Tweet
I recently visited Renzo Gracie's academy in New York City because I was interested in taking classes on Bjj. I do however have many concerns about their school and I would like some of your opinions and thoughts about it. I was given a introductory class and a chance to try out one of their white belt program a couple days ago.
First off my main concern is their class size. Its huge compared with other different martial arts schools I visited. I am use to about 10-15 people per class so at least there is SOME teacher and student interaction. Their regular class size is about 35-40 people on average. Igor Gracie teaches the beginner class(white & Blue belt) and Renzo teaches the intermediate and advanced(Purple, Brown & Black) class. When I was in the white belt class the students gathered around Igor and all I saw him do was only explained a move and demostrate it a few times. It was expected for the student would practice it with their partners afterward for a few minutes. That was it. Barely any interaction with Igor Gracie himself.
Another concern I have is the pricing and if the money is worth the classes/hours or not. They charge about 190$ a month to attend the academy. This is a bit more then what I usually pay and even less class time offered as well. When I compare other martial arts schools they are usually about 125$ to 150$ a month but I wouldnt mind paying more since class are taught by actually Gracies. Classes are offered 6 days a week and about an hour long each.
This is how the class runs: the first 15 minutes would be devouted to warming up the next 30 minutes would be learning from Igor as he would demostrate certain Bjj techniques. THe last 15 minutes of the class would be used to again warm up. The first warm up of the class require a student to roll across the dojo and to have someone hold your legs so that you would walk across the dojo with your bare hands as well as jumping jacks and squats. The last warm up involved stretches heavily involving areas in the abdominal and back section of the body. So only about 30 minutes would actually be spent on learning and rolling around with a partner. The person guiding me through the dojo and explaining things said that even though there's 6 classes per week, its recommended to only come at most 4 times a week so that your muscles can rest, similar to when people work out at the gym. So in total I would be attending class about 4 hours a week. Hardly worth the money in my opinion.
I do really want to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so i'll have to think it over. I'll say one thing though, the people there were extremely friendly and I felt right at home. I was probably the youngest one there though (17) but the person who greeted me said that its good to start learning so early and that he wished he learned Bjj at my age. This is the only Gracie academy in New York City and there arnt many other spectacular Bjj academys in this area anyway but again problems with this place is that the class size is too big, there is not a lot of teacher student interaction and I dont think the more expensive tutition is worth the classes there. So what do you guys think am I being too whiney about this place or should I enroll?
First off my main concern is their class size. Its huge compared with other different martial arts schools I visited. I am use to about 10-15 people per class so at least there is SOME teacher and student interaction. Their regular class size is about 35-40 people on average. Igor Gracie teaches the beginner class(white & Blue belt) and Renzo teaches the intermediate and advanced(Purple, Brown & Black) class. When I was in the white belt class the students gathered around Igor and all I saw him do was only explained a move and demostrate it a few times. It was expected for the student would practice it with their partners afterward for a few minutes. That was it. Barely any interaction with Igor Gracie himself.
Another concern I have is the pricing and if the money is worth the classes/hours or not. They charge about 190$ a month to attend the academy. This is a bit more then what I usually pay and even less class time offered as well. When I compare other martial arts schools they are usually about 125$ to 150$ a month but I wouldnt mind paying more since class are taught by actually Gracies. Classes are offered 6 days a week and about an hour long each.
This is how the class runs: the first 15 minutes would be devouted to warming up the next 30 minutes would be learning from Igor as he would demostrate certain Bjj techniques. THe last 15 minutes of the class would be used to again warm up. The first warm up of the class require a student to roll across the dojo and to have someone hold your legs so that you would walk across the dojo with your bare hands as well as jumping jacks and squats. The last warm up involved stretches heavily involving areas in the abdominal and back section of the body. So only about 30 minutes would actually be spent on learning and rolling around with a partner. The person guiding me through the dojo and explaining things said that even though there's 6 classes per week, its recommended to only come at most 4 times a week so that your muscles can rest, similar to when people work out at the gym. So in total I would be attending class about 4 hours a week. Hardly worth the money in my opinion.
I do really want to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu so i'll have to think it over. I'll say one thing though, the people there were extremely friendly and I felt right at home. I was probably the youngest one there though (17) but the person who greeted me said that its good to start learning so early and that he wished he learned Bjj at my age. This is the only Gracie academy in New York City and there arnt many other spectacular Bjj academys in this area anyway but again problems with this place is that the class size is too big, there is not a lot of teacher student interaction and I dont think the more expensive tutition is worth the classes there. So what do you guys think am I being too whiney about this place or should I enroll?
Comment