Chad’s Story 

This is Chad. He started jiu jitsu at 17. Thanks to the encouragement of his best friend and the inspiration to do MMA from a high school teacher, he gave it a go.

From day 1, he was hooked. Jiu jitsu addressed his fear of violence and empowered him to defend himself if the situation ever arose.

“I ate, slept and breathed jiu jitsu.” Chad was training 6 days a week, 3-4 classes a day, sparring 15-20 rounds a day for years. The goal? “To be better than yesterday.” And that dedication came at a cost—time with friends and family. But it also exposed him to teaching early on. In exchange to train for free, he taught other white belts, testing his skills and knowledge. “Teaching means you truly have to understand it to explain it to someone else. It’s an empowering feeling when others look to you for answers.”

On February 1st, 2017, at 26, Chad received his black belt from Alex Chung.

Shortly after, he became an instructor at another gym, but then COVID hit and was let go. It was then that a buddy convinced him to open up his own gym. Hesitant at first, Chad went for it.  “Missing an opportunity out of fear hurts more than trying and failing.” In his heart, having his own school was bound to happen. It’d give him the creative freedom to run his own program and build a new generation of fighters under his name. Covid 2020 put him on course. Thus, Paxibellum was born. “Had it not been for the pandemic, Paxibellum wouldn’t exist.”

Chad’s love for military history, especially Roman history inspired the name. Based on a Latin phrase, “In order to have peace, one must prepare for war.” “Pax” means peace and “bellum” means war. “I think that’s what martial arts is. And our most basic form is hand to hand combat.”

His #1 goal as a coach? The safety of the team. To train while reducing the risk of injury. “My #1 rule when I teach a submission is to immediately teach the escape. There’s no offense without defense.”

Never would he have imagined that that trial class back in 2006 would alter the trajectory of his future. Forever. The lessons he learned on the mat translated to his daily life: discipline, patience, humility. “It’s not just physical, but mental. No wonder they call it, ‘human chess.’ The more I trained, the more I saw the bigger picture. It’s more than a martial art – it’s a lifestyle. And I’ll be doing this until the day I die.”