Evaristo Medrano trains with brother Roberto Medrano in their garage in Texas.

In recent weeks, GRACIEMAG.com brought readers a great number of stories and pictures in the “Home-Jitsu” series of articles. For those who never imagined it before, the different ways Jiu-Jitsu can be important in the lives of those who practice it became apparent. The gentle art socializes, smooths over differences, unites people, is good for the health, empowers, strengthens… In a nutshell, Jiu-Jitsu is addictive!

It’s so addictive that a lot of hooked practitioners aren’t satiated just by class at the gym. They take Jiu-Jitsu home with them. In the final article from the series, we recount a few more cases:

Evaristo Medrano trains in San Antonio at BTT Texas, an academy led by Murilo Bustamante black belt Marcelo Salazar. However, when he returns to his birthplace, South Padre Island, he doesn’t put training aside. His brother and friends roll freely in his mother’s garage. “We’ve been doing it for the last four years. It’s something special, especially in the heat of the Texas summer!”

Brazil’s northeast harbors more home training adept.

“I’m a Home-Jitsu practitioner in Fortaleza, Ceará, and I train at Evolution Fight Team. I set up a place for us to swap positions and roll. And there’s no excuse for not bringing a gi because there’s always one available! And the gang is really tightly knit, too,” says Paulo Cesar.

Silas Fabiano, from Rio Grande do Norte, made a point of getting his family to train: “Extending training to one’s home is truly something natural to anyone who likes Jiu-Jitsu. Once I discovered Gracie Barra Natal, I signed up and never stopped. Now I have a dojo and managed to get by brother-in-law to train. I’m also getting my daughter into it. She always asks me: ‘Dad, where’s my gi, let’s train!”

Lit. John practices "Home-Jitsu" and medal collecting.

Back in the USA, eight-year-old João “Lit. John” Marcelo came to our attention. The kid is a Pan-American champion and 19-time winner of Naga, as well as other titles, and practices wrestling to boot! “Lit. John” trains under Marcelo Ribeiro at Gracie Barra North Austin, but also complements his training by rolling in his garage at home!

Now on to Rio de Janeiro: “My daughter Kyara (1 year, 4 months) is already comfortable in the gi she was given by her godfather Fábio Andrade, a Nova União Bangu black belt,” says also-black belt Kylson Mota.

To reread all the stories and review the pictures, click here. Do you practice “Home-Jitsu” too?

Felipe Costa practicing Home-Jitsu in Canada

The gang tuned in to GRACIEMAG.com keeps sending in photos and stories for the “Home-Jitsu” article. All of them are described and posted in a super gallery in the main article, which you can see here.

A fighter who has none other than the world title on his mantle, Brasa beast Felipe Costa has shown himself to be truly adept in Home-Jitsu. Besides participating in training at Caio Terra’s Copacabana apartment – one of those most commented about in the series of articles, Felipe also has his own dojo and always practices “Home-Jitsu” around the planet. During one these home training sessions Felipe even demonstrates a sweep (see video below).

Black belt Francis Abramson also got excited about the article and sent in some old photos. Francis often trains at home with a hardcore group and has been doing it for some time now. In the ’90s he would roll with beasts like the late Master Pedro and other practitioners in the Gama Filho family, as well as Professor Toco and practitioners from several other academies. This diversification is one of the coolest characteristics of “Home-Jitsu.”

Francis, in the old days, training in Buzios at Master Pedro Gama Filho's house

Direct from Portugal, our reader Sérgio “Telinho” Vita, a Léo D’ilha black belt, is another home trainer who sent in a photo.

Reader Bernardo also shares a story: “Here at home we’re three brothers who are hooked. Unfortunately, all I have is this photo, without fighters, but they represent the peace there is in training at home. We always receive illustrious visitors from our friends at Gracie Barra BH to train. We burn an incense and turn on Mozart come training time!”

Home-Jitsu in Portugal

Brown belt Marcley Sousa is from Goiás, is a Gracie Barra rep, and also loves training at home. “I’m a practitioner of the most perfect art in the world! I live in a small town called Iporá. Without anyone else’s support, I set up my own training center with a mat, functional training area, etc.” says Marcley, who has been having a good run in competition.

