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Our history and achievements
Focus Jiu-Jitsu, our history
Focus Jiu-Jitsu founded in 2016, by Professor Manoel Neto, is one of the most respected teams in Portugal and Europe for its results in championships and the growing number of affiliates across Europe.
Our team started in 2006, when Prof. Manoel Neto inaugurated "Fight Planet", in Matosinhos, his first academy. This was the basis of our team, which at the time was a subsidiary of Nova União, one of the largest teams in the world.
In 2008, came the first great individual victory for an athlete from our team, with the Gold medal of our athlete Emilio Sales, better known as "Tank", in the European Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
In 2010, Prof. Manoel Neto started to idealize an expansion project, which came to life in August 2011, with the inauguration of Academia Workout . In the same year, our school separated from the Nova União team and changed its name to "Team Manoel Neto" .
In 2011, it was an excellent competitive year for our team too, with three European Champions that year.
Over the years the team has grown, gaining students and having better competitive results year after year.
This success is largely due to our teaching method and ideals when it comes to having a united team, creating a good environment and well-being of each student first.
In 2014, our team took athletes for the first time to the IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, with our Prof. Manoel, offering two of the tickets to his students.
This year we had the first Focus Jiu-Jitsu World Champion, Guilherme Jardim.
As a result of this achievement, the team continued its growth and got together more than ever to be able to raise its level even higher.
This continuous work for several years was shown in 2015, when the team became National Champion in the Portuguese Jiu-Jitsu Championship for the first time. This year, we also had our second World Champion, Pedro Ramalho, better known as "Paquito".
In 2016, it was the year that marked the beginning of Focus Jiu-Jitsu, as we know it. The name derives from the quality that Prof. Manoel considered his focus more important in his journey. This year was also marked by the opening of the first afiliate of Focus Jiu-Jitsu. Regarding the competition, our athlete Guilherme Jardim, became two time-World Champion with an impressive journey of 5 submissions in 7 fights , and Pedro Ramalho getting the Silver medal.
Since then, Focus Jiu-Jitsu has never stopped its growth, having today more than 20 afiliates spread across Portugal, Holland, Spain and Angola.
Despite being only one of the several pillars of our school, in competitive terms, Focus Jiu-Jitsu has been growing, achieving the National Championship by teams two consecutive years (2018 and 2019), proving to be the main focus of competing athletes in Portugal.
This whole story was the result of a lot of effort and sacrifice on our part, but without our students who have accompanied us over the years, none of this would be possible.
Thanks to everyone who is with us every day and is part of our history!
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