Renzo Gracie Academy or Marcelo Garcia Academy?

lol at saying nogi is the best/future
tell this to Roger,Mercelo,Braulio Estima or pretty much every single best grappler in the world
 
it just sucks how if u train gi u have to spend hours at the laundromat everyday washing n drying the gi so its fresh for practice the next day. i barely have time to fit 3 hrs a day for training in, let alone a couple more for cleaning this dang gi
 
I train at Marcelo's and yes we have showers, and I'm pretty sure Marcelo won't promote you if you do nogi only.
 
well put. i guess i'll give the gi a try. i'll visit renzos and marcelos and pick the one i like more. if one doesn't have showers it's disqualified automatically.

I'm glad you're talking some sense. Try it man see if it's for you. Gi grappling IMO is more fun that no-gi because there are more intricacies to work with.
 
I train at Marcelo's, and have been to Renzo's a few times in the past. I definitely would recommend Marcelo's for a few reasons:

1. Marcelo personally teaches and rolls with students! Enough should be said about that part. The few classes he doesn't are taught by Paul Shreiner, who is a great black belt and instructor too. There are other high level belts you will catch there as well.

2. Fairly priced: cheaper than Renzo's, with more options (2x a week vs unlimited).

3. Awesome facilities. Everything is pretty new, and the showers are very clean. They, along with the mats, are cleaned daily. They also get some nice Defense soap to use. Not to say Renzo's facilities are bad, but having been to both, I give the extra nod to Marcelo's.

4. If you join as a full member, you will get access to mginaction.com included. Pretty much all classes Marcelo teaches are filmed and uploaded shortly after, along with some rolling sessions. I find this to be invaluable for retaining knowledge and mentally going over the details later.
 
I train at Marcelo's, and have been to Renzo's a few times in the past. I definitely would recommend Marcelo's for a few reasons:

1. Marcelo personally teaches and rolls with students! Enough should be said about that part. The few classes he doesn't are taught by Paul Shreiner, who is a great black belt and instructor too. There are other high level belts you will catch there as well.

2. Fairly priced: cheaper than Renzo's, with more options (2x a week vs unlimited).

3. Awesome facilities. Everything is pretty new, and the showers are very clean. They, along with the mats, are cleaned daily. They also get some nice Defense soap to use. Not to say Renzo's facilities are bad, but having been to both, I give the extra nod to Marcelo's.

4. If you join as a full member, you will get access to mginaction.com included. Pretty much all classes Marcelo teaches are filmed and uploaded shortly after, along with some rolling sessions. I find this to be invaluable for retaining knowledge and mentally going over the details later.

Yeah I like that Marcelo actually teaches. I'm willing to get on the subway at 6:30 AM from queens just for that. I also especially like that he lists the prices out in the open on the website, nothing to hide. Seems like the other schools are ashamed to publish on the internet that they're charging 220+ a month, why be ashamed if it's worth it? The facilities are also a big draw, having been to places like clockwork bjj and ronin athletics where it's just way too small. The mginaction site is also a really big draw. Though you can find many of the techniques shown on youtube, the site is wonderfully designed and intuitive and best of all, it's made by josh waitskin, who I admired long before I knew about mma when i first saw searching for bobby fischer, and it incorporates the art of learning into learning bjj which i find fascinating and cutting edge. I'll visit renzo's just so I know the deal, but I'll probably go with Marcelo. Now if they only had a laundry box where u can drop ur dirty gi and pick it up clean at the start of the next practice :)
 
even though the TS will end up starting a fight club by the end of the month, my 2 cents

1) TS - you come off arrogant and ignorant making a statement how gi is antiquated or whatever was the dictionary word of the day on your webster's calender. You never trained bjj in your life so saying gi is worthless when you do not know shit, tends to piss people off

2) renzo's you need to be a blue belt to train nogi

3) marcelo has beginner nogi classes - like 3 or 4 a week.
-but i might get some training there so it would be cooler if you weren't there

4) you might want to try roninathletics.com - they have no gi, wrestling and mma classes
 
The best way to deal with GI laundry is to build up to 4-5 gi's then you only do one load per week. Makes it much easier if you have to go to a laundromat to wash clothes.
 
James Toney made some comment about BJJ and Shane Carwin responded that Toney's only hope for not getting destroyed on the ground would be to "grab a Gi and start learning fast"(to paraphrase). Oh, those wacky guys like Carwin,Miguel Torres, GSP,etc... and their antiquated Gi wearin'.
 
