Got promoted to BJJ Black Belt today!

Anytime you achieve a “long term goal”—it feels amazing. Today was a personal achievement that means more to me then graduating from University…lol!

I’ve been training in BJJ/Submission Grappling since 2001.

This “hobby”–eventually grew into a passion, that took over my life–and grew into a profession. I’ve never been so dedicated to one thing, for such a long period in my life. It’s hard to believe 9 years ago I was walking into the gym as a complete “Newbie”. Since that first day–I dedicated myself to learning as much as possible. Starting in Arizona- I trained under Steve Hochuli being awarded my BJJ Blue Belt in 2004.

Moving to California after graduating college in 2005, Juliano Prado gave me my fourth stripe on my Blue Belt in 2006.

2007, after 6 years of training I was promoted to Purple belt under Juliano.

After winning a Bronze at the Abu Dhabi International, and taking Gold in the Pan Asian advance divisions Juliano put the brown belt on me in 2009.

14 months after being awarded my Brown…Juliano recognized me as a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under his standards of grading today–giving me the ranking of professor. It feels good to be recognized for all of my hard work and dedication. The majority of the 9 years, I have trained twice a day–5 days a week, with minimal breaks. Beyond the “hours” on the mat…I’ve used BJJ to learn about myself, set goals, and continue developing as a person.

They say the black belt—isn’t the “end”…but rather the “beginning”….I dunno—but the black belt looks like a big “Target” on my back. LOL. I look forward to defending the rank–helping my students improve–and continuing to spread the sport of BJJ throughout Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.

Special Thanx to Andreas Hesselback, Juliano Prado, Wiktor Svennson, Mo Kayat, Andrew Gardineer, Tony Eduardo, Joe Riggs, Edwin Dewees, Steve Hochuli, A-Dawg, Kyle Brees, and all the other countless training partners/instructors I’ve had over the past 9+ years of training–all of which have taught me so many priceless lessons in BJJ–and about Life along the way

Besides Juliano Prado, I’d like to thank black belts Marcelo Giudici and Yoshi Hasegawa for showing up for the promotion today!…also thanxs to the 40+ students who showed up for the promotion—and their 80 + open handed “pats on the back” for my congratulations!!!…Brayden, Milkman, Joe Ray, Bonner, Ian Bone…Your payback…will be viscous!