Carl Fisher – Head Professor & Founder of Wimbledon BJJ
Hailing from Bolton, Lancashire in the North West of England, Carl Fisher is a lifelong martial artist with over 30 years’ experience, holding black belts in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Traditional Jiu Jitsu and Karate and is a Level 1 Affiliate in Catch Wrestling with the Snake Pit. In addition, Carl has extensively trained in Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai and Judo.
Carl’s introduction into martial arts came by way of suffering a group attack in his home town centre on a Friday night, which resulted in a visit to the A&E department, where he sustained facial injuries and lacerations and was unable to work for a week.
This attack led Carl to seek out the local Karate club, after a friend who trained there, who was a black belt recommended the club as a place to start training and to look after himself; after the first class Carl was hooked and over the following years, he was promoted to black belt and thus began a lifelong love affair with the martial arts.
Around 1992, Carl moved to another part of Bolton and it was here that he was to meet a Jiu Jitsu instructor that was to profoundly change his life and open the doors to the world of Applied Jiu Jitsu and the grappling arts, such as Wrestling, Catch Wrestling, Judo and Sambo.
The instructor was the legendary Trevor Roberts and from 1992 to 2003, Carl trained every week with Trevor, multiple times per weeks and gained the rank of 2nd Dan black belt in Applied Jiu Jitsu and also trained Sambo with Trevor and Matt Clempner, who also taught him Judo.
This was also the the time when Carl started to compete in grappling events in the UK and eventually around the world, starting with Sambo competitions in 1994, racking up a bronze medal at the world championships at Herne Bay and picking up three bronze medals at the FORMA UK Sambo championships in Bolton and Manchester, run by Matt Clempner.
During this time, Carl was reading about the exploits of a certain Royce Gracie, who was making waves in the Ultimate Fighting Championships in 1993 and at the time in the UK, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was virtually unknown; videos began to arrive in the UK, ‘Gracies in Action’ which highlighted challenge matches by members of the Gracie family and a small underground network began to grow in the UK, with videos swapping hands and meeting like minded people who wanted to fully test their martial arts skills.
Carl continued to train with Trevor and Matt and Carl got wind of a ‘Submission Wrestling’ club that was holding regular classes at Bolton Wrestling club and here marked another significant chapter and influence in Carl’s training.
It was here that Carl was to meet more legends in the grappling world, starting with Jack Mountford (RIP) Darren and Shane Rigby, Daren Morris, Barry ‘The Bastard’ Scargill, Phil Knight, Dave Barry to name a few; this training was as close to the UFC style of fighting as it could be, without the striking and this went hand in hand with the Applied Jiu Jitsu training and this was when Carl started to work in security on the doors of pubs and clubs all around the North West and the UK, pressure testing his skills on a weekly basis.
From the early 90’s, Carl went on to train at Atherton Submission Wrestling Club, when Jack, Daren, Shane et al moved to new premises and Carl started to travel the North West to train with the likes of Ian Bromley (RIP) the Butlin brothers, Steve Campbell, Chris Bacon, the Wolfslair gym in Widnes and many, many more high level grapplers and strikers.
As the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community started to grow, Carl travelled to Yorkshire to train with up and coming BJJ clubs, now well established in the UK and down to Birmingham to train with Gracie Barra Birmingham with Mauricio Gomes and his students, who were starting to enter the Sambo comps, as there were very little BJJ comps at the time.
Carl also made regular trips to London, again to train with Mauricio Gomes and his son Roger Gracie, a blue belt at the time and the students at Gracie Barra and witnessed first hand the growth of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the UK.
In 1999, Carl attended a seminar with John Machado in Hull and speaking to John after the seminar, Carl was invited to go out to Los Angeles and train at John and his brother Rigan Machado in Torrance, California…Carl didn’t need asking twice and saved up, sold up and flew out in the summer.
This was the pivotal point in Carl’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu journey and where the foundations were laid for his training and life long passion, training alongside the likes of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto, John Will, the head of Machado Jiu Jitsu in Australia, Dave Meyer, Chris Haueter, Cindy Omatsu (the first female US black belt) and many others.
Carl’s first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition was in Los Angeles at a Machado inter club and had none other than Jean Jacques Machado in his corner and came away with his first BJJ win on US soil and two losses…the competition bug struck big time and Carl has since competed in hundreds of BJJ and grappling events in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Thailand, Jordan and Abu Dhabi, since 1999.
In addition to the Jiu Jitsu training and competition experience, Carl has over 25 years’ experience in the security sector as a Door Supervisor, working nationwide and has worked in Response Units at Bolton Wanderers FC and Manchester City FC, crowd control, back stage and event security at concerts, boxing events and many high profile public events up and down the UK and in London for ten years.
This experience has allowed Carl to pressure test his training, week in week out, year after year, honing his skills and passing these hard earned skills onto his students, by way of teaching Applied Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes in Bolton and the North West and now in Wimbledon and South Wimbledon for the past eleven years.
In addition, Carl has many years of experience delivering tailor made self defence classes to youth clubs, vulnerable teenagers and adult groups, women’s refuge shelters and currently runs a popular and successful woman’s only self defence class at his full time martial arts facility in South Wimbledon.
The years of working as a front line Door Supervisor and security industry puts him at the forefront in delivering the very best in no nonsense, realistic self defence classes and is in great demand on the seminar circuit up and down the UK.
Holding a 2:1 honours degree in Sport Science and Coaching, Carl brings an enhanced level of scientific knowledge and application to all his classes, especially in the areas of sport psychology, developing and increasing mental toughness, team cohesion and positive mindsets, both in competing and self defence classes.
Carl has spent his entire adult life searching out the best martial arts training in both the striking and grappling arts and has studied Boxing and Thai Boxing, training at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Gordo Jiu Jitsu, De La Riva, Carlson Gracie all in 2010, as well as many other gyms around the world, to get the most effective and practical training possible, so as to pass on the very best and effective martial arts training that WORKS in live and competition scenarios.
If you are serious in starting training to get into shape, increase confidence, awareness, training for Sport Jiu Jitsu or training Jiu Jitsu for self defence, then look no further than Wimbledon Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – we have everything you need and more to get you started on your own transformative and life changing journey.
For more info and to book a free introductory class, send an email to [email protected]
Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing you on the mats at Wimbledon BJJ.
