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| | | BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // May 2023 | | Dear Globetrotters,
Just got back home yesterday from Estonia and what a nice week that was! A big thanks to the many Globetrotters who came out to the first, big camp of the season. We had more than 200 people on the mats in beautiful Tallinn and there was lots of Jiu Jitsu, yoga, good food and medieval stuff. The camp for next year is already confirmed for April 22-28 and will be formally announced and open for registration soon.
I hope you'll enjoy the profiles in this newsletter, it is always nice to hear from/about people in our community, also those who doesn't have the chance to make it to the camps.
Have a nice day,
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What you'll find in this month's newsletter: - Photos from last week's Spring Camp in Estonia
- Featured Globetrotters: TJ Jankowski & Beatriz Amaral
- Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Dahlonega BJJ
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| | | | | | * From July 5th to 8th, 2023 *
* In Tórshavn, Faroe Islands *
* Four day training camp *
* Gi and no-gi classes all day long *
* Modern training facilities 3 min. drive from downtown Tórshavn *
* Direct flights from multiple European cities *
* Affordable accommodation option *
* High level international instructors *
* Everyone welcome, regardless of experience or affiliation *
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| | | | Photos from last week's Spring Camp in Estonia |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New Zen Camp spring edition announced for 2024! |
| | * Now a full week training camp *
* New spring edition *
* Monday, April 15th to Sunday, April 21st *
* In the middle of nowhere, Poland *
* Accommodation in traditional Japanese houses *
* Huge mat space *
* Gi laundry service *
* Free use of spa and sauna *
* All meals included *
* Bottled water, tea, and coffee included *
* Daily sauna therapy sessions *
* Board games *
* Daily workshops and lectures *
* Mushroom picking in the forest *
* Morning yoga classes *
* Everyone welcome, regardless of experience and affiliation *
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| | | | Featured Globetrotters: TJ Jankowski & Beatriz Amaral |
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| | Age: 34 & 25
Belt: Purple & blue
Profession: Online Strength and Fitness Consultant, rugby-muscle.com Admin Assistant.
How many years in BJJ: About 4 years (TJ) and 2 years (Beatriz)
Other martial arts: No martial arts as such, but we both played rugby to a decent level.
Where do you live: Kinda anywhere we want.
Where are you from: St Albans, UK (TJ) and Curitiba, Brazil (Beatriz)
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: I always enjoy the fact that B got her blue belt before ever training in Brazil.
We also have a contractual obligation to state that we are vegan (which surprises most people we tell).
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| | Tell us what inspired you to travel and train? In our hearts we’ve always been explorers, having both lived overseas to play rugby. We actually met when B was in Colorado to play for a season.
The tipping point for the life we live now was the you-know-what in 2020. B had to give up rugby and TJ went fully online with work. There were now no restrictions keeping us in any fixed location, so we sold most of out stuff that didnt fit into 2 suitcases + 2 carry-ons and booked a couple months in the remote beach town of Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic and from there haven’t really looked back. Tell us about your most recent travel and your upcoming travel – where have you been and where are you going?
In the past year we’ve been to Bangkok, Phuket, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Italy, Colorado, St Albans, London, Leeds, Oslo, Curitiba, and Florianopolis. Typing it out seems like quite a lot but we usually keep a hub and develop a routine over a few months.
We’ve just sorted plans to head to Albania for the summer (maybe visiting a bit more of Europe, whilst we’re there) and then make our way to Australia via Bali at the end of 2023.
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| | What are the things you enjoy about travelling? Ready for a cliché? Seeing the world and experiencing completely different cultures is what makes life worth living. In a way, it slows the passage of time because we get to have so many unique experiences in all of these new places.
Day-to-day we are actually ridiculously routined, but we get to spend our “off” time creating more memories in different places.
Add in BJJ training to the mix and wherever we go, we get to make friends for life… there’s something about the mindset and vulnerability of grappling that makes connections much easier and faster. These friends will also generously help us make each place feel like much more of a “home” than a tourist attraction to look at. The different ways people all go about life is fascinating.
There’s also an amazing sense of gratitude and appreciation for life, especially when seeing first-hand how the vast majority of the world are just really good people.
Oh, and actually the biggest thing is that we can basically avoid winter 😉
Can you give us some examples of experiences you had that makes it worth traveling and training?
Our first experience of travelling and training came about solely because of the help of the BJJ Globetrotters group. We had never heard of Las Terrenas, and would never have found it if it wasn’t for the recommendation. It was PARADISE.
Another cool experience was when we met Vara (#askvara) in Phuket, she gave us the inside scoop on local places and invited us to join her in Bangkok. We had an awesome weekend and took part in a fundraiser open mat for a lad that had been injured in Phuket.
What has so far been the most surprising experience for you when traveling?
Rather than say one particular thing, I think the experience as a whole has been surprising. Namely, how easy and “normal” this lifestyle feels to us |
| | Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip?
We are absolutely “budget” travellers, in the literal sense that B keeps a running budget month-to-month. This means we can intentionally tighten up when we need to so that we can splurge on short-term trips and experiences that are really worth it (like Globetrotter camps!).
Living in places where our money goes much further is probably the most obvious money-save, but also, like, actually “living” in places helps too! Some AirBnB’s drop their prices over 50% for a monthly rental. We also rarely eat out more than, say, twice a week, but we can still experience local food in supermarkets!
