Ken Gabrielson is a BJJ Black belt from Huntington Beach, California. He is the 2nd American in history to receive a BJJ black belt, with Craig Kukuk being the 1st.
Gabrielson began training BJJ when he was 23 years old. He claims his reason for doing so was that he wanted to develop his ground game as he had already trained Jeet Kune Do & other Filippino martial arts under well known instructor in this field, Paul Vunak.
In the early days of BJJ in America there were no gyms and no structured classes, Gabrielson would only have private lessons with the legendary Rickson Gracie in the now well-known garage. What may shock people further is that due to the level of talent and lack of new opposition, Gabrielson would find himself on the losing end of almost every spar for a good 2 years. There was literally no other people to spar other than his instructor at the time (Rickson) and various other athletes that would come from Brazil, all of whom were either brown or black belt.
Due to his lineage and instruction, Ken has an old school approach to BJJ which can be seen in his preferred style. His favorite position is side control in which he opts for the classic Americana (Keylock) submission. He likes hook sweeps to get to the top and from here favors the standing knee slice or the leg lace to pass into side control.
He trains at his own gym which is Ken Gabrielson’s Combative Fighting Systems located in Colorado springs. If you think you have heard this gym name before, you could be right, as he previously owned a gym in Cypress, California until moving out of state.
When Ken first began training there were nowhere near as many tournaments compared to modern day, therefore he has not competed all that much. Although he did however compete at the 2020 Pan Ams in the heavyweight category, in his younger years he would compete in the under 82kg bracket. He mentions that he would like to compete and train for as long as he possibly can.
A humble man, Gabrielson describes his best achievements in BJJ as training his competitiors for IBJJF and MMA events.
There has been some controversy surrounding when Gabrielson received his black belt, as various websites have claimed it could not be any earlier than 1995. This myth has been dispelled as we have a copy of the official certificate presented by his instructor at the time Reylson Gracie, which clearly states he has become a black belt master instructor on July 1st, 1993.
Q & A
When asked about the changes he has seen in BJJ since it’s humble beginnings in USA.
“When I started my training in Gracie JJ, it was only taught in a private setting. When I started [training] with Reylson, I would train with Rodrigo Gracie, Andres Fernandez, Joe Moreira and others”.
Talking about UFC, the dominance of Royce Gracie and the rise of BJJ worldwide.
“After seeing Royce completely dominate in UFC 1, I knew this martial art would take off! I knew that the UFC platform showed without a doubt the effectiveness of Jiu-Jitsu and the ability of smaller opponents to beat larger ones. I knew that Jiu-Jitsu would take off and become very popular”.
“What I didn’t anticipate were the changes that have come about in the self defense vs sportive jiu-jitsu”.
Regarding the controversy over when he received his black belt
“I’m sure Reylson just forgot [the date] when the question was posed to him. There was a period of years where Reylson and I lost contact with one another. We have since re-connected and stay in touch. He is a fantastic teacher and has numerous black belts under his tutelage. I have never distorted my background in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. I have enjoyed a tremendously rewarding experience in Jiu-Jitsu and stay away from the mis-information and politics that seem to be prevalent.
