Coach Sean Applegate

Sean Applegate, Black Belt, head instructor at 10th Planet Atlanta. Applegate, sometimes referred to as Trapplegate, has a plan. Before he even accepted the offer to be a coach, I would wager he had been formulating strategies on how to put together the winning team. Applegate served as a coach last season. The word on the street is when he found out the draft order would be decided by a game of Connect Four, he made all his students play him in Connect Four until he mastered the game. [He decidedly destroyed the other coaches in the game to ensure the first pick]. Then, Coach Applegate picked and coached a team leading to EVERY member of his active roster making it to the finale tournament (making up 62.5% of the tournament). Coach Applegate’s instructions from the sidelines are calm and actionable. Having watched him coach on the sidelines and attended his seminar during Season 3 – his mastery of the concepts of jiu jitsu and ability to convey them in a comprehensible way are phenomenal. Coach Applegate really puts in the time with his team – they were in the gym hours before the matches, talking strategy and working on techniques. Every other coach has to know Applegate is their biggest threat. But even with the target on his back, Applegate will have a plan to win. As I said, he might have won already. Sean Applegate is working on taking over the SE US grappling scene if not the world. He sent two of his lower belt students to take down two qualifiers and almost had another student take down a third. Applegate has another student who won CJJ Worlds and got to the round of 16 in the ADCC trials. Applegate is known as the authority on leg locks and as one of the calmest coaches matside. I wouldn’t be surprised if his team members started making pilgrimages to Atlanta after learning from Applegate.