You don't just pluck a hundreds member strong, pioneering, UK Headquarters for one of the most successful and well-known Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brands from nowhere. It takes effort, vision, belief, and a whole lot of teamwork.
Our story here at Atos Jiu Jitsu UK starts in 2018. Tom and his partner Hannah began the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Sutton Coldfield in a tiny community centre in Mere Green with roll-out mats and only 3 classes a week. Our team of hundreds of kids and adults that we have now, was just a handful of members back then, with some classes often being entirely empty. Fast-forward to 2024, we have one of the largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academies in the UK, an incredibly large membership base, a timetable with 58 classes a week, and a brand new sister academy opening in Solihull. But there's a lot that happened in the 6 years between that. A lot of work, effort, highs and lows, trial and error to get us to where we are now. There were even some moments where we weren't always sure if we'd come out the other end, but we always weathered the storm as a team and as a family and made it out on top.
So how did we go from a tiny community centre to 2 thriving academies? Well the first big move happened in January 2020 when Tom obtained the warehouse unit in Mere Green. At the time, it was a desolate unit that needed completely gutting and renovating to make it into a functional jiu jitsu academy. With a lot of help from Tom's dad, Andy (our resident handyman), the warehouse was completely rebuilt into one large functioning mat space and a small reception area. The growth in the size of the academy allowed the membership base to build and our community slowly but surely started to expand further. The academy was thriving and we were in a good place with excitement building about the future to come. But the mention of the year 2020 should remind everyone of what was to come next.
In March 2020, the UK went into COVID-19 lockdown and the academy was forced to close along with all other sporting facilities. As a contact sport, the lockdown made it impossible to function as normal. But that didn't stop the team who came up with new and creative ways to teach people jiu-jitsu. With the help of our old friend, zoom, and some furniture rearranging in everyone's living rooms, the team did online classes and taught techniques as best as they could from their own homes. Andy went from handyman to fast-tracked black belt, helping Tom demonstrate the techniques in the online classes from home. This was also the beginning of Andy's journey into jiu-jitsu with his help in the online classes giving him the drive to start training himself when the academy re-opened. Now, Andy has achieved his blue belt and competed in the Masters division at the European Championships, showing you can start your journey at any age! Thankfully, restrictions eventually started to ease over the coming 9-12 months and people were able to make their way back to the academy. After training in 1 metre socially-distanced squares, we were finally able to go back to rolling freely on the mats in 2021. Lockdown had shown everyone the value in being together and the value in our freedom outside of the confines of our homes and we saw our community grow to new heights, especially our kids programme.
The growth in our membership base meant we therefore needed some more space. One mat was no longer enough for all of our members and all of the classes we wanted to offer and we were fortunately in a position where we could now reinvest back into the academy by building a second floor. So in March 2022, exactly 2 years after lockdown halted all of our progress, we found ourselves flying again with the construction of the second floor. With this came a brand new second mat space to allow us to run more classes alongside each other, and some changing rooms. Over the next 2 years, we began expanding our timetable more and more as our membership base kept growing. The second mat space meant that we could run kids classes parallel to each other, allowing more siblings to train at the same time, and as a result our kids programme sky-rocketed. We also began running adults gi and no gi classes alongside each other in the evenings to tailor to all of our members as much as we could. Our ethos and mission has always been to provide as much as we can to our members and give as much opportunity as we can in whatever way possible.
Fast-forward another 2 years to where we are now in 2024 and our change to Atos UK. It's no secret that we were previously Gracie Barra and during our time with GB, we were one of the highest grossing academies in the UK, carrying the largest membership base and receiving status as a premium school. However, people and places evolve and Tom has spoken openly about the fact that our huge level of success under GB never truly felt like it was celebrated. Instead of promoting our successes, we felt our successes were talked down and the support for all we had achieved never truly felt like it was there. We will always be grateful for everything we achieved under Gracie Barra and we will always wish the business and everyone associated with it well, however we knew it was time for a change and to find a brand that matched the energy and successes of the team and community we had built. And the natural path for that always lay with Atos.
