Julius Park

Julius Park was born in Seoul, capital of South Korea, on the 1st of July 1980. The Park family moved to the United States where he settled when he was 1 year old.

Julius became aware of Brazilian jiu-jitsu by watching Royce Gracie in action on the first UFC’s through VHS tapes. His interest took him to Renzo Gracie‘s first academy (before the current set up) with his parents, but the long commute prevented Park from joining at the time, he chose to wrestle instead during high school.

Jiu Jitsu became available in 1998 in the shape of an unofficial club at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) where Park was studying. Park’s first classes were led by Will Kabat-Zinn who was a blue belt from Boston Brazilian jiu-jitsu and also a student at Cornell. After a short period, Julius understood that he needed to seek a more professional coach, for that, he returned to the Renzo Gracie Academy where he started following a structured jiu-jitsu program.

In 1999 Julius Park started running the aforementioned ‘unofficial jiu-jitsu club’ at C.U.. He was a blue belt under Renzo at the time, and this was Park’s first coaching experience. Renzo Gracie also awarded Julius his purple belt, before he returned to the state of Maryland where he joined Team Loyd Irvin, earning his brown and black belt (2013) from Irvin.

Jiu-jitsu became Julius’ life, and in 2005 he decided to open his own academy, believing that if he did, he would be able to train more often and with more partners, this was the start of the Crazy 88 academy. The academy has since grown into one of the most recognized grappling gyms in the state, and in the country with numerous athletes from the academy regularly medaling in the world’s most prestigious tournaments.

from BJJ Heroes