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Alec Jerrod Baulding

Alec Baulding is a 2018 ADCC Trials champion whose career spans elite competition, video study and teaching.

Biography

Alec Jerrod Baulding’s route to the ADCC World Championship began in Atlanta and eventually ran through Sweden, New Jersey, and North Carolina. He won the 2018 North American Trials, but his own account of preparing for the 2019 championship is not a victory lap. Recovering from injury, he trained with unfamiliar partners, was repeatedly passed and submitted, and wondered whether he belonged at the event. That willingness to describe learning under pressure later became part of a broader public role as a teacher and technical explainer. Baulding was born on April 5, 1989, and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. As a teenager, he wanted something less conventional than the traditional sports he had played. An online search led him first to a short period in taekwondo and then, at 15, to Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Robert “Bull” Shaw. About a year later, Shaw’s academy closed. Baulding moved to the Alliance headquarters and began training under Shaw’s teacher, Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti. The change established the most durable relationship of his early career: Cavalcanti awarded Baulding every belt, including his black belt on June 20, 2015. His competitive progress was already visible at purple belt. In 2010, Baulding won the World Championship middleweight division, finished second in the open class, and also won the Pan middleweight division. BJJ Heroes identifies lasso guard—using a sleeve and leg position to control an opponent’s posture and movement—as his favored position. Its match record lists the rear choke as his most frequently recorded submission finish. At black belt, the 2018 ADCC North American Trials became the entry point to a different competitive test. Baulding won the under-88-kilogram division with four recorded victories, earning a place at the 2019 ADCC World Championship. He was living in Sweden when he won the trials and moved back to the United States before the championship, using the return as a multi-stop training camp. The camp began while he was recovering from a knee injury. Baulding restarted at a 250-student summer camp in Stockholm, then worked on his conditioning with wrestlers in New Jersey. The final block was almost four weeks of intensive training with Lucas Lepri in North Carolina. Baulding’s diary from that period gives the preparation its human scale. He described being passed and submitted repeatedly and doubting whether he belonged at ADCC. One particularly demanding day combined wrestling, gi technique, no-gi rounds, and conditioning. His belief returned only near the end of that work. At the 2019 championship, he lost on points to Gabriel Arges. FloGrappling’s results also show Baulding remaining active in major competition through the 2025 Pan Championship and ADCC trials. By 2020, his public work had widened beyond tournament appearances. A long-form discussion on learning and teaching through video focused on athletes taking ownership of their jiu-jitsu, continuing to learn after black belt, and using recordings both to study and to explain technique. A 2024 BJJ Mental Models episode developed the student-to-teacher theme further through feedback loops, consistency, a beginner’s mind, teaching as a way to learn, and different learning modes. Baulding’s formative history belongs to Alliance and Cavalcanti. At the 2026 Atlanta Winter Open, the IBJJF final results listed him under Team Doan. His career has remained mobile. The constant has been less a single place than a pattern: entering a new room, learning what the room exposes, and turning that process into material he can share with others.

Sources for this profile

  • BJJ Heroes, “Alec Baulding” (publication date not shown).(opens in a new tab)

    • Alec Jerrod Baulding was born on 5 April 1989 and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.

      Where in the source: Biography — opening

      Accessed:

    • As a teenager, Baulding wanted a less conventional pursuit than the traditional sports he had played; an online search led first to a short period in taekwondo and then, at fifteen, to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

      Where in the source: Biography — teenage martial-arts search

      Accessed:

    • Baulding began jiu-jitsu with Robert “Bull” Shaw in Atlanta; when Shaw's academy closed about a year later, he moved to the Alliance headquarters under Shaw's teacher Romero “Jacaré” Cavalcanti.

      Where in the source: Biography — Robert Shaw and Alliance

      Accessed:

    • Cavalcanti awarded Baulding every belt, including his black belt on 20 June 2015.

      Where in the source: Biography — 2015 promotion

      Accessed:

    • BJJ Heroes identifies lasso guard as Baulding's favored position, while its match record shows the rear choke as his most frequently recorded submission finish.

      Where in the source: Profile facts and grappling record

      Accessed:

  • BJJ Metrics, “Alec Baulding” (live results page, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Baulding's colored-belt rise included winning the 2010 purple-belt World Championship middleweight division and taking second in the open class, plus winning the 2010 purple-belt Pan middleweight division.

      Where in the source: Competition results — 2010 World and Pan

      Accessed:

  • FloGrappling, “Alec Baulding” athlete results (live page, undated).(opens in a new tab)

    • Baulding won the 2018 ADCC North American Trials at under 88 kilograms with four recorded victories, earning entry to the 2019 ADCC World Championship.

      Where in the source: Results — 2018 trials

      Accessed:

    • FloGrappling records Baulding's loss on points to Gabriel Arges at the 2019 ADCC World Championship and documents that he remained active in major competition through the 2025 Pan Championship and ADCC trials.

      Where in the source: Results — 2019 and 2025

      Accessed:

  • Alec Baulding, “Here's What an ADCC Training Camp is Like,” Grappling Insider, 25 September 2019.(opens in a new tab)

    • Baulding was living in Sweden when he won the 2018 trials and moved back to the United States before the 2019 championship, turning the return trip into a multi-stop training camp.

      Where in the source: Diary — Sweden and return

      Accessed:

    • Recovering from a knee injury, he restarted with a 250-student summer camp in Stockholm, then rebuilt his conditioning with wrestlers in New Jersey before completing almost four weeks of intensive training with Lucas Lepri in North Carolina.

      Where in the source: Diary — camp sequence

      Accessed:

    • During that camp, Baulding wrote openly about being repeatedly passed and submitted, doubting whether he belonged at ADCC, and regaining belief only near the end of a demanding day that combined wrestling, gi technique, no-gi rounds and conditioning.

      Where in the source: Diary — doubt and belief

      Accessed:

  • Joe Gilpin, “Podcast Episode 34 — Learning And Teaching With Video,” BJJ Fanatics, 1 July 2020.(opens in a new tab)

    • By 2020, Baulding's public work had expanded from competition into teaching through video; a long-form discussion centered on taking ownership of one's jiu-jitsu, continuing to learn as a black belt, and using video both to study and to explain technique.

      Where in the source: Episode description

      Accessed:

  • Steve Kwan, “Ep. 266: From Student to Teacher, feat. Alec Baulding,” BJJ Mental Models, 8 January 2024.(opens in a new tab)

    • A 2024 BJJ Mental Models episode framed Baulding's later contribution as a transition from student to teacher, organized around feedback loops, beginner's mind, consistency, teaching as a way to learn, and different learning modes.

      Where in the source: Episode description and model list

      Accessed:

  • IBJJF, “Atlanta Winter International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2026,” final results, 11 February 2026.(opens in a new tab)

    • The final results for the Atlanta Winter International Open IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship 2026, dated 11 February 2026, list Alec Jerrod Baulding under Team Doan in the adult black-belt medium-heavy division.

      Where in the source: Results — Male / Adult / Black / Medium-Heavy

      Accessed:

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