Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Valerio Mori Ubaldini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Valerio , thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission the drives your brand?
Hello everyone, my name is Valerio Mori Ubaldini and I am a 2nd degree Black Belt, Head Instructor and co-owner at Gracie Barra Overland Park – the first Gracie Barra Jiu Jitsu school in Kansas.
I am a 4x Italian National Champion (2x Gi and 2x No Gi), IBJJF European Champion, 2x FILA Grappling World Champion (Gi and No Gi), AEJJB Canary Island Champion and the only Italian to ever win a CBJJO Brazilian National Championship.
The story I want to tell is how my journey in Jiu Jitsu and martial arts started, how it changed during the years and how is going nowadays.
My story started back in 2008 when I was 14 years old in my hometown Livorno, in Italy after assisting to one of the first videos of the UFC (Ultimate Fighter Championship).
After few years of practice when I was 18 years old I start travel to England first to learn from professor Victor Estima training at Gracie Barra Nottingham for about 1 year/1 year and a half and then I decided to go train where the movement of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu started: in Brazil.
I lived in Barra da Tijuca , Brazil for 3 years from my purple to my black belt training at the very first Gracie Barra school founded in 1986 from Master Carlos Gracie Jr.
At the beginning of my journey I was looking at the sport as an activity to practice after school for 3 times per week.
After months of practicing and noticing the results I was archiving physically-mentally-emotionally I increased the numbers of training moving my goal from training for fun to train to compete.
So on my stage of competing in Jiu Jitsu, I was training every day and competing if possible every month in any parts of Italy.
Winning some, losing some and keeping always a learning mentality there is a date that changed forever my career: in January of 201o I become the IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation) European Champion. That achievement made me train even harder and months later I won the FILA Grappling World Championship.
As soon as I finished my high school education, I decided to leave my local team in Italy to start travel to England first to learn from a famous world class athlete and then decided to go train where the movement of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu started: in Brazil. I lived in Barra da Tijuca , Brazil for 3 years- from my purple to my black belt. I have been assaulted 2 times with guns and knifes, I lived be myself without my family and I was able to spend time with my girlfriend only 10 days every 3 months when she was able to travel from Italy when her job gave her the possibility of vacations.
In this 3 years I was able to train and teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the highest levels, doing everything I was dreaming: I was able to leave and breathe the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle. I trained for 3 years 3/4 times a day, teaching classes for kids and adult in the very first Gracie Barra founded in 1986 by Carlos Gracie Jr, son of one of the founder of this sport; I was competing every weekend and being able to become until today the only Italian ever to win a Brazilian National Championship in Brazil.
After receiving my black belt, I moved back to Europe and open my own gym in Canary Island, Spain: I was able to leave close to my parents and start a new life with at that time my girlfriend, the one that always waited for me so many years.
At 23 years old I married her and had a son with her. In the same period of time I was aware of position of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Head Instructor in US, so I tried and applied online. My goal was to give to my family a brighter and safer future, so after passing 3 tests in videoconference I have been approved to become part of the Gracie Barra Team in Texas thanks to my partner/employer Tim Thompson.
I started to teach in a 2 years old school in Tyler and then start from the beginning in Carrollton. As a Head Instructor in Carrollton I was so blessed to form a really good team, create a great environment to let everyone try and train Jiu Jitsu; create an environment not only for athletes and who want to compete, but really for everyone. I am nowadays still happily married to my wife Yenifer and we have 3 beautiful children together and moved in 2020 to Overland Park in Kansas with a mission to open the very first Gracie Barra School in the state.
A year later we open and we arrived to 250 plus active students and I am able to do what I love the most: sharing my passion of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Since I was I child I always liked and trained martial arts. Starting with Japanese Jiu Jitsu first, then Boxe and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) I always been involved with this type of sports. Every challenge I faced made me stronger, resilient, passionated, dedicated and full of faith.
I exactly know how much dedication, sacrifice and passion it takes to train and compete and as an instructor I use the same factors to help my students to become their better version of themselves.
We are the number one team in the world. In Gracie Barra, we believe in spreading Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone and we believe that if everyone trained, the world would become a better place. I am so blessed to meet and change people’s life for the better: people with low self esteem, kids who suffered bullying at school, people who were looking to lose weight or get in better shape or women who have been abused.
If you want to join because you want to become a Champion, you have the opportunity to accomplish your goal: or if you want to make more friends, you can do it too!
We have more than 900 schools open in the world, more than 400 in the US: the beauty is that if you are part of one school, you are part of all.
The facility is very spacious.
Classes are offers from the early morning to the evening six days a week.
Every instructor has to be certified: every year, Gracie Barra creates through an online platform a Certification Program for Instructors ( ICP ).
Is an online course with pages to read and understand with the final test at the end of any course.
To be able to be certified, you also have to pass a drug screen background: this part becomes really important, especially because the instructor has to teach class not only for adults but also for kids.
Our method to teach the class is unique and different too: we work on 16 weeks curriculum program and it’s all written and explained framed in the school – everyone can have access to it.
Every 900 schools in the world will be able to work the same techniques during the same week of training: this is important because if a student for any reason let’s say he will need to travel to Spain for business if he finds a Gracie Barra school, he will be able to not only train for free, but also learn the same techniques that he would learn in his school – from a different instructor and different training partners.
In Gracie Barra, we focus more on the detail: we divide our groups of classes by level of experience for the adults and by age for kids.
Per week we practice about 6-9 total techniques from the same position: there are different teams or even martial arts that every day teaches 10 different techniques from 10 different positions. It can sound cool at the beginning, but I bet that a student when he will come back to home if he tries to remember what was a step of the third technique, he will not be able to answer it.
