HOW WE GOT STARTED

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"Back in 2008, I was working as a narcotics detective in a very violent area in Arizona and was concerned about my ability to defend myself. I was not good at buying drugs undercover, and it really pushed me to train. Other officers felt the same way and joined us from other specialties, Gang Unit, Tactical Unit, and patrol officers. We met at a boxing gym, watched BJJ instructional tapes, and then practiced in their MMA cage for about a month... all we did was hurt each other. After about a month of stumbling through practices, a dude walks in and puts on his gi and ties his black belt, then asks who was teaching class. We said YOU ARE! We have no idea what we are doing! He smiled and simply said, Okay lets train. "- Roland

On that day, Roland joined Professor Rick Lucero's jiu jitsu club as a brand new white belt with only his knowledge of high school wrestling to help him. Throughout the many years and classes full of blood, sweat, and determination that followed, he was eventually promoted to black belt in 2018.

After being on the SWAT team, and a Narcotics Detective for the Police Department, he took an opportunity to be a protective service contractor overseas.  He found himself in Afghanistan and Iraq away from home for 3 month rotations. Teaching jiu jitsu was not his goal, however he realized he was good at it and continued to do so while he worked overseas.

"Working on WPS contracts was awesome... it was like Spartan training camp! Mornings I would teach firearms, and qual my teammates. Afternoons were movements with folks we protected, then I'd crush a gym workout. Nights were 2 hour jiu jitsu workouts. My teammates were physical specimens, and they took to grappling pretty quickly, so I always had monsters for training partners."- Roland

After years of overseas contracting, Roland and his family moved to the Pacific Northwest so he could continue his career with protection teams. Roland was a student at different gyms throughout the southern Washington and Puget Sound area while maintaining his lineage strictly through Professor Lucero in Arizona. In 2017 he was asked to teach at a gym that needed a coach and from then on he poured his heart and soul into teaching. While becoming more involved in the jiu jitsu community, he noticed jiu jitsu was fracturing itself further into an obscure sport and away from its roots. Our focus at Journeyman Grappling is on all grappling styles together, in the spirit of Rick Lucero and Joe Moreira: training in a big way and being able to have it transfer to all grappling rule sets (wrestling, judo, luta livre, catch wrestling, sambo, MMA) as well as self-defense. 

Journeyman Grappling's commitment is to real world efficacy, old school values, and fun fitness for the entire family.

Journeyman Grappling is different from other jiu jitsu gyms mainly because we are not solely focused on sport jiu jitsu. We focus on jiu jitsu in an all encompassing grappling aspect and refer to many grappling styles and rule sets when teaching. We encourage people to cross train and compete in other rule sets. Oftentimes, at Journeyman Grappling, we find that when people from other disciplines come to train with us, they not only learn jiu jitsu, they excel in their sport as well.

Jiu jitsu is so much more than a sport to our family because Roland has had to use it in real life situations as a police officer. It has also helped our children in their lives, because they have been put in extremely difficult situations on the mats and have had to think their way out of them. Jiu jitsu helps in so many unexpected ways!

 "Lucero Jiu Jitsu is the product of high level wrestling, old school BJJ, judo, sambo, luta livre, and catch wrestling. Professor Rick has always loved jiu jitsu because it is real, techniques that are notional do not exist... they edit themselves out of jiu jitsu. Rick and I have had many conversations  about different rule sets and how they change, how they shape other grappling arts, including our own. Fundamentals span all of grappling; the rule sets give them identity. I have always tried my best to keep true to Professor Rick's legacy that his jiu jitsu works on the mat, in the cage, in a parking lot, or in you living room when your kids attack you!"- Roland