Max Linblad is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu athlete from Stockholm, Sweden. He began training the art aged 19 years old and since achieved his black belt aged 28. On starting BJJ, he says “I had two friends that were already doing Jiu Jitsu so I joined them to class and the rest is history.”. These days he can be found training at ‘Stark’ which is his own gym and he is also affiliated with team Checkmat. His current teachers are Alan ‘Finfou’ Nascimento and Max Philipsson with Finfou teaching out of Checkmat in Sweden. Linblad also lists Michael Langhi as having the biggest influence on his style.
We asked him about his favorite positions in BJJ, he claimed his best guard was Spider guard where his main sweep is the scissor sweep from Spider. On top, Linblad uses a combination of knee cuts and torreando passes to get through the guard. From there onwards, his best submission is choking the opponent from the back. An avid competitor, he adds “I usally fight middle weight or sometimes lightweight if I can weigh in the day before.” . To date, Linblad’s biggest achievement is winning the World Pro at brown belt. He lists Gustavo Batista and Tommy Langaker as his toughest ever opponents and like many competitors has had his fair share of bad injuries, adding “I ripped my biceps tendon on my left arm a long time ago. I also ripped off a tendon in my knee, but the arm was way worse.”
In terms of future plans, he says “Growing my gym bigger and stronger and win or medal in the major IBJJF tournaments.”. You can find more about him and his gym starkif.se.
