Roy Marsh
Roy Marsh is the Head Instructor and Owner of Gracie Schwarzwald. He is Germany's only Black Belt under the Legendary UFC Hall-of-Famer, Royce Gracie: the man who introduced Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts to the World.
Roy began training in 2000 and was awarded his Black Belt in 2013 after passing a grueling test in front of Royce, Grandmaster Pedro Valente Sr. and a large group of Black Belts – verifying his knowledge of, and proficiency in, all aspects of the Art as set by Grandmaster Helio and Royce.
Roy began his training under Greg Thompson. Greg is Royce Gracie’s first Black Belt and one of the top Military Combatives Experts in the world. Greg created SOCP (Special Forces Combatives Program) for the U.S. Army. As a student of Greg’s, Roy learned Jiu-Jitsu, first and foremost, as a realistic combative style for dealing with all dangers.
Because of his expertise in this style of Jiu-Jitsu, Roy was asked to work closely with U.S. Army Groups on Ft. Bragg and was an Advisor to the 82ndAirborne Division Combatives and Advanced Tactics Program. Roy is Level 2 Certified in Modern Army Combatives (MACP) and was a coach for the 2014 U.S. All-Armed Services Combatives Championship Team.
Roy is recognised as a uniquely exceptional instructor because of his focus on understanding the Art in as technical and conceptually complete a way as possible.
He does this so that he can provide the best and most thorough instruction possible to his students. And, because of his unique understanding of Jiu-Jitsu, Roy is highly sought after for seminars and private lessons. Roy was the Guest Instructor at the first Blind Fury BJJ Camp. He has also been twice featured on the BJJBrick Podcast, as well as the Dirty White Belt Podcast.
Roy is committed to helping preserve the art of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu as a complete, realistic form of self-defense and not just a tournament sport. His primary focus is on preparing students to be able to defend themselves without rules or time limits and against all types of attacks.
However, although Roy’s main focus is practicing Jiu-Jitsu for Self Defense, he has trained and coached students for both Mixed Martial Arts and Jiu-Jitsu competitions as well as being a successful competitor himself. The following is a partial list of some of his competitive accomplishments:
