San Francisco Jiu Jitsu Academy (SFBJJ)

Still can't rewatch his old shows The absolute passion he spoke about Jiu-Jitsu was so inspiring. I had already been training for quite awhile when he started but he still inspired me to keep training and loving Jiu-Jitsu One of my favorite quotes from the beginning of the San Francisco episode of Parts Unknown: “I will never be young again. Or any younger than I am today. I will never be faster or more flexible. I will never win competitions against 22y/o wrestlers... I will never be a black belt. None of these things will happen. But none of that matters anymore.” source, 2023 ↗

neutral

I have some buddies that train with him up in Norcal. Hell I’ve trained with him before at Kurt Osiander’s place up there. As far as I can tell, he just does jiu jitsu and drives around San Francisco shaking his fist at the perceived blight source, 2023 ↗

neutral

I lived in Edinburgh and Berlin and now live in the Bay Area. A few thoughts on the US Europe comparisons. The US is a very inequitable society but there is no denying that if you make good money here, quality of life is very high. As soon as I arrived from Germany I went to the dentist and the dentistry is literally 25 years ahead here, as is most of the rest of the health care. There are also these idea that Americans have so few vacation days and work such long hours. I am sure many do. But not, in my experience, data scientists in San Francisco. Companies compete very heavily on quality source, 2021 ↗

positive

I went to a San Francisco Catholic school K-12. Have Catholics and Muslims in my family. I definitely didn't help myself sometimes. Couldn't help it/myself. "You wanna lecture me on scripture, LET'S GO MOTHERFUCKER" "Oh, homosexuality is a sin? Leviticus? WHY ARE YOU WEARING COTTON AND LEATHER" "Islam is a religion of hate? Jesus is the most quoted prophet of the Koran, which has a whole chapter on Mary, btw. Jihad is in the heart and your own mind." The cognitive dissonance, ignorance, and covert/explicit racism was... eye opening. However, I made lifelong friends there. Met my partner. source, 2021 ↗

neutral

Even dismissing all the weird gym cult (creonte traitor talk) as hearsay he straight up assaulted Flavio Almieda at a BJJ tournament, and by assault he did it when Flavio was looking away knocking three teeth out. Some say it was for "encroaching on ralphs territory" in san Francisco. Then dude flees to Brazil. source, 2020 ↗

neutral

My brother trained with Carley a few times in San Francisco about six years back, he said it was weird seeing all these white belts students who seemed oblivious that their coach was jiu-jitsu royalty, he was very impressed with Carley’s technique, and the gym had a great, if very relaxed, vibe. source, 2020 ↗

positive

In San Francisco, all the traditional jiu jitsu schools are Ralph affiliates or taught by Ralph guys. Everything I hear about him though sounds terrible. Heard he is sexist towards female students and uses a ton of homophobic language (not the best move in San Fran). Last I heard he cheap shotted someone at a bjj tournament and ran back to Brazil. Doesn’t sound like the best guy. source, 2020 ↗

negative

"Over the past couple of days, I have heard a number of rumors about my gym in San Francisco and its former instructor, Kurt Osiander, and I feel the need to address this misinformation. First, I did not sell my gym to Gracie Barra. Ralph Gracie San Francisco is my gym and will forever be my gym. Second, I am saddened to say that, after nearly 25 years together, Kurt Osiander has chosen to leave Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Kurt was not fired nor pushed out. He made the decision to leave our team and start a new gym in the same neighborhood. I was made aware of his decision while I was out of the source, 2018 ↗

neutral