look at possibilities for learning BJJ post Korea. If you’re curious about what that was like, be sure to look out for my next article where I talk about my time in Bangkok, Thailand.

The last night I was in Korea, I went to UFG. They surprised me with a cake and said goodbye to me. Jiwoon told me how lucky I was that I would be able to meet Black Belts in the states. Ho Chun, the wonderful weirdo, bought me a bag of socks. Four years later, I think I still have two pairs. 

I still keep in touch a little bit with the gym. Whenever I compete in a tournament, I send them some pictures. Someday I hope to go back and visit. The language barrier will still be there, but at this point, I’m positive our Jiu Jitsu can do most of the talking.

 

The Dust Mop takeaway:

So what did I learn from UFG? Technically I gained a lot of movement and skill. It’s almost a cliche to say that your first few months are usually spent getting murdered by everyone in BJJ. Those first few months were all in Korea so I never really got to see the other side of the hump except for a few clunky submissions scored on people newer than me.  

I learned here the lesson that most new, not-particularly-athletic white belts need to learn. Forget about winning and losing. Take stock of what happened in the roll and let yourself know at least one thing that went well. I would do this by telling myself:

 “I know I did something right because I got back to my guard” 

“I know I did something right because  he had his arms around my neck and I didn’t give up.”

“I know I did something right because he worked harder than he normally does.”

You gotta take the perspective that you are getting a little better each day.

My goal is to visit 100 gyms! If you ever want me to visit yours and write about what it’s like to learn from you, feel free to reach out at [email protected]

 

Featured affiliated academy: Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ

Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ

Where is the gym located?
Devonport, Tasmania (Australia)

How many people train there?
All up about 20 people.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
We’ve only just opened and are still getting set up, but yes we have doubled our members in a month.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
Highest grade is brown belt – that’s me and I am coaching. We have lots of new white belts which is great to help the sport grow!

When did Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ open?
We opened on the 1st August 2022. At the moment our space is pretty sparse, however in a fortnight we have new carpet coming, new vinyl cover for the mats, and we’ll finish painting.

Some facts about you:

Name: Matt Hull-Styles
Age: 42
Belt: Brown belt
Profession: Academic/University tutor
Years in BJJ: 15
Other martial arts: Luta Livre
Currently living in: Ulverstone, Tasmania
Originally from: I was born in New South Wales in Australia and moved to Queensland and lived there for over 20 years.

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
I was training at another gym for a few months, but took a short break due to Covid concerns as my kids have compromised immune systems. In the downtime I started to realise there were some things at the gym I was previously at that didn’t sit well with me from a coaching and leadership methodology perspective. Soon after, some local guys I had met at open mats and casual classes contacted me to come and do some training. We hit it off and I began rolling regularly with them at their shed before it was suggested I start coaching some regular sessions. After doing this for a few months and having some new people join in, we realised we had something special going on and wanted to expand. We managed to secure a nice big space close by and are in the process of fitting it out, but have been training and welcoming new people in the meantime.

Tell us about the people that train in Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ – who are they?
We have a great variety of people already. Some young crew, a few a bit older like me or close to it, some relatively experienced with a few years of training, and others who are brand new. Men and women, mums and dads. Each person comes from a different walk of life and brings a unique background to training which I try to incorporate into how I coach them.

Why do they train?
Many of the students are fans of the new wave of nogi competition as well as MMA, and so it is a logical progression to seek out training. Others are keen for the challenge that martial arts creates and understand that grappling is a highly effective art for self defence as well as fairly safe due to the lack of repeated concussions that can accumulate when training in the striking arts for a long period of time.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
The main challenge for me is structuring classes that are engaging yet practical and build all the necessary fundamentals without being boring! Other than that other challenges are balancing the task of building a new business with my work and family responsibilities. Also, ensuring my way of doing business is community minded and ethical is also really important and needs constant attention. Keeping costs low for my students whilst trying to fit out the place on a limited budget is also challenging.

Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
There are already some other gyms around with their own flavour. I think different and new coaching approaches and gym cultures offer healthy alternatives to people looking to start BJJ, or who need a change from the gym they are in, so hopefully I can be a part of a trend that focuses on quality coaching and great gym culture.

What’s the best thing about your Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ?
The welcoming atmosphere and attention to detail! Lazy coaching is disrespectful and so is an uninviting vibe. From the outset I wanted to run a progressive and inclusive gym. I’ve been around enough to know the atmosphere I want to train and coach in and produce new students from. Racists, homophobes etc can go find somewhere else to train. We invest in people first.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
Tasmania is a gorgeous place!!!! I have only been here a year but the beaches are amazing, the numerous rivers and lakes are beautiful, Cradle Mountain is breathtaking, and the forests and natural landscapes are world class.

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Bushido Flow Grappling Arts, Tasmania BJJ, you can find them here.

Training Report: Black House Jiu-Jitsu (Miami Beach, FL, USA)

Hello, everyone. I am back! After a long break due to COVID-19, I finally had a chance to travel again. I felt rather strange visiting a new gym in a new city after quarantining in my tiny NYC apartment for so long. At the same time, I could not be more excited to start an adventure of training around the world. Although this short trip to Miami was filled with my friend’s bachelor party activities, I was able to sneak out and had an opportunity to train at Black House Jiu-Jitsu in Miami Beach.

