Building a Championship Culture: Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Charlotte's 9,000-Square-Foot Flagship

Lightly edited for readability. Speaker labels are omitted because the source recording is not diarised; quotes attributed elsewhere on this page were verified against context.

Behind every gym, there's a story, a mission, a story. The spark of passion that started it all. This is Gymdesk Originals. Real owners, real struggles, and the communities they've built from the ground up. Hey Alex, welcome. How are you sir? Yeah, how about you man? I'm doing great. Awesome. Beautiful spot here. Thank you. Thank you for coming. I'm going to make a tour for you guys here. Let's walk around, okay? Show you guys a little bit our new facility. Hope you guys enjoy it, okay? So here it is, the front desk.

You know, this is where everything happens. On this side over here, we have our store, our lounge over here. People come, sitting down, and have all the merchandise, the hats, you know, all the hoodies, shirts, rash guards, hats. So this will have here. So these will have here, uh, my, uh, my, word metals. So, Gi, no Gi. So, yeah. So back over here, we have the Opsi, or the, also the inventory, you know. So, that's the Opsi, this inventory. Um, so come down here, on this side over here, that's in the front desk, and now is where the students are going to check in, right?

On the Gymdesk. So, this is the place, we have class this morning already, so I was checking in. So, on this side over here, we do have the drink machine. So, this over here, if the people come over here, want to work it, as well, and watch everybody, you know, training. So, they come with their laptops, and be over here. Yeah. Okay, on this side over here, guys, we have the first mat space, this is a thousand square feet. So, we have a lot of class going on here, beginners, kids, as well, okay?

So, on this other side, we have the main mat space, this is a three thousand square feet, on this side, it's pretty awesome. Okay, so, on this side over here, we have some of the bands, the, you know, the parents, you can sit down, watch the class, we have a big TV over here. So, over here, we turn it on, also on the view of the class, show the highlights, the tournaments, yeah. Cool. So, on this side over here, this is the trophies for the shout-open, as I was talking about.

So, we have, we want that 15 times. So, yeah. So, back on this side over here, we have the kids' area. So, you know, while the parents are training. So, the kids can come over here. We'll play around, we'll have a ping pong table. So, we have a table for them. We can see that the smaller table, they can come and do the homework as well. So, we have some toys over there, yeah. some boots. So, let's go now to, this over there is where everything that Massey is.

So, on this side over here, we do have the cloth water. You guys can, you know, some drinks. That's convenient. These are the founders of Alliance, our masters, Dr. Kater, Fabio and Alexandre Paiva. So, now I'm going to go to the bathroom, the locker room, right? So, this is, you know, the water, the showers, where they see a change and start your things, your bags as well. Good. Yeah, thank you. Very nice. Yeah. So, there's more bags over here, more bags here. Mm-hmm. On the other side is the, basically, it's all the same.

A little bit smaller, but the same. Okay? So, basically, the school it is, you know. So, I'm super proud of what you have to do here, you know. This is the, if you find the comfort and discomfort, I think that's, you know, it's important. It's important. You know, you need to, you know, you have to always dream it and work really hard to your dreams. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. All right. Let's go. Thank you. Thank you for coming, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody, for coming. I really appreciate it. You know, have so many students, but also friends who came out of town or on the councils as well. You know, I really appreciate all the support and the love. All right, let's get started. So I am fortunate enough to be here at Alliance Jiu-Jitsu Charlotte by Lucas Lepre with the legend himself. Lucas? Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome to the academy. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. Nine-time IBJJF champion, Hall of Fame, right?

Big name in competition for many years. And I think you've traveled all over the world competing. That's it. We'd love that, you know, for the folks maybe who haven't been just getting into Jiu-Jitsu, I'd love to kind of talk a little bit about that and how that competition sort of shaped your career and everything that you're doing today. Yeah, so I have been competing. You know, I'm not competing anymore, but I competed for a long time since I started training Jiu-Jitsu 25 years ago. I competed for like 22, 23 years.

