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| BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // February 2025 | |
Dear Globetrotters,
Having moved back to Denmark, it was really interesting to visit Saint Barth for our camp a few weeks ago. For the first time, I experienced it as a tourist—and I loved it! If you’re thinking about visiting the island next month, we’re hosting our annual BJJ Globetrotters / Saint Barth BJJ Friendly Invitational Competition. Participation is free, and there will be both cool medals and pretty beaches waiting for you! Click here for more information if you’d like to join us. Winter Camp in Austria was, as always, a lot of fun—both on and off the slopes. I’m currently working on confirming both that and the Caribbean camps for next season, so keep an eye on our newsletter and website for updates!
Have a great day, | |
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What you'll find in this month's newsletter: - Photos from Caribbean Island Camp last month
- Featured Globetrotter: Riley Dedio
- Photos from Winter Camp last month
- Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Simrishamns Muay Thai & BJJ
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| Join us for a true, beach town experience this summer! |
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We’re once again heading off to this summer gem on the Baltic coast and a full week of sun, sea, sand, and all the Jiu Jitsu you can handle. Hope to see you there!
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| Photos from Caribbean Island Camp in St. Barth last month |
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| Last 30 tickets left for the 10th anniversary of our USA Camp |
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For the 10th year in a row, we’re hosting our beloved USA Camp! Together with more than 200 Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts, we’ll will spend a week together in the forest with more training and activities than you can possibly handle.
We take care of absolutely everything – food, accommodation, laundry, and Jiu Jitsu. All you need to do is show up and get in your gi or shorts! |
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| Featured Globetrotter: Riley Dedio |
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Age: 43
Belt: Blue
Profession: Filmmaker
How many years in BJJ: 9-ish years
Other martial arts: Some Muay Thai in a past life
Where do you live: Leipzig, Germany
Where are you from: Rostock, Germany
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: This is my second feature here; the first one was before I received a massive name and gender update. I did a lot of Jits and travel before transitioning and now get to navigate those things as a trans woman… and let me just say: there are a lot of things we as a sport can and should work on. |
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Tell us what inspired you to travel and train? I’m a documentary filmmaker. I travel a lot, or did before Covid. Back then, I always looked up clubs wherever I was going. 6am classes in Cape Town, Paris, Nagasaki, Tunis, Vancouver? Sign me up! I loved the camaraderie that comes with our sport, being welcomed at gyms around the world. It was a privilege in more ways than one (since I was presenting as a middle-aged white dude). Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
Much of that privilege went away when I transitioned. I’m lucky that the coach of my home club is not just accepting but absolutely supportive, so I still have a home there.
I started travelling more again in recent years, but I haven’t trained anywhere that’s not Globetrotter camps or my home gym since coming out. The sad truth is: It’s simply not safe.
Sure, I could message clubs in cities I’m going to and ask if they will let me train, but that puts a huge mental burden on me for something that should be self-evident. If I am in a town where I know other Jits folx who will take me with, I’ll be so happy to go. Same if I come across clubs that are openly queer/trans supportive.
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What are the things you enjoy about travelling? Being welcomed into new groups of people was always an amazing feeling. Like, I’ve never seen these people before, we sometimes don’t even share a common spoken language, but our expression on the mats is all that matters. I always felt part of something bigger… sadly, that was because I didn’t see the less savory side of that. I didn’t check my privilege. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I’d be accepted as a human being, or, say, whether I would be sexually harassed.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that make it worth traveling and training?
