Allan Di Lucia is teaching BJJ for free to special-needs athletes

Photos: Vitor Freitas

Jiu-Jitsu is for everyone. Following the Gentle Art’s philosophy, Allan Di Lucia has decided to teach classes to the Special Needs Community in the USA, continuing the program that he had in Brazil two years ago.

The black belt, representing the Soul Fighters BJJ has opened recently the Unlimited BJJ Program, and has been teaching the Jiu-jitsu for 2 students regularly, so far. Allan teaches Isaac and Anna twice a week.

Allan, as a Jiu-jitsu fighter for over 13 tell us about the desire of teaching Jiu-jitsu as a tool for social inclusion.

“The mission is to give to the Special Needs community, the same opportunity that I had when I was young to be part of this amazing Jiu-jitsu world. They deserve that chance and I felt like I owe that to the community. After thinking about the answer to this question for a few times, I realized this is the kind of situation that people describe as “God talking to you”. I had no contacts in the school where I used to teach, I knew nobody there. Also, I had no idea how the program would work and despite all that, I just walked in and offer the classes, they accepted me and a few years after, here we are”, says Allan.

On the last weekend, in Arizona, USA, those two heros had an exhibition match and they made the crowd go wild!

“The competition is also part of the Jiu-jitsu world and the plan of the program is to give them the whole Jiu-jitsu world, no only part of it. If they want to compete, we’ll make that happen. I’m lucky to have the Arizona BJJ Federation, ran by Professor Gustavo Dantas, as partners. They have opened up this possibility for us and that really helps the work. The deserve to be in the spotlight. They are stars. No less than that”, talks Allan.

Before we close the interview, Allan told us about his desire of having more and more students and spread the program’s idea around the world with seminars for the coaches.

“I want to have more students enrolled in the program. The more, the better. Eventually I want to teach seminars to other schools that have the desire to start this kind of job. I had to study a lot to understand and develop a good way to teach them safely and that’s crucial for the program’s success. Also, I would like to find a way to financially support the program back in Brazil, where I started. They need to keep it up and I’ll try to make that happen”, says Allan.