Yeah. And so where are you from originally? So I'm from Brazil, the city called Uberlandia, state called Minas Gerais, one of the best cities in the world. And so in this city, um, is Jiu-Jitsu just prevalent everywhere or you have to kind of find it or at the time when you were. So the time that I started was just a two place to train. Okay. So it was the place that I started under professor Elan Santiago and it was another place as well. And, uh, I decided to go to Elan because it was not technical and, uh, I'm a very good teacher too.

And I've heard very good things about him. That's, and then a lot of friends of mine also, uh, I started training with him too. And then I, you know, I went to try the class and I never stopped. Yeah. And, uh, will you do another martial arts as well before that? So I grew up doing sports, you know, my parents always, uh, push us to do sports. So I did when I, uh, swing lessons, soccer, uh, I did a little bit judo as well. And then I started capoeira, you know, for, uh, very early, 10 years old.

And then I stick with capoeira for a few years, but on 10 to 15 and then with 15 years old, I started doing Jiu Jitsu. Okay. Now I think Gabriel, was he doing, uh, yeah, we were like, you know, we know each other for a long time. Yeah. Uh, since, you know, we play capoeira together and then I play soccer as well together. Uh, and, uh, when I started training Jiu Jitsu and, uh, later on he joined as well. Yeah. Got it. And so early days, you're training Jiu Jitsu.

Um, did your capoeira background help you just with some of the certain moves or completely different? Yeah, I think capoeira have, you know, like, uh, this experience helped me to have more balance, coordination, um, the agility as well, you know, have that sense to know more my body as well. So what you do, what you do, what you do not do it, and, uh, the reactions, uh, helped a lot. Yeah. It's pretty much hard. Yeah. And that's when you decided, you know, Jiu Jitsu is for me and you never stopped training.

But when did you know it was like the thing you were going to do for the rest of your life? I really early on, like a wipeout or. I don't know, like early on was, you know, doing like, I was thinking about doing the rest of my life, but I was getting more into true as I started learning more and see how efficient Jiu Jitsu was. You know, I was applying the techniques and I was very, very light. It's too light, not, you know, too heavy, but I was featherweight and I was able to do the technique with a bigger guys and see, Hey, this technique really works.

Yeah. Uh, that started putting me fascinated with the art, with the sports. And then I started to get more into two, two competitions. Well, my first competition, I was trained for two months. And then my professor, he was pushing, Hey, let's compete and all. Like, we're going to have this competition, that competition start, uh, incentivated, you know, for me to compete. And then the end of the time that I started competing, I said, okay, now, and then I heard, look, if you're competing, you have to train more.

And then I start not just going once a day, I started doing like twice a day and start training more, get more involved. When I see the results coming and, uh, yeah, that's, I started getting more involved. So you went from training every day to twice a day? I was training pretty, pretty much since I started training, my right belt, I was training every day. Mm-hmm . And then as soon as I started, okay. Uh, I like to compete more. And then I started training twice a day.

Did you do anything in particular to like heal between, you know, cause that's a lot of training. I was very young, you know, you can heal it very, very quickly. So actually I trained twice, twice a day, almost every day for a long time. Uh, since my last competition, that was back 2019. Uh, that was, you know, of course there is phase off that you don't need to train twice a day. Yeah. Uh, because very often, you're not, you know, fighting. You don't have anything ahead to compete, but you can train once a day and work out, do other things too.

You want to come to camp and then you have to train in basically twice a day. Right. Um, now of course you have a lot of, uh, experience doing heavy JJF. Have you gone into other circuits earlier we were talking about? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Tell us that some of the cool places that you've gone to, you know, fight. I think you were in Japan and other. So I, you know, competing, I was competing more in Brazil, US, uh, Europe as well. Japan, I forgot as well.

Uh, Russia as well. Wow. But mostly my trips was, uh, teacher seminars. Okay. So I went to like 52 countries. Uh, 52 countries. Uh, 52 countries. Uh, 52 countries. Uh, so to now probably I thought it's around 800 seminar for the last 15 years. Uh, you know, it's good because I have this opportunity to connect with a lot of people, help our community to grow, show everybody my vision of Jiu Jitsu, the way that I think, you know, the way that I believe it. Um, I believe that there is not just one way to see it, you know, a lot of things.

