Articles

My first class as a black belt

My first class as a black belt

Since I got my black belt last month, people have been very cool about asking me questions about the various firsts associated with this milestone. Today I want to tell you about my first class at black belt. The reason I want to tell you about this: people have been asking what I chose to show during my first-ever class at this rank. The answer. I didn’t teach anything. I took the class, and I took it from my good friend and partner David Porter, who has an extensive library of techniques at his disposal. What kind of wizardry did Read more »

New schedule, featuring 6 a.m. classes twice a week

New schedule, featuring 6 a.m. classes twice a week

We’re growing all the time, and always trying to optimize our schedule for student needs. Starting this morning, Jan. 13, we’re training from 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays … a class we’re calling Dawn Patrol. Today was amazing! Despite snow preventing several folks from attending, 25 people came to day one. Some had to leave early to get to work, which is fine — we do warmups and technique until 6:45 or 7, then spar until 7:30ish, so come when you can and leave when you need to. I’ve always loved teaching early morning classes. You Read more »

What Jiu-Jitsu Means To Me

What Jiu-Jitsu Means To Me

Prior to my black belt test, my instructor Seth Shamp asked me to write something that expressed what jiu-jitsu — the art itself, as well as the journey I’ve been on — means to me. This is what I wrote. At the end of the post, you can see a video of my black belt speech and listen to a podcast we did about the journey.— Jeff My life is jiu-jitsu, and jiu-jitsu is my life. I mean that both literally (I train and teach and learn jiu-jitsu constantly), but also metaphorically. For me, jiu-jitsu is a philosophy, a way Read more »

19 Memories of 2019

19 Memories of 2019

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 »

The Great Scott Hartwich

The Great Scott Hartwich

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 »

Bellingham BJJ wins the 3rd Annual Scepter Awards!

Bellingham BJJ wins the 3rd Annual Scepter Awards!

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 »

6 Months of Bliss: An Anniversary Post

6 Months of Bliss: An Anniversary Post

Warning: mad gratitude ahead. If you don’t like shout-outs, maybe go back to watching that BJJ technique video you were checking out. But it’s time for some love, because we held our first classes in downtown Bellingham 6 months ago today, on May 1, 2019. Since then, we’ve grown — as individual martial artists and as a community — beyond our wildest imaginings. We’ve trained with multiple world champions and legends of the art. We’ve reconnected with old friends and made a ton of new ones. We’ve become what we always hoped we had the potential to be. It’s been Read more »

Grapplers Gift Guide: 2019

Grapplers Gift Guide: 2019

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 »

Competition at Bellingham BJJ: A Guide

Competition at Bellingham BJJ: A Guide

Competition should be a natural outgrowth of your jiu-jitsu progress. This is a long game, and getting better at jiu-jitsu (by coming to class) means you’ll get better at competition jiu-jitsu. That said, preparing for a tournament is a specialized type of training. Here is the way we want our competitors to prepare for tournaments. We’ll update this post with specific tournament information as it becomes available! FOR GENERAL ADVICE: Check out the Dirty White Belt post Preparing for Tournaments 101, which has links to several blog posts Jeff has done about competing.  IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS NOT COVERED Read more »

Our September schedule: adding three classes

Our September schedule: adding three classes

September is coming … and we have all kinds of new exciting things happening. We just had our first round of belt promotions in the new space. This coming month, we’re adding three additional classes to serve you better — a Sunday open mat, a Saturday women’s open mat, and a Friday day class. We’re also hosting two amazing seminars (with Seph Smith & Felicia Oh), and starting a new Intro to BJJ session. Our schedule page has been updated, but in case you want the bullet points, here are the September highlight dates: 🥋 Sep. 1: Sunday open mats Read more »