This Isn’t Just a Gym.
It’s What Happens When
Someone Builds What
They Wish Existed.
Gracie Barra Centennial — Founded by Robert Goodloe, Black Belt, Father, and lifelong student of this art
“We are built to serve.
The mat is how we do it.”
— Robert Goodloe, Owner & Black Belt
At Gracie Barra Centennial, we teach Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a martial art for all ages and walks of life. We build stronger individuals, stronger families, and stronger communities by teaching discipline, respect, and resilience — on and off the mat.
That mission isn’t borrowed. It’s personal. And it started long before this school existed.
The Full Arc — Four Chapters
I’ve Been Building
Things My Whole Life.
I’m Robert Goodloe. Born in Michigan, raised in California, now rooted in Colorado with my wife Lavinia — born and raised in Italy — and our six children.
I started working at 16. Stock boy at El Portal Luggage. I worked my way up through every level — sales, management, regional director, director of marketing — not because I had a plan, but because I refused to stay where I was. That’s always been how I operate. I see what’s possible, and I move toward it.
I’ve been an entrepreneur, a marketer, a builder of businesses. Some worked. Some didn’t. I learned from all of them. I hold an MBA from Pepperdine, but the education I trust most came from two decades of making things and watching what actually works when you’re the one accountable for the outcome.
And through all of it — the businesses, the coaching, the building — one conviction has never changed: we are built to serve. That’s not a mission statement I arrived at in a conference room. It’s what my faith tells me. It’s what my life has shown me. And it’s the reason this school exists.
I Walked Onto a Mat
for the First Time at 39.
And Got Humbled.
I’d been an athlete my whole life — soccer, baseball, water polo, wrestling through junior college. I’d spent decades coaching youth teams. I thought I knew what hard work and competition felt like.
The first time I trained jiu-jitsu, I knew nothing. I got tapped constantly. I went home exhausted and honestly a little embarrassed. And I came back the next day — because something in this art was teaching me things that nothing else in my life had.
The mat doesn’t care about your job title, your age, or your résumé. It only cares about what you actually know and what you’re actually willing to do. That kind of honesty is rare. I became addicted to it.
Eight years later, at 47, I earned my black belt under Professor Rafael Oliveira — a man who trained at the original Gracie Barra school in Rio de Janeiro from the age of twelve. That promotion wasn’t the end of anything. It was a reminder that the learning never stops, and that’s the whole point.
Over 75 Competitions.
Every One a Win or a Lesson.
I competed from white belt to black belt — over 75 times, including medals at every IBJJF Pan American Championship across belt levels. I didn’t start competing because I was naturally gifted. I started because I believed the only way to test what you’ve built is to put it on the line.
Somewhere after enough wins and enough losses, the ego around competition falls away. You stop performing for anyone watching and start showing up for yourself. What I found on the other side of that was freedom — the freedom to compete fully, fail publicly, and still come back stronger.
That’s the mindset I model for my students every time I step on a competition mat. Because jiu-jitsu is not about winning. It’s about refusing to stop growing.
I Built What I Wish
Had Existed When I Was
Looking for Something Real.
When I started looking for a place to train, I wanted more than technique. I wanted a school with a real curriculum, a real lineage, and a real culture — where the people around me were invested in each other’s growth, not just their own. That school is harder to find than it should be.
So I built it.
Gracie Barra Centennial is part of the world’s largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu organization — over 1,000 schools in more than 50 countries, united by Grand Master Carlos Gracie Jr.’s mission of Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone. That organization gave me the structure, the curriculum, and the standard. What I brought was everything else: two decades of coaching, a family deeply invested in this mat, and a genuine belief that what we do here matters far beyond the sport.
This is not a business I run from the outside. It is a community I am part of every single day.
What We Actually Believe
Help Someone Fall in Love
With the Art. They’ll Take
Themselves the Rest of the Way.
I’ve coached over 35 youth teams across soccer, baseball, basketball, and flag football. I held national and regional leadership roles in youth athletics because I believed then, as I believe now, that the job of a coach is not to win games. It is to help a student discover what they are capable of.
You don’t manufacture greatness. You create the conditions for it — an environment where a person feels safe enough to fail, challenged enough to grow, and connected enough to come back. Do that and the student takes themselves places you couldn’t have scripted.
That philosophy lives on this mat. Every class, every belt promotion, every moment a student walks off having done something they didn’t think they could — that’s the job. That’s all of it.
We Are Built to Serve.
This Mat Is How We Do It.
I’m a practicing Catholic. My faith is not separate from how I run this school — it is the reason I run it this way. The conviction that we are here to serve others is not a strategy. It is the whole foundation.
Jiu-jitsu, in the deepest sense, teaches the same thing. Humility is not a byproduct of training — it is the practice itself. You walk on the mat every day knowing you don’t know enough. You bow to your partner. You tap when you’re caught. You get back up. You try again. That cycle — of struggling honestly, failing without shame, and growing through it — mirrors something I recognize from my faith. The willingness to be a beginner. To be corrected. To trust the process of becoming something better than you were yesterday.
Grand Master Carlos Gracie Jr. founded Gracie Barra on the mission of Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone. I believe that deeply — not because it’s good for business, but because I believe everyone deserves access to something that can genuinely change their life. This school is my attempt to provide that.
