i have a dilemma. i am dieing to start bjj, but there is no places to train while im away at college. I will be at college until early may, then ill be home for summer. 10min from my parents house is one of the best bjj facilities in pittsburgh, so when i return from school it will be perfect. however, im at least 1hour away from there while im at school. i cant realistically travel back home 3 or 4 times a week, but i could manage to do it at least once a week for sure, possibly twice. is it worth it to sign up for bjj if im only gonna be able to attend 1 class/week? do you think the instructor would give a discounted rate if i explained my situation and told him i was only going to be coming once a week? is it worth it to pay full price(not sure how much that is) if you can only attend 1 class/week? if you guys were in my shoes, would you be willing to commute 1hour to class? thanks for your opinions guys. btw, frodo or anyone else from pittsburgh that is familiar with steel city MA, how much do they charge? thanks
at the minute im training vale tudo only once a week for 2 hours at a time , iwould say any training is better than none , we train 1 hour standup and 1 hour grappling including bjj. i still find everyweek im progressing learning more subs although some times i'll need my memory jogged up as i will have a forgotten a few subs, but go train!
yeah what bob said isnt a bad idea. You could probably find a judo club to train take downs while your at school then when you go home train bjj for the ground game. Youll be tossing people in bjj competitions like nothing.. As long as they dont pull guard. If you dont like that idea im sure you could go and pay by the day at the bjj place. If your gonna drive all the way out there might as well stay atleast 2-3 hours and train. I drive 45 minutes- hour every single day to train. Last week i trained 10 times.. probably totaled like 20 hours or so.
Any BJJ is good. Just be sure to take lots of notes, it will make your progression go faster. Also you won't get burnt out and maybe you can hit the weight room, do some cardio or join a martial arts club at your school. Carlson Gracie in one of the old Grappling magazines said that his students that can only make it once a week are usually the ones who progress the fastest in terms of begineers. He makes them takes notes. Although nothing can substitute for mat time it's still worth it.
These guys all have amazing advice. Train whenever, even if it's just one day a week and if you can, find some guys at your school who you can roll with, shouldn't be too hard to get down with the wrestling team or Judo club, or maybe even start your own grappling club. Get some instructionals and study while your out there and make the most of your mat time.
Which school do you attend? (Sorry I forgot.) I actually travel over an hour to another school (in addition to Steel City) for extra training, but I can only make it there a few times a month. It is still worth it however, I think. They offered me a discount rate given my situation ($5/class). Email Sensei Achille and ask him! Here is the email I got back in May. Nothing has changed since them, as far as I am aware. I pay $60/month and attend on Wednesdays. If I can make it, I try to come on Saturdays too; however, that is rare. The web site for Steel City Martial Arts is pretty accurate. To get there, I usually take the T from downtown to Washington Junction exit. Then it is about a 5-10 minute walk to the dojo. You can see more in this map of the area around Steel City Martial Arts. Washington Junction is correctly marked on it.
any training is better then no training so yes its worth it but if i were you i'd look into taking some wrestling classes they will help you in bjj a LOT ... if you don't wanna do wrestling you can also look into judo or sambo it won't hurt you to build a good takedown game along with other grappling stuff for when you are ready to start bjj and will give you a big advantage in bjj tournaments
thanks frodo, I will email him and ask his opinion. I was under the influence they trained tuesdays, thursdays, and saturdays, I wasnt aware of the open mat time friday. I go to IUP, and i appreciate all the comments guys but we do not have any type of judo club. Frodo where do you travel an hour to go? Do you have instant messenger, if so please send me an IM so we can talk, my screename is snigg412. Thank you guys..
