[archimedesjs]

Well, first off the academy seemed nice looking to me. They had about a 50' x 50' matt area. There were a few heavy bags, and speed bags. There was also the foundation for what is going to be an octagon. The instructor then informed me that there were free weights in the back area, with up to 400lbs and an excericise bike. Overall, the facility was clean, and modern. I arrived at the academy like 20 minutes before class, so there were only 4 guys there. The intimidating part of that was that they were all 220lbs+, and when I introduced myself they kind of head nodded and blew me off. That is exactly what I was worried about. Giant meathead elitist assholes, but thankfully I was wrong(I'll expand on that later).
Anyway, I got a chance to talk to the instructor, and he was real good people. He was down to earth, level headed, and friendly enough. He explained what the general curriculum was, and showed me the class schedule. He also informed me that the 1st week was free to try, and that they had some community gis for noobs to use for the first couple of weeks. Which is cool for people who aren't sure if they're gonna join or not. The unlimited monthly fee is only $55!! He told me they work primarily on BJJ, but they also work on muay thai and wrestling at least once a week. I also found out noobs don't get to roll until they go through 30 classes. I really liked that idea. It's beneficial for everybody for the obvious reasons. I think it is primarily for the safety of the students who been there a while, to save them from getting injured by spazzy, moronic noobs. Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to participate this class or just observe. Being the tentative wuss I am, I figured I'd dip my feet in the side of the pool instead of jumping right in...i observed.
They(14 classmembers, all guys) started off with stretches, then the instructor went into his first lesson on fundamental techniques. He was dealing with the mount position, and how to maintain it. The format was, he would show a technique, then the class would pair up and drill it for like 5 minutes. Then he would show another technique, and they would drill that for 5 minutes. Then he would have them drill flowing through the techniques. After like a half-hour of that, he showed a submission(arm bar). After that, he had them doing conditioning. I'm not going to go into detail on that, because I don't know the proper names for the excericises. That went on for like another half hour, then they had a 5 minute water break. After that, they did one final set of drills. He had 2 people pair up at each one of the circles on the matt. The object was, for 1 minute, to start in the mounted position and the guy on top was supposed to do nothing but use the techniques they just learned to maintain mount, while the guy on the bottom's job was to get out of the mounted position. If the bottom guy pulled guard, or got out of the mount, then they would just start over. After the minute was up the guys on top rotated clockwise to the next circle, and took mount again. They did this until it went all the way around, then again with the bottom guys taking mount position and going all the way around the class.
I didn't really learn to much from the techniques. I could follow, but I was more concerned with seeing the personalities and skill levels of the guys in the class(seeing as how it was no gi night, and nobody had belts on). I didn't really notice any assholes. Everybody seemed pretty content working with everyone else. There were a few guys that just dominated the other guy, and didn't offer much in the form of suggestions or explanations. While the number of guys who did explain and suggest was greater in number. The instructor was thorough, and didn't grow impatient if somebody took longer understand a move. My only concern is the size of the guys in the class. I would say 12 of the 14 present were monsters(220lbs - 250lbs), excluding the instructor that is. He was kind of a little guy. I suppose the benefit to this is sparring with guys my own size in the future will be a lot easier. BTW, I'm like 175lbs.
After the last set of mount drills, everybody was taking a 20 minute break and getting ready for rolling. I had to leave, so I made my way over to the instructor. He asked if I was still interested, and if I was coming back. I said yeah, definitely. I told him I thought the guys seemed alright, and I looked forward to coming back the next day. So on my way out all the guys who were standoffish when I first came in introduced themselves and shook my hand. That reaffirmed my assumption that overall, the academy is pretty respectful and laid back.
Tomorrow the schedule has introduction to striking, and advanced gi sparring. I think I'll stick around to watch the advanced guys roll this time after the striking lessons. Hopefully somebody gets something out of this. I know I was looking for every article I could find on first time experiences in BJJ. This is also a work in progress. I will keep adding to it for the rest of the week. Anybody else who wants to put there experiences out there would be welcome and appreciated too.

[_All-State_]

$55? Wow, where do you train? That's probably the best BJJ deal ever. $55 is a steal. What belt is your instructor?

[krait]

Damn $55 for unlimited is a realy good deal.

As far as all the guys just giving a head nod in the beginning. You have to remember people come in constantly to look a place over. Give you the story of how excited they are to train. They watch a session or even get on the mat. Suddenly they realize thats its work and it isn't comfortable to have someone laying on chest when your gasping for air. And suddenly poof thts the last you see of them. After a while you get kinda of reserved around the new guy. It passes if you keep coming back.

