Today we’d like to introduce you to Valerio Mori Ubaldini.
Hi Valerio, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My story started back in 2008 when I was 14 years old in my hometown Livorno, in Italy. At that time, I was already a black belt in Japanese Ju-Jitsu and after assisting to one of the first videos of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), I saw how effective Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was in a combat. At that time is not like nowadays where every athlete trains Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Judo and can be considered complete. At that time was a style vs style; Boxe vs Karate, Judo vs Muay Thai. The goal was to find which martial art was the most effective. And a Brazilian guy, Royce Gracie, even if he was one of the lightest athlete in the tournament was able to win 2 editions of the UFC submitting every opponent demonstrating how effective Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was. So, after I watched it, I signed for a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class in my hometown!
I started from 0, wearing my white belt again: at the beginning. I was just training 3 times a week. I was only 14 years old and I was the only teenager of the class. I used to be the youngest and lighter person in a group of adults. After 1 month I decided to test myself in a real competition! At that time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wasn’t a big movement or a sport as known as today, especially in Italy. In a competition of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu normally you register in a division of your weight, belt, and age: at that time, the only age division available was the adult one. My will to test myself was so high, that I decided to register anyway, just to be able to experience and feel the vibes to enter in the arena, be surrounded of a crowd, and fight against a person that you never met before. A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament is not a single fight: as you register you are going to be part of a bracket of 3,5,10 athletes. It’s all about how many people are going to register under your same age group, belt, and weight class.
So, on the day of the tournament, I was really nervous, my mind was blank; it was like if everything I learned was just disappeared! But as I stepped on the mat my mind and my body worked like remotely, like activated an automatic pilot. I won 2 matches by points and won the final by a submission called armbar from a position named Closed Guard. To do an armbar, you have to hyperextend the arm of your opponent using the extension of your hips and the pressure of your legs against the opponent arm: when you receive a submission like this one, to don’t risk to break your joint you have to tap. When a tap is happening, the one person applying the submission needs to suspend the pressure and relief the submission. Well, my opponent of the final match refused to tap: so, the most I was extending my legs, more was the noise from his elbow: I won the match by breaking my opponent’s arm. At 14 years old I was able to win in Rome my very first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition in the adult division. After my first experience competing, from just train 3 times a week I started to train every day but there was just one little and important detail that I did not mentioned before: I still was a full-time student in High School. At the beginning I was able to complete my study and homework before going to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the gym: the more I trained and the more I desired to compete, so I started to compete more and more. After demonstrating that I was ready to a new step, 8 months after started I received the blue belt.
In 2009 I participated to the IBJJF European Championship in Lisbon, Portugal. IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation) is the most important federation in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I was about to test myself in a high-level tournament this time in the juvenile division. In this event, I took the second place losing only by 2 points in the final against an athlete from Russia. This loss marked my career as an athlete forever: I was able to see the difference of style, technical and physical preparation of one country and others. So, when I came back home, I started to train not only Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but also add to my schedule some weight lifting training. In Italy I was still competing: win some and lose some matches, but in my mind, I had clear that on the next European Championship I would win and step on the podium on the first place and win the gold medal. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary, I knew that: I worked harder and the next year I participated to that tournament. After 4 tough matches, I was able to accomplish my goal and be on top of the Europe, I won the gold medal.
After some more competitions, I received my purple belt, I was 17 years old and I was thinking only about competing. I almost finished the High School, with only 2 years to graduate. I will never forget how one day my father after school, as a few years left to finish the school, asked me what I would like to do and become after graduating. Observation: my father studied all his life and he was a doctor and owned 2 studios, so he was looking to pass his torch to me one day and he was hoping to hear me answer “a doctor “. Well, my answer instead has been the following: “I want to become a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion “.
That day I received so many hits on my head that not even to a drum!! The months from this event passed and I won 2 times the FILA Grappling Italian National Championship, I was showing to my father that I could have the right passion, dedication, and skills to become a top athlete. I was becoming already well known in Italy due for my sport but the only thing that was blocking me to do more or to become more was the difficulty of my High School: for more, I was studying and more bad notes I was achieving, I was giving my best at school too but I wasn’t getting positive results. The FILA Grappling World Championship in Croatia was getting closed and I decided that year, with the approval of my family, to burn and fail at school to follow my dream. So, I had about 4 months after this decision to train for the World Championship and I had more time to dedicate to my training, free time that I never had before. I started to train for this event 3/4 times a day every day adding train of Judo, Wrestling and running: I remember how my friends were inviting me to party, drink or smoke with them but I always said “NO”. With the Italian National Team, I travel to Croatia and I competed with and without the uniform, 2 days event. After sacrificing everything in my life for 4 months, I became World Champion in both styles winning a total of 8 matches with athletes from all over the World. This event has been so important for me because I had the chance to show my parents and specially my dad how hard I worked to accomplish what I was dreaming. After it I started taking classes to a new High School doing 2 academic years in one and then complete a year later with full positive note.
I was 18/19 years old and I felt I wanted to accomplish more, so I decided to leave my local team to start travel to England first to learn from a famous world-class athlete and then decided to go train where the movement of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu started: in Brazil. I lived in Barra da Tijuca, Brazil for 3 years- from my purple to my black belt. I have been assaulted 2 times with guns and knives, I lived myself without my family and I was able to spend time with my girlfriend only 10 days every 3 months when she was able to travel from Italy when her job gave her the possibility of vacations. In this 3 years, I was able to train and teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the highest levels, doing everything I was dreaming: I was able to leave and breathe the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle. I trained for 3 years 3/4 times a day, teaching classes for kids and adults in the very first Gracie Barra founded in 1986 by Carlos Gracie Jr, son of one of the founder of this sport; I was competing every weekend and being able to become until today the only Italian ever to win a Brazilian National Championship in Brazil.
