Grapple Asia

Interview with Marshall Stamper -10th Planet Taipei

Going All In: Marshall Stamper | 10th Planet Taipei

One conversation. One-way ticket. And eventually, one big bet on Jiu-Jitsu in Taiwan.

Marshall Stamper arrived in Taiwan in 2013 with no grand plan to build a gym. More than a decade later, the 10th Planet black belt under “Dirty” Ron Turner is the owner and head coach of 10th Planet Taipei, betting on the rise of no-gi Jiu-Jitsu in a scene still finding its feet.

GrappleAsia caught up with Marshall to talk about the unlikely road that brought him to Taiwan, finding 10th Planet, building his own academy, the evolution of the local grappling scene — and why he’s committed to going all in for the next ten years.

Q1. Can you kindly introduce yourself?

My name is Marshall Stamper. I’m a 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Black Belt under “Dirty” Ron Turner. I’m the Owner and Head Coach of 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Taipei since December 2025.

Q2. How did you get into Jiu-Jitsu?

I got into jiu jitsu at the age of 21 while attending the University of San Diego. At the time, I was attending parties and business classes, finding them both to be unfulfilling. In the summer going into Senior Year, I took a free trial at Pitbull Jiu Jitsu, a small very traditional Brazilian school. What blew me away was the kindness everyone who walked through that door emanated. People came straight up to me, looked me in my eyes and welcomed me into this new environment. Then they went to every single other person in the room, one by one, and briefly checked in on them. Compared to the frat parties I was feeling increasingly unwelcome at, this was a revelation.

Q3. What brought you to Taiwan?

After graduation, I got very scared about going straight into a career following my degree, Accounting. I saw a job post on our school job board about teaching English in Japan. Such a thing had never occurred to me. What really shocked me was that the base salary was the same as I was seeing for entry level accounting jobs. That night I couldn’t sleep. The next day I went to my favorite place in San Diego, a small Chinese style tea shop called The Mad Monk. I had gotten in the habit of going there once a week, seemingly to balance out the drudgery of a week of business classes. There, I was eager to talk about my discovery. I wanted to tell the boss, a guy slightly older than me yet seemingly infinitely wiser, but he was busy with his back turned to me. So I told the stranger next to me about the possibility of me going to Japan. The boss heard me and, without turning around, said “fuck that, man, go to Taiwan instead.” I didn’t have the chance to ask clarifying questions, but I went home, did some research, and got on a one way flight to Taiwan upon graduation in August 2013.

Q4. You currently train & operate 10th Planet Taipei, how did this come about?

In 2016 I moved back in with my parents in Costa Mesa, California as a recent Taiwan BJJ blue belt. First I dropped in at AOJ. I was charged $60 and made no friends. The next day I went to 10th Planet Costa Mesa. My mind was blown by the wacky techniques and unbelievably hospitable crew. I knew immediately where I belonged. After about a year and a half of training with them, I got my purple belt, then soon after, finding California to be prohibitively expensive, moved back to Taiwan. Since then, I have stayed in contact with Coach Ron Turner and he has been unbelievably supportive. In 2022 I went back to get a brown belt from him and then three years later a black belt. Getting a 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu black belt under a legit teacher in good standing with Eddie Bravo is the requirement for opening a franchise, so after I got the belt, I got Eddie’s phone number and set it up. That was the easy part. Then I returned to Taiwan and spent 3 month working with a local accounting firm and the banks to set up an official business. That was a nightmare. I spent so many days sitting at banks, signing papers I could not read, paying people for I don’t know what, being told I had the wrong paper, the wrong stamp, not enough stamps, what’s up with these fucking stamps? It was wild. Finally in December 2025 I got the official approval from the bank to open and we got to training.

Q5. Taipei City is an interesting choice of location, did you see a gap in the market or what was the reason you chose Taiwan?

