John Will began his martial arts training in 1972. With a basic grounding in amateur wrestling, Goju Kai Karate and Taekwondo. He first left Australian shores in 1975 to study the indigenous martial arts systems of South East Asia; with many of those years spent in Indonesia learning Pentjak Silat.

In the late 80’s, he founded Blitz magazine, which gave him the means to travel and research the martial arts in many an exotic location.

The next twenty five years saw him take more than 50 overseas training trips; including stints in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, India, the U.S.A and Brazil. In ’82, he entered and won gold in the first World Silat Championships held in Jakarta, the first and at that time, the only non-Indonesian to accomplish that. His friendship with long-time training partner Richard Norton, opened many doors to him in the Unites States, that perhaps would have been closed to most people. So in the late 80’s, he began training with such notables as Benny Urquidez, Gene LeBell, Shuki Ron, Pete Cunningham, Rorion and Rickson Gracie and the Machado brothers.

Also in the late 80’s, a friendship with Rigan Machado allowed John to travel to and train in Brazil. There, he was exposed to a wide cross-section of Brazil’s best BJJ coaches, and so began his serious study of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He was finally awarded the rank of black belt by Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado in 1998; making him one of the ‘BJJ Dirty Dozen’, the first twelve non-Brazilian BJJ Black Belts in the world and the very first Australian to do so. Since, he has pioneered BJJ in this country; paving the way for many others.

Among the first of the top-notch Brazilians to make the move to America, were the renowned Brazilian fighting family, the Machado brothers. Through the help of martial arts legend Chuck Norris, himself a Machado student, the brothers relocated from Rio de Janeiro to the United States during the late 80's and early 90's. Before setting up their Academies in Los Angeles, each of the five brothers held Brazil National Jiu Jitsu titles in each of their respective weight divisions. A unique accomplishment in a highly competitive arena. The five brothers, Carlos, Rigan, Jean Jacques, John and Roger were all brought up on a diet of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu; spending most of their childhood years on the mat, and competing in innumerable local, state and national tournaments.