I am very interested in taking a form of martial arts. I have narrowed it down to Hapkido or BJJ.
I can take Hapkido at Grand Master Min Suk Song’s Martial Arts.
Or I can take BJJ (or even Capoeria) at Francis Fong’s Academy. The instructor for BJJ is Scott Sullivan. According to his biography he trained under Mario Roberto and Anibal BRaga. He also trained with the Machado brothers, Rickson and Relson Gracie, and Ken Shamrock.
Capoeria would be studied under Terrance Walker.
My question is has anyone had any personal experience with any of these instructors?
Also, since I am living in Atlanta, does anyone know of any other academy’s that are really good that teach any of these martial arts?
Junior, I just had a thread about MA this past week. You can check it out because people talk about differing styles and what they mean. I’m starting MA right now too, so I’m interested in your thread
JWright, I have read all the posts on your MA thread. I decided I did not want to A) hijack your thread B) I wanted people who orignally did not look at that thread be able to respond to mine.
I am very interested in knowing how your free lessons turn out. I am going to contact Jacare later this week. Unfortunately this is finals week so I do not have as much time as I would like.
Thanks for all the responses so far.
One last question I noticed this was talked about a little bit on the other MA thread, but what is a reasonable price to train under a quality academy?
The free week isn’t over yet. I still have muay thai on Wednesday night and kickboxing followed by grappling on thursday night. Then Friday night, I’m doing a free session at a BJJ place under a guy who got his black belt under Rickson Gracie. I’m excited. I have a list of about 10 places I’m contacting this week about free classes and trial weeks. Should be very interesting.
As far as payment, the BJJ guy emailed me the prices. $65/month for 1 class/week, $85/month for 3 classes/week, and $100/month for unlimited classes/week or month. I didn’t think that was too bad, and I actually found it reasonable. The grappling place I first tried costs $77/month for 2 classes/week, but this is unsubstantiated because I just heard it 2nd hand, and I find out for sure on Thursday night. Some others posted the prices they pay on the other thread. I got a PM from a person, no name necessary, and he said he pays $130/month for unlimited muay thai, boxing and BJJ. For 3 types of unlimited classes, that’s great, IMO.
Also, since you like BJJ, I would try a non-gi style of submission grappling. Some places offer classes just called “submission grappling”. BJJ is more oriented towards fighting with a gi on and using the gi against the opponent, hence the reason the gracie boys always fight with a gi on.
I would definitely recommend Jacare BJJ over the other options. Those prices sound great too.
Any other schools that are disciples of Machado or Rickson or Renzo Gracie would be highly recommended as well. I have studied under them.
I can’t recommend muay thai enough. In fact, if you are taking BJJ and muay thai, you will be covering all bases and very dangerous opponent in a MMA tourney.
If you have time, taking separate boxing lessons is invaluable.
I have a black belt in TKD and Japanese karate (wado ryu) but I prefer the other muay thai, BJJ and boxing.
I decided I am going to go ahead with Brazilian Jiujitsu and take up the academy’s offer on free lessons. Unfortuanetly, this cannot be done until middle of August. I am finishing up school Friday and going home for two weeks. So the earliest I can take a class will be around August 18th or so.
Some updates to my situation. I found out my college offers several different forms of martial arts for only around 50 dollars for 3 months. Depending on the form it is 2-3 classes per week. This is an incredible deal IMO. However, I am not sure how the quality will rank to that of a real dojo. The classes my school offers are:
Hapkido
Shao-Lin Kung-Fu
Shorin-Ryu Karate
Jukido Jiujitsu
Taido
For 50 dollars I was thinking about taking an aditional class along with BJJ.
My first question is am I thinking ahead of myself? Should I just be concerned with BJJ and wait until the following semester to try another form?
Or is it possible that I can couple BJJ with any of the above 5 forms? If so which one would you all recommend?
The styles taught at your college are probably good for a workout, but not very street effective, nor would they be effective in a MMA contest.
If you want to compete and be street effective, I would go with BJJ/Muy Thai combo.
If you just want something to do in the interim, Hap Ki Do or the Jukido Jiu Jitsu (this one would probably be better choice, as you would be going into Jiu Jitsu)would be better than nothing.
shit, for 50 bucks for 3 months, I would take hapkido and the jiu-jitsu you named. It’s cheap, and you will learn some stuff. If you want, I’m sure your school has a boxing club, and you can join that to learn to box.
I’m so glad I’m not in the USA. The place I’ll start training at soon is about 130-150$ for 3 months. 3 times a week. It’s a MMA gym that teaches both grappling and stand up (plus weapons occasionally - sticks). Hearing the prices you have to pay makes me a happy camper.
I’d be careful about signing up for to much at once. Bjj classes are really hard on you. If you’re an athlete then you might be able to handle it but if you’re just a power lifter or body builder it will be tough. It’s like doing intense calisthenics for an hour with no rest. Also a lot of schools tone down the intensity of the class when someone is checking them out so they can lock you into a 6 month contract.
I gotta agree with KO and others. Those “arts” you mentioned will be denounced strongly by people in your BJJ classes and I predict you would drop them quickly thereafter.
The reason is that the dojo-based/demonstration/point-fighting types of MA’s have been proven ineffective in the street and ring.
Stick with the BJJ, and some form of stand-up style (muay thai or boxing) and you will have more than you need on your plate with your lifting, etc.
I had the same observation as most of you guys. I think I should just get my feet wet and get used to training once again. It’s been almost 12 years since I last took a martial arts class (Im only 19 now :). So for now I will stay with taking BJJ 3 times per week.
Since I have not done anything extremely athletic in about 2 years since I graduated high school. I was wondering how I can train to be prepared for BJJ. My first class is 3 weeks for now. My main concern is flexibility. I was thinking of stretching 10min, twice a day, for 4-5 days a week. Would this be enough to limber up and be ready to tackle BJJ?