At Bellingham BJJ, we love jiu-jitsu — and we want you to love jiu-jitsu.
Jiu-jitsu trains us to find the best, most efficient and effective ways to do things. Everybody has different goals in life, and we should all want to help our training partners reach their goals, using this powerful martial art as a tool.
Your goals might be to defend yourself better, to compete in high-level events, or just to get in better shape while having fun and learning. All of these are great goals, and jiu-jitsu can help you reach every one of them.
Bellingham BJJ holds regular gi and no-gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes at 205 W. Holly St. in downtown Bellingham.
We also offer regular 4-week introductory sessions at a low-cost. White belts must join the Intro to BJJ sessions before attending regular classes. Blue belts and above, feel free to drop in for a free week of class before joining regular classes! You can also check out our school policies and Frequently Asked Questions page.
Head Instructor: Jeff Shaw
Jeff Shaw is the owner and head instructor of Bellingham BJJ. He received his black belt from Royce Gracie black belt Seth Shamp in 2019. Jeff formerly was the assistant instructor at Triangle Jiu Jitsu Academy in Durham, North Carolina. Here is a blog post active competitor Steve McMahon wrote about training with Jeff.
As a competitor, Jeff has competed all over the world under numerous associations and rulesets. He is the first person to complete all eight divisions of a US Grappling tournament in a single day (25 matches), and among his tournament accomplishments are: multiple time US Grappling gold medalist, gi and nogi, from white belt to brown belt; gold, featherweight, CBJJF BC Open, masters brown belt; bronze, open weight, CBJJF BC Open; silver, lightweight, IBJJF Portland International Open, masters brown belt; double gold, light feather weight class & open weight class. IBJJF New York Open, masters blue belt; gold, IBJJF Atlanta Open, featherweight (masters blue belt); gold in weight, bronze in open weight, IBJJF nogi Pans (masters blue belt); bronze medalist, IBJJF world championships (white belt).
He has been a US Grappling certified referee since 2015, completed his IBJJF referee certification in 2021, attended ADCC referee training in 2020 and has trained with, taken seminars and private lessons from people including Rickson Gracie, Royce Gracie, Pedro Sauer, Joe Moreira, Dave Camarillo, Michelle Nicolini, Mayssa Bastos, Rafael Mendes, Gui Mendes, Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, Gordon Ryan, Edwin “Junny” Ocasio, Ethan Crelinsten, Nicky Ryan, Matt Serra, Ricardo de la Riva, Robert Drysdale, Dominyka Obelenyte, Bernardo Faria, Murilo Bustamante, Andre Galvao, Murilo Santana, Kurt Osiander, Andrew Smith, Caio Terra, Vicente Junior, Osvaldo “Quiexinho” Moizinho, Samir Chantre, Valerie Worthington, Seph Smith, Gui Valente, Renato “Charuto” Verissimo, Fredson Paixao, Guybson Sa, Gilbert “Durinho” Burns, Sophia McDermott, Jeff Glover, Nathan Orchard and Phill Schwartz.
Guest instructors who have taught seminars at Bellingham BJJ as of June 2023 include: Sean Applegate, Radji Bryson-Barrett, Mayssa Bastos, Dave Camarillo, Margot Ciccarelli, Ffion Davies, Daniel Frank, Jeff Glover, Cindy Hales, Bill Jones, Vicente Junior, Cody Maltais, Dominyka Obelenyte, Felicia Oh, Andrew Perkins, Seph Smith, Jerry Shapiro, Nikki Sullivan, Oliver Taza, JT Torres, Hillary and Brian VanOrnum, James Weed and Jake Whitfield.
Jeff is also the host and producer of Dirty White Belt Radio, a podcast about jiujitsu training, culture and history with an international listener base and more than 120,000 downloads. Recent guests include: ADCC Champion Gordon Ryan; the legendary Rickson Gracie, who is widely considered the greatest jiujitsu practitioner of all time; multiple-time black belt world champion and professional MMA fighter Michelle Nicolini; Olympic judo silver medalist Travis Stevens; multiple-time Eddie Bravo Invitational champion Garry Tonon; Leka Vieira, the first woman to win the black belt world championship; Cindy Hales, one of the “Dirty Dozen” black belt women who were the first to earn black belts outside of Brazil. He’s also a regular guest on the BJJ Mental Models podcast, and has been on the Strenuous Life podcast with Stephan Kesting of Grapplearts twice.
Instructor: Kendall McNab
Kendall McNab is a black belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. He began training with Marcelo Alonso, and after training for more than 12 years total and almost four years with Jeff Shaw and Dave Porter, became the first Bellingham BJJ black belt in 2021.
Instructor: Pat de Puydt
Pat de Puydt is a black belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. After more than a dozen years of training, Pat earned his black belt in Dec. 2022.
Instructor: Colby Welch
Colby Welch is a black belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ.
Instructor: Kegan Mulholland
Kegan Mulholland is a brown belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. An accomplished competitive grappler with a college wrestling background, Kegan teaches our takedown-specific classes. Kegan began grappling as a wrestler during his freshman year of high school and eventually went on to compete for the Western wrestling club team. Kegan first started training BJJ in Spokane, Washington at Newborn Cascao Jiu Jitsu and received his purple belt from James Weed. He received his brown belt from Jeff Shaw in September of 2022. As a competitor, Kegan has competed at numerous tournaments, both in wrestling and BJJ. His biggest accomplishments include qualifying for the NCWA National Championships twice and getting a 3rd place finish in the adult blue belt division at the 2019 No-Gi Worlds. He has also earned superfight wins at Fight to Win Pro and the Toro Cup, where his record is 2-0.
Instructor: Jesse Johns
Jesse Johns is a purple belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. Jesse leads our popular “Drill Team” classes, which are high-repetition drills of fundamental jiu-jitsu movements. He has a fitness background as the leader of Fitness Fanatics, a Bellingham staple for years. He is also the academy’s Operations Manager.
Instructor: Rob Long
Rob Long is a purple belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. He received his purple belt from Chris Dealy at The Base Vancouver in 2020 and his brown belt from Jeff Shaw in May 2023. Rob leads our kids classes and also teaches adult classes.
Instructor: Jesse Lang
Jesse Lang is a purple belt instructor at Bellingham BJJ. An active competitor with a wrestling background and prior training at Mat Chess MMA in Seattle, Jesse regularly teaches several of our 6 a.m. classes