OUR SCHOOLS ARE FOR EVERYONE AND ANYONE WHO IS LOOKING TO LEARN SELF-DEFENSE, GET IN SHAPE AND IMPROVE THEIR QUALITY OF LIFE.
Our Competition Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program can help you reach your athletics goals. Our school provides a positive environment for students with a great approach to personal excellence pursuit and realistic self-defense, however, we will always encourage and support any student who wishes to step up and compete.
Juan Pablo García Biography
Juan Pablo García was born on the 26th of June, 1982 in La Spezia – Italy, when his father was stationed there for the Ecuadorian Navy. He was raised in Ecuador but also lived 2 years in Colombia as a child, which made JP learn self-defense from a very young age since kids bullied him for his different accent every time they move.
Juan Pablo started training jiu-jitsu in his early teens (14/15) Initially he trained Judo because he couldn’t find Jiu-Jitsu in his hometown. After training Judo for a year he join a Royce Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Network Affiliated MMA Academy in Ecuador, influenced by watching Royce Gracie on the first UFC.
He went through their belt system and participated in multiple local vale todo competitions and in 2003 got promoted to blue belt by Royce.
In his search to pursue more Jiu-Jitsu, he traveled to the US and Brazil for seminars and competitions. Since there were no BJJ Black Belts instructors in Ecuador, he would bring back what he learned to teach friends.
Always traveling and searching to learn and expand his Jiu-Jitsu he had the opportunity to train and spend some time with great instructors and Jiu-Jitsu practitioners like GrandMaster Helio Gracie, Fabio Gurgel, Marcio Simas, Cobrinha, Marcelo Garcia, Daniel De Lima, and many others in Brazil and the USA.
During that time he became Florida State NO GI champion, won multiple NAGA tournaments, and competed in Brazil and Argentina where he also spend time at the University of Palermo and training at the SUKATA academy.
He helped Found Gracie Barra and was responsible to introduce and establish various other Jiu-Jitsu Teams in Ecuador.
Juan Pablo was key for the development of BJJ in his hometown where he did the first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (gi and no-gi) competitions and bring many Black Belts instructors to teach the art, from here many other teams were created in Ecuador.
In 2008 Juan Pablo made the decision to join the Gracie Barra team and move to the USA permanently. JP competed and received his purple, brown, and black belt promotions under the Gracie Barra Association until the first degree on his black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. in 2011
JP’s early days pursuing jiu-jitsu as a career meant sleeping at the gym, for some time on his car and barely earning enough to get by.
In 2010 moved to LA, to spend some time teaching at GB Pasadena & Encino. Juan Pablo known for his coaching abilities helped establish GB Schools in Burbank, Woodland hills and Holywood, and Chile, also start teaching seminars in South America, Europe, Canada, and the USA.
In 2014, he started teaching at Gracie Barra Santa Barbara for one year when he decided to move to Corona, CA, where he opened EDJ School Jiu-Jitsu former PTT Corona and made it his home. During this time Juan Pablo placed in many IBJJF tournaments and other federations been the IBJJF Long Beach Open Champion his last event. Having his own Academy was something he had worked his whole life for other than receiving his black belt. Currently, Juan Pablo Garcia teaches daily at his academy in Corona, also opened a school in Hemet, CA. and works closely with his affiliations in Germany, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and the USA.
Traveling so much during his own Jiu-Jitsu Journey exposed him to many instructors, teaching methods, and styles. Professor JP has a deep love for Jiu Jitsu and says it changed his life in a positive way and brought him more focus and discipline.
Competing and traveling have helped him to face his fears, meet new people and help others have the positive change that Jiu-Jitsu brings to lives. He loves to teach, build up, and empower others to become instructors as well, courses on how to run Academies, equipping others with the tools they need to be successful and follow their dreams of opening their own schools. Since he didn’t have any guidance when he started, he is passionate about providing it for others.
