The Road to Black Belt

Anytime three or more Jiu-Jitsu students gather together, you can be certain that the issue of rank will come up in the discussion. There are only 5 basic belts in the Jiu-Jitsu rank system: White, Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black. And it’s generally recognized that it takes a lot longer to achieve rank in Jiu-Jitsu than in most other martial arts. If White Belt is the hardest belt to achieve in Jiu-Jitsu (because you have to get off the couch and into the school!), then Black Belt certainly has to come in a close second.

On April 29th, Professor Sonny Achille proudly tied Black Belts around two very dedicated and sincere Jiu-Jitsu practitioners: Bill Krall and Joe Scott. Both Bill and Joe have trained Jiu-Jitsu at Steel City Martial Arts for more than a decade, and both of them had significant martial arts and grappling backgrounds before they started training at SCMA. As you might expect given their training and accomplishments, Bill and Joe are two of the toughest and most technical guys on the mat. What you might not expect, unless you’ve already met them, is that they also are two of the nicest guys on the mat (or anywhere else for that matter).

If you’re new to Jiu-Jitsu, Bill and Joe are tremendous resources and they’re always happy to answer questions or help out a “newbie.” If you’re a more experienced practitioner, both of these guys are great training partners and they’ll certainly give you everything you can handle (and maybe more . . . ) if you roll with them.
Please be sure to congratulate Bill and Joe the next time that you see them, and we’ll look forward to seeing you on the mat soon!