ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR


Sean Bansfield started BJJ in the summer of '99 at the urging of some of his friends and after seeing the obvious practicality and superiority of the martial art in ground combat and in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).

The UFC was actually created by Rorion Gracie to prove to the world that BJJ is a highly effectively self-defense/combat system. With his brother, Royce Gracie, winning three of the first four UFC events, Rorion proved his point. Royce was matched against opponents of various sizes and from various martial arts backgrounds in a no time limit, no holds barred match that was held in a fenced in ring. Needless, Royce was one of my early inspirations.

I started training at a Gracie Jiu Jitsu affiliate, Gomez Academy, then located in Southgate,MI. This was after studying the Gracie basics videos and practicing the basic techniques with some of my friends. I trained at the Gomez Academy for several months before my friends told me about a Brazilian black belt who had a school in Madison Heights,MI. His name was Marcelo Grosso. He was a black belt under the famous Carlson Gracie black belt Ricardo de La Riva.

I trained with Marcelo and his brown belt Monteiro for 8 months. I competed in the Relson Nationals in the white belt Master division and won. I also competed in the Yamasaki tournament and won. Marcelo and de La Riva promoted me to Blue belt in Dec. '00. Marcelo moved back to Brazil in Dec. '00.

I resumed my training at the Gomez academy. I won the Pan Ams '01 in the blue belt Master division, submitting all my opponents.

Dave Gomez switched affiliations to Saulo Ribeiro in '01. I was happy that he did that because Saulo was the best BJJ fighter in the world. Training with Saulo was awesome. He promoted me and some other guys to Purple in '01.

I started my own school in Ann Arbor,MI in '02 to be closer to home. Running a school is not easy. It takes dedication, time, and most importantly money. I had to get the word out to attract students and I had to compete to attract students with the other established schools in the area.

I had a rough time in tournaments competing as a purple belt. But I kept improving and kept competing. I eventually won the Relson Nat'l in '02. In '04, I did very well against a brown belt in a pro no-gi event.

In Aug '04, Saulo promoted me to brown belt. I was very happy about that. Saulo and Xande really taught me a lot about jiu jitsu. They've inspired me by their own dedication. They've always been in my corner and pushing me to be better. I'm grateful to them.

In '05, I had a goal to win the Pan ams. I told Saulo about that and asked him to help me. In March '06, I decided to do the Arnolds as a tune up for the Pan ams. I lost both in my division and the absolute. But, I got inspired and motivated to train harder and to fix my mistakes.

At the Pan ams, I had a hard day. I started the day overweight. But I had 8 hours to get under weight. I did get under weight, but I was not focused. In spite of that, I did decent in my first match in my division, but I lost. After the lost, Saulo yelled at me to focus and not be distracted by the weight ordeal and apply the techniques and then he said, "go win the absolute division." That's what I did. I won 4 straight matches and earned the gold medal.

Later in '06, I won my division at the Michigan Open against a guy who beat me in a blue belt superfight in '01. I was happy to avenge the lost.

On Dec. 20, at Saulo's last seminar at my school, he promoted me to Black belt. I was completely surprised, honored, and relieved to receive the black belt.

I hope to continue in the legacy of my instructors Saulo and Alexandre Ribeiro.