Art of Jiu Jitsu (AOJ): The Academy That Changed BJJ
White mats, world champions, and the best kids program in the sport - inside Art of Jiu Jitsu, the Costa Mesa academy where Rafael and Gui Mendes turned jiu jitsu into an art form.
Walk into most jiu jitsu gyms and you know what to expect: dark mats, fight posters, loud music. Walk into Art of Jiu Jitsu in Costa Mesa, California and you'll wonder if you're in the right place — white mats, clean lines, natural light, and a room that feels closer to a design studio than a fight gym. Then you watch a class, and you understand: this is what it looks like when jiu jitsu is treated as an art form.
Founded by Rafael and Gui Mendes — ten IBJJF black belt world titles between them — AOJ has become one of the most influential academies in the world: a school, a competition powerhouse, and a global brand that changed what people expect a jiu jitsu academy to be.
What Is Art of Jiu Jitsu?
Art of Jiu Jitsu (commonly known as AOJ) is a Brazilian jiu jitsu academy in Costa Mesa, California, founded in 2012 by the Mendes brothers at the height of their competitive careers. The name is the mission statement: jiu jitsu presented and taught as an art — studied in detail, practiced with discipline, and passed on with pride in where it comes from.
The academy quickly became known for three things:
- The look. White mats, minimalist architecture, and an obsessive standard of cleanliness. AOJ made "beautiful gym" a category in jiu jitsu — countless academies worldwide have borrowed its aesthetic since.
- The teaching. The same microscopic detail that made the Mendes brothers world champions — grips, angles, timing — delivered in a structured curriculum for every level, from four-year-olds to black belts.
- The results. World champions don't just train at AOJ; they're made there, coming up through its own kids and juvenile programs.
The Founders: Champions First, Teachers Forever
Rafael Mendes retired with six IBJJF world titles and two ADCC gold medals; Gui Mendes with four IBJJF world titles. Both are IBJJF Hall of Fame inductees, and Rafael is an ADCC Hall of Fame inductee as well. Their lineage runs from Mitsuyo Maeda through Carlos Gracie, Carlson Gracie, and Andre Pederneiras to their coach Ramon Lemos — and now continues through the black belts they've promoted.
Today the brothers split the mission: Gui runs the academy and the competition team day to day, while Rafael leads the growth of the AOJ brand worldwide. Different lanes, same standard.
The Kids Program: AOJ's Secret Weapon
Ask anyone in the jiu jitsu world what AOJ does better than everybody else and the answer is almost always the same: kids.
The academy's youth program is widely regarded as the best on the planet — hundreds of children training in a structured, disciplined, joyful environment where technique is taught with the same seriousness as the adult program. The proof is a generation of athletes who grew up inside AOJ and reached the sport's elite as adults.
The clearest example is Tainan Dalpra, who moved from Brazil as a teenager to train under the Mendes brothers and became a 4× IBJJF world champion with one of the most dominant records in modern jiu jitsu. He's joined by a wave of homegrown and adopted talent — world-class competitors like Johnatha Alves, Cole Abate, and Jessa Khan — carrying the AOJ flag in the sport's biggest events.
AOJ+: The Academy Without Walls
Not everyone can train in Costa Mesa. AOJ+, the academy's online platform, brings the Mendes brothers' teaching to students everywhere — structured instruction in the same systems taught on the white mats, from fundamentals to the competition-tested details that won world titles.
It's the same philosophy that built the academy, scaled globally: jiu jitsu taught properly, step by step, with nothing left vague.
The Culture: Discipline, Respect, and Brazilian Roots
AOJ's standards are famous — bow before stepping on the mat, clean gis, respect for teammates and instructors, full attention during instruction. None of it is decoration. The culture is the curriculum: discipline on the small things is what makes the technical detail possible.
And underneath it all is Brazil. The academy's soul — like jiu jitsu's — is Brazilian: the language, the warmth, the treino culture that Rafael and Gui grew up in back in Rio Claro. The art traveled from Brazil to California without losing its accent.
Portuguese Vocabulary for the AOJ Mats
| Portuguese | English | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| arte | art | It's in the name — jiu jitsu as art form |
| academia | academy / gym | What AOJ redefined |
| treino | training session | The daily ritual |
| faixa | belt | Earned slowly, worn proudly |
| professor | teacher / coach | What students call the Mendes brothers |
| campeão | champion | Made, not born, at AOJ |
If you train jiu jitsu, these words are already part of your world. Learning the Portuguese behind them — the way it's actually spoken on Brazilian mats — connects you to the tradition academies like AOJ work so hard to honor.
Every word above — and hundreds more — is taught with native-speaker audio and mat-ready phrases in the Fala BJJ app.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Art of Jiu Jitsu (AOJ)?
Art of Jiu Jitsu is a Brazilian jiu jitsu academy in Costa Mesa, California, founded in 2012 by world champions Rafael and Gui Mendes. It's known for its minimalist white-mat facility, elite kids program, world championship–winning competition team, and the AOJ+ online training platform.
Who owns Art of Jiu Jitsu?
Brothers Rafael and Gui Mendes, who won ten IBJJF black belt world titles between them. Gui runs the academy and competition team; Rafael leads the AOJ brand's global growth.
Where is AOJ located?
Costa Mesa, California, in Orange County — a short drive from the beach cities of Southern California.
What famous competitors train at AOJ?
AOJ's competition team features multiple-time world champion Tainan Dalpra, along with elite competitors such as Johnatha Alves, Cole Abate, and Jessa Khan, plus a youth pipeline regarded as the best in the sport.
What is AOJ+?
AOJ's online training platform, where the Mendes brothers and AOJ instructors teach the academy's systems to students worldwide through structured video instruction.
Why are AOJ's mats white?
The white mats are the academy's signature — a deliberate statement that jiu jitsu is an art practiced in a clean, disciplined space, and a standard of care (they're kept spotless) that sets the tone for everything else in the building.
The Academy That Raised the Bar
Every era of jiu jitsu has an academy that defines it. For the modern era, it's hard to argue against AOJ: the place where two of the greatest competitors ever became two of the most influential teachers ever, where the world's best kids program feeds one of its best competition teams, and where the art — and the Brazilian culture it comes from — is treated with the respect of a craft.
The white mats are the symbol. The standard is the point.
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