Ricard Carneborn
Nacka Dojo's sports director ran tournaments with paper, Excel and badminton software before he co-founded Smoothcomp.
Biography
Sources for this profile
Gymdesk Originals, interview feature on the Smoothcomp co-founders, dated October 6, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Gymdesk's profile of the Smoothcomp founders presents Ricard Carneborn as a co-founder of Smoothcomp who holds black belts in both Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Sport Ju-Jutsu.
Where in the source: Starring section, Ricard Carneborn biography block — black belts line.
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Gymdesk's biography credits Carneborn with roughly a decade of Sport Ju-Jutsu competition that took in European and world championships, and says he afterwards coached the Swedish national team.
Where in the source: Starring section, Ricard Carneborn biography block, sentences on competing and coaching.
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According to the Gymdesk feature, Carneborn has organised tournaments from 1999 onward, first with paper, Excel files and entries mailed in, and for two years used a program designed for badminton to run his jiu-jitsu events.
Where in the source: Section on paper, flip boards and badminton software — since 1999.
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At one event, the paper results of around 1,000 matches reached him and a colleague quicker than they could enter them, so they dropped the badminton program partway through the day; he says he felt miserable.
Where in the source: Same section, the paragraph about results arriving on paper.
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He also recalls an earlier attempt, before about 2010, to build a tournament system with an outside developer; it crashed almost at once, the event became chaotic, and he left the venue because he was so stressed.
Where in the source: Section The tournament Ricard had to leave.
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Martin Varghult, a web developer who helped run the Swedish Open from 2010, made an online sign-up and payment tool for it; Carneborn saw it and asked whether he could buy into it, which he calls the embryo of Smoothcomp.
Where in the source: Section Can I buy into that? and the About-the-Gym paragraph on Varghult.
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The three founders met in Stenungsund to plan a complete system, and Carneborn rebooked his one-day trip because so much was happening; before building they compared their two ways of running tournaments to agree a best practice, built the first version that summer, and held their first event on Smoothcomp in October 2015.
Where in the source: Sections A one-day trip that ran long, Janson's best-practice quote, and About-the-Gym paragraph (first event October 2015).
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Smoothcomp's own figures, relayed by Gymdesk, put its software at about 150 events and 27,000 athletes on an average weekend; the page names ADCC, NAGA, Grappling Industries, UFC BJJ and AJP among organizers using it.
Where in the source: About the Gym section, paragraph on Smoothcomp's scale and users.
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Carneborn recounts that an early customer, tournament organizer Dave from Newbreed, spent days after each event on results and refunds, and told him some months after switching to Smoothcomp that he had got his life back because results and refunds were done when the last match ended.
Where in the source: Section I got my life back, story attributed to Carneborn.
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In the interview transcript he says he began martial arts at 11 with a year of Aikido, then at 12 switched to Sport Ju-Jutsu with the academy he now runs, which he says used the same mat space as the Aikido class, noting that Brazilian jiu-jitsu was not yet present in Sweden in 1986; he adds that the academy was started in 1982 by his first instructor.
Where in the source: Full transcript, answer about how he started, the Aikido year and the move to Sport Ju-Jutsu.
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In the same transcript he says his first contact with Brazilian jiu-jitsu was around 1998, that he moved over to it from the start of the 2000s, and that his academy held its first Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournament in 2012.
Where in the source: Full transcript, answer after the ten-year athletic career, and the answer on running tournaments.
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He recounts meeting Martin Janson, later Smoothcomp's CEO, when Carneborn was invited to teach a seminar in Gothenburg to spread Sport Ju-Jutsu; in his recollection Janson showed up like a white belt with little grappling experience, and they became friends. He adds that he coached the Swedish national team while Janson was an athlete on it.
Where in the source: Full transcript, answer on how he first met Martin.
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Smoothcomp, About page (team presentation), read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Smoothcomp's own About page lists Carneborn as a co-founder with black belts in BJJ and Sport Ju-Jutsu.
Where in the source: Team section, Ricard Carneborn entry, belt lines under the job title.
