BJJ/MMA in Maryland

Where in MD are you? Closer to DC, Columbia, Baltimore?
My school is relatively low key. We are affiliated with Roberto Travern via Maryland BJJ
(the school I am under).
At Maryland BJJ - Duke is a great instructor, a riot and produces tons of great competitors and the atmosphere is awesome. My school has produced a number of successful amateur and 1 professional mixed martial artists.
www.md-bjj.com
and www.cpmma.net - my school is going to be moving to the college park area.
 
JJWrestler said:
I've been to a ton of gyms throughout Maryland.

If you are looking for a good school there are plenty but my favorites have been 50/50 (obviously not in maryland but yea) and Conquest BJJ. Vicente Jr. is a monster. DLR blackbelt.

Ground Control is good but more MMA focused.
Click to expand...

A vote for Conquest, my buddy Micah swears by them.
 
Yamasaki has 7 schools in the area, too, although I'm not sure whether they have many current high-level competitors.
 
anaconda said:
Oh really?

Please be more specific. Julius park has won gold medals at all those events? Pleae elaborate on which year he did the grand slam.
Click to expand...

Yeah when did that one happen?
 
We are a young school (Calvert MMA), but our competitors have done well in sport competition. We are apart of Team Relson Gracie. There are many quality schools in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. I suggest visiting as many as you can. Don't get caught up in the sales tactics of some of the more popular schools. A school may have produced a lot of "Champions", but they usually only focus on "star" pupils. Find a school that meets your needs (i.e. sport competition, MMA, street self-defense).
 
Are you in Baltimore proper or a surrounding area? Ground Control(the main one) is very MMA focused. The next few closest places are Baltimore BJJ, Conquest BJJ, Combat Sports Center and Team Maryland BJJ. Each of those gyms has mma with a few people fighting out of each. I say try them all and see which you like the most(that is if yiu aren't going to any TLI affiliates)
 
josh from md said:
Are you in Baltimore proper or a surrounding area? Ground Control(the main one) is very MMA focused. The next few closest places are Baltimore BJJ, Conquest BJJ, Combat Sports Center and Team Maryland BJJ. Each of those gyms has mma with a few people fighting out of each. I say try them all and see which you like the most(that is if yiu aren't going to any TLI affiliates)
Click to expand...

I live in Glen Burnie and na, probably no TLI affiliates. Conquest and Ground Control seem like my best bets, thank you all for the suggestions.
 
Swag King Pony said:
I live in Glen Burnie and na, probably no TLI affiliates. Conquest and Ground Control seem like my best bets, thank you all for the suggestions.
Click to expand...

I recommend visiting both. Conquest is a good sport jiu-jitsu school, but Big John's school (Ground Control) is good for street self-defense / MMA.
 
I've been to Ground Control Baltimore several times and really liked it although the classes are fairly small and there weren't many people above blue belt. I stopped going thought becasue my method of going was the bus and it got too difficult to juggle the long bus ride (3-4 hours total to there and back) + my classes but I plan on going again once I get a car. As others have said, it seems more of an MMA focused school as the striking classes seem to have a lot more attendance. Also the BJJ trainer Mark Finley I believe has had extensive training with Renzo Gracie so he knows his stuff and is friendly
 
Dude I live in Glen Burnie and I've literally checked out ALL the gyms in the area and I can promise you my favorite was Noel Smith's gym. I actually just made a post on here asking about this not to long ago and didn't get much of a response. But I've been to Conquest, wasn't a fan of how much conditioning they do in each class. I have nothing against doing cardio or anything, but if classes are only an hour and we're doing 20 minutes of cardio it just kinda drains my mat time. Not that all their classes are only an hour, but you get my point. I was excited to train under a DLR black belt, and plus I think Vicente has one quite a few tournaments, but he's rarely there. Crazy 88 was okay but it's pretty pricey. Ground Control, as someone pointed out is primarily focused on MMA. Jon Garfield has a school in Arnold which is okay, but they only offer a few classes a week. Noels gym offers 10 BJJ classes a week and three MMA classes, plus cage usage whenever the gym is open and not in use. $80 a month for BJJ, $150 for unlimited everything.
 
Oh, and I'm not a student endorsing his teacher, I haven't even joined yet! I'm just thoroughly convinced it's the best gym in the area. As a matter of fact if you wanna check it out sometime we can roll down that way together, I could use a good gym buddy to keep me motivated.
 
Disclaimer: I have never trained with or even met Noel Smith or any of the other people I am going to mention. I have heard from people that visited his gym that it was a fun place and that they liked the environment. With that being said....

Here is an excerpt from the Noel Smith About Me Page:
"In October of 1998 Noel met Roberto Marques DaSilva (AKA Maguilla). Maguilla at the time was a 4th degree Black Belt under Andre “Dede” Pederneiras in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Noel trained with Maguilla and received his Brown Belt in 2006."

Here is a thread started by Maguilla calling out a member of sherdog that commented on his past experiences with Maguilla:
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f12/attn-kenny-md-1923831/

After training with Maguilla, Noel Smith....
"In 2007 Noel then was introduced to 5th Degree Black Belt Master Renato Tavares, where Noel fell in love with Renatos views and philosophy of teaching martial arts. Noel has studied under Master Tavares and received his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in 2012. His introduction into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has changed Noel’s life forever."

Again I don't know any of these men personally. Just make sure you do your research.
 
I read that entire thread and saw no mention of Noel, so I'm not sure what we're supposed to take away from your post?
 
Ok I will continue looking but so far the only thing I can find on youtube is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjvCgRxT5Ew

Fast forward to 0:52 and he will be there teaching in a red gi.

Next, here are two of his student rolling. I assume it is Noel filming because it is posted by the same person as the previous video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0rxOiY8y_I

They play an "interesting" 50/50 game and then later in the video one student tries a cartwheel pass...

Like I said before I don't know the man and I heard good things about the gym from the two people I know that visited. Do your research.
 
wastedyouth said:
I read that entire thread and saw no mention of Noel, so I'm not sure what we're supposed to take away from your post?
Click to expand...

No one mentioned Noel.

But in that thread they mentioned the man that Noel trained under for 8 years.

Don't get defensive man. I'm from the area. I'm just looking up the school and the guy who runs it. Not saying anything bad at all.
 
I'm sorry if I came off as being defensive, I wasn't trying to. Like I said I'm not even a student of Noels, so I can't really tell you much about the guy or the gym. I can tell you that after checking out every gym within twenty miles of Glen Burnie that his gym offers more classes then any other school in the area for a better price. As for Noel and his training all I know is the guys been doing this shit for over a decade, regardless of where/who he trained under.
 
dalexan242 said:
Which could be about 2 hours each way if he's going from near Glen Burnie to Arlington during much of the week.
Click to expand...

Exactly. 50 miles in any direction in DC area traffic is pretty much guaranteed to be a 2 hour ordeal. At least.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,982
Messages
55,459,226
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top