My first 10p black belts & a new brown

Soo.. where to begin. Last weekend we celebrated our 10-year anniversary of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu in Norway with a gathering of the clans (10pBergen and 10pFredrikstad) at my newly opened 10pFredrikstad. It was a mad emotional event for me, and I was barely keeping it together.. soo insanely cool to see my ninjaz from Bergen enter the mats in Fredrikstad, now Norway's second official 10p affiliate. We did not only survive, we thrive! Being 10th Planet we are probably the only academies in Norway focused solely on NOGI..all week, all year. And what a journey it has been! August 2015 was the start of 10pBergen.. but, like I've mentioned before, the journey to open up an official 10p affiliate under Eddie began a decade earlier.. 2005/06. I moved from Fredrikstad to Bergen in 2009, and shortly after joined Bergen Cagefighters.. the MMA team at Fitness First martial arts academy.

This is where I met both Kristian and Espen for the first time, so young, both with a very limited Jiu Jitsu skill set. I started teaching the NOGI sessions at Bergen Cagefighters, so both Kristian and Espen got introduced to 10th Planet concepts and techniques years before I opened 10pBergen. Once I opened 10pBergen though, and we started building the mat, they started accelerating rapidly! With great focus and willingness to learn, they both put in the hours of hard work, week in week out.. and very quickly became some of the sharpest students on the mats. Drilling was sharp, both technical and live, and rolling was starting to look like serious Jiu Jitsu! Both spent years as competitors, doing very well in professional brackets, beating brown and black belts, as purple belts. Espen and Kristian took over as Moonheads of 10pBergen when I moved back to Fredrikstad 2023, and have done a beautiful job keeping to the standard and level I left them with. They are both very knowledgeable with regards to the 10th Planet system, and both highly technical instructors, on top of being solid NOGI grapplers.

Then entered Sindre, and a little later, Benjamin.

Sindre had moved from Arendal to Bergen, and with some very crude grappling experience, embarked on his journey into the 10p universe, pure NOGI. Overcoming some initial frustration, he quickly fell into sharp drilling, solid rolling, and a world of competition. Sindre being a big guy, I remember telling him from early on, to train as if he was 65kg. Develop your guard game, your sweeps.. not just rely on your weight and smash everyone from top position, like heavy guys often do. Sindre followed the advice, and is now a 105kg brownbelt with soul crushing top game, AND a dangerous, tricky and lethal guard, including a sharp and polished rubberguard, not too common with guys that size!

Then Benjamin (aka BenjiSan). Benjamin started his journey in grappling in Judo at the Kodokan institute in Japan! Back in Bergen he was a member of a traditional BJJ academy, both GI and NOGI.. one day he entered the mats at 10pBergen, frustrated, as he got frequently yelled at for using lockdowns, and going after them leglocks in class. Obviously we just laughed at this, as it's utterly ridiculous! BenjiSan rapidly switched to 10p and joined the dark side.. At 10th Planet we are open to everything, no banning of leglocks, or anything Jiu Jitsu.. just train! Anyway, it became obvious from the start that BenjiSan had a foot fetish, always working on his leg lock game with an asperger-like focus. Aaand he suddenly starts to accelerate like crazy, in fact I’ve never seen such rapid development before! I used to comfortably tap him a lot on them legs, buuut.. Not anymore, just gotten to the point of ridiculous now, soo sharp and precise, sooo powerful with his attacks, he has really mastered the Dark Arts. He also got a high-level rubberguard game, them tree trunks of legs of his is mad flexible. All of BenjiSan's comp wins have come via LegLocks. BenjiSan is also a direct student of Masakazu Imanari, traveling back and forth Norway/ Japan for training. He got his bluebelt from me at 10pBergen, every rank after this he got promoted by Imanari himself first, then got his 10pRank shortly after. All the way to Black belt! Benjamin has now stepped in as head instructor (Moonhead) of 10pBergen as Espen and Kristian needed to step back from the position for family reasons. Nothing but love and respect!

Anyway, I could have written a book with all the time and experiences I’ve had with these guys over the years, so many awesome trips, gatherings, training sessions… spent a ridiculously amount of time together, building the mats, talking shit, having mad fun along the way! I’m extremely proud of you all, you are all like family to me!! Again, huge congrats on your well deserved ranks, ninjaz! “Nothing given, Everything worked for” SOLID! #10P4L

Frode Nilsen
Moonhead 10pFredrikstad