Corey Richardson wanted his dojo to feel like it belonged to the neighborhood around it, not like every other martial arts studio built around a fierce-animal logo — so the Gulf Coast Jiu-Jitsu Academy in West Mobile skipped the tiger imagery entirely.
“It is important to make the martial arts very indigenous and make it relatable to the people, to the culture,” said Richardson, the academy’s founder and head instructor, of the approach. “I wanted to make sure that was very prominent in the dojo culture we create at the academy.” The academy, born more than a decade ago from what Richardson describes as a lifelong dream, is located in a strip mall on Hillcrest Road, north of Omni Park Drive, in Mobile’s WeMo (West Mobile) area.
The dojo is certified by the Jiu-Jitsu Global Federation and offers Gracie Jiu-Jitsu classes six days a week for all age groups. Richardson himself was born in the Bronx in 1984 before relocating to Mobile as a child; he began martial arts training at age 5, drawing early inspiration from Jean-Claude Van Damme films before eventually building a career and a business around the sport.
That approach has paid off locally: the academy won Best Martial Arts Studio in the 2026 Reader’s Choice Awards, recognition that reflects more than a decade of building a community-centered training space rather than chasing a flashier brand identity.