I am moving to Dallas this summer and wanted to know what the best comp schools are out there, right now I am training in Miami with Cyborg. I tried searching on the forums and the only result I found was a 2007 thread. Likely going to be living in the University Park area as I need to be close to UT Southwestern medical center. Anyone who has insight for schools in that area please help me out. From searching online I see there are a bunch of Machado schools and a Paragon. though I have had trouble finding info on who the instructor is at Paragon. Machado sites don't have schedule listed online so not sure what their schools are like. Thanks for any input
You have Bruno Bastos, a Team Nogueira affiliate right outside of Dallas in McKinney, pretty sure Alan Mohler (Alliance) is in or right outside of Dallas as well and North Dallas MMA.
www.pbjj.net if you are attending utsw med you wont have traveling time to go anywhere else farther away.
Bruno Bastos is in Midland now at Rhino BJJ. He used to be at Octagon MMA but now it's Octavio Couto (I think). Team Noguiera is now at Guy Metzgerz gym and Kaiser is the instructor there. I can give my honest opinion on both in PM's if needed. Mohler is going to be in Coppel, not too far for him, NDMMA is going to be a LONG drive for him. I do really respect JD Shelly though. We do ok, we are a more competition oriented school than most of the others in DFW but it will be a bit of a hike for you. I suggest you come drop in and roll with us and see if we are worth the drive or not. I'd be glad to have you and I'll make sure any mat fees are waived. Paragon is run by John Brink, newer promoted Black belt. It's a newer school so there not a huge amount of higher ranks yet, although I do know his recent brown belt promoted student. Big fan of Steven Hall at Pesadelo. He's an awesome guy, very straightforward and trains hard. If you don't come to Alvarez I would recommend him very highly.
Thanks for the replies. I might be coming out to explore dallas towards the end of the month, maybe check out dallas then head down to san antonio for the abu dahbi pro trials. NateTx I will PM you if I can make it out to check out Alvarez there. I am not attend UTsouthwestern med my wife is starting her residency there so I will have some flexibility with getting to schools that are farther but would like to find a school that is closer and then hope to be able to get around if necessary 2 days a week. I know the guys at Genesis and hope to be able to make it out there to train once a week but it seems like quite a drive to get to the other side of FW. I will def check out Hall's and Mohler's. Anyone with any info or experience with the Machado schools? Seems like there are a few that are close to where I will be looking to live. I compete at middle so it isnt usually a problem finding people the right size to roll with but would like to find a school with more graduated guys around my weight if anyone has that much info about the individual gyms.
Ah then you are going to have an incredible amount of time on your hands, because your wife will be working at the hospital 24/7. Unless she is doing OBGYN, in which case she will be working 1000000000/7. Go wherever the mat takes you grasshopper
Don't forget about Guy Mezger's Combat Sports Club. I've heard nothing but good things about that place. And as a bonus they offer Judo classes along with BJJ, and various striking classes incase you ever get that itch for MMA.
Love Albert and tony at genesis. Great guys. We have the 2012 middle blue belt silver medalist at worlds at our gym. Might be a good training partner for ya. Shoot me an email. I can fill you in on the machado schools as well as possibly attending Alvarez and genesis. We have a guy who trains with us 90% of the time but is officially ranked under genesis.
They don't have as an expansive a BJJ program from when I visited last time and don't have as many higher level guys for him to roll with if that's what he's looking for. Excellent school, great guys, and Yousef (coach) is freaking crazy and a fantastic grappler. Crazy stories about him outside of the school (funny) but wouldn't hesitate to train under him if I was in the area. Great wrestler if you want to learn some takedowns too.
I trained with Keiser Girao before he was the head coach at Guy Mezger's and I still drop in at Guy's when I'm in town (I've since moved). Good coach, with some good guys. I will say, there aren't a ton of purples or browns, but his blues tend to be much, much better than most. He's notoriously reserved with handing out belts. Just look at the team wins and you'll see that his people do well. Also, there are a lot of fantastic athletes at the gym. Pro-football players, former division I national wrestling champion, etc. Never an easy day at that gym, for better or worse.
If you can make it to Fort Worth, Tony and Albert at Genesis. That way you could keep it in the Cyborg family. I'm affiliated with Cyborg and live in Arkansas, I'm down that way to visit those guys routinely.
Never been to the area so I can't speak about the level, just have connections with Bedford from back in Ohio, so I knew he was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
