Brazilian is growing fast in the Balkans region of Europe, with many new academies emerging in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria etc.. Emma Haci is a blue belt that lives in Rijeka, Croatia and she runs the first and only woman run BJJ academy in the region: BJJ Rijeka.

Check out our list of successful BJJ academies run by women black belts around the world.

BJJEE caught up wit Emma and talked about various subjects.

Hi Emma, how did you get involved with martial arts and BJJ?

Ever since I was a little girl, I was very much interested in Martial Arts. I grew up with an older brother and we would watch action movies and later on we would practice what we watched and pretended to be just like Van Damme and others 🙂



I heard of Jiu Jitsu by watching Minotauro’s fights. He would get beaten but somehow he would do something crazy and would win by a chokehold or some armbar.

Also, while I was doing Capoeira, I met lots of Brazilians that also did Jiu Jitsu…so all that was very familiar to me but I didn’t know much about it except it was something on the ground where you fight but you’re not fighting with fists and kicks :)After going through some rough time, I decided that I needed a big change which would also include a new sport/hobby, and I was determined that I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu. That was a love at first sight! You know that feeling you get when you are searching for something and then you find it. This was pretty much how I felt after my first class.When I started, I was the only girl there. Actually, the only girl in my town that was training Jiu Jitsu. Since the gym I used to train at, also had Krav Maga lessons, few years later we had some girls coming in and out, and some actually stayed, but in the beginning, I was the only one. I tried some team sports in school, but I didn’t like it very much and I wanted to train some martial art. I tried several. Kung Fu, Capoeira, Boxing, Kickboxing… I would skip classes in school in order to train but noone in my school knew I was training. I don’t know exactly why but I wanted to keep that a secret. Martial Arts came into my life right when I needed it. Especially after losing a parent. It taught me discipline, control, responsability, respect, hardwork and the most important, it kept me out of trouble.I heard of Jiu Jitsu by watching Minotauro’s fights. He would get beaten but somehow he would do something crazy and would win by a chokehold or some armbar.Also, while I was doing Capoeira, I met lots of Brazilians that also did Jiu Jitsu…so all that was very familiar to me but I didn’t know much about it except it was something on the ground where you fight but you’re not fighting with fists and kicks :)After going through some rough time, I decided that I needed a big change which would also include a new sport/hobby, and I was determined that I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu. That was a love at first sight! You know that feeling you get when you are searching for something and then you find it. This was pretty much how I felt after my first class.When I started, I was the only girl there. Actually, the only girl in my town that was training Jiu Jitsu. Since the gym I used to train at, also had Krav Maga lessons, few years later we had some girls coming in and out, and some actually stayed, but in the beginning, I was the only one. At first I thought it was going to be super hard for me because all of the boys were twice as big and weighted more than me. And of course it was hard. Everything seems hard in the beginning. There were times when I felt I will never ever know anything. There were times when I was pushing myself twice as hard because I wanted to show that I am not weak, and then I would come home and cry because I thought I wasn’t good enough 🙂 But I kept going because simply, I loved it. It is still like that. Everything for me is Jiu Jitsu. I feel like I am in a relationship with it lol. Sometimes we have our disagreements, but I can’t be without it.

What can you tell us about training with men? One of my favorite Helio Gracie quotes is: “For the choke, there are not tough guys”. Jiu Jitsu is truly like an ocean. The whole spectre of Jiu Jitsu is so big. In Jiu Jitsu, everyone is equal. Anyone can win. A boy can defeat an older guy, a woman can defeat a man. Some positions might seem tricky to women, but you learn to adjust. Men work more on their technique so they learn not just to rely on the strength, so it is a Win-Win for both gendres 🙂