Joga Bonito Training Academy

04/30/2024

This grainy picture I took outside U-19 MasterClass Blackburn Rovers locker and who I had the great Honor or stepping across those white lines with. Every one of these rules I lived for 11 years and this is the mentality that I am bringing to Great Falls. There is a small stream of a difference between JV and Varsity and there is an OCEAN of difference between a Varsity and an Elite Athlete. We are not part time part Athletes. Off-days, off-weeks, and off-seasons don’t exist to us. We ball for 2-4 hours a DAY. 6 days on you get 4 Sundays a month off. At the next level that’s just standard. Every day my Coach down at IMG told all of us before we stepped across those white lines “Remember boys, having expectations of you is a PRIVILEGE as well as a responsibility. It means that you have crossed the threshold between Boys and Men and Excellence will be expected out of you.” Than he would stop, let it sink in, and than say “If you plan on stepping on this field today and being anything less than perfect you better not even bother lacing up.” That was the standard. That’s how that world is and that’s how it works. Things will be required of you and you are fully expected to rise to however high the bar is set and at the next level it raises an inch a day. So I’m looking for players that want to be BALLERS, that want to make this Beautiful Game their LIFE. So if you think you got what it takes than come summer time I’ll put the paces of what the Elite World looks like.

03/03/2024

I hear people say all the time “I’m gonna teach my kid the value of a dollar.” As if that’s the best and most important thing you can teach a kid. Nah not me. You can’t get any more utterly and obscenely wealthy than IMG Academies and Marbella, Spain. I have see wealth so extravagant and opulent it literally made me want to puke. It was like eating an 8 course meal of straight candy. The value of a dollar fluctuates based on person to person so you can never trust it. I’ve met 14 year olds rocking 50K Rolexes and so much money in their TrustFunds they could party on their private yacht in Ibiza until the day they reach the coffin and I have friends so poor they eat out of a garbage can. So I’m gonna teach my kid the value of an hour and the value of doing things you don’t get paid to do. I’m going to teach my kid that a Life dedicated to the Pursuit of Excellence is never gonna be a waste of time or a waste of Life. Hour by hour, rep by painful rep, sweat drops followed by blood drops, I EARNED every last inch the skill in my feet across those holy white lines. I put STUDS IN THE DIRT every day out there on that Gridiron and not a drop of energy burned off was wasted effort. With a ball at my feet I learned all about dedication, discipline, desire, devotion, and diligence. I learned how to win with grace and lose with dignity. I learned to be fearless in the face of severe adversity and how to conquer obstacles with an insatiable, relentless, and indomitable will. I learned how to dedicate every breath I sucked into my lungs towards a worthy cause. In my time on I Earth I have won Championships, lost more games that I’d like to admit, and made Bonds of Brotherhood with guys I Love with all my heart and forged battle bonds in the FIRE of live action combat so deep they’re now blood relations. My advice: don’t chase money. Complete and utter WASTE OF TIME. Coming from somebody who comes from that Upper Class World, trust me, it’s NOT WORTH IT. My advice is to pursue Excellence, chase Greatness, learn to Master a Craft, and build your Life around a skill set that you can than pass and sell to the next one in line. If I can teach my kid the value of an hour and the value of practicing whatever he is gifted at he’ll be juuuust fine financially. Just my two cents 😤

08/06/2023

When deciding on the kit for Joga Bonito Training Academy I did a fair amount of research and in the end I went with the Coture brand Emporio Armani. I wanted something that not only delivered superior performance but also demonstrates our dedication to doing things with quality and class and no brand says that better than Armani but there is a catch. Only the 10 Elites that I will be handpicking over the next 6-9 months can wear them. To graduate the Elites Program Athlete-Students must pass the Executive training modules, the leadership course, and the skills course. The goal of the Elites Program is to get these young players to start thinking about the future while giving them the skills and training that is required to meet that level of competition. I think I made a GREAT choice on kits. HUGE shout to Sarah Jackson for the photos 💪

