Brazilian Jiujitsu schools in Los Angeles

What are some good BJJ gyms (that focus on gi also) that are decently priced located in the westside of LA? More like Santa Monica, Beverly hills, or Hollywood. so far there are

Rickson Gracie-too expensive
Hollywood BJJ with Shawn Williams-sounds good will check out the price
Gracie Barra w/Gerson Sanginitto- am not familiar with the location area but will check it out
Beverly Hills JJ-too expensive
Legends w/Bravo-they don't use gi

I have searched the forums but can anyone who trains at any of these or others I did not list give me their experiences at the gyms they train at? thanks

 

anyone? 52 views and no response?

 

Torrance, few minutes from LA, IMB Academy With Fernando Vasconcelos, Mundial Champ, Pan Am Champ. ADCC competitor

 

It's expensive, but JJ Machados is a great place to train;

Jean Jacques Machado | Academy Information

Also Gokor's gym, although it isn't technicaly BJJ;

Official Website of Gokor Chivichyan - Hayastan MMA Academy


In LA it's realy easy to find great BJJ, but it's realy hard to find cheap BJJ.

 

Shawn williams came to my school once to do a class, and it was AMAZING. Shawn is a great teacher, and from what i heard a very nice/cool guy. I recommend training with him, he has done a lot for the sport(which seems not to be recognized as much since he is humble).

 

check out rey diogo or john machado's place. both are super nice guys

 

where is john machado's place? from what I hear it has moved several times or another

 

Beverly Hills Jujitsu is top notch. Marcus Vinicius is the head instructor and he actually teaches all the BJJ classes which is hella rare in Jujitsu schools.

Marcus holds a 4th Degree Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 2nd Degree Black Belt in Judo and has trained and coached many top fighters to championships in the UFC, Pride and many other MMA Leagues.

MMA Coach Experience:
* Bas Rutten - UFC
* Mark Kerr - PRIDE
* Fabiano Iha - UFC,KOTC,UFCJ
* Genki Sudo - Pancrase
* Bobby Hoffman - Jungle Fight
* Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - Rings
* Darrell Gholar - WVC, ACC
* Amir Rahnavardi - KOTC, Gladiator Challange.

 

Gracie Barra Culver City is a great place to train and it is very inexpensive compared to many los angeles area bjj academies.

Gerson is a 2nd degree black belt under Carlos Gracie Jr. He is also a judo black belt.

Come check it out.

 

it's on sepulveda across the street from the fox hills mall. i only trained there for a little bit, but i still highly recommend it. john and andre are the nicest most down to earth people. it was just a great atmosphere. i would train there in the mornings and there would be an average of 5 bb's there each time. check it out if you have the chance. btw one of the mods trains there as well (zankou), so if you have any questions i'm sure he'll be happy to answer them

 

I trained at Rigan Machado's school in Torrance, it was top notch and a good group of guys.

 

is there a comprehensive list of BJJ/MMA gyms in the SoCal area? seems like something that might be good for a FAQ...

 

Is it still there because PTC is also near the Fox Hills Mall.

PTC
6273 Bristol Parkway
Culver City, CA 90230

 

I used to train at John Machado's when it was at Wilshire and then the Grove -- great place and nice students -- just too much of a hike at its current location. I am now at Hollywood BJJ (shawn williams) which I equally like. The only difference I've noted is Hollywood does much more no gi and has a denser class schedule offering. Price is about the same.

 

How much is it at shawn williams? Also, how is the area around Gracie Barra Culver City? I would have to bus it there and the classes seem to end kind of late

 

Good to hear from you as well. Todd is doing very well, I actually take his tues/thurs early AM -- he is an assistant instructor. He really has turned into a monster and wipes the mat up with me more then ever. My bjj is ok, I am in a relearning phase -- I am really trying to get better with no gi open guard and my bottom game overall, which I consider the real keys to good bigger players games.

 

i live really close to gbcc and it's not a bad area at all. i'm pretty sure there is a culver city bus stop pretty close by. you should have no problem taking the bus at night

 

I was contemplating on whether or not to post this, but I feel it is relevant to what the TS asked. I am going to give my personal experiences from each of the places I have trained at.

John Machado's on Sepulveda- I trained there for about a month going strictly to the aftenoon classes as well as the Sunday takedown classes. The place had a real family type of atmosphere. There were absolutely no egomaniacs. The mat space is ample. From what I have heard though, the night classes can be quite full. As far as the price I promised Master Lima that I wouldn't tell anybody how much I paid nor ask anybody else how much they were paying. All I can say is that it is less than what is being advertised on Professor John's website. The main reason that I am not training there today is because Rey Diogo's school is much closer to my house.

Rey Diogo- This is where I currently train at. Like John Machado's I can not say enough good things about Rey and his students. Rey is a BB under the late Carlson Gracie and he's got a good mix of students who compete and just do it for fun. Not to sound too corny, but training there has almost a spiritual type of atmosphere. The price is pretty much the same I was paying at John Machado's. The matspace would probably be the biggest drawback along with the parking situation (it got to the point that I would just jog there from house). Don't get me wrong the matspace isn't tiny, but it is smaller than the other schools I have trained at/visited.

Gracie Barra Culver City- This is what I was contemplating on whether or not I should post this. I'll just say in advance that this opinion was based only on taking 1 class there. First off, I want to say that GBCC is the closest school to where I live and I felt that before even taking class that this is the place where I was going to train.

So, I take my free trial class. Gerson was there, but not instructing the class. So one of the first things we did was roll just for position and not to sub. Since this was my first bjj class ever they put me with one of the blackbelts. I really didn't know what I was doing and I can see that he's frustated. I'm thinking to myself why is he so pissed I'm not using strength or anything just pretty much lying there as he goes from side to mount and back to side. I told him that I'm sorry, but this is only my first class and he shot off a major attitude towards me (I'm not gonna say if it's Daniel or Jeremy.) I have to say I was not expecting that at all.

We then went into drills and Gerson nicely comes over to be my partner. I thought this was really cool since he had pretty much been chilling the whole class. It was weird though when he started to drill with me a bunch of the other students just gathered around us and watched. I had no problem with it, but I did have a problem with the fact that they were pretty much laughing and making fun of me. It was after that I decided to check out other schools, since my first impression was not so great. Let me say though that I know people that train there and absolutely love it. This was just my experience on that night, which was enough for me to not go back. In no way does it mean that you won't like it or the same things will happen to you.

Street Sports BJJ- The main instructor there is Renato Magno and the school is in Santa Monica. I checked out the website and the class times which seem to fit my schedule, so I decided to check it out. I seriously went there every other day during the afternoon class and nobody was ever there. I would call during the night class and nobody ever answered. I finally was able to talk to somebody there when I decided to roll by on a whim. Renato was doing privates with some guy, I asked him if he had been on vacation and he had told me that he was probably doing away with the afternoon class, so I decided to not even take my free trial. I will say though, that the mat space looked real good and he has some celebrity clientel including David Mamet and Rey Boom Boom Mancini.