DOWNEY - As the saying goes, it’s easier to win a title than it is to defend a title. But with that said, no one really expects the new guy to win much of anything anyways.

Unless, of course, you’re Academy.

Academy Jiu Jitsu opened just over a year ago in October of last year, brining a sport and craft that – at one time – wasn’t as readily available to the community.

According to Hector Beltran, one of the owners of Academy, there wasn’t a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school locally when he began training around 12 years ago.

“It wasn’t easy to find a Jiu Jitsu school locally, and the ones that were around didn’t advertise so well,” said Beltran. “I would have to drive every day from Downey to Anaheim. It was easily 35 minutes every day on top of going to school, work and everything else…after that, I kind of outgrew that school and started training at another school in Huntington Beach, so my commute got even longer.”

Now at a level where he felt comfortable passing on the knowledge and technique he had gained in his career, Beltran and his partners decided that Downey would be the place to set up shop.

“Part of my idea was always to bring something back to my community,” said Beltran. “There wasn’t anything like this back when I first set off on the journey to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Now in the meantime, there have been other schools that have popped up in the area, but none of them have the team culture and vision that I had seen for myself would be the best place to train.”

“The whole thing about the vision that me and my partners that established Academy was, ‘how do we create the ultimate environment [to train]…’”

Academy offers classes for the serious and the casual alike, for varying age groups.

They also appeal to those with more of a competitive edge.

Academy took on 150 other schools at the Dream California State Championship last week.

Although admittedly a “Cinderella Story” in comparison to other schools that were in attendance, Beltran says that he and his competitors were “confident, knowing where our skill-sets were at.”

The as expected, the competition was fierce, and Beltran says that “it was a dog fight for the last points.”

However, despite a few surprises throughout the competition, it was Academy who was destined to rise to the top that day.

“There were a lot of upsets where some of our kids who typically perform the strongest came up short, and other kids rose to the occasion to take first. It really was an amazing experience.”

Now, with a bit of a chip on their shoulder and fire in their bellies, Beltran says Academy is “in a position where we’re really motivated to defend our position, ranking, and our title” in the following year.

“Now the pressure is on to see what we do next year, and more so than anything for ourselves as coaches, how do we get to the next level,” said Beltran. “It’s one thing to have success early on; it’s another thing about personal development, and using martial arts not just how to win, but how to lose.”

“The main thing is to have an overall positive experience, because who knows next year? We’re going to work our butts off, and we’ve got a great community around us to support us, but anything can happen and we don’t know who we galvanized to ramp back up, but we’re going to be ready for them.”

Academy Jiu Jitsu wins California title