When I started training in 2008, there was more of an online community and some YouTube videos but nothing like there is today; at least I wasn’t aware of any major resources. Today we have YouTube channels like Stephan Kesting and ZombieProof BJJ that teach individual techiques, or channels like BJJ Scout and Gambledub that breakdown the games of elite grapplers so we can all learn from the greats in the comfort of our own homes.The thing with YouTube, though, is there is a lot of irrelevant data to sift through to find these channels and some of them are so poorly presented and indexed that we miss out on great content. Enter Gallerr. Gallerr is an online video platform that hosts high quality, well-tagged Brazilian jiu jitsu videos for all practioners to browse at their leisure. Users simply search for an athlete or technique and a wide variety of results is instantly presented.

I recently spoke with Gallerr developer Thiago Nascimento, a native of

Ponta Grossa, Brazil who now splits his time between Rio de Janeiro and the BJJ scene in Irvine, California. He is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt who began his martial arts training as a child. He recalled,”I started in Judo at school when I was 7 years old. In 2000, I was very excited about MMA (vale-tudo in the past) and wanted to learn something about jiu jitsu. From the first moment of my very first class, I fell in love; so many positions, options, and techniques that I’d never seen in Judo. So I decided to dedicate myself and began training with professor Alexandre Dechandt at Gracie Barra Ponta Grossa.”

Gallerr is the product of Nascimento’s passion for BJJ and his professional experience in information technology and entrepreneurship.“My background is based in technology, I have a bachelor degree in Computer Science, and have worked most of my life as a web developer in different cities in Brazil.  I am always driven to achieve new goals, though, so in 2008 I began working towards an MBA in Technology Entrepreneurship. I made my final paper about my first real company as a founder: a social commerce plugins for e-commerce sites.”

​Thiago was frustrated by the disorganization and low quality of some technical videos on sites like YouTube and decided to reimage the concept specifically for our community.“Gallerr is creating a high-quality content with techniques and interviews driving the practitioners to train in a better way, introducing to a new lifestyle and focusing on competition aspects. To talk about other sites we have to talk mainly about YouTube, which has a big number of videos, but its videos are weakly tagged with keywords by the publishers, and it seems more difficult to find specific content by the user. In contast, Gallerr is organizing and tagging the videos with an understanding structure by techniques, athletes, teams and events to help users find what exactly they want.”

Best of all, Gallerr is free and so easy to sign up! You can sign in with your Facebook or Google account.  Members of Gallerr can also opt in to daily emails which provide the most popular and relevant BJJ techiques of the day. Clicking through the email link takes you to the featured video and the site’s algorithm suggests related videos on the sidebar. The site also provides the option of following users whose videos you particularly enjoy and sharing their content with your own followers, similar to Facebook.Content providers can contact Nascimento to

take the advantage of Gallerr Premium special offers for early bird registrations at thiago@gallerr.com. 

Regarding the future of Gallerr, Thiago explained, “Gallerr is driving a new approach as a business platform. Right now we are building a premium product with more high-quality content from different producers and our own exclusive productions, totally focused on instructional videos. This product is being built to auto recognize the user profile and recommend exactly what he wants to learn based on his behavior and interests, like a Netflix for BJJ. In summary, less time searching and more time learning.The idea of Gallerr is to spread the word about BJJ and athlete from anywhere, but mainly from Brazil because they have less opportunities to show to the world their abilities. At this moment we are just creating these opportunities for the athletes get a wider media, but in the next step, in the premium product, our idea is to monetize them, with the commission from watched videos.“
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I’ve been using Gallerr for a couple of months now and so far, I’m loving it. The developer’s exclusive productions are with elite athletes who are actively competing on the world stage today as well as seasoned practioners who have honed their skills over decades of dedication. In addition to videos featuring just one or two techniques, Gallerr developers have also filmed and shared seminars from events like the IBJJF World Masters Jiu Jitsu Championships; if you’ve never attended, I highly recommend watching the seminars of legends like Leo Viera and Xande Ribiero. Overall, the experience is nothing less than exceptional. I am very excited to see how this website grows as more athletes and content providers get on board.

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Stay tuned for part two of this article, where I outline and follow Gallerr’s guidelines to developing high quality instructional BJJ videos and publish my own content. In the meantime, be sure to sign up for your own Gallerr account and follow Thiago Nascimento and me, Sally Arsenault, so you don’t miss it!