BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU

LINEAGE & AFFILIATIONS

Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie > Helio Gracie > Rickson Gracie > Jorge Pereira > Leo Dalla

Leo Dalla validated Luke Rinehart's BJJ Black Belt through the IBJJF. Luke is not a Leo Dalla black belt as he never officially trained "under" Leo Dalla but Luke did train "with" Leo Dalla and his Competition Team, "Big Brothers". 

As a Black Belt in Tang Soo Do, and his Father's System of Self-Defense Tactics  Luke began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with his Father in 1992 with the guidance of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Basics Video's . This was prior to the U.F.C. making BJJ as popular as it is today. At the time, there were no BJJ places to train at all.  Through the years Luke continued to train BJJ vigorously getting ahold of any tapes he could and eventually the use of youtube! Luke also attended various seminars in Atlantic City hosted by Royce Gracie and Rickson Gracie. Luke traveled to compete regularly from 1997-2005.  Luke won several Expert and even Pro Divisions in NAGA in the later years. Around 2005 he had a student who lived in Woodbridge, Virginia but traveled to Frederick to train with him.  This student discovered Leo Dalla in Woodbridge and eventually began to train with him. He introduced Luke to him and Luke was able to roll at his Academy a few times before his superfight against Pablo Popovich.  Luke kept a good relationship with Dalla and on occasion would still get to Dalla's Academy and train with his team. In 2011 he approached Dalla about getting an official Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt.  Dalla said he didn't want to certify him personally because it would be a misrepresentation. He said that Luke learned on his own and that he should get the credit for it. Dalla helped Luke come up with a plan to get certified as a BJJ Black Belt through the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation.  Dalla said that he would validate Luke as a Black Belt through the IBJJF for as long as he had known him, which was 6 years at the time, as he believed that Luke was at the Black Belt level when they first met in 2005.  So Luke approached the IBJJF about how to become a certified Black Belt through them and fulfilled all their requirements and Dalla signed to validate that he was worthy of the Belt. In October of 2011 Luke became a certified 2nd Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and one of the only people in the world to earn a black belt in BJJ without an instructor. Since then Luke has also earned his 3rd Degree Black Belt.

Clinch Academy is affiliated with team "Big Brothers" and competes under that name in all the major tournaments. Here is a list of some of the other Big Brother Schools...

Premier Fight Center (Leo Dalla)

Vanguard Gym (Douglas Esposito)

Battlefield Jiu Jitsu (Jason Doucette)

Manassas Mixed Martial Arts (Dave Trader)

KOA Martial Arts (Kelly Grissom)

The LAB Mixed Martial Arts Academy (Chad LeBrun)

Guigo Academia (Luiz Guilherme de Jesus “Guigo”)

Culpeper Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Mike Gorman)

One of Luke's Black Belts, Josh Troy has also opened Ascend Institute in Bethesda, MD