Figuring out frequent flyer miles and points etc is a huge saver (if only we’d learned this earlier) and packing our gis in our hand-luggage always helps us to avoid paying overweight fees for our checked luggage. Actually, being restricted to two suitcases and two carry-on bags also forces you to restrict the “stuff” that you can buy and own (which is in reality very liberating), especially when a good chunk of which is training gear. We should also thank our sponsors @soultakerfightwear who support us with all the training gear we could possibly need.
A couple more practical tips - having a Wise or Schwab account also means you can deal in the local currency without paying fees and using the Airalo app to download eSim cards can give you data cheaply and conveniently wherever you are.
If you were to pass on travel advice to your fellow Globetrotters, what would it be? I feel kinda preachy saying this but, because this goes out to the Globetrotters newsletter it should strike a chord with some of you. At the time of writing time travel doesn’t exist, that means every moment that passes is gone forever. There are always going to be reasons that “could” stop you from travelling, but they don’t necessarily need to.
One of the first things Christian ever said to me way that “it’s only scary until you get out the door, then it all becomes natural.” This is so true.
We often get comments from people saying they admire or envy our life, but to us it feels completely normal. I’d genuinely encourage everyone to travel as much as feasibly possible. How feasible that is will depend upon you, but it will be more than you think and probably more than you’re comfortable with…. It’s definitely worth it.
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| | | Less than 45 tickets left for our mega-camp in Estonia this summer! |
| | * From July 17th to 22nd, 2023 *
* In Pärnu, Estonia *
* Easy bus connection from Tallinn and Riga *
* Direct flights from Helsinki and Stockholm *
* Huge mat space in a beautiful beach town *
* Six-day training camp *
* 20+ black belt instructors *
* 45+ gi and nogi classes *
* 25+ hours of open mats *
* High-level international instructors *
* Yoga every morning *
* All experience levels and affiliations welcome! *
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| | | | BJJ Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Dahlonega BJJ |
| | Where is the gym located?
The gym is located in Dahlonega, GA (USA), a small town in the north Georgia mountains.
How many people train there?
We have about 25 students currently. We just opened two months ago.
Is the gym growing - if so by how many new members each month or year?
It is definitely growing. We are adding about 10-15 members a month.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training?
We have white belts through brown belts.
When did the gym open?
March 6, 2023
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| | Some facts about you:
Name: David Curtis Age: 37 Belt: Brown Profession: Jiu Jitsu Instructor/Gym Owner Years in BJJ: 6 years Other martial arts: No Currently living in: Cumming, GA Originally from: Pennsylvania |
| | Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence After discovering my passion for Jiu Jitsu and truly falling in love with the art, it became apparent that not only did I love training Jiu Jitsu, I loved teaching and coaching Jiu Jitsu even more. I wanted to dedicate my life to it. After getting the opportunity to coach the no gi classes under my professor, Layton Wilcox at Canton BJJ, I felt that the next step of progression for me was to open my own gym.
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they? We have people from all walks of life. Dahlonega is home to one of the senior military colleges in the United States. It also houses one of the country's Army Ranger training camps. So, we get a lot of members with a military background. We also have everyday people. Adults working your typical 9-5, moms, and other college students. Our kids program is starting to take off as well. Being a new, smaller school at the moment, we are excited with how things are progressing and the culture we are building. The gym is coming together better than I ever imagined that it would.
Why do they train? The same reason that a lot of us train. They want something more in life. Something real. Many may want to feel empowered. Some come for exercise, self defence, or to sharpen their skills for their career. Ultimately, a lot of people come for that sense of camaraderie and community that comes with training at a good place.
What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically? In general, the biggest challenge is learning the business side of running a gym. For instance, understanding marketing, advertising, and creating value for your members. Another big one seems to be just embracing the grind and responsibility. At the end of the day, the success of the gym hinges on you as an individual for a very long time and that feeling can be slightly daunting. Lastly, and maybe this is me specifically, but just trying to take care of my body while growing the gym. When there are a lot of people, you can pick and choose rounds, but when there are smaller classes you have to lead. You have to take the beating day in and day out.
The biggest challenge specific to our area is the rotating membership due to the college and military schedules.
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| | How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
Honestly, I see it growing quite a bit. We have seen a real desire for high level grappling in the north Georgia area. There are actually quite a few high level people who want to learn it not just for sport purposes, but for practical purposes as well. Be it for occupations and careers specific to this area, or to learn some self defence, or maybe just to get the kids off screens for a bit, it seems like north Georgia wants Jiu Jitsu in their lives.
What’s the best thing about your gym?The people. Watching everybody go from strangers to each other to seeing them form friendships and bonds with one another. Watching them achieve their goals, not just with Jiu Jitsu, but with life. Seeing their confidence grow in different situations. Watching the growth of each individual. Those are the greatest moments.
If I had to pick just one though, it's doing this with my wife and kids. One thing that hasn’t been discussed yet, is how much help you need along the way. If it weren't for some very good friends, an incredible coach, a supportive family and an even more amazing life partner, I truly would not be given this opportunity. It is to them that this gym is, in many ways, dedicated to. We would be nothing without the help and support of those in our lives.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym? The list could go on forever, really. From amazing local food to large community driven festivals, Dahlonega stands alone in its people and its beauty. You could get lost in the scenery forever. We did. That’s why Dahlonega BJJ exists and we truly hope to see you all on the mats.
To be more specific, you should definitely check out:
Gold rush (festival once a year)
Bear on the Square (festival once a year)
Amicalola Falls (state park)
Historic downtown
Winerys
Golf Course
River Rafting
This truly could go on forever…
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Thanks for sharing! If you'd like to visit Dahlonega BJJ, you can contact them here. |
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