We can hardly believe 2019 has mere hours left on the clock. It’s been a whirlwind, from the lead-up to our opening on May 1 to the final classes on New Year’s Eve (still coming tonight). This is more than a jiu-jitsu academy to us. It’s our living room, a place where we get together with our chosen community to train, improve our lives, and have a blast. The great Marcelo Garcia once said that he’d never claim to be the best ever, but he would say that nobody loves jiu-jitsu more than he does. Nobody loves doing this more Read more »

I first met Scott Hartwich and Mary Burwell in 1993. I had messed up my first run at college, had to drop out, and needed a job. Scott hired me to work at their coffee cart, and I had no idea how at the time how much this — and they — would shape my life. We served a lot of great coffee, saw Scott and Mary launch the coffee roasting arm of their business (which was to become Hammerhead), and even did some construction work. After Scott and Mary got the contract to build the first coffee shop in Read more »

Exciting news: our downtown Bellingham Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy has won the third annual Scepter Awards for businesses making downtown a more fun, vibrant place to be! On Monday, we’ll officially receive the award — you’re welcome to join us on Dec. 9 at Makeworth Market to celebrate Downtown Bellingham and all of the amazing people and businesses that make it a great place to be. Betsy, Dave and Jeff will be on hand to accept the People’s Choice Award for Bellingham BJJ. We’ll update this with photos from the event, and if you’d like to come out, more information is Read more »

Halloween is the best time of the year: costumes, candy, and costumed grappling classes. After Halloween ends, we roll right into another amazing season: the holiday gift-giving season. My podcast, Dirty White Belt Radio, has done a gift guide for grapplers over the past 6 years. Here are the 2017, 2016 and 2015 iterations: 2014 and 2013 are a little outdated, but let’s include them anyway for the completists out there. This year, we’re moving the Grapplers Gift Guide to this blog. Everyone has a grappler that they love, and we hope — whether you’re in Bellingham, Washington or not — this gives you some ideas that Read more »

Rituals are important. When I got my blue belt, the promotion itself meant a lot to me — but what meant just as much was going through the Triangle Jiu-Jitsu “belt train,” which was our ritual for newly-promoted students. I’ll tell you about the TJJ train in a moment, but the point of this post is to explain what our Bellingham BJJ belt promotion ritual is — and what happened when we did it for the first time ever tonight. The TJJ train is tough. I’ve been through one at each belt level, and so have all of my teammates. Read more »

Aside from being one of the most accomplished American grapplers of all time, Jeff Glover is an important ambassador for the sport. He’s someone that I’ve always wanted to train with — and thanks to Dave Porter, we’re all going to get the chance in July. We’re thrilled to announce that Jeff Glover will join us for a no-gi jiu-jitsu seminar on July 20. This will be three hours of training at the regular open mat time, noon-3 p.m. on Saturday. If you’re reading this blog about BJJ, chances are you’re already aware of Jeff Glover and his achievements, but Read more »

If there’s anything I love as much as jiu-jitsu, it’s delivering good news. Here are a couple of pieces of good news — whether you’re an existing student or interested in trying BJJ for the first time. First, due to a heroic effort from several volunteers, we’ve installed mats and frames at our new location (205 W. Holly St., downtown) a full month before we’d planned to! We’ll continue to improve the space constantly, and we have big plans for creating the most welcoming environment possible for training. But as of May 1, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes are on at Bellingham Read more »