So, uh, and then, uh, to be happy to have this opportunity to share this to a lot of people. And, um, especially right now, cause this is the first time I've walked in here and tomorrow's the grand opening. So, um, it's a huge space in here. So we'll, we'll do a little tour and make sure everybody can see it. But, um, talk about a lot of people. This place is huge. I mean, you could probably, what is this, could take 500 people or something like that.

Yeah. It's kind of like the idea is we are here, Charlotte, uh, in North Carolina for 11 years. So I was 11 years in one place. It's the first place that I opened. And then, then, uh, this year, like we just opened this place like two months ago. Okay. Tomorrow's going to be the grand opening, but we will open European Rated, you know, start, uh, October 1st. Yes. Uh, this is kind of like always the things that I was dreaming as well to have, okay. I have the opportunity to have too much space, spring floors as well.

Yeah. Beautiful floors. That is, you know, uh, sort of the impact that these streets don't get hurt. Like draw, like trying to take downs, you know, we don't have much impact as well. You know, the locker rooms are big, you know, everybody feel comfortable. The front desk area as well, having store, you guys want to see it, but you know, it's something that I was planning for years as well. Visualize the way that I want as well. Yeah. And then, it came out good. Yeah. What's the square footage of like the mats?

The entire place is 9,000 square feet. Wow. Yeah. So, but the mat space is 4,000. Yeah. Yeah. So we have 3,000 in the main area and 1,000 in the other area. Yeah. And then, uh, are you do classes simultaneously? Simultaneously. Yeah. So what, you have kids, kids classes? I have kids classes and we'll have a certain age group on these big mats, uh, and levels as well. On the other small area, we'll have like more beginners that have separate. And it's good to have kids that have more opportunities to accommodate everybody.

Yeah. So as you start doing, you know, you're doing your competitions. At some point you decide, or you think about opening your own school. I feel like that's pretty much the natural progression. Is that kind of what happened for you? You're like, at some point I want to open a school. Yeah. So actually, yeah, that's the one point was the dream, you know, but also I started. Teaching very early when I was a blue belt. I started to help my professor, you know, each in the classes, help me as assistant.

So the way that I started learning how to teach as well, start get more experience, you know? And then I, if I was, when I was, uh, brown belts, my professor came back to Rio de Janeiro. So, and then I took over for the team on my hometown. Oh. I was already started being a head coach since, you know, 80 years. So, uh, so, as I said, with 19, start full time. Yeah. Teaching. Okay. And then also besides that, I was, uh, study as well. I was, I went to the university, I studied business.

So I was, uh, facilitate everything like training, teaching school, you know? So it was pretty tough, but it was fun time, hard time, but fun time as well. Yeah. All these things make us grow. For sure. And you're pretty busy. I'm sure. You're just going from one thing to the next teaching and studying in school. Right. Um, at what point did you decide I want to come to the U S and what's that story? I think you landed in New York first, right? Yes. When I moved to U S I went straight to New York city.

Um, so I won my first world title back 2007. I was 22 years old and, uh, was the first world championship held here in U S was in California. Okay. It was the first one, the first edition. Okay. So, and then I came here and then I won that. Uh, and, uh, and then I had this opportunity to go to New York. So, uh, we go over there. Fabio. I invite me to teach over there full time with the head coach there. Then I just, you know, decided to come to U S back 2008.

Okay. So now you're in New York city. 2009. New York city and popular. Fabio Clemente. Okay. What's the name of the school there? So was Alliance in New York city. Oh, okay. Alliance in New York city. And then it has like the studio X as well. Okay. So. And then we're now. So first, who went there first was Marcelo Garcia first. Okay. Marcelo started to fight MMA. And then Marcelo Garcia moved to Miami. American top team to start train there. That's the time that they need somebody.

Oh, I see. Oh, I see. To charge, you know, for that school. And then, then I came to us. Got it. So now you stay in New York city. And how was that for, uh, first time in the U S, right? Like besides the competition? Yeah. Uh, I went to, I came to us first in 2006 as a brown belt to fight the Pan Ams. That's the first time I came. Uh, yes. And then I came to New York after that. Yeah. And now, but now you're in New York city, right?

