Shawn Hammonds
Shawn Hammonds is a Nashville head instructor, team leader, and fourth-degree black belt in the lineage between Lloyd Irvin and John Salter.
Biography
Sources for this profile
Shawn Hammonds Jiu Jitsu Academy, ‘Shawn Hammonds’, instructor profile, accessed 10 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
The official Shawn Hammonds Jiu Jitsu Academy instructor profile identifies Hammonds as its head instructor and team leader in Nashville.
Where in the source: Page heading: Shawn Hammonds, Head Instructor | Team Leader; Nashville address in the header and footer.
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The academy's current instructor profile gives Hammonds' rank as fourth-degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and describes his work as a twenty-five-year legacy in martial arts.
Where in the source: Shawn Hammonds biography, opening and rank paragraphs; anchors “25-year legacy” and “4th degree black belt”.
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Hammonds' official academy instructor profile credits him with two Pan Am gold medals, with coaching students to World and Pan Am championship titles, and with teams that earned repeated high rankings in several grappling circuits.
Where in the source: Shawn Hammonds biography: competitive-medal paragraph, student-championship passage and final paragraph on team rankings.
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BJJ Heroes, ‘John Salter’, lead and lineage sections, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
John Salter's BJJ Heroes profile places Shawn Hammonds between Lloyd Irvin and Salter in the documented lineage and identifies Salter as a black belt under Hammonds.
Where in the source: John Salter Jiu-Jitsu: Lineage; anchor ‘Lloyd Irvin > Shawn Hammonds > John Salter’. Lead identifies Salter as Hammonds' black belt.
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BJJ Heroes reports that Salter moved to Nashville to train under Shawn Hammonds and Ed Clay, whose coaching helped lead him to brown and black belt, with the black belt awarded in September 2013.
Where in the source: John Salter Biography, Nashville-training paragraph before the California move; anchor ‘the latter in September 2013’.
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Port City MMA and Fitness, ‘John Salter’, staff biography, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
John Salter's current academy biography says Salter earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Shawn Hammonds in 2013.
Where in the source: Biography paragraph after Certifications; anchor ‘under Shawn Hammonds’; black-belt year also listed in Certifications.
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BJJ Metrics, ‘Shawn Hammonds’, competition profile, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
BJJ Metrics lists Hammonds as a black-belt competitor and records first place in the 2009 Pan No-Gi master-two medium-heavy division, plus Pan, European and Pan No-Gi podium finishes from 2006 to 2011.
Where in the source: Competition Results table: competition, division, place and team columns; Pan No-Gi 2009 row and the five surrounding European/Pan rows.
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Music City Martial Arts, ‘About Music City Martial Arts’, story and lineage sections, accessed 9 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
Music City Martial Arts describes its Nashville facility as the new headquarters for all Shawn Hammonds programs and traces its jiu-jitsu instruction through the Shawn Hammonds BJJ Association.
Where in the source: Our Story, headquarters paragraph; The Lineage, association paragraph. Team name appears in the opening Our Story paragraph.
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IBJJF, ‘2009 Pan Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi IBJJF Championship’, official results.(opens in a new tab)
Official IBJJF results list Shawn Hammonds in first place in the Master 2 male black-belt medium-heavy division at the 2009 Pan Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi championship.
Where in the source: MASTER 2 / BLACK / MALE / MEDIUM HEAVY division: Hammonds in first place, then Rexie Barnum and Sean Pulizzano; team names appear beneath competitor names.
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Shawn Hammonds Jiu Jitsu Academy, ‘Association Affiliates’, accessed 10 September 2026.(opens in a new tab)
The Shawn Hammonds Jiu Jitsu Association's official affiliates page says TAMA Martial Arts joined the association in 2010 and that Arise Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy instructor Andrew Browne had trained under Hammonds since 2013; the page lists affiliated academies beyond Nashville, including in Ohio, West Virginia and Kansas.
Where in the source: Association Affiliates: TAMA Martial Arts – Manuel Taningco, Andrew Pardee BJJ – Andrew Pardee, and Arise BJJ – Andrew Browne entries.
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