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| | | BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // March 2025 | | Dear Globetrotters, We’re at that rare time of the year when there was no camp last month, so I have no camp photos to post in this newsletter. Right now, we’re in full preparation for the big summer season, which kicks off in just over a month with a completely sold-out Spring Camp in Tallinn—a camp that has truly become a classic for us. After that comes Zen Camp, this year in a spring edition with cherry blossoms in full bloom. If you’d like to join us for a week of training, sauna, board games, and hammocks, there are still tickets available! More than 1,500 participants are already signed up for this year and we couldn't be more excited to get on the mats with everyone.
A handful of new camps have just been confirmed, in case you missed the announcements:
As I write this, I’m taking a break from installing mats in the basement of my new house here in Denmark. Once it’s finished, the first thing I’ll do is sign up on Matsurfing—and I hope some of you will come visit and roll with me! I'm only half an hour north of Copenhagen. Have a great day, | | | |
What you'll find in this month's newsletter: - Featured Globetrotter: Can Sömnez
- Globetrotters Academy in Focus: East York BJJ
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| | | Join us for a true, beach town experience this summer! |
| | 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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| | | | Last 25 tickets left for the 10th anniversary of our USA Camp |
| | 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! |
| | | | Featured Globetrotter: Can Sömnez |
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| | Age: 43
Belt: Black
Profession: Full time BJJ instructor at Artemis BJJ
How many years in BJJ: Since 2006, so 19 at the time of writing
Other martial arts: First one was fencing as a teenager for a year, then a weird TKD/kickboxing/kung fu hybrid at uni called Zhuan Shu Kuan, for about 8 years. I’ve dipped into lots of others over the decades (judo, MMA, etc), but very intermittent.
Where do you live: Bristol, UK
Where are you from: Always a difficult question. I was born in Belgium to a German mother and Turkish father. We then moved to the UK, bouncing around the country due to my father’s job. I have a German passport and a British one. I usually just say I’m European.
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: Outside of BJJ, I am a massive geek, so I love stuff like Warhammer 40k, DnD, anime, comics, etc. I’ve been salsa dancing for years (I’m still rubbish, but it’s fun and my teacher is awesome). I also have shared my home with a variety of adorable guinea pigs for the last 20+ years. |
| | Tell us what inspired you to travel and train? Blogs, pretty much, back when those were a thing (at this point, I’ve largely switched to my ArtemisBJJ Instagram instead). I started blogging about my martial arts training in the early 2000s. Initially that was in posts sharing my training experiences with like-minded martial arts nerds on message boards, such as Tung-Fu, Cyberkwoon and most importantly, Bullshido.
I transferred those posts to a blogger site a little later, which became slideyfoot.com. Once I began posting on there about BJJ in 2006, that made it one of the very few BJJ blogs around at the time. The main BJJ bloggers I remember from those days were Seymour (of Meerkatsu fame), Val Worthington, and a certain Christian Graugart.
BJJ blogs got increasingly popular over the years, with numerous interesting writers getting involved. I would spend hours reading and commenting on as many as possible, which built up a friendly network. Lots of these bloggers lived outside the UK: I decided I would like to meet them in person. There were also the many contacts I’d made via sites like Bullshido. When I finally made it out to the US for the first time in 2012, I therefore had loads of people I wanted to visit.
I was blown away by the hospitality. Georgette was especially amazing: thanks to her generosity and kindness, I had a fantastic time in Texas, staying at her beautiful home. John (who I knew through Bullshido as simply jnp) was another wonderful person I hung out with on that trip. He gave me some excellent BJJ advice I use to this day, about a control point framework. That experience sparked off repeat trips to the US to meet more bloggers, demonstrating to me what an incredible community BJJ can be.
Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
I travel often: looking at the last few months, I was in Spain in January 2025, along with teaching at the BJJ Globetrotters Winter Camp earlier that month, plus a seminar I taught in Munich. Last November I ran an Artemis BJJ Camp in Berlin, headed to my parent’s second home near Bodrum in October, visited my good friend Mike V in Madison, Wi during September and I taught in Heidelberg last August. I count myself very fortunate to be able to travel as much as I do.
Coming up this year so far, I’ll be teaching at my friend’s camp in Wales in April, then it’s the first iteration of the Artemis BJJ London Camp in May, a trip to Portugal in July, along with a return to Berlin in October to run another camp there. I’d love to somehow squeeze in Heidelberg again, but we’ll see if I can make that work.
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| | What are the things you enjoy about travelling? I love visiting my friends, many of whom I first met at BJJ Globetrotters Camps. That’s the primary reason I travel, as most of my close friends live outside of the UK. I also enjoy art and history, along with trying out the food. I’m not really a foodie (I’m pretty bad at savouring food, I usually eat it too fast), but an interesting local dish tends to be a travel highlight.
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that make it worth traveling and training?
I’ve already mentioned a few, but as those were from quite a while ago, I’ll share some more recent examples.
Exploring the cheese market in Madison, WI with Mike, my student Dan, a black belt friend from London and a new friend from the North of England was cool, before we then all trained together at Mike’s gym. The day finished with a gloriously indulgent feast featuring those famous US portion sizes.
