The New England Martial Arts Dojo

Seekonk

Burrillville

Bristol

Cranston

East Greenwich

Coventry

Jamestown

Johnston

Narragansett

Cumberland

North Kingstown

North Providence

North Smithfield

Providence

South Kingstown

Warwick

West Warwick

Tiverton

Westerly

Woonsocket

East Providence

Pawtucket

North Scituate

Smithfield

Newport

Rhode Island's BJJ history starts with one name: Tim Burrill. One of the first Americans promoted to black belt by Carlos Machado — himself a member of the Machado family that trained directly under Carlos Gracie Jr. — Burrill built the state's foundational academy in Providence and went on to win both Pan-American and World Championship titles. That lineage has spread to nearly every serious academy in the state. Pete Jeffrey, now owner of Tri-Force MMA in Rhode Island and head coach of Brown University's MMA team, earned his black belt under Burrill and Machado; he competed professionally in MMA from 2005 to 2012 and won the CES MMA Coach of the Year award in 2012. Paulo and Vinícius Canabarro, who also came up through the Burrill-Machado system, were promoted to black belt in January 2017 and built Playground Jiu Jitsu in East Providence to carry that lineage east across the Seekonk River. Marco McWilliams, another Burrill black belt, opened Providence BJJ in 2023.

Separate from the Burrill branch, the Carlson Gracie name also has a presence in the state. In North Providence, Professor Steve Santiago runs a Ricardo Cavalcanti affiliate — Cavalcanti earned his black belt from Carlson Gracie Sr. in 1995 and holds a coral belt, making Santiago's academy one of the few places in New England training inside that lineage. Down in Westerly, Jorge Alves — who grew up in Brazil and has been practicing jiu-jitsu for nearly two decades — established his Carlson Gracie BRA-USA school in January 2013. He operates near the Connecticut border, serving students from both South County and the Pawcatuck area. Weissmuller Academy, also in Westerly at 271 Post Rd, offers jiu-jitsu alongside submission wrestling, MMA, and physical conditioning, making it a practical option for students in the state's southwestern corner.

For sheer density of options, Providence and the inner ring of the metro — Cranston, Warwick, North Providence, Smithfield — is where the most training is concentrated. The Renzo Gracie affiliate in Smithfield, run by Professor Marcelo Cruz, a 4th-degree black belt who trained as a teenager in São Paulo, operates out of a 7,000-square-foot dedicated facility on Douglas Pike. Team United Martial Arts Academy on Branch Avenue in Providence adds another option in the city proper. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Warwick and Cortes BJJ cover the south end of the metro, and NAGA regularly hosts tournaments at the Johnston Indoor Recreation Center, giving competitors across the state a consistent testing ground without traveling to Boston or New York.

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, which shapes how the BJJ community functions here. Driving from Providence to Westerly takes barely over an hour, so it is common for competitors to train at multiple academies and to know instructors outside their own gym. The concentration of Burrill-lineage academies in particular means open mat events often cross organizational lines. For anyone new to the state, the 79 gyms listed on MatMade cover the full geographic spread — from the Providence metro cluster to the South County coast — and include options from pure competition teams to academies with deep roots in the Carlson Gracie and Machado family trees.

Rhode Island

BJJ & Martial Arts in Seekonk, Rhode Island