From Miami to Colorado Springs
Flip discovered jujutsu in 2019 and was quickly pulled in by how it combined technique, strategy, and philosophy. He trained directly at Valente Brothers headquarters in Miami — his hometown — and the Valente Brothers themselves encouraged him to take what he’d learned and build something with it. He and his wife, Maritza, moved to Colorado Springs to do exactly that, founding Self Defense Academy to bring real self-defense jujutsu to a city that, at the time, had plenty of sport-focused BJJ options but nothing built specifically around street self-defense.
Training and Background
Before jujutsu, Flip spent nearly two decades building a career in fitness and coaching:
That range shows up in how he teaches — Fighting Foundations draws as much from his background in coaching movement and behavior change as it does from the Valente Brothers curriculum itself.
Teaching in the Valente Brothers Lineage
Flip is authorized by the Valente Brothers to teach the Valente Brothers Method and the 27-lesson Fighting Foundations curriculum — training that traces back to Grandmaster Helio Gracie and Dr. Pedro Valente Sr. He still returns to Valente Brothers headquarters for ongoing development rather than treating his own training as finished.
How Our Classes Are Run
Self Defense Academy is deliberately small, and in most cases, Flip is the one teaching your class. On occasional sessions, an experienced assistant may lead under the same curriculum — but the small size of the academy means you’re almost always training directly with him.
