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By Holly Miller,
Indianapolis, IN A little about my Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Instructor: Marcello C. Monteiro
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or BJJ, means gentle art in Japanese. Marcello C. Monteiro has been working with this gentle art from a young age. He didn’t always know that this was what he wanted to do with his life but he eventually realized that teaching BJJ was what he wanted to do.
Marcello started BJJ at the age of six in Rio de Janeiro, where he was born. He didn’t pay much attention to it since he was so young. At the age of ten, Marcello stopped doing BJJ and starting doing karate. He did this for about two years until he realized that he needed to go back to Jiu Jitsu. He was playing around with his friend when he knew that he needed to go back to BJJ. Marcello was able to punch and kick but his friend could control him because he knew Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. BJJ made him always think a few steps ahead. He was always thinking about his future and what he wanted to do with his life.
When Marcello was 14, he started to attract bullies with his long surfer hair. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu allowed him to defend himself and keep the bullies away. Jiu Jitsu also raised his confidence. When Marcello was 18, he wanted to work at a surf store but he knew he had no experience. To get the job, he dropped off tons of his resumes to 40 of the same stores in different locations. He eventually got the job but he was always thinking a few steps ahead. In that same year, he went to university to learn business and worked at a bank. Marcello did this for three years but didn’t finish Business College. He then went on to learn about physical education at college but he never stopped doing BJJ.
His friends always asked him for help in BJJ. One day a friend told him he could make a living through BJJ. Before he could make a living, Marcello knew that he had to be one of the best. He opened his first academy in the mountains of Rio. He would start out the day at 7 a.m. and teach a BJJ class until 8 a.m. then he would go to law school until 4 p.m. Marcello would go back to his academy and teach classes from four to six, six to seven thirty, and eight thirty to nine thirty. He did this for five years.
One day, his friend sent him to America to work at Disneyworld. This was Marcello’s first experience in America. For two and a half years he would go to Disneyworld every four months, work for four to five weeks and go back to Brazil. Soon, he got invitations to travel to America to do competitions and teach seminars. He was always thinking a few steps ahead and he could see how Jiu Jitsu was growing in America. At this point, Marcello knew that he wanted to teach for the rest of his life. He was invited to go to Michigan to teach in a new academy for $5,000 a month but the academy never opened.
He did tournaments while he was there and caught the eye of many Americans. At that time an American from Indianapolis (that found Marcello online) paid for Jiu Jitsu private lessons from Marcello and brought him to Indianapolis, Indiana. He organized seminars and showed everyone Marcello’s skills. Everywhere he went, Marcello was invited to go back.
Marcello’s biggest problem then was speaking English so he went back to Brazil and taught Jiu Jitsu in exchange for English lessons. He continued to get invitations to go to America to teach and, when he went, he began to learn more about the internet. Marcello was always thinking about his future and he knew that it would be hard to have an academy in Brazil for the rest of his life because everything in Brazil is not as organized as it is in the United States. He started to organize his future along with his first website. People were impressed so he continued to look for internet cafes and plan his website. He built his website in Portuguese and eventually translated his website to English. He then moved his business to the United States and set up his Brazilian Jiu Jiu academy in Indianapolis. He knew that Indianapolis was right in the middle of everything and he wanted it to be his base.
Marcello now has multiple academies and he hopes one day to have many of his students graduate to black belts and higher ranks. He also hopes that high schools will start teaching BJJ along with wrestling as a sport. He knows that the sport still has a lot of growing to do to get to the point that he wants but Marcello hopes that BJJ will be a very popular sport for all ages and genders.
Marcello’s BJJ Coach Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu Academy is located on 4967 S. Emerson Ave, on the south side of Indianapolis, just one block of I-465.
The academy website is http://www.indianapolisbjjcoach.com
The association website is http://www.bjjcoach.com