Today we’d like to introduce you to David Morris.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started training Jiu-Jitsu in 1995 as a Junior in High School in Fort Wayne, IN. All throughout my childhood I played traditional team sports. A lower leg injury ended my Junior year basketball season. I saw an advertisement on T.V. for a local Jiu-Jitsu program. After a few classes, I was hooked. I continued train for another 4 yrs before moving to the Indianapolis area to finish college. I had a long break from Jiu-Jitsu while finishing college and early in my professional career due to travel. In 2008, I relocated to Memphis, TN for work and shortly thereafter began training JIu-Jitsu again. I received my Black Belt in January of 2018, and opened GFTeam Tennessee in March of that year with 12 students. Today, the academy has 110 students, consisting of our Kids program, Kids homeschool program, and Adult program. We have students from all age groups and backgrounds with ages ranging from 4-70.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road wasn’t always smooth. During the first 5 yrs we were open, I continued to work in my professional career in the Transportation industry and teach in the evenings and on weekends. We also had to navigate the Covid pandemic, as there were many challenges to running an academy during that time with all of the uncertainty, constant changing regulations through the city, and ever changing public perception regarding what businesses were allowed to operate.
In 2024, Doctors Discovered a congenital heart defect during a routine checkup, and I needed to have open heart surgery in April of 2025 to replace my aortic valve. I was in the icu/hospital for 4 days for the procedure and then went through the long process of recovery. It took about 4 weeks before I was able to start teaching again. By the eighth week post op, I was able to train/teach full time again. I’m very grateful to our whole community at GFTeam Tennessee at that time for their unwavering support, and to those that did so much to ensure that the academy ran smoothly while I was out.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
GFTeam Tennessee is a premium Jiu-Jitsu Academy that focuses on skill development, competition, and self-defense for all ages. The academy focuses on developing highly technical grapplers with a foundation in solid basics as well as the latest evolutions in the art/sport. We employ many different learning methodologies (traditional drilling/repetition based approach, Constraints Led Approach, as well as live sparring after each session). What sets us apart from others is our culture, ultra clean facility, and professional atmosphere that focuses on the whole family, not just the competitive athlete. We’re an academy where everyone can thrive. Each student is working together for a common goal (personal growth in the art). We have members from all walks of life, from working professionals, competitors, kids, entire families training here.
One of the newer focuses in the academy has been our Kids Homeschool program that we started in 2024. We’re now able to teach teamwork, discipline, perseverance, confidence, coordination & self-defense to a new group of kids in need and on a schedule that works with their family’s lifestyle.
We offer the following:
-Adult Gi and No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu Training
-Kids evening Jiu-Jitsu classes
-Kids daytime Homeschool Jiu-Jitsu classes
-Yoga for Jiu-Jitsu for all members
All memberships offer unlimited training with no long-term contracts & multiple family member discounts designed to allow Jiu-Jitsu to work with each family’s lifestyle.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
-My wife Chelsea Morris, who encouraged me to open the academy back in 2017-2018 and also pushed for me to convert to running the business full-time in July of 2023. She manages all of the academy’s social media and also actively handles our marketing material and is our liason with the various homeschool groups on social media and locally in Memphis.
-Sarah Blumkin who is my lead assistant kids coach as well as our Yoga for Jiu-Jitsu Instructor. Sarah helps me with all of the regular kids classes as well as our homeschool program.
-Jaezelle Masnayon who is our other kids homeschool assisant coach which became necessary this year due to all the success/growth of the homeschool program in year 1.
-Courtney Smith: Adult Instructor
-Jeff Cochran: Adult Instructor 5:30am weekday classes
-Anwin Mathew: Adult Instructor
-Cameron Masnayon: Adult Class Uké (assistant)
All of our Kids coaches: Daniel Baumlein, Charles Rizarri, Daniel Stabley, Trevor Jenkins, Colin Sperry
Josh Tate, David Wall, and Mark Lindow : These guy’s are students of mine but all are people that I respect immensely and are always there to offer guidance with ideas that I have for the academy or how things can be improved.
Pricing:
- Adults: $149.99/month
- Kids: $139.99/month
- Family Pricing available for multiple family members.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gfteamtennessee.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gfteamtn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gfteamtn
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dmorrisbjj
