Quality Academy in Raleigh, NC?

[GJJNY]

Looks like a east coast move in imminent and I'm looking for some info on where to train in the Raleigh area.

I'm looking for a real academy, with guys who go to train, not hold the walls up. I trained for many years at one of the best academies in NorCal and as of recent I moved, and I'm forced to train at a, well, "lesser" (thats putting it nicely) academy. No warm up, classes start late, 3 minutes of repetition before the 'move' evolves and then open mat. No mandatory rolling, no timed rounds or anything. Upper belts lounge around and everyone relies on strength. The only guys half way decent are those from other schools. Its really not even worth going most of the time unless I get a rare upper belt who takes the time from his chit chat circle to roll, and even then its usually a match consisting of 90% strength and stalling.

Enough bitching, are there any schools that are the opposite of this clusterfuck? I'd hate to move somewhere else and think I should just stop training because its so horrible.

 

[LiT_WiCK]

what part of Raleigh?

 

[Shaolin Bushido]

Where ya at now?

 

[yovan]

I train at Pendergrass Academy, a Gustavo Machado affiliate. Drop me a PM or just show up anytime.

There are other great places to train in Raleigh as well: Forged Fitness/Royce Gracie and Triangle Jiu-jitsu/Royce Gracie.

Our school is run by two long-time brown belts. We have a few purples, a boatload of blues, and of course whites. I would gather it's not the same gauntlet of competition as a California-based school, but all our guys are pretty tough within their ranks.

I like our academy because I play an open guard/sweeps based game, and we cover this extensively. "Open your guard and work" is my favorite line I hear frequently.

I will say we have a laid-back style though. Nothing like you mention above, but we don't bow out or anything. We roll timed rounds after class, and do a proper warm-up.

Hope it helps.

Pendergrass Academy of M.A.

 

[GJJNY]

what part of Raleigh?

Thinking of living around Apex, maybe Cary. I'm willing to travel for good training. Within reason, of course.

Where ya at now?

That I'm not going to share with the interwebs. The school sucks, but the guys have been nothing but nice.

I train at Pendergrass Academy, a Gustavo Machado affiliate. Drop me a PM or just show up anytime.

There are other great places to train in Raleigh as well: Forged Fitness/Royce Gracie and Triangle Jiu-jitsu/Royce Gracie.

Our school is run by two long-time brown belts. We have a few purples, a boatload of blues, and of course whites. I would gather it's not the same gauntlet of competition as a California-based school, but all our guys are pretty tough within their ranks.

I like our academy because I play an open guard/sweeps based game, and we cover this extensively. "Open your guard and work" is my favorite line I hear frequently.

I will say we have a laid-back style though. Nothing like you mention above, but we don't bow out or anything. We roll timed rounds after class, and do a proper warm-up.

Hope it helps.

Pendergrass Academy of M.A.

Thanks, I'll look into.

Just to put it into perspective, I was coming from a Ralph Gracie school in CA.

 

[crochuck]

Team ROC has a gym in both Cary and in North Raleigh. They got a good group of guys.

 

[yovan]

Just to avoid confusion for the OP, Team ROC = Forged Fitness. Team ROC is their competition team name (I think?) Anyway, they are the same peeps. And yes, I would check them out, too.

 

[blfdgrappler]

I have to second (third?) the mention of Forged Fitness (Team ROC) in Raleigh. They have a great group. One of their Brown Belts, in particular, is a good buddy of mine and a great instructor. They have several black belts who are really good guys too. They also seem to attract some decent big names for seminars, etc.

All the best to you with your move and training.

 

[ghost13]

I have heard that Pendergrass is the place to go.