Giles Garcia – Head Coach & Academy Owner
Giles teaches the Wednesday 7am class, the Monday and Friday lunchtime and Friday evening classes, plus all the weekend classes apart from the takedown class.
Giles first started training martial arts when he was six years old, primarily studying Karate, with a bit of Wing Chun & Ninjutsu, before finding Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in 2007.
Giles was awarded both blue & purple belts by Royce Gracie, getting his purple belt in May 2014. In October 2018 he was awarded his brown belt by Christian Graugart, founder of BJJ Globetrotters, who then also awarded him his black belt in October 2020 with the blessing of fellow camp instructors Shanti Abelha, Wim Deputter, Priit Mihkelson and Francesco Fonte.
Some of his more notable achievements include:
· IBJJF British Nationals 2018 – Gold at Weight – Purple Belt.
· IBJJF Paris Open 2018 – Gold at Weight – Purple Belt.
· IBJJF Munich Open 2018 – Gold at Weight – Purple Belt.
· Kleos Grappling 2015 – Silver at Weight – Blue Belt.
· Scotia Grappling 2013 – Gold at Weight – Blue Belt.
· Naga Paris 2011 – Double Bronze – Advanced No-Gi Divison.
· Fighters Only Invitational 2011 – Silver at Weight – Blue Belt.
· European Festival of Martial Arts at Disneyland Paris, 2009 – Bronze at Weight – White Belt.
· Semi-Professional MMA 1-0-0
· Muay Thai – C-class 2-0-0
Giles is also a certified Yoga For BJJ instructor and you can see Giles’ beltchecker profile here.
Richard Wood – Coach
Richard is an experienced coach who has been teaching at Ronin Grappling since we first opened our doors in Rutherglen.
Richard is a brown belt with a strong love for Kimuras and Ezekiel chokes and has been training jiu jitsu since 2014.
Achievements include:
· Silver NoGi 5th Annual Scottish Cup.
· Bronze Gi 5th Annual Scottish Cup.
Richard teaches the Wednesday lunchtime and evening classes. See Richard’s beltchecker profile here.
Scott Dickie – Coach
Scott likes to describe himself as ‘ok at jiu jitsu’ though those who roll with him will know that’s a vast understatement.
Scott was promoted to black belt in November 2022 and his celebratory shoey has already become legendary. He started training in 2011 and has years of experience teaching both Gi and NoGi jiu jitsu. His favourite techniques include anything lapel based and he likes a good berimbolo.
Achievements include:
· Bronze Gi West of Scotland Open.
· Bronze Gi Edinburgh Open.
· Bronze at the ADCC UK Scottish Open.
Scott is also a certified Yoga For BJJ instructor and teaches the Tuesday night fundamentals and NoGi classes. See Scott’s beltchecker profile here.
Cammy Carr – Coach
Cammy has been training NoGi grappling since 2010 and has a severe allergy to cotton, only wearing a Gi once a year.
Currently a brown belt, Cammy spent two summers training at 10th Planet LA leading to his fondness for an unorthodox style.
Having spent a lot of time also focusing on wrestling, Cammy is an experienced standup grappler and teaches our wrestling class on a Sunday morning as well as the Monday evening class.
Likes: Wrestling, back attacks, the truck, lycra.
Dislikes: Lapels.
Cristiana Theodoli – Coach & Owner
As well as co-owning Ronin Grappling, Cristiana is the creative mind at the gym and runs the website, social media accounts, takes photos, deals with the admin and pretty much works on everything else around the gym making sure shit gets done.
Cristiana has been training jiu jitsu since 2012 and is a brown belt with a Gi heavy game favouring top pressure and lapel techniques. In her own words, Cristiana doesn’t want to “think about jiu jitsu, just roll around the floor”.
Achievements include:
· Keeping Giles’ exuberance under control.
· Gold absolute Grapplers Quest.
· Gold absolute SubNorth Open.
· Double Gold Scottish Open.
· Silver Gi IBJJF Europeans.
· Silver NoGi Grapplers Quest.
· Silver Gi Kleos Grappling.
· Silver Gi Scottish Open.
· Silver Gi Edinburgh Open.
· Silver NoGi absolute Grapplers Games.
· Bronze Gi absolute Scottish Open.
Cristiana teaches the Thursday lunchtime Gi class and the Thursday night Women*+ class. See Cristiana’s beltchecker profile here.
Martin Uhricek – Coach
Martin started training aikido and karate around 2002 before moving to MMA and training out of Penta Gym in Prague, a gym famous for both its ground and pound and jiu jitsu.
After moving to Glasgow around 2012, Martin has trained at a number of gyms and continued training and competing in Thai boxing as well as jiu jitsu before finding his home at Ronin Grappling and is currently a brown belt under Giles.
His biggest achievements include not having a criminal record and avoiding street and pub fights.
A lover of armbars from all angles and all positions, Martin is team Gi and teaches the Tuesday and Thursday 7am classes.
