André Motta is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under André Pederneiras of Nova Uniao, being one of the team’s top grappling competitors throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, alongside legendary black belts such as Victor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, Robson Moura, Leo Santos and many others. Throughout André Motta’s career, he was mostly known for his incredibly technical spider guard game, a game that earned him many praises and medals, a guard that was only passed once in his career as an adult black belt.André Motta was born on the 18th of July 1978 in the famous Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro, particularly around the neighbourhoods of Laranjeiras, Botafogo and Flamengo.Like many other kids, André Motta’s first experience with martial arts was through judo at the Nissei academy (Larangeiras) with coach Haroldo, when he was 8 years old. The judo experience was short lived and only at the age of 14 did Motta decide to to dwell into the world of combat sports once again, inspired by the films of Jean Claude Van Damme.Jiu jitsu appeared in André Motta’s life by chance. At the time (1992), André wanted to start training “full contact”, like his favorite action movie characters, but as he went to an academy near his house to try a class, the receptionist told him no one from the kickboxing class was available at the time. Instead, there was a jiu jitsu class taking place. Motta didn’t really know what jiu jitsu was but decided to give it a try. This class was led by the legendary Allan Góes, a brown belt at the time. Góes extraordinary teachings convinced André to stick to the gentle art.André Motta remained with coach Góes until 1993, a time when Allan moved to the United States. Before leaving Góes proposed that André started training at any one of the neighbouring Carlson Gracie lineage gyms (Manimal, Sergio “Bolao” or André Pederneiras). Motta chose to go to Pederneiras.Motta arrived at Pederneiras gym as a yellow belt, long before “Dedé” linked up with Wendell Alexander to form Nova Uniao. It would be Dedé Pederneiras who would grade André Motta with his blue, purple, brown and black belts, the latter on August 2000.Motta’s game was a synonym of the spider guard, undoubtedly his biggest asset in the sporting arena. The interest to play on the bottom was instigated by André’s first coach, Allan, who was a guard player himself. Motta’s first competition came with just one month of training, and Andrezinho pulled guard on two fights finishing his opponents with a triangle. This only propelled his interest even further. With time André Motta’s infamous guard became well known within the competitive circuit, having only had his guard passed by two men throughout his adult career, Fredson Paixao as a purple belt and twice by Ricardo Vieira, once in the brown belt division and the second time at the 2001 World Championship.