Training with black belts

My good friend David Onuma, who has a great Blog under the name Combined Fighting Systems, which is at the top of my Links list, came up with a great post on the BJJ.eu forum (his user name is Malandro).

He asked us to name the black belts we have been fortunate to train with, be it in private, semi private and group training situations. This got me thinking about my times and travels since I started the BJJ path in 1999 and rattled a few names quick time. Once I'd had a few hours to think, names began to trickle down and on the last count my list has more than 50 names, albeit a few of the names weren't black belts at the time I trained with them, but are black belts today (who's counting lol).

The real number would be a lot larger had I remembered all the black belts that hit the mats WAY back in 1999 when I was training at the Machado academy in LA; I was a raw white belt at the time and remember the mats being packed with 20+ black belts in the evening class - now THAT would have been a list and a half!

The thread on the forum made me realise the huge number of black belts I have been fortunate enough to train with over the years and all have contributed in some part to my development as a BJJ coach and athlete and I thank them all on here for happy memories and awesome training sessions!

If you have a Bucket List, make sure you add 'Training with a BJJ Black Belt' on there and hunt one down and start to really improve your game - my list is as follows in no particular order (well it started with Machado BB and then GB BB's but then I started to remember all the other guys lol)............

John Machado
JJ Machado
Rigan Machado
Chris Haueter
Erik Paulson
Dan Inosanto
Howard Lui (HCK Kimonos owner)
John Will
Dave Meyer
Cindy Otsuma (purple)
Matt Thornton
Carlson Gracie
Carlos Gracie Jr
Escorrega
Sal
Lagarto
Ze Radiola
Braulio
Renzo Gracie
Roger Gracie
Mauricao Gomes
Gabriel Kitober
Sem
Victor Estima
Marcio Feitosa
Marcelo Yogui
Roger Brooking
Mario Sukata
Darren Currie
Helen Currie
Rick Young (Brown belt)
Karl Tanswell
Neil Owen (brown)
Scott Goddard (blue)
Marc Walder (brown)
Jude Samuels
Ben Poppleton
Gordihno
Cleber Lopes
Adriano Silva
Steve Campbell
Simon Hayes
Dickie Martin
Eddie Kone
John Kavanagh
Les Allen
Zaid Mirza
Thiago Alves
Remco Pardoel
Richard Bohlenius
Rickard Anderson
Eddie Bravo
Roberto Atalla
Gumby (purple belt OTM)
Elvis Sinosic
Patrick Chaput (Brussels, blue belt)

Who knows..... years down the line one day someone might add me on to their list!!