The goal is not to build fighters. It is to build good human beings. Respectful. Humble. Capable of handling hard things without falling apart.
Come back to that open, willing-to-be-a-beginner mindset most of us lost somewhere in our careers. The mat gives that back.
“Be better than yesterday.” Not better than the person next to you. Better than the version of yourself that walked in.
Show up. Work hard. Look out for the person next to you. That’s the culture. It is not optional and it is not negotiable.
Everything I Build,
I Build With Them.
My wife Lavinia was born and raised in Italy. She is the foundation of our family and the reason everything else holds together — including this school, where she trains and teaches alongside me as a 4-stripe purple belt. That’s not a small thing. That is a person who didn’t just support what I was building — she got on the mat and became part of it.
We have six children, ranging from 16 to 29 years old. Some of them train here. Some have found their own paths. All of them have grown up watching what this art does to a person who commits to it — and what it looks like when a family decides that growth, discipline, and showing up for each other are non-negotiable values.
When I say this school is built for families, I’m not talking about young kids and patient parents in the lobby. I’m talking about what happens when people you love most look at what you’ve built — and decide they want to be part of it. That’s what I see on this mat. And it’s the most honest endorsement I know.
Lavinia Rosselli Goodloe — 4-stripe purple belt, assistant instructor. Training since July 1, 2017 — the day the school opened. Born and raised in Italy. Fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish.
Isacco Goodloe (Coach Ike) — grey & black belt, kids program instructor. Training since age four. A family that trains together, teaches together, and holds each other to the same standard they hold every student on this mat.
You’re Not Just Joining
a School. You’re Joining
Over 100 Years of Tradition.
Lineage matters in jiu-jitsu. It matters more than trophies, more than branding, more than the equipment in the gym. It is the answer to the question: where did this actually come from, and who is responsible for what’s being passed down to you?
At Gracie Barra Centennial, the answer to that question is specific, verifiable, and unbroken.
Mitsuyo Maeda
Japanese Judoka · Brazil, early 1900s
Traveled the world teaching his art. Arrived in Brazil and began teaching the Gracie family — planting the seed that became Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Everything that follows starts here.
Carlos Gracie Sr.
Co-Founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Received instruction from Maeda and developed the art alongside his brothers. Established the Gracie Academy and began spreading BJJ throughout Brazil and beyond.
Hélio Gracie
Co-Founder & Innovator
Rebuilt the system around leverage and technique over strength — creating a martial art that works for anyone, regardless of size. His philosophy is the heart of what we teach today. Jiu-jitsu for everyone began here.
Rolls Gracie
Visionary & Mentor
One of the most gifted grapplers in Gracie family history. He synthesized multiple arts, pushed jiu-jitsu forward, and became the defining mentor of Carlos Gracie Jr. His influence lives in every Gracie Barra school in the world.
Grand Master Carlos Gracie Jr.
Founder of Gracie Barra · Rio de Janeiro, 1986
Founded Gracie Barra with the mission of Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone. Built the world's first structured BJJ curriculum — a clear, consistent path from white belt to black belt that any committed student could follow. Today, over 1,000 schools across more than 50 countries carry that mission forward.
Professor Rafael Oliveira
Black Belt · Trained at the original Gracie Barra school from age 12
Not an affiliate. Not a satellite location. The original Gracie Barra school in Rio de Janeiro — where Grand Master Carlos built the organization from the ground up. Rafael grew up inside that culture, that philosophy, and that direct line of instruction from childhood.
Professor Robert Goodloe
Your Professor · Owner, Gracie Barra Centennial
Received his black belt directly from Professor Rafael Oliveira. That connection is not a small thing. Every technique you learn here, every value this school holds, every class you attend — all of it carries a direct, unbroken line of transmission from Mitsuyo Maeda to this mat.
The Largest BJJ Organization
in the World. On Your Mat.
Gracie Barra was founded in 1986 by Grand Master Carlos Gracie Jr. in Rio de Janeiro with a single mission: Jiu-Jitsu for Everyone. What made Gracie Barra different from the beginning was not just the quality of instruction — it was the structure. Grand Master Carlos built the first organized, replicable curriculum in the history of the sport, so that a student in Colorado would receive the same quality of training as a student in Brazil.
Today, Gracie Barra has over 1,000 schools in more than 50 countries across six continents. It is the most recognized and respected BJJ organization in the world — not because of aggressive expansion, but because the philosophy was right. A consistent curriculum. A unified culture. Jiu-jitsu for everyone who has the courage to try.
When you train at Gracie Barra Centennial, you are part of that organization. And when you travel anywhere in the world and walk into a Gracie Barra school, you are home. The curriculum is the same. The values are the same. The family is the same.
That is what you are joining here. Not just a gym. A global tradition with deep local roots.
Come See What We’ve Built.
Your First Class Is on Us.
If anything on this page resonates with you — the story, the philosophy, the idea that a martial art can be something more than a sport — then you already belong here. The only thing left is to show up.
Book a free trial class. No contract, no experience required, no pressure. Just come in, meet the people, feel the mat, and see what this is about. The rest takes care of itself.
We’ll be in touch within 24 hours. No obligation. No ego. Just jiu-jitsu.