Behind the Scenes of My Latest Feature: “Who is Dima Murovanni?”
Notes on what I hope you'll learn in my most recent piece about jiu-jitsu's most-talked-about coach
Hi Substack squad!
I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to do for the last year: a “behind the scenes” reflection on writing process, insights, and other things left on “the cutting room floor” when working on big, interview-driven essays and feature stories.
Murovanni, based out of Berlin’s BJJ Akademie, has risen in profile as the cornerman of up-and-comers like Jozef Chen and established contenders like Margot Ciccarelli.
This summer, Dima has a full squad of high-profile athletes headed to the ADCC World Championships, a biennial “Super Bowl” in the world of competitive grappling. While there has been significant coverage of Dima’s athletes in the run-up to ADCC, there has not been much coverage of him as a coach—yet. This piece is among the first, striving to shed a light on who Dima is and why some of the best names in the grappling world have wanted to work with him.
Below, you’ll get two three-point lists: three things you won’t see in the final version of the article and three things I hope you’ll take away from reading the article.
You can read the whole piece on FloGrappling here.
This format of this Substack post is one I’ll strive to evolve and continue over time but is far from perfect at the first attempt. Feedback welcome, and hope you enjoy!
Three things you won’t see in this final article but were notable moments from interviewing Dima and pulling this piece together
1. How Dima ended up in BJJ and his first impressions of the sport and of his first coach, Robert Nestor of BJJ Akademie
Dima loved martial arts as a kid, was a huge fan of Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee movies, and, for a time, had made a dedicated effort towards becoming a professional wrestler—“That’s another story,” he insists.
He landed in jiu-jitsu after an experience at an MMA gym in Leipzig: specifically, getting taken down and rendered helpless by a much smaller guy.
Before that moment, Dima had believed, “the worst thing that can happen to [him] in MMA is getting knocked out,” but his exposure to jiu-jitsu had shown him that getting controlled to a point of helplessness was, in some ways, worse than a knockout.
From there, he became determined to learn jiu-jitsu, moving from Leipzig to Berlin in 2017 to study under BJJ Akademie’s owner and helmsman, Robert Nestor.
“I remember my first class meeting Robert, this tall bald guy with the most beautiful cauliflower ears you’ve ever seen,” he recalls. “I go to him and say, “my name is Dima, You will see me here every day. I will be here forever. I want to be the best that I can. “
Like many people who walk into a gym with desires to be the best and promises to be committed, Robert was skeptical of Dima, but Dima backed the promises with action: he paid the full membership and started showing up every day. “I showed up every day, three to four times a day, as much as I could. After two or three months, [Robert] was recognizing me and was like, ‘Ok this guy actually means it.’”
2. Dima’s first coaching experience: coaching his instructor into a six pack
Amusingly, Dima’s first coaching experience in jiu-jitsu was as a white belt: specifically, coaching his black belt coach Robert towards getting six-pack abs in the span of three weeks. Dima wanted private lessons in order to improve more quickly at jiu-jitsu, and when he learned that Robert was keen on getting a six pack, something Dima believed he could help him achieve, the two made a deal: “I told him, ‘I can get you a six pack in three weeks, but you have to give me privates.’ Robert said, ‘Dima, you are crazy, but listen, if you do it, I will give you privates.’”
Dima was happy about the outcome—getting Robert the six-pack results in a short period of time, getting the privates in jiu-jitsu—but more importantly, Dima was grateful for Robert’s humility and willingness to listen to Dima. “I love to research and analyze the things I love. I ended up bringing my own research to show him, a black belt, doing BJJ for over ten years, and he was actually listening to me. I was lucky to meet Robert and be at BJJ Akademie.”
Robert’s willingness to learn from and collaborate with Dima, even in the earliest days of his jiu-jitsu journey, set the tone for Dima’s own future attitude as a professional coach: learning from various sources, and using the best minds to create the best outcomes. It also gave Dima the tactical foundation of his coaching based on the early days of their research and dialogue: “Together [Robert and I] developed the no gi game that I now try to show my athletes.”
