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- Eliot Kelly
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- Eliot and his beautiful family
Eliot Kelly is the head instructor at El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He started learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu while he was teaching English and coaching wrestling in Japan. During his stay in Japan, he was fortunate enough to live in a community where many Brazilians lived and quickly became involved with their culture and sports. Although his training took place in Japan, he experienced complete immersion in Jiu-Jitsu training while surrounded by the Brazilian community. Eliot explains,
“I wanted to learn Gracie Jiu-Jitsu because I heard of people doing it well into their 50’s and even 60’s. I finally found something I could do that wasn’t just lifting weights, hitting a ball, or chasing a ball.”
Eliot earned his brown belt in Japan from Michel and Marcio Miyashita, instructors under 5th degree black belt Master Barbosa. After moving back to the United States from Japan he trained with Andre Glodzinski for almost 2 years until the closing of the first Sacramento gym. Eliot is currently training with World Champion Professor Marcos Torregrosa.
“I wish to teach the Jiu-Jitsu technique and skills I know while emphasizing some of the fun and unique cultural elements I have experienced in my training. Please ask me about my experiences, I would love to share them with anyone!” – Eliot Kelly
Prior to his experiences in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Eliot was a Division 1 Wrestler at UC Davis under the legendary coaching of Lennie Zalesky and Mark Munoz. At UCD he became a two time Pac-10 place winner, Open Freestyle State Champion and earned medals at many other College Open tournaments. Eliot has wrestled and beaten some cream-of-the-crop wrestlers from BIG 10 and BIG 12 schools, including the University of Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa University, Oklahoma State and Oregon State. He also has experience working as a counselor at a few of the toughest, most renowned wrestling camps in the nation, including J Robinson’s Intensive Wrestling Camp, Camp of Champs Ironman Training Camp, The Eternal Warrior Wrestling Camp and West Coast Wrestling Camps.
Eliot graduated from UC Davis in 2007 with a double major in Japanese and East Asian Studies and a minor in Education. His Japanese knowledge has come in handy during his journeys to Japan, where he has had a unique coaching experience. He worked with the freestyle clubs in Shiga Prefecture alongside former Olympians and National Champions, and at Ritsumeikan University alongside a 2 time Olympian.
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- Eliot Competing
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- Eliot with Friends in Japan
After returning from Japan, back to the Sacramento area, he arrived again at UC Davis to help the team as an Assistant Coach and to train in order to make the Freestyle national team, for which he competed in the Dave Schultz Memorial and Asics Nationals. Unfortunately, in 2010 the UCD Wrestling team was cut from UCD Athletics. But Eliot is looking to stay involved in wrestling as he continues to develop the Jiu-Jitsu program in El Dorado Hills.
It was through wrestling Eliot met his longtime friend, creator of Fight 4 Your Life, Bryan Bachar, with B being one of his teammates at UCD. B says a few words about his friend,
“You can’t ask for a better person to know than El Dog. He’s a genuinely good human being. And it makes me a better person just to know him. Like everyone in his life I’m sure, I’m very proud of the man he has become and continues to strive to be.”
Eliot has been a supporter of Mr. Bachar’s creative endeavors since college, having helped out regularly as an extra hand, or, more recently, having provided his dojo as a location for F4YL. In fact, Eliot has a small role in the film as well! Keep an eye out for him.
And please be sure to check out his business site for his Jui-Jitsu school El Dorado Hills Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. What a great place! You can find out more about Eliot and his business on:
– The one studios crew
