Est. 2024 — Monterey, California
Flow with instincts
No-Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Monterey, taught by the Art of Entanglement coaches and team. You walk in nervous. You leave already planning your next class.
Who you’ll train with
Serious training, run by people who know your name.
Most gyms make you pick: serious, or welcoming. Here you don’t. AOE is a No-Gi academy with real competition credentials, daily kids classes, and coaches who remember what it felt like to walk in new.
The academy is family-run in the practical sense: front desk, kids classes, parent questions, and beginner nerves are handled by the people who are in the room every week. So when a member says they were “treated like family from the very first day,” it lands because the place actually runs that way.
That’s what Flow With Instincts means off the mat too: this is a room where you stop overthinking whether you belong and just start.
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ADCC Las Vegas National Champion
your coach
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Best Martial Arts Academy in Monterey County
two years running
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#3 in the world
IBJJF Master 3 Super-Heavyweight
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Open since January 2024
Every claim above is verifiable — credentials, awards, schedule, and facility details are sourced before they publish.
Programs
One mat, three doors in — pick the one that’s yours, and the first week is on us either way.
Why AOE
What you get here that you won’t get down the street.
Not “world-class everything.” Specific things, that you can check the day you walk in:
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Your first week asks nothing of you. A full week on the mats with no commitment to start. You don’t buy a thing to walk in the door.
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Kids train seven days a week, weekends included. Nobody else in Monterey does this. Soccer Saturday? Come Sunday instead.
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No-Gi only for adults. No uniform to buy, nothing to outgrow — the modern, MMA-relevant side of the sport.
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Recover like a competitor: sauna, cold plunge, and a conditioning room — on top of two mat areas and a CJI pit (the only inclined wall mat we know of in the area).
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A parent lobby built so you can stay and watch every class your kid takes.
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The whole free week is yours — any class you’re eligible for, before you decide anything.
Mat hours
Open before sunrise and after dinner.
Adults train No-Gi every weekday at 6:00 AM before work and 6:30 PM after it. Kids run seven days a week, with Kids Kickboxing on Tuesday and Thursday. Here’s the shape of the week:
| Kids (No-Gi & Kickboxing, 3–14) | Adults (No-Gi, 15+) | |
|---|---|---|
| Mon · Wed · Fri | Kids No-Gi 4:00–6:00 PM | 6:00–7:30 AM · 6:30–8:30 PM |
| Tue · Thu | Kids No-Gi 3:00–3:45 PM · Kickboxing 4:00–6:00 PM | 6:00–7:30 AM · 6:30–8:30 PM |
| Sat | Kids No-Gi 9:00–10:00 AM | First Responder 6:30–8:00 AM (free) |
| Sun | Kids No-Gi 9:00–10:00 AM | Open Mat 10:00 AM–12:00 PM |
From the members
“The sport lures you in. The people make you want to stay.”
That line is from a member named Brandon, who called the gym on a whim after years of “someday.” Here’s what others wrote, unedited:
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“The sport lures you in, but the people make you really want to stay.”
— Brandon M., Monterey -
“I've enjoyed watching my little girl build confidence and have watched her do things I didn't even know she was capable of.”
— Maria D., parent of a 4-year-old member -
“No better place for competition-level jiu-jitsu in the area.”
— Sammy G.
2024
National Gold Medalist
Proven on the mat
You can look all of this up.
Specifics, not adjectives. The AOE room is shaped by ADCC and IBJJF competition experience, Gracie Barra lineage, and active No-Gi training standards. This is not a vague “all levels welcome” claim — it’s a room where beginners and competitors share the same technical standard.
In only its second year, AOE placed 3rd Overall Team at the IBJJF Sacramento Open against more than 100 academies from across Northern California.
Inside the academy
Two mat areas, a conditioning room, sauna and cold plunge, and a parent lobby — the real room you’ll walk into.
Rooted in Monterey
We train the people who run toward trouble.
Every Saturday at 6:30 AM, AOE runs a free class for first responders — no membership, no catch. In 2025 the Monterey Police Department recognized AOE’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu work with its officers, and we work with the Monterey Fire Department and the Monterey Firefighters Foundation. Sponsor support pays for uniforms so a kid who wants to train never gets turned away over money.
Monterey Firefighters Foundation · Moderate Foundation
Your first week
Your first week is on us.
Come train with us
Bring nothing but nerves.
No uniform to buy for the free week. No reason left to keep saying “someday.” You get a full week on the mats — any class you’re eligible for — and if it’s not for you, you walk away owing nothing. As one member put it: “Sign up. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”