Please don’t forget to follow me on Instagram for recent updates: @jwwseo

City
Miami Beach is a south Florida island city connected by bridges to mainland Miami. When you imagine Miami, the first thing that may come to your mind is the beach that runs mile after mile filled with golden sands and sun-seeking tourists. On top of that, countless bars and energetic nightclubs that stay up all night do not let down its well-deserved reputation as one of the country’s top nightlife cities. However, that’s not all that Miami can offer. More laid-back visitors can relax in Lummus Park which can give you a taste of the Miami vibe and stroll through the Art Deco District to enjoy the eye-catching Art Deco skyline.

Overview
Black House Jiu-Jitsu in Miami Beach is headed by Will Abreu who is a black belt under Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu. Professor Abreu is a former folk-style, freestyle, and Greco-Roman wrestler who successfully transitioned to BJJ earning IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championship titles. Born and raised in Miami, Professor Abreu is looking to encourage next-generation athletes from the area to learn how to be disciplined whiling focusing and pursuing their goals through martial arts. He is successfully supporting them by providing necessary guidance and creating an environment for the local athletes. The academy is currently partnered with Miami Martial Arts and the City of Miami Beach to provide Jiu-Jitsu to the local community.

When I reached out via social media, Professor Abreu kindly invited me to train at his academy. 3 hours after my flight landed in Miami on a Thursday evening, I headed to Black House Jiu-Jitsu in Miami Beach. I was not familiar with the area, but it was not too challenging to find an academy since I ran into Troy who was wearing a “Mexican Ground Karate” rashguard who kindly led me to the academy.

When I arrived, Professor Abreu was already running the Kids Jiu-Jitsu class, but he welcomed me to his academy. The mat was fully occupied with energetic kids while adults were gearing up for the next class. The general atmosphere at Black House was welcoming and friendly, and the detailed instructions on dogfight positions and half-guard sweep variations were on point during the visit. Students in the academy vary in age from high school teenagers to dads with superpowers, but the level of energy was quite notable. In addition, I can only guess that it is due to Professor Abreu’s background and influence that students love to scramble and wrestle during the roll. Anyway, I cannot deny that, with high-level Jiu-Jitsu, it was not an easy training session at Black House, especially before my friend’s bachelor party.

With its family-like atmosphere and outstanding instructions, I would highly recommend dropping by Black House Jiu-Jitsu among countless BJJ academies that are based in Miami. When you are in Miami, it is likely that you want to enjoy the beach and/or go out to party. However, I wouldn’t want to miss out on training and rolling at Black House if I were you. Thank you, Professor Abreu, Troy, Austin, and the rest of the Black House family! I will be back.

Location
Although Google Maps show the current location as 7140 Abbott Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33141, United States, classes are held in North Shore Park & Youth Center (501 72nd St, Miami Beach, FL 33141), which is conveniently located across the street. (Google Maps: Link). The academy also has classes in Flamingo Park, which is located at 1200 Meridian Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139 (Google Maps: Link)

Schedule
Black House Jiu-Jitsu offers classes from Monday to Saturday in the mornings and evenings. The academy’s most recent schedule for each location is posted below:

Website
Black House Jiu-Jitsu

Visitor Pass
The academy welcomes all visitors from any affiliations, and the drop-in fee is $20. Just a reminder: It is always courteous to reach out to the gym before your visit!

Pictures from Miami

Featured traveller: James Woodard – BJJ Globetrotters

James Woodard - BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 51

Belt: Blue

Profession: High school film/media and history teacher

How many years in BJJ: 7 years

Other martial arts: Judo for 20 years (nidan); Toyama and Shinkage Ryu kenjutsu; Danzan Ryu jujutsu for 8 years

Where do you live: Penang, Malaysia, currently training at FLOW BJJ Academy, Penang.

Where are you from: Iowa, United States

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I am an avid diver who enjoyed dry suit diving at Thingvellir during the first Iceland Globetrotter camp in 2017.

James Woodard – BJJ Globetrotters Camp in Heidelberg

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I started training BJJ while I was teaching In Myanmar. I had tried to train judo in Yangon, but there were arcane rules about foreigners training at the only gym in town. Somebody told me about an English lady running a BJJ gym out of her back room, so I went to check it out and was immediately introduced to BJJ Globetrotters, as the visiting coach, Brain Carlsen, was teaching some BJJ fundamentals in my friend Tammi’s apartment. I ended up hosting a couple different visiting coaches who passed through Yangon.

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
I had planned on attending the Heidelberg camp in 2020, but then everything went sideways. So I was very happy to come to Heidelberg for the 2022 summer camp. I spent the month travelling around Germany while researching for a history project based in the Baltic.

James Woodard – BJJ Globetrotters camp in Heidelberg

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
Meeting new people and having at least one good story by the end of the experience.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
I moved to Penang in 2017, but before I moved, I packed my gi and went to Europe, spending a few weeks in Germany and England training at some places I had been recommended through the Globetrotter network, each one of them letting me train for free during my stay. I travelled to Iceland and contacted Gudmundur Gunnarson through the Globetrotter network and he offered me a place to stay and train, and I got to meet his family and learn about different places to visit in Iceland. I travelled and trained in Akureyri and at Mjölnir gym in Reykjavik, where both places let me train for free as a visitor who contacted them as a Globetrotter. Gudmundur and his wife Eydis were amazing hosts, and becoming friends with them was a highlight of my journey.
Soon after I moved to Penang, one of the Globetrotter coaches that had visited Myanmar was giving a seminar in Penang. I went to attend and learned he would be coaching at a new gym close to my home. That summer I attended my first camp in Reykjavik and was again a recipient of Gudmundur’s hospitality.

