On Saturday, Dec. 6 Renato Tavares traveled to his affiliate academy Triton Fight Center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma for his yearly seminar.

The event gathered a whopping 130 students together. Seventeen of them were black belts including Triton Fight Center head instructor Piet Wilhelm, Renato Tavares himself, James Foster of GMA Foster BJJ in Seattle, WA, Mike Budnik, Gina Franssen and others. During the seminar Renato taught various back-takes.

Along with the seminar came the belt ceremony. In all, there were over twenty promotions for those who were deserving of new belt ranks.

As part of the twenty, three special promotions came in the form of black belts to Reed Haji, Tim Holman and Omar French.

Omar was amazed and although super cool he says it was also super scary. “It was amazing! Not so much for getting the rank but because your instructors trust you to represent them. It was insane amazing.”

Learn more about GMA Triton Fight Center at www.tritonfightcenter.com

James Foster (left) with Classy Grappler and student Tyy Withrow. Photo: Personal archive

One might have thought that video games and Jiu-Jitsu don’t mix well– that they would rival for one’s attention. But employees at Bungie, a video game developer, have found that Jiu-Jitsu can help them offset their time spent with working on video games.

On Sept. 8 James Foster of GMA Foster BJJ in Seattle, WA was invited to share his love of Jiu-Jitsu at the release party for the company’s newest product, Destiny.

We wondered about how this shared love of Jiu-Jitsu began at such a company and how the open mat was included at the party so we asked James:

GRACIEMAG: Can you describe the relationship between Bungie and Jiu-Jitsu?

JAMES FOSTER: Bungie provides many physical training options to help their employees escape the sedentary lifestyle of sitting in front of a computer countless hours a day. These activities include fencing, kickboxing, rock climbing on the in house rock wall, and Jiu-Jitsu among others. The president of the company, Harold Ryan, trained in grappling and pankration many years ago and is an avid mixed martial arts fan. The company hosts a different local BJJ black belt every couple of weeks to teach a class in their matted training room.

What event did you take part in and how did an open mat get scheduled?

Myself and my good friend Classy Grappler (famous for his online feud with Kit Dale) were invited to the Destiny launch party by our friend Luis Villegas who is a blue belt and an Engineering Lead at Bungie. We both had taught a mini seminar there around this time last year while the game was reaching the end stages of its five year creation process. Classy flew all the way from Texas to attend and Luis wanted to make sure we all got an opportunity to train, so an open mat was scheduled for the employees to take a break from all the excitement of the day.

Were you able to spread the art to more people in the process?

After we completed the open mat we were walking through the building in our gis while they were doing tours for all of the Bungie/Destiny fans (there were thousands of people lined up outside, many who camped out the night before). One gentleman looked at both of us with his eyes wide and said “Whoa, they even roll here too, that’s awesome!?!?!”, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu truly is everywhere We also ran into some employees who didn’t know the company offered a BJJ program and were very excited to start training there!

During the party I met several individuals who either trained in the past or were looking to start training. It was awesome to celebrate the launch of the game with the creators and share our mutual love of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with others at the same time. They spent the past 5 years of their lives creating a truly one of a kind experience, I’m just honored to have shared a small part of that!

Follow more of James Foster Jiu-Jitsu journeys at http://www.fbjjonline.com/

Akins is the third American to receive a black belt from Rickson Gracie and has fifteen years of training under the legend to attribute to his experience. He was also a head instructor for Rickson Gracie for four years.

Don’t miss this long-time teacher and practitioner of the gentle art.

The seminar will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the cost is $100 is you pre-order.

Foster BJJ is located at 8256 S 1192nd St. Kent, WA 98032.

To register your spot, go to www.kyspromotions.com/seminar 

Check out more of GMA Foster BJJ at www.fbjjonline.com

The event will be on Saturday, July 12 starting at 11 a.m. at 1601 S. Roosevelt Seaside, OR 97138.

The cost is $75 per person which will give entry to the seminar, a meal and a raffle ticket for prizes.

You can pre-order your ticket by calling Professor Nathan at 503-739-0278 or register via paypal at www.oregonjjevents.com

A fellow Jiu-Jitsu comrade is currently battling a rare form of cancer. In order to offset the costs for such a journey, James Foster of GMA Foster BJJ has scheduled a charity seminar that gathers the top black belts in the northwest.

