John Will (born 16 April 1957) is a notable martial artist from Australia. Will won the Best Exponent Award in the first World Silat Championships held in Jakarta in 1981.[1] Will also completed his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Rigan Machado and his brothers, John, Roger and Jean Jacques Machado in 1997; making him one of the first twelve foreign nationals to have won a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
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John Will's background includes training in amateur wrestling, Goju Kai Karate and Taekwondo, training with Benny Urquidez, Gene LeBell, Pete Cunningham, Rorion Gracie and Rickson Gracie and the Machado brothers and teaching Shootfighting. During a trip to India, John Will trained in the art of Vajra Mushti under the Jyesthimalla clan in Gujarat, India. Will is also credited with publishing a rare first-hand account of the ancient Indian martial art in western media.
John Will is noted for taking several overseas martial arts training trips each year, and has been doing so since 1975; including training in Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, the U.S. and Brazil. Currently John Will is the Australian national director of Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Australia. The organization is the largest in the Australasian region (with over 70 member schools) and is known as BJJ Australasia. He teaches BJJ, as well as Shootfighting, at his Black Belt Studios in Geelong.
Along with partner David Meyer (based in San Francisco), Will founded BJJ America and to date, more than 600 schools throughout the USA, utilize the professional BJJ Curriculum that Will designed and authored in 2000. More recently, he has tailor-designed various curriculi for several notable martial arts organizations including Chuck Norris's UFAF (United Fighting Arts Federation).
John teaches distilled, accelerated learning-based defensive tactics programs to various law enforcement and military agencies; including the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Defence Forces, the Marine Corps at Quantico in Virginia, USA .. and many others. He is renowned for his ability to tailor-design both the tactical package and the delivery methodology to go with it. His highly innovative teaching methodologies have earned him a reputation as a Supercoach; and it is in this capacity as a trainer of trainers that he obtains much of his employment. To date, he is the only non military SME (subject matter expert) that the Australian military has employed to design and teach their MUC (Military Unarmed Combat) package.
John is a self published author, with 4 instructional books directed at the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Self-defence market. His first 3 books are purely BJJ orientated and cover: Fundamentals, The Guard and advanced attacks & escapes. His 4th Instructional Book is "Fight ~ Logic" a book that covers Johns passion for all aspects of the self defence game, from Pre-Fight scenarios right through to taking the fight to the ground and conclusion.
John's recent writing focus has been the penning of his autobiography, which is to be released as a 3 part series entitled Rogue Black Belt. As with his instructional Books, John is publishing these works himself and selling them via his websites and through his extensive network of Martial Arts friends and practitioners.