Training Program Details

Future Champions

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 5-12 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.

The first time you come to our school you will be welcomed by our staff. Please arrive 15 minutes before class so you and your children have enough time to prepare for practice. The class will start on time and your child will be asked to walk to the training area where the instructor will be waiting for him or her. One of the assistant instructors or a senior student will be assigned as a helper to assist your child in performing the drills and activities. Parents are encouraged to stay and watch the entire practice.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Fundamentals

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.

Advanced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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.

Judo

Judo is a modern martial art, combat and Olympic sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to either throw or takedown an opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue an opponent with a pin, or force an opponent to submit with a joint lock or a choke. Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defenses are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori).

Muay Thai Kickboxing

Muay Thai is a combat sport from the muay martial arts of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This physical and mental discipline which includes combat on foot is known as "the art of eight weapons" because it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, shins and feet, being associated with a good physical preparation that makes a full-contact fight very efficient.

Wing Chun Kung Fu

Wing Chun is a simple but effective method of self-defense based in the traditional Chinese martial arts of Kung Fu. It is a relatively young system, but in the last few hundred years it has spread to every corner of the Earth because it is practical, can be learned in a short period of time, and can be practiced by people of all sizes and ranges of physical ability.

Wing Chun has no delusions of being the "ultimate martial art." There is no sport or competitive aspect, the forms are not aesthetically pretty like traditional animal-style Kung Fu, and no one takes home shiny trophies. Wing Chun was primarily designed for one thing, and one thing only: allow you to defend yourself against a violent assault.

Although rooted in the arts and traditions of the Shaolin Temple, Wing Chun was not meant to be practice by monks. Rather, the grandmasters of Wing Chun were everyday people with jobs and families. Therefore, Wing Chun was designed to be practical, but also be learned and maintained even by people with busy lives.

Wing Chun is best suited for ages 16 and up. For complete details on our Wing Chun Kung Fu program, please visit KungFuBirmingham.com.

Fitness: PurMotion, Cardio and More

PurMotion was founded by five-time Olympian Jorge Bonnet who has a passion to revolutionize how we exercise by inventing unique, cutting-edge solutions. As a result, PurMotion provides simple, quality, cost-effective fitness and performance training systems that allow you to perform exercises in a safe, unrestricted manner, working with your body's natural movement and flow. We also offer a full range of full-body conditioning, combat-sports cardio and more.

Private Training

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. Talk to your instructors to arrange a Private Training session that meets your schedule.