Richard Hansen is one of just two black belts at Arendal BJJ, the southern Norwegian academy built up around Vetle Lindeman after his 2014 move from Frontline Oslo to Grimstad. That makes Hansen, in practice, half of the senior coaching team on a coastline where black-belt instruction is rare.
He leads the advanced training at Arendal — the sessions where the gym's competition prospects and senior coloured belts sharpen what they do. In a region that has historically had to send its serious students to Oslo or Stavanger for top-end instruction, that work matters disproportionately.
Not to be confused with Richard Haye, the Kristiansand-based black belt further down the coast, Hansen is the Arendal half of a small but committed Sørlandet jiu-jitsu pipeline that has slowly built itself into a credible regional scene.