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Anyone know about this Coach and gym?

I think his video says he made up a style.


Anyhow he does have real accomplishments. It's his odd lineage and his website that turn me off
 
I think his video says he made up a style.


Anyhow he does have real accomplishments. It's his odd lineage and his website that turn me off

The fact that he claims no formal instruction but a 2nd degree BB makes me question what's up. Plus, it was under Leo Dalla. Now, Dalla is legit as a BJJ guy there can be no doubt. But didn't he give LI his BB really fast without training all that much with him? Has he given out any other odd BBs (as in, the guy hasn't trained a lot, is mostly self taught, or mostly got his chops from other arts)?
 
If he teaches how to do flying berimbolos, that's all that matters. :icon_twis
 
The fact that he claims no formal instruction but a 2nd degree BB makes me question what's up. Plus, it was under Leo Dalla. Now, Dalla is legit as a BJJ guy there can be no doubt. But didn't he give LI his BB really fast without training all that much with him? Has he given out any other odd BBs (as in, the guy hasn't trained a lot, is mostly self taught, or mostly got his chops from other arts)?
That's my same concern. Leo is legit but has some shady BB hand outs. So I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this gym?
As he could be anything really
 
To his credit:
His site seems to at least be customized to his school.

There are some legit grappling instructors (who post here) that have cookie-cutter sites with bogus testimonials an outrageous and unrealistic claims about how fast they can teach folks. But they keep them because they feel like it gets them a bunch of leads.

I'd rather have something simpler but legit, but I don't have to make rent/payroll/insurance, etc. so it's a bit of monday morning quarterbacking.

So props to him actually having his own site, but yeah, the "free video" schtick is pretty annoying.
 
Yeah I'm not trying to knock the guy. It's just that it's hard to discern what kinda school it is via the site. Which is why I don't like those style sites. They make you really question em
 
You can check it out and do a free trial, but I'd stay away of he uses LI marketing tactics.
 
You can check it out and do a free trial, but I'd stay away of he uses LI marketing tactics.

That also makes me leery. The 30 day trial is most likely going to have high pressure sales. Plus I'll get phone calls for weeks.

Really that kinda marketing though is a big draw, prolly pushes away people who are already practitioners. Honestly I am looking at the other gym in town a lot harder. As the website is a HUGE turnoff
 
No way would I choose to train at a school with the guy who came up with that website content. Skeeeeeeeeetchy.
 
Not sure where you are getting that he created his own styley clinch combat Jiu Jitsu.

His website just mentions his team name: Team Clinch Academy

It mentions BJJ as the classes

He is also mentionned that he is an officiall recognised second degree black belt.

Which leads me to think he is has the IBJJF certificate which means he can sign up your IBJJF BB certificate.

It's in his video.
 
interesting. e-mail the IBJJF and see if its legit, and what the deal with the 2nd degree thing is. Shouldn't be too difficult. If this starts to go south, put it on Bullshido, they will investigate. Nothing turns them on more over there than exposing a BJJ fraud (no that i'm saying he is).

I find it weird that the IBJJF would just give someone a BB, having never had an instructor, and the 2nd degree thing is incredibly strange.

If true though, its really impressive. The claims are very specific and seemed backed up with solid evidence. Do a bit of research, but it seems solid.
 
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Here's one of his instructors:

Tom Ledwell has been training at the Clinch Academy for over 7 years. Tom also:
* Has been a Clinch Academy BJJ Black Belt since January 2010.
* Has been a Maguilla BJJ Black Belt since September 2009

Not sure how he gets his BJJ Black Belt from Maguilla then Clinch?

and this:

"Luke is one of the only people in the world to earn a certified Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 2nd Degree Black Belt without a BJJ Instructor!"
 
Thanks. But yeah how does he get a BB from 2 places? Really none of my questions can be answered by the available info
 
"Luke is one of the only people in the world to earn a certified Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 2nd Degree Black Belt without a BJJ Instructor!"

Yeah, this was the statement that was sketchy to me. The fact that he keeps saying "certified" everywhere makes me tend to not believe it. When you overstate something, you're usually lying about it. Like, if you came up to me and said, "I don't like cake." And then five minutes later said again, "Cake is disgusting, isn't it!" And then I find out that my cake is gone. Sure, cake is so nasty. :rolleyes: Most instructors just say, "Hey, I'm a legit BB under [fill-in-the-blank]."

I researched some more and after my research, I would say it looks like he's legit. I found old, old forum (2005) posts talking about Luke Rinehart in competition. Says, "Pablo Popovich vs. Luke Rinehart: POPOVICH by Points". If he only lost by points to Popovich, then he's most likely legit. Also, if I remember correctly, the whole IBJJF certification for black belts happened in January of 2011. I found some articles that state that Luke Rinehart competed in the NY Open in April of 2011, so he had to be certified by someone.

However, I'm not a big fan of all the spammy looking sites. I even found a book by him called, "Financial Jiu-Jitsu: A Fighter's Guide to Conquering Your Finances" that is advertising his site. He also seems to have a lot of spammy landing pages set-up all over the place. Not a fan of that, but he appears legit.
 
Thanks. But yeah how does he get a BB from 2 places? Really none of my questions can be answered by the available info

You can't know the answer to lineage questions until you are at Combat Gold membership level.

Combat Gold is awesome. It's exactly like Combat Silver, except after class instead of getting pitched an upgrade to Combat Gold, you get to be pitched an upgrade to Combat Platinum.

Remember -- don't ask about Combat Gold. If you are deemed worthy, someone will approach you about Combat Gold.
 
Tom Ledwell has been training at the Clinch Academy for over 7 years. Tom also:
* Has been a Clinch Academy BJJ Black Belt since January 2010.
* Has been a Maguilla BJJ Black Belt since September 2009

Thanks. But yeah how does he get a BB from 2 places? Really none of my questions can be answered by the available info

I think what the sentence was (poorly) trying to say is that Ledwell has been training at Clinch since 2010, but received his BB in '09 from somewhere else.
 
hes got a black belt in Self Defense Tactics... I vote
downvoting-roman-gif_zpsd2588015.gif
 
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