I chose Taiwan initially as a wonderful place to avoid a real job and responsibility. I spent nearly 10 years working part time as an English teacher while whimsically training jiu jitsu and performing stand up comedy. It was only a few years ago, after discussing it with Coach Ron, did I see the business potential here. We see Taiwan as about 15 years behind America in terms of jiu jitsu, meaning that there is plenty of room for more gyms here and the established gyms are almost exclusively traditional gi schools or MMA gyms. That tells me that a 10th Planet, no gi only school can do quite well here especially if we can survive the first 5 years.

Q6. How is the current Jiu-Jitsu scene in Taiwan? Namely the no-gi side of it?

The scene is growing slowly but surely. Every year there are a few more no gi tournaments and many people coming to me saying they hate the gi. I never heard this 10 years ago.

Q7. From what I saw years ago hobbyists were majority gi is this still the same?

For the most part, but I would say, like in America, it is evening out.

Q8. Tell us about how you coach, what you see as the single most important quality a coach must have?

I find this to be a hard question since I am relatively new to coaching. I spent the past 13 years or so selfishly focusing only on my own training. I actually never watched two people roll at a gym until I started teaching class, since before that I was either rolling every round or going home.

I guess if I have to pick one most important quality it would be empathy, the ability to see briefly into a student’s mind to better see how they can be helped.

Q9. I’ve got a friend who operates Catch Jiu-Jitsu in Kaohsiung and Dan Reid has gone 100% CLA. Any thoughts on new trends in training methodology?

I think CLA is fantastic. I did not train in a pure CLA gym before, so I do not feel qualified to go 100% in that direction, but in my classes we typically play about 3 CLA style games then work on a 10th Planet style flow before rolling.

Q10. If you were to recommend 3 other gyms not 10th Planet Taipei where would you recommend and the reason for the choice?

3 other gyms I recommend in Taiwan would be TWBJJ for traditional, IBJJF style gi training, The Bear’s Den for MMA training and Kaohsiung BJJ for having an incredible environment geared towards ASJJF style competition training.

Q11. What has made you stay in Taiwan?

The ease of life here. Like I said, I worked part time for a decade and was able to afford an apartment, restaurants, three hobbies and health care. If I could live like that in California, I’d be there, but that’s not possible.

Q12. What has been your biggest achievements and challenges you’ve had both on the mat and as a Coach?

My biggest sounding achievement as a competitor is that I am technically the ADCC Taiwan Absolute Champion, but anyone who was there can tell you I only had one opponent and got a quick heel hook victory. Since then I have won Marianas Pro, a few ASJJF tournaments many Kodiak Kups and a few Tapout Islands. I am not sure how to say which of those is bigger than the others.

As a Coach my biggest achievement was convincing my girlfriend to compete after training only 3 months, during which time she practiced a Rubber Guard pull into a triangle choke, which she hit in the first 30 seconds.

Q13. What advice can you give to any wanting to travel and train in Taiwan? What is the biggest cultural difference you see on the mats here?

To anyone wanting to travel and train in Taiwan, I would say just come and figure out the rest. Taiwan is incredibly easy and convenient. Don’t over think it. The biggest cultural difference on the mats is…I’m not sure actually. I want to say it is pretty universal but that shouldn’t be true, right? Maybe I need someone to come and tell me what they notice.

One thing people have told me is that they come to train with me at 10th Planet Taipei because they messaged several other gyms and didn’t get a reply. Is that normal?

Q14. Which country do you think is the fastest growing in terms of grappling in Asia right now?

I haven’t done enough research to properly say, so I’ll just go out on a limb and say Taiwan.

Q15. What are your future plans?

My only plan in life is to work relentlessly on 10th Planet Taipei, creating a world class training environment that can help me quit teaching English. When I opened I told myself to go all in, no questions asked for the next ten years. On my 45th birthday I’ll take a moment to evaluate how things are going and what the future holds. Until then, I’m all in.

Q16. If there was one last message you can impart to people, what would it be?

The fact that we live in a time where we can train this beautiful art in so many interesting places and with so many cool people all around the world is such an incredible blessing that we should never take for granted.