Bellingham BJJ

Bellingham BJJ Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the City of Subdued Excitement! For self defense, for sport, for life. For everybody & every body. By Jeff Shaw & friends.

08/18/2026

We’re already planning for our 10 year anniversary in 2028 … and that includes an ambitious goal that’s rooted in jiujitsu principles.

Over the years, our team has raised more than $85K for worthy causes. We’re trying to get to six figures by our 10 year anniversary. Let’s make this happen.

08/18/2026

Finishing up with this session of Intro to BJJ! Next one starts in September. There’s never been a better time to start training this amazing art. BellinghamBJJ dot com slash intro has all the details. See y’all soon.

07/14/2026

Hey folks! Two upcoming exciting events for the women of Bellingham BJJ: First, we’ll be hosting Girls in Gis Girls In Gis ™ on July 25! Our very own Katie and Caitlin will be showing some of their best stuff, and you can meet a great community of people. This is a women-only event.

Second, our local minor league baseball team Bellingham Bells is hosting a Women in Sports night, and they’d like to honor our athletes! If you’d like to attend Women in Sports night at the Bellingham Bells next Wednesday, July 22, the academy will take care of your ticket. Just let me know if you’re in, and we will get a group of tickets left at Will Call for this game.

Everyone is welcome at this event, which will be a fun night at the ballpark. They plan to honor our women athletes, so please note that you might get to / have to stand up and wave when they make that announcement.

The game starts at 6:35 p.m. Please spread the word during classes, and let me know if you’re in so we can hold a ticket for you!

LAST THING: I’ve been out of the academy for a couple of weeks attending to family matters. I want to thank every single one of the instructors who helped out while I was away. It means a lot to me. And ... I’m back in the game, baby. To celebrate, I will be teaching my absolute best stuff ALL NIGHT FRIDAY, starting at office hours at 3 p.m., going through regular class, and even into marathon roll. Come say hey, I’d love to see you. And bring all your questions, because I’m not leaving until all those questions get answered.

Thanks for being here, y’all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled summer.

07/13/2026

Pride parade was fantastic! Thanks to everyone who attended, and especially to Andy Nettle Bridge for organizing our crew. Nothing but better days ahead.

07/03/2026

New jiujitsu history article is out today in the Journal of 20th Century Media Studies! New academic journal out today about the early history of jiu-jitsu in America! Me and Betsy O'Donovan dug through thousands of articles and came back with this piece, which is called “His Huge Opponent Became Helpless: Jiujitsu in the American Press, 1900-1906.” The link’s in my stories (just in time for the country’s 250th birthday) and I hope y’all enjoy.

If you dig this sort of thing, or are otherwise interested in jiu-jitsu history and practice, my 12-week course This Is Why We Fight is one of the courses on BJJ Mental Models, and you can get a free week if you sign up for Premium. BJJMM is the world’s largest library of jiu-jitsu masterclasses, and has a focus on strategy/tactics/concepts that are super-important but don’t always get the same coverage that technique videos do.

Next project: going to dive deep into another period of American jiujitsu history, I think.

06/28/2026

Hey folks, it’s summer: That means picnics, parades, and, of course, grappling. 

Let me start with the bad news: due to a family medical emergency, we’re going to have to cancel tomorrow’s 6 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. classes for Monday, June 29. We hate canceling classes as much as you hate not coming to classes, so I apologize. This is rare for us, but it can’t be helped this time.

While I have your calendar’s attention, we have some special events and schedule shifts for July that are very summery. Here they are:

UPCOMING EVENTS

July 4: Regular classes canceled in favor of “Freedom Rolls,” an open mat starting 11 a.m. Come train before barbecues and fireworks.

July 11: Spar Wars Competition in Burlington and Quintet Competition in Seattle. You can register at that link to compete for the first one, and we have a five-person team competing at the second. It’s at Rogue Jiu-Jitsu if you want to come watch. Classes are on as normal this day.

July 12: Pride in Bellingham Parade. Our Bellingham BJJ group is marching behind our Pride banner in this year’s parade. Everyone is welcome to come march, and I may have some free stuff to give away as well. Classes are on as normal this day.

July 25: Girls in Gis at Bellingham BJJ. Our very own Katie and Caitlin will be teaching at this women-only event from noon until 3 p.m. We will end our 10:30 class early, around 11:30, and our regular 5 p.m. fundamentals will be on as normal. 