06/30/2023

Story from CEO and Founder Dylan Gillaspie about Excellence from IMG Academy- “I’ll never forget Nick Bollettieri. Nick is a Tennis Legend and was the founder of IMG Academies which has a current market value of 1.25 BILLION USD. He has trained the likes of Serena and Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, in addition to the hundreds of other Tennis players of lower divisions that paid 950$ per hour for his instruction. IMG is at the absolute Apex of Youth and World Class Sport in literally every Sports Program it offers and it was all Nick that started it. He gave the Soccer Academy a speech about Excellence at the beginning of the year and I’ll never forget a single word because it’s been burned into my Mind and Heart. It was Nick Bollettieri that set the Standard and it was, and is, his spirit of Excellence and Competition that permeates the IMG Ascender Mentality. He said to us 80 players ‘Gentlemen, welcome to The Cauldron of Elite Athletics. IMG’s nickname is aptly named “The World’s Toughest Playground” and over the course of this year and your future career here you will come to profoundly understand why. Let me explain something to you boys. I have built you a temple for the World Class Athlete. Everything you see and experience is 100% 5 Stars. The facilities, teammates, nutrition, equipment, teachers, coaches, and other sports experts are the absolute BEST we could find and pay six figures for. If there are better people available for the position we will find them, and match whatever their salary is anywhere else. Absolutely NO expense has been spared in building you this Disneyland for the Elite and MasterClass Athlete. IMG is the TOP FLIGHT, the MasterClass, the Apex of Sport not only in America but globally as well. You are some of the best young Athletes in the country and you will be expected to act and train like it. You are Living the fairytale of every aspiring young Athlete in the country and you are now Elite Athletes, and you need to understand something about why we are called Ascenders. Perfection will not be expected or demanded from you. Hitting a new technique 10/10 is perfect and it is impossible. Even Ronaldo and Messi make minor mistakes in virtually every single game and even Sharapova and Federer struggle when training their muscles to execute a new technique but failure is treated differently by an Ascender. It is tolerated in increasingly short increments and as Ascenders we understand that our limit today will be not be tolerated tomorrow. The minimum bar of acceptance is treated differently by an Ascender. It is not the floor that we walk on or the bar that we crawl under; it is the concrete ceiling that with FIRE in our eyes and fists of made of steel that we hit until that pavement shatters like a glass chandelier dropped off a skyscraper. Perfection will never be expected of you, but Excellence will DEMANDED every time you step across those white lines. Perfection in its totality is, and always will, out of the reach of even the BEST of the BEST so we will not expect it out of you; but Excellence, however will be. Excellence is being able to execute the technique perfectly 9/10 times. The bar set for you Gentleman is extremely high in this Disneyland for the Modern Athlete and over my dead body will we ever lower it for any Young or MasterClass Athlete wearing our jersey. Maybe today a certain level of Excellence is too high for you and you are simply technically unable to execute with flawless consistency but tomorrow or the next day you will rise and ASCEND to that level and that is why we are called ASCENDERS. The Pursuit of Excellence is a never ending journey and no matter how good you get you can always do one more rep, one more sprint, and that one more that you do comes down to a tenth of an inch, a 100th of a second, and that one more rep you did that one time in training allowed the most minute of changes and just by that 10th of an inch, that 100th of a second, you execute at the most dire time and with flawless ex*****on you win a Championship. You will be molded by the Fire of Competition and you will be taught The Way of the Ascender every, single, day. As Ascenders you will be taught to be fearless in the face of extreme Adversity and answer every failure with indomitable will, unstoppable Courage, with ice in your veins and Fire in your eyes. This is the Cauldron of Elite Athletics Gentleman, this is the WORLD CLASS, you can’t get any higher, and here we not only train you like Professionals and Grown Men, we treat you like Grown Men because this World is cruel, hard, and harsh and boys don’t survive here, only Men do. Good luck and Godspeed Gentleman, I wish you nothing but the best and success in your Career here at IMG and beyond.

We rise every morning with the promise of today. We are students, we are athletes, and we are leaders. Welcome to IMG Academy, a place where legends are made...