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
I have visited Mongolia a couple of times, and during my last visit was able to see a lot of traditional Mongolian wrestling in the countryside during the summer Naadaam festival. I did not do well, but it was worth the experience.

James Woodard – BJJ Globetrotters

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
I’ll be honest, the older I get, the more comfortable I like to be. That said, I am used to couch/mat-surfing, and took a tent and sleeping bag to Iceland. I try to pack a lot of quick-dry stuff that compresses easily, but also find it useful to have a warm hoodie and sturdy pants.

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Don’t let the news dictate where you should visit. There are tons of amazing experiences to be had in some pretty off-beat places.

Thank you to James Woodard – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Featured affiliated academy: Grappling Cooperative / Brighton BJJ School

Brighton BJJ

Where is the gym located?
Brighton, UK. Not to be confused with all other Brightons ;)

How many people train there?
We have about 20 people training regularly over the week, and then some people people coming from time to time. All together about 50.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Yeah, there is slow, steady growth as we are becoming more established.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
We are majority white and blue belts here, with one purple and one brown belt as well.

When did the gym open?
The beginning of April 2021 as a permanent location, but some of us have been training together as a group for a while in other locations.

Some facts about you:

Name: Tom
Age: 42
Belt: Purple
Profession: Security guard / doorman
Years in BJJ: 4.5
Other martial arts: Boxing for a few years, a little bit of Muay Thai
Currently living in: Brighton
Originally from: Poland

Grappling Cooperative / Brighton BJJ School

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
After I left my previous gym due to internal conflict, a decent group of us continued training together in hired spaces (or on the beach during the summer). At some point it became painfully obvious that we needed our own space, as we were getting tired of always working around someone else’s schedule and relying on other venues for our training. Sure it’s cheaper to rent space by the hour, but you often deal with venue owners that can be slow to respond, difficult to deal with and so on. I started looking for the place and sent an email to the owners of the building where we are now. I initially forgot about it and it turns out my email went under the radar for a bit. Three months later they responded and we started talking. Things got delayed a bit because of the pandemic and lockdowns, but we eventually got everything going.

Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We have a good mix of people – quite a few students as Brighton is a university town, but also working class folk etc. We have labourers, office workers, hospitality industry workers, we have a lifeboat operator, baker, teachers, a club DJ, a couple of social workers and a few more. Definitely a nice mix!

Why do they train?
Guess everyone is different, but we are mainly hobbyists rather than professional athletes, so people do it because they really enjoy it. Of course that doesn’t mean we don’t have some good Jiu Jitsu here amongst our club members! We have significant crossover with the local traditional Jiu Jitsu club, who initially just wanted to cross train a bit and now they enjoy BJJ on their own and form a big part of our club.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Let’s just say there are still a fair bit of BJJ politics present, which I wasn’t aware of that much when I was just a student. Also, there are a lot of gyms in this area, so it’s a pretty saturated space, which can be an issue if you are trying to run a business. Luckily for me I didn’t design this gym as a business to live off, so I don’t have as much pressure. As to general challenges – well, you have to learn a lot of stuff about admin, bureaucracy etc.

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
It’s growing and becoming more popular, and the Brighton BJJ Open tournament is quickly becoming a well-known event, so I think the future is bright.

What’s the best thing about your gym?
It’s probably a bit of a cliche, but really, it’s the people that train there. We have a good bunch here, with quite a good female representation as well, and I think we really created safe, inclusive atmosphere. We have a strong set of values that we stick to and we pay big attention to having a good, positive gym culture without any toxicity, macho bullshit, and other questionable things that are unfortunately still very present in a lot of places.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of Grappling Cooperative / Brighton BJJ School?
If you like clubbing you definitely won’t be disappointed, as Brighton is a party town. Otherwise there’s not a HUGE amount of stuff to see, but you should check out the Laines area and the seafront, and if you like nature a walk around South Downs or a trip to nearby Seven Sisters cliffs is definitely recommended.

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Grappling Cooperative / Brighton BJJ School, you can find them here.

Featured Traveller: Glenn Lambdin – BJJ Globetrotters

Glenn Lambdin - BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 65

Belt: Black

Profession: Retired building contractor

How many years in BJJ: 12

Other martial arts: Muay Thai

Where do you live: Sierra Madre, California, USA

Where are you from: Sierra Madre

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I trained Muay Thai out of the Sityodtong Camp in Thailand and fought in Thailand at 53 years old. I’m an avid surfer and live on the island of Kauai, Hawaii several months out of the year. I enjoy playing the guitar, especially playing some get-down blues. Every year, I throw a sleeping bag, a pup-tent, and a few gis on the back of my Harley Davidson and do a motorcycle/BJJ tour across the western United States (if I make a wrong turn, I stick with it to see where it takes me). 20 years ago, I was the elected Mayor of the City of Sierra Madre, California.

Glenn Lambdin – BJJ Globetrotters

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
For many years, and before I started to train BJJ, I would travel abroad to different surfing locations and pursue my passion for travel, guitar, and surfing. After starting to train BJJ as a whitebelt, and while on a surfing trip to Kauai, I dropped in at a school on the South Shore that held classes in the second story of a church in Poipu. Instantly, I was shown so much “aloha” by the locals. It started to show me how the BJJ community is actually a global community where we all enjoy sharing this amazing art. Since I live in Southern California, (and prior to the Covid restrictions) many of the IBJJF Worlds and Pan tournaments were held near my home. At times, people I met while travelling would stay at my home so they could compete in these larger tournaments. Of course, then the book “The BJJ Globetrotter” came out and really planted a seed in my brain to mix travel and BJJ. The idea that every person on the mats is a friend to be made really struck a chord in me. I’ve been addicted to traveling/training ever since.

