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Head Coach

Professor Thomas

 

 

BJJ JOURNEY

Thomas Vander Eecken is from Belgium but speaks fluently French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and speaks aswell Italian and some Dutch

He was interested since a young age in martial arts doing kickboxing and karaté during his childhooh in Brussels.

Later on after watching MMA with Pride/UFC and especially the first UFC for some years, Thomass began his jiu-jitsu journey in 2009 with grappling with the cousin of his best friend.

He then began to train Brazilian Jiu-jitsu consistently for 5x a week almost never stopping, it became an obsession.

While being based in Brussels, Thomas travelled all over Europe and Trained in a lot of European Academies developing his own style.

  • His based club is the famous RENAISSANCE,where he trained the most, Renaissance is famous to be an hardcore training paced and is the best club in Belgium , a powerhouse associated with CICERO COSTHA PSLPB where many champions are created (Alan Ciku, Oualid Sbai, Abdel zehknini)
  • Lived for four years in Barcelona and trained with the prestigious Aranha Association with former UFC fighter YAN CABRAL
  • Lived 1 year in Lisbon and trained with Team ALEXANDER MACHADO (former Gracie Barra Benfica) the most winning team in Portugal
  • Lived 2 years in Thailand in Team Quest under BRUNO CARVALHO and others instructors

Thomas does not believe in the out-dated mentality  of having a “Master”  or the “Guru/Master/Sensei” Vibes, BJJ is a self-empowerement tool, respect, discipline and tradition are still expected but Thomas is a Coach and a teacher (Professor is the only real title in BJJ)  in a really friendly environement (except his competition class on friday)

Thomas developed Avant Garde as an hardworking/ hard sparring environement to push every practictionner’s limits but enforces them  to interact between each other to get the better vibes possibly !

 

Thomas is an official black belt under the legendary COBRINHA

 

EXPERIENCE

  • Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under the famous COBRINHA
  • Wrestling experience under Headcoach Dylan Fussel
  • Muay Thai experience having lived 2 years in Thailand
  • MMA experience
  • Karate Background

Professor Thomas Cicero Costha

Video Highlights of Professor Thomas

Thomas trained and did Seminars with the best in the world, here some of them:

 

  • Cobrinha
  • Michael Langhi
  • Bruno Malfacine
  • Lucas Lepri
  • Josh Hinger
  • Kennedy Maciel
  • Cicero Costha
  • Gui Mendes
  • Andre Galvao
  • Terere
  • Josh Hinger
  • Mckenzie Dern
  • Dean Lister
  • Yan Cabral
  • Yuri Simoes
  • Felipe Costa
  • Victor Silveiro,
  • Fabricio Martins

Photos of Professor Thomas

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