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Please note this post refers only to the history and personal journey that led to the formation of the gym Chiang Mai Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
In August 2008, when I moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, I'd been studying
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu for about 6 years. Originally, I trained under Claudio França
(black belt under Master Francisco Mansor) and Garth Taylor (black belt under
Claudio França) in Santa Cruz, California, USA. Following getting my blue
belt from Claudio, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area for work where I
continued to study BJJ under John "J" Janero (Rickson Gracie purple
belt then/ current Saulo Ribeiro black belt).
I decided to move to Thailand and try living abroad before
attaining my purple belt. A bittersweet decision as I regret not getting my
purple belt, but I did truly love living in Thailand.
There were some very good options for training BJJ in Thailand
when I moved here (Bangkok BJJ, EMAC, Bangkok Fight Club, Tiger Muay Thai,
etc.) but those camps were all located in Bangkok and Phuket. Since I chose to
live in Chiang Mai, it seemed like I had no options. After living in Chiang Mai
for nearly a year I really started to miss BJJ.
A good friend of mine from Belgium and I were talking one day, and
we started discussing BJJ. He had some martial arts experience but had never
been exposed to the grappling or BJJ. After talking a bit, we decided to get
together and train together. For a
couple months, we trained at Muang
Chiang Mai Stadium on a permanent wrestling mat they had there. Unfortunately, the mat room had open block
walls and a lot of dust covered the mat daily.
We brought our own cleaning supplies (mops, buckets, etc.) and cleaned
before we trained. This routine got old
and we decided to set up our own training space.
We renovated a room above his bar and laid down some custom made massage mats (the space is still
there to this day). Eventually more of
our friends joined and after a couple months, we decided to make it
official. In May of 2009 we started Chiang
Mai Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. It was
definitely a unique situation as there was a bar below and BJJ above in the
same building. It somehow took though, and the club started building momentum.
In late September 2009 Chiang Mai BJJ took a small team to Bangkok and competed
in the 2009 FBT Thailand BJJ/ Grappling Open hosted by Bangkok BJJ and BJJ-Asia. It was a well-run tournament
and we had a blast. A few of the guys did well in the white belt and beginners,
no-gi divisions. The team even brought back a silver medal in the no-gi
competition. It was a proud moment for me since the club had only been open for
a few months, and we all trained hard for the competition.
As fate would have it, Niti Techottiasnee (owner of EMAC in
Bangkok and now a BJJ black belt under Professor Adam Kayoom) heard mention of
Chiang Mai BJJ at the tournament and realized there was some interest in BJJ in northern Thailand. A friend of his, Professor Pedro 'Bebe' Schmall (a Royler
Gracie black belt) was looking to relocate from Beijing, China during this
time. The three of us met briefly to discuss the potential success of BJJ in
Chiang Mai. After the meeting, there was a lot of optimism about Pedro
instructing BJJ in Chiang Mai.
About a month later (November 2009), Pedro moved to Chiang Mai to
set up a new school. The school was to
be a collaborative effort between EMAC, Chiang Mai BJJ, and Pedro. EMAC provided the
facility, Chiang Mai BJJ provided students (myself included) and it's BJJ network, and Pedro provided the BJJ
expertise. On March 11, 2010, after a few
months of getting things established, MMA Chiang Mai officially opened with Professor
Pedro Schmall as the head instructor. http://www.bjj-asia.com/2009/10/
The era of MMA Chiang Mai under Professor Pedro Schmall was short lived however. In September 2010, Pedro returned to Brazil
and MMA Chiang Mai continued as a club co-operated by myself and Krzysztof
Hajtalowicz (a.k.a. Chris Haja). Chris
and I helped prepare another small team for the 2010 FBT Thailand Open (October 23
& 24). Again, the team did well even
bringing home a few medals.
In early 2011, MMA Chiang Mai merged into a collaborative effort
with multiple instructors and the name was changed to GoldenTriangle International Martial Arts.
Muay Thai, western boxing, judo, and BJJ were all offered independently
under the new format. We had a number of
visitors including Professor Adam Kayoom of Bangkok BJJ during the following
months. I continued to co-operate GTIMA
until I accepted a position managing Bangkok BJJ in June 2011.
To be continued…
