Best places to train BJJ fulltime.

snx said:
I haven't been training BJJ long enough to compare the two, but I hardly think holding one's breath, diving hundreds of feet beneath the ocean unassisted and putting up with your lungs filling with blood, and 100+ pounds of pressure across every square inch of your body and staying calm while your body screams for air could be considered any less demanding than BJJ ;).

Thanks for your well wishes nonetheless, and I'll be sure to keep the board updated with my progress once I find a homebase gym.
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Free diving takes serious balls. One of the most physically demanding and dangerous sports.
When I was 18 one of my best friends drowned free diving and spear fishing. He went down really deep for a long time, then went again without long enough between dives. Shallow water blackout got him just a few feet below the surface, like 6 or 8 feet, sank to the bottom before anyone noticed.

This kid had gone down 120 feet without tanks or a sled, and he was just 19 (I guess that's pretty good, I have no idea what numbers are really elite-- this was in the late 90s). Seriously good athlete.

I think the transition to bjj will be very good. You'll probably never tap from some fat guy just holding side control on you, that's for sure.
 
mattemate said:
Free diving takes serious balls. One of the most physically demanding and dangerous sports.
When I was 18 one of my best friends drowned free diving and spear fishing. He went down really deep for a long time, then went again without long enough between dives. Shallow water blackout got him just a few feet below the surface, like 6 or 8 feet, sank to the bottom before anyone noticed.

This kid had gone down 120 feet without tanks or a sled, and he was just 19 (I guess that's pretty good, I have no idea what numbers are really elite-- this was in the late 90s). Seriously good athlete.

I think the transition to bjj will be very good. You'll probably never tap from some fat guy just holding side control on you, that's for sure.
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I'm sorry to hear about your friend, SWB catches a lot of spearos :/. 120ft in the 90s with fins (I'm guessing) is definitely a pretty good number. I'm currently at ~270 ft in a discipline called free immersion (which means you pull up and down a rope, but you're not allowed to have any fins) and at ~200ft completely no fins (frog kicking + modified breast stroke up and down). I don't practice any of the with-fins categories because I don't enjoy the feeling of being assisted by a fin. The pan-asian record (that I'll hopefully be going for next training season) is at ~350 ft for free immersion and ~210 ft for no fins. The world record for no fins is currently at 331 ft, and the world record with fins is 422ft. Obviously all of these numbers are completely unassisted (i.e, no extra weight you can dump on the bottom or anything). I was hoping to get much deeper before the last training season ended but unfortunately had an accident while spearing and had to stop for a bit. Well, there's always next season, and BJJ for now :)!

Freediving is an absolutely awesome sport, and I agree, very similar to BJJ (lots of drilling and building muscle memory, conserve energy, never panic and go with the flow rather than fight it etc).
 
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snx said:
If you could either PM me or throw some names that you'd recommend on Kona, that'd be awesome.

Thanks!
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In Kona? Does BJ Penn ring a bell?
http://www.penntrainingandfitness.com/mma.html

In the island of Oahu it's pretty much all Relson Gracie. Ronn Shiraki Academy. Comes highly recommended by many. He's a black belt under Relson Gracie.

Jason Izaguirre Runs Gracie Jiu Jitsu in Kailua. 3rd degree black belt under Royler Gracie.

Alliance BJJ Hawaii (where I train) Rexie Barnum, a Jacare Black Belt, but trained most of his bjj career under Relson Gracie (got his brown belt from Relson). Super cool guy and great instructor.

I can go on and on man, Hawaii is like a Mecca of BJJ and MMA.
 
1neeto said:
In Kona? Does BJ Penn ring a bell?
http://www.penntrainingandfitness.com/mma.html

In the island of Oahu it's pretty much all Relson Gracie. Ronn Shiraki Academy. Comes highly recommended by many. He's a black belt under Relson Gracie.

Jason Izaguirre Runs Gracie Jiu Jitsu in Kailua. 3rd degree black belt under Royler Gracie.

Alliance BJJ Hawaii (where I train) Rexie Barnum, a Jacare Black Belt, but trained most of his bjj career under Relson Gracie (got his brown belt from Relson). Super cool guy and great instructor.

