The other topic got a bit long, so we'll continue it here!

PART 1: https://beltchecker.com/f[...]bcb15b9139
PART 2: https://beltchecker.com/f[...]fa5c4ca6d8

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While we wait for the site to mature and verified user base to slowly grow, let’s hear some introductions here? What’s your training / competition career been like? Would be nice to get to know the serious early adopters here a bit! :)

This is also a good opportunity to connect with people here on the site, who might take a look at your profile and chose to verify it or not. Please note, that we kindly don't allow "please verify me" topics in the forum as there will be too many of them.

Greetings from Wyoming ! My name is Jason Demelas. I was recently promoted to Black Belt by Master Ricardo Cavalcanti in Las Vegas on Aug 13 of this year.. a big positive event to happen during all of this Corona Craziness.

I started my BJJ fun back in 2004 and stayed loyal to my instructor through out my entire journey. I moved to Wyoming for work in 2012. Master Ricardo suggested that I start my own Wyoming affiliate school which we did. Everything went great for the last 2 years till Covid. We had to close the doors ... so now we train at what we call the Thunder dome, Ex ultimate fighter Noah Thomas also recently received his black belt and invited me to train with him there which is a huge shop filled with wrestling mats.

There along with Professor Justin Jacobs from Reibero we play smash smash as much as we can. We have around 10 guys that are more regular than some and we are just waiting for this covid to pass so that we can give it another go...

I’ve fought in the cage 23 times as an amateur, lost my last match, got my jaw broke and took a break.

My last tournament was Naga 2018 coming off of a few year break, I rolled off the couch, walked in with my back pack on, stood on the scales and said “ what do you got for a 220 lb rusty brown belt lol. I got paired up with now Professor Jeremy Hastings and enjoyed another loss but got to see where I was at. Lasted 2:30 seconds with that beast. Excellent player btw. Much respect.

And here I am hitting the gym harder than ever and trying to grow into my new responsibility of being a black belt under an Instructor I consider family

Looking forward to the next chapter of this beautiful sport we all love and to meeting more of you on the mats!!

Sorry that was long winded. If you have any questions please feel free to fire away.

Till next time, Jason.

Oss

I'm Sean Brandle. I've dabbled in grappling/MMA/wrestling since 1999 at Beverly Hill Jiu Jitsu which was the mecca of mma in the late 90's. I very quickly blew out my back which had me off the mats, but working stand up until 2005. I got serious about BJJ after going to the 2005 ADCC and joined Shawn Williams on his first day at Hollywood Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was there until his last day in 2009. I got my purple from Shawn in January 2009. I took another long break to get divorced, marry the love of my life and raise a family. I came back to BJJ in 2016 with renewed focus and appreciation. I'm now a brown belt under Steve Baca - an Alberto Crane black belt. I'm on the mats 3-5 days a week sometimes at 6AM. I'm 51 and everything hurts like hell for about 15 minutes in the morning, but I love rolling and hope to do it for 20 more years.

Also, I'm a taurus, love sunsets, long walks along the beach and any drink with an umbrella. My love sign is proceed with caution.

I'm Josh Simon. I began training in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in 1995 at Maxercise Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 1995 and 2012, I trained and taught at many east coast academies, earning his blue, purple and brown belts from Relson Gracie or his certified instructors. In 2012, I moved to Switzerland for a work assignment. There, I joined the Gracie Barra - Geneve Academy where I trained and taught for an additional 3 years. While in Switzerland, I earned my black belt from head instructor and UFC fighter, Igor Araujo.

In 2015, my company relocated me to Columbus, Ohio where I re-joined the Relson Gracie team and began teaching at the Gracie Ohio Academy under Robin Gieseler. Since returning to the team, Relson has recognized my black belt, granted me a Professor’s diploma and awarded me my subsequent black belt degrees.

