Does Kron Gracie workout?

Assuming the question is meant to ask whether Kron does any traditional forms of exercise such as boring cardio and/or resistance training, the one-word answer is “no”.

The three sentence answer can be heard at the very end of the Universal MMA seminar video footage . His answer was that he doesn’t do any specific cardio exercise or other types of resistance training. He just trains jiu-jitsu.

Also note that Kron Gracie is the fittest human being I’ve ever seen in my entire life, so yes, BJJ is the only form of exercise you need in order to get fit and stay in shape. Helio Gracie (Kron’s grandfather and one of the founders of BJJ) lived to be 95 years old and continued to train BJJ right up until the week that he passed away.

So why then did I choose to join North Vancouver BJJ and spend 40 to 60 minutes driving to and from each class when I could just join a gym downtown and spend anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes walking to and from each workout? Here are 7 reasons:

1. Two Black Belt BJJ Instructors
North Vancouver BJJ has two black belt instructors (Marc Marins and Jeff Meszaros), and they both run the majority of classes together. That level of instruction is unheard of in Vancouver where it’s common at other gyms for classes to be taught by purple and brown belts, and where it’s considered a luxury to have just one black belt instructor running a class. So having two black belt instructors at North Vancouver BJJ running most classes provides a training environment that’s simply unmatched by any other BJJ gym in the lower mainland.

2. BJJ Instructors Are Also Skilled Judo Practitioners
Throws are an aspect of BJJ that I’ve always struggled with, and it’s probably no coincidence that I’ve also never trained with any BJJ instructors that have much of a pedigree at all in Judo. At North Van BJJ, Marc is a Judo black belt, and Jeff is a Judo brown belt, so to have the opportunity to train BJJ with two black belt BJJ instructors who are also black and brown belts respectively in Judo is an opportunity that I’m more than willing to travel out of my way for.

3. Best Mix Of Technical Instruction And Sparring
Classes at North Vancouver BJJ are an hour and a half long and generally include about 30 minutes of sparring. I absolutely love sparring — it’s by far my favourite aspect of BJJ training. At every other BJJ gym I’ve ever trained at, classes have been an hour in length and included 10 to 20 minutes of sparring. I’ve found North Vancouver BJJ’s class format of an hour and a half long classes with 30 minutes of sparring to be by far my preferred format for learning techniques and also spending plenty of time sparring.

4. Friendliest Martial Arts Gym I’ve Ever Trained At
Besides learning the most effective martial art in the world, part of my interest in training BJJ is to join a gym with a positive and friendly environment with people that I enjoy being around. Of all of the BJJ gyms I’ve ever trained at or visited, the vibe at North Vancouver BJJ is by far the friendliest and most welcoming environment where I feel that I have the best opportunity to get to know other people who share the same interests as I do.

5. Best Customer Service I’ve Ever Experienced
When I originally contacted North Vancouver BJJ about joining their gym, I sent a pretty long-winded email with a lot of questions about how things are run at North Van BJJ. The response I received from Jeff was nothing short of the most detailed and helpful response I’ve ever received from any email I’ve ever sent to a company. I was honestly floored by the quality of the email response that Jeff sent me, as I’ve emailed many other BJJ gyms in the past and either received a short and fairly unhelpful response, or no response at all.

6. Most Passionate And Enthusiastic Instructors
I love training BJJ, but in the past I’ve trained at BJJ gyms where the instructors have ranged from seeming fairly uninterested in running the BJJ classes, to coming off as downright hostile about their role as a BJJ instructor. Those types of instructors, regardless of how skilled they might be, are no fun to train with. At North Vancouver BJJ, Marc and Jeff are two of the most passionate and enthusiastic BJJ instructors I’ve ever been around, and their passion, interest, and love for teaching BJJ makes the classes all the more fun and enjoyable for the students.

7. Simply The Best BJJ Gym In The Lower Mainland
I’ve researched this extensively and it seems pretty clear to me that North Van BJJ is by far the best BJJ gym in the lower mainland for anyone who’s desire is to learn the highest level jiu-jitsu from the best instructors in the friendliest environment, so the question of whether or not to drive out of my way to train at North Van BJJ was not a very difficult decision for me to make.

My reaction to seeing that Universal has affiliated with Robert Drysdale is that the affiliation is a tremendous idea because Robert Drysdale is one of the top BJJ fighters/instructors in the world, and I don’t doubt that affiliating with him will vastly improve the BJJ program at Universal.

But what struck me as odd was that on the most prominent areas of their website where they advertise the services and classes they offer, Universal changed “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu” and “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu” to “Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu” (not sure if that was a condition of their affiliation). I didn’t even realize that Robert Drysdale had his own “brand” of jiu-jitsu.