Manhattan. Is that where you're living? I was in Manhattan. So what's that like? Yeah. It was different. You know, like my city wasn't too big. Yeah. Right. And, uh, came to New York and then see a lot of people from different countries as well in one place. Yeah. Different accents. Um, that time I didn't speak English and I tried to learn little by little. You know, the students over there helped me too. Went to school as well to start learning the proper English and still try to speak well, but you know, it's, it was pretty, you know, uh, tough times as well.

Cause when you come, you know, when you move it, but it's like the culture, the language, the food and stuff. Uh, but it was, uh, it was a good challenge. Yeah. Let's say that. And how long did you stay there for New York? In New York, I stayed there for four years. Four years. Yeah. Okay. And how'd you make your way down to Charlotte? So after New York city, I moved to, I was like already ready to open the school. You know, and then, but, and then I was talked to Jacare, Master Jacare.

And then he needs someone, uh, in Atlanta. Because Colbrinha was there and then Colbrinha opened his academy in LA. Hmm. And, uh, then I, when I decided to go to Atlanta first, before I opened the school. Then I went to Atlanta, stayed there for two and a half years. Okay. Uh, then after that, I say now is the time for me to go to my own school. Yeah. That was a really good time to spend the time with Master Jacare in Atlanta. Yeah. Uh, you know, has this experience, you know, like, or I learned a lot from him as well, how to teach in the class, how to manage as well, the academy too.

Uh, you know, uh, my wife, you know, worked over there too. Yeah. She learned a lot of things that help us to build our school in Charlotte too. Okay. And, um, this is the same time that Gabriel was there? What's it? No, no. Gabriel was there while I was in New York city. Oh, I see. I think Gabriel stayed there for two months, not much, two months, but, uh, yeah. Okay. So then you, now you're there and, uh, replacing Cobrena, right? Yeah. So I stayed there for, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. And then, then you, how'd the transition happen? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I stayed there for, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the transition happened from here so and then I started deciding see on a lot of friends in Atlanta was a very shout is wrong it's a city that maybe because I was first I was thinking to move to Chicago okay oh that's what they see that I was having mine but I have in mind over here too so I was like going back and forth and see you know which one would be better yeah I think here my opinion and we like it so we have good place in mind I thought like back back over the day they the city is you know it's not like change change a lot you know like that back on the days was smaller yeah but I was kind of from sure but then

I came here I like it had international airport that I can travel as well for the seminars I said no you know let's let's give it a try yeah it was really good yeah it's a good decision uh we love here we love the city we love like you know have two and a half hours we have the beach and two hours we have the mountains and it's pretty good city yeah and uh do you have kids I have a daughter a daughter how's your daughter she's seven years old okay so um so maybe we can talk a little bit about um the programs that you have here so I was at your Fort Mill location full of kids everywhere it was split in half it was really cool to

see um it the what are the programs that you're offering here today yeah so uh basically like you know we in Fort Mill where we land so it's my cousin uh Professor Freddy is there now doing an excellent job there so before that he was here with me uh full time and uh three years ago when we decided to open another location and we open for that area yeah it was doing amazing so he's there like full time do an excellent job with the community there uh so basically we have the same program here too we have the little champions three to five years old then after that we have the little uh the champions one is uh six to eight and champions two is nine to 13th so we

have you know a program for the whitebells the beginners so we have the advanced set as well and uh we have also you know you know for them also for that dotes also we have three levels uh beginners intermediate and advanced uh gi and no gi as well so that's basically like how we set up our program and now we have two match space you have two class runs at the same time uh gi and no gi or beginners or the advanced you know intermediate and no gi and so we kind of like have we adding a lot of class on our schedule as well that we have you know even more you know 7 a.m's 11 12 you know 6 30 7 30 so have a lot of time