More info is at http://WWW.SimonBJJ.com

My name is Mark Morgan. I recently got my purple belt from Professor Bruno Alves who is part of GF Team. I have trained under him now for almost 3 years. I enjoy competingb you can see that from profile. The most fun I've ever had competing was at Master Worlds last August. I competed in the Master 3 Ultra Heavy Blue belt division and went 3 and 1 losing in the finals. I then went 2 and 1 in the open division again losing in the finals. Lots to celebrate and good lessons learned.

My wife and all 4 of my kids train as well. My 2 oldest boys placed 3rd in both of their divisions at Kids Pans in February.

My BJJ/Judo journey has led me to so place amazing places and ive met so many incredible people. I started under Sensei Edson Carvalho. He made me the man and champion I am today. I had a team of blue collar tough guys that gave tough love when you needed. Ive competed here and there since 2010. Ive competed in MMA, Judo, and Bjj. My very first Ibjjf tournament was in 2017 and I earned silver. Not too bad for getting off the couch. Since 2015 , I moved to Baltimore Maryland. I represent Yamasaki Academy now learning and sharing knowledge under Sensei/Professor Fernando Yamasaki.

My most recent competition was Jan of 2020 where I earned gold at Grappling Industries. I am a elementary school teacher by day and a lover of Bjj and combat sports at heart. I'm excited to learn more and share more in this journey. Osss

Hey folks. I'm Matt Corsey. I started training submission grappling and NHB with Cam McHargue in 2001 and started BJJ formally with Pedro Sauer blackbelt Jorge Jimenez in 2004. Due to a lot of moves and some surgeries, my training has been intermittent and varied. I trained with Roberto Traven at Unit2 in Atlanta, with Paulo Guillobel in San Clemente, CA, then with Pedro Sauer blackbelt Rob Lovi in San Diego. Moved back east last year, and now I train at Enlisted Nine BJJ under Alliance/Tsunami blackbelt Colton Smith.

Fought MMA and did grappling competitions 2-3 times a year in and around Atlanta from 2002-2007 or so. Haven't competed since.

Hello everyone!

My name is Daniel Bäckefelt. I'm 41 and live in Norrköping on the east coast of Sweden. I've been training for 15-16 years in total and i recently got promoted to Black Belt by my good and long time friend Priit Mihkelson.

I started my academy as a white belt since there was no clubs around at that time in my town. Kinda always liked organizing things and to tell people what to do so the burden of coach fell on me. ;-)
Done quite a lot or travelling and training during theese years. Competed between 2004-2014, mostly in NoGi/SubOnly competitions here in Sweden. Competed as a blue belt agauinst Mr Graugart as a matter of fact! He crushed me with his knee on belly shenanigans... :-)
A very big fan of wrestling to and use alot of folkstyle techniques in my rolling and teaching. Priit is one of my main influences and i regulary have him doing seminars at my club.
I'm somewhat lazy regards to training and could probably have worked harder on my own training thru theese years. But i really enjoy organizing everything around the club and teaching, especially kids and teens.

My academy was a part of the SBG for a long time but we decided to go our own way in the end.

When i'm not doing BJJ I play alot of boardgames. I'm actually trying to make a board game events company work right now but Corona has made it very hard for med to get "gigs". Also really enjoy hiking in Swedish nature and have an interest in politics.

This is a great site and i love whats it's trying to do. Cheers!

Hello everyone,
Please vote for me :-)
https://beltchecker.com/p[...]p?id=14992

Hey how’s it going?

My name is George and I train at Gracie Barra Yeovil, I’ve been training almost 3 years now and my aspiration is to eventually get to a position to open my own school and pass on everything I have learned/will learn to as many people as I can.

I met my coach at my Army Cadet centre when I was 16 and fell in love with grappling there and then, unfortunately I was committed to Cadets at the time and was unable to peruse both. When I left the Cadets at 18 I got in touch with my coach again to see if he was still teaching BJJ and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. From that simple message I have made friends for life and found a Career as an assistant coach with a newfound goal of getting my black belt and passing on as much knowledge as possible to whoever wants to learn it.

Image below is when I officially became an apprentice to my coach Sam Dunn, of which I owe everything to. Without him and everyone else at GBY I wouldn’t be the man I am today or the man I will become in years to come.

