Mile High Gracie Jiu Jitsu

Our School

Mile High Gracie is a homegrown business, not part of a chain that is focused on the bottom-line. We are a community and family-oriented academy that is centered around the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and providing the best training experiences and environments for our students.

We have been operating in Denver, Colorado for over 20 years, since the year 2000.

Our Lakewood, CO location provides some of the best Jiu-Jitsu and grappling training around the Colorado Front-range. It is in close proximity to several neighborhoods and cities such as, Denver, Wheat Ridge, Englewood, Arvada, Lakewood, Littleton, Westminster, Green Mountain, Broomfield, Golden and Evergreen.

Our Owners

Morgan Patnode trained at Mile High Gracie around 2001, just after it opened. He took over the academy circa 2007 when the original founder & instructor departed to start another gym out of state. Morgan ran the school and continued training to eventually earn his black belt from renown BJJ and MMA coach, John Crouch, who is a black belt under Royce Gracie.

Matt Altschul started his training in CO alongside Morgan and several other instructors, then moved to CA and trained at the Gracie Academy headquarters in Torrance, CA, earning his blackbelt under Rorion Gracie. He returned to CO in 2018 and became part of Mile High Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. He leads and participates in several classes sharing his wide range of knowledge and skills obtained from the academy.

Our Art

We train in authentic Brazilian Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-Jitsu is a self-defensive art for everyone, not just for MMA fighters.

• Our art revolves around decades of developed and evolved techniques around grappling (chokes, joint locks, submissions, and take-downs), self-defense and other aspects of martial arts.
• Jiu-Jitsu requires little effort in its purest form when your technique is refined.
• In addition to self-defense, it is excellent for physical strength, flexibility, cardio, mental health, discipline, confidence, and overall general health. More about the art of Jiu-Jitsu
• The art of Jiu-Jitsu originated with deep roots in Japenese history before it was introduced to the Gracie family. More history of Jiu-Jitsu

Learn more about the Art of Jiu-Jitsu

Our Training

We focus on the core principles of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which help build a solid foundation of fundamentals that can easily evolve and adapt to traditional or modern styles, disciplines & techniques.

• Principles & Fundamentals
• Modification & Adaptation
• Strategy & Mechanics
• Self-defense & Sport techniques
• Stand-up & takedowns
• Positional control & advancement
• Controlled grappling/wrestling (submissions, joint locks, chokes, etc.)
• Defensive (counters) & offensive (attacks) techniques
• All belt levels train together
• Live training exercises (Rolling/Sparring)
• “Live training” allows you to “test your skills” in a controlled sparring session with another opponent.
• It can be low impact while allowing you to use all of your skills and potential
• It allows you to learn quickly what is working and what may need improvement

Note: We do cover striking aspects of fighting (punches, elbows, knees & kicks) and provide defensive techniques around striking, but during rolling, we do not throw strikes unless it is a special training exercise with advanced level students and instructors. View Class Details

Our Attitude

If you’re new to the art, there is nothing to be intimidated of at Mile High Gracie. Jiu-Jitsu is an art that allows anybody to be able to participate and be successful at.

• Nobody at Mile High Gracie has attitude or ego and it is NOT tolerated.
• We believe in hard work, good health, safety, helping others, respect, discipline, dedicated learning, passionate instruction, honesty, and humbleness.
• Everyone is welcome!

Our Facility

Our space is our home & sanctuary, we are very proud to have this beautiful facility to practice and teach our art.

Here is a glimpse inside our facility:

Facility Features

• Large mat space
• High Quality 2″ Fuji mats
• Wall mats
• High ceilings
• Changing room
• Large restroom
• Shower (BYOTowell)
• Personal storage area
• 2 x large banana bags
• Large digital fight clock
• Reception & observation area
• Free parking lot
• First-aid kits and materials
• Bluetooth speaker system
• Optimized ventilation & commercial fan
• Dimmable Lighting