The Judo Nomad I Julien Brulard

A few years ago, I was just a visitor training in dojos in Vanuatu — one stop on a much bigger journey. We stayed in touch, and their federation ended up becoming one of the biggest supporters this project has ever had.

Since then: Paris 2024, coaching on the Olympic bench. Palau 2025, Mini Pacific Games — their strongest performance in history. And now, Glasgow 2026, the Commonwealth Games.

None of this happens without a federation that decided to bet on me, over and over. I'll never forget it, and I'm not sure I could keep this project running without people like them. Forever grateful and very proud. 🇻🇺🥋

New video online , unexpected trip , thanks a lot Moldova and Konstantin
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The mission isn't just mats and medals. Sometimes it's bread.

A few days with Daniel and the Bronx People family in Bacău, Romania 🇷🇴 — the man behind the judo, the man behind the kitchen.

Same hands that grip a judogi kneading dough at 7am. Same guy who runs a community built on judo also bakes the bread, makes the cake, grills the BBQ, and still finds time to sit down for a drink at the end of the day.

This is the part of the journey that never makes it into a highlight reel — the meals, the small talk, the house cat wandering through it all. But it's the part that stays with me the longest.

Thank you, Daniel, for the mat and the table both.

Some dojos only do one thing. Nova BJJ Bacău doesn't.

In Bacău, Romania, I taught a judo seminar at Nova BJJ — an academy that runs BJJ, MMA, and judo all under one roof. More open than a traditional dojo, less attached to "this is how it's always done."

Teaching there meant sharing the mat with judogis and BJJ gis side by side, judokas and grapplers learning from each other in real time.

Nova BJJ is a close friend of Bronx People, the community I'd been training with all week — so half the room were judokas from Bronx, training there for the first time.

Country-by-country, mat-by-mat. This is what the mission actually looks like.

Romania — country #63 of 197. 🇷🇴

Every judoka knows this lesson before they ever learn a throw: you have to fall before you can rise. This week's video is about exactly that — what a dojo in Romania teaching about resilience, falling, and getting back up.

Watch it here 👉 https://youtu.be/nOyqhNwikCY

134 countries left. Let's keep going.

BRONX SPORT CLUB

You Must Fall to Raise: A Judo Lesson From Romania 63# ➡️ Monthly support : https://www.patreon.com/ThejudonomadAll my li...

Moldova wasn't originally on the plan for this trip — the budget was tight and I almost let it go. Then Konstantin Kotov, who I met at Vito Dragic's seminar in Slovenia a few weeks ago, heard I might not make it and simply offered to cover what I needed. No hesitation, no conditions. That's the kind of thing that keeps this project alive.

Konstantin then pulled off something genuinely hard in the middle of summer, when most clubs are on holiday: he got two clubs together in one session. Big thanks to M.S. Champions and JUDO KIDS School for opening the mats, and to Muhtar Murtazaliev for the connection.

The room was full of kids, the mats were huge, and everyone made me feel at home in the short time I had. After training, I sat down for coffee with part of the group and answered questions about the project. I also found out Moldova is an easy gateway into Ukraine — so this might not be my last visit. I even got invited to train with the national team by an ex member, though the timing wasn't right this time.

Country #64. Thank you Konstantin 🙏 And a special shoutout to Muhtar, who joined as our first Moldovan Patreon supporter right after we met — proof this community keeps growing one handshake at a time. If you want to be part of it too, it starts at just €1/month the project only live thanks to people like you : https://www.patreon.com/c/Thejudonomad

ALl links : https://linktr.ee/julienbrulard_

Bacău wasn't done with me yet.

A few days after training with the Bronx family, I found myself back in town — this time on the mats at Nova BJJ Bacău, teaching a judo seminar to a room full of grapplers. And the connection ran deeper than I expected: several of the judokas i met in Bronx showed up too, training alongside a BJJ and MMA crowd on the same day.

I love this kind of seminar. The moment you step outside the strict framework of judo rules and into a room shaped by a different martial art, you have to adapt — open up, listen more, let go of habits you didn't even know were habits. It's humbling in the best way.

Big thanks to Gauthier, a fellow Frenchman running his own nomad project around BJJ, who traveled all the way from Bucharest to Bacău just to be part of this. Respect.
Thanks to Matei for setting this up and the nice talks !

I'd love to run more BJJ/grappling seminars like this one across Europe — and I know I'll be back in Bacău.

None of this happens without the people backing this project from the shadows. If you've ever considered supporting — even €1/month on Patreon makes a real difference and is genuinely what gives me the safety to keep going month to month.
https://www.patreon.com/Thejudonomad

For now, I'm heading home. The budget needs a breather, and so do I. See you soon. 🇫🇷

All the links of the project : https://linktr.ee/julienbrulard_

Nova BJJ Bacău