Joe Chapple

After being bullied for most of his childhood - in 2007, at the age of 16 - Joe decided to visit a gym and start lifting weights to get bigger and stronger. During this period, a friend of his introduced him to freestyle wrestling at Lewisham Wrestling Club.

He took an immediate liking to it and trained the discipline consistently for six years. Two years into this journey, Joe began his foray into coaching. At this point, it was on a volunteer basis, but he knew it was something he wanted to pursue further.

At the peak of Joe’s wrestling competition career, he medalled at the English Championships.

Joe’s eyes were opened to BJJ when he tried ‘wrestling with submissions’ with a mate of his. His mate - who trained BJJ, was smaller and didn’t wrestle - submitted him easily with a triangle.

Joe knew he had to find out how to use these submission skills and began training BJJ under the guidance of Vinicius De Castro (2013). Eventually becoming a coach at Vinicius’ gym, teaching wrestling for BJJ classes as well as assisting with their popular kids’s classes.

Joe has become an integral part of London Grapple since we opened in 2021. He’s head coach of our kids programme and teaches a fundamental wrestling class weekly.

He likes to compete at least twice a year to test himself and does very well. When he isn’t coaching at London Grapple, Joe is a qualified personal trainer at the renowned Commando Temple.