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Two training partners meeting on the mat.Drawn in cream, forest green, and muted terracotta. People and objects are symbolic illustrations.
Portrait unavailable. General BJJ illustration; not a likeness of this person.Illustration: The BJJ Story

Ronnie Melo

Manaus black belt who taught Melqui Galvão and helped bring jiu-jitsu into municipal schools, with adapted activities for children and families.

Biography

Ronnie Melo is a jiu-jitsu black belt and teacher from Manaus. He awarded Melqui Galvão his black belt and helped create Aprender, Conviver e Lutar, a project that brought martial arts into the city's municipal schools. His teaching has encompassed preparation for international competition and classes built around the needs of young children and disabled pupils. Melo belongs to the early generation of Associação Monteiro. A Crítica named him among its pioneers in an account of a November 2022 reunion, when members trained together under Guto and Binho Monteiro. BJJ Heroes places him between Augusto Monteiro and Melquisedeque Galvão in the belt lineage of Micael Galvão. His connection to that later generation runs through Melqui, whom Graciemag identifies as a black belt trained by Melo. The teacher and student traveled together to the Panama Open in 2013. For Galvão, then a brown belt, it was his first international competition. Before they left, Melo told GloboEsporte that preparation meant helping him manage anxiety and adjust to unfamiliar food, communication, weather and training facilities. They had trained six days a week for more than two months. The city supplied their flights to the December 1 event. Melo had already placed first in the men's Master 3 black-belt super-heavyweight and open divisions at the 2013 Miami Open. In Panama, IBJJF again listed him first in those two divisions, representing FJJ AM. Galvão competed under the Ronnie Melo Jiu-Jitsu name, taking first in Master 1 brown-belt medium-heavyweight and third in the open class, which brings different weights together. Afterward, Melo described his student's success as his reward as a teacher: guiding his students was how he understood his role. That teaching network also extended to visiting instructors. In February 2014, Melo's academy was one of the registration points for a planned Cícero Costha seminar in Manaus, which Galvão helped organize. During the same period, Melo was working with a different group of learners in the city's schools. He, João Carlos Silveira and Alexandre Romano created Aprender, Conviver e Lutar in 2013. Romano, writing about their work in 2018, recalled that the project began with elementary pupils and expanded to preschool children within its first year. Involving families and including disabled children were among the founders' aims. The municipal account describes a start in three schools with 265 pupils. In February 2014, the city announced an expansion to eight school hubs and 960 pupils. Classes ran for an hour twice a week: a greeting, running and games with balls, cones and tug-of-war, followed by jiu-jitsu adapted to the children's ages. The city supplied mats and gis, the training uniforms, while municipal physical-education teachers taught the sessions. As coordinator, Melo emphasized concentration, respect and an interest in studying; producing sporting champions was not the principal purpose he gave for the work. He also invited established fighters to meet the children. On March 28, 2014, Ronaldo Jacaré and Alan Nuguette visited more than 100 pupils at Aristóteles Comte de Alencar school. Melo said hearing about their experiences could encourage the pupils to persist with their own ambitions. At André Vidal de Araújo special school, the project used an approach called avatar: teachers supported the children's movements with their own bodies. Romano emphasized adapting activities to developing learners rather than treating children as small athletes. His account placed interaction and parents' involvement alongside movement itself. The project's activities included paddleboarding on the Rio Negro and a sightseeing flight over Manaus, with parents accompanying their children without charge. Romano also reported that an Amazonian jiu-jitsu championship introduced an Inspiração category for project participants. By 2018, former trainee Cristiano Andrade da Silva was using the approach at Instituto Semear. Melo's school work received recognition at the Fórum de Educação do Amazonas's fifteenth Educação em Questão symposium on August 12, 2014. In accepting the honor, he emphasized children's teaching and learning and shared the recognition with his fellow municipal physical-education teachers. In April 2025, the city identified Melo as the municipal education department's sports coordinator in a report on Aprender Lutando. That program offered jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, judo and capoeira in 25 schools. At André Vidal de Araújo, teachers used adapted games, stories and themed activities, and shared activities that families could do at home. Melo proposed bringing in more teachers to reach 140 schools and over 2,000 students; those were his expansion goals at the time.

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