Hey Guys,

My name is Stephen Curtiss, I am a brown belt under Joshua Bowlin from Gracie Barra Columbus, Georgia, as well as a Marine Corps Veteran.

I bounced around to different gyms for the first 3 years of my Jiu Jitsu journey before finding my home at Gracie Barra. I have stayed loyal to my Professor since I got there in 2015 and it has been the home for me and my family.

Through Jiu Jitsu I met my wife when I was a blue belt and we have both trained together ever since. She is now a blue belt and my 4 year old daughter will start her training soon.

I am a bit of a Nomad for most of the year, I work as a contractor in UXO industry so I have the ability to train all over the country, spending months in one location allowing me to dabble so many different training styles and teachings.

I love this concept of the community approving your verification through votes and not by the IBJJF process. I look forward to this growing and see where Belt Checker leads!

Id appreciate if I can get verified with some votes! Thanks guys!

Hey guys !

I'm Nicolas from France. I started BJJ whith Yannick Beven and Zé Marcello in Biarritz in 2004 .
For a lot of good and bad reasons I stopped in 2010 for a long period of almost 8 years ( children, work, my rockband...) but I'm back in the Gi since 2018, always with my master Yannick Beven . I love how the game as evolved during this time.
I came back to competition too, but in master 3 now ;-) as you can see on my profile, i've made 4 competitions last year, whithout a lot of succes but so much pleasure.

I love the idea of that belt checker community, a nice alternative to the instagram stuff...

oss !

Hey everyone! Hansi here. Just dropping in to say hello!

At the moment I'm a lowly white belt that's looking for a new gym because my old one unfortunately closed last week. I am itching to have competitions back once every is fairly safe, but for now it's my grappling dummy, yoga mat and John Danaher's ramblings that are keeping me company.

Hope you're all well.

Hi from Maryland! I’m Karl, and I’m one of the millions of people who got into martial arts after seeing the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. I did a few months of bjj back in 2006ish but had to stop because I couldn’t afford gym fees at the time.
I spent the next decade or so kickboxing with the martial arts club at my local community college, doing some occasional grappling along the way (main instructor at the club is also a CSW instructor, but the club’s primary focus is kickboxing).
A few years ago I moved to a new area and stopped training. Eventually I got the itch to train again and found my current gym during Christmas Break 2018. Progressed pretty quickly since, despite my limited mat time, I had been studying grappling as much as I could for a decade. I quit my job last fall to train full time, and had planned to compete as much as possible this year, but we all know how that went.
At Beltway Martial Arts, we have a really relaxed environment and we love visitors, so if you’re ever in the DC/Maryland area, be sure to drop by for some rolls!

Hello!
My name is Olivia and I've been training for exactly 2 years as of a couple days ago! Jiu jitsu has been the best thing to happen to me. It's really unfortunate with the pandemic going on, and I not being able to train consistently. Where I usually train is not open. I have mats at home and someone I have to force to train with me (lol), but it's not the same.

Although I've only competed twice so far, I love it. I want to compete as much as possible.

Also, I think this website is super cool. The main job is to verify people, but also being able to track so many things like competition medals, training sessions, dates for promotions - super cool. It will be awesome to look back at all the progress in a few years all on one page.

Hi All,

I'm Spencer, I'm a Blue Beltch from Phoenix, Arizona training at Gracie Barra Ahwatukee. I've been training for about 3.5 years, and am currently a blue belt. Jiu Jitsu has really had a positive impact on my life and I'm really enjoying the global BJJ community. My Professor is Luis Freire and I also have the opportunity to train with Prof. Flavio Almeida who is the director of the GB Arizona programs. I also help Coach some of the kids classes and have really enjoyed helping out :). I've competed several time, some wins and lots of learning haha. Competition has definitely pushed my Jiu Jitsu forward but is definitely challenging and definitely terrifying at times. I think i'm finally settling into a good mindset, had many ups and downs over the last few years but I've learned to just love the process and focus on my own personal growth as a BJJ student. BJJ has definitely humbled me, and I really appreciate the lessons I've learned.

