ABOUT US

Combat Base North East BJJ (CBNE) is a UKBJJA affiliated Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) club based in Ashington Northumberland. The Club was formed in 2004 by Steve Muckle soon after he was promoted to blue belt. The club was the first in Northumberland and amongst the first BJJ clubs in the North East / UK. Steve coached 1000s of students over the next 16 years creating a highly respected BJJ club, a fantastic team with a brilliant atmosphere. As a coach Steve, produced 5 Black belts, 5 Brown belts and a plethora of Purple and Blue belts that competed in various BJJ, Grappling and MMA competitions with great success. As well as being an excellent coach Steve was also a very skilful Jujitsuka, Steve retired from BJJ in 2020 having achieved 3rd degree black belt and winning the Silver medal at the 2013 European BJJ championships. Steve left a fantastic legacy for CBNE to continue teaching BJJ in Northumberland.

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Community, history, and lineage are important components in BJJ schools and CBNE lineage traces back through Steve to his coaches Darren and Hellen Currie the founders of Combat Base UK and two of the early pioneers of BJJ in the UK.  Helen was the first Combat Base UK black belt, first Chris Haueter female black belt anywhere in the world, first female black belt in the UK, and only the 2nd in Europe.

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Chris Haueter is Head instructor for Combat Base and is one of the first American black belts, known for his innovative teaching style and conceptual coaching ability. He was responsible for naming new positions in BJJ in the mid-1990s, coining the term "combat base" (the origin of the club name) which relates to a shooting platform. Chris is one of the BJJ Dirty Dozen (first 12 Non-Brazilian recipients of a BJJ black belt). Chris received his black belt from Rigan Machado in 1996 and is the first American black belt to compete and win a match at the Mondial’s De Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil.

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Combat Base Black belt lineage Kanō Jigorō → Tomita Tsunejirō → Mitsuyo "Count Koma" Maeda → Hélio Gracie → Rolls Gracie & Carlos "Carlinhos" Gracie Jr → Rigan Machado → Chris Haueter → Helen Currie → Steve Muckle →  Ed Drysdale, Graham Allsopp, Laurie Major, Dan Boyle, Simon Ball).