Services

Whether you are in great shape or not, beginner or advanced, competition focused, or simply learning to defend yourself, you can grow your skills on our mats.

Our Pitch

With Submission Grappling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, we strengthen a crucial facet of your overall defense need: the ground game.

We will teach you how to put someone on the ground quickly, control them completely, and make decisions about what level of force is necessary to resolve the situation.

This system, unlike almost all others, has built into it the notion of a 'continuum of force' that allows you to deliver the gamut from mere restraint to lethal force. As the need dictates, you can make decisions to appropriately deal with the threat. For example, you wouldn't deal with an overly boisterous drunken buddy at a bachelor party the same way you'd deal with a stranger attacking your wife in your bedroom.

As a result of this, issues of legal liability and safety are addressed in ways no other system can. In real life, decisions are not binary. With most self-defense systems, threats are dealt with in a binary fashion, e.g. 'I will either knock this guy's teeth down his throat or walk away.' A binary decision such as this is as unrealistic in self defense scenarios as it is elsewhere in real life. We'll help you find the grey areas, allowing you to respond with appropriate and definitive force.

Oh, and you'll have a great time and get fit, too. Don't forget, it you aren't having a great time doing it, it's not as easy to develop a passion for pursuing it with the commitment level it needs to be great. Becoming great at Jiu-Jitsu is one of the greatest assets you can acquire. I'm happy to help you get there, too.

There's our pitch. I'd love to talk with you more if you have time. Contact us if you have more questions, or read on for more detail.

Personal self-defense goals

To get you started, we'll discuss in detail your personal goals, concerns, and physical training history. 

Every person has different levels of ability that either add or detract from their capacity to defend themselves. Speed, strength, size, flexibility, endurance, aggression and fitness level vary from person to person. Regardless of your characteristics, we'll focus you on fundamentals, including:

• Ground grappling (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)
• Footwork (how to move when standing in a fight)
• Fighting stances from standing, to prepare for striking or take-downs
• Take-downs (putting the opponent on the ground)
• Falling safely
• Evasive maneuvers

The long term goal for the individual and coach is to find the best blend of tactics suited for the individual. No single sport or martial art will satisfy all the requirements of every self-defense scenario. Any comprehensive self-defense program will blend multiple systems together and must constantly adapt as efficiencies, moves and counter-moves are discovered. A blend of approaches is known as mixed martial arts.

Instructional Paths

From self and family-defense consulting programs to intense private competition training, we can cover all your needs.

The curriculum can be tailored for the individual or group, but is typically a mixture of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for ground grappling skills, Thai Boxing for punching and kicking skills, Aikido for falling, combined training that pulls it all together, and role playing for realistic simulation.

Women's training

Women have different training needs than men. One of the keys to successful training for women is understanding that a unique approach is necessary. Self defense training involves situations which women often find unappealing or intimidating. Many women were raised in environments where contact sports were discouraged. Martial art are contact sports and require getting accustomed to contact. In order to survive attack, women must get comfortable with this so in a panic situation, they don't freeze. Training to deal with these situations will unfreeze your reflexes so you can fight to survive. Women are also typically not as large or strong as men. This is where our program excels. Austin Jiu-Jitsu specializes in giving smaller people advantage over larger, stronger attackers.

Men's training

Interestingly, men, who are naturally more violent, larger, and stronger have inefficient, flawed, and nearly universally predictable fighting instincts. Studying these patterns allows us to better leverage advantage in attack situations. There are a number of "opening moves" that many attackers employ, whether it be a bar-room tackle/headlock or a sucker punch/knockdown situation in mugging. Training for these situations will prepare you for the appropriate response. Moreover, with enough training, you will be able to predict your opponent's moves by spotting patterns in their behavior and controlling the fight by planning several moves in advance. Get beyond simple reaction in a conflict: command the fight. 

Competition preparation

Training for a competition is not like regular training. Over the course of 8 weeks, you need to reach a new level of intensity and pressure that regular training does not attain. Our program for competitive preparation for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will get you ready. Read an article on this topic by coach David Thomas.

General self defense consultation

We are eager to train with you privately or in our class setting, but if what is right for you is offered elsewhere, we can help you find the right school. Once we understand your needs, we'll help you find the right program of instruction. Martial arts schools are many and varied. It is easy to be confused or mislead into a system that isn't appropriate for your needs, or isn't all it appears from the outside. We can sort through the hype, noise, mumbo-jumbo, and hocus-pocus with honest assessments of your current skills and needs matched with direction on appropriate schools in the area. We've been deeply involved in the martial arts for over 25 years and know what Central Texas has to offer. We promise to provide you with consultation that is principled on reliability. We have worked closely with numerous instructors in the area and know where to go for the good stuff!