I've only been one day and will more than likely never go back.
Apparently he is an instructor because he was talking about someone coming in for the 7:30 class that he was supposed to be instructing.
There were two other females that are new there that were actually training and again in the middle of our drills he says "Man, he's (another instructor) lucky...He gets to train with the hot girls and I get you."
Now to some this doesn't even faze them but I'm sorry...I have the upmost respect for females, especially those willing to learn and that's crossing the line, enough said.
Edit: might I also add that I overheard a couple of other regulars commenting on the females in a non-helpful disrespectful way.
Perhaps your experience involved one or two bad eggs or perhaps you were overanalyzing or taking too seriously the comments you heard?
As a female who has recently visited Alliance Atlanta, I believe your experience was out of place and as such your view of how they treat females is way off. I did not hear a single derogatory remark to or comment about any women while I was training there. I attended a Saturday class with about 40-50 people in the room that included 3 women (2 purples and a white belt) and Jacare and Cobrinha taught class. (It was well worth the mat fee imo.)
Even though at 110lbs I'm small even for a girl, I also didn't feel like I was treated any differently than at my own academy. For example, during king of the hill drills everyone worked very hard not giving an inch and I was swept very quickly over and over again. Then towards the end of class Jacare paired each group individually for each sparring session and although he was careful with whom he placed me, every roll was a competitive technical battle. It was great!
Over the last 4.5 years I have trained at many academies around the U.S. and around the world and Alliance Atlanta is my favorite so far. Yes, even above my own academy - especially when you take into account the depth of talent and skill they have...and well, they do have Jacare AND Cobrinha!
My own academy would be a close second though, lol!
I train at Fifty/50 BJJ with Ryan Hall.
I am judging my opinion based off of many qualities I think are important in a BJJ school.
In no special order:
1. Competition Credentials and Coaching Capabilities of the Head Instructors
2. Quality and Quantity of good training partners
3. Competitive Training Environment
4. Safe Training Environment
5. Practice Structure
6. Willingness of Instructors to provide technical assistance in and out of class (including coaching at tournaments)
7. Friendly atmosphere - camaraderie that exists in spite of and because of the competitive training environment is important to me
8. Instructors who truly want you to succeed for you and not for their own personal/professional gain
For reference here is a list (also in no special order) of the academies I've trained at or visited over the last 4.5 years:
1. Fifty/50 BJJ
2. BJ Penn's (HI)
3. Alliance (NY and Atlanta)
4. Lloyd Irvin & most of it's affliation schools (Camp Springs, NoVAMMA, Evolve, Crazy 88BJJ, Ivey League, Leo Dalla's)
5. Yamasaki (Rockville, and Fairfax)
6. Balance (HQ & 360)
7. Capital Jiu-Jitsu - Alexandria
8. Relson Gracie (Main Academy - HI)
9. New Breed - LA
10. Richmond BJJ
11. BJMUTA (went to a Camp there, only observed class)
12. Gracie Tampa
13. ATT Orlando (when Renato Tavares taught there)
14. Aumakua BJJ (Outside Orlando)
15. Ronin Athletics, NYC