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Smoothcomp's About page says Carneborn has trained martial arts since 1986, competed at elite level for ten years, and is head instructor of his academy Nacka Dojo.
Where in the source: Team section, Ricard Carneborn entry, first paragraph of the biography.
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The same page describes him as organizer of the Nordic Open, a tournament series for BJJ and JJIF fighting that it says was established in 2000.
Where in the source: Team section, Ricard Carneborn entry, sentence on the Nordic Open.
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Nacka Dojo, "Historik" (club history page), read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Nacka Dojo was started in 1982 under the name Ju-Jutsu Klubb by Ingemar Sköld, who is now a 10th dan; it trained first in Fisksätra and then in the Budosalen at Nacka sportcenter, and grew quickly to about 100 members.
Where in the source: Opening paragraphs of the club's history page.
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The club's history says Sköld began training in 1969 under Hans Greger, taught modern ju-jutsu around Sweden, won five European championship golds and Swedish titles as a competitor, and coached the Swedish national team for many years.
Where in the source: Third paragraph of the history page, on Ingemar's background.
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The club says Carneborn has trained there since 1986 and instructed since 1990, and that it hired him as sports director in 2005, citing his ten years on the national team and an education at Bosön, the Swedish sports college.
Where in the source: Paragraph beginning with Ricard Carneborn's name, about the 2005 hire.
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According to the club, in 1997 Sköld and his top student Ricard Carneborn worked out the Sport Ju-Jutsu training and grading system; the style grew quickly, is now organized within Dynamix Fighting Sports, and the club's membership rose fast after it switched system.
Where in the source: Paragraph on 1997 and the Sport Ju-Jutsu system, naming Ingemar and Ricard.
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The club opened its own premises on Griffelvägen in January 2005, took the name Nacka Dojo in 2006 to reflect a wider range of sports, and says it reached close to 700 members within three years.
Where in the source: Paragraphs on the 2004 search for premises, the 2005 opening and the 2006 rename.
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A flood on 17 August 2012 forced the club out of its Griffelvägen building; its history page, which mentions the club's 40th anniversary in 2022, says it now has its own 1,200 square metre house and about 1,000 active members and, by its own description, is Sweden's largest organizer of competitions and camps, including the Nordic Open.
Where in the source: Final paragraphs: the 2012 flood, the present house, member count and events.
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Nacka Dojo, "Styrelse & personal" page, read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
On the club's board-and-staff page Carneborn appears both as a board member and as the club's sports director (sportchef).
Where in the source: Styrelse & personal page, name listed under Ledamot and again under Sportchef.
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Nacka Dojo, "Events" page, read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Nacka Dojo lists the Nordic BJJ Open Championships (twice a year, over 900 fighters in 2023), the Nordic Ju-Jutsu Cups (Sweden's largest Sport Ju-Jutsu competition, every October) and Nordic Open Grappling (four times a year, resumed in 2025) among the events it runs.
Where in the source: Events page, entries for the Nordic BJJ Open, Ju-Jutsu Cups and Open Grappling.
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Nordic Open Events on Smoothcomp, "Information" page, read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
The Nordic Open's Smoothcomp information page says the series is organised by Nacka Dojo, which cites hosting experience since 1999; the Nordic Open Championship is held twice a year in Skuruhallen in Nacka and the smaller no-gi Nordic Open Grappling four times a year at the club's own facilities.
Where in the source: Information page, opening paragraph and the NOC and NOG entries.
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Wikipedia, Fredrik Widgren, read October 21, 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Wikipedia's article on Fredrik Widgren, a Nacka Dojo ju-jitsu fighter who won a JJIF world title in 2019, lists Carneborn among his coaches and says he was trained by Carneborn.
Where in the source: Infobox, 'Coached by' line, and Career section sentence on his training.
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The same article calls Carneborn a well-known Swedish ju-jutsu practitioner.
Where in the source: Career section, sentence on his training — "swedish jutsuka".
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Lineage
No teaching connections are shown on this page.
Open lineage