Brian Bird Recieves His Black Belt

I'd like to congratulate Mr. Brian Bird (of Calgary, AB, Canada) for taking and passing his black belt examination in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on Friday evening, November 2, 2007! Brian is the first person who has lived outside of the United States that has trained with me from white belt to black belt!

Brian's three and a half hour test was both grueling and memorable. I can tell that Brian put a lot of time and hard work into preparing for this examination!!

During the last hour of the examination, Brian had to grapple for eight (8)minutes with each of his five training partners. He made efforts to finish each of them, at least five times, with various submissions. Brian surprised everyone when he finished one of his training partners with a wristlock!

Finally, after two hours of performing drills on training partners who were resisting full bore, after forty-five minutes of executing various teaching scenarios, and after sparring for forty minutes NON-STOP with his five training partners, Brian had to spar with me for the final eight minutes. This was a true test of his determination! After his test, Brian told us the following: "During the last minute of our match, I remember thinking to myself, 'If I pass out because of the pressure on my chest, hopefully I'll wake up with a black belt around my waist.' "

Well, Brian didn't pass out during the test, but he did pass the black belt examination with flying colors. Brian demonstrated the technical proficiency that I was looking for in a black belt. He demonstrated a high level of skill with regard to teaching and presentation, and he showed a lot of heart with the sparring portion of the examination.

I was very proud to wrap a well-deserved black belt around Brian's waist!

Congratulations Brian!


Roy Harris