Freddie Prinze Jr was one of the first major celebrities to embrace BJJ and after years of training in the sport, he’s now been promoted to purple belt by his long-time coach and friend, Jean Jacques Machado. As one of the legendary Machado brothers, Jean Jacques is in a unique position within Jiu-Jitsu as he has already achieved one of the highest ranks in the sport and has taught what must amount to thousands of practitioners during his time in the sport. One a teacher gets to his level, he’s not even just responsible for the students he teaches directly any more and has often managed to spawn entire gyms or affiliations that find their origins from him.
For Jean Jacques Machado specifically, one of his most successful students was 10th Planet founder and head coach Eddie Bravo. While he might have gone down a slightly different path to Machado in forgoing some of the more traditional elements of Jiu-Jitsu, his impact on the sport has been gigantic. Even to this day, at the age of 53, Jean Jacques Machado still makes every effort to roll with some of the young and hungry competitors who he has had a hand in teaching.
Of course, Prinze Jr is not just one among a sea of thousands of students. As a famous actor with a ton of name recognition, his involvement in the sport means something a little more than normal as he has the ability to reach more people than most and promote the sport even further, just like Mario Lopez and many others. Freddie Prinze Jr announced the news of his promotion to BJJ purple belt in a post to his official Instagram account, where he thanked Jean Jacques Machado for lessons in both Jiu Jitsu and life in general.
