WARSAW — Not everyone can see a connection between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and teaching. After all, the grappling-based martial art — where competitors try to submit one another through chokes and painful joint locks — can seem pretty brutal.

But Warsaw High School Psychology and History teacher Chad Gabrich sees the parallels between the mat and the classroom. As a teacher at Warsaw, it’s Gabrich’s mission to inspire his students, and the BJJ Brown Belt is hoping to do just that as he pursues his passion at the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation World Master Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Las Vegas Aug. 24-26.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for people in Warsaw to know that there are people that have passion for what they enjoy, and there’s a whole goal-setting-slash-inspirational thing that you can pull out of accomplishments,” said Gabrich.

“The mission at the high school is all about inspiring, equipping and helping students rise from where they are to where they can go. I can do that in Jiu-Jitsu, and I can do that in my classroom on a daily basis.”

Gabrich is a 20-year veteran of BJJ who says he first became interested in the combat sport in the early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship back in the 1990s. Originally an open weight class tournament, the UFC pitted practitioners of different martial arts disciplines against one another. The founding family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — the Gracies — helped create the tournament, and the winner of three of the first four UFC tournaments, Royce Gracie, was a member of that family himself.

Gabrich, a former wrestler, was intrigued and found a Jiu-Jitsu gym in Atlanta, Ga., to train. He was soon hooked.

“Out of college I moved to Atlanta, and I kind of stumbled into it after the first UFC. That kind of got me interested, and I found a place that I could actually train at,” Gabrich recalled. “It’s one of those things where you set a goal, and the goal in the sport is to get better every day, learn, but you look at the possibilities like ‘OK, one day I would like to be a Black Belt. I would like to be able to teach others what I know.’”

After taking a roughly four-year break from BJJ, Gabrich says he rediscovered it roughly two years ago and now trains at Relentless Jiu-Jitsu in Warsaw. Traveling to the IBJJF Worlds in August represents the fulfillment of a longtime dream for Gabrich and will give him the opportunity to measure his skills against some of the very best Jiu-Jitsu practitioners in the world.

“I’ve wanted to go for a number of years. I took about four years off, and I’ve just been getting back into it over the past two, two-and-a-half years,” explained Gabrich. “I was training with some friends out in Toledo, and they’re the ones that planted the seed that, ‘Hey, you need to go out to Worlds and see how you stack up against us. We go every year; we’re highly competitive.’ I was sitting down with my wife trying to make the dollars make sense, and it was like ‘Let me see if I can secure some outside sponsorships and try to make the trip more affordable.’

“Some of the best competition, a lot of huge names like the Gracie name and all the big names all across the country, they all converge, and it’s a great opportunity to see what your level is and how you compare to some of the best guys on the planet.”

In order to make those “dollars make sense”, Gabrich has been actively seeking out sponsorships for the trip, which bears a pretty hefty price tag of more than $1,000, all told. He’s already gotten some help but needs more as he looks to finance the trip. Interested parties can reach the WHS teacher at [email protected].

“They can get in touch with me via email if they want to come along with me on this journey. It’s a little over $1,000 from the flight to accommodations to food,” he said. “They also bring in some top level Black Belts from different countries, and they come along and do seminars to hone your skills and teach you things that can make you a little bit better. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to do a few of those as well.”