Atos BJJ Academy

Created in 2008, Atos Jiu Jitsu is an academy founded by Ramon Lemos and Andre Galvão who in very short amount of time made a big dent in the sport’s landscape. With its headquarters originally in Rio Claro, São Paulo – Brazil, Atos has since moved its base to California where it opened doors first through André Galvao and later by jiu jitsu prodigies, the Mendes Brothers (Guilherme and Rafael). Mainly a lightweight team in the early stages of its creation, the Atos competition party was heavily linked with the development of positions such as the 50/50 guard, leg drag technique or the worm guard. Since then the Atos Jiu Jitsu roster has grown to a wider span of competitors in different weight classes.

Ramon Lemos and Andre Galvão both represented the Brasa academy during the team’s heyday. Ramon Lemos had come originally from the Nova União camp, while Galvão worked at Fernando Tererê‘s TT academy before a set of complicated personal issues led is instructor astray from jiu jitsu. The Brasa academy at the time was a beehive of talented individuals, with fighters and coaches such as the Vieira brothers (Leonardo, Ricardo and Leandro), Octavio “Ratinho”, Rodrigo “Comprido”, Demian Maia and many others, the majority of these coming over from Alliance after their break up (see more about this on the Brasa Clube de Jiu Jitsu page). At Brasa, Ramon and Andre formed a tight friendship; both had a lot in common including strong religious beliefs as they were both evangelical. In October 2008, when Brasa’s structure began to shake, with the Vieira brothers and a few others leaving the team, Ramon Lemos came to Galvão with a proposal, that they both form a team with a strong competitive drive and fresh ideas as well as a strong moral foundation based on the Evangelicalism that both of them advocated, this was the beginning of Atos Jiu Jitsu.

Both Atos’ team leaders are well known Christians, and the name of the team is a testament to their faith, the word “atos” in Brazilian Portuguese means acts, as in “The Book of Acts” which is the fifth book of the New Testament; The Book of Acts describes the history of the Apostolic Age.

As soon as the Atos Jiu Jitsu team landed in the BJJ world, straight away it elbowed its way to the top of the jiu jitsu scrum, medalling 5 black belt competitors on the World Jiu Jitsu Championships, and crowning its first black belt world champion (Guilherme Mendes). The team became known by its persistent use of the 50/50 guard, which was strongly developed in the Rio Claro stable, a guard that was a new approach to the knee reaping rules imposed by the IBJJF and brought a lot of controversy with it as it was deemed boring and a stalling position by the media and rival teams. Be that as it may, it became part of the BJJ curriculum after the continued success of Atos Jiu Jitsu fighters in competitions, and it has been adopted as the weapon of choice by many jiu jitsu competitors from opposite teams. Atos and more recognizably the Mendes brothers have also been linked to the development of other positions such as the berimbolo and the leg drag guard pass.

The team’s success was evident from the get go, especially in the lighter weights, being widely considered one of the strongest (if not the strongest) feather and light feather weight team in the world. The team’s methodology and focus into drilling as well as other intricacies of the academy brought recognition from some of the biggest names in the jiu jitsu world who travelled over on several occasions to work for major competitions in the Atos camp, names like Kyra Gracie and Mike Fowler (who joined the team).

Atos Academy, San Diego HQ (Andre Galvao) Address:
4810 Mercury St, San Diego,
CA 92111, United States

Atos Training Camp