NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – 6910N1 MMA and Fitness in North Platte welcomed two black belt Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for their student’s Promotion Ceremony. The two guest black belts were Mike Lee of Lee Bother’s MMA and Maykon Barradas, a third-degree black belt, who is the head coach at Barradas Jiu-Jitsu. Teaching the class was Ryan MacDonald and Jason Scott.
An interesting note on the day was, that Barradas was getting to watch his student observe his student, while Lee was observing his student teach his students, and MacDonald led the Promotion Ceremony. Barradas began coaching Lee back in 2017, then from there MacDonald reached out to Lee for training, and after that relationship was formed MacDonald began coaching at 6910N1.
The thing Lee wanted for the children to get out of this day, was to be proud of how far they’ve come with their technique and continue to perfect that technique as well.
“I hope the kids today just have fun training Jiu-Jitsu and they have a new experience experiencing their black belt professors, their coaches coaches. One of the special things about Martial Arts is the lineage. When you think about coach is from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil currently living in Las Angeles, I’m here from Indiana. You know we’re working behind the scenes constantly in connection with Ryan and now we come out here and they get to meet their professors, their parents get to see them be celebrated. Promotions are really about elevating the academy, so they get a promotion and they get a color, that actually elevates their academy. So I hope they come out of today proud of themselves for the work they put in and just feeling and encouraged by an experience with their professors,” explains Lee.
Lee says that while this wasn’t his first time visiting North Platte, it was his first time training here. Lee couldn’t have had better things to say about the community either.
“It’s truly special, to be here and experience training in this environment. This is my first time training in this environment. I’ve come through just in friendship with Ryan and Jason, but I’ve never had the opportunity to train here. So, to come through and train with the students, first off I want to say they were so welcoming. When we came in they were all so excited, people gave us gifts. Just the spirit of the people here in North Platte is just special and I think it’s especially highlighted in this environment,” says Lee.
Barradas is from Rio De Janeiro, and he explains it is a great feeling seeing a sport that originated in his home county become widely accepted all across the world.
“It’s very nice to see how Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is going everywhere in the world. North Platte, the last time that I came here I saw everybody was very hungry to learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, especially from a black belt from Brazil. I just felt so thankful to have all of those students training so hard and hungry to learn. That’s my big impression is that they trained really hard to get to the next level and better,” explains Barradas.
At the end of the ceremony the kids were awarded their new belts for mastery of the technique at their current level.
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