I can go on and on man, Hawaii is like a Mecca of BJJ and MMA.
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BJ is in Hilo, the other side of the island. It's a long drive and gas is expensive as hell in Hawaii.
 
snx said:
I'm sorry to hear about your friend, SWB catches a lot of spearos :/. 120ft in the 90s with fins (I'm guessing) is definitely a pretty good number. I'm currently at ~270 ft in a discipline called free immersion (which means you pull up and down a rope, but you're not allowed to have any fins) and at ~200ft completely no fins (frog kicking + modified breast stroke up and down). I don't practice any of the with-fins categories because I don't enjoy the feeling of being assisted by a fin. The pan-asian record (that I'll hopefully be going for next training season) is at ~350 ft for free immersion and ~210 ft for no fins. The world record for no fins is currently at 331 ft, and the world record with fins is 422ft. Obviously all of these numbers are completely unassisted (i.e, no extra weight you can dump on the bottom or anything). I was hoping to get much deeper before the last training season ended but unfortunately had an accident while spearing and had to stop for a bit. Well, there's always next season, and BJJ for now :)!

Freediving is an absolutely awesome sport, and I agree, very similar to BJJ (lots of drilling and building muscle memory, conserve energy, never panic and go with the flow rather than fight it etc).
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How long do you stay down for? Do you use an Guardian Angel? When my buddy died I thought of developing an invention that could bring you up to the surface. Looked around and saw something similar to what I had in mind was already in development.

http://www.jp-petit.org/dangers/danger_eng/apnea_eng/lifejckt.htm

I'm sure it's probably know in free diving circles-- I have my C card but know next to nothing about free diving. It could have helped with him or that beautiful French girl that drowned. I can't believe they didn't have people below her with tanks waiting just in case. She went down like 500 feet, no? I remember being super bummed when that happened.


Sorry! Not trying to be Debbie Downer. It's a fascinating sport and I can imagine how addictive it is. I get why you do it, despite the risks.
Good luck man! Keep F12 updated-- I wanna see how you progress. :D
 
Dang freediving sounds so scary, how'd you do it the first time? Saying to yourself ok let's swim 100 feet underwater? much respect
 
AKjitsu said:
Dang freediving sounds so scary, how'd you do it the first time? Saying to yourself ok let's swim 100 feet underwater? much respect
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Exactly, that's why I'm not for a second doubting this dude's ability to progress quickly in bjj. You tap late in a tourney, you pass out, your opponent lets go, or the ref jumps in. You tap late to the ocean, ocean don't give a fuck.

I'm a fucking chicken when it comes to diving (snorkeling), don't like to go more than about 15 or 20 feet deep, for 30 seconds or so.

When me and my buddy were little kids, we'd have contests to see who could hold their breath longer. Care to guess who always won? :redface:

On another note to the threadstarter-- you might like Hawaii. You would probably hit it off with Relson's son Rhalan. When my old instructor Phil Cardella was getting ready for a fight once, he and Rhalan would do this training where they would swim to the floor, pick up big rocks or weights, and run. I don't think anyone ever passed out, but it seems safe if you've got a buddy. That might be right up your alley.
 
mattemate said:
Exactly, that's why I'm not for a second doubting this dude's ability to progress quickly in bjj. You tap late in a tourney, you pass out, your opponent lets go, or the ref jumps in. You tap late to the ocean, ocean don't give a fuck.

I'm a fucking chicken when it comes to diving (snorkeling), don't like to go more than about 15 or 20 feet deep, for 30 seconds or so.

When me and my buddy were little kids, we'd have contests to see who could hold their breath longer. Care to guess who always won? :redface:

On another note to the threadstarter-- you might like Hawaii. You would probably hit it off with Relson's son Rhalan. When my old instructor Phil Cardella was getting ready for a fight once, he and Rhalan would do this training where they would swim to the floor, pick up big rocks or weights, and run. I don't think anyone ever passed out, but it seems safe if you've got a buddy. That might be right up your alley.
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I've seen a video of Xande doing this underwater carrying of a rock. I'll ask him about that experience. He won the worlds the year he did this training. Again, I strongly advise thread starter to start with a place that focuses on strong fundamentals, which some tournament based schools ironically may miss the mark on just because they attract a crowd that may have moved past that. Also, at this point in your journey you should be able to get great training with most crowds. You dont need world class training partners. When saulo and xande Ribeiro moved here the highest training partners they had were white and maybe a blue belt, and they won at worlds black belt level.
 
Wow, you must be a well off member of a royal family.

