The story of Triumph BJJ/Gracie Barra NH (For Those Who Don't Know)
In December 2007 my cousin Sam Brown and I decided to open a school. I had been a student of Roberto Maia's at Gracie Barra Boston and Sam was teaching no-gi and MMA to Dennis Olson, Joe Faucher and some other fighters over in Wilton.
I went to Roberto and asked for his permission to open a school in Nashua. Not only did he give me permission but he provided us with a cover for our mats and arranged for Phil Myers to help us open and run the program. I had known Phil for a while as he taught the white belt class at Boston Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Watertown.
Phil, Sam, Dennis and I worked had the school open up on February 01, 2008. We were in a very small 2000 sq ft place in the mill yard. Our current students in attendance that night were Joe Faucher, Dennis Olson, Nick Olson, Dylan Fain, Sam Brown, Phil Myers and me.
Sam ended up moving out west in November and I began making changes to the program. By December 2008 we became an Official Gracie Barra Academy. In February 2009 I left my position as a Family Therapist in order to focus on the academy full time. In December 2009 I stopped teaching at Nashua Community College and we moved to our current location.
So here we are three years later. As many of you know, BJJ is my life! Two of my three kids were born into the academy and my 7 year old has been around BJJ since he was a baby. My daughter asked me just the other day where my job is. When I said jiu-jitsu she said, "no way". My wife has her say to me, "daddy are you going to work?" while holding her fingers up in quotations. My point is that my kids just think that BJJ is the way life is.
We have many students going on 3 years with us and I am very proud of that. Every member of this academy contributes to it's wonderful culture and I am truly grateful for that.
Anyhow, none of this could have been possible without the the support and dedication I have received from Phil Myers, Roberto Maia and Dennis Olson.
Thank you all for attending the seminar, it was a big hit! Roberto covered a lot of complex half-guard work that many were in awe of. I will be teaching the same techniques over the next month. Phil knows this series like the back of his hand so feel free to pick his brain when you see him.
It was great having a few blackbelts on the mat!
Also, thanks a lot to the crew that cleaned up late night! I was pleasantly surprised when I came in early today.
