Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu Academy, located at 1014 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara, has been a long-time supporter of local charities.
Founder, owner, lead instructor and black belt Rodrigo Clark teaches his students valuable lessons — both on and off of the mat. He will be hosting a free seminar Saturday, with all money raised from merchandise sales and donations going to the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation.
Supporting local charities is certainly nothing new for Clark, who, each year sponsors numerous fundraising events at his school. He combines a holiday party, belt ceremony where students receive belt promotions, and various other activities, such as seminars on specific topics and techniques, all in an effort to draw in as many people as possible, to raise money for charities.
This year, as in previous years, he has invited some key experts from the Gracie Barra family to come to Santa Barbara to teach a free seminar. One of the great things about Gracie Barra is that it is a large franchise with more than 300 schools in the United States, and is growing very rapidly, along with the popularity of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
The Gracie family invented Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is a ground-fighting martial art that relies on leverage, joint locks and chokes to subdue opponents. Unlike many other styles of martial arts, Jiu-Jitsu, known as the “gentle art,” involves no kicking or punching techniques. The closest American equivalent would be wrestling.
Clark was born in Brazil and learned Jiu-Jitsu directly from the Gracie family. I was privileged to have the recent opportunity to take a private lesson with him, and it was an amazing experience. The skills learned in Jiu-Jitsu are highly effective and allow the practitioner to subdue an opponent without causing permanent damage, if they so choose.
This makes Jiu-Jitsu an ideal martial art for law-enforcement officers, and many are proponents of the art. Military forces — especially Special Forces such as Army Green Berets and Navy Seals — learn Jiu-Jitsu as well.
It is also a fantastic method of self-defense for women, since it is one of the few martial arts that allows a smaller, weaker person to effectively defend against a much larger, stronger aggressor.
The Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation was inspired by a 3-year-old boy diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma. Two years later, he suffered a relapse. One day his mother broke down in tears as she shared the hardships she and her family had faced. After this conversation, Nikki Katz, the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s founder and program director, realized the great need for a support system for Central Coast families with children suffering from cancer. One year later, with the determination to assist families enduring similar if not the same situation, the foundation was born.
The nonprofit Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation provides financial and emotional support to families of children who have cancer living in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. It provides 10 times more financial assistance than any other national organization that supports children with cancer, and so far in 2011, it has assisted 122 families.
Saturday’s event will feature three top black-belt instructors: Mike Gomez (first-degree black belt who was born in Santa Barbara) of Gracie Barra Temecula, Rafael Ramos (second-degree black belt who learned directly under Carlos Gracie Jr. from the age of 13 in Rio de Janeiro) of Gracie Barra Encinitas and Lucas Rocha of Gracie Barra Long Beach.
Saturday’s events start at 11 a.m. with warm-up exercises and a short class, followed by the belt ceremony and the seminar, which runs from noon to about 2 p.m. The seminar and belt ceremony will be followed by a traditional Brazilian barbecue and soccer match at Shoreline Park from 3 to 5 p.m.
The event is free to the public, and anyone can come, watch, purchase one of the custom T-shirts that will be sold to raise money for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, and even participate in the seminar and festivities if they wish. This is a fantastic opportunity to come and see what Jiu-Jitsu is all about, and support a local charity in the process. It’s a win-win for everyone, and will be a lot of fun as well.
Click here for more information about the Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu Academy, contact Rodrigo Clark at 805.845.2272, or just drop by the academy, 1014 State St. Connect with Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu Academy on Facebook. Follow Gracie Barra on Twitter: @GracieBarraSB.
Click here for more information about the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation. Click here to make an online donation through givezooks! Connect with the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation on Facebook. Follow TBCF on Twitter: @TBCF4kids.
— Craig Allen, CFA, CFP, CIMA, is president of Montecito Private Asset Management LLC and founder of Dump Your Debt. He has been managing assets for foundations, corporations and high-net worth individuals for more than 20 years and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA charter holder), a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) certification. He blogs at Finance With Craig Allen and can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 805.898.1400. Click here for previous Craig Allen columns. Follow Craig on Twitter: @MPAMCraig.
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