Personal History

Professor Pedro Sauer was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where from an early age, he began training in the martial arts. At age five, he began boxing and later took up judo and taekwondo. At age fifteen, however, his friend, Rickson Gracie, invited him to train jiu-jitsu with his younger brother, Royler, who at the time was only nine years old. The outcome of this experience convinced him that jiu-jitsu was the most effective of all the martial arts, and he began training the very next day.

Pedro worked towards a double major (Economics and Business Administration) in college, and took post graduation course at Fundacao Getulio Vargas. He worked in Brazil as a stockbroker for eleven years before deciding to move to the United States and pursue a career teaching jiu-jitsu. In 1990, he moved to California with the original wave of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors. He lived in California with Rickson Gracie and trained daily with the Gracie brothers (Rickson, Rorion, and Royce), their father, Helio Gracie, their cousin, Renzo Gracie, and the Machado Brothers, as well as many others. In December of that same year, he moved to Utah where he has lived for the past eight years, pioneering brazilian jiu-jitsu in the American southwest.

Certifications

• 1985 - Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Helio and Rickson Gracie
• 1986 - Tecnico de Jiu-Jitsu. This is a special certificate given in recognition of superior technical mastery of the art of jiu-jitsu, given to only a handful of students by Helio Gracie.
• 1990 - Certified Black Belt Instructor by Robson Gracie and the Federacao de Jiu-Jitsu
• Black Belt Judo
• 1993 - 3rd Degree Black Belt from Rorion Gracie
• 1996 - Level 6 Instructor Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy (Rorion and Royce Gracie)
• 2000 - 5th Degree Black Belt under the Federacao de Jiu-Jitsu
• 2003 - 6th Degree Black Belt

Teaching Experience

Pedro Earned his Black Belt from Helio and Rickson in 1985. Long recognized for the superior technical efficiency of his jiu-jitsu, he then began his career as an instructor in 1986 when asked to teach with an organization known in Brazil as Corpo/Quatro (Body of Four) where he taught and continued his training under renowned jiu-jitsu instructors Alvaro Barreto (who is a red belt master under Helio Gracie).

After moving to Utah in December of 1990, he taught as one of only two non-Gracie black belts under the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy (run by Rorion and Royce Gracie). In October of 1996, he became an official representative Black Belt Instructor under the Rickson Gracie American Jiu-Jitsu Association.

Currently, Pedro resides in Virginia where he instructs at One Spirit Martial Arts and at Jeff Gordon's Self Defense Academy.  He also has several affiliated schools across the country, and he visits them on a regular basis to give intensive instruction to the students and instructors. He is one of the most highly sought after instructors in the U.S. (of any martial discipline) and has presented hundreds of public seminars around the nation.

Fight Club LLC, located in Reisterstown Maryland is offering High School students a Training Program of MMA Fundamentals. To give a brief background, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is the fastest growing sport in the country. It involves competitors using carious interdisciplinary fighting styles: including Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Judo, Boxing and Kickboxing in a highly controlled fight with the winner dedicated by KO, submission, judges’ decision or referee stoppage. Just like wrestling, MMA includes technicality, tactics and strategic thinking. It can also be described as a mental game and not a brutal sport. Mixed Martial Arts became legal in May of 2008, when Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill legalizing MMA in Maryland with the full support of the Maryland State Athletic Commission. Also found in Baltimore Sun, dated October 24, 2009, that “many gym owners, coaches and former fighters might have longed to see the sport sanctioned by state government, but Rallo went through proper channels, hiring a lawyer, lobbying state legislators and recruiting people to testify in committee meetings long before a bill came up for a vote in Annapolis. He showed them a Johns Hopkins University study that conducted MMA to be safer than boxing.”
 
We offer High School students to join our program twice a week . We will be teaching stand up technique and ground technique. 
Stand up technique is about being able to set up your takedowns off strikes and how proficient you are at avoiding the takedown. It is about how well you can fight from the clinch, and how well you can battle while pressed up against the cage. There are so many elements to stand-up game that at times it seems impossible to keep up, but if you desire to become a true mixed martial artist, that’s exactly what you must do. During the learning of the standup technique, we will also teach punching, kicking, checking techniques, and counter attacks. On Fridays we will be teaching ground technique. Ground Technique is divided between top control, and bottom technique. Top control is when you take your opponent to the ground. The ideal situation is to land in a dominant position such as side control or mount. Bottom technique is when you learn how to try and fight off your back in order to survive. This means more than just studying submissions. You must learn how to move your hips and create new angles from which to attack. Each class is designed to give students a challenging workout including cardiovascular and strength building techniques. The result is a system that takes the best of striking throwing and grappling and combines them to form one discipline. Emphasis is placed on self defense applications and physical conditioning.
 
This Program is six months long. It is for beginners who have interest in learning MMA and its essentials. For the students who will grow more interested in making this their sport, the next six months will include more classes, and a higher level programs. Moreover, for those students who will be interested in self defense, we will continue on a program that includes that. However, we realize that this might not be ideal with you, therefore, we would like for you to give us Feedback. If you have something different in mind that will work for the students better, then we are more than happy to work in order to create that. It is our goal to interact with the youth as much as possible to help prevent troubles in life, families, and keep them off the streets.