for everybody yeah and um do you get moments where you just sit back and you're like wow look at look at this guy this is amazing do you get those moments are you so in the i think it was naturally like you know we start growing progress yeah you know i think of course i'm super proud of what uh what we have you building here you know uh you know these things are awesome as well i think we create a culture very nice culture in the academy that uh they all the students you know welcome the new students help them as well to start understand what we do here too so you know seeing that i think i'm more proud of that as well you know than the facility of

course i'm proud of the facility but i'm super proud of even more about this culture that we have been using here for these years yeah and um i guess you know for me coming in this is i see this i'm like wow amazing right but this is the end result of so much hard work that you have put in for so many years yeah and um i guess if you could go back to your own self like when before you start like right before you started could you give yourself advice now having an adult experience and what what would you say to yourself i think that you know i when you're young and when you don't you try a lot of things as well but one thing that you find

that you have the passion to do it you have to fill your heart as well you know like i was as i was mentioned about i was studying business and then i was like a lot of a lot of people in that time say hey you're playing karate you like you know you're you have to find a real real job and all these things you know and the same people today say hey lucas is my friend and they're like kind of proud as well but back in the days was like big size as well because they're thinking that on back in the days you know not now but wasn't like a real job right right right just you know do not listen much you know others just stick with yourself

what you're feeling and uh and decide what you want to do here then i think that's important too and stick with that you're not just keep jumping uh side to side like you know you don't know what you do get lost you stick with one thing and pursue that i think that's you know and decide as that's what i did yeah you know i decide like you know i want to be use you know and stick with that stick with what you decide to do it you know um that i think was what i did yeah i decide like you know i want to be use even though like i was study on the side as well to get more knowledge with other things as well i think that's always

good because we always have to keep involving keep learning new things constantly that you can you know uh add to your life as well yeah you know so i have have this white mindset mentality is really important to have white belt mentality whatever yeah so um you're never knowing us so yeah and so you're in this space of being very passionate a lot of naysayers telling you um oh what are you doing that's like you're not going to make any money that kind of thing right and you just kept going because you believed in it and you're very passionate about it and you're now here yeah so yeah so when i was a when i was a brown belt i always stopped training because it wasn't give much return i

was just investing you know i was investing of course i was teaching as well but it was just the money was just for me to travel for pay my for my expenses for traveling for training for competing you know um that's it all right so i wasn't much i didn't have much for going out to travel to have some fun that was specifically uh my goal i say i need to teach i need to save this money because i need to pay my flight tickets we have to pay my registration always a lot of investment before i start uh harvest right yeah so uh that's why a lot of people have to understand that too you know do not try to succeed overnight you know so i have been trained

for 25 years and you know it's a lot of effort that you have to put it even though i hope our business have to be all 100 as well it's not like takes time as well to rule not overnight uh yeah yeah so here it is yeah and so maybe going into specifically the academy opening up this is um what look so of your own academy um this is a new place you were in another place before this was there one another one before that or just had one place before no no no so that was before we moved to the current location we have we just uh as i said like we're in that location as soon as i moved to charlotte we're still in the same location for

11 years oh wow okay 11 years um any i was supposed to move a little bit before but as i was competing still yeah so it was so hard to have have time into looking for a place to look for control you know i thought that would like would uh like for you because you need to have a time you need to have a time to look for a location look for the things that you want to put on the school you know as i was involved the competition mode i was on the competition mode uh yeah it was like yeah so it split your attention your focus you know so and when you're there to have to when your computer have to be 100 that way on that mode

otherwise you can undo well yeah yeah and um for someone who wants to open their own gym any advice you have for them yeah so first you know like have understanding jiu-jitsu you know you're not gonna watch uh a technique on the youtube and go over there and teach it's not like that i know a lot of people that does that too but they sometimes can be a trouble as well when they say hey why you do this why you do that you do not understanding you know you know what you're showing what you're you know like the concepts behind the technique why you do this why you put any here why you make this brief why your hips go this way not go that way you know understanding study

this is the same thing that's going to go to university study over there when you get you know uh you have like you maybe can do like few jobs related before like you know that you can learn it the same thing that i was with the assistant coach with my professor learning how to do it you know learning how to teach how to learn the concepts behind the techniques you know and uh and then later on i'm gonna get a certificate now you're ready to start like official work full time you know so it's kind of just is the same thing you know this is one part of how like what you need to have it to open the academy right so have be very knowledgeable okay to show to

