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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

New Jiu Jitsu academy opens

Greg Lucas climbed on top and pinned his partner. Roughly 15 students in white uniforms gathered in a circle to watch Lucas demonstrate how to break free from an attacker’s grip during a Thursday night beginners’ jiujitsu class.

Lucas opened his martial arts academy, B-Town MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, two weeks ago.

There was a high demand for a martial arts academy in Bloomington, Lucas said. This is because IU does not allow MMA classes, so students can only learn martial arts up to a certain point, Lucas said.

“I have all these kids out here that want to go farther and train more and train harder, but there’s no avenue,” Lucas said. “It was another motivation to open up an MMA place, along with the Brazilian jiujitsu.”

Lucas started practicing martial arts in 1986 as a student at IU. After working his way up through the ranks, Lucas opened his first academy in Bedford in 1992 and started teaching at IU in 1996.

The IU students vary from students looking for a fun elective to wrestlers, Lucas said. During the 2014-15 school year, 2,773 students enrolled in the martial arts program, according to the School of Public Health website.

“IU’s got the biggest 
martial arts program in the country,” Lucas said. “A lot of people don’t know that.”

At Lucas’ academy, students learn “ground fighting” self-defense techniques. This is when one partner tries to fight the other off as they lay on the ground and wrap their legs around the other person as they climb on top. Lucas described the move as looking like “human pretzels.”

Lucas’ students also have the option to compete in up to six tournaments per year throughout the Midwest.

On top of managing two martial arts academies and teaching at IU, Lucas is also firefighter, working at the station on Third Street once every three days.

Balancing three jobs can be difficult, Lucas said, but he has a routine and makes it work. His family has gotten used to it, he said.

Lucas said he hopes to grow his businesses by getting more families involved.

Many parents are afraid that martial arts will make their children violent. But it actually does the opposite, Lucas said.

Martial arts teaches respect, discipline and self-control, Lucas said. These lessons are what have made his academies so successful, he said.

“We become like a big family,” Lucas said, “It’s a real good learning atmosphere, there’s really no egos. Everyone’s trying to help each other, learn and get better and grow.”

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