Adam Toole, head coach
The wrestler who
went and got a
black belt
Most jiu jitsu coaches who teach a bit of wrestling picked it up along the way. Adam is the other way round. He is a career freestyle wrestler of twenty seven years coaching, who then went and earned a black belt in jiu jitsu on top of it.
That order matters more than it sounds. It is why the takedowns here are taught properly rather than skipped, why the standing exchanges in a No Gi round look different to most gyms, and why a parent looking for real wrestling coaching for a competitive kid ends up at a jiu jitsu club in Clarkson.
- 1982Competing since
- 1998Coaching wrestling since
- 2012In jiu jitsu since
- 2015Imperial founded
The record
Stated plainly
No adjectives attached. This is simply what he has done.
- Freestyle wrestling from eight years old, in Manchester
- UK national champion at freestyle wrestling
- Represented Great Britain internationally on numerous occasions
- Coaching wrestling since 1998
- Training and competing in jiu jitsu since 2012
- Podiums and wins at PanPacs, and multiple state titles
- Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Cleve Williams
The gym will become part of your extended family.
Adam Toole
Manchester to Clarkson
He grew up in Manchester and started wrestling at eight years old, which in the north of England in the eighties was a normal enough thing for a kid to end up doing.
Four decades later he is doing the same thing on the other side of the world, in a unit off Caloundra Rd, with a room full of people from Clarkson and the suburbs around it.
The accent has not shifted much.
Lineage
Where the belt comes from
A jiu jitsu black belt is only worth what the line behind it is worth. This one is traceable, name by name, back to the family that started the art.
- Carlos Gracie
- Carlos Gracie Jr
- Rigan Machado
- John Will
- Cleve Williams
- Adam Toole
Cleve Williams
Imperial was founded in September 2015 by Cleve Williams, who is also the black belt Adam earned his own under. Adam owns and runs the club now, but the club exists because Cleve started it, and the grade Adam teaches under came from him. That is worth saying out loud rather than quietly leaving off an about page.
Imperial Grappling Perth is an official Will-Machado representative club.
On the mats
Who is actually coaching
All of the coaches here hold first aid.
There is a small competition team for the kids who want that. There is no adult competition team yet, beyond Adam himself, who still competes.
What he is after
He wants his students to be the very best they can be
That is the whole of it, and it is deliberately not a promise about trophies. The four year old learning to fall over safely and the adult who wants to be less unfit are both covered by it.
What it means in practice is that he is the one on the mats coaching, every session, rather than a name on a wall while somebody else takes the class. If you train here, you are being taught by him.
Come and be coached by him
Your first couple of classes are free, there is nothing to sign, and you can judge all of the above on the mats rather than on a page about him.