From Five Schools to Seven: Michael Costa Takes Over OCTA's Newest Location
Starring
Luiz Costa is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who founded OCTA with business partner Greg Carrasco and has grown it to seven locations across Halton. He can't be in seven rooms at once, so the job is now picking the professors who can. He holds a karate black belt too, though he told Alex he doesn't train it anymore.
Michael Costa is a brown belt and the professor running OCTA's seventh school, which opened two weeks before filming. He has trained for thirteen years and taught kids for four, and he still competes while running the location. He's a type 1 diabetic and talks openly about managing it through fight camp. The belt he wears is his father's.
About the Gym
OCTA Jiu-Jitsu is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu organization in Ontario's Halton region, founded by Professor Luiz Costa with business partner Greg Carrasco. It runs seven locations. Oakville North, the newest, opened two weeks before this episode was filmed and is led by Michael Costa.
The Oakville North schedule runs gi fundamentals for all levels, open mat most weeknights, and a full kids ladder—Little Octopus for the youngest, then Kids and Pre-teens groups. New students start with two free semi-private intro classes. Roughly 300 kids train in the Oakville HQ program.
Luiz keeps every school inside about an hour's drive, close enough that the locations can support each other. OCTA runs on Gymdesk across all seven, including the sites that list each location's class times.
📍 Address: 83 Loyalist Trail, Unit 5, Oakville, ON L6H 3R4, Canada
📞 Phone: 647-822-4653
Summary
Alex last visited OCTA Jiu-Jitsu when Luiz Costa had five schools around Oakville. He came back to seven. The newest sits in Oakville North under ceilings high enough that Alex says it feels like standing outside, and it had been open two weeks.
Michael Costa runs it. He's been training thirteen years and teaching kids for four, and the brown belt he wears is his father's. Luiz passed his other belts down as he got promoted, the way his own school did it. The brown one he kept. The other new school is inside an LA Fitness in Cambridge, 1,200 square feet of mat, a pilot OCTA started by cold-calling a VP. Luiz says he wants ten schools eventually. Right now he wants to consolidate.
