To excel in any endeavor, individuals need to have a strong set of values and a solid character that gives them perseverance to achieve his or her goals. The Gracie Barra Future Champions Program was created to provide children ages 3-15 with an environment that allows them to experience and understand core values like focus, discipline, persistence, cooperation and respect.
As a contact sport, Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu provides a very challenging yet safe and caring environment for a child to mature towards a real life champion.The outcome of continued childhood practice of GB BJJ goes far beyond the accomplishments on the mats. The discipline and excellence demanded by our instructors often carries over to the child’s behavior at home and at school.
Our Future Champions Program is typically subdivided in three different groups to accommodate students of different ages and skill levels:
Top performing fighters and individuals follow a common set of principles that sustain their success. The practice of Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu allows individuals to understand these principles through an exciting process that combines instruction, observation, practice, appropriate feedback, live training and competition.
Students experience results that go beyond gains in strength, flexibility, fitness or self-defense skills. By remaining truthful to the lessons learned in practice and applying them off the mats, Gracie Barra students experience an overall improvement on their focus, energy and general well-being.
The Gracie Barra Fundamentals Program teaches these basic principles of effective fighting to individuals like you. Its structure condenses an immense diversity of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu into core fundamental moves combined intelligently and safely to optimize your learning.
The Gracie Barra Program Structure defines three main stages of development for students: the Fundamentals Program, the Advanced Program and the Black Belt Program. These stages indicate different maturity levels and students upgrade from one to the other in their own natural progression.
While the Fundamentals Program focuses on the building blocks and basic principles of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the Advanced Program is built on high-level techniques and drills that start shaping the students game flow through the development of reflexes, speed and reaction time as well as transitions between one technique and another.
After a few months in the GB Advanced Program students typically experience a deeper involvement in GB’s philosophy, a stronger bond with training partners as well as more discipline and commitment to healthy habits that keep them in good shape.
Advanced Program classes are based on a defined class structure and curriculum that take a broad and open-minded approach, incorporating techniques from different grappling styles like wrestling, judo, sambo, and, of course, Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
The Gracie Barra Black Belt Program is the last stage in GB’s adult program structure. While it does represent the student’s arrival at the ultimate level of training in our school, it also represents a new beginning.
The goal of this program is to further develop the student’s BJJ game flow by exposing him or her to cutting edge Jiu-Jitsu techniques and their variations. The program’s dynamic curriculum and classes, followed by hour-long live training sessions, build a challenging yet safe environment for students to progress from their blue to black belts.
It is in the Black Belt Program that most students truly grasp what they’ve been told since being white belts: Jiu-Jitsu is an endless journey of daily accomplishments that always leads to a new challenge. The same old arm-bars, triangle chokes, fireman carries, Kimuras, sweeps, guard passes and single leg take downs gain new meaning as their BJJ game flow is defined.
Gracie Barra students enrolled in the Black Belt Program are role models at our schools. The responsibility of sharing GB techniques and training philosophy with newer students is taken seriously. They play a key role in maintaining a safe, friendly and progress-oriented environment at our school.
When you come to the black belt classes you can be sure of one thing: you will train a lot! Practice typically lasts two hours and although you are welcome to rest or leave early if you feel like it, the instructors will always encourage you to stay until the end of the class. The No Gi class adds an extra element of challenge and helps students improve balance and control, enhancing their overall skills.
Aside from all classes offered in the Adults Gracie Barra Program Structure, our school offers a set of classes designed to introduce women to the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
As a martial art designed to allow the weaker to defeat the stronger, BJJ is a perfect fit for women who are interested in learning how to protect themselves ? and who wouldn’t be, right?
The Gracie Barra Women’s Program combines a comprehensive self-defense curriculum with emphasis on drills that simulate realistic attack and escape situations.
The techniques are complemented by a strong fitness component that is second to none compared to classes offered in regular gyms.
Classes specially designed for women like Rape Prevention, BJJ Conditioning and social “get togethers” are added benefits to the ordinary GB activities and create a strong bond between the members of the “Gracie Barra Pink Team.”
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is like any other sport or activity: your progress is a consequence of how hard and how smart you work. Group classes are the best proven way to teach Jiu-Jitsu, since the diversity of training partners creates more and different challenges allowing a student to improve more quickly. However, private classes are definitely an essential complement that no serious Jiu-Jitsu student should do without.
The individual attention and approach that a 30- or 60-minute session with one of our instructors provides can and does lead to significant improvement in a student’s Jiu-Jitsu game flow.
It is highly recommended that all students take at least one private lesson per month to review techniques and address specific challenges in his or her BJJ game flow.
Your private classes will be specifically designed to fit your needs and goals. To get started contact the school’s staff and explain that you’d like to take private classes. We’ll set an appointment with an available instructor so he or she can evaluate and build a program for you. There are many options available but students typically prefer a package of 10 classes since it offers the highest value and benefits.