This seminar will be held on Feb. 22 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Foster BJJ located at 8256 South 192nd Street, Kent, Washington 98032.

Foster says, “Friends, please join us in helping to raise funds to support our BJJ brother Karl Walters Jr. and his family by participating in this one of a kind event featuring multiple World class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belts! Karl is valiantly battling a rare form of cancer and his BJJ family has his back and is ready to face this opponent with him.”

Black belts who will teach at the seminar:

James “300” Foster
Nathan Adamson
Rodrigo Lopes
Arthur Ruff
Brian J. Johnson
Andrew Solheim
Bobi Dimitrijevic
Doug Levinson
Todd Eckhardt
Rick Geist
Michelle Wagner
Trevin Raak
Cindy Hales
Fabiano Scherner
With more to come.

You can register for the seminar as well as donate to the cause by visiting here: http://igg.me/at/careforkarl/x/6135067

It is important to know that while there is a set goal for donations, they can be accepted past that amount so as Foster promotes, let us exceed the goal.

GMA member James Foster of Foster BJJ in Kent, WA will be at GMA Triton Fight Center on Saturday, Feb. 8 for a seminar. Set for 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., the active competitor black belt will be teaching his competition-tested techniques.

Triton Fight Center is located at: 2205 N Willow Ave. Broken Arrow, OK 74012.

The cost is $65 per person. To reserve your spot, call 918-252-4653

Check out his moves:

Learn more about James Foster and his GMA Foster BJJ academy in Kent, WA at www.fbjjonline.com

Professor:

Black Belt James Foster

Address: 8256 South 192nd Street, 
Kent, WA 98032

Phone: 1 253 208 3270

Website: www.fosterbjj.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fosterjiujitsu

About:

Foster Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (FBJJ) was established in the Seattle area by owner and head instructor James Foster in 2003. Our academy is centrally located in Kent and is easily accessible from the major Seattle freeways, so we are conveniently located no matter where you live. Coach Foster has been teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) in the Seattle area for over a decade and is a certified 2nd Degree Black Belt under Giva Santana and Lotus Club Jiu-Jitsu. He has dedicated over 17 years to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has over 26 years of martial arts experience. Coach Foster is known as one of the most technical and detail oriented instructors in the Seattle metropolitan area. His BJJ linage can be traced back to both the Carlos and Helio Gracie sides of the World Famous Gracie family. Coach Foster is the full time head instructor of our Kent facility that is located just south of Seattle.

FBJJ offers the most comprehensive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Submission Grappling program in the Seattle area with classes offered seven days a week including mornings, afternoons, and evenings. We have multiple class types to choose from such as: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, BJJ 101, Submission Grappling (No Gi), MMA 101, Women’s Jiu-Jitsu and Self Defense, and Children’s BJJ for ages 4 and up. Our academy is one of the largest dedicated to the instruction of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the Seattle metropolitan area with nearly 3,000 square feet of matted training space with fully padded walls.

We are proud to serve the Seattle, Kent, King County and Pierce County areas of Washington State and offer the most complete Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schedule in the Northwest with training for both adults and children. Whether you are a beginner or advanced, completely new to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, want to have BJJ as your base style for MMA, or just want to have a fun hobby that keeps you in shape, FBJJ has a program that’s right for you.

Video:

GMA member James Foster, from Kent, WA, had to close his academy for the day because of the snow.

But that was no excuse for his students to take a break from training.

Foster prepared a Youtube class by selecting 14 videos of drills and positions.

Take a look and enjoy the snow day class.

Click here for the class.

The leader of Foster BJJ teaches in Kent, Washington.

But you don’t need to be there to learn from him.

Here is a video of him teaching an escape from the side control.

For more info, go to fosterbjj.com

GMA member James Foster hosted a seminar last October 29th, at his Foster BJJ academy, in Kent, WA.

He welcomed black belt Givanildo Santana, for a class and some graduations.

Foster was one of the graduated.

He received the 2nd degree to his black belt from Giva.

Congratulations to James!

For more info, go to fosterbjj.com

GMA member James Foster is to host a special class next week.

Foster Jiu-Jitsu, in Kent, Washington, will welcome Professor Giva Santana on October 29th.

The three hours seminar kicks off at 1:00pm and the cost is US$50.

For more info, go to fosterbjj.com