If you’re on the internet and do jiu-jitsu, you’ve seen Drew Weatherhead’s work. The Canadian jiu-jitsu practitioner is the mind behind the magic that brought the Because Jitsu meme page to life. And now, after twelve years in BJJ, he’s finally a black belt.
Weatherhead shared the exciting news a couple days ago and thanked the people who had been most instrumental in helping him reach this milestone:
“12 Years
It’s hard to put words to that amount of time in one post.
I could spend hours recounting experiences, failures, successes, injuries, friends gained and opportunities had.
But, there just isn’t any way to truly elaborate how it feels to experience 12 years all at once in the time it takes someone to tie a belt on your waist.
There are too many people to thank. So many people played major roles in the process. But three people need to be thanked in order:
Jillanna Joy, my wife and support system. She was there from day one listening to my training stories. At my tournaments for 10 hour days so she could film my 10 minutes on the mats. She took care of the home and the kids everytime training took me away from bed times, or away for entire weekends to compete or help promote events. She was the first person to hear my phone calls after losing big matches and getting life changing injuries. I’m certain that part of why so few people get to Black Belt is because people like her are so exceedingly rare.
David Bill, my jiu-jitsu instructor. Dave has been my teacher and distiller of deep knowledge in the grappling arts from the time I started. Through more than a decade of non stop training, he’s formed my style and lexicon of techniques into what I am today. That is something that can’t be repaid and is a bond that goes deeper than most I’ve ever known.
Dave Rothwell, the man who believed in me and helped Shepard myself and our club through the most trying time in my history with it. It’s in part due to his stepping in to aid us when we were without affiliation or direction that prevented me from giving up on jiu-jitsu entirely. I owe not only my Black Belt, but my continued journey in the art to him.
Today closes the first chapter of my BJJ journey.
From this day and forever I’m now a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Black Belt.”
Because Jitsu is the most popular BJJ meme page on Instagram, with over 119,000 followers.
