Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy of Sacramento

To be perfectly honest, this place kind of looks like a dump, so if you need your jiu jitsu school to look shiny, squeaky, and like the cover of a magazine, turn around and look elsewhere, because you won’t find that here. Facilities are minimal — just a run down room with some mats in an old industrial complex. What you will find is one of the few black belts awarded in America by Rickson Gracie. Rickson was big on the basics, so we try to focus on traditional, fundamental Brazilian jiu jitsu and self defense, not the sport/​tournament style. (Not that’s there anything wrong with that, it’s just a different approach.) I’ve been training here 6 years now, and we’ve got a really solid crew built up. As long as you have a good attitude and are willing to put in the effort, the mats are wide open for you. We’re also very informal here, no titles, no bowing, lining up in ranks, etc. Respect, definitely, just not through formalities, and I prefer it that way. Lastly, rates are very affordable, lower than any other BJJ school I’ve seen, plus discounts for doing automatic transfers, and no contracts or fees.