Chagrin Falls, OH
210-639-1353 | Email | Facebook | Instagram
I started training in martial arts around the age of 10. I have trained in a wide variety of styles/disciplines over the years, I love them all and it’s always been a passion of mine. I first got exposed to Shooto sometime around 1998 through an instructor that was certified in “Shootfighting” under Bart Vale. This was my initial formal training in grappling outside of some high school wrestling experience and a few basic takedowns I had learned from other styles. It strongly influenced my grappling style and mindset. Years later, I learned it that it was derived from Catch Wrestling, and when the opportunity presented, I went back to those roots, and have been attending training camps/seminars with Joel Bane (SnakePit USA), Jake Shannon (Scientific Wrestling), as well as Josh Barnett seminars. I’ve known who Erik Paulson was since I was a teenager, remember Blackbelt Magazine articles and various JKD books/articles with him in it. I like his teaching methods, instructional videos, and laid-back personality. The guy is a fountain of knowledge and he is definitely someone on my bucket list of people I would like to personally meet and learn from someday. I think it is an outstanding idea for him to have developed a Shooto specific curriculum, there is not a lot of available information out there on this style. I look forward to seeing what this program has to offer, re-learning what I was taught in the past, building from that foundation, and trying to apply it at the MMA gym I currently train at.