Sparring in Munich with some Globetrotters friends on Halloween, then heading out dressed as a squirrel. We continued on to the restaurant, enjoying our food still in costume, before promoting my close friend Eva to blue belt at the end of the meal.
Hanging out with my old student Erin in Melbourne, then jumping on the train to Ballarat, where I met up with another BJJ friend that breeds horses. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting riding tips from her and learning about gaited horses, before heading back to Melbourne for a class with Liv and Lachlan Giles at Absolute MMA.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling? Probably in Nepal in 2004, during a fabulous round the world trip (when there were still comparatively cheap student offers, allowing a certain number of stops per continent). While I sat outside eating at a restaurant, a baby rhino appeared, took a fancy to me and laid its head on my lap. That was one heavy baby, so I just had to wait until it got bored and wandered off. |
| | Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip? I am fairly budget, so I’ve done the FlixBus thing before. That’s probably the cheapest way to get around Europe, especially with airlines charging so much for luggage now. In terms of planning for a trip, the biggest concern for me isn’t usually cost, it’s my mental health.
I have a mild form of bipolar called cyclothymia. With that, the manic and depressive phases switch over in a fairly regular pattern. In my case, it is usually every 7 to 16 days. Although I don’t have control over when the phases switch, I can at least track them, which enables me to take an educated guess.
If my travel falls on a depressive phase, that can have a big impact, especially if I’m travelling to teach at a camp. I therefore try to be very careful about which camps I select. I aim to pick (or organise) camps where I have good friends going too, who I know I can depend on for support if I do happen to slip into a depressive phase.
Letting people know you’re struggling is important, which is why I wanted to make a point of mentioning it on here, for readers who might be in the same boat. I’m lucky that my condition is mild. Many people have it a lot worse. A strong support network makes such a huge difference.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be? To go with something mundane, vacuum compression bags to maximise your luggage space. You don’t need an actual vacuum: the bags usually come with a simple handpump. Be careful though, as the airlines are getting strict on hand luggage. It used to be I could just wander through with a bulging backpack, but they check more regularly now. I have fit two gis, five full sets of rashguard and spats plus non-training clothes into hand luggage before thanks to those vacuum compression bags, but to be sure to avoid any extra fees, I would recommend cutting that amount in half. |
| | | | Less than 5 tickets left for our biggest camp of the year |
| | 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. |
| | | | The most relaxing camp of them all - this year as a Spring edition! 🌸 |
| | 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: East York BJJ |
| | Where is the gym located?
241 Pauline Dr, York, PA 17402, United States
How many people train there?
We currently have over 150 students.
Is the gym growing - if so by how many new members each month or year?
Our official grand opening was on March 1st. Little early to say how many we’ll grow each month, but I’m expecting to be around 10-15 students per month, the 1st year. Many of our current students came with us from a few different schools in the area.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training? We have every belt color represented; from white to black.
When did the gym open?
March 1, 2025.
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| | Owners Front: 3rd degree black belt, Tom Fleming Back (L>R): Aaron Fillman, Richard Keever, Chris Stillwagner, Brian McKee |
| Some facts about you:
Name: Richard Keever Age: 42 Belt: Black Profession: Financial technology Years in BJJ: 14 Other martial arts: Judo Currently living in: Maryland, United States Originally from: Portage, IN |
| | Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence Where do I begin???
My friends & I co-own 2 BJJ gyms. Our 1st opened in Jan. 2025 (Hereford BJJ, located in Parkton, MD). Our 2nd BJJ gym opened on Mar. 1, 2025. We all trained at a different affiliation, leaders of these schools, and in some cases fellow owners. However, we saw some things from other owners that made us feel we could do things better. So we decided to leave and start our own gyms. Hereford had been in the works even before we left, but everything accelerated once we decided to leave the affiliation.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they? I love my training partners. Some of my best friends were made through BJJ. Our mat room will have wrestlers to accountants, and everything in between. We have competitors and hobbyists all cheering each other on. Everyone defines success differently and it’s important to celebrate other people’s wins. The truly is an ego-free training environment.
Why do they train?
Some train because their life may depend on it, while others train to bond with their kids. Most use the mat space to de-stress from life. |
| | What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically?
I think most people go into this thinking primarily about the coaching aspect of being an owner. There’s just so much more to it - manufacturing leads, creating enough value that makes the prospect want to spend their time with you, then closing the deal. The biggest challenge is when a prospective is unresponsive for several days or even weeks… or we never get a response at all.
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
We’re changing the game in our area. Righting a lot of wrongs we felt were important to students. The future is bright.
What’s the best thing about your gym?The people. Hands down. Not even close. Oh… and we’re installing a pit wall.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym? There are a lot of historical places in our area. Put on a good pair of hiking shoes and check out Gettysburg, Annapolis Rock (Appalachian Trail), or go into Baltimore to walk along the harbour.
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Thanks for sharing! If you'd like to visit East York BJJ, you can contact them here. |
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