04/18/2023

Message from CEO “When people ask me why we are filing for our 501C3 Non-Profit Status it’s for several reasons. Ronaldinho is my Favorite Player of all time because of the way he played. He was HAPPY. He wants to be remembered as “The Happiest Man in the World” because when he was playing Football, HE WAS. I come from Privileged Upbringing which allowed for me to have access to the BEST Training, Facilities, and Coaches money could buy so I want to be known as “The Man Who Gave It All Back.” It’s like a Zlatan said about the Sport in America, it costs too much to play for a Top Team and that’s not right. This Beautiful Game belongs to EVERYONE and has a Special Home in the Poor and Destitute so my goal is to find the poorest kids I can, teach them a Craft, and encourage them to pursue Excellence with Heart, Passion, and Purpose and maybe put a smile on a kids face who has gone through unspeakable trauma. Thats why I’m doing it. I will make everything in my Life Beautiful using this Beautiful Game. The Skill in my feet and the Heart in my chest no longer belongs to me, they belong to the Next Generation and charging those who have nothing is the antithesis of what this Game is about. There is not a corner or particle of dust in my Life that this Game is not in. It has showed me who I am, showed me who I wanted to be, and showed me parts of myself that I never would have found out had The Game been absent. It spoke to me in a language I understood and forever changed the entire course of my Life. I owe everything to The Game, and I owe everything to Society and the Community because it’s always been so good to me so this is my Gift back to those who need it most.”

03/10/2023

After a long wait and thorough preparation we finally are now accepting applications for personal lessons. $50.00 a week for 2-4 personal lessons ranging from 1-3 hours each session. As a policy we promise that we will NEVER turn a kid away that can’t pay. Scholarships and volunteer hours will be made available for those who need it but we do need to make money to pay for things the Academy needs. I have high hopes that this will be the start of something beautiful.

11/24/2022

Ballers Paradise 🔥🔥🔥 and with these instruments we will make music 🎶

11/09/2022

Update from CEO Dylan Gillaspie:
“One of the greatest Treasures of my Life in my opinion were the Female Athletes that I grew up around. Back at home girls didn’t like me but at Shattuck I fit right in with the Elite and Future Olympic Female Athletes because we were on the same Level. We understood each other quite well and easily. I have a deep admiration and sincere respect for Amanda Kessel, Julia, and Blayre Turnbull. At SSM we kind of view our UpperClassman, especially Seniors, like Older Siblings so I look at Julia like a Big Sister and I don’t care how many times his name ends up going on the Stanley Cup, as an Old Shad Senior when he was a sophmore I’ll always remember him as a Little Brother with that goofy smile, easy confidence, down to earth attitude, and as an all around Lovable guy that seemed entirely unimpressed by the fact that at 14 years young ESPN was comparing him to Crosby. I am extremely proud of my Boy Mackinny and I am EQUALLY proud of Julia for winning a Silver Medal at the Olympics AND the NSWL Championship. Julia has graciously agreed to do a Q&A with some of the girls so Great Falls people involved with soccer and are interested in attending please spread the word so I can get a head count. We are also in the process of having Julia’s teammates at the Washington Spirit all sign balls so every girl walks away with a ball and hopefully they take something out of what Julia has to say. I believe that sports has the Power to inspire and to bring Joy and Hope where there was once only desolation and so a HUGE thank you goes out to Julia. Thank you so much for doing this, I couldn’t be more proud of you, and I’m sure these girls are gonna LOVE you.

11/07/2022

Parabéns pela linda carreira meu amigo Gerard Piqué muito sucesso no novo capítulo da sua história!! 🤙🏾

09/28/2022

We have had several people ask us what we are up to and why we didn’t have anything going on in the summer and it is because our facilities that we use at The Bridge were undergoing extensive renovations all summer to become a proper gym so we were unable to conduct operations. That being said it looks beautiful compared to the old carpet we tore up. On the Executive side of things we are putting together a Board of highly professional and experienced people who have resumes that include having 30+ years in business and extensive Military Service. Right now we have 6 positions filled with confirmation pending on a few others next week. There will be several big announcements in the coming weeks so stay tuned and always remember to and