Ohio Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Self-Defense Academy School History

Tony Rinaldi has been teaching martial arts in the Youngstown area for many years, at several different locations. In 2005, Tony decided to open up his own school, teaming up with Brian Mlinarsik. The entrepreneurs formed The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Self Defense Academy, Inc. We opened for business in September of 2005, and we have been going strong ever since.

We spent five years at our original location on Rt 224 in Boardman, but in the fall of 2010 we decided to move to a new location to accommodate our growing school.  We now operate out of American Karate Studios in Boardman, OH. This is an existing traditional martial arts school operated by Dave Buker. This is a very large with plenty of room -- we hold our classes on the upper level of the facility. We have over 3,000 sq feet of training space.  We also have a fully equipped weight area which includes weightlifting equipment, kettlebells, and a high-quality elliptical machine.