# B Team > Austin, United States ## Overview **Name:** B Team **Description:** B-Team Jiu-Jitsu is an elite submission grappling team and gym located in Austin, Texas, founded by ADCC silver medalist Craig Jones. The team was formed in 2021 after a split from John Danaher's Danaher Death Squad and quickly established itself as one of the top grappling organizations in the world. The B-Team's founding members include some of the most talented grapplers to ever compete: Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez (Nicky Rod), Izaak Michell, and Ethan Crelinsten. These world-class athletes started this organization to offer the most up-to-date representation of modern grappling techniques and competition strategy. The team's motto "When you can't train with the A team, you get the B Team" reflects their unique approach and competitive spirit. B-Team Jiu-Jitsu is known for its high-level instruction and focus on competition training. The gym features experienced black belt instructors including Craig Jones, Nicky Ryan, Nick Rodriguez, Ethan Crelinsten, Vince Barbosa, Dima Murovanni, and Haisam Rida. The training philosophy emphasizes strength, discipline, and confidence while pushing the boundaries of modern submission grappling. Note that the gym does not train white belts, focusing exclusively on experienced practitioners. **Status:** Active ## Contact Information **Address:** 1701 W. Ben White Blvd, Ste 163 Austin, TX 78704, United States **Email:** info@bteamjj.com **Website:** https://bteamjj.com **Social Media:** - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bteamjj/ - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BTeamJiuJitsu ## Instructors ### Craig Jones - Black **Role:** Head Instructor **Bio:** Craig Jones was born on July 17, 1991, in Adelaide, South Australia. Growing up Jones was a very active kid, playing a variety of intensive sports such as Australian rules football and basketball while also briefly training in taekwondo and judo. His interest in rough playing activities was a sign of Craig’s frame of mind, as a teenager turned to mixed martial arts (MMA) and by the time of his 15th birthday dreamt of becoming an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter. With the UFC in his sight, Craig joined his cousin Matt Jones’ BJJ academy (2006), a gym called ISOHEALTH. It was under Matt’s guidance that Craig started making a name for himself in Australia’s national grappling circuit, before joining the Maromba Academy in Melbourne (later named Absolute MMA), as a purple belt, where his tuition was then picked up by Lachlan Giles. In December 2015, after an epic performance at the IBJJF World No-Gi Championships, Jones earned his brown belt. It was also around this time that Craig became a regular BJJ instructor. One year later Lachlan Giles promoted Craig to black belt. Jones also worked extensively with John Danaher in New York City, at team Renzo Gracie, where he became one of the well-known coach’s most prominent students on the competitive scene. While climbing the ranks of jiu-jitsu, competing regularly nationally and internationally, Craig Jones also managed to graduate with a degree in Behavioural Science (Psychology). DANAHER DEATH SQUAD BREAK-UP In July 2021, coach John Danaher announced the end of the Danaher Death Squad as a unified training and competition team, alluding to “ the physical location of a future school, personality conflicts, conflicting values and an inevitable tension between the team brand and the growing individual brands of members ” as the main factors for the split ( original statement here ). Later that year, during the Summer months, Craig Jones announced his new team, one formed alongside a few of his DDS training partners, namely Nicky Ryan, Ethan Crelinsten, and Nicky Rodriguez. This new group was labeled the “B-Team” with its training base being set in Austin, Texas. Craig Jones Heel Hook Technique **Achievements:** - Polaris 205 lbs Champion (2018) - Polaris 185 lbs Champion (2018 / 2019) - 2nd Place ADCC World Championship (2019 / 2022) - 3rd Place EBI 11 Invitational (2017) - 3rd Place Kasai 2 185lbs Grand Prix (2018) - 3rd Place Kasai 5 205lbs Grand Prix (2019) - 1st Place IBJJF World Championship NoGi (2015 purple) - 1st Place AFBJJ Pan Pacific Championship (2014** purple) - 1st Place ADCC Asian & Oceania Trials (2014 / 2016) - 1st Place NAGA World Championship (2014 purple) - 3rd Place UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro (2016 brown) **Lineage:** John Simon → Lachlan Giles ### Ethan Crelinsten - Black **Role:** Instructor **Bio:** Ethan Crelinsten was born on May 14, 1994, in Montreal, Canada, where he spent his formative years. A late bloomer to sports, Crelinsten was not a sporty child growing up, with his first contact with a competitive activity coming at the age of 19, through mixed martial arts (MMA), a decision taken by the influence of the growing popularity cage fighting experienced in Canada at the time. During his first experience at a small, local gym, Ethan’s training was solely focused on striking and wrestling, and it was only when he made the move to the larger TriStar gym, that Crelinsten added jiu-jitsu to his weekly activities, under the gym’s leader – Firas Zahabi. With time, Ethan started enjoying jiu-jitsu more than he did MMA, a sentiment that led him to switch gears and focus all his efforts solely on submission grappling. The link with the Renzo Gracie Academy and John Danaher’s workgroup came from Tom Breese, a TriStar fighter who brought in one of Danaher’s star pupils, Gordon Ryan, to TriStar for a fight camp. The superior technical ability of Ryan led Ethan to the source, in New York. With Crelinsten’s continuous success on the mats, the Canadian quickly became part of the Danaher Death Squad elite group of grapplers, although all belts – from white to brown, were awarded by Zahabi, who continued to tutor Ethan in partnership with Danaher. In November 2020, Ethan was awarded his black belt by coach John Danaher, the same day as teammate Nicky Ryan. THE END OF DDS AND START OF B-TEAM In July 2021, coach John Danaher announced the end of the Danaher Death Squad as a unified training and competition team, alluding to “ the physical location of a future school, personality