‘The sky is the limit for jiu-jitsu’: Jose Junior on the rise of Emirati interest and his own quest for No 1

Photo courtesy UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation

For thousands of Emirati children pursuing a career in jiu-jitsu or even practising it as a hobby, they do not have to look beyond Jose Junior to find a role model.

For one, the Brazilian has been instrumental in introducing the sport to schools through the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s Jiu-Jitsu School Programme.

If that is not enough, his story as a competitor is compelling.

After spending long hours training to resurrect his career, he is on the cusp of becoming the black belt world No 1. It is a remarkable achievement for someone who had almost given up competing when he signed up for his job in Abu Dhabi.

Junior arrived with the first group of jiu-jitsu instructors to Abu Dhabi in 2009 when he was hired by Palms Sports, the technical arm of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation. Their task was to introduce the sport to public schools in the emirate.

“The programme had to be reviewed and revived constantly in the initial years,” Junior said. “We had much more responsibility and much hard work. But fortunately, we had a great team to work with.

“My team worked side-by-side with me. My career as one of the supervisors of the school programme was to reach personal goals. When I first came here, only 13 schools were involved in a pilot programme.”

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Junior says there was no curriculum in place and jiu-jitsu was being “trained like judo”.

“Take down and hold for three seconds, and that was only the fight,” he said. “But then we prepared a curriculum and at one time we didn’t allow submissions. The kids didn’t know much about jiu-jitsu and we had to teach them from the very beginning. We started submissions from 2011. Then [we] kept restructuring the programme.”

According to Junior, there are more than 50,000 children now practising jiu-jitsu.

“I see it as a great success,” he said. “I don’t know if there is any other sport in the UAE that gets so much attention, aside from football. I’m still not sure if any other sport draws as much players as in jiu-jitsu.”

The sport has grown across Abu Dhabi.

“We have covered almost every public school in the Abu Dhabi Emirate that also include Al Ain and the Western region,” he said.

Plans are now underway to take it to schools in the Northern Emirates.

“The sky is the limit for jiu-jitsu,” Junior said. “I want to say all the kids in schools will be practising jiu-jitsu in the very near future.”

Junior does not know if there is a programme of this sort in ant other sport. “But for sure, this is the first successful project in jiu-jitsu anywhere in the world,” he said.

The Brazilian is so passionate about his work, he even compares it to a child.

“We can say jiu-jitsu is a nine-year-old child in the UAE,” he said. “The progress reflects the hard work and it took us nine years to achieve what would normally have taken 50 years.”

He looks at where the Abu Dhabi World Professional Championship is now and compares it to when it began in 2009.

“Its growth has been incredible,” he said. “Everyone wants to come here to fight. There are 100 qualifying tournaments across the world and 7,000 players in this year’s championship.

“You don’t see that many competitors in one competition. So, the progress is huge in a short time. We have 210 instructors in the school programme and 450 in the military, aside from those in private academies. There are more than 700 black belts in the UAE.”

It is safe to say that all this progress, especially in the consequent rise of black belts in the country, inspired Junior to return to competition.

“I got into the management of the school programme,” he said. “We have a lot of players and it provided me the motivation to make a comeback.”

The decision to return to competition, while still having an 8am to 5pm job, will not have been a straightforward one for Junior. But his wife Roberta Ferreira — also a jiu-jitsu instructor — has proved very supportive.

“I have huge support from my wife, especially when I have to spend so much time in my work and own preparations for competitions,” he said.

“My wife has sometimes to be the mother and father for my kids. I have a routine of 15 hours a day. I start at 5.30am with my own cardio activities and get to my day job from 8am to 5pm.

“I work on my own training until around 11pm almost everyday. If I didn’t have that kind of support at home, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I have achieved.”

Someone less inclined to back Junior in this regard is his mother, Vera Costa, who prefers tended to push him towards studies.

“She thought my talent was in academics,” Junior said. “I did computer science for my degree and she still thinks I should do that instead of jiu-jitsu.”

But the sport remains close to Junior’s heart after all these years, and he wants to introduce it to his two children, 12-year-old daughter Ana Julia and 11-year-old son Davi Jose.

The fruits of his labour are for all to see: He enjoys a 140-point lead over nearest challenger and fellow Brazilian Gabriel Arges in the rankings race.

The rankings competition competing for men and women black belts is an initiative of the national federation, and it comes with a bonus prize fund of US$25,000 (Dh91,828).

“A new chapter will open at the end of this week,” Junior said. “I’m really excited. My training is going very well. I have a good feeling it’s going to be a great day for me.”

Arges fights in the 77kg weight and after an unsuccessful bid to defeat Junior in the 110kg at the Grand Slam London and has decided to fight in his own weight division.

The scenario, therefore, is Junior must reach the final to keep his lead if Arges wins his weight division.

“I just have to do my part now to keep the lead,” Junior said. “There are a lot of good opponents in my bracket. I’m not focusing on one single guy but I want to prepare my own game plan and face any guy.”

For Junior it is all about striving to improve. “I started my preparation the very next day I lost the final in the World Pro 12 months ago,” he said. “The whole year, I saw big improvement.

“The first competition wasn’t so good but I kept improving all the time in the season,” he said.

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