For those wondering, Jeff Whttingham is a life-long athlete who like many reading this article has a massive passion for BJJ. However, his story differs due to his vision, which is to bring BJJ to underprivileged communities across North America. His idea is to offer BJJ to kids who may not be able to afford training or come from a place where BJJ has never been heard of. This interview covers his aims and goals for his GLS (Growth, Love & Success) project which is as ambitious, as it is life changing.
Jeff is trying to break generational curses and give some structure, discipline and commitment to young men and women’s lives. He already mentors several young men athletically but wants to involve BJJ in their lives.
Whilst writing this it made me wonder, why don’t more higher profile BJJ athletes offer this service to their communities and try to make a difference in young people’s lives? If you are interested in this program, please contact Jeff on his instagram.
Table of Contents
On his sporting background and entry into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
“I started with basketball and then I did football in my freshman year in high school. I had several scholarships coming out of high school. I chose Temple (university) because my family is from Philly, so it aligned that way. My background is basketball, football and track and field – I’m kind of athletic for a big guy. I was tired of going to the gym to lift weights and so started off with boxing and was watching guys grappling so I thought it looked interesting. I gave it a go and started to fall in love with it, that’s how I got into it. I didn’t know what I was doing, I was killing myself using my strength and getting tired and it was a rude awakening!”
On teaching BJJ to help keep kids on track
“I’m a motivator and I feel like my purpose in life is to help people. It started with my Christmas drive 5 years ago, so I started to think we needed change in the world. A lot of people look to the president for change but it starts within.”
“Living in Philadelphia we’re looking at 500 homicides this year and we’ve got to do something. One of the instructors at the gym loved my inspirational posts and he saw what I was doing with the youth and asked if I could bring this concept to BJJ.I said this is the perfect opportunity to change lives with mentoring and BJJ.”
“The goal is to give the kids something to look forward to. We need more of it, especially with Covid. A lot of them don’t have anything to do so they go outside and do dumb stuff. So I give them the chance to be around positive energy and be themselves and be free. I have their school information just in case they’re not doing well, I can bring tutors to the program to help them excel.“
“Because of Covid there are no fall sports, outside activities are shut down so they have nothing to do. A lot of times they get bored and hang out with friends. They don’t think as they’re kids but I’m trying to put their energy into something good so they can be great. A lot of us grow up in unfair situations, so my goal is to help them. If I can help two kids then they can help two more and so on, that’s the goal. I want to spread it beyond Philadelphia.”
His future goals for the program and how to expand it
“I haven’t seen too many programs like this, there’s a lot of boxing and basketball programs but not with Jiu Jitsu. It’s fairly new in the urban community so a lot of people don’t know about it. A lot of these kids are athletes so if they love it then I can take them to compete which further motivates them. I’m traveling with them to other states to compete. It’s more motivation for them due to being fun as well as just self defense. I like competing myself, my belt rank may not be high but I love it which helps as an athlete.”
“I plan on going nationwide, I write this down daily. I’m building it brick by brick, it’s going to be huge. Right now it’s just the beginning. When I get wealthy people behind it with donations it will be bigger, eventually, I want a school with tutors so they can also excel in school. I want centers around the country to learn not just with BJJ, I’m super excited. I’m doing everything step by step and we’ll get there eventually, I can’t wait to introduce people to BJJ as it’s awesome. Even with young women, it’s important to learn to defend against harassment and sexual assaults. When you know how to escape stuff like mount it’s really important.”
“Eventually, I’d like to get it out there and talk to the big BJJ organizations. It’s more intriguing as I’m African American, it will hopefully spread and motivate people who were in the same situation I was in. My goal is to have GLS centers or programs linked to schools around the country to help the youth, especially the inner city. GLS will go beyond the youth! I want to motivate people like me to try stuff new like BJJ. I see a lot of African Americans do BJJ but a lot don’t know about it or know where to try it. We’re trying to make future leaders right now.”