Hope to see you on the mats!

Hi everyone,

I'm Josh and I've been training on and off for about 6 years. I moved from Toronto to Korea and there was no BJJ where I lived for a while (on Jeju Island) so there was at least a year or two without BJJ. I like take downs and passing in the GI the most. My favourite submission is armbar from the top! Am I crazy or is it literally always there? I haven't had the chance to compete in BJJ but I have competed in Kickboxing and I also do boxing and have done a bit of MMA. If you guys come to Vietnam hit me up and come roll with us!

Best,

Josh

Hi everyone!

I'm Jeremy and I started BJJ this year. I signed up with a gym in March and 2 weeks later Malaysia went into lockdown thanks to COVID-19. Thankfully, close-contact sports resumed in July, and I've been training ever since. I'm currently training under Prof. Abang Dzulqarnaen, Malaysia's youngest black belt under Prof. Pedro Falbo.

I learned about BJJ Globetrotters on Youtube, which led me to discovering Belt Checker. I love what you guys are doing here - hope to see every practitioner on this platform one day!

Looking forward to make some new friends and attend a BJJ Globetrotters camp someday. Cheers!

My name is Claude Lawson or 'Claudio'..started martial arts at 5 so 45 years almost 46 years ago. Started Kajukembo - Boxing/kickboxing w/James Cox in 93 and
began BJJ in 94 with Jimmi Chaikong in Abilene Tx, I was stationed at Dyess AFB, couple of Bases later I found myself in Norcal..trained a little shoot wrestling and Sambo and slowly found my way to Cesar Gracies school. met a young purple named Dave Terrell there , took a little break to finish school and when Dave opened his own school I started training there and operated my own little grappling club on base, Dave even came by to do a seminar for me.. I became an AF Recruiter in Phoenix AZ,train at AZ combatsports a few times, then trained at Mountainside fitness with Greg Holmes,I believe his name was... hooked up with a couple of his blue and purple belts and we would go around Phoenix and train at different schools..the purplebelt now black belt under ,Prof Jay Pages named David Farias...from there I was stationed in Clovis NM in 2009, with Prof Courtney Westley,he was under Prof Jefferson Vilhena /Equipe Vilhena... Courtney moved back to Maraba Brazil but now lives in England..I attempted to go under Jefferson Vilhena through the IBJJF. We got all the paperwork done however he doesnt have an established team in america and I would have to have an address in Brazil and credentials to match in order to get that done.. so here I am.. I keep in contact with them both periodically. Jefferson and Courtney are on the right

Hallo from Greece!

Im Aris! Started training back in 2000 in Athens Greece, back then the highest legit Rank in Greece was maybe Blue Belt. From the beginning representing Vinicius “Draculino” Magalhaes and Gracie Barra. Im co-founder of GB Greece “Draculino Team” and hold 3rd Degree Black Belt under Vinicius Magalhaes.
Have been involved heavily in organizing Bjj in Greece and organized and co-organized major events Like BJJ Nationals and National Pro Events for over 10 years, got pretty close in organizing the first IBJJF tournament in Greece after years of preparations in 2019, unfortunately got screwed by my Local Partners (Local Jujitsu federation) just a few months before the event and it never happened. Since then and after getting an extra injury on my neck im kinda taking a long break from training and all the Drama.
This is a nice website I wish more people join and people use it to see what is real and what is not.

Hello everyone,
My name is Dustin Meyers and I'm a Brown Belt under Professor Rob Richardson. My BJJ journey started back in 2006. I was looking for people to join the highschool wrestling team at the time when I came across my now best friend Professor Joshua Bacallao. He joined the team on the condition I started Jiu-Jitsu and here we are 14+ years later. I enlisted in the Marine Corps for 8 years as an 0352 Anti-Tank Missile man. There was a long stint where I didn't train at a gym due to deployments and what not, but eventually found time at my last duty station doing INI Duty to get back into BJJ. I've found a great home to train and pass on my knowledge to everyone at The Hot Box. It's great to see Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grow in the state of Alabama. It's come a long way in just the last 10 years and I can't wait to see what it looks like in another 10. I can't wait to see this community grow as well, happy to connect with some old friends.

