Ben Weinstein
Ben’s grappling adventure began in High School as a member of the wrestling team. His interesting in wrestling lead him to try Judo which he continued to practice in the off season. After High School he moved to southern California to attend college and in 2002 started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on campus at Long Beach State University.

While living in Southern California, he had the privilege to train with many world class grapplers, compete in numerous tournaments, and earn his purple belt. In 2008 he moved back to his hometown in Northern California and quickly found his place training at Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Berkeley under Eduardo Fraga. It was there that his Jiu-Jitsu training truly excelled and 2010 was awarded a brown belt from Professor Fraga.

In late 2010 Ben came to Bangkok to compete in the Thailand Open tournament and travel in the area for a few months. He quickly realized that Bangkok was the place for him and canceled his plans to return home. He is now the head Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor at BKKBJJ.

Phil Denzau
Phil began training Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in 1997, but it wasn’t until 1999 that he began training consistently.  Since then, he hasn’t stopped.  He was awarded his brown belt by Mauricio “Tinguinha” Mariano in April 2009.

Phil has been instructing at BKKBJJ since the first day it opened in November 2008.  He loves martial arts and, in general, considers himself a lifelong student.

Luke Chaya
Luke began his jiu-jitsu journey in 2005 with Alliance NYC before moving to Bangkok, Thailand in 2006. Inspired by the positive effect jiu-jitsu had on his life, in 2007 he started the BJJ-ASIA blog in hopes of connecting the growing communities within Southeast Asia. With the blessing of the existing schools in Bangkok and the support of friends and teammates, Luke opened Bangkok BJJ in the fall of 2008.

Luke has had the honor of training under Fabio Clemente, Pedro Schmall, Adam Kayoom and currently with Eduardo Fraga as a purple-belt. In his travels, he’s taken the opportunity to train with other notable black-belts such as Mauricio ‘Tinguinha’ Mariano, John Danaher, Marcelo Garcia, Alex Prates, Dave Camarillo, Garth Taylor, Leandro Vieira, Eduardo Telles, Andre Galvao, Baret Yoshida, Takamasa Watanabe, Ricardo Liborio, Luke Stewart, Kurt Osiander and Ralph Gracie. All of whom have had a great effect towards his passion not only for training but teaching jiu-jitsu as well.

Luke’s other passions include design, photography, travel and food. The results of his passions can be found through the number of design projects he’s done for the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Association of Thailand, SEABJJ, photo-journal of tournaments on BJJ-ASIA.com and for academies in and out of Thailand.

Pat Aphaisuwan
Pat started Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in 1998. He was awarded his purple belt by Charles Gracie. He was born in Thailand and spent many years in Las Vegas, USA. He came back to Thailand permanently at the end of 2009 and has been teaching at BKKBJJ since early 2010.

Growing up, he’s always had an active interest in martial arts and has trained in various disciplines including karate, judo, boxing and Thai boxing. His other hobbies include golf, snowboarding and surfing.

Eager to teach and help others learn BJJ, he’s proud to be a part of the Gracie tradition in his native country, Thailand.

Connor Keating
Connor has been a wrestling competitor for nearly 20 years. His wrestling career began when his father took him and his older brother to their first wrestling practice. Connor was only 3 years old but was hooked and already competing by the age of 5.
 
He wrestled varsity for four years at Harwood high school and was team captain for three. Connor was a three-time Vermont state finalist before continuing onto his collegiate career at Norwich University. Some of his accomplishments include:

Captain and 4-year member of the Norwich University Varsity Wrestling Team
Wrestling MVP- Norwich University (Northfield, Vermont, USA)
2x All-New England place finisher
Finalist in the Division I Military Championships at Virginia Military Institute (Lexington, Virginia, USA)

Assistant Wrestling Coach at Norwich University (Northfield, Vermont, USA)
Assistant Wrestling Coach at Harwood Union High School (Duxbury, Vermont, USA)

Connor has been active in BJJ, recreationally, for about a year and a half. The past seven months, however, he’s been attending structured practices. In Connor’s own words, “I think few sports complement each other as well as BJJ and wrestling do. Both sports require balance, agility, strategy and body awareness. I originally started doing BJJ to get a grappling fix when I had no one to wrestle with. Since then, and because of the similarities in the sports, I’ve fallen in love with BJJ.”

John Breedlove
John began his martial arts career with wrestling and Judo. Through his friend and first teacher, Steve Owen, he picked up a unique Judo and teaching style.

While relatively new to BJJ, John has been grappling in various styles and clubs since 1992 and holds a 3rd degree black belt rank in Judo. He was once overheard in conversation saying, “…Let me get this straight. In BJJ, I can do ground-work the whole time? Sign me up!”

Minyoung Kim
Minyoung’s passion for yoga began as a result of a motorbike accident that left her hospitalized and unable to walk for a month. She credits the rehabilitation of her knee to her dog, Herbie, and yoga. As a Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher (RYT 200), Minyoung teaches Vinyasa Flow classes that focus on building functional strength and flexibility.

Six months after moving to Bangkok she very tentatively donned a gi to attempt her first hip escape and was consequently bitten by the BJJ bug. She believes yoga can be a tremendous compliment to BJJ, not only by improving flexibility, but more importantly through gaining awareness of the body, mind and breath.

When she’s not teaching or training, Minyoung loves to geek out with her anatomy books, eat, travel and surf.