If you plan to train during the day, Renzo's nyc is probably the best school in the world. The list of high-level pros who show up for John's no-gi is long
 
Out of specifically those two, i would go with marcelos...although I would also check out shaolins and alliance as well. Lots of threads with lots of info, shaolins is primarily gi however... and they can wash your gi for you, they have a gi washing service (for a fee) if thats the problem. Showers too.
 
4X all state wrestling freestyle and greco. won NAGA's last year. looking for a good no-gi school worth 250 a month that focuses on no-gi. gi's are antiquated vestiges of a formalistic tradition, and a waste of training time. one you get in the cage or submission grappling tourney the guy doesn't have a gi on, i don't want to be forced to train with a gi. is there somewhere that offers no-gi classes morning, afternoon, and evening 5-6 days a week? renzo and marcelo don't...

So you won a NAGA and you think you know a lot? Get outta here with that. If you said that you just prefer Nogi then that's fine, but you mentioned that the Gi is a waste of training time.. Tell Rafael Mendes, Cobrinha, Marcelo, Braulio Estima, Roger Gracie, etc.. that they wasted their lives training with the Gi.
 
even though the TS will end up starting a fight club by the end of the month, my 2 cents

1) TS - you come off arrogant and ignorant making a statement how gi is antiquated or whatever was the dictionary word of the day on your webster's calender. You never trained bjj in your life so saying gi is worthless when you do not know shit, tends to piss people off

2) renzo's you need to be a blue belt to train nogi

3) marcelo has beginner nogi classes - like 3 or 4 a week.
-but i might get some training there so it would be cooler if you weren't there

4) you might want to try roninathletics.com - they have no gi, wrestling and mma classes

1) I studied at Univ. of Oxford and I'm sorry my vernacular is beyond your grasp. I have trained about 6 months BJJ, and I won NAGAs.
2) Then give me a blue belt test and watch me pass :)
3) Watch out for the brollic dude wit the swagger lat dropping and mounting u at will.
4) Ronin's too small and has no showers.
5) If you read the rest of the thread, you'd know I've been convinced to train gi by someone who decided to speak logically and not emotionally.

I'll see you at the gym, just take your tampons out before we roll.
 
So you won a NAGA and you think you know a lot? Get outta here with that. If you said that you just prefer Nogi then that's fine, but you mentioned that the Gi is a waste of training time.. Tell Rafael Mendes, Cobrinha, Marcelo, Braulio Estima, Roger Gracie, etc.. that they wasted their lives training with the Gi.

Obviously not, it was Novice. I thought the gi was a waste of training time, but I've been convinced to give it a try. I still have my reservations though, I just don't think it's cool to grab shit lol. Grab me and control me if you can don't grab my clothes u woman lol. whatevs ill try it out.
 
Question: have you ever trained in something besides wrestling before? Just an honest question. I wrestled before I started bjj, and did no-gi for my first year, and I paid for it in the long run by developing technical flaws and bad habits. I didn't want to train in the gi because I thought it was stupid, but now that I train in both 50/50 I love it and I see the benefits.

First of all a lot of people train for sport competition in the gi.

The gi increases friction and forces you to be more technical, especially with escapes. No gi has a lot of sweat, and allows some leeway in escaping positions and submissions, which means that you will often neglect proper technique in favor of explosiveness, which works well at the lower levels but not so much against higher levels. I believe the gi also helps your base and balance, and increases your knowledge of leverage, but that's just me.

Furthermore for self defense purposes, people don't walk around in skintight rash guards and grappling shorts. Neither do they walk around in a kimono, but they wear clothes (like in NY). So from that perspective it's best to train in both.

I'm not biased against one or the other. I train about equal in both. But I think both provide benefits, depending on your goals.


This is a great response rambo.
Since the TS also lacks time for training, I'd give 2/3 of your time to nogi and the other to gi for reasons rambo pointed out. Maybe gi once/week, so you won't need multiple trips to the laundry.

What swings my decision a lot (when other variables even out) choosing between multiple schools is SCHEDULE. We're all busy in NYC. Sometimes I can't get out of work for an evening/lunch class. And sometimes I can't wake up for the mornings. But when a school offers morning/noon/and evening classes EVERY DAY for 5 DAYS PER WEEK, I am confident I'll be getting my money's worth. Sucks to pay $200+ per month and only make it to class 1-2x/week.... adds up to be over $25 per class.
 
