Tarik Hopstock is a BJJ athlete from Oslo, the capital city of Norway. He started training aged 15 and is currently a brown belt which he achieved three years ago at age 21.
Tarik’s origins in grappling started with Judo training where he started at a small club for two years. However, as training was only once a week he was quickly convinced by a friend to try BJJ. From there he joined Frontline Academy which he claims “was so much fun and everyone was welcoming. I knew I had found a place where I belonged“.
Hopstock’s favourite guard positions are Single Leg X, Knee shield and Reverse De La Riva. Unsurprisingly he uses the Knee Shield and RDLR guards as the two are quite similar. From here he likes to use the lapel whilst in SLX to set up sweeps, but also feels comfortable attacking the muscle and Marcelo sweeps from Closed guard.
When passing, he likes to use a combination of leg weaves and leg drags to open up the opponents guard.
In terms of submissions, Hopstock favours the belly down footlock which is one of his most common attacks. However, it is the Tarikoplata which he is most known for as this was his own creation.
He explains “It started with how I struggled to pull people’s arms out from the top Kimura position. This was around late 2014. I was trying to solve the Kimura problem with some of my teammates. A lot of the times I would try to almost deadlift the arm out or just go back to the Darce choke. My thought was that there had to be some technical way to advance with attacking the arm. After some trial and error, I ended up passing the leg over my partner’s hips. Later I started to recognize the position for the bottom and successfully applied it to my game. We didn’t even call it Tarikoplata until I had gotten it numerous times in competitions.”
Hopstock still trains at his first BJJ gym, Frontline Academy with his teachers Eduardo ‘Teta’ Rios and Andre ‘Fievel’ Porto de Carvalho and competes at middleweight. Not only this but he also lists them as his biggest influences in the sport. Hopstock has enjoyed great success under the pair, with his finest achievements being the Copa Podio lightweight Grand Prix Silver medalist in 2019 and Europeans bronze and silver medals in 2020. With this in mind there is still a sense his best years have just started to develop.
He also claims his hardest opponents are the likes of Victor Hugo, Jonnates Gracie, Kaynan Duarte, Marcus Ribiero and Erich Munis. In terms of future plans, Hopstock plans for more seminars and more competitions, proving he is still eager to push himself and travel the world with BJJ. With his previous accolades and innovations it’s safe to say he will have no problem doing either.
Tarik would also like to thank his sponsers, sponsors:
@sumo_restaurant for the best food!
@riosgear for the best gis!
@frukthagens for the best acai!
@gorillazupgrade for the best strength and mental preparation!
@nutraminonorge for the best food supplements!
@maggieleft for the best pictures!
He can also be found at his website, https://www.tarikbjj.com/ and youtube channel where he puts out weekly, free instructional videos. Not only this, but he also has a DVD out on his trademarked Tarikoplata submission.
