AARON GOH, BLACK BELT
Head Coach & Founder
Prof. Aaron Goh is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and is one of the only approximately legitimate 10 black belts in Malaysia. He received all his belts from Prof. Marcos Escobar and has devoted 14 years of his life to this transformative martial art.
He is the only Malaysian to have ever won double gold in both Gi and No Gi divisions of the prestigious IBJJF Pan Pacific Championships held annually in Melbourne. What is even more remarkable is the little known backstory to his victories.
Just a month after winning double gold in the 2017 edition of the IBJJF Pan Pacifics, Aaron suffered a neck injury during one of his regular training sessions. He was diagnosed with 3 herniated discs in his neck (C2, C3, C4) and one of the discs had actually been dislodged and was pinching a nerve.
This resulted in a very quick atrophy of his right shoulder and arm, and he went from benching over 200 pounds to barely able to bench an empty bar. Despite numerous chiro treatments and other attempts to remedy his injury, 2 of the country's top neuro surgeons and 3 of the country's top sports specialists recommended surgery. The procedure was to be a fusion of the C2 and C3 and retirement from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
He was told he would never train again and it was impossible to ever compete again with such a serious neck injury.
Undeterred, and totally determined to prove everyone wrong; Aaron pursued his last hope to get back to doing what he loves most and flew to San Francisco in 2018 to seek treatment from a healer who has worked with so many of the top jiu jitsu athletes.
That same year, Aaron returned to competition and won double gold again at the IBJJF Pan Pacific Championships.
In 2019, he was once again placed on the podium of the championships with a fractured foot.
Prof. Aaron was never the most gifted nor talented individual. In fact, in his early days of the art he was told by another black belt that Aaron would never achieve the rank of black belt and he should just quit instead of wasting time. Since then, he has made it his life purpose to continue to defy the odds and inspire his friends, team mates and students to pursue greatness and live life to its utmost potential through lessons shared on the mats.
Whatever your goals are, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu will help you live a life of meaning through the values of the art that instills discipline, humility and courage in the face of adversity. You will also benefit from the confidence attained from being able to defend yourself and your loved ones. And you will forged friendships that transcends race, religion and skin color. On the mats at Leverage, we are all one and the same with the sole objective of being better than we were yesterday.