Author Archives: Gui Valente

While on a recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Professor Joaquim Valente and Jiu Jitsu student – helicopter pilot Jared Schmelzer met with Commander Adonis Lopes of C.O.R.E. (Coordenadoria de Recursos Especiais), the SWAT Team of Rio de Janeiro State Police (Polícia Civil do Estado do Rio de Janeiro). This police unit has proven a great versatility in serving Brazil and protecting its’ citizens with a helicopter division. The helicopter and its team has been directly responsible for saving many lives and strongly combating the criminals of the drug trade, which affects the country as a whole.

This Monday, Professor Gui Valente visited Valente Brothers Fort Lauderdale and taught the fundamentals class. After the class, Professor Gui awarded multiple stripes, a blue belt and congratulated the fine work of Instructor Bruce Belfield and all students. Aside from the the fabulous job establishing Valente Brothers Jiu-Jitsu in Broward county, Instructor Bruce is a Fort Lauderdale Police detective.

In order to accommodate its growing number of students, Valente Brothers FTL is expected to move to a much larger facility by the end of the summer. The school currently teaches classes from Monday to Saturday to adults and children. For more information please visit the school’s page.

On Saturday and Sunday Professor Pedro Valente visited Houston for a weekend of Jiu-Jitsu seminars. Once again Professor Pedro was received by Valente Brothers friends Shihan Torey Overstreet and Mr. Albert Garcia along with Valente Brothers brown belts, Roy Cantu and Calvin Carter. This was Professor Pedro’s thirteenth visit to TNT Jujitsu. He promoted several students to new belt levels.
Professor Pedro also had a chance to visit Roy Cantu’s academy and was highly impressed with the upgrades to the facility. Congratulations to all the students who attended the seminars for demonstrating a firm commitment to the practice o jiu-jitsu as an art of self-defense . Professor Pedro is looking forward to visiting Houston again in December.

SporTV is a Brazilian cable television network that has his programming based on all sports, launched in 1991 by Globosat. It’s the most watched sports channel in Brazil.

The 3 minute piece features the Valentes, former Gracie Academy professor João Alberto Barreto, today a renown Sports Psychologist, and Gaetano Lopes, a business man from São Paulo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner.

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Once again hundreds of students, friends and family members attended the Valente Brothers biannual Belt Promotion Ceremony. The Summer Belt Ceremony awards blue, purple, and brown belts. This year’s ceremony was exceptional in many regards. Our new Pembroke Pines Valente Brothers location produced its first two blue belts. Professor Pedro Valente opened the evening with a fine speech touching on some important historical and philosophical points. He talked about the value of learning jiu-jitsu and the importance of influencing friends and family to experience the transformative benefits of this wonderful art. One remarkable aspect of the belt ceremonies is the positive energy that is felt by all present. The expressions of pride and happiness are noticeable in the faces of not only the promoted students, but also fellow training partners and family members. Valente Brothers is proud to extend warm congratulations to all the students who worked hard to deserve a new belt.

Mark David Fromm, CEO of Mark David & Company Real Estate based in New York, demonstrates how Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gives him a full-body workout.

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This past week Valente Brothers Jiu-Jitsu hosted a Law Enforcement course for nearly 100 police officers from the Aventura Police Department. Starting daily at eight in the morning, Valente Brothers professors and assistants taught officers an adapted and specific version of Jiu-Jitsu for police work. One of the main objectives of this program is to provide officers with a hand-to-hand strategy to subdue, control, and arrest subjects in the most effective and humane manner. As one of the sergeants participating in the class stated, “these techniques allow us to control the situation and the level of force used.” On the final day of the course, Aventura Chief of Police, Steve Steinberg attended the six-hour class. He was extremely satisfied with the material presented and the rapid progress of all attendees. Over the weeklong course, officers were introduced to both mental and physical Jiu-Jitsu applied for law enforcement. Professor Pedro Valente demonstrated how the Jiu-Jitsu mindset can help, not only during combat, but on how officers can avoid and de-escalate a threat. At the end of each lesson, officers had the opportunity to demonstrate the techniques they learned against Valente Brothers assistant instructors who simulated common street scenarios.

Next Sunday, May 2, our youth students will participate in the Youth Fellowship Challenge II. The YFC has been carefully designed to be a multi-cultural learning experience and to allow children the opportunity to exhibit their skills in an atmosphere of cooperation and respect for fellow participants. This event provides our students the opportunity to build confidence that will last a lifetime. Below, watch a special highlights clip of last year’s YFC where over 100 young Jiu-Jitsu practitioners participated. The video was shot and cut by our purple belt student Eric Mainade. All students are invited to attend.

The City of Aventura’s Police Department began today a weeklong defensive tactics course at Valente Brothers Jiu-Jitsu. The nearly one hundred officers of that department will be attending this course, which was designed to better equip them with the latest and most efficient police survival techniques. Because of the invaluable efforts of Liutenant Brian Pegues and Chief of Police Steve Steinberg, all Aventura Police Department officers will complete level one of the Valente Brothers Police Survival System. Valente Brothers has been training South Florida’s law enforcement community for over 15 years and is honored with the opportunity to serve the Aventura Police Department.

To view the pictorial visit our page on Facebook and become our fan! On March 27 and 28, Rickson Gracie taught a 2 day seminar at the Valente Brothers’ Headquarters in North Miami Beach, Florida. The seminars were a success with over 160 participants. Master Rickson announced during the seminars that he will return to Miami very soon.