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CloseThe December holidays usually means travelling overseas for many families, and this means a vacation away from school, work, and even Jiu-Jitsu. But when you’re a family of Jiu-Jitsu lovers like Amin, Carol, Adriel and Ayden, BJJ becomes a huge part of your dream vacay!
On their most recent trip to the USA, parents Amin and Carol took their two sons on a three week long road trip across Arizona, Nevada, and California. During this time, ten-year-old Adriel and four-year-old Ayden jumped at the opportunity to train at Gracie Barra schools in each of the states they visited. From GB Phoenix in Arizona to GB Henderson in Las Vegas, GB Whittier and even GB Irvine (Headquarters) in California, the family planned their trip in a way where they could maximise their time abroad to include training sessions in between sightseeing, and visiting friends and family.
“Amin and I would have loved to train ourselves, but with a tight holiday schedule, it was only possible to let the kids train,” says Carol. “We wanted the kids to be training as often as they can, and to visit as many GB schools as they can. It is wonderful that they are able to keep fit through the BJJ sessions even during the holidays, and also continue to enrich their learning experience.”
Towards the end of their trip, the kids realised how enjoyable it was to visit so many GB schools and wished they had visited more. From meeting new friends, and learning different techniques from different instructors, the boys had such a good time that even now that they’re back in Singapore, they still pick up their GB visitor cards to reminisce and wish they had filled up more attendance boxes on their cards.
For older son, Adriel, the best part of visiting so many different Gracie Barra schools was being able to train and spar with so many children his age, size, and belt level. His parents noticed that both he and his brother have returned to Singapore even more keen to train, and the experience has boosted their confidence on the mats as well.
“As parents who started their kids with BJJ at Gracie Barra Singapore only nine months ago, we see how our kids match up with others around their level. We are so proud to say that we are from GB Singapore, and we bring with us our very own ‘seal of quality’!”
The family of four also noticed some differences between each Gracie Barra school they visited, from school size, instructors, even the changing rooms and mat softness!
“There’s always a tendency to make comparisons when we go to other schools, but at the end of the day, we tell our children we are all family. We fall under the Gracie Barra umbrella, and we are blessed to be able to visit other GB schools everywhere in the world. We just hope that our visit will enrich those we visited as well,” Carol says.
“This is our first family holiday involving visits to other Gracie Barra schools, and we will continue to visit many more in holidays to come. Training with the GB family everywhere around the world makes our horizons broaden even more!”