Tarsis Humphreys is a bjj black belt under Fabio Gurgel with plenty of competitive experience. However once he gave pop star Demi Lovato the rank of blue belt a lot of feathers were ruffled and many blue belts of the world felt unsettled as they questioned whether the pop star was getting preferential treatment.
Previously several other former instructors of Lovato answered but we never heard from Humphreys himself. He told dailymail:
‘I have a friend who is a BJJ black belt and teaches self-defence and jiu-jitsu for women, Danielle’ says Demi’s trainer Tarsis Humphreys.
‘She started to teach Demi and is the main teacher for her. As Demi became more interested in the sport, Danielle asked me to teach Demi in a class as I am a professional athlete and have been doing it for 21 years. Demi enjoyed my class so I started to teach her.
‘Demi is still a beginner after one year. You need years to be good, but she’s doing a great job. She is a smart and learns super fast. If she wants to compete, I don’t know if that’s her goal yet, she will be an amazing competitor.
‘She trains almost every day during the week for at least two hours,’ says Humphreys.Most people train one hour a day three times a week, but she’s intense. She does Muay Thai, boxing, cardio, functional training – a lot! She trains MMA sometimes with professional fighters, but I don’t believe she competes. MMA is tough. You can simulate some moves, but to be a fighter is another level. I try to see her at least once a week when she is in town (LA).
‘During a session you always need to warm up the body. Then you work on new movements with a partner. You can do it by yourself by drilling or shadowing but you don’t feel it as much.
‘There is a lot to learn – the take down, the top game the bottom game, the defensive part, offensive part, so we always try to learn a new sequence. We always have answers depending on how the other person is going to react. I try and give as much information as possible so there is more than one option to take. It’s not like a sport that you learn ten techniques and continue to get faster and stronger. BJJ has thousands of techniques and its still evolving now.’
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