Taking into account the old saying, “All that’s good comes to an end some time,” we will run only one more “Home-Jitsu” article. Participate now, it’s the last chance! To see all the stories and photos, click Do you practice “Home-Jitsu,” too?

Home training at Team Marangoni

GRACIEMAG.com readers the planet over are still participating in the “Home-Jitsu” article. All the stories, as well as the photos, are published in the main story (see here).

Another black belt who likes training at home is Rodrigo Antunes, of BTT, and the submission whiz managed to put together a first-rate team. “I saw the article and I’d like to share our ‘hideout’ with you. Taking advantage of how the academy where I worked was getting rid of its mats, I bought them. After some time, I invited friends over to roll, the group grew and grew, and now nearly every Saturday we have between ten and fifteen friends from different academies over to train – all burly black belts!”

Nathan Fitzmaurice's dojo in Canada

A gentle art practitioner in Canada, Nathan Fitzmaurice practices “Home-Jitsu” constantly. “When I’m not training at Gracie Barra Fort McMurray, I’m sweating it up I my brother’s in-laws’ garage.”

Felipe Cavalcante is another of the home-training adept in Australia, and it has bore fruit for him. “I’m a Splinter BJJ black belt. I lived in Perth, Australia, for two and a half years, I got a job outside the city and the solution was to buy a mat and train with the local folks. With the dojo, I managed to make some pretty good money teaching private lessons. I received an offer to teach class at the other side of Australia, in Brisbane. I moved, but I took my mat with me. It’s a great way to keep in shape and practice positions.”

Faced with a lack of space, “Home-Jitsu” was the solution to Ricardo Puléo’s problems. “I’m from Curitiba and moved to Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do Sul, in 2006. I taught at an academy where we were always getting complaints about how there wasn’t enough ventilation. One of my students has a big room at his house and his father let us make it our headquarters. We bought tire shreds, managed to get a canvas donated to us, and we set up our dojo. That’s how our “Home-Jitsu” got started. Now we train at that student of mine’s house and have a great mat. There still aren’t too many of us, but the few that there are make up a family!”

Kylson is getting his daughter used to the mat.

Kylson Mota can’t do without some home training and, in so doing, takes the chance to get his daughter involved in Jiu-Jitsu. “I have a mat at my house. I’m already getting my daughter Kyara into it with me and it’s like therapy, beyond being just a martial art,” he says.

Johnny Gui innovated in New Zealand with “Farm-Jitsu.” “I represent and train at Nine Nine. In early 2003, I went to New Zealand for the first time, specifically to the city of Dunedin, in Sawyers Bay. I went thinking I was going to teach a group of ten students. Initially, I was going to stay for a month, but I ended up staying for seven months. These days, even with the team in a big academy, I never stop training where it all started, in the garage at home, in a small farm. We call it the “Farm-Jitsu” group! In this group we have the winner of the Abu Dhabi tryouts in the blue belt/lightweight division who will soon compete over in the land of the Sheikhs, Adam Johnson, besides the kids group comprised of the sons of friends who learned the gentle art early.”

Now Rafael Marangoni presented a legion of “Home-Jitsu” adept. “I’m from Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, and I teach a group of 120 athletes, and we all practice ‘Home-Jitsu.’”

CheckMat black belt Anderson DJ Kron made the area by his pool into the most special place in his house, a mat with a full-service functional-training studio, where he often receives friends like Leon Amâncio, Caio Callado, Bernardo Tovolaro, and Thomas Malocka, among a lot of other friends and students. After training it’s all a bout a dip in the pool to cool off.

What about, reader, do you practice “Home-Jitsu”?

Claudio Ribeiro trains with his son in Hawaii (Check out the rest of the photos in the "Home-Jitsu" article).

GRACIEMAG.com readers are still participating in the “Home-Jitsu” article. Practitioners from all across Brazil and the world just keep sending in photos and stories about their home dojos and training. To see and read them all, check out the main article here.

