Hey everyone! Lots of progress, and we’re going to continue our progressive system of opening more based on the conditions on the ground and guidance from professionals. Whatcom County is in Phase 3 of re-opening, and that allows us to run more classes, more often. You can see our schedule starting May 1 here, with classes 7 days a week. The short version: We’re expanding to allow 20 people in each mat room (50% capacity), opening up an Intro to BJJ session, and allowing vaccinated people to train with other vaccinated people outside their training pods. We’re also keeping the Read more »

Spring is here, and with it, some changes: We’ve had tons of questions about when we’ll open to the public again, and what Phase 3 means for us. I’m pleased to be able to supply some answers! Those are below. But first … We have some folks testing for belts on April 3! Here’s the Facebook event. I’ll be reaching out this week and next to folks that are testing and their partners, and then we’ll know how many in-person observers we can have. We will also stream the event starting at 10 a.m. on April 3 at bit.ly/BellinghamBJJ and Read more »

Hello, everyone: Doesn’t the virus understand it’s KIMURA MONTH?!?!?!? Sadly, no, it doesn’t, because it’s a virus. I hope everyone’s weekend is going well: We got some great training yesterday, including our first Blue Belt Curriculum class. Unfortunately, we expect those to be our last classes for a while.  We expect to get some bad news today at 11 a.m. Due to rising cases of coronavirus statewide, Gov. Inslee is expected to announce closure of all gyms in the state — along with other restrictions on businesses like restaurants and bars. This means that as of Monday, we will be Read more »

Jiu-jitsu is about adaptation. We’ve all had to adapt to change in the past six months, and personally, I consider that a test of jiu-jitsu: Finding efficient, effective ways to do important things.  Everyone wants to get back to regular training. We hope that will happen sooner rather than later. Just like in jiu-jitsu, though, it’s important to have a best-case scenario plan … and then a check-down list with plans for every contingency. So that’s what we’re doing!  As you know, we’ve committed to getting back to regular indoor classes ONLY when Whatcom County hits Phase 3. (We’re currently Read more »

All history is political history. Anybody who tells you different is selling something. That applies to martial arts history, too: There are facts that are objective, but — especially when you’re dealing with events that happened years ago — truth is a negotiated matter. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t always try to get at the whole truth — we absolutely should! — but to explain why we’re so excited for Robert Drysdale’s “Closed Guard” film. Currently, there simply aren’t any indispensable one-stop resources for a credible history of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Watching Drysdale take his historian’s approach to the project Read more »