Andrew Wiltse recently announced that he is going to be returning to Jiu-Jitsu as his career and will now be opening up Wiltse Brothers BJJ alongside his younger brother, Bird Wiltse. It’s welcome news to anyone who’s been following Wiltse over the last few years, as it appears to be signalling a return to good mental health for him. He’s always been open about his mental health struggles but he’s gone through a lot over the last year in particular, when an episode culminated in his arrest. He still has the support of many members of the BJJ community, including his brother Bird, as the issues were out of his control.
He did take aim at some high-profile BJJ competitors during that episode though and in the recent video update, he actually wanted to apologise to one of them:
“I am deeply apologetic and I am sorry, Craig (Jones), for everything I said. It was me being manic and malicious and dealing with a lot, getting attacked from a lot of different angles. You’ve always seemed like a nice guy and I genuinely regret saying anything negative about you.”
At one point in time Andrew Wiltse was one of the top no gi grapplers in the world and although it’s great to hear that he’ll be getting back on the mats after getting a handle on things, it’s unclear whether he’ll be doing this as a coach only or if he’ll be looking to compete again. He has wins over some of the best in the world like PJ Barch and Gabriel Almeida, but he also hasn’t competed at all in over four years and hasn’t been able to train for extended periods within that time. He’s still young enough to make a comeback if he chooses to do so, but the most likely outcome from here is that he focuses on building up a team of his own in Nebraska instead.
Andrew Wiltse shared the news that he was creating Wiltse Brothers BJJ with Bird Wiltse in a recent video uploaded to his official YouTube channel:
