I started training jiu-jitsu back in 1997 while attending college in Milwaukee, WI. At the time, the Wisconsin jiu-jitsu community was extremely small. I can remember there being one blue belt in Milwaukee, another in Madison, and a third about an hour drive north of the city. No purple belts or above unless you were willing to drive to Chicago. Improvements were done mostly through trial and error. I can remember an expansive library of VHS tapes showing moves like a triangle choke, arm bar from guard, and the seemingly impossible elbow escape.
Occasionally, black belts would come through the area doing seminars. When they did, they often tried to find local leaders that were interested in starting small affiliations. Before too long, Pedro Sauer, Rodrigo Vaghi, and others started to have small satellite teams outside their main schools. This led me to become an early member of Team Vaghi and a part of the Rickson Gracie International Jiu-Jitsu Association.
All was good until I graduated college in the Spring of 2000 and moved north to Appleton, WI. This was a good hour and a half away from my team. As I looked around for training options, I found a school representing Romero Cavalcanti from Alliance Jiu-Jitsu. There were a handful of blue belts by this time in the area. Good group of talented grapplers and very welcoming to others wanting to train. I had the ability to join them, but I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my original team.
I decided to start my own training group. My wife and I were renting a small duplex which had an unfinished basement. I took 4-5 layers of carpet remnants and covered them with a large piece of canvas. I gave it the name “Fox Valley Grappling Club”, made a quick logo, and started hanging flyers all over town. I really wanted it to be a “club” and not a “school” to keep things informal and hopefully more fun. The philosophy was that I would share what I knew, and from there we’d learn together. It didn’t take long before I had people knocking on my front door ready to join.
To make a long story short – that club eventually grew to over 100 active members in a 6,000 square foot facility. We had 3,000 square feet of mat space – half of which had a spring loaded floor. In addition, we had a full-size cage, boxing ring, and weight room. For various reasons, the gym was sold in 2010 and I took up a career in law enforcement. My hope was to continue training at the gym, but the new owners changed team affiliations. It left me feeling a bit homeless.
By this time, there were a handful of places offering jiu-jitsu. I would drop into places and train when I could, but it wasn’t until a couple years went by before some former students decided they wanted to open up a Team Vaghi gym. I helped them when and where I could, happy to have a place I could call home. As the years went on the team continued to grow. By 2023, Team Vaghi had four gyms in the Appleton area with a few more further west. I had access to all the gyms and plenty of great training partners.
However, I still missed the early days of the grappling club. The more intimate “hobby” feel of having a home gym set-up ready to go any time I wanted to train. In 2020, the gyms that were forced to shut down due to covid only strengthened that desire to train at home. By this time my wife and I had moved into an older home that didn’t have an adequate basement to set something up. I was able to get some mats set up in the garage, but it wasn’t heated and really couldn’t meet my long-term needs.
Then in May 2023, we moved into a newly built house. It had an unfinished basement with plenty of ceiling height and space to set up a permanent training area. This provided the perfect opportunity to bring my training full circle. But instead of forming a new “club” or team, I decided to focus on supporting teammates in the area by offering private lessons and a place to drill technique outside their primary gym. It would also give me the chance to venture into areas such as recording video tutorials, teaching via zoom, and curriculum development.
So, now the wheels are in motion to bring the Jiu-Jitsu Basement to life. I look forward to sharing the growth and progress with everyone and can’t wait for the future holds. And as you progress along your own jiu-jitsu journey, I hope I’m able help you in some way along the path.
The Jiu-Jitsu Basement is an online resource for those who either have or are looking to set up a home training area. I also teach private and semi-private jiu-jitsu lessons in NE Wisconsin. If I can help in any way, or answer any questions you may have, email Bill Krieg at jiujitsubasement@gmail.com.