Congratulations to Chris Shen!
He received his brown belt from Will Machado black belt, Tyrone Crosse,
Monday 15th October 2007.
Congrats!
Congrats to a nice guy.
Justin
Awesome chris,
Robbo
That's great news.
Congratulations Chris!
comgrats
Congrats Chris
A.Lange
What took u so long?
Well done Kobra Kai.
Paul.
Well done Chris, congratulations buddy.
Ronny.
champion! well done tiger.. it was such a pleasant surprise to see you wearing that big stiff brown belt on friday.
Congrats. That's awesome seeing as how he was a mid level blue a year ago and now he's a brown.
Is he on the Tony Bonello program?
Interesting comment BN - TC is the nicest bloke ever (equal to GBB) but he doesnt hand belts out for the sake of it.
Settle down tiger. From memory he was a blue like six or more years ago, leaning toward the more side. Maybe he spent a little less time on purple, but that may be that he should have had a purple a few years earlier. I also don't think Tyrone would just hand out a brown.
I actually can't remember him being a purple!?
He wasn't a blue six years ago. More like, maybe 2, 3 at most. As someone who trained alongside him at Extreme I'm fairly aware of when he was graded. Additionally, he spent a lot of that time training no Gi for his ahem wrestling career so a fair portion is non specific to the gi.
I've also known Tyrone for about 20 years now, and I've known Chris for about 10. I have no ill feeling towards either, and have found both to be decent, intelligent guys. This is not a comment on anyone's character.
I'm also only a blue belt, so how much does my opinion really matter? Probably not very much.
I just think its really fast.
Well done Chris. Huge effort reaching the rank of Bjj Brown Belt.
As for Bull Neck comments, well everyone has a right to there opinion. I've been a Bjj Purple Belt for just under 3 years and if TC says Chris Shen is a brown belt, then he is. Welcome to the Will/Machado ranks Chris.
I look forward to getting the chance to roll with you sometime!
Cheers
Stewie
I actually forgot a couple of things too...
He got kicked out of JBW back in the Kensington days for some less than tactful comments he made overseas about JBW.
He got kicked out of Extreme for some less than tactful comments while JD was away. And certainly was never graded to anything higher than blue.
So how come a JBW guy has graded him? Isn't that some kind of conflict of interest? And how come he's training at GZ? I believe the brazilians have a term for people like that...?
"And how come he's training at GZ?"
As a GZ regular I can answer that: he's training at GZ because 1/ he wants to and 2/ he's welcome.
I've only rolled with Chris once or twice and run into him maybe a dozen times in all, but the one constant theme in all our interactions (and of those of my friends who also know Chris) relates to an appreciation of his genuine, friendly manner. Chris is the type of guy you want to train with, not solely due to his knowledge/skills, but primarily due to 'who' he is.
I'm with Tycinio on this one: if Tyron say's it's so, it's so!
My honest opinion of judgement is it typically says a lot more about the people making the judgement, than those being judged.....
Chris has been a BJJ practitioner about as long as I have, which is coming up for 12 years. In that time he trained with a variety of coaches (as have many others) and tried a variety of grappling styles, especially Wrestling, which seems to be his true passion in Martial Arts.
I don't know exactly how long Chris has spent at each belt level, and to be honest, I don't really care. Royce Gracie summarised this issue best;
'your belt only covers 2 inches of your arse, you cover the rest'
If anyone has an issue with Chris getting graded, then you should make the time to get on the mat with him and find out for yourself. My guess is Chris would be an extremely challenging opponent for me, and my Brown Belt in only a couple of months old.
Off the mat, Chris is a genuine guy who shows motivation and personal commitment that is rare and refreshing, he is a good man and deserves credit for his work, as Tyrone has recognised and rewarded.
Congratulations again Chris, wear your Brown Belt with the pride it deserves.
Gerald.