This year marks the 10th anniversary for Cruvinel Brothers Training Center, which offers students of all ages instruction in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from its facility at 60 Access Road in Stratford.
Instructor Thiago Ferreira is not bashful about what he believes to be the top quality of martial arts education present at Cruvinel Brothers.
“All modesty aside, our instructors are probably the best instructors in southern Connecticut right now,” he said, adding that the instructors have each competed for more than 10 years, with Ferreira himself having practiced Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu since 1994.
“We”™ve been putting our skills to the test and refining how to teach those skills and to pass it on,” he said. “That combination of good teaching plus actual experience in competition that comes from all of us being so active as competitors over the years makes for a unique mix.”
Ferreira hails from Brazil and had struck a relation with the titular brothers, Marcos Paulo Cruvinel and Joao Paulo Cruvinel, through mutual friends while participating in tournaments in New York City in 2018. The Cruvinels, who previously operated out of Bridgeport, were impressed with Ferreira”™s capabilities as an instructor and offered him a permanent position at the Stratford gym, which opened shortly after in 2019.
The training center has participated in over 100 tournaments and won more than 15 championships, and its latest tournament will be having been hosted by the nonprofit Tap Cancer Out as a fundraiser for cancer research and treatments. Cruvinel Brothers will also participate in an upcoming Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu championship in New Haven hosted by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation from Aug. 13-14.
“Our goal is to bring in a lot of competitors and showcase our skills and the way we teach and the way we run things in our gym,” Ferreira said of how the center will approach the upcoming championship.
While there is an emphasis on improving one”™s technique through rigorous instruction and sparring, Ferreira pointed out that this “highly competitive” environment is also mixed in with a healthy dose of laid-back friendliness, which does not adhere too much to strictness or tradition.
“I think it”™s very noticeable that we try and keep a very ”˜chill”™ environment,” he said. “We try and keep it very friendly, very playful.”
This competitive yet friendly atmosphere resonates well within the gym”™s community, Ferreira added, observing the approximately 200-person student body is around 40% under 18 years of age, 40% older than 28 and the remaining 20% between 18 and 28 years of age.
Recently, the training center has seen an expansion to its martial arts offerings with the introduction of Muay Thai training.
“The instructor we have now has been building his classes over the last six or seven months,” Ferreira said. “It”™s growing really well.”
Looking forward, Cruvinel Brothers is seeking to expand into other locations. The center will be opening a gym in Monroe in August and is looking into opening a new location in Norwalk and potentially Greenwich while possibly reopening its original Bridgeport location.