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
After earning my blackbelt, I made the decision that while travelling on my annual motorcycle adventures, I would offer to stop and visit various academies while travelling and do seminars for free. I never charge and will not accept any payment. It’s a “pay it forward” passion that I have. I plan a route and then contact academies close to that route. I just returned from a 3-week motorcycle/BJJ trip where I stopped at several academies teaching my style of Jiu Jitsu in California, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. I try to find academies that are in smaller cities or rural communities that don’t have access to all of the blackbelts that are available in larger cities.

I’m excited to be attending the Austria Camp next month in August, and then from September 1-19, I’ll be travelling throughout Germany and am currently in the process of planning my route and am contacting different smaller academies offering to volunteer to teach a seminar at their academy. I find planning my travels, learning about the local cultures, food, and music is part of the enjoyment of the entire travel experience.

Glenn Lambdin – BJJ Globetrotters

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
I enjoy getting a sense of a local culture and the people. On some trips, I’ve taken a guitar, and although I might not be able to speak the native language, I’ve been able to play music with local musicians, using our music to communicate with one another. In some ways, it’s an intimate connection that connects people differently than words can connect them. I find a similar connection happens with Jiu Jitsu; we can communicate and connect using Jiu Jitsu as our language.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
A week ago, while on my motorcycle trip, I decided I wanted to experience “mat-surfing” from one of the hosts on the BJJ Globetrotter website. I stayed with a host that has mats spread out in his living room. After training at his regular academy, he invited a few of his teammates back to his home for additional training. After some delicious pizza and conversation, we trained until 12:30 am sharing many of our own favorite techniques. I find that the friendships and camaraderie we build in Jiu Jitsu are as much a part of the art as the techniques themselves.

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
The most surprising experience, I suppose, was getting mugged at knife-point by three guys on a beach in Rio de Janeiro. Note to myself: “be aware of your surroundings!”

Glenn Lambdin – BJJ Globetrotters

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
In many ways, I am a budget traveller. I don’t really care for large fancy hotels or pretentious locations. I prefer smaller towns and villages over large cities. I feel like I get a better sense of local culture and local flavors in smaller towns. I prefer to spend my money buying from local shops and independent businesses over corporate businesses. I will sometimes use Airbnb and will often tent-camp. I try to take the advice of the travel expert, Rick Steeves, by packing as little as absolutely necessary but always having a credit card available in order to buy my way out of any trouble that I may encounter.

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
We live on a magnificent planet with so much to see and experience. Don’t live your life so that someday you’ll regret never pursuing your passions.

To quote the marvellous Mae West: “You only have one life to live. But, if you live it right, one is all you need…”

My wish for everyone is that they live their life “right.”

Thank you Glenn Lambdin – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Featured affiliated academy: Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland

Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland

Where is the gym located?
The gym is located in Biberist, Solothurn, Switzerland. Ten minutes away from Solothurn main train station.

How many people train there?
We currently have around 10 people training.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Since the gym just opened about two months ago it’s hard to give a specific ratio. The opening was a huge success, with 40 people from different countries and cities. I’m confident that we’ll reach about 50 by the end of the year.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training in Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland?
I’m a freshly promoted brown belt, and a friend of mine, Chris Crawford, a 10th Planet brown belt from Florida, is visiting from time to time. Most of my students are white belts. Some of them used to train somewhere else until blue, then moved for work and now train with me.

When did the gym open?
April 10, 2022

Some facts about you:

Name: Aljoscha Hilse (most people in the BJJ community call me Scoobie)
Age: 36
Belt: Brown
Profession: Self-employed my whole life – teaching Jiu Jitsu, having an online shop and some side hustles
Gym: Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland
Years in BJJ: 6
Other martial arts: Did Muay Thai and kickboxing for about 8 years, and a little bit of MMA. Also Karate, Judo, and Kung Fu as a kid (doesn´t count)
Currently living in: Currently living in Freiburg, Germany, but I plan to move to Switzerland this year.
Originally from: I was born and raised in Cologne, Germany. My dad was British but I grew up mostly alone with my Mum.

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
I’ve wanted to open my own gym for a long time. I started jumping in for my coaches and teaching quite early, and always enjoyed it very much. In 2020 I started to look around for a good place. Through friends of mine and my partner in Switzerland, I came across the object by chance. I live right on the border and Biberist is only 1.5 h away from my home. My girlfriend and I wanted to move anyway, and it was just perfect.

Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
So far our small group has been quite mixed. Most of them train for fun and are hobby athletes. Some have previous experience, some just want to get fit, and others want to defend themselves. But everyone knew what BJJ was and had seen it before and already had a certain picture in mind. Which is not always the case in Western Europe.

Why do they train in Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland?
Everyone is quite enthusiastic about it. They look at instructionals, ask a lot of questions, and want to develop a game. I myself regularly compete and come from a fairly competitive team. And I think that some of my new students also want to take part in competitions soon. I think they came for the usual reasons – getting fit, self-defense, and MMA – but stayed for the beauty of the game and the community.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Since I’ve always been self-employed, the business part is not particularly difficult for me. Opening a business in another country always has some new challenges, but nothing particulary tough. I am the first and only BJJ gym in the area, which can be good but also bad. I only offer BJJ (Gi and Nogi) and the entry hurdle for BJJ is generally very high compared to other martial arts. But I am confident that it will develop well.

