Dan “TrumpetDan” Lukehart is the owner and head instructor at Brea Jiu-Jitsu. Dan is an IBJJF certified 3rd degree black belt under Beneil Dariush.
Many in the Jiu-Jitsu community are aware of Coach Dan through an instructional series he released on YouTube in 2010 that incorporated a then novel approach of reverse engineering a competitor and teaching it in a systematic lesson based format. Through the videos, he developed a niche early for having an analytic based approach to learning.
As this niche was developing and evolving he received an invitation to be the commentator for the IBJJF World Championships, IBJJF No-Gi World Championships, IBJJF Pan Championships and IBJJF Masters Worlds during the BudoVideos era. Coach Dan can be heard in all the biggest matches of this time period. He pushed the boundaries by making a conscious decision to include more rules based and strategic commentary in an era where this was very controversial.
In 2014, he partnered with BudoVideos to produce a top selling instructional on the closed guard – The Science of The Closed Guard. In 2015 he launched JiuJitsu.net, an innovative website incorporating the latest learning theories from which to learn Jiu-Jitsu online. This website graphed all of Jiu-Jitsu via nodes and edges and innovated in a number of different areas. With Jiu-Jitsu properly graphed in this manner, different learning algorithms could be used to present the information in customizable curricula with different visualizations of the options present at each phase.
Through the JiuJitsu.net banner, Coach Dan ran and did commentary for a series of then uncommon prize money tournaments with high quality live streams. These tournaments broke new ground and were designed to showcase to the world what young talented competitors were capable of in mixed belt, mixed aged tournaments. In the worlds first true open tournament (any weight, any belt, any age), it was the 13-15 year old teens who dominated, not the seasoned brown and black belts which sent ripples through the community and changed the perception of the talent contained in the juvenile divisions.
Kaynan Duarte and Diego “Pato” – both now black belt adult world champions – rolling together at Brea Jiu-Jitsu as purple belts.
When Brea Jiu-Jitsu opened in 2012, Coach Dan was committed to doing things differently. One aspect of that was to open the doors to athletes from any school/affiliation regardless of BJJ politics. Over the course of the past decade and beyond, this reputation has grown, particularly in Brazil, Europe and Australia. Many regularly stay at Brea Jiu-Jitsu for both brief and extended periods and become regular faces at the gym. Many have gone on to become the biggest names in BJJ and visit often. This environment benefits all.
Coach Dan has produced those that have medaled in the major tournaments of Jiu-Jitsu of IBJJF Pans, IBJJF Worlds, IBJJF Masters Worlds and IBJJF No Gi Worlds in the colored belt divisions. In addition to the colored belts, Coach Dan produced from scratch Nolan Stuart who competes at the adult black belt division at the elite level. Learn why the IBJJF adult competition is Jiu-Jitsu major league by clicking here.
At the adult black belt level, Nolan has earned a silver medal at Brazilian Nationals, a gold medal at Pan Championships, a silver medal at World Championships and is the 2025 Crown Champion. For perspective, at any given time there are approximately only 11-12 Americans in the top 100 P4P in the adult black belt division. The production of a top athlete is extremely rare for any coach, even rarer for an American coach, almost unheard of to be homegrown and unique to be from an independent and unaffiliated gym. Its a 1 of 1 category.
Its not just our adult athletes that coach Dan has produced. Our middle aged (and older) athletes compete at the highest level available to them at major IBJJF events against their peer group in the masters categories. This includes multiple Grand Slam podiums at various age categories and belts – including black.
As a cornerman, Coach Dan has been utilized by many of the top athletes in our sport at the adult black belt level in IBJJF grand slam events. This is a bit unusual of a pattern in and of itself as most athletes are cornered by their Coaches or friends. Athletes that have utilized him as a corner have produced victories over the top names in our sport including notable victories over Nicholas Meregali, Xande Ribeiro, Alex Sodre and more. Many of these major victories are directly attributed to his quick thinking as a corner.
in a massive upset over IBJJF Hall of
Fame athlete Xande Riberio as his Hall
of Fame brother and American World
Champion student look on.
In late 2024, Coach Dan developed IBJJFRankings.com with Will Weisser which addresses several key deficiencies in our sport to help push it forward – especially on the American scene which collectively produces a trickle of top athletes from the same 5 or 6 schools nation wide. The website, which uses impartial statistics to rank athletes, helps bring much needed perspective and documentation. It will also help understand just how rare it is for any coach to bring an American to elite black belt status. Our sport is dominated by Brazilians and the methods that made them elite in Brazil before moving to the USA do not work well for American students. The website can help cut through the noise and see who is actually producing results for their American athletes – and how few and far between they are.
Producing an elite American athlete at the adult black belt level starts with understanding what it means to grow up here. Dan has a rich background with the city of Brea having grown up in Country Hills Estates and attended Olinda Elementary, Brea Jr. High and Brea High School. He has worked developing, teaching and supervising after school band and enrichment programs under Creative Brain Learning and served as Brea Olinda Unified School District’s elementary school band director. He has a sensitivity towards child development principles and incorporates them into the classes. Its not just knowledge of Jiu-Jitsu that he brings to the table. Assistants or students do not teach the kids and juniors program classes. Coach Dan teaches every kids and juniors class and provides a gentle arc of skill development and relationship building that peaks at 23 years old, not 10 years old. At Brea Jiu-Jitsu, you get a single coach who mentors you over the course of a decade or more.
