SBG UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lineage
Kanō Jigorō → Tomita Tsunejirō → Mitsuyo “Count Koma” Maeda → Hélio Gracie → Rolls Gracie & Carlos “Carlinhos” Gracie Jr → Rigan Machado → Chris Haueter → Matt Thornton → Karl Tanswell
SBG was founded by Karl Tanswell in 1999 and is one of the most established mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu jitsu gyms in the city centre of Manchester.
Karl had been teaching martial arts from his gym Defence Unlimted, 6 or 7 years prior to opening SBG. He was originally teaching Bruce Lee’s art of Jeet Kune Do, along with Filipino martial arts, Muay Thai boxing, western boxing and kickboxing.
Karl was always looking for effective martial arts to add to his long list of credentials and one martial art that caught his attention was Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, which was gaining huge momentum due to Royce Gracie’s dominance in the UFC.
Karl started to learn as much as he could about jiu jitsu, judo and other forms of grappling and in 1996, he was awarded his blue belt in BJJ from Royce Gracie during a UK seminar.
Around the same time, Karl became aware of Matt Thornton, another JKD practitioner based in Portland, Oregon. As well as teaching and practicing Jeet Kune Do, Matt was also a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and trained under the legendary Rickson Gracie who gave him his blue belt in 1993 and then under Chris Haueter, who awarded Matt his purple, brown and finally his black belt in 2002.
Karl would soon start bringing Matt Thornton over to the UK for seminars on and he would also travel to Portland to train and coach at SBGi camps. In 1999 Karl changed the name of his gym from Defence Unlimited to SBG and became the founder and President of SBG United Kingdom.
Karl was awarded his purple and brown belts from Matt Thornton and in 2007 Matt awarded Karl his black belt making him one of the UK’s first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts. He would continue teaching and training Brazilain Jiu Jitsu until his untimely passing in 2018. At the time he was a third degree black belt.
Karl promoted 6 black belts who all continue to train and teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at various locations in the UK and overseas.
We are honored and proud to have two of these coaching weekly classes at SBG Manchester, Casey Jones and Chris Coltrane, with the others often visiting to coach workshops and seminars and just train with us.
Karl Tanswell Black Belts
Casey Jones
2012
Jason Tan
2012
Chris Coltrane
2013
Glyn Powditch
2013
Matt Inman
2015
Zenon Ogar
2018
SBG United Kingdom Black Belts
3rd Degree Black Belts
2nd Degree Black Belts
1st Degree Black Belts
Black Belts
SBG UK Black Lineage
Karl Tanswell
Casey Jones
(3rd Degree)
Michael Feely (1st)
Ashley Miller
Ryan Adleigh
Ross McTavish
David Philp
Michael Cowperthwaite
Martin Donaldson
Saulius Gurbininkas
Kevin McAloon
Beinn Campbell
Saul Rogers
Jason Tan
(3rd Degree)
Jay Owen (1st)
Ste McGiverin (1st)
Peter Youds (1st)
Lawrence Fitzpatrick
James Kirkham
Carl Blakeman
Karl Franks
Aaron Aby
Bruno Yamamoto
Anthony Jones
John McFarlane
Jay O’Connor
Mike Wooten
Chris Coltrane
(3rd Degree)
Simon Kenny
Jordan Desborough
Paddy Monaghan
Stephen Hooper
David Johnson
Joshua Jarvis
Glyn Powditch
(3rd Degree)
Pete Joyce
Matt Inman
(2nd Degree)
Ella Tanswell (1st)
Martin Stapleton
Jarkko Korjus
Alex Enlund
Antonio Sheldon
Adam Proctor
Abdul Choudhury
Davey Grant
Mitch Dobbins
Davie McGlaughlin
Zenon Ogar
(1st Degree)
Other SBG UK Black Belts
Rich Green
Mark Spencer
(2nd Degree)
Sundeep Manik
SBG UK Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
