John Bruno Strength and Conditioning

Personal Training

Nutrition Coaching

Martial Arts

Bruno’s Martial Arts and Self Defense

Sarasota and Manatee Counties Executive Martial Arts Program

Offering:

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu – Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do Concepts – Mixed Martial Arts – No Gi Submission Grappling – Boxing – Kickboxing – Filipino Martial Arts

Private instruction in all of these areas available by appointment

Coming in December of 2022!

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for working professionals and individuals over 40.

Classes held at Sun Outdoors Sarasota Fitness Center

To ensure excellent instruction, I am only taking 10 students for this class!

BJJ Instruction will include both Gi (kimono) and No Gi Jiu Jitsu with an emphasis on No Gi

Price: $125.00 per month, $20.00 drop-in fee.

Click here to contact me to sign up for the BJJ over 40 class.

Specializing in functional martial arts instruction for working professionals over the age of 40 that want to learn Brazilian jiu jitsu without getting injured.

I will consider working professionals under the age of 40 as students on a case-by-case basis, with the understanding that this class is for skill development not competition preparation in BJJ or MMA. In this class, we are not training for the UFC, we are not training for local tournaments, nor are we training for any other martial competition. This is a safe, friendly, and fun class designed to develop skills. No egos or attitudes will be tolerated.

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Learn to hang with the young guns on your terms.

What do us older grapplers and BJJ practitioners need to do and consider to keep it safe while still developing combat level skill sets? Most of us grapplers over 30 have jobs and families and thus our time is valuable and limited. Therefore:

  • Maximum results in skill development with minimum amount of training time. We need to make the most of our training time. This will be achieved by using efficient training methods. As older professionals, we do not have time to waste on nonsense in the gym and ineffective drilling practices. We need training methods that are efficient and produce usable repeatable skills as quickly as possible.
  • We also need to choose the best techniques for our older bodies. High percentage “old school” jiu jitsu is best. The new fancy stuff generally doesn’t work well and requires too much youthful athleticism and flexibility. It also generally has better transfer to real live self-defense situations than the flashy sport grappling techniques.
  • We must also consider recovery. As we get older, live sparring, especially with the young guns, really can just beat up your body. You will be tired for two days after several hard matches. With some aches and pains even if you do not get injured. Hard competitive grappling with egos involved are where most injuries occur in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission wrestling. At the time of this writing, I am 54 years old with two hip replacements. Even in my thirties I felt fairly beat down after hard live rolling (sparring). In my 27 years as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappler, I can say that I have only ever had some minor injuries (knock on wood). I have been a smart grappler and want to instill this quality in my students. So, I am trying to foster an environment where we focus more on drilling and skill development and less on sparring than other Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes. I am also cultivating a fun sparring environment that is not overly competitive where the focus is on helping each other learn rather than just trying to win at all costs. It should actually be as fun to lose a match in practice as much as it is to win. Because you are learning and can appreciate someone else doing a good job. We don’t try to win practice.
  • Another consideration is class size. I am currently only taking 10 students. I do not care about making money teaching jiu jitsu. Therefore, I have the luxury of keeping the class size small, so everyone gets more time from me and more mat space to work. Big classes reduce the effectiveness of the training as well as create dangerous situations (people accidently rolling into each other).

To contact me with questions about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for professionals and grapplers over 40 class, click here for my contact info.

I am fostering a cooperative training environment where 70% of each individuals’ efforts should be geared to helping his/her team mates learn and succeed at the art. The other 30% of the effort should be about personal development. Personally, I believe this is a better method of actually learning the art, for older less athletic busier professionals and younger more competitive folk alike. It is only gifted athletes that can learn well under fire.

As I said before, I am 54 years old with two hip replacements at the time of this writing (9/8/22). I am absolutely not the best jiu jitsu practitioner in the Sarasota / Manatee County areas. There are some great martial artists here. However, I am an old school grappler. I started back in 1994 and was in my first BJJ tournament in 1996. I am a blackbelt under Roy Harris, who is world renowned as teacher’s teacher and pioneer in adding structure to the often chaotic and disorganized presentation of jiu jitsu.

I am only taking 10 students for this Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class for
working professionals and grapplers over 40. Don’t miss the
opportunity.

Click here to contact me to sign up for class.

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If you are looking for a more competition-oriented training environment, you could consider private lessons with me, or I can refer you to some of the other more competition-based schools that I consider my friends with good jiu jitsu programs. I will list some below. From time to time I will invite the team to join me as guests at some of these gyms.

Manasota Jiu Jitsu
https://manasotajiujitsu.com/
Clayton Lyon – Head Instructor

Alliance BJJ Venice and North Port
https://alliancewestcoast.com/
Fabio Leandro – Head Instructor

Team Alves Jiu Jitsu
https://thealvesjiujitsu.com/
Manny Alves – Head Instructor

Gustavo Machado BJJ Venice
https://gmbjjvenice.com/
David Valentine – Instructor

NOTE: All of the above schools took me in and let me train with them… even though I told them up front I am under another instructor (Roy Harris https://www.royharris.com/ ) they still took me in and let me train with them. There are several other schools that would not let me train unless I dropped my affiliation with my instructor and/or agreed not to teach martial arts… something I have been doing for over 30 years… so they will not get a mention from me here.

I am only taking 10 students for this Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class for
working professionals and grapplers over 40. Don’t miss the
opportunity!

Click here to contact me to sign up for class.

Do you want to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do Concepts?

 

Are you interested in learning the practical skills of Filipino and Southeast Asian Martial Arts?

 

Would you like to learn boxing or Mixed Martial Arts?

 

Bruno’s primary martial arts teacher, Roy Harris, connects him to two of the most influential martial artists of modern times: BRUCE LEE and HELIO GRACIE.

 

Bruno’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Lineage:

Jigoro Kano
Mitsuyo Maeda
Carlos Gracie
Helio Gracie
Francisco Mansor
Joe Moreira
Roy Harris
John Bruno

Bruno’s Jeet Kune Do / Filipino Martial Arts Lineage:

Bruce Lee
Dan Inosanto
Paul Vunak
Roy Harris
John Bruno