1) I studied at Univ. of Oxford and I'm sorry my vernacular is beyond your grasp. I have trained about 6 months BJJ, and I won NAGAs.
2) Then give me a blue belt test and watch me pass :)
3) Watch out for the brollic dude wit the swagger lat dropping and mounting u at will.
4) Ronin's too small and has no showers.
5) If you read the rest of the thread, you'd know I've been convinced to train gi by someone who decided to speak logically and not emotionally.

I'll see you at the gym, just take your tampons out before we roll.


It's a shame they don't teach classes on how to not come off like an arrogant prick over at Oxford.

Good luck on your gym search
 
I believe Marcelo and Roger Gracie consistently train in the gi but when they prepare for ADCC etc., they take it off for a few weeks-months to focus on getting in that rhythm. Both are proponents of the gi, as well as many other high level practitioners. The main advocate of not training in the gi ever is Eddie Bravo, who despite being a controversial figure, he has some cool stuff to offer, albeit difficult for some body types. I personally find it easier to go from training a lot in the gi to no gi, than vice versa. I also have found that gi training allows you to absorb positional information and intricacies due to it being a bit slower and with more friction. This also forces you to be more technical with your escapes etc., because after a few minutes of sweat the whole game changes in no gi. I certainly enjoy both. Also in self defense many of the techniques, chokes, grabs etc. apply to a person in a jacket. Many chokes can even be done through a t shirt, although it may rip in the process. There are motives for teachers to be proponents of both philsophies <familiarity, more teaching material etc. for gi>, and having a new marketing angle etc. for pushing no gi only. This is your journey and if you feel like just doing no gi then that's what you should focus on, that being said if you're open to it, try the gi for a month so you have more information for your decision.
 
I also have found that gi training allows you to absorb positional information and intricacies due to it being a bit slower and with more friction. This also forces you to be more technical with your escapes etc., because after a few minutes of sweat the whole game changes in no gi. I certainly enjoy both. Also in self defense many of the techniques, chokes, grabs etc. apply to a person in a jacket. Many chokes can even be done through a t shirt, although it may rip in the process. There are motives for teachers to be proponents of both philsophies <familiarity, more teaching material etc. for gi>, and having a new marketing angle etc. for pushing no gi only. This is your journey and if you feel like just doing no gi then that's what you should focus on, that being said if you're open to it, try the gi for a month so you have more information for your decision.

You hit it on the head.

We have a saying the Army, Train as you Fight. I do BJJ for the sport but also for the self defense aspect. If I knew I would never have to defend myself against a person in a jacket, sweater, etc. then I probally wouldn't do so much Gi training.

I also make sure I tell folks who are new to the gym that they should give the Gi class a try as it's slower and more technical. It's less about aggresive wrestling and more about tecnique and timing. It's also super cheap now considering one can get a good double weave Gi for like $75-100 bucks.

As an aside, I stopped into Randy Couture's place in Vegas for BJJ class. I asked the instrcutor if they had a Gi class and he looked at my funny and said "When would I ever fight in a Gi?" Aside from that it was a great place to train.
 
I believe Marcelo and Roger Gracie consistently train in the gi but when they prepare for ADCC etc., they take it off for a few weeks-months to focus on getting in that rhythm. Both are proponents of the gi, as well as many other high level practitioners. The main advocate of not training in the gi ever is Eddie Bravo, who despite being a controversial figure, he has some cool stuff to offer, albeit difficult for some body types. I personally find it easier to go from training a lot in the gi to no gi, than vice versa. I also have found that gi training allows you to absorb positional information and intricacies due to it being a bit slower and with more friction. This also forces you to be more technical with your escapes etc., because after a few minutes of sweat the whole game changes in no gi. I certainly enjoy both. Also in self defense many of the techniques, chokes, grabs etc. apply to a person in a jacket. Many chokes can even be done through a t shirt, although it may rip in the process. There are motives for teachers to be proponents of both philsophies <familiarity, more teaching material etc. for gi>, and having a new marketing angle etc. for pushing no gi only. This is your journey and if you feel like just doing no gi then that's what you should focus on, that being said if you're open to it, try the gi for a month so you have more information for your decision.

awesome post, i'm looking forward to the gi :)
 
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