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| | | BJJ Globetrotters Newsletter // October 2025 | | Dear Globetrotters,
Not much has been happening over the past month, but we still managed to put together two interesting interviews that I hope you’ll enjoy reading.
While we’re taking a short break from camps right now, we’ve been busy preparing next year’s schedule — which should be fully announced by now (we’re just waiting to confirm Arizona Camp). Here’s the updated ticket status for all upcoming camps: We’ve decided that this coming January will be the final Winter Camp. After 11 incredible years and countless amazing memories, it feels like the right time to move on. Of course, we’ll never say never—maybe one day it’ll make a comeback—but as things stand, three months from now will be your last chance to join us in the snow ❄️
Have a great day! | | | |
What you'll find in this month's newsletter: - Featured Globetrotters: Anton Ibsen & Hektor Danielsen
- Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Lore Martial Arts
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| | | 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! |
| | | | After 11 years, Winter Camp is retiring. Join us for the last one! |
| | Our Family friendly summer camp in Austria has been incredibly popular, so we decided to do another edition in the Winter! It will be directly followed by our usual adult Winter Camp. Join one or join both!
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| | | | Featured Globetrotter: Anton Ibsen & Hektor Danielsen |
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| | Age: 19 (Hektor) & 20 (Anton)
Belt: Blue (Hektor) & White (Anton)
Profession: We both just finished high school.
How many years in BJJ: 2.5 years (Hektor) & 1.5 years (Anton).
Other martial arts: Hektor has done wrestling for around 8 years, and Anton has trained karate for around 2.5 years.
Where do you live: Frederikssund, Denmark
Where are you from: Denmark
Other fun or curious information you would like to share: Hektor's dad has been training MMA for 20 years, and recently changed his focus to BJJ where he has a purple belt. In Denmark, he's our coach every Wednesday. Therefore, the three of us often spend time together, both for training, competitions, and relaxing. |
| | What inspired you to travel and train? Both of us have a big urge to go on adventures, and in recent years both of us also picked up a big passion for BJJ. So one day, after training in Hektor's garage, we watched a traveling video and agreed that we would do the same, just with BJJ as our main focus. This is because we've previously experienced connecting in a different and special way with other passionate BJJ people, when we meet them on the mats. Tell us about your most recent trip and what's next – where have you been and where are you going?
Our most recent trip is the past 4 days we've spent in Oostkamp (Belgium), living and training with Maksym Witkowski. Leaving Denmark, we put up a post in the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group where we described our trip and asked if anybody was willing to let us train with them. Among others, Maksym reached out and offered us to sleep in his guest room and train. Maksym has his own small BJJ gym in his garage, and therefore host several training sessions a day. So the last 4 days we've lived here in Oostkamp and trained BJJ twice a day with Maksym and his training partners. It's been a great and very educational experience to train with all his skilled students, while spending time with Maksym and his student Keenan outside of the gym. Now we'll go to Brussels for two days and rest after all the tough training sessions at Maksym's. After Brussels, we will go to Paris for two days to watch UFC, party, and join some open mats, and from there we will move down through the east of Europe to Istanbul, where we'll catch a flight to Thailand on 1 October and participate in ADCC Phuket .
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| | What do you enjoy most about travelling? We love to experience how different people live, and their different perspectives on life. To bring these perspectives home with us and alongside our adventures... we find that very valuable. And speaking for both of us, we feel most alive when we're out traveling, instead of being at home with a meaningless fulltime job, earning money just to earn money.
Any particularly memorable experiences that made it all worth it?
We have only been travelling for 8 days, as of right now, but the last 4 days here at Maksym’s place near Brugge, Belgium, have been really nice, and definitely worth the trip. To experience Maksym's hospitality and very high-level BJJ, together with being physically pressured to our maximum in Maksym's demanding and challenging training environment, has for us been the experience of a lifetime, and definitely something we will bring with us home to our own training and in our everyday life.
What has surprised you the most while travelling? Even though it is a cliche, and what everybody is saying, it still surprises us how kind and hospitable people are. It's a feeling that you can only experience firsthand. |
| | | Are you a budget traveller – and if so how do you plan for a cheap trip? We are very much traveling on a budget. Before we left home, we planned how to use our money, and agreed on a daily budget. We've been using different apps and websites to find the cheapest places to sleep, and brought a lot of food with us from home. Furthermore, we made a post about who we are in the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group, and asked if anyone needed help with anything in exchange for free BJJ training, a meal, or accommodation.
Any advice for your fellow Globetrotters? Be open for different opportunities.
Don’t be afraid to ask.
Give it your all when training at different clubs! It is the least you can do when you get training for free, but be a good sparring partner at the same time!
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| | | | Our biggest camp of the year is back next summer! |
| | We’re heading back to Heidelberg for our biggest camp of the year and another incredible week of BJJ training, workshops, diving competitions, morning yoga sessions, midnight cocktail bar crawls, and free beer open mats.
This stunning university town has become a regular on our annual camp calendar and we are excited to see you all there!
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| | | | BJJ Globetrotters Academy in Focus: Lore Martial Arts |
| | Where is the gym located?
Our gym has no building. It’s a nomadic outdoor dojo in Antalya, Türkiye. So we don’t have a single location. We have spots we love, like parks and beaches. We can change locations when needed, or just because we want to. These days, we do our technical training in Erdal İnönü Park, Lara, and our Open Mats at Konyaaltı Public Beach. After the Open Mats, we love swimming in the sea.
How many people train there?
Average 15 on the mat. But our community is much bigger and it’s getting bigger. Antalya is a tourism city and the circulation of local and global people is incredible.
Is the gym growing - if so by how many new members each month or year?
Definitely! Every day more and more people are messaging us or watching our trainings and getting inspired and deciding to try it.
