Billy Crafton and the Other Jiu Jitsu Instructors at Gracie San Diego

Billy Crafton here, and today I want to shine a light on some of the incredible, top notch instructors at our Gracie Humaitá Academy in San Diego, including my own mentor, Professor Regis Lebre, who most certainly tops the list as “the heart and soul of Gracie San Diego. “

I’m honored to be a part of this great community of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu teachers, and thanks to a recent website update, you can read a short biography on myself and all the others as well.

The impressive group includes these fellow black belts:

Aaron Hernandez
Janaina Lebre
Mike Trasso
Rodrigo Pereira
Erik Arnett
Zimitro Perez

It also includes some great instructors still working they way up to black belt.

As for my part, here’s what my own bio on the site looks like:

“Billy Crafton was born and raised in San Diego, California. He’s been involved in athletics all his life, playing multiple sports at Pt. Loma High School and playing football in college. He started training in Jiu-Jitsu in 2009 with Regis Lebre at Gracie Humaita. He earned his black belt in 2017.

Billy is an active competitor. He has won NAGA, Grappler’s Quest and Grappler’s X tournaments, as well as over 50 IBJJF tournaments, including a World Championship, multiple American National gi and no-gi championships, and multiple Pan-American gi and no-gi championships. He also won the UFC Fight Week No-Gi Grappling Tournament Advanced Division in 2015. His only athletic regret is that he didn’t’ start training in Jiu-Jitsu earlier in his life.

Outside of Jiu-Jitsu, Billy is married with three children. His older daughter has been training in Jiu-Jitsu for years and his twin son and daughter have begun training recently. He enjoys surfing, reading and spending time with his family.”

I encourage you to visit the Gracie Humaitá Academy website to learn all about the different teachers, as well as the different programs availablbe, including our free week trial option, which you can sign up for right on the home page.

You can also learn all about the Acedemy itself, including photos of the facility, all about our philosophy, and there’s even a video message from Professor Regis Lebre as well. Click here to to view all that on the About Us page.