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Legion American Jiu Jitsu enrolls more than 100 Beginners in just 60 days

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Legion American Jiu Jitsu enrolls more than 100 Beginners in just 60 days

May 11
10:30 2022
The 5-Week Beginner Course is revolutionizing how people learn jiu jitsu basics

A San Diego-based jiu jitsu mega academy, Legion AJJ, is becoming a local martial arts factory since launching a 5-Week Beginner Jiu Jitsu Course. In the last 2 months, more than 107 regular people have enrolled in it as part of several groups, to give jiu jitsu a try. They get to do so through a highly structured curriculum, which consists of 10 jiu jitsu and 5 judo classes.

“We saw many problems with the way random Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) academies were offering beginner classes. Too many horror stories of people getting thrown into the deep end, learning techniques that weren’t a part of a curriculum, and injuries from wild sparring, made us want to offer a better alternative. That’s why at Legion we guarantee people will start with other beginners and follow a proven curriculum,” said Miha Perhavec, one of Legion’s two founders and head 5-Week Course instructor.

A history of doing things differently

Legion AJJ has been established in Miramar, in November 2019 and gained instant popularity as the academy that is the home of founder Keenan Cornelius, one of America’s most accomplished jiu jitsu competitors. Not shying away from controversy, Cornelius declared a start of a new American Jiu Jitsu movement, which has found many supporters as well as naysayers in traditional BJJ circles.

However, the proof is in the pudding and due to the popularity of the beginner courses and growing advanced classes, the 10.000 sqft facility has recently expanded its mat space to 5800 sqft, making it one of the biggest in America and in fact, the World. On May 1st, over 200 people attended their “open mat”, breaking the school’s attendance record.

Lot’s of reasons to start training jiu jitsu

“A lot of people want to try jiu jitsu for the self-defense benefits, many watch MMA and want to learn the ground game, podcast fans get turned on to it by Joe Rogan or Jocko Willink and some people just want to try something new,” says Miha Perhavec as he lists the main reasons that bring people to Legion AJJ. Despite doing a good amount of social media posting and advertising, simple word-of-mouth is what keeps growing the academy. “The best marketers we have are happy members who want to learn how to choke out their friends”, the jiu jitsu and judo black belt added jokingly.

Course curriculum = The secret sauce

During their course orientation, potential course participants learn about the curriculum, which is a closely guarded secret. It starts with self-defense lessons, safety tips, judo & wrestling takedowns. It continues by covering dominant positions and fighting from the back (the guard), a unique capability of a solid jiu jitsu fighter. Of course, it also touches on submissions, holds that make your opponent submit, namely chokes and joint locks.

“We find that upon graduation, Beginner Course participants are quite capable of sparring (practice fighting) and they have tools to continue rapidly improving. We were confident that this will happen, but the results have gone beyond our expectations” says Mr. Cornelius who has himself been involved in martial arts since a young age.

The lessons continue at home

In addition to the in-person classes, every student in the course also gets access to a 4K video curriculum as part of a collaboration between Legion AJJ and Jiu Jitsu X a platform for streaming video lessons from the World’s best jiu jitsu instructors. “Students were always worried about missing the odd class or forgetting the lessons, so I wanted to make sure that the main lessons are always at their fingertips with the Jiu Jitsu X app”, said Perhavec.

Looking ahead

Legion AJJ plans to continue the trend of sold-out courses through the summer. Due to the limited capacity and guaranteed semi-private format, all 5 courses so far, sold out in advance. “It’s incredibly satisfying to see people progress so fast and develop a passion for the martial art that we’re so devoted to. We take jiu jitsu seriously, but seeing our students have a lot of fun and finding meaning in our academy and community is the most rewarding part of the job” is how Cornelius summarizes Legion’s mission.

Media Contact
Company Name: Legion AJJ
Contact Person: Miha P.
Email: Send Email
Address:7550 Miramar, Suite 330
City: San Diego
State: CA 92126
Country: United States
Website: https://legionsandiego.com

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