Jackson Douglas, who competes and trains under the Checkmat banner, made a routine visit to the team’s headquarters last Friday. While there he found himself in a conversation with Gle, wife of Checkmat co founder Leo Vieira, after she overheard him discussing an internal tournament he was organizing for his students.
The conversation quickly shifted when Gle learned that Douglas teaches at a gym that is not affiliated with Checkmat. According to Douglas she made clear that she believed instructors carrying the Checkmat name should be teaching exclusively at affiliated academies.
Douglas explained that the gym owner simply has no interest in affiliating with any team and that his students are recreational practitioners who rarely if ever compete. He even pointed to the internal tournament he was planning as evidence that his focus is on grassroots participation rather than competitive pipeline development.
That explanation did little to move the needle. Gle reportedly told him he was
“training students to compete against Checkmat,”
a characterization Douglas pushed back on given the nature of his program. She also acknowledged the grey area at play telling him that
“maybe this wasn’t a rule before, but now it needs to be looked at,”
suggesting the organization may be in the process of formalizing expectations it had previously left unspoken.
When the conversation turned to what Douglas should do he was advised to
“make sacrifices,”
“think long-term,”
and
“put the team first.”
For a working instructor juggling real financial obligations that framing landed poorly. His response was pointed:
“How do I think long-term when my rent is due next month? My car payment is due. Real life.”
He also noted without apparent bitterness that he is far from alone in this situation. Multiple Checkmat members he says are currently teaching at non affiliated gyms without facing similar pressure. The conversation concluded amicably enough on the surface with an agreement to revisit the topic and even a warm personal message from Gle directed at someone close to Douglas.
Two days later the warmth was gone. On Sunday morning Douglas received word from Leo Vieira himself that he was being removed from the team. There was no phone call. There was no sit down. His own professor was not consulted or even notified in advance.
What made the dismissal particularly striking was the reason given. According to Douglas Vieira cited his failure to wear the Checkmat patch on his kimono as the grounds for cutting him. The problem with that explanation is straightforward. Douglas never took his kimono out of his bag during the Friday visit. The patch or lack of one was never visible to anyone.
“No conversation. No respect. No transparency,”
Douglas wrote in a post recounting the episode capturing what he described as the true nature of how his tenure with Checkmat came to an end.
Checkmat faced increased scrutiny recently when it was reported that both Ricardo Vieira and Leandro Vieira had each allegedly behaved inapropriately to young students. They have since distanced themselves from one of them but there are serious concerns raised about how they are dealing with instructors that behave inaproprietly.
Translated images Douglas shared:
Original screenshots:
