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Gui Mendes Talks AoJ, Goals For The Next 5 Years and Unique Approach

Gui Mendes Talks AoJ, Goals For The Next 5 Years and Unique Approach

 

 

Guilherme Mendes is part of a two men tandem with (his brother Rafael) largely successful for the impact the Art Of Jiu-jitsu academy brand has in the community.

One of the best light featheweights in the world recently talked all things that distinguish AoJ from other gyms, personal goals and more.

Gui has been largely absent from competitions but he is still focused. When asked what his goals for the next 5 years are he responded:

The goal is to keep up the work that we have been doing, always opening new doors and finding new opportunities. 4 years ago we started AoJ and now we have around 900 students and 16 members of staff working everyday to create a good experience for the students. Our plan is to expand and open new locations but we can’t give all the details yet.

What does Aoj mean to Gui?

He said: ” Since I started training jiu jitsu at 12 years old, I’ve always pictured myself teaching my students and being a coach; it has always been my dream. I used competition to build my credentials to do what I really love, and to be honest, I did not expect that things would happen so fast. I feel extremely blessed for everything that has happened to me. I believe that aoj made a major impact in the jiu jitsu community and changed how people see jiu jitsu academies. Before us 95% of the academies were more like “fight clubs” with no rules and dirty mats. Now we often see people changing their style to a more family friendly environment and we know that we are a big influence. I see big teams that are older than us adopting some of our rules and trying to copy our style, and I think it’s awesome. We are setting the bar  high and others are having to improve their academies, and it’s great for the whole jiu jitsu community.”

 

 

And as to how AoJ is different from other academies he responded:

I can only tell you about aoj. It’s a jiu jitsu school with different levels of classes and programs where the students move up to the next class when they are ready. It gives them a much more comfortable experience, especially for those that are starting and have never experienced jiu jitsu before.

I always dreamed about having an academy where I could generate opportunities for those who love the sport, not only to learn techniques but to build a career. I grew up watching jiu jitsu stars transitioning to mma because they could not make money and even today we still see some of the best in the world complaining about money, sponsors or opportunities.

The real problem is that the athletes live their lives expecting that they will make lots of money if they become a black belt world champion and unfortunately that is not true.

The opportunities come as a combination of your actions, your personality, your results and your ability to interact with people. It’s a must to have the total package and a lot of champions don’t understand that; and most of the academies are not preparing the future champions to do this as well; they are just worried about making them win a medal, but it’s not going to open doors if they don’t have the other attributes.

A lot of people that came to aoj in 2012 when we opened the academy are brown and black belt instructors in the academy, already having opportunities and building their names. Also some of the kids from 2012 are now juveniles that want to become leaders one day and are already in preparation for it, helping in the kids classes and learning to build their career. It’s a process that we want to keep in rotation. We have the best kids program in the world and when these juveniles become official instructors some of the kids will be old enough to start helping in the kids classes and this rotation will never stop.

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