Martial Arts advice

This might have been the sole pun of the day.

Piss poor IMHO and pretty unusual for BJJ places from my (admittedly not huge) experience. I'd definitely try somewhere else. Whereabouts are you located?

I went to a BJJ class tonight with a mate. My mate has been training for the last couple of months in Portugal whilst he has been there. We picked a gym and emailed them to get ourselves into an introductory class. After the warm up, the instructor demonstrated a move a couple of times and then people paired up to practice it.

As a relative beginner and a complete beginner, we were not exactly perfect. When we asked for a bit of assistance, the instructor told us that he wouldn't help us as we had not committed to the gym, that he had to help the others, and that anyway, he was part way through a cycle of techniques and we should try to get on with it. The result was that we grappled and watched others as best we could for about 40mins of a 1hr class.

I thought that this was pretty piss poor, and am unlikely to return as a result. Is this usual? Or would I be better off trying a couple of places?

Did you see this video about BJJ and shrimping?

YouTube- Shrimping/Hip Escape - http://www.learnbjjtechniques.com

That's quite a fishy technique as well!
Wonder if it develops your mussels.

Piss poor IMHO and pretty unusual for BJJ places from my (admittedly not huge) experience. I'd definitely try somewhere else. Whereabouts are you located?

I live in New Cross Gate, after the experience above, I have emailed this guy:

http://www.bjjinlondon.co.uk/

about going to train twice a week in Stockwell. Haven't had a reply yet. Does anyone train there? Have any experiences / recommendations of where to train in london?

Heard that David Onuma is supposed to be pretty good. I think he teaches at the Bob Breen academy. But of course I am no expert on BJJ whatsoever.

http://www.davidonuma.com/

I don't know him but his lineage seems legit. I haven't seen him at Roger's place but I don't get up there that often myself.

I was going to say that calling would be a better option but noticed there's no phone number on his site.

It's obviously a longer trip but why don't you come over to Roger's to do your free trial and see if you're interested in keeping it up? I can absolutely vouch for the quality and friendliness of the instruction there (standard 'random guy on the internet' disclaimers apply obviously)

I live in New Cross Gate, after the experience above, I have emailed this guy:

http://www.bjjinlondon.co.uk/

about going to train twice a week in Stockwell. Haven't had a reply yet. Does anyone train there? Have any experiences / recommendations of where to train in london?

Anyone know a decent Tai Chi place in SW London? I did 3 years of a Yang variant in Dublin, and I want to get back into it. Not too interested in the martial aspects, mainly just for fitness and flexibility.

Not in SW london, but Neil Rosiak of the Masters Club in London Bridge is an excellent teacher for Wudang Tai Chi as well as San Shou, Lei Tai and MMA. He does serious body conditioning classes as well as completely Tai Chi focussed ones. Can only recommend it, especially for fitness and stuff. I did 2 or 3 sparring/conditioning classes, then life got in the way once again. Wish I had more time.

Joe.S.: Did you start training then? Would be interested in your experiences.

In order to get some groundwork I started going to a JJJ class in Fenchurch street. Been there 2 times now.
Quite different in attitude from all the Kali and Wing Chun that I have done before. "YES SENSEI" and all that. Good fun. Hard warmup session, lots of crunches and push ups, then more technical throws and locks towards the end of the session.

Joe.S.: Did you start training then? Would be interested in your experiences.

In order to get some groundwork I started going to a JJJ class in Fenchurch street. Been there 2 times now.
Quite different in attitude from all the Kali and Wing Chun that I have done before. "YES SENSEI" and all that. Good fun. Hard warmup session, lots of crunches and push ups, then more technical throws and locks towards the end of the session.

Roger has just opened a new academy in Soho if you're still keen on some real groundwork ;-p

whats JJJ?

whos rodger and what does he train?

JJJ is normally Japanese Jiu Jitsu used to differentiate it from the Brazilian style.

Roger is the current world champion and one of the best grapplers on the planet at the moment.

roger gracie!

JJJ!

oh ffs - i failed in 1 post so many times... - i think im just going to guilotine myself...

Iain, youre an idiot sometimes.

you shouldve said...

thanks tho - i shouldve known both

:-D

I was a little surprised tbh but I've only had one coffee so far :-)

Roger has just opened a new academy in Soho if you're still keen on some real groundwork ;-p

nah, it's good for now. getting used to a gi, some basic breakfalls etc is all good for me.
the black belt that does the class has also got a purple in bjj, so they're not useless there.

I was just joking (in case the ";-p" didn't give it away). Sounds like fun. What style of JJJ is it?

I was just joking (in case the ";-p" didn't give it away). Sounds like fun. What style of JJJ is it?

there:

http://www.londonjitsu.co.uk/

Might have to lay off next week though, just had a gash on my head glued cuz I managed to whack my head into a door frame. 5 days no water on the head etc, and I bet breakfalling ain't good until it's healed as well :(