As always, if anyone has any questions or concerns, hit me up. Thanks y’all!

Happy summer and see y’all soon.

Jeff

06/11/2026

Gi To Sea is complete for the year! I have about a million folks to thank, but I tried to cut it down to 10.

— Our staff like Jesse Johns Patrick DePuydt Jamie Chevalier and everyone who volunteered to help move mats to Boulevard Park
— Guest instructors Bernardo Faria Dominyka Obelenytė Seph Smith Nicolas Germanos and Doctors of Physio // Jiu Jitsu Rehab & Longevity who taught incredible stuff
— PNW academy owners like Unicorn Jiu Jitsu Hillary VanOrnum Snowblind BJJ Jesse Phillips Synapse Jiu Jitsu and Eleanor Kahn who came out and lent their support
— The Downtown Bellingham partnership which supports Downtown with amazing events and WWU SBDC which provides high quality business advice (school owners, you have to check these folks out!)
— Growing Veterans and everyone who supported the Rollathon! We’ll have a final tally for what we raised tomorrow but we exceeded my wildest dreams and I’m so grateful
— Visitors who came from a long way away, like John Michael Matta John Zanetti and Peter McGregor (who also did a lot of valuable coaching at office hours)
— Cascadia Daily News who covered the event! Support local journalism always, and they have such a talented bunch of reporters there.
— Dominyka Obelenyte who created a memorable art piece right before our eyes, down at Boulevard Park and in front of the academy
— The City of Bellingham Washington who provided a tourism grant for the second straight year, helping us go big and bold … and finally,
— Special thanks to our four new black belts, Ty Robert , Katie Fialko, Nicolas Germanos and Jacob Standaert . This was a special week for all of us, and your presence both during this week and over the years was awesome. Congratulations on this huge step in the journey.

Appreciate y’all for making this year amazing. You won’t believe what we have planned for next year 🙌🏼😍🙌🏼

Do you want to look really good, get amazing prices and support the academy? THE REST OF MAY IS A HECKUVA TIME TO DO JUS...
05/11/2026

Do you want to look really good, get amazing prices and support the academy? THE REST OF MAY IS A HECKUVA TIME TO DO JUST THAT.

The new rashguards (Dogs of BBJJ, and ‘s guillotine rashie) are coming in soon, which means it’s crazy sale price time. For the month of May, kindly enjoy these special prices on all the gear in the academy: 

All Adult rashguards (Godzilla, Kong, Bobby Hill, Campfire / Sasquatch):  $25. We have limited sizes available so make sure the size you want is there! These are usually $50. 
Kids Rashguards (Godzilla!): $20. Tons of sizes left.

Zip-up Hoodies. $30. (We don’t skimp on the hoodies, folks: These are the softest and coolest hoodies on the market. We’ve got some with the standard logo, and some with the hound dog logo.) These are usually $60.

Crew neck sweaters: $30. These were super-popular, and we have a few left. Don’t miss out! These are usually $60.

Godzilla T-shirts: $20
BBJJ logo t-shirts: $20
Tank Tops: $15

Hats & Beanies: $20
Sweatpants: $20
Spats: $20
Gloves & shinpads for striking classes (7 ounce fingerless gloves and 16 ounce boxing gloves): $35.

You can order in the academy by grabbing Jeff, Pat or Jesse, or you can self-pay by Venmo. You can also send us an email asking to charge your card. 

Thanks for reading this novel/catalog/travelogue. See y’all in the academy soon!

05/10/2026

THIS SATURDAY! The legendary will be here. You do NOT want to miss this opportunity to train with one of the best of all time. Register at bellinghambjj dot com slash Hannette. This replaces our regular Saturday class and starts at 11 a.m.

BACK AGAIN for Gi To Sea: the one and only of is coming from June 4-7! If you want to learn spectacular technique whil...
05/07/2026

BACK AGAIN for Gi To Sea: the one and only of is coming from June 4-7! If you want to learn spectacular technique while having a great time, you want to train with Seph. If you don’t want those things, what are you even doing? Can’t wait for Seph’s latest trim to Bellingham.

Address

205 W. Holly Street
Bellingham, WA
98225

Telephone

+13603892830

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