Need to decide on a gym in chicago

cky2kk

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So I've been looking at several gyms where I live in Chicago and the clostest ones were victory martial arts academy @ Forest Park -1401 Circle Ave Forest Park and Gracie Barra Chicago @ 4900 North Lincoln Avenue. Now I saw a lot of vids but couldnt find any of how the gym at victory looks like tho i heard it has an MMA cage. If anyone who knows could share any info with me give reviews and prices I would appreciate it. Im 18 yrs old and my dream is to one day fight in UFC i know it wont be easy I have some fighting experience but I need advice on which gym would be better. Thanks
 
Ive heard great things about New Breed in Skokie. Valko is also supposed to be top notch.
 
Only been there once, but New Breed was one of my favorite out-of-town gym experiences.
 
Hey Cky2kk, I train at the Gracie Barra Chicago and its a great place to train. We have Muay Thai on Mondays and Saturdays, no gi Wednesdays and Friday, and Gi, every day except Sunday.

My best recommendation to you is to definitely just come check the place out, get a feel for how things are run, see how classes are, how the people are, plus it gives you a chance to ask the questions you might have. Chicago is blessed to have several great schools as mentioned above such as New Breed, Carlson, and Valko, so definitely check them out to make an informed decision!

Either way, good luck to you, and welcome to the BJJ community!
 
I was wondering when you talk about muay thai do you guys have a ranking system ? I know you do for bjj but in muay thai is the same ? Dont you earn arm band stripes?
 
So I've been looking at several gyms where I live in Chicago and the clostest ones were victory martial arts academy @ Forest Park -1401 Circle Ave Forest Park and Gracie Barra Chicago @ 4900 North Lincoln Avenue.

where do you live that these two are the closest to you? they're almost at opposite ends of chicago (GB chicago is as far north as chicago gets, and Forest park very west, probably a good 25 miles between them)

edited for forgetting to add that i train at GB chicago (lincoln ave) solid choice!
 
I train at Graciebarra Chicago and I love it! A great group of guys! Everyone is going to be biased and tell you to train at were they train at. Your best bet is to go to schools such as Carlson's, Newbreed, Graciebarra, Valko and than decide for yourself. All of them will offer you a free class if not more.

I never take the muythai classes at GB but I don't believe they have belts for muythai!
 
Valko Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy | Chicago has an almost equal amount of gi and no gi, plus boxing, muay thai and wrestling. Both our boxing coach and our muay thai coach are Chicago Golden Gloves champions. Jay Valko is a black belt from Eduardo Delima of Gracie Barra (although Jay does not represent Gracie Barra). Chicago is practically like Rio now, you can walk from school to school and find lots of good bjj. I think it would be a safe bet to say that Valko trains more take downs than most other BJJ schools in the area and aside from New Breed might have the highest % of students who actually compete. We're also I believe the cheapest in the city and offer classes everyday, twice and sometimes three times a day during the week.
 
I live by Harlem and Foster and gracie barra's is about 7-8 miles so I figured its not bad if I take a bike if the place is truly great it will be worth biking for 45 minutes. I definetly plan on checking the gym out but next year the soonest. This year busy thanks everyone for advice though
 
Ah I see I will check out Valko bjj also. See I plan on learning to be very good at ground game so im interested in bjj but muay thai is very good too. My plan was after getting a black belt in bjj was to take MMA and then sign up for amateur fights to have a shot at UFC. I am not a fool and a dreamer I understand it will take enormous skill, dedication, stamina, and will but my mind is set. Btw if anyone has similar plans please share would be great to discuss it.
 
Ah I see I will check out Valko bjj also. See I plan on learning to be very good at ground game so im interested in bjj but muay thai is very good too. My plan was after getting a black belt in bjj was to take MMA and then sign up for amateur fights to have a shot at UFC. I am not a fool and a dreamer I understand it will take enormous skill, dedication, stamina, and will but my mind is set. Btw if anyone has similar plans please share would be great to discuss it.

If you have time, please check out Carlson's place. Alot of fighters came from there (including Miguel Torres and Stephen Bonnar). My coach, black belt Daniel Wanderley teaches there, as well as Carlson Jr and some great brown belts.
 
The place is located at 820 North Orleans right ? I went on valkobjj.com/media/ and I watched the first video there I was impressed by the skill the students had. But is that the gym you guys train at ?? and does Jay Valko train you in person or are there other instructors?
 
I have heard nothing about Victory Martial Arts. How did the pop up on your radar and what are you looking to train in? And I was close to moving to that area but decided against it because of training opportunities. The drive from Harlem and Foster to all the other gyms is a pretty good hike after you consider how terrible traffic is going west to east in the city.

I stumbled across this site a few months ago because they were hosting a seminar but know nothing about the training. It's in Des Plaines so I imagine that isn't too far from you.

thresholdmartialarts
 
The place is located at 820 North Orleans right ? I went on valkobjj.com/media/ and I watched the first video there I was impressed by the skill the students had. But is that the gym you guys train at ?? and does Jay Valko train you in person or are there other instructors?

Yes, we're located at 820 N. Orleans. The first video is from the most recent NAGA in Evanston. Jay teaches all classes except the striking classes and Friday nights no gi, taught my Mike Cornielle, a no gi badass.
 
Sorry, that first video is from our in-house holiday tournament, not NAGA. The second video is from NAGA. We are no longer at the location in the first video.
 
I dont know shit about Chigaco

but my buddy went to Gracie Barra and he's good

and I've heard a lot of good stuff about them

that's wheer I'd go based on what I've heard
 
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