My reaction to seeing “Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu” all over the Universal website is that I don’t think most potential BJJ customers in Vancouver will even know what Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu is. Yes, Robert Drysdale is is a world champion and he’s as skilled of a BJJ fighter/instruction as you’ll find anywhere in the world right now, but I question whether the average person in Vancouver who’s interested in learning BJJ follows the world of BJJ close enough to know about that.

I think most potential BJJ customers are people who became aware of BJJ through watching MMA (in most cases, the UFC), and decided they wanted to learn “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu”, and therefore started researching gyms in Vancouver that teach “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu”. I can’t help feeling many of those people who end up on the Universal website will see “Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu” and assume that’s not what they’re looking for.

So I figured I’d just write this post help out anyone who’s looking for a BJJ gym in Vancouver and is wondering what Universal MMA’s “Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu” is all about. Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu is simply a brand of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu offered by BJJ world champion Robert Drysdale. So if you choose to learn Drysdale Jiu-Jitsu at Universal MMA, you’ll still be learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, just the brand that’s offered by one of the most skilled and successful BJJ fighters in the world.

It’s not difficult to find workouts that are intense (although I promise you that Sina’s wrestling workout is more intense than most workouts; hell Sina’s warm-up is more intense than most workouts), but it can be extremely difficult to find workouts that are both intense and enjoyable (the enjoyable part is subjective and will vary from person to person). So if you find a workout thats’s intense but also fun, you’ve found a winner.

After trying one of Sina’s wresting workouts, I was hooked and planned on attending them every Saturday. Unfortunately, shortly after trying that first workout with Sina, I suffered a bad meniscus tear in my knee while doing a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu workout. My knee injury required surgery to fix, and that caused me to take a long break from training and I haven’t managed to make it back to any more wresting workouts with Sina.

I’m not sure if Sina is still running wrestling workouts at Universal, but if he is, I highly recommend that you stop by and try one sometime. The workouts are intense, but also fun as hell (a very hard combination to find), and are perfect for anyone looking to burn calories and get in shape without having to suffer through boring gym workouts.

So if you’ve heard through the grapevine that there’s a Rickson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Acacemy in Vancouver, your information is out of date. There is currently no Rickson Gracie BJJ Academy in Vancouver.

If you’re in the Moncton area and you found this page while looking for information on Shane, I can tell you that he’s an amazing BJJ instructor. I trained with Shane at Universal for about a year, and it was lots of fun, I learned a tremendous amount from him, and I highly recommend that you train with Shane if you’re looking to learn BJJ safely and effectively from one of the best instructors in Canada.

They also added Muay Thai kickboxing and yoga classes since moving into their own facility. I don’t particularly care about the yoga, but combining BJJ with Muay Thai is pretty much the perfect workout program in my opinion. Fun as hell and two of the most effective martial arts you can possibly learn.

I’m moving back to downtown Vancouver next month (after spending six boring months in Langley), and even though there are at least five different BJJ schools in downtown Vancouver, I’m strongly considering getting a membership at North Vancouver BJJ and driving there because I think the drive will be worth it.

If you’re in North Vancouver, or a comfortable drive to North Vancouver, and you want to join the best BJJ school, with the best instructors, and the best and most friendly students and environment, I highly recommend you checkout North Vancouver BJJ.

Prior to joining Revolution, I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of training at an MMA-focussed gym, and I thought that I preferred training at a place that’s 100% BJJ-oriented. My logic in preferring a BJJ-focussed gym was simply that I have no real desire to train MMA. My preference is to learn BJJ and pretty much only BJJ. With that in mind, I figured I’d be best off joining a gym that’s mostly BJJ-orientented rather than an MMA gym that also teaches BJJ. Turns out I was wrong, and after a few BJJ classes at Revolution, I now that think I’m better off training BJJ at an MMA-oriented gym like Revolution rather than at the BJJ-oriented gyms I’ve trained at in the past.

My interest in learning BJJ is two-fold: 1) to stay fit, and 2) to learn a valuable skill (i.e. self-defence). I have zero interest in entering sport jiu-jitsu competitions, yet at all the other BJJ schools I’ve trained at, sport jiu-jitsu has always been pretty much the entire focus of nearly every class. Any time we’d learn techniques, the instructor would always mention how those techniques applied to sport BJJ, and in particular how many points would be awarded for the various moves we were learning. I couldn’t possibly care less about learning BJJ in the context of scoring points in a competition.

What I’ve really liked about the BJJ classes I’ve taken at Revolution so far is that when we’re learning techniques, the instructors often will explain how those moves apply to MMA and self-defence, or in other words, how those moves will work when your opponent is trying to punch you, or when you’re able to punch your opponent. I really enjoy that approach to BJJ. Punching is not part of sport jiu-jitsu, so at previous gyms I’ve trained at, punches and the applicability of BJJ when punches are allowed was almost never mentioned, ever.