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
Switzerland generally has a very well-developed BJJ scene. There are many black belts, many tournaments, and relatively many gyms. I think BJJ has a great future in Switzerland, also because of the very favorable economic conditions.

What’s the best thing about Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland?
Apart from me, probably the look! :) White mats.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
Switzerland is a beautiful country. There is too much stuff to name. Bern is just 30 minutes away and is a beautiful city. Zürich is about an hour away, Basel about 35 minutes, Lausanne about 1.5 h, and Geneva about 2 h. Plenty of stuff to see depending on what you enjoy more – countryside or cities. Switzerland has both. There are great gyms in Bern and Zürich too, and it’s very easy to hop from gym to gym.

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Joshimitsu BJJ, Switzerland you can find them here.

Featured traveller: Kyle MacQuilliam – BJJ Globetrotters

Kyle MacQuilliam - BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 29.99 (30 on June 24th)

Belt: I paint my toenails purple, as I am more often not wearing belts.

Profession: I am more or less unemployed, with a decent share in some local real estate, as well as stocks and cryptos that I’ve been letting accumulate. I genuinely attest my good fortune to manifestation, or for the less spiritually inclined you can just call it dumb luck.

How many years in BJJ: tl;dr 15 years no-gi / 10 years gi.

My sophomore year in high school was when I stopped playing soccer, upon realizing the necessity of faking falls and injuries to tip the odds in one’s favor. That same year my childhood TaekwonDojo started an MMA class run by the owner’s son, Michael Visitacion – at the time a BJJ blue belt, but now a black belt under Noel Smith, who is under Renato Tavares. It had the first elements of Jiu Jitsu, or any grappling for that matter, that I had experienced. I remember practicing each of the moves the next day with friends in gym class. About 4-5 years later, after doing mostly MMA, No-Gi and Muay Thai, I bought my first gi and began training more traditionally.

Other martial arts: I mentioned a childhood TaekwonDojo, but that was more my older sister Samantha’s bag. For me it was more getting the snot kicked out of me each Friday during sparring night. I still remember rotating partners and seeing that grin on her face before she would bow and punish me until I cried. Needless to say, I was not so interested in martial arts as a kid. It was actually Samantha’s death that spurred me into trying to find a healthy coping mechanism to let out my frustrations with the world.

After my initial MMA classes, I was fairly passionate about Muay Thai, as kicking felt more natural with the Taekwondo seeds planted in my youth. Still to this day I will consider myself a kicker more than a grappler, though I’m unsure how true that holds with most of the last six years being heavily Jiu Jitsu focused.

Where do you live: I live in Maryland, USA. Smack in the middle of Baltimore, Annapolis (our state capital), and DC.

Where are you from: I have been living more or less in the same area my entire life, surprisingly. Aside from being an expensive place to live relative to much of the country, it’s a nice enough little world with a lot to offer — but I’ve mostly stayed to have homebase near family.

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: Six years after entering UMBC for Computer Science, I left with a Bachelor’s in Philosophy with a minor in Psychology. I played rugby for all six years, starting at wing and working my way up to flanker where I was a starter during my senior years. I was always the aloof spiritual stoner guy of the team, and with my shoulder length hair my first day of practice I earned myself the nickname “Sunshyne” – a reference to Remember the Titans. I hadn’t seen the movie at the time, but after doing so loved the name and proudly accepted it; I modified the “i” to a “y” to because I am just so unique☺️

I’m still pretty close with some of my team, and play at each year’s Alumni game – except the last three due to Camp (‘21 & ‘22), and Covid (‘20) – and was MVP my last two outings. Some other awards I had earned during my years on the team were “The Grassy Knoll” award and “There in Spirit.” I juggled my martial arts with rugby pretty well, I think, and when I showed up for rugby matches I would walk around the pitch several times in a poncho, holding a runed skull in one hand and burning sage in the other. I thoroughly enjoyed painting a target on my back for the other team in exchange for their mental space.

Kyle MacQuilliam – BJJ Globetrotters

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I was fortunate enough to grow up traveling quite a bit with my family. Summers always came with in-state and out-of-state family beach trips, and in the winter we would fly to Colorado for snowboarding.

My awareness of a need for travel first reared its head in middle school, when I had to choose between Spanish or French class. French students got to take a trip to Montreal, whereas Spanish students didn’t have a trip. I now have about 7 years of French courses under my belt, but my French is still quite terriblé. After my high school graduation our family took a cruise around the Mediterranean, which expanded my horizons further and kept the itch going.

After graduating from college I took my first big solo adventure, spending two months in Koh Samui, Thailand training Muay Thai. I ended up taking a fight one of my last days there in order to pay for my rent. I got the money regardless of the outcome, but I was happy to walk away with a second round knockout against a Thai; this was definitely the early capstone to my martial arts travels.

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
Most recently myself and my fiancée, Larissa, got back from USA Camp in Maine, and a few weeks prior we were in Italy for Castle Camp, as well as an additional week in Rome. Between those camps and the two weddings before and between, it was actually a slow start to our upcoming summer plans.

