Personal History

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Professor Pedro Sauer was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where from an early age, he began training in the martial arts. At age five, he began boxing and later took up judo and taekwondo. At age fifteen, however, his friend, Rickson Gracie, invited him to train jiu-jitsu with his younger brother, Royler, who at the time was only nine years old. The outcome of this experience convinced him that jiu-jitsu was the most effective of all the martial arts, and he began training the very next day.

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Pedro Sauer decided to pursue a career teaching Jiu-Jitsu. In 1990, he moved to California with the original wave of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors. He lived in California with Rickson Gracie and trained daily with the Gracie brothers (Rickson, Rorion, and Royce), their father, Helio Gracie, their cousin, Renzo Gracie, and the Machado Brothers, as well as many others. In December of that same year, he moved to Utah where he has lived for the past eight years, pioneering Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the American southwest.

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Pedro is the head instructor of the Pedro Sauer Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Association; to which Cronus Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu is affiliated.

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Certifications

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1985 – Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from Helio and Rickson Gracie
1986 – Tecnico de Jiu-Jitsu. This is a special certificate given in recognition of superior technical mastery of the art of jiu-jitsu, given to only a handful of students by Helio Gracie.
1990 – Certified Black Belt Instructor by Robson Gracie and the Federacao de Jiu-Jitsu
Black Belt Judo
1993 – 3rd Degree Black Belt from Rorion Gracie
1996 – Level 6 Instructor Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy (Rorion and Royce Gracie)
2000 – 5th Degree Black Belt under the Federacao de Jiu-Jitsu
2003 – 6th Degree Black Belt

Teaching Experience

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Pedro Earned his Black Belt from Helio and Rickson in 1985. Long recognized for the superior technical efficiency of his jiu-jitsu, he then began his career as an instructor in 1986 when asked to teach with an organization known in Brazil as Corpo/Quatro (Body of Four) where he taught and continued his training under renowned jiu-jitsu instructors Alvaro Barreto (who is a red belt master under Helio Gracie).

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After moving to Utah in December of 1990, he taught as one of only two non-Gracie black belts under the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy (run by Rorion and Royce Gracie). In October of 1996, he became an official representative Black Belt Instructor under the Rickson Gracie American Jiu-Jitsu Association.

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Currently, Pedro resides in Virginia and is on the mat regularly at his HQ academy in Herndon, Virginia: One Spirit Martial Arts (OneSpiritMA.com). He also has several affiliated schools across the country, and he visits them on a regular basis to give intensive instruction to the students and instructors. He is one of the most highly sought after instructors in the U.S. (of any martial discipline) and has presented hundreds of public seminars around the nation.

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