What makes us different?

People ask me what makes Big Mike’s BJJ different from every other Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school out there, and for the longest time I couldn't come with a great answer. It's not that we're not different. We are. And in a good way. It's just that it was always hard to nail down in a way that wasn't exceedingly wordy.

So after mulling it over for the last year and a half or so, I decided to take another stab at it and here's what I came up with. It all boils down to three things... great Jiu-Jitsu, great instruction, and great culture.

Great Jiu-Jitsu

I think the best Jiu Jitsu is simple, effective, and efficient. Simple Jiu-Jitsu is easier to learn, easier to remember and less likely to break down under pressure. Effective Jiu-Jitsu works no matter what your opponents do to derail it. And efficient Jiu-Jitsu allows you to conserve your energy while your opponent exhausts all of his, and that’s how you beat giants. That's the kind of Jiu-Jitsu we like to focus on here.

Great Instruction

Our art has made some incredible advancements over the last 20 years, but most academies teach Jiu-Jitsu the same way it was taught over 20 years ago. We think we can do better.

We don’t just obsess over Jiu-Jitsu. We obsess over the best way to teach it. We research and implement new instructional techniques and training strategies such as an online video curriculum, linear learning, and the ecological approach to name a few. 

The difference isn’t just in what we choose to teach, but how we teach it, when we teach it, and what order we teach it in.

Great Culture

We are primarily a hobbyist gym. Our members have day jobs and families to support. They can’t afford to take time off of work or school due to injuries. To that end, we’ve worked hard to build a culture of camaraderie and control, where learning and taking care of our training partners is more important than winning.

If you’re looking for a fighter’s gym, or a competitor’s gym, or if you’re just looking to pay money to beat people up, then we’re not the place for you.

But if you live in Oak Harbor, Washington and you’d like to learn Jiu-Jitsu in your spare time with a group of like minded, average Joes and Janes looking to do the same, you should come check us out. I think you’ll be glad you did.