Review of 3 NYC BJJ Schools

shaolindub

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OK, I'm new to bjj, and I'm looking rof a gym/school to train in. Here's my review...

Renzo Gracie's:
I found Renzo's to be very cold...a bjj factory. I went in for a trial class and when we had to find a partner, by default, I ended up with a person (girl) half my weight. The instructors didn't notice the disparity for about a good fifteen (of the thrity minutes) into the drills. What the fuck? Renzo's has a lot of great things going for it (obviously), but personalized attention is not one of them. And the sales guy Max is a "pushy sales guy". Instruction was...eh. Instructors weren't really paying attention and assistants didn't know what they were doing...e.g., parring with the wrong hand. Renzo's charges 75 bucks for registration fee and 210 per month on a one year contract. Facilities and schedule are awesome. Work out was not particulary intense. Classes are one hour. Ten minutes of warm up, then instruction, drills and position rolling, and then 5 minutes of strechting to finish.

Alliance NYC:
Alliance had an awesome feel to it. They play fun music while they train. Everyone, including Fabio, was amazingly nice, helpful and welcoming, but the place is tiny and it stinks like by balls. I was told that Lucas Lepri was coming to teach there full time soon, which was a very appealing feature. Alliance's familial feel, success in competition and its connection with the Alliance org is very appealing. The instruction was, again, so so. Fabio showed everyone two moves during the one and one -half hour class. And it's hard for a new guy to understand what he's saying in his accent. They too have a one year contract. They charge 60 for reg fee and 220 for the first month and then 218 per month for the rest of the year. Crazy!!! (Must be to pay off all of the legal fees.) Classes are one and a half hour long. The class had me more winded than any of the others. TOUGH WORKOUT!!!

Studio X (the new one):
Yes, as everyone claims, Josh is very charming and the facilities are DOPE. But there is a cold, souless feeling to the place...maybe because it's so big. The students there were mostly whites and blues. I found Josh's instruction to be far superior to Renzo's and Fabio's, partly (but not entirely) because he spoke english with out an accent. When hour long class began we started right away with the drills. (I notices that everyone strecthed and wamed up before the class began.) Josh took us through drills that progressed into moves he would eventually teach us during the class. Everything was in a progression. This goes into that. That goes into x. X, if x doesn't work, goes into y. Y, if y doesn;t work, takes you to z. X , y and z each being submissions. The students there were super helpful, with one exception. I rolled with two different guys, both of which were super helpful and Josh asked if there were any questions at the ent of the calls (actually 15 minutes after the class should have ended), which was nice. Fees are 199 per month...period...no contract.

I know everyone here is hardcore and you all view the one year contract as nothing, but for a new guy who can't tell which place is the right one for him or even whether bbj is for him, the one year k is and issue.

With the grat instruction and no k, I' leaning toward the new studio x. But I really want to go to Alliance. The biggest appeal for me going to alliance is the idea of having lepri and other great experienced people to roll with in a familial enviornment.

Also, although I am kind of old, I may want to compete in tournaments some day and think that Josh's rep might hinder that possiblity.

I think the best thing for me would be to start off at Josh's for a while until I learn fundamentals and then move to Alliance, but there is so much bad blood that I don't know if that would be possible.

Thoughts?
 
Max is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Perhaps its you that have the problem? And are you actually saying you had any trouble understanding any of our instructors? I'm guessing you had Magno who is from Queens for Christ's sake. All well...
 
Max is one of the coolest people I have ever met. Perhaps its you that have the problem? And are you actually saying you had any trouble understanding any of our instructors? I'm guessing you had Magno who is from Queens for Christ's sake. All well...
 
Man I am offended by how you spoke about my school, but as a former student of Josh's I am also offended for him. Put some time in the game before you run your mouth.
 
I'm not going to get into the politics of Alliance or Studio X. I will say that you should pick one or the other. Neither will be happy with you going to one then the other because of the bad blood. However, otherwise the politics shouldn't hinder your ability to compete in any tournament. Just pick the place where you felt more comfortable. Try one more lesson on a different weekday at each place if you need to decide.
 
you should also check out Camp Undefeated, Lotus BJJ (in queens), fighthouse, machado, and Ronin athletics.

There's a few other places that i cant remember.
 
you should also check out Camp Undefeated, Lotus BJJ (in queens), fighthouse, machado, and Ronin athletics.

There's a few other places that i cant remember.
 
I don't know why you're all shitting on the TS. He seems to have given an objective opinion on the 3 schools with both positive and negative things to say about each school. Although some of his statements were a little blunt...
 
he is a newbie with own criteria, he ddnt state that he is the ultimate judge of bjj school. even though i will agree just going one in a club isnt enough for judging .
 
I think he called it like he saw it. Doesn't mean everyone looks at the same way. The prices seem insane, just not used to seeing over $200 monthly fees.
 
Sorry for the typos. And sorry if I offended anyone. I didn't mean to be offensive. I take back the comment about Max; I really don't know the dude. I'm sure he's a nice guy but he was being a "sales guy".

I was trying to be honest about how I feel about the places.

I also agree that going to one class is no way to judge the quality of the instruction, but that's all I got, and that's what's making the decision difficult.
 
Quit hating on the guy. He posted honest reviews. The "d-bag" comment was a little much, but he took it back. Everything else was just fine.

Every school is going to have positives and negatives. If you think otherwise, you're just being delusional.

For what it's worth, what he said about Renzo's is accurate enough based on what I've heard from former training partners who went there. It's a nice facility with tough guys, but you won't find a lot of individual attention. Also there does seem to be a lot of sales pressure to stick with them and not look anywhere else.

Again, there are offsetting positive things for Renzo's too. You just have to decide what is more important to you. That was the point of the review I thought. To lay out the pros and cons bluntly and let the reader decide.
 
I think you should check out the schools suggested by agente809 and write reviews on them.
 
whats wrong with being paired up with someone smaller then you?

working with people of all sizes is what bjj is all about, if your on the street and about to get jumped, what will you say "SORRY DUDE YOU ARE TOO BIG FOR ME, WE CANT FIGHT" or "SORRY MAN YOUR NOT MY SIZE, YOU ARE TOO SHORT, I WONT BE ABLE TO DO WHAT I KNOW TO YOU."

renzos is one of the best places to train in the world, and how do you call the instruction "so-so"????????

and same with alliance, i dont get how you can judge the instruction when both alliance and renzos produce world champions....
 
RGA might be the best place in the world for you to train. But not everyone is the same person. My school isn't the best for everyone. Your's isn't. Nobody's is. I'm not saying Renzo's is a bad place to train at, but they are not perfect or even close to it either. No place is. All that matters is how you respond. You have to respect the TS's opinion and not blindly dismiss it because you like it there. It doesn't make you better than him either. Just different.
 
I'm not going to get into the politics of Alliance or Studio X. I will say that you should pick one or the other. Neither will be happy with you going to one then the other because of the bad blood. However, otherwise the politics shouldn't hinder your ability to compete in any tournament. Just pick the place where you felt more comfortable. Try one more lesson on a different weekday at each place if you need to decide.

Who bad blood could there be? Did someone triangle someone's girlfriend?
 
If Renzo's was such a good place to train, why do their instructors cancel hundreds of dollars of prepaid private lessons without informing the student that they needed to reschedule, and without offering a refund or a chance to rechedule with other instructors?

Does this actually happen? No refund or rescheduling?
 
Who bad blood could there be? Did someone triangle someone's girlfriend?

It's a serious beef over what happened with Marcelo.

It is safe to say that the two places are not on friendly terms.
 
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