Gym Name: Five Elements Jiu Jitsu (Rato)

Location: Rato, Lisboa, Portugal

Head Coach: Hélio Perdigão

Mat Fee: 20eu

Website: http://www.fiveelementsjiujitsu.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/five_elements_jiujitsu_rato/ 

Review:

After a month in Gran Canaria and nearly two weeks in Marrakech it was time to hop over to the main land. Flights had me swayed to touch down in Portugal and Lisbon had always been a place of curiosity for me so, why not? I chose a fairly central hostel location that felt more clinical hotel than homey hostel, but I couldn’t complain much. I reached out on the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group for suggestions and saw Five Elements Jiu Jitsu get mentioned. 

It felt like it would have an air of “traditional” rules around Gi’s and such which makes my black Gi an automatic issue but I opted for a NoGi class. They *did* have a shorts over spats rule for all genders and they lent me the biggest small shorts I’ve ever worn!

Still - the class in an L-shaped room was interesting…

Post Podcast Bluuurb:

Hey, thanks for being here! If you want a more flavourful review of this gym, full write ups will be making their way up onto ⁠⁠justshiggi.com⁠⁠

Since February 2024 I’ve been travelling around Europe visiting BJJ gyms first-hand so I can build a network of like-minded badasses, experience new countries, cultures and most importantly BJJ gyms, their coaches, students and communities. Whilst my travels are mostly funded by my freelancing work as an audio editor on podcasts and audiobooks, I’ve also been kept afloat by donations. 

If you can, and are able to, helping out with a small donation always adds up and helps in keeping on The Path to more gyms and bringing all of that back home to Kenya. You can also check out a full post on how I got to this journey: ⁠⁠⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/just-shiggi⁠⁠⁠