BJJ In Bay Area

[alx99949]

Hey guys,

I'm moving out to San Francisco from Philadelphia at the end of the month and was wondering if any of you guys could point me the direction of a good school. I want to start training a lot. Any information/advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[joshross]

I believe Ralph Gracie has an academy in Frisco, as well as Fairtex. A little farther south there are two American Kickboxing Academy locations in San Jose and Sunnyvale, Ralph Gracie and Fairtex in Mountain View. A bunch of schools here... Google it!

 

[DeathNTaxes]

Fair Tex.

If you really want the best BJJ in the bay Area.

It's Eduardo Rocha at Eduardo Rocha Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu It's in the East bay though...

But those are my recommendations.

 

[alx99949]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll check those out.

I'm trying to focus more on the SF area but if I come across a school that's not too far I don't mind traveling.

 

[the heed]

Hey guys,

I'm moving out to San Francisco from Philadelphia at the end of the month and was wondering if any of you guys could point me the direction of a good school. I want to start training a lot. Any information/advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

If you are living in the actual city of San Francisco, Ralph Gracie's academy is about your only choice unless you plan on driving out of it every time you train.

Fairtex is a great place to train with great instructors but its really for Muy Thai and MMA.

 

[-Montanha-]

Best MMA Jiu-jitsu=Cesar Gracie or AKA under Dave Camerillo

Best Gi Jiu-jitsu is Ralph Gracie in SF under head instructor Kurt Osiander

Jake Sheilds just left Fairtex and we are waiting to see where he opens shop

 

[alx99949]

Do you guys know of any No Gi in SF?

 

[Throwing Dummy]

I train at Modern Combatives in Berkeley, which is close to BART and easily accesible from SF. Great MMA instruction, BJJ, Judo, Muay Thai and Boxing. Lots of chances for no gi, with and without MMA gloves. Open to anybody regardless of goals or fitness level you can find a place there. Part of the SBGI group, very much performance based.

Great coaches - Brown Belt BJJ instructor - she's totally awesome and super technical. No strength in her game so you get excellent technical instruction. BJJ available 5 nights and Saturday every week. Also numerous Judo black belts, and tons of excellent seminars through the SBGI system - John Frankl coming from Korea in late June and Matt Thornton probably in July. Also, Chris Haueter due up from SoCal soon.


modern combatives - welcome!!

 

[BrokenCouch]

depends. fairtex and AKA are in san jose, which is going to require you to drive to get out there. and bay area traffic sucks major balls, so i wouldn't recommend commuting to fairtex after work or w/e for evening classes. 101 especially - that freeway is a clusterfuck of traffic during rush hour. san jose also has the shittiest freeways and is possibly the most condensed traffic in all of northern california.

bart will give you easy access to areas like berkeley, walnut creek, oakland, etc. since san jose isn't technically the bay area, although most people still clump it in that generic category. bart does go out to fremont, but then you'd need a car to get from there to anywhere in san jose - and it is still like a 15-20 minute drive from there.

plus, from what ive heard fairtex doesnt have gi classes, just no gi. but they have amazing muay thai and no gi

i would recommend staying in SF just from the commute point of view, unless for some reason you really want to commute out on bart. but bart isn't the best public transit system - unless you really want to accumulate a lot of interesting but disturbing stories to tell your friends. they will all include crazy hobos masturbating to gang bangers getting arrested.

 

[TheHighlander]

Best MMA Jiu-jitsu=Cesar Gracie or AKA under Dave Camerillo

Best Gi Jiu-jitsu is Ralph Gracie in SF under head instructor Kurt Osiander

Jake Sheilds just left Fairtex and we are waiting to see where he opens shop

Jake is now at FSA in South San Francisco, corner of Callan and Westborough. Unfortunately not close to BART.

Mon/Wed 7p-9p
Tues/Thurs 11a-12:30p

 

[finlayson]

The Bay Area is a big place. However, if you're based in San Francisco proper, then - for gi BJJ - you can't do better than Ralph Gracie's San Francisco academy. Generally speaking, traffic in the Bay Area is bad, so you don't want to be driving too far to train, especially during the peak evening hours.

If instead you're going to be in one of the suburbs or 'satellite' cities (Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz), then there are plenty of options in each place.

 

[alx99949]

Thanks for all the help guys really appreciate it. I'll be living in SF so I'm looking for something within the city limits.

Does anywhere offer no gi too?

Thanks again.

 

[TheHighlander]

There are a couple of small programs in the city itself, but nothing really great. Ralph's is definitely the best gi school in SF itself but there wasn't any no-gi last I heard.

Fight and Fitness, Fairtex and Gym 445 have small programs with good basic instruction.

 

[birdbones]

Is anybody familiar with Open Door Jujitsu in Oakland? Their website has a good vibe and I noticed a couple of their guys placed at the Pan Ams.

 

[Throwing Dummy]

A bunch of guys that train at my gym Modern Combatives also train at Open Door. They really love the place. It has a great rep, black belt instruction - I think they have one off the very few American female blackbelts over there. All signs indicate it's a great place to train. I wish I had time to get down there.

 

[Valiss]

There is also Zen Budokai. I dont know anything about them, except they are JJ (not BJJ) they are in SF proper. They rent a studio from a TKD school I believe.

You can see thier website here:
San Francisco Zen Budokai Aiki Jujitsu

And the lineage of the instructors here:
Stanford Jujitsu - Biographies

I dont know much about BJJ/JJ so I cant tell you if it's bullshido or not.

 

[Valiss]

dbl post

 

[thetequilaman]

Do you guys know of any No Gi in SF?

Ralph Gracie does no-gi, Tuesdays and Thursday from 7:30pm -9pm. Some people train no gi MMA in the mornings and mid-day sessions.

I go to the Tuesday Thursday no-gi MMA classes every week. It is no-gi for MMA, but they do some pureno-gi grappling stuff as well.

 

[thetequilaman]

There are a couple of small programs in the city itself, but nothing really great. Ralph's is definitely the best gi school in SF itself but there wasn't any no-gi last I heard.

they have had no-gi for about a year now, and they are trying to become a more well-rounded BJJ gym. They do some MMA too, but nothing like AKA or Ceasar's places. Those are MMA schools.

 

[batman69]

Fair Tex.

If you really want the best BJJ in the bay Area.

It's Eduardo Rocha at Eduardo Rocha Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu It's in the East bay though...

But those are my recommendations.

in my biased opinion you could come check out rocha jiu jitsu. we have no gi on saturdays, and also have blackbelt instruction 6 days a week. our school just cleaned up at the america's cup after doing very well at the us open also. eduardo rocha the the instructor won his 4th gold at this last pan americans. check out the website at Eduardo Rocha Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.