Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academia – 1051 Av. Eliseu de Almeida – São Paulo, Brazil

I learned I would be in Brazil to speak and conduct a workshop at the University of São Paulo for a week in July, just over a month before landing there. As I had little time to prepare for what would be mashed into a working vacation, I did little research into my BJJ exploration for São Paulo. I had my eye on a few schools in the city’s center and figured I would make my way to some available classes. Plus, there are a lot of schools, and I was sure getting to a few classes wouldn’t be a problem. Well, it was a problem. For one, I don’t speak Portuguese, and very few people speak English (or Spanish). Do not count on people in Brazil speaking English, Spanish, or Dutch just because they are surrounded by countries speaking those languages, because of the language barrier calling and emailing schools about schedules and visits made identifying a school to train difficult. However, the most significant issue was that I didn’t consider it wasn’t summer there, as it is at my home and there were very few NoGi classes. It appeared and was later confirmed that BJJ in Brazil is more Gi-related …year around. However, through reaching out to a few BJJ friends in the U.S. and a few take-a-chance walks to BJJ academies, I stumbled across a legendary Gracie family academy right in my Airbnb neighborhood.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academia in the Morumbi neighborhood at 1051 Av. Eliseu de Almeida and is a beautiful gym with spotless and updated facilities. There was limited parking at the front of the school, but I think there was parking on the street in the neighborhoods from what I could see from my 20-minute walk there from where I was living.

When I visited the school, the front desk person was patient, using my Google translator to assist in our conversation. My class had Prof. Wagner as its leader. Still, after attending his class, I called him a surgeon as he taught one technique and went into every detail and explanation of the position down to the smallest detail with reasoning to account for every human response.

I would later learn that Prof. Wagner is a former Judoka that took a jiu-jitsu class 32 years ago and never looked back. He was a former coach of UFC Demien Maia, and the list of the BJJ legends he’s either trained, coached, or competed with is phenomenal. The class started with some early morning yawning yoga and stretching before Prof. Wagner brought me to another brown belt that could speak English, Rafael. He was an excellent guide to help to understand Prof lecture to the class, but Prof Wagner regularly repeated details of his class in English to me too. During the drilling times, Prof. Wagner came to each group to issue that the quality of the technique’s movement wasn’t overlooked in favor of repetitions of something that isn’t being done correctly yet. He even explained how the taught technique was developed to defend how his MMA fighter had lost and how those holes were patched and proven. This was one of the best classes I’ve had, and it reminded me of the manner Master Pedro Sauer and Prof. David Porter teach. They cover all the bases. Excellent class.

I sparred with solid upper-belt fighters, but the last guy I rolled with was astounding. I was exhausted then, but Prof. Wagner brought him to me, so I sat down to face the uncomfortable. His name sounded like “Early,” but I don’t think that was exactly how it’s pronounced, but I went with it when he smiled after I said it. Early was a tough roll, and I enjoyed every minute of the possibility of still pushing hard even at our age, as he was a year or two younger than me but had been in jiu-jitsu for ten years too. He didn’t understand any of my English or me his Portuguese. Still, we mumbled and grunted our way into battle and later a respect for placing our hearts on the mat through our broken Spanish, several taps, exhausted fist pumps, and finally, a hug of admiration.

The facilities were immaculate, and the showers were hot. A good number of people were in the class, with a few women in attendance too. The people working and training there were friendly, patient, and helpful.

Not directed related to jiu-jitsu, but there’s is an OakBerry Acai operation right around the corner …if you’re in the mood, and believe me, I was ready for one. Still, I opted for my traditional post-rolling cerveja at a corner cafe.

Gracie may not be the place you go to on a layover at the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport as it’s about 45-60 mins from there, but São Paulo isn’t a layover type of city either. However, if you are in town and training jiu jitsu…bring your Gi, but if you want to train NoGi and get one of the best classes I’ve had in 10 years, then get to Gracie and find Prof. Wagner. Outstanding experience!