Gracie Barra - Overland Park & Dollamur
Gracie Barra has been a valued customer of Dollamur Sport Surfaces for many years. Gracie Barra at Overland Park, KS is a newer location, run by Tim Thompson, and we wanted to see how they’re enjoying their Dollamur mats and their new location!
A Bit about the Overland Park GB Location
After opening and selling our 2 Gracie Barra schools in Texas in order to move to Overland Park, KS., we opened Gracie Barra Overland Park, KS on October 19, 2020. My name is Tim Thompson and I am the owner of the academy. We offer children’s classes for multiple ages - 3-6, 7-9 and 10-14. Adult classes for both women and men and we plan on starting a strength and conditioning program for our Jiu Jitsu athletes and for anyone else who may not have a current interest in Jiu Jitsu but would like this program. Once COVID-19 is behind us we will start our free Women's Self Defense and Kid's Bully Prevention classes again - its our way of giving back to the community!
The Overland Park GB Team
Gracie Barra was started in 1986 by Master Carlos Gracie Jr. with the vision to have a Jiu jitsu school in every community and the mantra of "Jiu Jitsu for Everyone!" philosophy. This means we accept anyone who wants to train Jiu jitsu and create a better version of themselves along the way. We have athletes who want to compete, businessmen and women who want to live a healthier lifestyle while learning a martial art, kids who need bully prevention and confidence building, we have mentally, emotionally, physically "handi-capable" people who train with us and we have programs and the desire to teach and train with them all. Gracie Barra is the largest martial arts organization in the world out of all martial arts and the #1 competition team in the world year after year. The curriculum is second to none and is designed to teach everyone Jiu Jitsu the easiest and most effective way possible while also having safety front of mind. Over 800 schools teach the same curriculum every week - it's quite amazing!
Along with myself, Tim Thompson, I have a very strong Head Instructor Professor Valerio Mori Ubaldini and Program Director Kyle Seager. I recruited Professor Valerio from Italy, he is a 4X European Champion, 2X World Grappling Champion and the only Italian to ever win the Brazilian Nationals, his instructor was the infamous Professor Jefferson Moura and at the time was the Head Instructor for over 10 years at the original Gracie Barra school in Barra Da Tijuca, Brazil and appointed by none other than Master Carlos Gracie Jr. As you can see our Jiu Jitsu runs deep and close to the tree. Kyle is new to our team but has already engrained himself into the whole process of what Gracie Barra and Jiu Jitsu is all about and doing a great job, I also see him becoming a very competent athlete in the future.
GB Overland Park & Dollamur
Originally, in my first 2 schools, we got the Dollamur FLEXI-Roll mats that had to be taped/glued. When we outgrew the space at the 1st school we opted to try the Dollamur FLEXI-Connect and boy are we glad we did, it was an 1800 sq ft mat and it was perfect - no tape and glue made it a much better experience for us! So it was a no brainer when we opened Graice Barra Overland Park, KS to go with the same mats - Dollamur FLEXI-Connect, which we received in September 2020.
The Dollamur company and the Dollamur Team in general has always been great to work with. In fact, I went to the factory in Texas and watched them actually apply the vinyl to the high-density foam for our 1st school and watched them apply our logo to the wall mat - it was very cool and interesting to an engineer such as myself. Everyone walked me through the whole process and it was great. I was sold on Dollamur after that visit. All the people have been great to work with, the ones I remember the most and have dealt with the most have been David Torres and Nola Nix - they have been superstars and I appreciate both of them immensely!
COVID-19 at GB Overland Park,KS
Well Covid-19 had a huge effect on us and delayed our opening for 8 months from the time we moved to KS. The landlords were not really wanting to entertain leasing to a fitness facility amid a pandemic. We eventually secured our lease and 50 days later opened the doors. Doing so right in the middle of a pandemic was scary BUT we felt it necessary to move forward, people needed something they could do safely for their mental and physical state to improve. It married up well with our ‘Jiu Jitsu for Everyone’ mindset and culture. We have been open ever since and doing very well with our school growth! God has truly blessed us, our school and our students/parents!
The GB Overland Park Future
We are treating our goals much the same as before the pandemic. We want to have the best organization, the best facility and the best instruction in Kansas City and beyond and we have accomplished all 3 goals with Gracie Barra, our academy and our staff - we are the best school in Kansas City period! Our growth goals for 2021 is to reach 250 students, long term we have this school slated to be 400 students before we outgrow the current location and require more space - God willing and the creek don't rise that is exactly what we will do - our success is predetermined, and we will not rest until we meet it! Our goals for our students and parents is to have the best experience possible, show them how to become better versions of themselves each day and make Jiu Jitsu a way of life for them - it's our #1 passion and again we will not rest until this is met for every single student we have!
Dollamur is glad to hear from another customer that is continuing to prove successful despite the COVID-19 pandemic and will continue to follow the journey of this newly opened GB location!
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