Sent it away tonight, I wonder how much they'll take from me.??

Wellington Martial Artist’s dedication recognised by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt

Australian Martial Artist, John Will, is one of the original "dirty dozen", the first 12 non-Brazilians to receive a Black Belt Rank in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Mr Will is world renown as the teachers, teacher and as such is always in extremely high demand for seminars and coaching events worldwide.

Mr Will is the head of BJJ Australia (www.bjj.com.au) and travels to New Zealand on a regular basis to oversee the local arm of his organisation, BJJ NZ (www.bjj.co.nz) . While training at the “Grappling Specialists” club in Wellington this month, Mr Will took the opportunity to promote several key members of the club.

Matt Paul and Jason Murphy were both awarded their Blue Belts in the Brazilian Art and Dion Burns was recognised for his dedication to BJJ and the GSW club by being promoted to the rank of Purple belt.

Blue belt in BJJ represents a journey of several years of hard physical training and is an acknowledgement of both skill and understanding of ground grappling. The Purple Belt rank is a far harder level to achieve and can take 5 years or more to reach; it is a rank that indicates a high proficiency in the many facets of the BJJ art. There are only two BJJ Purple Belts in the Wellington region and both train at the GSW club.

The promotions mark another step in the progress of a small BJJ club that is teaching a Martial Art that is quickly growing in popularity. After the recent visit to the club Mr Will had this to say about the progress being made by GSW and it’s members

” I teach martial arts for a living - and sometimes it does seem like work, but not when I am on the Wellington mat! The credit goes, not only to Geoff, but also to all of you for creating such a nice culture for training. Your mat is mature and on par with anything else in any other country. A great place to train.”

Mr Will is returning to Wellington in November.