Carlmichael Leiva

Coach Carlmichael began his grappling career in 2012 while attending high school, earning over 100 competition victories in folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman wrestling within his first two years of training. After graduating, he transitioned from wrestling to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in late 2014, training under 7x world champion Roberto "Cyborg" Abreu until 2018.

From 2018-2022, Carlmichael worked as a fintech research analyst while simultaneously hosting small-group grappling classes out of his home studio alongside co-founder Keanoush Amirizadeh. During that time, the two spent thousands of hours studying high-level grappling strategy, skill acquisition, and coaching methodology to help develop Ground Game Theory's modern training approach.

His coaching philosophy combines his background in formal research and data analysis with an ecological approach centered around live training and adaptive problem-solving.

Today, Carlmichael is recognized as one of South Florida's leading no-gi jiu jitsu instructors and is focused on building one of the strongest submission grappling teams in the state.