Congrats to new Royler Gracie Black Belt Donald Park

**TEA** · Posted On: 3/30/2009 1:17pm

Donald Park was promoted to Black Belt following his gold medal win in the Pan Ams this last weekend. We are very fortunate at the Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu Austin Association that Donald moved to Austin last year and is now training and teaching at our academy.

From his bio on the Relson Gracie Austin Web site:

Donald Park is a long-time student and representative of Royler Gracie and David Adiv. Donald began his training in 1998 and has been fortunate to train with some of the best jiu-jitsu instructors in the world, including: Helio Gracie and many members of his family (Royler, Rickson, Relson, Royce, Robin, Rorion, Renzo, etc.), David Adiv, Saulo & Xande Ribeiro, Marcio Feitosa, Leo Vieira, Vitor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro, Fredson Alves, Daniel Moraes, Fredson Paixao, Marcelo Garcia, Dino Costeas, Vini Aieta and others.

An active competitor, Donald has competed for the RGDA association (www.rgda.org) in numerous professional and amateur tournaments around the world. Donald was the 2006 Arnolds / Gracie Worlds Brown Belt Open Weight champion and has over 150 competition victories to his credit.

Donald continues to travel frequently to Brazil to further his understanding of Jiu-Jitsu and has traveled to Japan, Hawaii and other locales as part of Royler Gracie's NHB training team. As an RGDA instructor and representative, Donald founded the Evolution Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy (www.roylergracieohio.com) in Cleveland, OH where he counted among his students two Mundials / World Championships medalists, a Pan-American and Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships medalist, a UFC veteran and a former Olympian.

Donald remains dedicated as a student and teacher of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and as a recent addition to the Austin area, considers himself fortunate to be able to train alongside Phil Cardella and his highly regarded team.

His bio doesn't mention that he is also a really nice guy.

**Phrost** · Posted On: 3/30/2009 2:20pm

Cool. It's great seeing more and more Americans getting BBs. Not that it's a nationalism thing, just that it helps spread the sport and increase the quality of training available locally.

**Skillful** · Posted On: 3/30/2009 9:48pm

Originally Posted by TEA

His bio doesn't mention that he is also a really nice guy

I'll second that. Please send him my congratulations.

**Zatofei** · Posted On: 8/16/2011 2:45pm

Relson Gracie's Donald Park is great from what I hear. Its great to have one more BJJ Black Belt in Austin! The BJJ in Austin is just getting better and better. I am a big fun of Gracie Barra and the Gracie Barra Schools coming to town and helping spread the art was just amazing to me. You can learn more about the Gracie Barra Schools at www.gbaustin.com