Surprised nobody has mentioned this but you do realise that most of the no gi champions are gi champions and experts too?

I would train both and why only no gi? With gi opens another world.All the best
 
mattemate said:
BJ is in Hilo, the other side of the island. It's a long drive and gas is expensive as hell in Hawaii.
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Yeah I know but it's a very nice drive! Haven't been to the Big Island in over 10 years now. Damn it's been too long.
 
bboygangsta said:
Wow, you must be a well off member of a royal family.

Surprised nobody has mentioned this but you do realise that most of the no gi champions are gi champions and experts too?

I would train both and why only no gi? With gi opens another world.All the best
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maybe he likes no gi better.. maybe he wants to compete in ADCC in the future or MMA?

why is nearly everyone on this forum a gi evangelist?
 
SFCFighter said:
maybe he likes no gi better.. maybe he wants to compete in ADCC in the future or MMA?

why is nearly everyone on this forum a gi evangelist?
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I absolutely do like no-gi better, but I also think that the transition from gi to no-gi is much much easier than the transition from no-gi to gi. I've started dabbling in the GI (especially since even though all the privates I've had with Robson have been no-gi, almost all of the group classes I've attended have been GI). The GI is definitely more useful to me as a lighter guy (I'm 5'11 but will be competing at 140, which means I get smashed a lot in no-gi, especially by wrestlers), and it promotes technique over strength better than no-gi, imo.

I understand that I'll have to pick up the GI as well, and I plan on doing it, probably sooner rather than later.
 
I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere in the UK that this is possible?

I'm just looking for somewhere I can go for a few months while my work slows down. The work I will be doing will be online etc so not a problem there.

So anywhere in the UK that's full time? Or what's the 'most full time' lol you know of in the uk.
 
yettobe said:
I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere in the UK that this is possible?

I'm just looking for somewhere I can go for a few months while my work slows down. The work I will be doing will be online etc so not a problem there.

So anywhere in the UK that's full time? Or what's the 'most full time' lol you know of in the uk.
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Braulio Estima's in Birmingham and Roger Gracie's in London have multiple classes everyday. Probably a load of other places too, but those are the big ones.
 
damn dude.. im pretty envious of TS if the picture of his life he's painted is true.

Just thought id mention i think 6-8 hours/day of physical bjj training is probably a bit too much to be productive. Unless a lot of that time is spent doing non strenuous training, i'd probably limit myself to like 4 hours/day even if i had all the time and money in the world.
 
the heed said:
I thought Marcelo no longer does privates
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its obvious you have no clue what you are getting into. marcelo has a herd of super high level brown belts that would be able to teach you the "basics". just cause its a black belt doesnt mean its better quality. in fact a blue -brown might teach better. thats like saying you wouldnt do a private with purple belt miyao, brown belt michael liera, carbolito, mason monsevais, or a brown belt keenan etc. just dumb.

and not to shit on brazil but how come mendes bros academy or cobrinhas not been mentioned? look at the guys they have produced in an incredibly short time. california is where its at imo especially if "finances are of no concern"
 
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invertcheguard said:
its obvious you have no clue what you are getting into. marcelo has a herd of super high level brown belts that would be able to teach you the "basics". just cause its a black belt doesnt mean its better quality. in fact a blue -brown might teach better. thats like saying you wouldnt do a private with purple belt miyao, brown belt michael liera, carbolito, mason monsevais etc. just dumb.

and not to shit on brazil but how come mendes bros academy or cobrinhas not been mentioned? look at the guys they have produced in an incredibly short time. california is where its at imo especially if "finances are of no concern"
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Plus dat cheap medicinal, mmmmm CA.
 
Just curious...is this guy a world champ now or what?

Also what in the fuck is his job if he can afford all of this? Or was this all a fake? Because it seems like it has to be.
 
snx said:
I don't have a year before I have to get back to training for my other sport, I'd like to utilize the time I have most effectively (finding the best gym to train at, the best instructors etc). Around end of Oct/Nov I'll be moving back to a remote island where there's pretty much nothing to do except train freediving for a few months. I'll be done with that around March, and free till next Oct/Nov (start date varies).

Work/school aren't issues. Like I said, during the off-season I do nothing except a lot of yoga, and maintaining a base level of fitness by biking/swiming etc and traveling.
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That's pretty cool, you must only be a few that can afford to live only by free diving
 
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