Not many people are aware that Tom had met Andre Galvao, the founder of Atos and multiple world and ADCC champion and hall of famer, long before we re-branded as Atos. Tom has always told us the heart-warming story of when he was at the World Championships back when he was a purple belt. Tom had fought one of Andre's students and beat him and Andre had come up to him afterwards to praise him, demonstrating an incredible show of genuine appreciation and sportsmanship. But he didn't stop there. With no coach there to support him and facing a Worlds final, Andre selflessly and without being asked, stepped in to coach Tom through the final. Andre provided Tom, a person he had only just met, with whom he had no loyaly to and who had just beat one of his own students, with complete support through one of the biggest competitive moments of Tom's career. Despite unfortunately losing the final, Tom felt unbelievably supported in that moment by Andre and this started a long-lasting relationship that eventually led to our humble academy in Sutton Coldfield becoming the headquarters for Atos in the UK.
With the support of Andre and Angelica, we began the transition to Atos at the beginning of 2024. This wasn't an easy move and a lot of trials and tribulations came with it. Not only was it a lot to do logistically - changing mats, changing signs, changing uniform for hundreds of kids and adults (some mild PTSD lingers in the team from this one) and changing curriculum - but it was also a very contentious move in the jiu-jitsu world that sparked a lot of conversation and debate (and as you can imagine, not a lot of it was positive at the time). But Andre and Angelica provided all of their guidance and support through this, encouraging Tom and the team to weather the storm and any bad press.
And this was the best piece of advice we could've received, having now come out the other side of that storm to an incredible reputation as Atos UK, love and support from the rest of the jiu-jitsu community, and people travelling far and wide to meet us. We also faced competition success at the Grappling Industries Birmingham Open in May 2024 where we won both the kids and adults team trophies, beating every other academy by a landslide and having over 100 of our athletes in attendance. The sense of community and family that day was completely unmatched.
Finally in July 2024, we had the pleasure of officially re-opening our academy as Atos Jiu Jitsu UK with over 100 people in attendance and Andre and Angelica travelling over from San Diego to give a seminar on the day and meet the team at our social event that we held afterwards. The way our community came together to share in the special celebration of the day is something that is imprinted in all of our lives as a core memory, with team members and coaches on the BBQ and family members supplying food and materials to help us have the best day together celebrating our team and family. It represented the exact reason why we knew the Atos change was always the right move. Our community here is exactly the same as the one at Atos HQ, built on strong bonds and feeling more like a family than a sports team. If you ask Tom or Lucy who have both had the pleasure of visiting HQ, they will always tell you how HQ is the only academy that has ever felt truly like ours. They've visited tons of academies around the world but Atos HQ is the only one that's ever come close to the specialness and family feeling of our team here in Sutton Coldfield.
Now looking forward to the next year, we have so many exciting things ahead. A renovation of our HQ in Sutton Coldfield to get some new mats over the Christmas break and reinvest back into our community, the strengthening of our team with the new addition of beginners and advanced classes in our kids programme to increase the level, and more adults classes on offer than ever. We're also running a national competition event in Birmingham in November, and our brand new state-of-the-art sister academy is opening in Solihull in November/December, alongside some more academies hoping to join us as affiliates in the near future.
When people ask what the secret is for how we got here, the only answer that we can give is our community. Everything we have achieved and every success we have, every inch of growth we make as an academy and as a business is always down to our team and their families. You can buy any building in the world and shove some mats in to make it a jiu-jitsu academy in physical form, but what makes a place like Atos UK is the people. From Tom and his family building the business and putting their literal blood, sweat and tears into it; to our incredible world-class coaching staff who love what they do and dedicate all of their time to their work; to all of our members who turn up every day and build their relationships on and off the mat into life-long friendships full of trust and care; to the families of our team, especially the parents who dedicate themselves to the progression of their children with us which we are always so grateful for; and finally to the local businesses who we support and who support us in return. It's always the people that are the secret behind any success, and we just so happen to have the best of them all.
As Henry Ford said: "Coming together is a beginning, staying together is a process, and working together is a success" and this is exactly what we've embodied here at Atos. We can't wait for everything that's to come in the future and to evolve our story even further and to do another one of these posts in 5 years telling you how much further we've grown and sharing our story for everyone to hear!
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