BJJ In Calgary

[Viva Italia]

Aight well I'm in Calgary and I wanna start doin BJJ. I've done a bit of nogi bjj with friends and a few people at the boxing gym I go to. I've found 3 black belt instructors here, need help deciding which one to go to.

Gracie Barra Calgary
Josh Russell, black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr.

BDB Martial Arts
Brian Bird

Fighters Nation
Wilson Goncalves, 3rd degree black belt

I was leaning towards Fighters Nation just cause it's an all around MMA gym and that's what I wanna get into eventually.

 

[Teedoh74]

I am impressed with Josh Russell. He lived out every jiu jitsu players dream of moving to Brazil and going from white to Black in 4 years under Carlinhos Gracie at Gracie Barra. His DVD The Turtle guard is good for advance players.

 

[bjjmedic]

I took a seminar from Josh Russell a couple of years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
He also is Jason MacDonald's BJJ coach and fights MMA.

 

[Bantrel]

I have trained at both Gracie Barra and BDB, both great places to train but if I were to pick just one, I'd have to go with BDB, Brian Bird is a Roy Harris Black Belt, and a great teacher, the gym has a very comfortable atmosphere, and Hrris comes every now and then for seminars. nothing against Josh Russell or his gym, just prefer BDB.

 

[KentPeters]

I trained under Josh for the time i was in school in Calgary and he is an amazing teacher and just a good guy ... class is well structured and all of the students are good to each other ... and if MMA is what your going for they just had 3 (i think, may have been more) make debuts last week and all won in the first round, so thats a good record ... along with himself and Garrett Curran also fighting MMA out of the club they are not shy on fighters ... I loved it there, but I've since relocated

 

[Matthew Fedler]

Holy shit, Russell got his black belt in 4 years under Carlos Gracie?! I knew he was good and Jason MacDonald's jiu jitsu coach but wow. I have only been to one grappling tournament so far and he is the guy who beat me for the team cup at Copa Sask. That is cool.

 

[Mike Ciesnolevicz]

this is good to know, my gf is originally from Calgary. Maybe i will pay a visit to some of these gyms to keep progressing my BJJ. I am a purple belt but am really into the gi now. Trying to work towards my brown and black eventually.

My main bjj coach is Rodrigo Uzeda

 

[Michael Davis]

BDB Martial Arts they have a great gym and great mma fighters they did very well at the RITC event and have sent people to the world and had one of there members do very well at the no go worlds. Guys like Nick Ring who train there have sick muay thai and black belt in bjj he is a wrecking machine with a 10-0 mma record ( going be big soon and won in bellator) out of all those I would go with BDB, check out there grappling tourny on Nov.28th and check them out.

 

[rts671]

Kinda off topic.. How is living in Calgary anyways? I was supposed go there for school (graphic design), although things didn't go through..

 

[magpie**]

i would go with josh russel and calgary is an industrial, overpriced shit hole.

 

[Chungungo]

All those academies still exist ?