Meet John Ramos | Head of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Program

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Ramos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
As partners of Teragi Academy, both of the families had similar experiences through Jiu Jitsu, with our children being the first to begin learning the martial art and eventually the parents joining them on the mats too. There were clear benefits for the children as they became skilled at Jiu Jitsu. It made them confident, physically and mentally fit, and capable of defending themselves. They were able to better handle and stand up to bullies but eventually as they became very good at Jiu Jitsu, they developed an aura of such confidence and kindess that no one would pick any fights or try to bully with them. As for the parents, we began to enjoy and benefit from fitness and mental calmness that came with training Jiu Jitsu, with John Ramos, eventually earning the black belt. However, when the two families met and became friends through the mutual love of Jiu Jitsu, we quickly realized we had some new ideas where we can disrupt the Jiu Jitsu school business and hopefully create a superior service, especially for families. We spoke for hours about the great things in Jiu Jitsu schools but also where things can be done better. For example, Thomas sustained a serious hand injury and a minor back injury all withing the first 6 months of training Jiu Jitsu as a 48 year old. Was there something that the academy and the instructors could have done to prevent that? Also, we noticed that many Jiu Jitsu schools were fixated on identifying the most talented students and athletes early on and focusing on their development so that they can become more successful in the competiton arena to make a name for the school. The fallout from that was the non-competitive students were not getting the same level of attention and many ended up quitting Jiu Jitsu. To name one more example, while Jiu Jitsu is touted as a martial art that a smaller, weaker person can use to subdue a larger, stronger opponent, female participation in the art is still very low (less than 17%) and while everyone talks about the need to develop a committed women’s program, not many academies in our market was making a serious commitment and investment in to women’s Jiu Jitsu.

So, when we set out to execute on our business plan, we knew we couldn’t open another Jiu Jitsu academy that is similar to many other martial art gym. We had to differentiate and address the needs of the customers or potential customers that weren’t being met. We have a true focus on helping all students successfully learn Jiu Jitsu, including women, kids and adults, with an emphasis on safety, longevity, and training to help each other rather than just for oneself. Our retention rate of over 75% first year prove our approach and business model works. We also have a comprehensive afterschool academic tutoring program tied in with our Jiu Jitsu program, further enhancing what we aim to achieve in growing strong foundations in our young students for holistic growth and success in life.

What should our readers know about your business?
Teragi Academy is an institute for growth and personal development for families. The center pieces to our service and instructions are in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and an afterschool academic tutoring program for children, Kindergarten through 8th grade. To make it a welcoming place for families, we offer classes for kids, women and men, that are safe, accessible and high in instructional quality. Our instructors and coaches are world class champions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and our afterschool staff are led by college graduates with extensive teaching credentials and childcare experience. What makes us truly unique is that the ownership is made up of experienced professionals from all walks of life, including health care services, operations management, interior design and technology consulting, who bring wisdom and expertise learned from these fields into the vision and execution of our martial art and tutoring academy.

We have been open just over a year but have been able to grow to 170+ members already due in large part to the hard work that the team has put into welcoming, teaching and retaining members and in part due to the community’s positive response to our execution of a Jiu Jitsu and afterschool academy that is truly family-centric.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
From Fullerton, where we are located, Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm are located nearby for world class family theme park experiences. We are surrounded by restaurants offering cuisines from all over the world. The Anaheim Packing House is a great place to experience one of the exciting food scenes in the area. Fullerton is the home to a vibrant university life at Cal State University Fullerton and with a downtown that comes alive at night, there is ample opportunity to enjoy what the city has to offer. For leisure sports enthusiasts, we have multiple golf clubs, tennis courts and of course, several excellent Jiu Jitsu academies, including Teragi Academy.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Lena Sekine for painting the beautiful mural in our academy. The mural is an expansion of our butterfly logo..

Website: https://www.teragi.academy/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teragi_jiujitsu_fullerton/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Teragi-Academy/100088111928182/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/teragi-academy-fullerton

Image Credits
None. I own all of the images.