LEVI VAN STAPPEN

LEVI’S STORY

ALevi started his journey in martial arts after having received a free-trial at a local karate school that had just opened in the area. He had never aligned well with sports in school, but he was hooked with martial arts.

Through karate, he had scoured for more information in the forms of books, magazines, and online instructionals, eventually diving into the philosophies and teachings of Bruce Lee. Bruce had been an advocate of innovation, mastery over your physical, emotional, and mental state, not being locked into a system, testing techniques for their real-world effectiveness, and never crystalizing your style.

After he reached his 3rd Degree Black Belt in American Freestyle Karate, Levi made Jiu-Jitsu a full time pursuit. He continued his journey with a Certified Training Center in Appleton, Wisconsin, under the Gracie Academy, overseen by Rener and Ryron Gracie. Through this organization, he had achieved the Certified Instructor status and was promoted to the rank of Brown Belt by Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt Skye Middleton in December 2019. 

He was soon seeking out a new platform to express his Jiu-Jitsu, with his mindset and skill sets having grown since his journey started 10+ years ago. It was hard to miss the aesthetic beauty in technique and artistic expression that is Roy Dean’s videos on various Jiu-Jitsu sites and forums. His philosophies on how the medium of Jiu-Jitsu should be taken care of in 2021 aligned well with Levi, leading to him having discussions with Roy about joining his affiliation.

Of the thousands of people he had seen walk in and out of martial arts schools in his life, culture had been the defining characteristic of whether one kept on the journey. Levi keeps to that core value as does his crew of friends who have lived by the phrase “If you can’t laugh during sparring, you are doing it wrong.”