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Brazil-to-Chicago Pipeline Helps Team Redzovic Jiujitsu Lead the Pack

Team Redzovic Jiu Jitsu
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DNAinfo/Mark Schipper

LINCOLN SQUARE — You might drive past the austere school marked “Self Defense” at 4900 N. Lincoln Ave. and not realize some of the greatest martial artists in the world train and hold seminars there when they’re in Chicago.

Just last summer Royce Gracie, a three-time UFC Tournament champion and one of the brightest stars in mixed martial arts, conducted classes for students at Team Redzovic Chicago while he was in town.

A Gracie-style Brazilian jiujitsu academy from the beginning, Team Redzovic is helmed by the first official American representative of Carlos Gracie Jr., a son of the sport's founder: Eddie Redzovic, now 40, who helps runs the gym alongside 10 other professors, including other members of the Redzovic clan.

Eddie was the first of his brothers to earn the Gracie distinction — a high honor considering how famously protective the Gracie family is of its name.

His family, which includes Adem Redzovic, 32, one of the primary instructors, have operated their academy since 2000.

As the popularity of martial arts in general, and jiujitsu in particular, has grown, the Redzovics opened two additional schools in Lincoln Park and the Loop.

“We try to teach the art of Gracie jiujitsu in its totality,” says Adem Redzovic, himself a black belt and an accomplished tournament fighter.

Teaching the whole of the martial art means both the critical self-defense component, which is where the practice began, along with the sport tradition, which is what it grew into.

When Eddie took over the gym in 2000 from its previous owners, he began making pilgrimages to Brazil to study the art at its source, says Adem, recounting the school’s early days. In Brazil, Eddie met and began working with Carlos Jr., and studied under him all the way to black belt.

“If we weren’t training in Brazil, someone was here from Brazil training with us,” said Adem Redzovic. “We’re very grateful, we’re blessed to have the lineage that we have — we’ve learned from multiple sides of the Gracie family.”

But the Redzovic school isn’t just a den for professional fighters to pummel one another. In fact, Adem says “anyone with a good attitude” is welcome.

Brett Johnson, 33, of Logan Square, started at Redzovic as a beginner a little more than a year ago.

“I had a black belt in drinking and all kinds of things I shouldn’t have been doing,” says Johnson. “I got tired of that and figured I’ve got to take care of the old meat wagon, and the whole discipline and controlling your desires and connecting with other people.”

Johnson goes to class three or four times a week and locks up his bicycle in front of the school, having given up his car and quit smoking cigarettes about the time he started practicing jiujitsu. Earning a new belt was motivation and a reminder to persevere, he said.

At Redzovic, anyone can participate in a free class and get an idea of whether or not jiujitsu is for them. The first 12 weeks are spent in the school’s CORE program focusing intensely on personal self defense before offering a transition to sport applications for those interested.

"If someone is in the area and you’re thinking about joining a martial arts school, picking up martial arts, making it part of your life, you’re definitely welcome here,” Adem Redzovic said.

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