your students you know you know your potential you know your knowledge right so be really good also on the cost and service too yeah you know be good with the people understand like you know uh you're very very always happy as well always you have to smile and welcome people you know uh understand that you're like your clients you know like i think that's you know sometimes the professor some guys they're a little bit mean with the students i don't believe how but if it's like that you know and then as soon as you start grow as well you need to have a really good staff as well you need to the assistant instructors you know good good instructor good friends around you that can help you to grow your

business as well otherwise you cannot grow you know right by yourself you cannot go too far so have a good team good staff behind this important as well and be this you know the instructors can be on the front desk you know late as well have a nice uh gym program as well helps a lot you know to track the students to have their levels the attendance the payments everything helps too right uh my wife she's the manager of the academy so she's the real black belt i like to say that because she's like do a lot of works behind you know all the systems and we have the fun that's letting the front desk ladies who too we thought and julia they're like maria they're doing excellent job as

well uh my wife send them the leads everything you know but my wife is behind off everything she's she's uh making sure things go right yeah sure yeah so my main you know i know the system i know everything as well you know how to run but that's not my 100 focus so my 100 force is the pathology and the maths that i have the help of my life as i said then she's take care more on that part as well yeah great um i guess uh you've been doing this for so long that i'm sure you have stories that stand out of changing people's lives um is there anything that kind of comes to mind like oh we did you know maybe a kid who came in who was

shy or something and any any stories you have that even adults yeah so we have like you know some good feedbacks uh for kids you know like the parents came hey looks my kid you should get put all the time bullying all the time on the on the bus school and finally he stepped up uh comforted the kid you know and his kids the kid that he comforted never will he him again so i think that's kind of confidence that you and the kids hey is really important you know it's really important and then a lot of adults as well hey professor thanks so much this i was with depression this helped me to you know to overcome these and a lot of stories you know like uh or just

like someone just hey professor because of you watch your fights or you know like certain things like that you know make us think about our mission here yeah it just puts more more fuel into your passion yeah of course now this is you know this as i said i've been doing this since my 15 years old seeing a lot of things a lot of change a lot of people's lives or like we're using jiu-jitsu as a tools to impact people's lives on the right way you know make sure that you know everybody starts you know you said it'd be sad if something come come over here release the stress i have like beautiful new friends as well and uh you know i think is you know and this is gonna

makes understand like our the power of jiu-jitsu the part that what we have in hands you know to help you know a lot of people's lives that change people's lives for you um so right now grand opening amazing we'll celebrate that tomorrow you have fort mill what's the future are you thinking another location or like what are you thinking about yeah so we have some plans for sure i don't know like we always move we're never satisfied you know like about the competition have been winning the charlotte open at ggf here for 16 times and uh you know it's always a challenge every year is a challenge we would never know that we're going to win the next one but we're going to prepare everybody you know the affiliations are

coming as well the other professors prefer the students too and this is the same now i build this academy so we're going to focus of course keep over here you know a few more years and then you know when we think okay now is the time to try another thing you know expand more and then we're gonna see other other place to be open too awesome great um maybe i'll just ask you about gindesk you doing with us now uh i think it was like february march something like that earlier this year because uh yeah we started the transition by that time yeah how's it been how's the it's amazing you know as i said you know it's really important to have a system that can track the students with

you know classes with uh with the attendance right with the levels of the students with the tracking you know uh the class like when people give these stripes you know trap really nice payment systems they can create their own accounts as well they can make change we can you know we can communicate with everybody just within the apps you know that uh helped a lot because we are very happy to have this program here okay well i'm honored to uh have been hosted today um thank you so much for having thank you thank you for stopping by thank you not to be here you just did this 7am class good you know you see that everybody was checking in over there you know um yeah it's amazing we like a

lot of religion desk and thank you guys for stopping by come down check out the news facility you guys are going to be here tomorrow for the opening and uh you guys are more than welcome anytime okay thank you so much thank you Alex appreciate it