Wilkes County BJJ Club

Prior to getting involved in BJJ I earned black belt in Kempo Karate, and came close to earning another black belt in Taijutsu. After walking away from these "traditional" systems I spent a couple of years training in MMA and kickboxing. Then, in January of 2008 I began taking Gracie Jiujitsu at a Pedro Sauer club in Corvallis, Oregon. That summer I moved to Lima, Ohio, and continued my Jiu Jitsu training under Jeremy Harris, who was a four stripe brown belt under Saulo Ribeiro. I ended up training with Jeremy for the next nine months or so, during which time I earned my Blue belt. However, during the Spring of 2009 I quit training in Martial Arts altogether. Except for a few months at the Alliance academy in Charlotte during the summer of 2010, I would not fully return to training until the summer of 2011 when I joined Great Grappling in Ft Mill, SC. I trained there under the tutelage of Jeremy Arel- a Gordo Correa black belt- until the summer of 2016 (except for a few months off here and there). Because I had been out of training for so long, I decided to start over as a white belt. By May of 2015, not only had I earned my Blue belt back but I had also had earned my purple belt. Then, during July of 2016, I moved to Kansas City, Mo., where I began training at the Brazil Academy under black belt Luis "Ninja" Pinto. Training at the Brazil Academy was valuable experience and helped advance my purple belt skill set. In March of 2017, I moved to the Wilkesboro area of North Carolina and formed the Wilkes County Brazilian Jiujitsu Club.