Pittsburgh Jiu Jitsu Gyms

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Danl Larusso

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Does anyone know of any good jiu jitsu gyms in the north Pittsburgh area?

thanks
 
I am compiling a list of grappling schools in Pittsburgh. Some offer BJJ training with a gi.

Rodrigo Junqueira - Brazilian Jiu Jistu Academy - Welcome is a good BJJ academy north of Pittsburgh. They do gi and nogi and are taught by an Alliance Brown belt. He is very good and knows his stuff very well. They have a good academy with clean mats and nice people.

M.A.C. Fitness is a fitness center with a medium-sized mat surrounded by boxing ropes. Besides weight lifting and no-gi grappling, they offer boxing, kick-boxing, and MMA fighting instruction too. Their instructor Beau Clark competed in the 2003 ADCC, and many of their grapplers are very good. Unfortunately, AFAIK they only do no-gi grappling. It costs about $10/session, and I highly recommend them. Check out their web site for more info.

The only other place for BJJ that I am aware of in northern Pittsburgh is Lathen Martial Arts. I visited them tonight (Friday), but my experience was not too good. I am going to give them a second chance, however. It costs about $20/session for grappling there. Unlike M.A.C. Fitness, a gi is required at LMA.
 
I haven't lived in Western PA for years, but I remember there were some good judo clubs. If you can't find a good jujutsu place, consider judo for some good gi grappling. About 20 years ago, I went to tourneys at the South Hills Judo Club and remember it being pretty good. But I don't what it's like now.
 
Yep, I recommend MAC too. Its in Wexford, but right off of i79 so its very easily accessible. The sessions are $10 each as Frodo said, and in addition to the classes he lists they also do a wrestling class. (I actually live about 1 minute away from MAC, so its obviously my first recommendation)

Steel City Martial Arts is a Pedro Sauer affiliate so they have a great lineage, but its kinda far away if you do live in the north hills, as I do too.

PA Karate Academy is also south of the city, they don't have jiu-jitsu but do teach combat submission wrestling, in addition to muay thai and some other arts. www.pakarate.com

And theres a also a grappling club at Carnegie Mellon University, downtown- http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rcjones/faq.html

PFC is a mma team here in Pittsburgh, which is something eles you might be interested in- http://www.practicalfightingconcepts.com/

South Hills Judo Club, actually now offers mma, as well but again its kinda far from the north hills- www.shjudo.com

Hey with all these mma fans in Pittsburgh we should all get together and watch a UFC sometime, I can't believe how many of us there are.
 
Unfortunately, outside instructors (besides me: hahaha!) are not allowed at CMU, and we have been getting some flack for it.

At Pitt's grappling club, you may be able to train with us on Sunday if you bring your photo ID and contact me beforehand. But only one or two at a time can train as "guest instructors." on that day before we get yelled.

College administrators suck. They proactively make rules that only serve to make everyone else miserable... :-(

PKA is a great place. Balto went there for 15 years, and he is an awesome grappler. However, I think the other places provide better instruction at this time.

PFC is also opening a new gym within weeks that should be awesome. They teach grappling, standup, or MMA depending on what you ask IIRC. Their teachers - especially Bill Vucick - are very very good IMHO.
 
Does anyone know anything about the jiu jitsu place out in greensburgh. I live kinda far away from pittsburgh and greensburgh would be a lot easier for me i just haven't got up their to check it out yet.
 
I went to Schrader's a few times. I highly recommend his school! (Otherwise, I would never have returned as it is an hour long trek one way for me.) Mark is better at boxing than grappling. However he is still competent at it, and one of his students beat me in a grappling match before so take that as you will.

His school focuses on JKD, boxing, and MMA. Mark and Billy Vucick often train together at Eric Hibler's place. Mark hosts a fun and well run tournament every once in a while. I highly recommend entering. You can also visit http://marksmma.com to get to his web site.

His school is one of the nicest I have visited in Pittsburgh - currently second only to SCMA. Mark, Bill/Eric, and Steel City are all rapidly improving their dojos or building new gyms. The (economic) competition for grappling in Pittsburgh is going to be intense!

