About · New Lenox, IL
A Real Gracie Barra
Academy. Right Here.
Gracie Barra New Lenox is a certified academy inside the largest Jiu-Jitsu organization in the world — run locally by Ron Poholik, on a mat where the person next to you was also a nervous beginner once.
01 / Why this school exists
Built For The
Person Walking In.
Most people who message us have never trained. They're a parent whose kid is getting pushed around, or an adult who wants to get in shape doing something that isn't a treadmill. Almost nobody walks in wanting to compete.
So the school is built for that person. Fundamentals classes that assume you know nothing. Coaches on the floor instead of in the office. A curriculum that tells you exactly what you're learning next instead of leaving you to figure out whether you're improving.
The competition team, the tournaments, the black belts — that all exists here too. It's just not the price of admission.
02 / Who runs the mat
Ron
Poholik.
Head Instructor & Owner · Certified Gracie Barra Instructor · 30+ Years Teaching Martial Arts
Ron Poholik has spent more than 30 years on the mats as a full-time martial arts instructor, teaching thousands of kids and adults in the Chicago southland before opening Gracie Barra New Lenox in 2018. In 2017 he was named the Greatmats National Martial Arts Instructor of the Year — a national award voted on for teaching, not for trophies. Today he runs his academy on the Gracie Barra standard: a structured, worldwide curriculum used by 1,000+ schools in 60+ countries, taught by coaches who look after beginners instead of throwing them to the wolves.
2017 Greatmats National Martial Arts Instructor of the Year
30+ Years
Full-time martial arts instructor
4.9★ · 100+ reviews
From local families
Since 2018
Teaching in New Lenox
03 / What the school stands on
Integrity. Development.
Brotherhood.
Integrity
Technique taught the same way it was taught to us — no shortcuts, no belt sold, no student promoted before they can do the thing.
Development
A written curriculum, not whatever the coach felt like teaching. Every class fits into a path you can actually see yourself moving along.
Brotherhood
Beginners get looked after. Upper belts are expected to make the person across from them better, not prove something on them.
04 / How we're different
Four Things
You'll Notice.
Beginners start with beginners
Your first classes are fundamentals — positions, escapes, and movement. Nobody is thrown into live rolling on day one, and nobody has to guess what's going on.
The curriculum is the same worldwide
White belt in New Lenox learns the same syllabus as white belt in Rio. If you move, travel, or take a year off, the system picks you back up where you left it.
Kids are taught in real age bands
Little Champions 1 (5–6), Little Champions 2 (7–9), and Juniors (10–15). A six-year-old and an eleven-year-old need different classes, so they get different classes.
Clean mats, clean rules
Uniform standards, hygiene standards, and a coach on the floor watching every round. Parents can sit and watch every minute of it.
Part of something bigger
One Curriculum.
1,000+ Schools.
1,000+
Gracie Barra schools worldwide
60+
Countries running this syllabus
1986
Founded in Rio de Janeiro
05 / The short version
How We
Got Here.
1986
Gracie Barra founded
Carlos Gracie Jr. opens the first Gracie Barra in Rio de Janeiro and writes the curriculum the network still runs.
2018
New Lenox opens
Ron Poholik brings a certified Gracie Barra academy to New Lenox, teaching the full kids and adult program ladder.
Today
4.9★ · 100+ reviews
Families train with us from Frankfort, Mokena, Joliet and across Will County.
06 / Where we train
New Lenox, IL.
14627 W Edison Dr, New Lenox, IL 60451
(815) 463-9327
Evening classes weekdays · Saturday mornings
Families travel to us from Frankfort, Mokena, Joliet, Manhattan, Tinley Park
Come See It
$19.99 for 2 Weeks.
Free uniform included. Continue only if you love it. Walk in this week.