Starting with their first academy in 1925 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Gracie Family is widely regarded and recognized as the original founders of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling and submission holds.

For over three generations, the Gracie Family has been teaching and sharing Gracie Jiu-Jitsu® with the entire world, focusing on skills that utilize leverage, timing, energy efficiency and natural body movements. Students are taught pragmatic techniques that emphasize effective defence, escape, control and submission holds in an egoless, collaborative and safe training environment with one another.

To accommodate the worldwide expansion of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, in 2017, Ryron and Rener Gracie moved the family business to an even larger facility and established “Gracie University®,” to reflect the shift from a single academy to a global organization. Not only is the Torrance location one of the most successful martial arts schools in the world, with over 1,000 students, but it also serves as the global headquarters for hundreds of Certified Training Center (CTC)® and over 150,000 home-study students learning online in 196 countries.

Tri-Cities Gracie Jiu-Jitsu® is an officially Certified Training Center (CTC)® of Gracie University® and is authorized to teach all their proprietary self-defence programs to everyone, regardless of skill level, gender, race, nationality, or creed.

We don’t teach people how to fight. We empower people with confidence, safety and knowledge through a fun and sustainable practice of Jiu-Jitsu so they don’t feel the need to fight.

To learn more about the Gracie Family’s history with Jiu-Jitsu, please click here.