Hello from Springfield, MO. I'm new to this site, and haven't received the proper votes to be verified. I have been training since February 2nd, 2017. I am a Team Fusion blue belt. We are a Zenith Jiujitsu (Robert Drysdale) affiliate. Professor Drysdale promoted me himself a few months ago. I compete whenever possible and have won gold in my weight division, and silver in absolute. Please take a minute to check out my profile, let me know if I need to change anything! Thanks...OSS!

Hello from Atlantic Canada, originally started my martial arts journey with traditional Japanese jiu jitsu, over the last three years have dived head first into the bjj scene and plan on never looking back, pulling the trigger in the last year and making the move and fully committing to a new gym.

Recently promoted to blue belt by my professor Jon Kelly at Mxt bjj Saint John after we got back up and running after covid closures in our area.

Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you at future camps when traveling is easier again.

Oss

Hello from Zaragoza, Spain. Started my journey in BJJ 5 years ago and still have the same passion for the sport as day 1. I was recently promoted to blue belt (September 11), and I am looking forward to continue my BJJ journey.

Thanks to all athletes on this platform. Regards... OSS!!

Hello, I am Eric Conley from Norwich, CT USA and I am currently a Brown Belt under Josh Hesser, Charlie McShane, and Marcio Stambowsky. I started training in 2007ish when everyone in CT was under the Royce Gracie banner (via Jim Hughes) and was lucky enough to get my blue belt from Royce in 2008. Back then I was really bad about keeping track of my training and was just showing up and rolling so exact dates on some of this stuff escapes me.

I had to take an extended injury break after I got my blue belt but when I was ready to come back my primary coach, Josh Hesser, had bounced between a few networks before him and Charlie McShane settled under the Gracie Sports flag with Marcio Stambowsky. I consider myself very lucky to have been able to stay under a single primary coach the whole time I have trained and was promoted to brown belt in October of 2017. So at this pace I'll get to black belt some time in 2037.

Hello from Texas. I train outside of fort hood. Just received my black belt and moving to fort dix NJ. Looking for a new gym

Hello from Des Plaines (a suburb of Chicago). I fell in love with jiu-jitsu a little over a year ago, at the age of 37. Pulled an abdominal muscle at my very first class. By the time it healed I was pregnant. And then I was geriatrically pregnant in a global pandemic (had the baby in May). And then my coach broke his hip in a biking accident in July (and was back on the mats and teaching his classes three weeks later). So it's been a hell of a year, but I just keep coming back.

I work for law enforcement by day and am working on a PhD in church history by night. Other than that, I like hamsters and video games and am dabbling in photography.

I've always gone by my full initials ("BJJ" ), even before I fell in love with the sport, because "BJ" is a rather unfortunate set of initials. Or a very fortunate set of initials, depending on who you ask, I guess.

Pleased to meet you.

Hi. I'm Rafael (you can call me Rafa), born in Salvador (Bahia) Brasil. In 1998 my family moved to Portugal where I lived (on and off) until 2012 when I moved to the Czech Republic.

Since this was the first time I was living away from the ocean I started cycling a lot and 2 years ago started BJJ.

I love travelling and thanks to finding out about BJJ Globetrotters I managed to train in many different gyms while on vacation and meet amazing people. So if you are ever around Brno (Czech Republic) hit me up and we can roll.

Welcome to Beltchecker!

Hey All,

From Merritt Island, Florida, USA. I started training at 33, in Texas. I stumbled upon BJJ, because I was looking at some for of martial arts for my son, who was only 4 at the time. We found a local BJJ gym and started taking him. After seeing how much fun he was having, I decided to sign up. One of the best decisions I ever made for myself.

I work long hours, but still manage to make Jiu-Jitsu a big part of my life. Both my son and I still train regularly, grinding away!