Guro Jan began training in the martial arts with Aikido at age 17 in his hometown Ravels, Belgium. Soon, after moving to Antwerp for his studies at age 18, he also started with Tai-jutsu and full-contact karate (Kyokushinkai), training every day of the week.

At age 19 he took up the Japanese arts of Aiki ju-jutsu and Katori Shinto Ryu, a Japanese weapon system focusing on the sword, staff, spear and halbeard . Jan considers his teacher in these arts, sensei Jan Janssens , one of his biggest inspirations in his martial arts carreer, a devoted martial artist with a big heart. Under sensei Janssens guro Jan reached his first black belt in 1997, at age 23.

In the meanwhile Jan, always looking to fill the gaps in his training, had started training in thaiboxing and Jeet kune Do.
Training in JKD was his first introduction to the Chinese art of WingTsjun, an intelligent close combatsystem that he’s been training in ever since. Today Jan is a 3rd degree sifu in this highly effective art under his teacher Sifu Thommy Boelig of Leichlingen, Germany.

At age 23, guro Jan had his first encounter with Kali trough the seminars of Punong Guro Jeff Espinous and the Cinco Terro system of Guro Kaj Westersund, the first eskrimasystem in wich Jan would become a teacher..

About those days: “training with Guro Espinous was an eye-opener for me: I was training in all these different martial arts in order to become a complete fighter, versed in every aspect of combat: unarmed or with weapons, standing up or on the ground. Through Jeff I realized I was reinventing the wheel: Guro Jeff Espinous had it all, the full package. I was immediately hooked to Kali Sikaran and I still am. ” Today Jan is a Katalungan Guro (5th dan) in the art of Kali Sikaran.

Jan’s other teacher in Kali Sikaran is the other grandmaster of the style: Punong Guro Johan Skalberg from Goteborg, Sweden. “What Guro Johan always reminds us of is the importance of the basics, he has an incredibly wide arsenal of techniques and styles but he manages to keep everybody challenged with the basics, just because he’s so good at them.”

His new insights had led him to leave the Japanese arts completely and Jan was focusing his training on kali, (working mainly in Kali Sikaran, Doce Pares eskrima and Cinco terro), WingTsjun and Pancrase freefight, under World Champion and King of Pancrase Bas Rutten from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, from who he received his black belt in 1998.
At that time Jan also participated in some of the early free-fight competitions, fighting people from various styles, in wich he never lost a fight.

In the beginning of the new millennium Jan met Suro Emanuel Hart on the yearly Ikaef-summercamp in Germany and has been training in his art of Inayan Eskrima from then on. About Suro Hart: “he really trained me, more intense than anybody. Suro gives his body and mind to make his student better. He’s an exceptional martial artist and the example of how I want to become as a teacher. I feel priveliged to count Suro Emanuel as my teacher and friend.”

It was on the Fillipino Martial Arts Festival in Dortmund, Germany in 2004 that Jan first got to work with Pangulong guro Krishna Godhania of Warriors eskrima. The two connected and since then Jan has gradually worked more and more with Guro Krishna, both in Warrior Eskrima and Sayoc Kali, the renowned style of the America-based Sayoc family for wich Guro Godhania is the European Representative.

“I had become conceited”, Jan explains, “I tought I’d seen it all. Been there, done that, that kind of attitude. I had more or less settled in the idea that there wasn’t much new for me to learn and that I just had to concentrate on getting better in what I already knew. Guro Krishna totally turned my world upside down, his teachings filled in a lot of my blanks or gave me new pathways to explore. Now, I still believe that perfecting what you know is the most important part of training but it is fantastic to learn totally new things, new input makes me feel alive.”

Only last month Jan graduated under Tuhon Tom Kier as a Sayoc Kali training group leader, and he took up his old Mma-training again under Gavin Van Saelen, thus continuing his search for knowledge and a better understanding of the martial arts.


As guro Jan puts it: “now, at age 37, I know that I can keep learning the rest of my life and this really makes me happy. As the Japanese say:
"you have to keep the spirit of the beginner… "