Moreover, our story, political stance, and philosophy are attracting attention from people around the world. Now, a different coach comes to the seminar every week to support us. We fired 1 coach, and now we're like a team with 1,000 coaches.
I can’t say how many members we have actually, because we are not a traditional gym that records, charges and monitors its members. We are just a living, organic community, a group of free-spirited people who like to meet and train on certain days and times.
What are the highest and lowest belt grades training? White to black, all kind of BJJ enthusiasts.
When did the gym open?
We founded the team in January 2025. Becoming a fully open-air dojo is relatively new.
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| | Some facts about you:
(I'm not a coach, and I'm only a white belt. However, being a cultural anthropologist, understanding the dynamics of social interaction, being good at interpersonal communication, and enjoying creating things with my friends has led me to find myself doing this.
I'm not the team's coach, but I am the one who takes on the responsibility of making things happen. Perhaps you could call it an opinion leader, like a tribal chief. Chiefs look like leaders, but they actually handle the crap that no one else wants to deal with.
I also want it to be known that I don't do all of this alone. I share the management of all this hustle and bustle with my dear wife. We achieve this thanks to the hard work and patience of even our 3-year-old daughter.
In short, I want to emphasize that our team is not run by a single person in authority, but by a BJJ family and the solidarity of the entire community.)
Name: Erdem Erdem Age: 35 Belt: White Profession: Cultural Anthropologist Years in BJJ: 1 Other martial arts: Just BJJ Currently living in: Antalya, Türkiye Originally from: Antalya, Türkiye |
| | Please tell us the story of how your gym came into existence We kicked out our bully black belt coach and left the gym as a whole team, which ignored our complaints about hygiene, excessive heat, lack of air and illnesses. We decided to continue as a completely nomadic outdoor open-air dojo. So this makes us a handful of Creontes? :D Who gives shit. We live in Antalya. This city is best for doing this.
All our classes are free and open for gentle souls. Open for anyone who respects the community.
We meet all our needs through community-based solidarity. The team relies on donations. These donations could be money for new mats, cleaning supplies, etc., or seminars, even social media support. Of course, none of this is mandatory; it's voluntary.
This has become more than just a dojo. It's become a protest stance, a philosophy of life, against the despicable behavior and relationships we want to eradicate, both in the BJJ world and in the rest of life—bullying, dictatorship, narcissistic personality patterns, cult dynamics, gatekeeping, and so on...
Tell us about the people that train in the gym – who are they? I can say that we are a multicultural team. As far as I know, our youngest is 18 and our oldest is 56. We have people of all ages, professions, and moods: Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, British, Chechen... University students, baristas, statisticians, tour guides, anthropologists, hospital attendants, IT specialists, chefs…
My biggest dream is that one day a chiropractor, a physiotherapist, a masseur or someone with a similar profession will join us.
Why do they train? I think BJJ is a form of escapism. In my opinion, it's similar to reading science fiction or fantasy. Turn off the switch in your head, escape to a place you love to escape to, think about nothing else for a while.
We also have friends who are interested in competitive sports.
At the end of the day, I can say that progressing in a challenging endeavor is incredibly rewarding.
The most important thing about us is that we prioritize camaraderie, the essentials of community, and the fascinating aspect of building a culture together, both on and off the mat. I think it's a community people love to be a part of.
BJJ is also a great way to burn calories.
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| | What are some of the challenges of running a BJJ gym in general, and in your area specifically? Because we don't have a fixed location, three times a week we tie 45 tatami mats to the roof of our car, drive to the training site, set up the mat, clean up before and after training, stack the mats again, load them into the car, take them home, and carry them to the basement. When we say nomadic, we don't just say it for fun. In a country whose foundations were laid by nomads, we know what nomadism means, and we fully implement these dynamics.
Before all this, we leave my 3-year-old daughter with my mother, and then we go back and pick her up.
Imagine doing all this, plus video shooting, editing, social media management, and so on, as a second job while both husband and wife work full-time jobs and raise children.
Every other problem is surmountable. This is the challenging part. Despite everything, we will keep doing it until we can't anymore. We love this thing we've created and our friends. It gives our lives meaning.
How do you see the future for BJJ in your area?
Seeing how much interest and support people from all over the world show us gives me hope for the future. We've planted a seed, and I believe we'll grow it into a mighty tree.
We believe that all our efforts will transform Antalya into a city of BJJ tourism. We want to inspire others and pioneer a new generation of sports culture. We want to support our stakeholders in this sport and engage in friendly competition with new initiatives.
Let's not forget that all of this stemmed from the city's only black belt believing he could treat people however he pleased because he had a monopoly. He never considered that people wouldn't prefer him if a second black belt came to the city. Moreover, people didn't even wait for another black belt to come to kick him off the team; they chased after a white belt. Everyone, learn the lesson here. BJJ isn't just a sport. It's a team effort. This is a matter of sharing culture.
So, we're hopeful. Even though we are a small, very new and unconventional team, it is clear that we have contributed to the formation of a new generation movement, both for ourselves and for BJJ.
What’s the best thing about your gym?We are a nomadic outdoor dojo. We are an unorthodox and experimental team. We did not bow to tyranny. We train under the sky, near the sea, breathe with the trees, roll on the grass, laugh with the people we love…
There is nothing like seeing how impressed and delighted people from all over the world are when they visit our mat with what we have created.
What would you recommend Globetrotters to see in your area apart from the inside of your gym? Come and touch the spirit of this city. I can say that. I don't need to say everything else Google can say.
Come join us! Share this experience with us. ,Come to give a seminar to us, come to take classes with us. Support us, become one of us. We're waiting for you!
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Thanks for sharing! If you'd like to visit Lore Martial Arts, you can contact them here. |
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