Where do I start… Walking into a Coral Belt’s club and getting to spontaneously roll with someone who’s been doing Jits since my parents were children… Attending class without understanding a word that’s being said and having to learn 100% visually… Sweating buckets on the mats under a tin roof at the edge of the Sahara in summer… Walking off the mats and meditating in the ancient Viking temple right outside…
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling? Spontaneously getting three stripes on my white belt one afternoon when I had absolutely no idea that was coming. |
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If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be? I’d like to make this one a piece of advice for clubs hosting Globetrotters instead. I’m not going to ask you to be accepting of trans people; if you don’t support basic human rights, I don’t think there’s a point. I will ask this, though: Be vocal about it. Advertise. Be seen as an ally (and help us be seen). Put (Progress) Pride flags in your social media posts, on your doors. Sign posts with a simple “Our team is LGBTQ friendly”, or equivalent. Do those things – and then live by them.
If you’re worried that supporting a threatened and marginalized minority may cost you members, it may be time to check your privileges. Or, as we say in Germany: If you wonder what you would have done to stop fascism and genocide in the 1930s, you have the chance to do so now.
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| Less than 25 tickets left for our biggest camp of the year |
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Summer Camp in Heidelberg, a mega camp in every sense, will host over 300 participants on a vast mat space within the Germany Olympic team’s facilities in one of the region's most picturesque cities. |
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| Photos from Winter Camp last month |
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This tranquil, Japanese-style village in the middle of nowhere in the Polish countryside is the ideal haven in which to recharge both your Jiu Jitsu and yourself. Just sit beside a river, wander through the woods, stretch yourself out in a hammock under the stars and listen to the silence.
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| BJJ Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Simrishamns Muay Thai & BJJ |
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Where is the gym located?
The gym is near the train station in Simrishamn, Sweden, a small, typical old fishing town with a history going back to the Viking era. We're surrounded by history, old runestones, rock carvings and much more. The town is dead during winter, but in summer it's full of tourists.
How many people train there?
We started up in October 2024, so we're still a pretty small gym with around 30 members.
Is the gym growing - if so by how many new members each month or year?
We're getting new members every month, and a lot of people have come and gone during the first two weeks. We had over 40 unique visitors in the first two weeks, and most of them came back again.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training? Andres Taylor is the highest-ranked, and he’s a black belt. He runs the ecological grappling classes. I'm a brown belt, and there are some purple belts and blue belts too.
When did the gym open?
We started the grappling classes in our new location on 13/1 2025. Previously we had a temporary arrangement at a Dance academy. Unfortunately the floor was hard and unsuitable for grappling, so we could only do Muay Thai. During the summer we were also able to do weekly open mats on the beach.
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Some facts about you:
Name: Pär Berg Age: 45 Belt: Brown Profession: At university studying archaeology Years in BJJ: 18 Other martial arts: MMA, Muay Thai & Boxing Currently living in: Simrishamn, Sweden Originally from: Östersund |
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Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence My wife and I lived in Malmö, where we trained with Peter Blackwell (Checkmat). We are both small city kids and decided to move to the country. Simrishamn only had Shotokan Karate and old school Jujutsu, so we had to start our own dojo. We looked around and found some locals who wanted to train something different from what the city had to offer. With Andres' black belt and long experience as a coach, and my background as a Muay Thai coach and BJJ brown belt it was a no-brainer.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they? It is a mix of people from all walks of life and all ages, but the atmosphere is good and the people are nice.
Why do they train?
I think it is mainly social; it is not easy to meet new people as an adult, and then there is the health part.
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What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
Money – it is all about the money. We are a non-profit gym, but we still invest private money and hope to get it back one day. We still have to pay for the mat, the equipment and the rent. It's hard to get sponsors and we have to survive the first year before we can get any help from the government.
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
I think it will grow. The closest gym is in Ystad - 45 minutes by train from here. It's a nice gym called Mañana and they have a lot of members.
What’s the best thing about your gym?The people. It's a friendly atmosphere. We're not a tough-guy gym.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym? OMG! There's so much to see, all the history from the Stone Age through the Viking Age to more recent times. The surrounding nature is beautiful with beaches and nature reserves.
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Thanks for sharing! If you'd like to visit Simrishamns Muay Thai & BJJ, you can contact them here. |
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