About Us

John Simas

Head Instructor / Owner

John Simas holds a first-degree black belt under Ralph Gracie, commencing his journey in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in 2009 in his native New Jersey. Relocating for career opportunities led him to Ralph Gracie’s headquarters in San Francisco in 2018. Shortly thereafter, John impressed Ralph Gracie with his aptitude for teaching, prompting Ralph to invite him to lead a fundamentals class.

Under the guidance of Professor Ralph, John discovered his passion for teaching and refined his instructional abilities. He attained the rank of black belt in December 2019. Despite relocating to Texas in 2021, John has maintained a close relationship with Professor Ralph. During a visit to Ralph Gracie Waco in May 2022, Professor Ralph conferred upon John the rank of first-degree black belt.

Abraham “The Mountain” La Montagne

Instructor

Abraham comes from the Chicago-Land area. He grew up doing several sports and being fairly active in many hobbies and interests. While pursuing his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, he searched for hobbies to meet friends and socialize outside the lab. He found Latin dancing and Jiu-Jitsu. He quickly fell in love with the sport from the start. His passion for science and learning was redirected. They equipped him with the skills to radically learn and compete at the professional level of submission grappling in a short amount of time, starting Jiujitsu in 2019. 2 years into training, he joined the highly esteemed team of New Wave. He has been competing and training professionally under them since 2021. Abraham is known for being a popularizer of the “Reversed Closed Guard” position and innovator of the “Abe Lock” submission, often paired with this position. His life goal at this point is to become as notable and talented a professor as his professor, John Danaher.