conflicts, conflicting values and an inevitable tension between the team brand and the growing individual brands of members ” as the main factors for the split ( original statement here ). Later that year, during the Summer months, Ethan, Craig Jones, and Nicky Rodriguez announced their new team. This new group was labeled the “B-Team” with its training base being set in Austin, Texas. Ethan Crelinsten vs Keith Krikorian **Achievements:** - 1st Place ADCC East Coast Trials (2018) - 1st Place ADCC West Coast Trials (2017) - 1st Place Jitz King Invitational (2020) - 2nd Place BJJ Fanatics 170lbs GP (2020) - 2nd Place P-Belum Invitational (2020) - 2nd Place Onnit Invitational 4 (2017) - 3rd Place ADCC East Coast Trials (2023) **Lineage:** Carlos Gracie → Hélio Gracie → Carlos Gracie Junior → Renzo Gracie → John Danaher ### Izaak Michell - Black **Role:** Instructor **Bio:** Izaak Michell was born on August 25, 1998, in Adelaide, South Australia’s largest city, where he spent his childhood. Very active as a child, Izaak practiced a variety of sports from a young age but was mostly focused on Surfing and Skateboarding, two activities in which he competed regularly growing up. Also, a part of Michell’s weekly practices from the ages of 8-11 was gymnastics. Izaak played at a national level, earning 2 silver medals in Australia’s national gymnastics tournament at the time. Another game that was present during Izaak formative years was Australian Football or Aussie Rules Football, commonly known as the AFL, a sport that is – in broad terms – a mix of rugby with soccer (football) rules where they maintained much of the tackling and ball carrying that is seen in rugby with points being scored with the feet like in soccer. Submerged in sporting culture, Izaak was equally drawn to the idea of fighting and combat sports. This curiosity led him to a self-defense & kickboxing gym at the age of 15, though this first experience was short-lived due to the lack of sparring. Izaak Michell returned to martial arts training in 2016 at the Arruda BJJ gym where he trained mostly Muay Thay and joined in on the BJJ class on occasion. With time, however, around the 1-year mark of his training, it became evident that he was naturally gifted in Jiu-Jitsu and he decided to invest all his efforts into this activity. Coach Leo Arruda was Izaak’s instructor from white to purple belt, but during the middle of 2019, Michell moved to New York City and started training under John Danaher . One of Danaher’s senior students at the time of Michell joining the NYC workgroup was fellow Aussie, Craig Jones , an athlete with whom Michell connected very well at the time. This friendship led Izaak to follow Jones out of Danaher’s squad when he decided to form his workgroup (B-Team) with a few other students of John. In November 2022, two weeks before IBJJF World No-Gi Championship Craig Jones promoted Izaak to the brown belt rank, but a few months later, in early 2023 Izaak Michell & B-Team severed ties, with the young Aussie athlete spending some time unaffiliated. **Achievements:** - ADCC Match Of The Tournament Award (2022) - 1st Place ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials (2022) - 1st Place Who’s Next Tournament (2022*) - 1st Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2021 brown) **Lineage:** Leo Arruda ### Nicky Ryan - Black **Role:** Instructor **Bio:** Nicky Ryan was born on June 27, 2001, in New Jersey, United States of America. Influenced by his older brother, Gordon Ryan , Nicky started training jiu-jitsu at a local club when he was 8 years old. His first impressions of this combat sport were not optimal, training on-and-off for a while at a maximum of 2x per week until his interest faded away. Seeing his brother’s career grow, and having Gordon pushing for him to return on a regular basis finally convinced Nicky to make a comeback, which happened in early 2015. This second turn was very different from his first attempt at grappling, as Nicky started enjoying it and adding more effort to his training. This workload brought his talent to the surface. The training methodology, which included heel hooks from his very first month of training, proved fruitful and had Nicky Ryan winning adult tournaments at the age of 13(!), often making clean sweeps out of these events. These incredible achievements at such a young age were echoed in many grappling-based internet forums at the time, raising Ryan’s profile. Although devoted to jiu-jitsu, being in high school conflicted with his training schedule, therefore, in 2016 Nicky Ryan decided to leave the traditional school system. In an interview with the BJJ Brick podcast, on September 19, 2016, Ryan explained he was being homeschooled, with his tuition handled by his jiu-jitsu coach, John Danaher – himself a Columbia University Philosophy major. In 2016, at the ADCC East Coast Trials, Nicky Ryan leaped forward in name recognition after placing 3rd in the event – one of the toughest tournaments in the nation. He was 15 years old at the time. Ryan would repeat the podium the following year, at the East Coast trials. These two performances earned the teenager an invitation to the World Championships in Finland, in September 2017. Nicky was 16 years old when he entered the main show and there became the youngest athlete to ever compete in this championship, arguably the most important tournament in the sport. Following coach John Danaher’s program, Nicky earned his purple belt on June 21st, 2017, at the age of 16. A rank that is seldom given to athletes in their teens. Nicky was later promoted to brown belt, on October 9, 2019, with his black belt promotion taking place on November 3, 2020, on the same day as his training partner Ethan Crelinsten. **Achievements:** - Polaris Invitational 145 lbs Champion (2018, 2019) - Youngest Athlete To Ever Compete in the ADCC (2017) - 1st Place ADCC US West Coast Trials (2019) - 2nd Place ADCC US East Coast Trials (2023) - 3rd Place ADCC US West Coast Trials (2017) - 3rd Place ADCC US East Coast Trials (2016) **Lineage:** Carlos Gracie → Hélio Gracie → Carlos Gracie Junior → Renzo Gracie → John Danaher --- **Last Updated:** September 30, 2026 **Data Source:** bjj.space (https://bjj.space/gyms/united-states/texas/austin/b-team)