Tomorrow (at the time of this writing) we leave for my current favorite place in the world – Iceland. We will be there for camp, and then another week and a half for my 30th birthday. I’m quite excited, as I even convinced my parents and my recently [high school] graduated little brother to fly in. From there we spend the next two months going to Copenhagen, then to Oslo and adventuring a bit through Norway to Bergen. We then fly to Stockholm, where we’ll stay until we fly into Estonia for Pärnu Beach Camp. Afterwards we spend two weeks in Turkey, where Larissa has family, and then we make our way back through Copenhagen and over to the Faroe Islands for our last camp of the year. Then we will mostly be home, with the exception of ADCC in September and two more weddings come Fall.

Kyle MacQuilliam – BJJ Globetrotters camp

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
I love damn near everything about traveling. The local foods are always a must, though I do tend to find a favorite place wherever I go that I will visit again and again (but not exclusively). I also enjoy learning the basics of the local language. Many people I meet traveling know more than one language quite well, but my aim is to know enough to get by everywhere around the world. I generally aim for hello, thank you, the best insults, and I love you – in no particular order.

Of course making new friends is great, especially because you never know if, when, or how these people may enter your life again down the line. This past trip to Italy, totally by “coincidence,” me and two other friends I trained with in Thailand were all in Rome at the same time – and this is just the most recent instance. You also never know whose dreams may align with yours, and making friends across the world is really a great way to both broaden the scope of one’s dreams as well as narrow in on who or what is needed to create them – though even simple, more mundane connections unrelated to your self can be quite enlightening.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Honestly this is an experience that makes it worth traveling and training. Just by doing what I have grown to love I am given an outlet to share some of my travel experiences and advice. Connecting with the world around us in all of its forms and the people within it are what we have; it’s nice to share and be heard, as well as listen and observe. This is the human experience. I’m sure just from this I’ll meet someone down the line who knows a little bit about me, and may even relate to some of my more unique experiences to which we can share a drink or a doobie over.

On the training front, you can’t get rounds in at your home gym the way you do traveling. People grow accustomed to your style, or worse – your style becomes stale and stops evolving. Somebody at your gym has to be traveling, or learning from someone somewhere else in some manner, otherwise you’re still drilling the same techniques day-in-day-out with no exposure to the ever-growing world of martial arts. “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
This is going to come off a bit corny, but how easy it is to make people smile. This is really the most surprising thing I could think of besides that one time in Thailand that I won’t mention here. It’s somehow much weirder in America, or at least in the clustered parts I am accustomed to, to be very outwardly friendly to strangers. This isn’t always the case, for sure, and there are many more variables that certainly come into play, but I’ve definitely seen how simple it is to be in another country, covered with tattoos and dressed like a total goober, and then saying “I love you” to a foreign military officer in their language and walking away. They light up with an astonished smile, it’s great every time – allegedly.

Kyle MacQuilliam – BJJ Globetrotters camp in Iceland

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
Yes and no; I generally budget, but I’m moreso into ballin’ on a budget. If I’m going to be spending money traveling the world doing martial arts I might as well get the best experiences I can within reason. I will always do at least one fancy meal, although my favorite spots tend to be the cheap ones.

I generally like to stay at places that are average in pricing, but on long travels I will go a little cheaper. It’s nice to dip into a culture and then find where their local-ish vacation spot is, and then have that be your two-night recovery time. Treating myself to a nice bed, or a spa day is essential to keep me from falling to pieces, and if done right doesn’t need to break the bank.

I do usually spend a great deal of time looking into trips before I travel. I will plan times, prices, potential sights, must-have foods; the works. It’s quite funny to me because of how loose I can be during travels, but I like to have a very precise plan to float around. This all helps me keep within that ballin’ budget, have time managed well enough to feel I immersed in the destination, and also feel free to do everything or nothing with minimal stress.

If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be?
Do the thing. A general rule of thumb I use is “Hell yes, or no.” If a potential whatever has you saying “Hell yes” in your head, heart, or otherwise – do it. You will most likely regret it if you don’t, and will learn something along the way. In the past few years I made a vow to never go back on a trip I commit to. If you get that “Hell yes”, seriously.. commit to it. I find there is usually a deeper calling in those feelings, and what good is life without living it the way your inner, truer self wishes. Those spur of the moment decisions that risk surface level “things” in exchange for happiness… always worth it.

Thank you to Kyle MacQuilliam – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Featured affiliated academy: Smash Jiu jitsu Indonesia Jakarta

Jiu jitsu Indonesia

Where is the gym located?
Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Specifically we’re in Lebak Bulus, Cilandak, South Jakarta. But we also have a few branches in other provinces (Central Java, East Java, Sumatra).

How many people train there?
For this one I can only answer for the Smash Jiu Jitsu Jakarta branch only. Due to the pandemic, many students did private classes, and for the public only a few people – like 3 or 4 max. Hopefully we will grow now that the pandemic is over.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
We’ve had a very low profile since the beginning, since we didn’t do anything in terms of promotion. We mostly did things in a very laid back way. But this year I made the decision to make our school public, and now at the start of each month we have 1 -2 new students joining in.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
Black and white belt.

When did the gym open?
2003.

Some facts about you:

Name: Andrew Stevens
Age: 36
Belt: Blue
Profession: Entrepreneur, Dive & Travel CEO, Capoeira professor & BJJ coach
Years in BJJ: 12 years
Other martial arts: Capoeira, eskrima, and urban street self-defense
Currently living in: Jakarta, Indonesia
Originally from: Jakarta, Indonesia

Smash Jiu jitsu Indonesia Jakarta

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
Well it’s not really a gym or a commercial venue – we do it our own house. In the beginning, our black belt professor returned from the US in the late 90s, and he just needed a partner to continue his own training. So he tried to look for people with the same passion, or at least have the self discipline to be taught how to do BJJ.

Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
They’re mostly teens and adults from 20 -50 years old, from various different professional backgrounds.

Why do they train in Smash Jiu jitsu Indonesia Jakarta?
Mainly for self development, self defense, and the principles of Jiu Jitsu – a philosophy that can help so many other aspects of their lives. Sometimes also for competition, if there’s interest as well.
The system/method is uncommon and unique. A lot of details in everything, which really appeals to those who like an academic and scientific approach. As a result, they can do a technique like a higher level student even though they might be beginners and that’s why some people are attracted to our school.
To be free from all types of BJJ politics, social issues, or anything else.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Maybe the challenge is I now need to learn more about BJJ as business, since I just started commercially promoting it in the past 3 months part-time.

Smash Jiu jitsu Indonesia Jakarta

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
The market is skyrocketing. It’s already booming and perhaps will grow even bigger in the future.

What’s the best thing about your gym?

  • We conduct our training in a happy, safe, communicative, and comfortable environment, because we do really care about the longevity of the practitioners.
  • We teach with simple, comprehensive methods, easy to understand and using simple, high-percentage techniques that can be done by both male and female students of all ages, body types, and physical attributes.
  • A core system that can be applied in gi or no-gi situations.
  • An aggressive style that exemplifies the fighting spirit of martial arts.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
The city, the life in Jakarta, and probably an idea to collaborate together. Since we also have a guesthouse we can basically do some semi-private seminars.

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Smash Jiu Jitsu Indonesia Jakarta, you can find them here.

Featured Traveller: Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters

Sarah Prescimone - BJJ Globetrotters

Name: Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters

Age: 31 (even though many people guess way less)

Belt: White with four stripes

Profession: Choreographer / Dancer / Performer / Model

How many years in BJJ: 3 years

Other martial arts: Had a few encounters involving shinais and gloves

Where do you live: Tilburg, the Netherlands

Where are you from: Sicily, Italy

Other fun or curious information you would like to share: When I was a student at the dance academy, my most inspirational teacher proposed an exercise: take one single step up on a bench! The duration of this one step should be 10 minutes, and throughout those 10 minutes you have to try to control every muscle in your body while gradually moving vertically up. Try to control and coordinate the step with your blinking. This exercise was bound to a Japanese practice called “Butoh”, the literal translation of which is “to step inwards or to step through”. It’s also called “the dance of utter darkness”, based on the transformational characteristics of Mind and Body.

While being in this highly concentrated condition, trying to embody the concept of “ma”, a diverse set of qualias (sensations/memories) can infiltrate you. As Rumi said, this being human is a guest house! Invite them in! While being in this transformational state, whether it be somewhere in the Arava desert in Israel or the volcanic beaches of Stromboli, I noticed how animals are particularly triggered. Dogs always start to bark or howl when a strange little creature appears…

Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters

Tell us what inspired you to travel and train?
I’ve been travelling and training dance since 2014. My first dance-related trip was near Barcelona, at Deltebre Dansa. There I found different movement methods which had a close affinity with martial arts. One of them was the practice of the “Fighting Monkey”. This practice amplified my view on manipulation, restoration, and dynamic changes of the physical body. It was a personal invitation to explore the realm of martial arts in more detail.

Since then, my curiosity towards functionality of movement through a set of playful exercises started. The possibility to discover the unknown, the irregular, and the uncomfortable expanded in both the appreciation and adaptation to a new location and its cultural patterns. In 2018, during a summer dance intensive in Portugal, I got introduced to the functional intelligence of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. After the class, I noticed a sense of bliss – as if puzzle pieces were presented to me in order to connect them within my craft of choreographing. This new and vibrant investigation began, and I decided to follow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes at Brasa team Holland in Tilburg.

After a few months of training, I noticed a colourful sticker of a van on the window. My curious mind and vagabond spirit was drawn towards it. Shortly afterwards I booked my first BJJ Globetrotters camp in Iceland 2020. There I was, in the land of fire and ice, experiencing a new landscape. From a choreographic perspective I noticed similarities bound by cultural identity and patterns of movement. Questions arose: What can I learn from my immediate surroundings? What question can be answered while moving on an irregular surface? Is rolling with an unknown person the equivalent of visiting an unknown country? What information is being shared within these interactions? This transfer of physical and cultural knowledge became addicting!

Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
At this moment in time, I’m still recovering from the wonderful Spring camp in Estonia. After losing my voice from karaoke, and the overwhelming and inspiring BJJ classes – which I hopefully captured in my notebook – I’ ve been persuaded by friends I met at the camp to join Pärnu Beach Camp and Heidelberg. I believe I need to buy a new notebook and start singing classes.

Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters Summer Camp in Heidelberg

What are the things you enjoy about travelling?
Exploring new territories, learning about the art and culture of the location, trying to pronounce very difficult words in the foreign language, food, the kindness of humanity.

Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
A recurring word of my travelling and training so far would be: connection.

