Andrew Laxa

A 2011 De La Salle team feature described Andrew Laxa as a purple belt who had represented the group at the previous year’s World Championships. GMA News later named him among competitors planning to attend the 2014 IBJJF Worlds in California. In August 2018, Hilti Stockholm announced a seminar week with Laxa, identifying him as a coach at its Enköping sister club. In 2020, Luigi Jacinto recalled watching him train; BJJ Asia identified Laxa as a full-time teacher in Sweden. According to his academy’s biography, Alan Finfou awarded Laxa his black belt in 2020. The following year, he decided to open his own school in Uppsala. Its account places him in charge of designing and teaching the curriculum, drawing on experience with people of different ages and backgrounds. Teaching also became part of a new direction in his education. In his 2022 Rebelz introduction, Laxa explained that he had begun studying content development in 2020. When asked to choose a company for a twenty-week internship, he approached Rebelz. It offered a way to work with jiu-jitsu beyond coaching and competing, combining what he knew from the mats with his studies. His writing and social-media responsibilities let him develop instructional material alongside his coaching. His written closed-guard lesson gives a concrete example of that work. From this position on the back, the legs stay closed around the opponent. Laxa emphasizes controlling the opponent’s posture and developing attacks before opening the guard. Rather than giving up that control too quickly, the practitioner should make the opponent work to restore posture. The lesson introduces ways to take the back or reverse positions with a pendulum sweep. In a separate essay about belts, he drew on having spent long periods at some levels. His advice was to keep attention on learning and enjoying practice rather than letting the next promotion become the focus.