Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Pasadena celebrated its one-year anniversary with a seminar led by Rener Gracie, CEO of Gracie University, focused on SafeWrap™ — a 2-on-1 restraint technique developed for crisis intervention.
The Pasadena location opened as a Certified Training Center under Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, bringing decades of family-based martial arts experience to the community. The school offers classes for all age groups and genders. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu operates multiple centers across Los Angeles County and is centrally managed from its headquarters in Torrance.
The center is owned by head instructor Fred Joaquin, who has practiced jiu-jitsu for 13 years. His wife, Aida Joaquin, also trains and teaches the Women Empowered program. Their three daughters are learning jiu-jitsu, and Joaquin plans to introduce the youngest when she is old enough.
“Jiu-jitsu started as a hobby for me, but as I learned more and got deeper into it, I saw that it had many auxiliary benefits in my life,” Fred Joaquin said. “When I looked at the jiu-jitsu school landscape, it wasn’t always welcoming. The idea here was to show people there’s a place where they can learn to defend themselves. Although we’re learning how to fight, we don’t have to fight to learn.”
He added, “Being the jiu-jitsu school that anybody can come to is so nice and so beautiful, that means a lot. This year celebrates our blood, sweat and tears to bring that to fruition.”
Gyms, like Joaquin’s, must receive approval and training from the Gracie family in order to use the Gracie name. Carlos and Rorion Gracie immigrated to the United States during the 1970s, making jiu-jitsu available to a wider public. Their uncle Hélio Gracie — the youngest of the Gracie brothers and widely regarded as the co-founder and patriarch of Brazilian jiu-jitsu — adapted the family techniques into the Gracie or Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Since its opening, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Pasadena boasts that 46 percent of its student body is female. “It’s so rare to have a gym with such a high percentage of women, and we’re all ages. I love the community it fosters, and everyone is just so supportive,” Aida Joaquin said.
SafeWrap, a technique developed by Rener Gracie, is designed to reduce the risk of injury during use-of-force situations. Initially created for use in the University of California healthcare system to manage mental health crises, the method has since expanded into other sectors, including law enforcement, fire services, private security, and education, according to Gracie.
“SafeWrap will be the farthest-reaching application of jiu-jitsu into every sector of society wherein there is a service being provided and they’re interacting with the public, whether it’s government or private sector,” Gracie said. “If there are humans interacting with a potentially aggressive, suicidal or emotionally disturbed person who needs to be restrained for their safety or others SafeWrap will be there to improve outcomes.”
Considering his family’s accomplishments that stretch to the creation of the Brazilian jiu-jitsu practice itself, Gracie shared his fulfillment in creating SafeWrap. “I’m very proud to have come up with this, and I feel like it’ll be remembered long after I’m gone.”
Jonathan Yuen, a seminar participant, said the experience gave him a deeper understanding of the technique. “I learned that SafeWrap’s effectiveness depends heavily on communication and understanding body language,” Yuen said. “Learning from Rener was really helpful today because attention to detail was the biggest thing I got out of this.”
For many attendees, the opportunity to meet Rener Gracie was a highlight. “Today exceeded my expectations,” Fred Joaquin said. “Our goal was to bring as many of our students together as possible, introduce them to [Gracie], and, as expected, he blew them away.”