It is wonderful to connect with like-minded people that practice the Gentle Art. With each and every meeting and roll, I found a mirror. I’ve learned so much in trying to pass guards, and trying to defend myself from being choked or tossed around the room. Each roll is a dialogue. I’ve noticed how the person thinks and moves through life. Reflecting and shining light on my own blind spots. The connection or disconnection which is then established on the mats, resonates further – finding similarities in interests and affinity of movement practices and life paths. Immediate bonds are created; friendships that last the test of time and distance.

A memory which just now entered my mind is an enriching experience that I had during Zen Camp in 2020. During the rush to find mushrooms in the forest next to Dojo Stara Wieś, silence and patient hit me. Instead of actively searching, I decided to step back and receive. Descending from the forest, I got some insights and created a connection. This led to me harvesting the seed for an Acro-Yoga workshop which took place at the Heidelberg camp in 2021. Unfortunately, I only found 1.5 mushrooms that day…

What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
Picture this: you’re in another country to attend a BJJ Globetrotters event. What to do in the meantime? (*Dancing brain activates*) Let’s go find a Techno Party!

After a long while waiting in the queue outside in the cold, your teeth start to chatter. Perhaps it’s a sign that I need to talk to someone…

Heyy security guard! How is the party inside? They play good music? Great! (Conversation fast forwards ->) Security guard: I am a BJJ blackbelt teaching in 5 gyms here! You are very welcome to attend a class!

Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters Zen Camp in Poland

Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
For my next trip, I’m already planning on printing a shirt that says: ‘’DON’T TRUST GOOGLE MAPS’’. It’s such a pity to be constantly looking down at your phone in order to find the way, missing out the wonderful architecture and street art which is bound to the particular location.

Instead of following the Google Maps maze and walking in circles, I prefer wandering around a city and asking locals for directions to hidden gems. Many times there are language boundaries, but with non-verbal communication and with the knowledge of a few universal gestures, you will either come a long way or get lost. I don’t mind either! There’s always something new to discover.

A cliche which I live by: focus on the journey, not the destination!

Thank you to Sarah Prescimone – BJJ Globetrotters for making this interview!

Featured affiliated academy: Grappling Cooperative / Brighton UK BJJ School

UK BJJ

Where is the gym located?
Brighton/UK. Not to be confused with all other Brightons ;)

How many people train there?
We have about 20 people training regularly over the week, and then some people people coming from time to time. All together about 50.

Is the gym growing – if so by how many new members each month or year?
Yeah, there is slow, steady growth as we are becoming more established.

What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
We are majority white and blue belts here, with one purple and one brown belt as well.

When did the gym open?
The beginning of April 2021 as a permanent location, but some of us have been training together as a group for a while in other locations.

Some facts about you:

Name: Tom
Age: 42
Belt: Purple
Profession: Security guard / doorman
Years in BJJ: 4.5
Other martial arts: Boxing for a few years, a little bit of Muay Thai
Currently living in: Brighton
Originally from: Poland

Grappling Cooperative / Brighton UK BJJ School

Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence
After I left my previous gym due to internal conflict, a decent group of us continued training together in hired spaces (or on the beach during the summer). At some point it became painfully obvious that we needed our own space, as we were getting tired of always working around someone else’s schedule and relying on other venues for our training. Sure it’s cheaper to rent space by the hour, but you often deal with venue owners that can be slow to respond, difficult to deal with and so on. I started looking for the place and sent an email to the owners of the building where we are now. I initially forgot about it and it turns out my email went under the radar for a bit. Three months later they responded and we started talking. Things got delayed a bit because of the pandemic and lockdowns, but we eventually got everything going.

Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they?
We have a good mix of people – quite a few students as Brighton is a university town, but also working class folk etc. We have labourers, office workers, hospitality industry workers, we have a lifeboat operator, baker, teachers, a club DJ, a couple of social workers and a few more. Definitely a nice mix!

Why do they train in Grappling Cooperative / Brighton UK BJJ School?
Guess everyone is different, but we are mainly hobbyists rather than professional athletes, so people do it because they really enjoy it. Of course that doesn’t mean we don’t have some good Jiu Jitsu here amongst our club members! We have significant crossover with the local traditional Jiu Jitsu club, who initially just wanted to cross train a bit and now they enjoy BJJ on their own and form a big part of our club.

What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Let’s just say there are still a fair bit of BJJ politics present, which I wasn’t aware of that much when I was just a student. Also, there are a lot of gyms in this area, so it’s a pretty saturated space, which can be an issue if you are trying to run a business. Luckily for me I didn’t design this gym as a business to live off, so I don’t have as much pressure. As to general challenges – well, you have to learn a lot of stuff about admin, bureaucracy etc.

Grappling Cooperative / Brighton UK BJJ School

How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
It’s growing and becoming more popular, and the Brighton BJJ Open tournament is quickly becoming a well-known event, so I think the future is bright.

What’s the best thing about your gym?
It’s probably a bit of a cliche, but really, it’s the people that train there. We have a good bunch here, with quite a good female representation as well, and I think we really created safe, inclusive atmosphere. We have a strong set of values that we stick to and we pay big attention to having a good, positive gym culture without any toxicity, macho bullshit, and other questionable things that are unfortunately still very present in a lot of places.

What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym?
If you like clubbing you definitely won’t be disappointed, as Brighton is a party town. Otherwise there’s not a HUGE amount of stuff to see, but you should check out the Laines area and the seafront, and if you like nature a walk around South Downs or a trip to nearby Seven Sisters cliffs is definitely recommended.

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Thanks for sharing! If you’d like to visit Grappling Cooperative / Brighton UK BJJ School, you can find them here.