MIDDLETOWN - Gino Tramontelli, 44, moved to Middletown from Westchester, New York in 2005, shortly after getting married. For eight years, he was "just going to work and coming back, never met anybody (outside work)."

When his son turned 4, Tramontelli signed him up for classes at the Garden State Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy. After six months of watching his son learn the fundamentals of the combat sport and make friends, Tramontelli thought, "This looks like fun, I'm going to try it out."

And from there, his social life flourished.

“I started seeing people in the supermarket that I know of,” he said, describing his fellow students as a community. “My kids think I know everybody now.”

Tramontelli started out as a white belt a decade ago, when Chris Ulbricht was a 22-year-old who had just bought the academy from his own instructor.

Ulbricht had dreams of becoming a mixed martial arts fighter when he was younger after watching UFC matches. His parents signed him up for Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes during his junior year of high school. At one point he was living in a house with other fighters, training full time.

Deciding that lifestyle was not for him, he moved back home to Middletown and back to his old gym where he could still train and compete. When his instructor floated the idea of leaving to pursue other business ventures, Ulbricht bought the gym.

The first few years operating his gym weren't easy, Ulbricht said.

He remembers sleeping on an air mattress on a loft in his parents' house and overhearing his parents debating if buying the academy was the right decision.

“It’s been a long process,” he said, reflecting on the last 10 years. He eventually bought out a partner and narrowed the selection of classes to focus solely on Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

“Instead of doing a bunch of things,” Ulbricht said, his academy is “doing one thing really, really well. Within jiu-jitsu, (students) get all those benefits. They get the fitness … they get self-defense; they get confidence.”

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The student body of about 30 grew to over 300.

He said, “The most exciting thing about it is that it’s almost entirely by referral and by word of mouth.”

Ulbricht said Brazilian jiu-jitsu was everything that he was looking for. He was learning self-defense, getting in shape and the training was more compatible with every day life.

He said with “jiu-jitsu, you can be a doctor, a lawyer, a police officer, any type of person can show up to jiu-jitsu, get a great workout, meet their friends there, learn self-defense.”

With about 30 classes, seven days a week, the academy teaches a wide range of students, from 4-year-old kids to adults nearing 60. They come from a variety of backgrounds and fitness levels.

Valencia Vitale, 27, the program director, joined the academy five years ago as an instructor.

She said she has seen student enrollment grow, but added that “It’s amazing to see how even with the hundreds of students, it’s still a tight family.”

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Over the years, the students have gone on trips to Iceland and Puerto Rico to train and spend time together.

Ulbricht said the academy staff make a conscious effort to ensure that the social environment stays positive, “making sure that it’s a place where everyone feels safe, everyone feels welcomed, everyone feels included and everyone feels that they’re progressing.”

He said some students come to jiu-jitsu to set tangible goals outside work while others have advanced to the point at which they could compete around the country.

Tramontelli, who was Ulbricht’s first student to have advanced through all the belts under his coaching, has entered competitions. He credits attending the academy weekly to helping him grow personally.

"Physical stuff has always been difficult for me. I don’t like being confronted. I tend to be a little bit avoidant," he said. "There’s been days that I’ve wanted to come here, when I haven’t wanted to come. (I would think,) 'Just go do it, you’ll be happy when it’s over, right?' And you do that for 10 years in a row.’"

In addition to his own training, Tramontelli now teaches jiu-jitsu to the older children's classes at the academy.

“This has been the way that I’ve set roots,” he said. “It’s just been an incredible experience.”

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Garden State Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy offers sparring friendships