Jiu-jitsu students around the world will have the opportunity to learn from accomplished John Danaher brown belt Robert Degle later today in a virtual seminar that will benefit the Institute of Jiu-Jitsu in Bangalore, India.
India is currently experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 infections, with over 24 million total cases and over 262,000 deaths officially reported at the time of this article’s publication.
Degle announced the seminar in a post a couple of days ago:
“ONLINE SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: No country is being hit harder by COVID right now than India and no country has a Jujitsu community which impresses and inspires me more. The tenacity and ingenuity the community in India has shown to learn modern high level Jujitsu despite difficult circumstances is second to none. Unfortunately much of the hard work they’ve put in is being threatened. My friend @rohit_ijj ‘s beautiful academy the @instituteofjiujitsu was forced to close. They found a new location and now that is also being threatened.
I’ve posted about Rohit before but I’ll briefly recount a bit about him: he singlehandedly taught himself grappling at a very high level in complete obscurity and built up a very respectable team in a place where before no BJJ existed at all. I look at what he, his team and the Indian BJJ community has done and is doing and I can’t just sit by and watch them suffer.
I was going to teach a seminar here in Singapore at the academy of @lukasleasure @sgstronghold but unfortunately Singapore is closing down gyms for the time. What I’m going to do instead is teach a virtual seminar in my apartment (I have mats) where anyone interested can donate whatever they want to be able to login. All the proceeds will go to Rohit’s team and to the Indian Jujitsu community to maximize there chance of success in these harsh times.”
The seminar will take place at 7 a.m. Singapore time on Saturday, which is 7 p.m. EST on Friday. The cost to access the seminar is ₹ 750, or about $10.25 USD. Donations can be made here.