I didn't mention it because Mark's is pretty far away (about 45-55 minutes from Greensburg). I have no experience with XFS, unfortunately.
 
next ufc ppv at dukes station 3 in mt lebanon. me and a few buddies went there for the usa v canada card, nice little bar and no cover charge for event. me and a few guys roll at IUP 3-4 days a week and anyone who is in the area is welcome to stop by. its free and open to anyone.
 
south hills judo has mma? since when and who is running it? the link is dead.
 
Unfortunately, South Hills Judo's MMA club has ended. I looked into it, but they haven't met for a long time.
 
TakadaDojoKeith said:
I haven't lived in Western PA for years, but I remember there were some good judo clubs. If you can't find a good jujutsu place, consider judo for some good gi grappling. About 20 years ago, I went to tourneys at the South Hills Judo Club and remember it being pretty good. But I don't what it's like now.
Click to expand...

Oh you Pennsylvania people are so arrogant, conservative, and dark. Must be the dingy weather up there and possibly the polution from the mills blocking the sky. Pretty stuck up and clickish too if I remember that region correctly. Beautiful scenery, but the attitude sucks. Negative attitude problems. Way too deep for your own good, and you are so arrogant to think that you are more deep, more complex, and more intellegent. Much of the time you are so busy being deep you create things that don't really exist. Complete control freaks that are too afraid to love and smile I think. I'd like to once see one of you strip naked and dance across hills with your ding dong hanging and screaming I love everybody!! I accept everybody. The world and everybody in it is so beautiful. No way. Not in Pennsylvania. Northerners all over the world are so overly reserved from the cold weather. It annoys the kajillies out of me. It's like you only keep a few picked out "superior" friends and are so close minded you shun everybody else out. I think your just afraid of having your lines challenged. This is why the region is so dead.

Expecially the way PA people judge people and discount them. To mature for your own good. There is a terrible ugly sarcasm that comes from that region. Definately not enough hugs and love and not enough apologies and very little ability to think outside of the box. Who do you think you are judging anyone? It's not like you shit gold bricks. We're all going to the same place in the end. Why do you feel the need to give people a bad trip my dear brothers and sisters from eastern Pennsylvania?

Martial arts in PA? Spare me. It isn't a region that is expecially known for this art.
 
lockjaw211 said:
^^^^ what the hell are you talking about man?
Click to expand...

haha, i was thinking the same thing. relax dude, how can you generalize the whole state of pennsylvania?
 
Combative Grappling systems has some solid gi and no-gi students.

Like people said, MAC fitness has the best instructor around in Beau Clarke

Another place I haven't seen up here is Penn Hills Martial Arts in Verona

Finally, Donnie Kaechner teaches out of his home--he has a lot of grappling/mma experience as well.

I've rolled with all these people, so if you have more detailed questions feel free to ask
 
PHMA in Verona will hold a special place in my heart since that's where I finally started learning to do armbars and triangles correctly. I also can't forget rolling there every time I look at the radiator scars in my knee! LOL

Unfortunately, I haven't been to PHMA since October 2005. A friend of mine who also used to attend told me he found the place locked at the normal practice time (Tuesdays 6:00 PM). Do you know what their schedule looks like?

Donny's is a cool place too. He recently moved, so you should call him at 412-965-1112 or email him at p t t underscore m m a at yahoo (obfusticated to prevent spam) to get directions and how much it costs. He holds group lessons and individual privates. Donny's great and he fought a few mma fights too.

Got a question about CGS. Do they roll with a gi or no-gi? What do they do on Fridays at MMA day exactly? Do I need a mouthpiece most of the time?
 
Frodo--I'm getting the feeling we've probably rolled a few times.

Who were you training with at Penn Hills--Dan, Jeremy Bennett or Beau? Beau is doing his Tuesday class at MAC Fitness now and I know Jeremy is busy during the week and doesn't make it out there. I used to live close by, but I moved and I'm not sure if they have anyone teaching the "open" classes on Tuesdays/Thursdays.

Do you know if there's anything going on at Holiday Health and Fitness in Monroeville? It used to be great on Sundays (Donnie and Chris Custer)...I was up there about a year and a half ago and Andy Cooper was teaching classes, but they raised prices every week ($5 to $10 to $14) so I stopped going.
 
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