After receiving my black belt, I moved back to Europe and open my own gym in Canary Island, Spain: I was able to leave close to my parents and start a new life with at that time my girlfriend, the one that always waited for me so many years. At 23 years old I married her and had a son with her. In the same period of time, I was aware of position of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Head Instructor in US, so I tried and applied online. My goal was to give to my family a brighter and safer future, so after passing 3 tests in videoconference I have been approved to become part of the Gracie Barra Team in Texas thanks to my partner/employer Tim Thompson.
I had to work on my visa first and thanks God I have been able, due for my successful titles and Palmares, to be approved with an athlete visa. I started to teach in a 2 years old school in Tyler and then start from the beginning in Carrollton. As a Head Instructor in Carrollton, I was so blessed to form a really good team, create a great environment to let everyone try and train Jiu-Jitsu; create an environment not only for athletes and who want to compete but really for everyone. I am nowadays still happily married to my wife Yenifer and we have 3 beautiful children together and moved in 2020 to Overland Park in Kansas with a mission to open the very first Gracie Barra School in the state. A year later we open and we arrived to 250 plus active students and I am able to do what I love the most: sharing my passion of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes, I always believed that God gives the hardest challenges to the bravest warriors. I struggled a lot during my High School formation, during the training in the gym, convince my family of the future I was trying to build for me, so many loss in competition, the difficulty to travel in England and then in Brazil, and the necessity to learn a new language and live in different cultures. But I always thanks God for every obstacle He brought in front of my way, I always thanks Him for everything He gave me and everything He took me away. I know for sure that without this obstacle that I lived and the challenges that I faced, I would not be the same person I am today.
Every challenge I faced made me stronger, resilient, passionated, dedicated, and full of faith.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are the number one team in the world. In Gracie Barra, we believe in spreading Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone and we believe that if everyone trained, the world would become a better place. I am so blessed to meet and change people’s life for the better: people with low self-esteem, kids who suffered bullying at school, people who were looking to lose weight or get in better shape, or women who have been abused. If you want to join because you want to become a Champion, you have the opportunity to accomplish your goal: or if you want to make more friends, you can do it too!
We have more than 900 schools open in the world, more than 400 in the US: the beauty is that if you are part of one school, you are part of all. The facility is very spacious. Classes are offers from the early morning to the evening six days a week. Every instructor has to be certified: every year, Gracie Barra creates through an online platform a Certification Program for Instructors (ICP). Is an online course with pages to read and understand with the final test at the end of any course. To be able to be certified, you also have to pass a drug screen background: this part becomes really important, especially because the instructor has to teach class not only for adults but also for kids.
Our method to teach the class is unique and different too: we work on 16 weeks curriculum program and it’s all written and explained framed in the school – everyone can have access to it. Every 900 schools in the world will be able to work the same techniques during the same week of training: this is important because if a student for any reason let’s say he will need to travel to Spain for business if he finds a Gracie Barra school, he will be able to not only train for free but also learn the same techniques that he would learn in his school – from a different instructor and different training partners.
In Gracie Barra, we focus more on the detail: we divide our groups of classes by level of experience for the adults and by age for kids. Per week we practice about 6-9 total techniques from the same position: there are different teams or even martial arts that every day teaches 10 different techniques from 10 different positions. It can sound cool at the beginning, but I bet that a student when he will come back to home if he tries to remember what was a step of the third technique, he will not be able to answer it. So, our methods are well designed. Everyone wears the same color of uniform (white or blue) as a football team, or the firefighters and police department. This gives us a sense of unity and brotherhood: there are different teams around the world where everybody wears a different color of uniform (red, yellow, camouflage, etc.)
I formed 2 Novice World Champions! They started with me and with my training they were able to win the gold medal 2 years in a row during the IBJJF Masters World Championship in Las Vegas.
In Kansas City, after 9 months from opening, without a proper competition training, I was able to bring 7 athletes competing at the Grappling Industries and win First Place by Academy and First place by Organization.
In St. Louis, I brought about 12 students competing at the American Grappling Federation and with other Gracie Barra schools from Missouri we were able to win First Place in Adult Gi Division, Adult No Gi Division, Kids Gi, Kids No Gi, and Overall.
All of this in only 1 year being opened, and this is only the beginning!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I am always in searching something that can help me become a better person, husband, athlete, and leader. I strongly believe that part of the training is not only physical but also mental and spiritual!
I like to read books about leadership: books from Jocko Willink like Extreme Ownership or Can’t Hurts Me from David Goggins are my favorite.
But also books as the Gracie Diet and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, from Rorion Gracie, and Breathe from Rickson Gracie are really interesting and important in my martial arts formation.
I like the Art of War of Sun Tzu and I like to read Macchiavelli.
The Compound Effect of Darren Hardy is also a book that I read and I always invite my friends and students to read as well.
About apps, I always like to receive every morning a passage of the Bible to start my day full of joy, strength, and positivity.
About podcast, I follow Joe Rogan and his Joe Rogan Experience.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.gboverlandpark.com
- Instagram: @valeriomoriubaldini and @graciebarraoverlandpark
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/gboverlandpark/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/Merzbjj