So all in all, I’ve been very happy with how my first week at Revolution has gone. If you’re looking for a great gym in Langley with a world-class MMA program that includes BJJ and Muay Thai kickboxing, I highly recommend you check out Revolution.

And by the way, if you’re interested in training BJJ for sport (as many people are), I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Revolution has one of the best sport jiu-jitsu teams in BC and their students always perform extremely well at competitions. So even though sport BJJ isn’t the primary focus at Revolution, it’s still one of the best (if not the best) gyms in BC to train at if you’re interested in competing in BJJ tournaments.

Since I might be moving to North Vancouver in the near future, and I happened to be at the gym when North Van BJJ was about to start their class, I decided to hang around and check it out.

The class looked fantastic from start to finish, so I just wanted to share some info about the class for anyone who’s looking for a BJJ club in North Vancouver and considering joining North Vancouver Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The first thing that I’ll point out about the class is that it had two black belt instructors running the class (Marc Marins and Jeff Meszaros). I’ve taken many BJJ classes run by purple and brown belts, and I’ve always considered it a huge perk to participate in a class run by a black belt. With that in mind, I was floored to see that North Van BJJ was running a class with two black belt instructors.

I was so surprised to see two black belt instructors at the same class that I asked Jeff if it’s a common thing for both him and Marc to be there on the same night, and he said yes, most classes have both Marc and Jeff there running things. Very cool.

The class started with a conditioning workout that lasted about 20 minutes and looked quite intense, but fun. Lots of bodyweight exercises such as jumping jacks, burpees, pushups, squats, lunges, etc.

After the warm-up, Marc demonstrated the first technique of the night, which was a guard pass that I had never seen before. Some classes Marc teaches the techniques, and some classes Jeff teaches the techniques. At this particular class, Marc taught all the techniques. After Marc demonstrated the first technique, everyone broke off into pairs and practiced that technique for about 10 minutes, with Marc and Jeff walking around the class and giving feedback and helping to ensure that everyone was learning and practicing the technique correctly.

One of the most memorable moments of the night for me happened next when Marc taught the next technique. The second technique of the night was a counter to the first technique that Marc taught. Any time I’ve ever learned an offensive technique in BJJ, I’ve always wanted to immediately find out the defense to that move. I think it helps me to better perform the offensive move if I know what the other guy may do to counter it, and it’s great to be able to know the defense if someone tries that move on me. So I think it makes a lot of sense to teach offensive and defensive techniques back to back like that, but prior to last night I have never participated in, or seen, a class that taught techniques that way.

After everyone broke off into pairs for about 10 minutes to practice technique number two, Marc showed the third technique of the night, which was another option that you can do if the if the second technique doesn’t work. Everyone practiced that technique for about 10 minutes, and then took a quick break to get ready for some sparring.

Sparring lasted for about 30 minutes. Not positional drilling, but open sparring starting from the knees. Sparring is always the most enjoyable part of every BJJ class I’ve ever participated in, so I was really pleased to see that North Van BJJ does about 30 minutes of sparring at each class. At other BJJ gyms I’ve trained at, many classes have spent as little as 5 minutes at the end of the class sparring, and I’ve always considered those classes to be a huge disappointment because the main reason I train BJJ is to get an intense workout and have fun, and the sparring is always the most intense and fun part of the workout. So the 30 minutes of sparring per class at North Van BJJ is a big plus.

Both Marc and Jeff sparred with many students during the 30 minute sparring session, which I thought was great. Not all black belts are willing to spar with their students. I was watching Marc spar for a while and I noticed him perform the exact move he taught earlier in the class (technique number two). He performed it exactly the way he taught it, so it was very cool to see him pull off a move during sparring that he had just taught earlier in the class.

After about 30 minutes of sparring, I thought the class was over, but that’s when the other most memorable moment of the night occurred for me. Marc had all the students line up along the wall, and he announced that they were going to try something new called the “fight of the night”. He chose two students from the group to have a BJJ match in front of the rest of the class. Jeff judged the match.

The match was very entertaining and involved a nice takedown, and several exciting positional transitions and scrambles. The match ended when one of the guys submitted the other with an ankle lock. What happened next was extremely cool. Jeff broke down some of the key moments of the match, including several interesting details about the ankle lock that finished the match. I thought it was very cool that Jeff did that, and I learned a bunch of new things about leg locks from Jeff’s breakdown of the match.

So all in all, I was very impressed with what I saw at the North Vancouver BJJ class, and I enjoyed the hour and a half that I spent watching. I only wish I had brought my gear and participated in the class. Regardless, if I end up moving to North Vancouver, I am absolutely planning on getting a membership at North Vancouver BJJ.

If you’re in North Vancouver and are interested in learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from two very talented black belt instructors, I definitely recommend you check out North Vancouver Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.