Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a great martial art and one of the things i like the most about it, is the diversity from one academy to another. Each academy has it’s own curriculum, style and system.

A friend i’ve been training martial arts with for a long time started BJJ just over a year ago. As we were talking about Jiu-Jitsu, like most conversations between practitionners usually go down, i decided to accompany him to a class at his gym: Gracie Barra Granby.

Everytime I visit a new academy, I look for these simple things:.

1. A clean training environment
2. Quality teaching
3. Good training partners
4. To have a good time.

Before visiting a new gym, i reach out to connect and see if they are interested in having a visitor. I think it’s respectful to do so.

When I arrived there, I was welcomed by coach Kiril, the head coach at Gracie Barra Granby. I quickly felt at ease as he was very welcoming and took the time to talk for a couple minutes about his gym and our backgrounds.

I’ll start by talking about the facility. The place is HUGE! It has over 3000 square feet of high quality mats, a living room for the kids to play and a waiting area for parents and family. It also had a training area with punching bags, a couple Bobs and spinning bikes. The locker rooms are very well equipped with multiple showers, bathrooms and good changing area. It’s a great facility, clean and equipped with everything you could want in a BJJ school.

The coaching was great, very detailed explanation of the shown techniques. The instructor was very thorough and took the time to explain every technique in detail. The instructor has a good competition background, a resume displayed on the wall near the mat area. . The culture he is building is one of respect and teamwork, two very important things for me. I did both the fundamentals and the advanced classes before finishing it up with an open mat for rolls.

This was a fairly new gym, it had been opened just over a year, so I wasn’t expecting to run into 15 black belts. That being said, i was very pleased to see the overall level of skill the students had. I enjoyed practicing and rolling with them, they had good fundamentals and were versatile playing and experimenting with many different guards. Being a higher belt visiting from another academy, i didn’t feel like anyone was on a mission to tap me or to test me. Everyone was very respectful and I got a chance to roll with a couple of them. I had some good rolls, very diversified, as I rolled with people of all levels from white to black belt. I had a great and very technical roll with coach Kiril. I had a blast!

In conclusion, the school is a family oriented place that represents well Carlos Gracie Jr’s main objective, that Jiu-Jitsu is for everyone. It’s a place I recommend visiting if you’re ever in the Granby area!