3. How this piece developed alongside my personal life: preparation for knee surgery
This piece on Dima came together on a two-month timeline between booking interviews, drafting, and edits throughout late March into early April. This is fairly typical for a piece of this scope—anything that requires building a narrative across multiple interviews takes a lot of work—but it moved a little more slowly on my side because of what was going on in my own jiu-jitsu life behind the scenes: on February 10, I tore my ACL, MCL, and meniscus in a BJJ competition, and the entire timeline of this piece maps to my preparation for surgery on April 19.
My first interview for this piece was with Dima on February 27. I had spent the previous two-and-a-half weeks getting X-Rays and MRIs and limping my way into doctors’ offices. The day before I spoke to Dima, I had finally picked a surgeon after a breakneck sprint of trying to find a clinician I believed would give me my best shot at returning to jiu-jitsu.
The reality was sinking in for me of it is going to be at least a year before I am able to train well again, and probably two years before I will feel like this injury never happened. Speaking with Dima helped put that reality in perspective in a positive light: that slowing down doesn’t have to mean standing still when it comes to my connection to and improvement in jiu-jitsu.
This piece about Dima inevitably means more given the moment my life in which I am writing it, and while I’m not one of Dima’s coaches, I learned a lot from him by interviewing him. Two days out from surgery, the lesson that stands out most is this: even if I never did another tournament, I can still grow in jiu-jitsu and contribute to it in other meaningful ways—whether by writing, coaching, or other activities that allow my investment in the sport to transcend my individual performance on the mat.
Here are three things that stand out to me about this piece and what I hope you’ll take away from it
1. The power of focus
One thing that stands out about Dima against other coaches in the jiu-jitsu world—or, perhaps, makes him a European Danaher—is his focus on no gi and on the ADCC ruleset. Other top coaches are in a position where they have to split focus across one or more of the following: studying, training, teaching, managing business operations for their gyms. When working with athletes, most top coaches are typically trying to get athletes ready for various tournaments and ruleset formats in both gi and no gi. Dima has the luxury—and the deliberateness—of focus on one goal when it comes to his athletes: ADCC readiness.
While Dima cares less about winning and losing and more about helping an athlete realize his or her potential, by prioritizing ADCC-oriented study, training, strategy, and techniques, he is able to equip his athletes with everything they need for sharp performances in the ADCC format.
2. The power of (good) coach-athlete relationships
A lot of people on the internet (read: BJJ Reddit) have wondered what Dima, a brown belt with seven years of experience, who is based out of a gym that isn’t a “supergym,” has to offer the likes of athletes who were world-class before they started working with him. This piece shows that Dima’s effectiveness as a coach lies in his studious, collaborative mentality with his athletes, and that the superficial markers used to evaluate a coach’s potential—belt rank, mat time, etc.—don’t apply so well to Dima.
Dima’s relationship with his original coach, Robert—the humility, willingness to learn, intensive study—is one that is reflected in his relationship with the athletes on his roster. While Dima has a strong point of view on training methodology and approach—e.g. train smarter rather than harder, learn from judo and wrestling and other sports that have been around longer than BJJ—he doesn’t claim to know everything. He creates an environment where he and his athletes can learn from each others’ strengths and broaden their collective understanding of techniques and positions.
3. The power of a pivot
After a series of major injuries, Dima stopped trying to be a professional competitor and pivoted toward becoming a professional coach instead. Injuries like Dima’s—speaking from my own in-the-moment experience—can be sidelining physically as much as mentally. Dima’s continued commitment to jiu-jitsu is inspiring and not for the faint of heart. Even when unable to fulfill the dreams he had nurtured for himself, he’s managed to take his passion and improve the lives of others, and in doing so, is successfully building a different kind of career for himself in the sport.
Final Notes
As always, thanks to Corey Stockton for the edits and support of my feature work alongside the hundreds of content projects he is working on at any given time for Flo.
You can read the whole piece on FloGrappling here.
You can follow Dima here on Instagram.
If you liked reading the pieces (on Substack and on Flo), comment below with what you most enjoyed—and share with someone else who might like it, too!
Great article on a great coach who's making some waves. Like that you relate it to coming through injuries as I'm rehabbing my shoulder and waiting to get back to Jiu Jitsu myself. Good luck with your knee.