Keweenaw Jiu-Jitsu exists to build a real tribe around hard, honest training: a place where people from every background can belong, grow, and be challenged. What started from the experience of struggling to find high-level instruction and training partners became a community that shows up for each other on and off the mats. Our academy was built to give people what we didn’t always have: a consistent team, a safe place to learn, and something deeper than a “workout.” We aim to be the kind of room where you are known, supported, and pushed toward your best. We believe progress comes from discomfort, repetition, and standards. Jiu-jitsu is an individual sport, but nobody gets good alone. We train with purpose: show up, do the work, be coachable, and be a good teammate. Our culture is built on earned confidence: we don’t inflate egos or sell watered-down martial arts. We teach details and principles that hold up under pressure, and we’re honest about where you are so you can actually improve. Whether your goal is self-defense, fitness, competition, or simply becoming more capable, we will meet you where you are and help you get better. Our mission is to develop capable, humble people through world-class grappling and a strong team environment. We honor our lineage and the broader jiu-jitsu community while staying open to the best ideas and instruction available, bringing proven techniques and training methods back to our members. In doing so, we’re not just building athletes – we’re building character, resilience, and a community that lasts. 

Keweenaw Jiu Jitsu started originally as a grappling club at MTU.

In 2015, Shaughn Kern founded Keweenaw Jiu Jitsu and we started as our own academy running out of the local Houghton Crossfit.

In 2016, Shaughn hired assistant coach Stan Myaskovkiy to help grow the academy and offer more classes. The academy’s roots trace directly to Stan’s personal jiu-jitsu journey, which began in a region with almost no high-level instruction available. Starting with limited local resources, he organized early training groups simply to have partners to practice with, studying from books and videos while searching for better coaching. That search led him to Marquette, where, after a humbling competition experience exposed the gaps in his skill, he committed to making the three-hour round trip multiple times per week just to train. Over the years, he invested tens of thousands of hours—and significant personal expense— traveling across the Midwest to attend seminars and train with many of the sport’s top practitioners, bringing back competition-tested techniques and modern grappling knowledge to his home region. Out of that effort grew one of the first sustained jiu-jitsu training communities in the area. What began as a small, determined training group evolved into a formal academy in 2015, initially operating out of a local CrossFit facility. Class offerings expanded, additional coaching support was added, and both gi and no-gi programs were developed. When the original founder relocated out of state in early 2017, Stan assumed ownership and leadership, continuing to build the program around technical standards, hard work, and a strong team culture rather than shortcuts or “watered-down” martial arts. By mid-2017, the academy had outgrown its shared space and opened its first full-time dedicated location in Houghton, marking a major milestone in its development. Continued membership growth led to subsequent moves—first to a larger facility in Hancock, and later to its current home at the former Finlandia University site at 535 Summit Street— each transition driven by the same pattern: more students, more mat space, and more structured programming. The academy’s connection to Michigan Tech deepened in 2020, when it began offering for- credit jiu-jitsu physical education classes through the university. Enrollment grew rapidly, introducing large numbers of students—many far from home for the first time—to grappling and to the academy’s team environment. Today, the program stands as a regional anchor for jiu-jitsu training, built from Stan’s original long-distance pursuit of quality instruction and sustained by a mission to provide legitimate, high-standard coaching and a durable training community for every committed student.