Just a personal experience note. My first day I got paired up(actually this guy pretty much came and found me) and he totaly tooled me. He was pretty rough also. But hell its a contact sport and thats how I looked at it. I found out latter after I got to know him and the other guys that he has kinda taken it upon himself to weed out all the wannabes. Once you show him that you can take it he lightens up and I've actually learned more from him now than anyone else in the class except the instructor. Now I don't particularly agree with what he did/does. But it happens sometimes.

yea actually my instructor told me its a tradition when it comes to that kind of thing

a guy new to the gym or new to bjj, he tells higher belts to go to the new guy and tap them out hardcore, he tells me to show them what bjj is all about and i tool up the dude lol

its the same thing if i show up at a new gym, the instructor is gonna set me up with a guy above my skills and whoop me good(i recently went to a new gym, i rolled with 5 diff dudes, and a white belt actually tooled me, i was so gased, i couldnt do shiznit)

after they get whooped, if they come back it shows they wanna learn or something i guess

[Mirada]

Originally Posted by archimedesjs

I think I'll stick around to watch the advanced guys roll this time after the striking lessons. Hopefully somebody gets something out of this. I know I was looking for every article I could find on first time experiences in BJJ. This is also a work in progress. I will keep adding to it for the rest of the week.

Please do, I always like reading these threads.

[FLMikeATT]

They make you wait 30 classes before you start rolling? I don't like that idea. I rolled on my first day against an experience guy that got me with an arm triangle (side choke), and a few other subs. It is definately humbling. It is hard on the ego at first dealing with all these people you don't know tooling you over and over again, but that is the only way you learn. I liked the fact that I got thrown in with the guys right when I joined because it gave me valuable experience which you don't get if you wait 30 classes before rolling. In those 30 classes you will learn many techniques, but you won't be able to apply them because you haven't tried them on a resisting opponent.

That is great though that you only have to pay $55 bucks. I pay $150 for Muay Thai and BJJ classes a month, but it is definately worth it.

What is the schools name, and who is the main instructor?

[TTrent]

seems like a nice place, esp for $55 unlimited, my school is $80/once a week, 180/unlimited! the 30 classes seems kind of a bit too much imo. i mean for some people that's like 7 months lol. one thing that i do really like is that they spend "technique time" on position fundamentals like holding mount as opposed to just showing a bunch of moves from mount. keep us posted on how it goes!

[Tom Hishon]

Originally Posted by krait

Damn $55 for unlimited is a realy good deal.

As far as all the guys just giving a head nod in the beginning. You have to remember people come in constantly to look a place over. Give you the story of how excited they are to train. They watch a session or even get on the mat. Suddenly they realize thats its work and it isn't comfortable to have someone laying on chest when your gasping for air. And suddenly poof thts the last you see of them. After a while you get kinda of reserved around the new guy. It passes if you keep coming back.

Just a personal experience note. My first day I got paired up(actually this guy pretty much came and found me) and he totaly tooled me. He was pretty rough also. But hell its a contact sport and thats how I looked at it. I found out latter after I got to know him and the other guys that he has kinda taken it upon himself to weed out all the wannabes. Once you show him that you can take it he lightens up and I've actually learned more from him now than anyone else in the class except the instructor. Now I don't particularly agree with what he did/does. But it happens sometimes.

Fact........that is how it goes. When a noob comes into our school, we show him respect then tap the fuck out of him. This is so that he doesn't go off and tell everyone how weak we are cause we took it easy on him. And he comes to understand that this is a tough sport..

This school sounds like a class establishment. I would suggest hanging in there for 6 months and give it a good go. Usually by the third class you have made a new friend. After a month you will be comfortable enough. Just remember, it isn't about winning/losing. I have never seen a person come in and just start tapping people. I have seen some stud fucking wrestlers come in and do well in position control, but they get tapped. Especially with a gi on. It is a game and you have to learn how to play it. Have fun, keep going and in a year you will look back and won't believe how much you have improved.

[Bama Zulu]

Sounds like an excellent set up, and those big guys will end up helping your game in the long run. If you are constantly going against them adn when you start to be able to catch them, it's going to be a breeze when you go against people in your weight class.

And I like the idea of waiting 30 classes to roll, this way seeing as how you actually do live drills such as escaping the mount and holding etc it won't be as boring to wait. You also won't get hurt and you'll have a goal in mind rather than just holding on to the ride.

And at that price I say sign up.

[archimedesjs]

Well, unfortunately I am not going to be making it into class tonight or for the rest of the week. I'm pretty bummed, but wasn't much I could do. I had to be at the academy by 5pm today to sign a waiver to star training, and I got stuck at work till like 10 minutes ago. Normally I would still go, but it's a half-hour trip in the car if the traffic isn't bad on the highway. I'm definitely still joining the academy though, I called and left a message to let the instructor know I'd be in there monday.


Anyway, to answer some of the questions. The academy is a member of the Royce Gracie Jiu-Jitsu network, and it's in Scranton,PA. My instructor's name is Jeff Reese, and he's a purple belt who trained under Rob Kahn. There are also 5 or 6 other purple belts in the academy. I forgot to mention in my original post about bringing up sherdog to the instructor. When he was explaining about how good the academy was, I said, "I talked to Rob Kahn on sherdog and he said you were top notch." That is when I found out that Rob is who my instructor trained under. Just thought that was kinda cool. Anyway, I guess there won't be any new editions to this thread till next monday night. Thanks for the response though guys.