So our methods are well designed. Everyone wears the same color of uniform (white or blue) as a football team, or the fire fighters and police department. This gives us a sense of unity and brotherhood: there are different teams around the world where everybody wears a different color of uniform (red, yellow, camouflage etc…).
I formed 2 Novice World Champions!
They started with me and with my training they were able to win the gold medal 2 years in a row during the IBJJF Masters World Championship in Las Vegas.
In Kansas City, after 9 months from opening, without a proper competition training I was able to bring 7 athletes competing at the Grappling Industries and win First Place by Academy and First place by Organization.
In St Louis I brought about 12 students competing at the American Grapping Federation and with other Gracie Barra schools from Missouri we were able to win First Place in Adult Gi Division, Adult No Gi Division, Kids Gi, Kids No Gi and Overall.
All of this in only 1 year being opened, and this is only the beginning!
I am always in search of something that can help me become a better person, husband, athlete and leader.
I strongly believe that part of the training is not only physical but also mental and spiritual and I my goal is to share to my students what Jiu Jitsu taught me.
I use the same passion and enthusiasm I started with in the days I was competing, to my students that are starting their journey in my school.
It’s not important for me if someone train for fun or for competing: each one of them are really important for me and I will give them the same exactly attention with no difference. What is important for me is to let them become what they dream off.
We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.
After receiving my black belt in Brazil, I moved back to Europe and open my own gym in Canary Island, Spain: I was able to leave close to my parents and start a new life with at that time my girlfriend, the one that always waited for me so many years. At 23 years old I married her and had a son with her.
In the same period of time I was aware of position of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Head Instructor in US, so I tried and applied online. My main goal was to give to my family a brighter and safer future so I follow the steps and got in contact first with the HQ of Gracie Barra.
I sent them my interest form knowing hundreds of other black belts / competitors / instructors would have followed the same steps : on their announce it was saying that after sent the application, someone would have contact back in within a week.
Fact is that after only 2h someone from the HQ contacted me back right away asking me how someone with my credentials and my curriculum was not part of the US team yet!! So before being accepted, I had to successfully pass 3 interviews talking about my self and my goals with the top heads of Gracie Barra.
In a week my application has been accepted but there was only one issue: I had a family to bring with me.
In most of the cases, who can move for example from South America to US is someone that due for their lifestyle is single with no kids, or just engaged and can travel for a period of time without the girlfriend; the reason is because initially who arrives will need to share the same apartment. So my only issue was that I had to bring with me my wife and my recently born son!
The position that I applied for and accepted was in Arizona, but in the meantime someone else was looking for an Head Instructor in Texas: so who searched for me shared my information and I was able to get in contact with an investor from Texas named Tim Thompson.
Starting to share emails first and then videoconferencing we were able to agree on the conditions and with help of lawyers I was able to get my athlete visa approved and come to US.
The first time I met Tim was in February 2016; I worked with him in the very first school he opened in Tyler (Texas) until an instructor from his second school left with short notice his position in Carrollton (Dallas area). After only few months of teaching in Tyler, as the school had a brown belt already trained to teach classes and managing the school, I did not think twice in propose myself as a replacement for the newest school. I will never forget as we received the news on a a Friday about the instructor in Dallas leaving and how already on a Sunday of the same week I was moving from Tyler to Carrollton in a new apartment with all my family!!! The Carrollton’s school was open only for 3 months and had only white belts students: so to save the school I chose to move in Dallas and open another chapter in my journey.
Eventually years later, for the same reason of an instructor leaving, I had to move back to Tyler one more time to save the school from being without a black belt teaching classes. So I left Carrollton in the hands of a brown belt and move back to Tyler.
Years later Tim told me that he would love to move his family and him to the Midwest – place where I lived in the past and liked as a place to retire, so I proposed me to buy the school in Tyler.
I asked him if he was moving just for retire definitely or if he had in mind to eventually open a Jiu Jitsu school: the end of the story is that in a full Covid-19 Pandemic , in March 2020 we sold the 2 schools in Texas and moved with our families in Overland Park – Kansas with the mission to open the first Gracie Barra school in the region.
In October 2020 we opened the doors and the rest is history!!!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Credibility. I believe that this word play a huge role in any type of market.
I always believe that whatever you decide to do you have to do it right!
As I previously mentioned before Gracie Barra as organization has 36 years of life of experience, changing one person at time in all continents : we have more than 900 schools open in the world, more than 400 in the US, our method to teach the class is unique and different, we focus more on the detail: we divide our groups of classes by level of experience for the adults and by age for kids.
Details make the difference and I know that what we are doing is so much different then other martial arts schools not only in our region; our competition is not another martial art school but other most common or famous activities as soccer, football or basketball.
We know that if you try a class with us and you experience our methods and curriculum there are high chances you will join our team!
We also use platforms as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to interact and engage with other people: sharing for example our schedule, activities divided by age or levels, stripe/belt promotions or live videos of the training.
We use platform as YouTube to share weekly videos of instructional techniques that are not part of our curriculum, but that students can watch and learn to try in class during the week of training.
Competitions also play a small role into building a reputation. If you are a martial arts passionate you already know that Gracie Barra is the most successful competition team in the world, but if you are new to Jiu Jitsu you really can’t know.
On our basis only 10% of the total students in the school will actually compete, so competition is not our main focus – but we do have a competition team, specifically classes focused on competition and we do participate to the main competition archiving always great results!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gboverlandpark.com/
- Instagram: @graciebarraoverlandpark
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/gboverlandpark/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/gboverlandpark
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCHQHc6374nsFGB34rVUt9fw
- Other: School Email address: [email protected] School phone number: (913)961-1850 Personal Instagram profile: @valeriomoriubaldini Personal YouTube account: https://youtube.com/c/Merzbjj