Claudio Ribeiro is Brazilian but lives in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, where he trains with black belt Bruno “Longman” Ewald. “But we also train a lot at home. I often roll with my son Rayom in the backyard. We thought the ‘Home-Jitsu’ article was cool, since it shows the gentle art’s hardcore! Aloha!”

Luiz Aguiar, better known as Murf, is another who trains at home. Thanks to his doing so, his sister took up training too and both got “Jiu-Jitsu” tattoos, so great is their passion for the sport. “I started training in 2001 and it was a passion. I had to drop out because of work but I always put on the gi. It’s an impossible feeling to describe. My sister discovered her passion for Jiu-Jitsu too. She even met her boyfriend in training! We’re always looking to learn, and with a mat at home, there’s no fixed time for doing so! A month ago my cousin started too. The family in Jiu is growing!” he recounts.

Leandro Abrahão was a Roberto Tozi student in Campinas and on weekends he’d roll at home to brush up on his technique and interact with the gang. “Now I work in São Paulo, I’m a Roberto Godói brown belt. We sometimes even meet up on weekends to roll in my garage at home.”

Alexandre Maron is also from São Paulo, and he trains at Alliance with Fabio Gurgel. “On Saturdays we train on the terrace of my apartment with Professor Eduardo Mirando and also with Antonio Peinado.”

João Vinícius is from Pau dos Ferros, in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. “I’m a blue belt student of Bruno Ramos in Natal, the Nine Nine teacher here. We’ve trained in my living room at home, soon after that we moved on to a friend and student named Clístenes’s house, forging along with ‘Home-Jitsu’!”

The gang from Blumenau also trains at home (check out the rest of the photos in the "Home-Jitsu" article).

Jean Feijó is from the Gracie Floripa branch in the Southern Brazilian city of Blumenau. “We too practice ‘Home-Jitsu’ here on the mat set up at Marcelo’s house. The gang is hooked on Jiu-Jitsu and, whenever possible, we get together for a little extra training. The good thing about having a mat at home is that when there’s training going on and you feel that urge to roll we can work on new positions. Including the ones from GRACIEMAG!”

Students of Master Welton Ribeiro, who has trained standout athletes like Thales Leites amd others, also get together to practice “Home-Jitsu.” On Saturdays and holidays they get together to train at the house of architect Leonardo Cupolillo (Tio Léo) in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro state. “The dojo is known to the gang as “tatame da Bariri.” Training there serves to clear up questions, as well as being a lot of fun,” says Marcelo Azevedo.

Alliance aces train in their apartment. Photo: personal archive.

Folks just keep on sending in photos and stories for the “Home-Jitsu” article, be them established athletes or pure practitioners, who just can’t keep from training and, besides practice at the gym, they just have to get some rolling in at home.

The group at the front lines for Alliance in São Paulo approve:

“I feel it really works,” says black belt Bernardo Faria, chuckling. “The living room here at the apartment where we live is a mat and, by coincidence or not, the four of us living together became IBJJF champions in 2010: me at heavyweight black belt, Gabriel Goulart at middleweight brown, Mateus Luckmann at featherweight adult blue, and Murilo Tavares at heavyweight juvenile blue,” he adds.

“We use the mat to practice positions and resolve any doubts before and after tournaments! Always a few days before a championship questions come up about opponents and we put on the gi and train based on them. I believe perhaps that helped us four in becoming world champions,” says Bernardo in analysis.

Folks on Australia's Gold Coast / Photo: Personal archive

At the other end of the planet, in the land of kangaroos and surfing, GRACIEMAG.com readers quench their thirst for training at home as well.

“These photos were taken here at what we call the Jiu-Jitsu Shack, right on the Gold Coast in Australia! Just so folks will know how the Gold Coast doesn’t just have surfing, here there’s Jiu-Jitsu too!” says reader Vicente Cavalcanti.

To check out all the photos of the Jiu-Jitsu Shack and where other home trainers do their thing, click here. And don’t forget to send in photos and stories to ceozorio@graciemag.com. Do you practice “Home-Jitsu,” too?