Lyndhurst BJJ Promotions

What a fantastic night of Lyndhurst BJJ Promotions at Savarese BJJ!

I was proud and honored to place the blackbelt around the waist of Michael Louis Hanly and promote Mohammad Mohebbi to 1st degree blackbelt. Mike’s blackbelt held a special meaning to me as well as he was the first person to start directly under my teaching to reach the very tough rank of blackbelt at our Academy.

He started by taking private lessons because he was a guitar teacher and didn’t want to injure his fingers. He was picking things up easily so I begged him to enter our classes and 10 yrs later, he realized a great lifetime accomplishment.

I gave a small speech and the value of white belts, what the blue and purple belts mean, how hard work sets the tone, the importance of tapping and how to face our fears.

We handed the floor to Mike who gave a beautiful and moving thank you speech to all his training partners and to all the blackbelts. I personally was filled with emotion. To all who attended, I’d bet you are wiser and more motivated today.

Congrats to all but special congrats to some others that were promoted: Andrew Zeppetelli and Danny Rinaldi to purple belt, Babatunde Ojo and Antonio Viera to bluebelt and our little beast Kayla Zeppetelli to Yellowbelt.

Another great story from last night was the “Legacy belt”. This brownbelt was given to me by my Professor David Adiv in 2005. I passed it on to my student Mohammad Mohebbi, whom I knew would be my 1st blackbelt. When he reached blackbelt, we passed it on to Michael Louis Hanly and we are going to have to retire it because I don’t think it will last another person. There is a lot of knowledge, sweat, blood and battles in that belt. Thanks everyone to a night I will forever cherish. OSS.

Lyndhurst BJJ Promotions