Rafael “Formiga” Barbosa
Black Belt / Top-Level BJJ Competitor
Rafael has recenetly moved to Connecticut from Brazil to start teaching and competing in jiu-jitsu in the USA. He is one of the most talented and dynamic Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters coming from Brazil.
Rafael will be teaching 2 days a [...]

Jiu-Jitsu is known as one of the most complete and effective martial arts systems.  Though it has been around for centuries and has it’s roots in the Samurai battlefields of Japan; it has gained “recent” popularity with the Ultimate Fighting Championships. A small 170lb Brazilian man named Royce Gracie showed the effectiveness of Jiu-Jitsu in [...]

Jiu-Jitsu training offers many benefits, besides just learning how to depend yourself.  A dedicated jiu-jitsu practitioner can expect to learn more then just effective techniques in unarmed combat, jiu-jitsu training can literally change your life both physically and mentally.
Martial Arts training in general can be a life pursuit that affects and changes you as a [...]

When you begin training Jiu-Jitsu you will soon realize that there is a big difference between sport grappling and grappling for real combat.  It’s not necessarily the techniques that are different, it’s the approach to the techniques and the mindset involved when executing the techniques; as well as the choice of techniques to execute.
For instance, [...]

Unless you are blind or don’t have cable television, you know that the sport of Mixed Martial Arts is on the rise!  Everyone is interested in MMA and eventually more and more people want to learn how to fight in a Mixed Martial Arts event.
At our Jiu-Jitsu school in Cromwell, CT we teach the core [...]