Certifications

Biography

Professor Howie was born and raised in Orange County, California. He spent 4 years in Boulder Colorado pursuing his undergraduate studies, and then dedicated 7+ years to creating a successful branch office of an architecture firm. He designed and built one of Shanghai BJJ’s gyms which is actually what led to an introduction of the martial arts in 2010!

Technically, Howie took his first BJJ class in 2002 but thought it wasn’t for him at that point in time. Fast forward to 2010 and Howie was back on the mats. In actuality, he was “forced” (in good nature of course) to give BJJ another legitimate try by his friends in Shanghai. Professor Howie will never forget his first day. He was paired up with a 98lbs female purple belt. To his surprise, his partner hit every submission under the sun and from then on he was hooked!

Howie joined 5 Star (What RGLA was called before its transition) in 2004 and very quickly fell in love with the energy and friendliness of the school. He first helped out with the fundamentals class in 2016 and continued to fill in for the existing professors at the time. RGLA is not only a gym but also a place for Howie to relax and decompress from his daily life. He loves anything that has to do with kimuras and triangles! Despite the current BJJ scene currently favoring Nogi, Howie still loves to do BJJ in the GI and will continue to roll in it until he no longer can.

Professor Howie enjoys going on trips with his beautiful wife, Dawn, and his dog, Taco. Aside from BJJ Howie also deeply enjoys snowboarding and generally “hitting the town” on the weekends! He encourages everyone to say hi to him and to ask him to train whenever they are at the academy!