Kit Dale

Kit Dale is an Australian grappler and a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Yuri Simões, who also worked with coaches: Bernie Jenkins and Peter De Been. Widely recognized as one of the best jiu-jitsu competitors developed in Australia, a reputation conquered while competing on the lower belt divisions of the sport – a time when Dale conquered 4 United Arab Emirates Jiu-Jitsu Federation (UAEJJF) world titles, Kit competed in important, mainstream, professional grappling events such as Polaris Invitational, Metamoris, ADCC, Copa Podio and more.

Kit Dale Jiu-Jitsu

Full Name: Kit James Dale

Nickname: N/A

Lineage: Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie (Senior) > Helio Gracie > Rolls Gracie > Romero Cavalcanti (Jacare) > Ricardo Vieira > Yuri Simões > Kit Dale

Main Achievements:

• 1st Place ADCC Japan Trials (2017)
• 1st Place IBJJF Sydney Open (2017**)
• 1st Place IBJJF Sydney NoGi Open (2017*)
• 1st Place UAEJJF Melbourne Pro (2017)
• 1st Place AFBJJ Pan Pacific (2013)
• 2nd Place UAEJJF Melbourne Pro (2017*)

Main Achievements (Colored Belts):

• 1st Place UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro (2010 blue, 2011 purple, 2012/2013 brown)
• 1st Place IBJJF Asian Open (2012 brown)
• 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2011 purple)
• 1st Place IBJJF Pan-Pacific (2012 brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF Asian Open (2012* brown)
• 3rd Place IBJJF Pans Championship (2012 brown)

* Absolute
** Weight and absolute

Favorite Position/Technique: Knee-slide Pass

Weight Division: Meio Pesado (88,30 kg / 195.0 lbs)

Team/Association: N/A

Kit Dale Biography

Kit Dale was born on January 24, 1986, in Melbourne, Australia, growing up in the area’s eastern suburbs.

During his formative years Dale practiced a number of athletic activities, from karate to inline hockey, as well as Australian football (Aussie rules), a sport he competed in extensively prior to jiu-jitsu.

Australian rules football is widely recognized as one of the most physical sports in the world, generally played by large individuals. Although a very athletic competitor himself, Kit lacked the physicality of some of the other players, a handicap Dale sought to overcome by learning a few grappling tricks, starting his jiu-jitsu training in 2008 with Robert Parmakovski – a man who would, years later, become Kit’s own student.

BJJ came natural to Dale, who soon started allocating more of his time to grappling and less to Aussie rules football. While climbing the ranks of jiu-jitsu Dale trained with Bernie Jenkins (up to blue belt) and Peter De Been (up to brown belt), while also doing plenty of training and experimentation on his own or with friends/students.

Once the highly decorated grappler, Yuri Simões moved to Australia, Kit started training with the Brazilian. The two established a strong relationship as friends and training partners, and it was Yuri who promoted Dale to black belt on June, 2013. At the time of the ceremony, Dale had just under 5 years of training, this being one of the fastest rises to the rank recorded by then.

Dale would later move to California, USA, one of jiu-jitsu’s epicenters in order to improve his grappling skills while also attempting further his acting career.

Throughout his career Kit Dale became known for his approach to grappling, breaking from the traditional training practices such as positional drilling. On his own website, Dale wrote:

“I believe that sport is 90% mental 10% physical, but most spend the majority of the time drilling techniques (physical), I spend the majority of the time problem solving in live training (training the mind). While other people developed their body as muscle memory, I developed my mind as what I call “mental memory”. It removes predictability, rigidness and monotony, giving me the advantage to play out the Jiu Jitsu match in my head. That means being able to not only strategize before stepping onto the mat, but also predicting patterns while rolling, which is a great way of rapidly improving while rolling against your opponent – figuring them out. Give me one hour of rolling with anyone and I believe I will have the solution to victory.” (source: kitdaletraining.com)

Kit Dale vs Tommy Langaker