Marcelo Garcia's NYC class today

Underground
1

I know there has been a lot of interest in Marcelo lately, so I wanted to repost something I posted in the BJJ forum (someone asked me what his classes were like):

"So today, when I went to the 6pm class, there were only 6 people (grew to 8 later on).
Usually our classes arent that small (avg around 20 or so), so I was happy that we were getting a semi-private with Marcelo, yet sad as I knew he was going to work us super hard.

Let me preface this by saying that if you ever asked Marcelo how he got so good, he will tell you it was mostly through his dedication and hard work (this is a guy that trained 3-4 times a day, starting at 6am)...so he tries to instill in us a very strong work ethic.

After we warmed up, he had us do 4 rounds of 15 minutes each (with 2 minute breaks in between). He wanted to teach us that a lot of bjj was learning how to control your body and pace yourself.

(If you ever attend his classes, seminars, or watch his videotapes, his words and philosophy about bjj are equally as valuable as the techniques he shows, imo)

After the class was over, I crawled off the mats and stayed to watch the 7:30-9pm class.

This class was much bigger (over 20 I'm guessing), so they didnt get to do super long rounds. But a bunch of people got to train with Marcelo as he was training during this class.

The students were also treated with his wife, Tatiana, a great black belt in her own right, training with them as well.

After this class was over, Marcelo spent a good 30 minutes taking individual students to the side to teach them (1) sweep from sitting guard (2) monoplata set up and finish from half guard (3) preventing a pass using your grips.

Not bad huh?

See what you guys are missing???"

Come by and visit him and his school in NYC!

marcelogarciajj.com

2

to the mother fcking top

3

sounds like a cool class

4

ttt!

5

Thanks for this - I'd love to train with MG

6

Stephan,

All I gotta say is...to get your butt to NYC!

Oh yeah, love your videos too!

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Hell yeah - your videos are great Stephen!

And damn - I live like 3 blocks from Marcelo's school. I've been walking past it for a couple weeks now.

I almost joined a YMCA today so I could lift more weights, but this post has me thinking I should just go start w/ Marcelo tomorrow!

Will he be teaching then? Anyone know?

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He told me tonight that he will be teaching the following this week:

Monday, Weds, Fri 6:00pm-7:30pm and 7:30-9pm and Sat 11:00am-12:30pm.

His website usually has his updated schedule:

www.marcelogarciajj.com

But its not updated for this week yet.

Yeah you should definately check it out!

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Oh yeah, when he isnt there, the other teachers are great too...Fabio Clemente and Josh Griffiths.

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Alright - I'm sore as hell and up too late anyway - Wednesday it is!!

Thanks for the info!

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Sigh.....that doesn't happen at Renzo's......

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i'm gonna be in town this week. is it ok for visitors to drop by for a class? how much is a class?

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hold on i though it was clementes school

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^^^

Marcelo and him are partners!

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"i'm gonna be in town this week. is it ok for visitors to drop by for a class? how much is a class?"

Sure, there are a lot of visitors that drop by.

Not sure how much the drop in fee is though.

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uhwhats a monopolata?

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ttt (so Renzo's gets less crowded).

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Sigh.....that doesn't happen at Renzo's......



Of course it doesn't, Marcello doesn't train there =^) And it probably won't happen at Marcello's once his school grows to the same size.

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kying418 I'm from Alliance France (www.alliancebjjfrance.com)

We had a nice seminar with Marcelo in Paris last year and I had the chance to spend some time with him outside the training. He is so nice !

I'll be in NY from 17 to 27 sept.
Unfortunatly i have a knee injury but I'll still go and train with Marcelo at StudioX !

Maybe i'll see you there ;-)

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This thread isnt about Renzo's vs. Marcelo's.

I trained at Renzo's for many years, and loved it there. I just happened to move out of NYC due to family circumstances. Then, I befriended Marcelo, and was able to move back to NYC temporarily.

So now I am taking my last opportunity (since I will be moving out of NYC again in the near future) to train at Marcelo's.

Both schools have its positives. Renzo's has amazing students and teachers, and the place is very big.

Marcelo's school is smaller, and has more of a small family feel to it. The people are super accepting of anyone from any school, whether you are just visiting, or want to train there as well. Case in point, there was a belt promotion/graduation ceremony last week, and they allowed a visiting black belt to fully participate in the ceremony as well as be included in the group pictures, without any hesistation (he was from another bjj school...not Alliance btw).

If I had more money, I would have loved to train at both schools during my remaining time in NYC. Unfortunately, baby formula and diapers (for three kids) made that decision pretty impossible.

Marcelo (and Fabio/Studio X) are moving to a much larger space in the next month or two, which is coincidentally in the same neighborhood as Renzo's.

I am guessing that once the school gets more people, and Marcelo's MMA career gets into full swing, the students may not be as lucky as they currently are with Marcelo teaching two classes a day, 4-5 days a week.

However, I do know that Marcelo places his students and school as his highest priority, turning down many opportunities to train at the best MMA teams in the world, just so he can be in NYC to teach classes.

Alex17: "I'll be in NY from 17 to 27 sept. Unfortunatly i have a knee injury but I'll still go and train with Marcelo at StudioX !"

I'll be out of the city until at least Sept 23rd or so. However, with Marcelo, and the other great people at the school, I dont think you'll miss not seeing a short fat blue belt...

But if I do get back in time, I'll be sure to say hello!