Tor-Inge Gloppen founded Drøbak BJJ in 2020 with fifteen-plus years of BJJ experience behind him and an unusual academic credential for the role: a master's degree in pedagogy from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH). That combination — a black belt who has actually studied how people learn — is rarer than it should be in coaching.
Within five years his academy had become one of the strongest small-town BJJ pipelines in the Oslofjord region. Junior products like Trym Leknes have begun medalling on the Scandinavian circuit, and the room's first female blue belt — Sylwia Kuzdro — became a regional touchstone for Drøbak BJJ's broader community.
In a country whose serious BJJ has historically clustered around Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and a handful of larger towns, Gloppen is one of the practitioners proving that a small Norwegian municipality can produce real grapplers if a competent black belt commits to staying.