How a Filmmaker and Brown Belt Brought Carlson Gracie Pressure to Hackney
Starring
Konrad is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brown belt under Wilson Junior who trains six days a week and teaches no-gi twice weekly at Carlson Gracie Hackney. He is also a Polish-born film director whose feature debut *Fighter* (2019) is available on Netflix.
About the Gym
Carlson Gracie Hackney is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy located at Unit 9, 1b Darnley Road in Hackney, East London. The gym operates as part of the Carlson Gracie Team UK network, founded over 20 years ago by Wilson Junior in Hammersmith. Head Coach Nelson Sanchez, a two-time European Champion and Abu Dhabi Grand Slam runner-up, leads the Hackney location alongside instructors Fabrizio Comelli, Junior Berti, Pedro Izidio, and Dhruv Datta. The academy follows the Carlson Gracie tradition of pressure-based, fundamental jiu-jitsu.
The gym offers kids classes, beginner fundamentals, and intermediate/advanced sessions, serving students of all ages and experience levels. Approximately two years old at the time of filming, the academy had recently promoted its first "homemade" blue belts. The club welcomes newcomers with a free trial class and emphasizes finding the right training environment where students feel comfortable and motivated to put in consistent work.
đź“Ť Unit 9, 1b Darnley Road, London, E9 6QH
đź“ž 07754 079 208
Summary
This episode follows Alex's early-morning double-decker bus ride across London to Carlson Gracie Hackney, a two-year-old satellite academy of the Carlson Gracie London network. It features Konrad, a brown belt who trains six days a week and teaches nogi twice weekly at the Hackney location. A former Aikido black belt turned BJJ practitioner, Konrad also works as a film director with a feature film (Fighter) on Netflix.
It captures a small pre-Christmas no-gi class and Konrad's perspective on how gym management systems give coaches critical attendance data for tracking student progress and informing belt promotions. He emphasizes that the best systems stay invisible to students while providing coaches with the information they need to run a more effective academy.
