About Us
A message from Head Instructor Ricky Semiglia
Jiu Jitsu has been such an important part of my life. I have had the privilege to make teaching Jiu Jitsu my career and have done so for half my life. Throughout the years I have tried to find out how to best convey the principles and techniques in a way that people of all ages understand them, and this is by emphasizing the importance of STRONG FUNDAMENTALS. This is important for everybody who commits to Jiu Jitsu for whatever reason (hobby, self-defense, confidence, competition, etc.), because practicing Jiu Jitsu is just not safe nor productive unless you understand your fundamentals. Jiu Jitsu is a long journey, it takes on average 8- 10 years to earn a black belt, and as a black belt myself, I can attest that I still have so much to learn. This is the amazing part of Jiu Jitsu, the never-ending search for solutions.
What is Jiu Jitsu?
Jiu Jitsu is a martial art that involves techniques to control an opponent through strong positioning eventually leading up to a submission. There is always one person in the offense and one person in the defense. Only the player in offense can get a submission. As the one in the offense, one learns to achieve and control positions on their route to the submission. As the defender, they learn to escape positions to eventually become the player in the offense. Only one person can be in the lead, and only that person can get the submission.
What makes Mattix different from other Jiu Jitsu Academies?
Mattix Academy has a strong focus on the basics (fundamentals). The instructors teach every technique with a big emphasis on THREE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS: CONNECTION, TIMING, and WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION. We find it more important to understand and sharpen your understanding of these concepts, oppose to just memorizing a bunch of techniques, as your foundation.
Here at Mattix, we believe that the Ukei (the training partner having the technique done on them) have a very important role. They must understand the techniques as well because their reaction is 50% of the technique. Without a good training partner you are not training well, so a mutual understanding of these concepts is required here at Mattix.
The concepts are pretty much the language we speak here at Mattix. All instructors of Mattix Academy are people who have trained under this system to make sure the concepts and teaching methodologies stay consistent.
We also believe SAFETY is very important on the mats. Of course, there is always possibility of injury, but we believe that with proper understanding of these concepts, we can minimize those chances of injury significantly.
