Around early August (maybe earlier), our main instructor and school owner, Felipe Alves de Souza felt like he needed to step away from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for a while, leaving the school and causing a lot of trepidation on the part of the students and instructors alike.
The recent situation has brought up a lot of emotions from the team and many felt unsure of the future of the school. I was one of them. There was so much negativity - some people too quick to judge without knowing what the full story was. I cannot even imagine how the instructors were coping, knowing the time and effort invested in running the school.
Despite this, like true leaders that they all are, they (Nicky Robinson, Antony Chahal and Leoni Munslow) gathered the group and provided us with a forum that allowed us to deal with the negative emotions in a supportive manner and guided us to think beyond it. They've put aside their own emotions and helped us through ours. They've kept us strong and kept us united.
Some of the black belt instructors left and pursued other directions and most stayed to rebuild the school and show support. It was very clear from this point that we needed to change the school's direction (and name) and needed a head instructor for knowledge and guidance. They shopped around and spoke to a lot of senior black belts and after much deliberation, finally decided that an affiliation with Helio "Soneca" Moreira would best embody the direction that the instructors would want to take the school.
Our previous affiliation with Felipe and Ze Beleza will always be remembered and honoured every time we step on the mats. Our performance on the mats and our behaviour outside it shows our heritage. They are part of our lineage. They will be with us for the rest of our BJJ lives.
Still, I am quite excited with this new direction and can't wait to go back to the mats.
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