21/08/2026
It’s my 40th Jiu Jitsu anniversary…
What should I do my friends? How to celebrate. I feel very privileged to have been taken in and tutored by what may be best described as the Jiu Jitsu elite. Lunched with Carlos Gracie Senior and Helio Gracie. Daily training with the Machado brothers and other (now legendary) fellow Jiu Jitsu coloured belts like Renzo Gracie, Helio Soneca, Rillion Gracie, and the like.
Being promoted as the first Australian Black Belt, in the late 90’s - was also a deep privilege. I felt like I had a mango stall in a huge apple market.
I began to spend a lot of time travelling on weekends, teaching seminars all over the country - eventually producing black belts in every state; then further afield, teaching seminars across the ditch in New Zealand, and setting up the scene there. Over the next 30 odd years, I delivered around 2800+ Jiu Jitsu seminars, keeping me very busy; all whilst running my academy here in Geelong. That well-spring of Jiu Jitsu, spawned a hundred Jiu Jitsu academies throughout the country and neighbouring New Zealand. Some truly remarkable people became very close friends of mine - again, privileged. My personal work also included defensive tactics design for a lot of different law enforcement and military organisations - challenging work but rewarding in the extreme.
Throughout the whole adventure, my own Academy - Redcat Academy in Geelong - remained my ‘favourite child’. Over the years, my wife Melissa and son Felix have also earned their own Black Belts and they continue to build and shape the extraordinary culture that we insist upon, on the Geelong mat.
So - 40 years in - and now sporting a Coral Belt myself - it still seems surreal in a way, yes - but more than ever, it feels like an extraordinary privilege to be able to help others shape themselves into better human beings, through the practice of Jiu Jitsu. Thank you all.
