Rob Haans

We listen, we train. We care.

All my life I have been active in sports. I started with football and judo at the age of 5 and played both for quite a while. When the time came to choose a sport, should I go for a team sport or individual sport? I liked both soccer and judo. But already from a young age, I had a dream of building a career in sports. I did not want to depend on others to make it. And if I were going to fail, only I should be the one to blame. So – judo it was.

After competing in judo for many years, the time came to start working on building more strength and fitness. We had a great trainer called Hennes in our club, that made it very fun to practice strength and fitness. I enjoyed it so much that I started reading more about it and watching more sports. And at the age of 13-14 I knew for sure – “I am going to work as a trainer when I grow up!”

At the age of 15, I started my four-year sports education in the Netherlands. Here we got to learn a lot about almost all known sports. I have always been fascinated with how other training regiments could improve my judo. Looking for “crossovers” have always been an interest as well “thinking outside the box”.
I was competing at the National Junior Judo Team when I got an injury that lasted a long time. I am so grateful today that my teacher Leo Verhoeven told me to try Ju Jitsu because it was a little softer for my elbow and I could still be on the mat (instead of being home). I tried some tournaments and got invited to the National Ju Jitsu Team. I was hooked.

Still today I am one of the most successful Ju Jitsu Fighters in the history of the sport, winning two European Championships, three World Championships and two World Games Gold. And all medals were won in different weight classes.
For the last 25 years, I have been working as an instructor. I’ve worked as fitness and aerobics instructor and have run my own gym in the Netherlands and now in Sweden.

For many years I worked as a PTI and self-defence instructor inside the Dutch Royal Military, Military Police and Police. Physical training, Teambuilding and Self-defence were the main parts of my work there. My combination of physical training, mental coaching and self-defence have resulted in me working with a lot of companies with self-defence courses and team building.
As some of you might know we use some code words inside BUDO (Japanese Martial Arts). These are Courtesy, Courage, Honesty, Honour, Modesty, Respect, Self-Control, Friendship.

In many educations for coaching and personal development, we talk about personal values. Especially in a professional or teambuilding situation, it is the challenge to make people understand each other and try to coach each other within the team. I have developed different programs where we combine physical and mental exercises to reach the common goal within the team.
Right now, I am the co-founder of Träningsbutiken in Dalby, and I am running my own company. I am working as the National Coach for the Swedish National Ju-Jitsu Team and at the Judo Gymnasium in Malmö.

Sports and Health are the future. Many tech companies are already working on smart and creative solutions for the future. I have a very tight connection to Ideon Innovation in Lund where I support companies with sports related business ideas.

I believe that sometimes we look too much to what is hip, smart or modern. It is much more important to find an activity which you love doing because then you will do it. My big goal in life is to HELP people!

To create a healthy and balanced lifestyle we need to balance our activities. Sometimes we need to train hard, and sometimes we need to learn to relax. We need to have a healthy nutrition, but maybe we can go “crazy” one day having a great dinner. It is all about balance!

Subscribe to my channel, and I will provide you with exercises you can use for your particular sports or general fitness!

OSU!
Rob