On 15 August 2026, we welcomed Sloan Clymer to our Phuket mats for two hours of no-gi jiu-jitsu, questions and shared rounds, bringing an experienced competitor and coach into the heart of our grappling community.
Watching an accomplished grappler compete can show you what works. Spending time with them on the mats gives you the chance to ask why. That opportunity to connect competition experience with your own training was what made welcoming Sloan "The Caveman" Clymer to Khunpon so worthwhile.
On Saturday, 15 August 2026, Sloan joined us for a two-hour no-gi jiu-jitsu seminar. We welcomed a guest whose background spans wrestling, submission grappling and years of teaching, and set aside time to learn together.
For us, the occasion brought something valuable into our regular training environment: time with an experienced specialist, room for questions, and the chance to share the mats with someone our team could learn from directly.
Understanding no-gi jiu-jitsu
For anyone newer to grappling, "no-gi" means training without the traditional jiu-jitsu jacket and trousers. Athletes typically wear a rash guard and shorts, and control comes through grips on the body rather than holds on a collar, sleeve or trouser leg.
The central problems remain familiar to anyone who trains BJJ: maintaining balance, improving position, escaping control and creating opportunities for submissions. Without fabric grips, the ways you establish and maintain that control change.
This is where a wrestling background can be particularly relevant. Wrestling and jiu-jitsu share questions about balance, body position and controlling an opponent, even though their competition rules and objectives differ. A coach with experience across both can offer another way of looking at those problems. That breadth was part of what interested us in hosting Sloan.
The coach behind "The Caveman"
Sloan received his jiu-jitsu black belt from Keenan Cornelius in 2021. His coaching background includes teaching no-gi at Legion American Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego, drawing on experience in wrestling, MMA and submission grappling. That combination of a clear specialism and a broader grappling education made him a compelling guest for our team.
His nickname has a more personal origin. Sloan began training with his father in a barn behind their family home in Anderson, Indiana. Their training space was called Caveman Combat; "The Caveman" followed him as his grappling career developed. Legion recounts that beginning in its account of his black-belt promotion.
It is a fitting detail for a guest seminar at a local gym. Behind the competition appearances is someone whose own training began with people coming together in a place they had made for the purpose. The setting changes; the importance of having people to learn and train with remains.
Experience tested in competition
Sloan's competitive record gives substance to that background. At Fight to Win 149 in August 2020, he defeated Emil Fischer by decision to win the brown-belt no-gi light-heavyweight title. The title marked a significant achievement in his years competing before his promotion to black belt.
In June 2022, he defeated Nicky Rodriguez by decision at Subversiv 7. He also won the men's under-214 lb division at the U.S. catch wrestling national championship, adding a title in another grappling discipline to his competitive experience.
These results help explain why he was an interesting guest for our community. He has tested his grappling in different competitive settings while also working as an instructor. Competition asks an athlete to make decisions against resistance; teaching asks a coach to explain those decisions so somebody else can understand them. We value the opportunity to learn from someone with experience of both.
Two hours with our grappling community
Our recap from the weekend reflects what we appreciated about having Sloan here: our team had time to learn, ask questions and share rounds. The visit gave us access to his experience through direct interaction on our own mats.
The photographs preserve the people behind that account. In the opening image of our recap, Sloan is seated on the mat, smiling, with other participants nearby. It is a relaxed moment from a day that also included the hard rounds we remembered in our post.
For a training community, both parts matter. Questions give people a way into a coach's thinking. Shared rounds add the physical conversation that makes grappling distinctive: timing, resistance and movement are things you experience with another person.
Sloan's response to our recap was simple: "It was a great time. Can't wait to come back!" We were pleased to read it. Welcoming a guest coach means sharing our gym and our time, and we appreciate that he enjoyed being here too.
Bringing the learning back to regular training
A seminar's value can continue through the sessions that follow. A different explanation may make a familiar position clearer. A useful detail can become something to revisit with a training partner. A question that begins during a guest session can give your next class a more specific focus.
That is how we like to think about opportunities such as this one. Two hours create a chance to encounter another approach; regular practice gives that approach time to become understood. Students can return to what interested them, work through it with their coaches and partners, and discover where it fits into their own jiu-jitsu.
Our video recap remembers Sloan's visit in that spirit, with an emphasis on details our team could carry into training. It is a useful record of a shared occasion and a reminder to keep working on what caught our attention.
Thank you, Sloan, and everyone who trained
Thank you to Sloan for spending the time with us and sharing his knowledge, and to everyone who came to train.
You made this an occasion for our community to learn together.
If you would like to join us on the mats, we offer Gi and no-gi BJJ at Khunpon Martial Arts in Phuket. Explore our classes, check the training schedule, and come build your jiu-jitsu with us.
