John Will BJJ Australia
Congratulations must go to John B Will for his recent grading to 4th degree. Rigan Machado visited Australia to attend the Asia Pacific Will / Machado National Champs and took the opportunity to promote John Will to the rank of 4th Degree Black Belt!
Now here is a guy who has truly dedicated his life to studying many martial arts and fighting systems having taken the time and allocated the resources to travel overseas 50 times to share and expand his knowledge. No wonder he is a polific writer having started the highly successful Blitz magazine because he has so much to write about and share. I'm looking forward to catching up with John again and this time to do a story on him for our TV Show. Now if you want to ask John some questions about his travels or anything about his training send them to us and we will ask those questions and more and you will get to see him when we broadcast his story on our TV Show.
Graham Slater 2010
www.martialartschannel.tv
INSTRUCTOR BIO: John B Will SYNOPSIS:
- 30 years experience in Martial Arts/Self Defence Industry
- As founder and original owner of Australia’s Martial Arts Magazine – BLITZ – had opportunity to travel the world – learning- training and teaching – over 50 international trips
- Has held world titles in competition – and trained world title holders
- 1st Australian to earn a Black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
- Author of multiple Books, video’s, DVD’s on Self Defence related topics
- Currently teaches more than 100 seminars per year to law enforcement personnel and professional fighters
- BJJ rank: 3rd Degree Black Belt under the Machado brothers
John Will began his martial arts training in 1972. With a basic grounding in amateur wrestling, Goju Kai Karate and Taekwondo. He first left Australian shores in 1975 to study the indigenous martial arts systems of South East Asia; with many of those years spent in Indonesia learning Pentjak Silat.
In the late 80’s, he founded Blitz magazine, which gave him the means to travel and research the martial arts in many an exotic location.
The next twenty five years saw him take more than 50 overseas training trips; including stints in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, India, the U.S.A and Brazil. In ’82, he entered and won gold in the first World Silat Championships held in Jakarta, the first and at that time, the only non-Indonesian to accomplish that. His friendship with long-time training partner Richard Norton, opened many doors to him in the Unites States, that perhaps would have been closed to most people. So in the late 80’s, he began training with such notables as Benny Urquidez, Gene LeBell, Shuki Ron, Pete Cunningham, Rorion and Rickson Gracie and the Machado brothers.
In the late 80’s, a friendship with Rigan Machado allowed John to travel to and train in Brazil. There, he was exposed to a wide cross-section of Brazil’s best BJJ coaches, and so began his serious study of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He was finally awarded the rank of black belt by Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado in 1998; making him one of the ‘BJJ Dirty Dozen’, the first twelve non-Brazilian BJJ Black Belts in the world and the very first Australian to do so. Since, he has pioneered BJJ in this country; paving the way for many others.
Up until that time, John had taught Shootfighting, a street-oriented blend of Groundfighting and Stand-up work; but upon being graded to black belt under the Machado’s, he felt the time was right to promote and develop the Brazilian art here in Australasia. Hence, BJJ Australia, the Australasian branch of the Machado Organization, was formed. As national director for Machado BJJ, he has to this date, written four books, with plans for more in the pipeline.
Along with an American- based BJJ Black Belt, David Meyer, John founded Masterclass Curriculums – an organization that has successfully provided a professional grappling syllabus to over 200 schools throughout the USA and Europe. ( www.grappling.us )
His schedule is a demanding one, even by international standards. John now conducts in excess of seventy BJJ seminars throughout Australia and overseas, each calendar year. The growth of BJJ in Australasia has, to a large extent been as a direct result, of his regular seminar circuit. John has produced champions at national, international and world level – even in the Black Belt division – but when pushed on the point, has this to say; “everyone in my class is a champion – they demonstrated the attitude of a champion by just making the decision to do something different; to leave their comfort zones and take up martial arts training – what we have to offer is for the benefit of all people, not just the great athletes.”
The last few years have seen John take a far more active role in the development of cutting edge law enforcement defensive tactics programs. He now works with various groups, such as Sky Marshals, Federal Police, Special Operations Personnel and Military personnel both here at the ADF in Canberra and at Quantico in Virginia (USA) , to improve their arrest and control procedures.
Between writing books, running seminars, travelling and training with the worlds martial arts elite, our three time winner of the Blitz – Martial Arts Hall of Fame Award, can still be found most often, at his schools in Melbourne and Geelong.
Anyone wishing to learn more about John or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu can find information on the website www.bjj.com.au
