About the Yamasaki Academy
The Yamasaki family has been teaching martial arts for 2 generations in Brazil. In 1994, Mario Yamasaki founded the Yamasaki Academy in the United States and its success has made it one of the premier Martial Arts training centers in the United States. Now, the Yamasaki Academy has locations in 4 continents with representatives in Brazil, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Australia and the US.
The Yamasaki Academy offers a complete Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instruction program that incorporates excellent technique, live sparring, competition training, and fitness. Although our classes are intense and utilize a vigorous exercise program, our instructors recognize that each student is an individual with unique goals and progresses at his or her own level according to that student’s athletic and martial arts background and level of fitness. We are the only Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school in the area with 4 Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belts from Brazil and now we have 2 American born Black Belts in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
In general, our classes are formatted as follows: The classes begin with a warm-up to help protect against injury and increase stamina and fitness. Following the warm-up, the instructors teach various techniques so that the students have a full of arsenal of submissions, takedowns, sweeps, reversals, and escapes. Students’ questions are always welcomed during the technique portion of the class. Finally, the students engage in live sparring in order to practice and execute the various techniques that they have learned.
About Yamasaki Academy Woodbridge
The Yamasaki Acadmey is now proudly offering Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes in the Woodbridge area. We have partnered with the American Martial Arts Center in the Merchant Plaza Center located at the intersection of the Prince William County Parkway and Old Bridge Rd.
Address
American Martial arts Center
4172 Merchant Plz
Woodbridge, VA 22192
Class schedule
Tuesday: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Thursday: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
About the Instructor
Joe Cunningham has been a student with the Yamasaki Academy since 1998. His interest in the sport started after watching Royce Gracie dominate opponents in the early Ultimate Fighting Championships using techniques that, at the time, were widely unknown to most people in the United States. Like most students of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu usually find, once he started training he was quickly hooked and began spending as much time as he could at the Yamasaki Springfield academy learning from the instructors.
In November of 2006 he was awarded the rank of Brown Belt from Mario and Fernando Yamasaki.
