Academy Promises Standup Wrestling 'When Things Slow Down'

Marcus Whitmore, the head instructor and owner of Centreline Jiu-Jitsu in Greenville, South Carolina, announced Monday that the academy will finally introduce its first standup wrestling class “when things slow down.” The gym, which opened in April 2004 and charges $189 per month for unlimited classes, has taught exclusively guard-based no-gi and gi jiu-jitsu for all 22 years. The academy has 187 active members, with no formal waiting list and no stated timeline for when the standing position instruction might commence. Whitmore, 56, a brown belt who competed briefly in the late 1990s before switching to instruction, posted the announcement in an email to members and added a course listing to the reception bulletin board marked “TBD — Time TBD — Instructor TBD — Start Date TBD.” The standup wrestling initiative has technically been “in development” since 2019, when Whitmore attended a three-day grappling summit in Charlotte where a visiting instructor from North Carolina State mentioned that “most high-level jiu-jitsu actually begins with someone taking someone else down from standing.” Whitmore returned to Greenville inspired and immediately emailed his assistant instructor, Carlos Santos, proposing a new course. Santos, who has worked at Centreline for eight years and holds a blue belt in wrestling as well as a purple belt in jiu-jitsu, wrote back within an hour: “Absolutely. I can start next week if you want.” Whitmore responded: “Let’s give it some thought. Big decision.” Seven years passed. In that time, Whitmore launched and then shelved three separate initiatives. A kids’ self-defense track was announced in 2018 with a flyer and a dedicated 4 p.m. Saturday time slot. No instructor was ever assigned. The slot now hosts “rotating member rolling,” which Whitmore created in 2021 to fill the gap. A hybrid judo-and-catch wrestling course was proposed in 2020 by a newly hired instructor named Tim Boschetto, who trained in both disciplines. Whitmore said it sounded interesting but needed “more community research” to understand demand. Boschetto trained at Centreline for 14 months while Whitmore conducted his research, then transferred to a gym 40 minutes away, citing “clarity of vision” as the reason for his departure. Whitmore sent him a goodbye email that read: “It’s your loss. We’re about to blow up standup here.” That was in March 2022. Nothing happened until early 2026, when Whitmore attended another seminar—this time a four-hour workshop in Charlotte on “modern footlock entry strategies.” The instructor, a visiting black belt, spent exactly six minutes discussing how the techniques “integrate from standing positions” before returning to the hour-long deep dive into heel-hook variations. Whitmore left that seminar energized. He scheduled an emergency staff meeting for the following Tuesday and announced to Carlos Santos, who was eating a protein bar in the office, that “the time for standup had arrived.” “I’ve been ready,” Santos said, still chewing. “Let’s do a soft launch,” Whitmore replied. “A four-week trial. See how members respond.” The four-week trial never happened. Instead, Whitmore spent two weeks revising a course description. He circulated three drafts to Santos. The first read: “Learn essential takedown techniques that your opponents fear.” Santos suggested removing “that your opponents fear” as “intimidating to beginners.” Whitmore rewrote it as: “Learn essential takedown techniques in a safe environment (maybe).” Santos did not respond. Whitmore kept the “maybe” version. By April, no official start date had been set. Whitmore printed a single laminated flyer with clip art of two wrestlers colliding and posted it once, on the back of a bathroom stall, where it remained for five weeks before being removed by a cleaning service. No one saw it except by accident. Derek Loomis, a purple belt who trains five days a week, discovered it while searching for paper towels and asked Whitmore about the class directly. Whitmore said: “Yeah, we’re looking into it. What’s your availability like?” Loomis said: “I’m here six days a week, basically.” “Okay, great. Let me look at the schedule,” Whitmore said. Three weeks later, Whitmore had not looked at the schedule. In June, three members independently emailed Whitmore requesting information about standup classes. He responded to all three with an identical message: “Great question! We’re definitely considering this as a way to add to what we offer. We’ll have more information when our calendar stabilizes. Thanks for your patience.” The calendar has not stabilized since 2019. Classes run Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with morning and evening open mat sessions filling any remaining gaps. When asked how the calendar might “stabilize,” Whitmore explained: “You know, when we hit a slower season.” “What would a slower season look like?” a reporter asked. “Hard to say,” Whitmore replied. “We’ve never really had one.” Santos, when interviewed separately, said he remained “extremely ready” to teach standup and had “kept my wrestling certs current every year since 2019, just in case.” He declined to speculate on when Whitmore might commit to a date. “I’ve learned not to,” Santos said. He added: “I actually taught wrestling in high school for six years. I know what I’m doing. But Marcus.. Marcus likes to sit with things.” Whitmore has made similar promises regarding three other deferred programs: a fundamentals track for new white belts (proposed 2018, described as “too many moving pieces”), a masters division for competitors over 40 (proposed 2015, “requires budget conversation”), and an advanced leg lock seminar series (proposed 2023, “needs the right instructor”). The masters division is his most complex excuse. When asked directly, he said: “Is there demand? Sure. But we’d have to figure out if it’s really what people want or if they just think they want it.” When pressed, he clarified: “Some decisions take time.” The standup class now appears on the academy website under “Upcoming Offerings,” alongside the judo-catch wrestling program and the kids’ self-defense track, all three marked with an estimated start date of “TBD.” The website was last significantly updated in March 2021. Below the Upcoming Offerings section is a testimonials area featuring three reviews from 2017. Loomis, who originally expressed enthusiasm about standup, said in a follow-up interview that he had “sort of given up.” He noted: “I’m probably 18 months away from brown belt. By the time the standup class actually starts, I’ll be a brown belt, and then it’ll be weird to take a white-belt-level wrestling class. So I guess I’ll just.. stay ignorant about single-leg X takedown entries forever. That’s fine.” When asked if Whitmore was procrastinating specifically or simply had an unusual relationship with time, Santos said: “Marcus is a good instructor. His jiu-jitsu fundamentals are solid. But he treats any administrative decision like a philosophy question. I once asked him if we needed to replace the water dispenser. He said, ‘Let’s see how the water quality evolves before we make a rash choice.’” Whitmore, in a final statement, said he remained “100 percent committed” to introducing standup classes and that members should “watch for updates soon.” When asked what “soon” meant, he said: “Fall is looking interesting. Or maybe after the new year. New Year resolutions are a great time to launch something fresh.” He paused, then added: “Actually, spring might be better. More energy in spring.” He declined to specify which spring.