It can be very difficult, particularly if you’re new to Jiu-Jitsu, to make sure you’re able to find the best BJJ gym near you. It’s pretty easy to find a list of gyms in general, and a simple Google search will give you plenty to choose from if you live in a major city. Even in smaller towns and more rural locations, there’s still likely to be several options available to you within the nearby area. The tricky part comes when you’re staring at a screen with anywhere up to a dozen different suggestions and no real way to identify which of them is the best choice.
How To Find The Best BJJ Gym Near You
The first thing you need to understand is that it’s impossible to tell which gym near you is the best without physically seeing for yourself. Just because a gym doesn’t have a great social media presence or hasn’t put much effort into building a website, doesn’t mean it’s a bad gym. The best approach is to contact all of the gyms on your potential list and arrange to drop in and use the free trial period at each one. Some gyms will offer a single free introductory class and some will offer an entire week, but a gym that doesn’t offer new starters any sort of trial isn’t a good sign.
This process might take a few weeks if you live in an area with a lot of gyms available, but it’s well worth doing in order to make sure you find the best gym near you. When you start out taking these free trials, it’s important to not get swept up in the class itself when you’re there. You need to be paying attention a few key things in order to make sure that the gym you’re dropping into is a suitable one, and then once you’ve narrowed your list down you can start to compare them by asking yourself a few key questions about each gym:
Who Actually Runs The Gym?
It’s very easy to choose your gym based on the name of the affiliation, and this is actually one of the main reasons that gyms near you might choose to affiliate with major BJJ brands like Gracie Barra and 10th Planet. The affiliation doesn’t actually really mean anything though, and instead it’s best to pay attention to the person coaching. You might not know enough to determine whether they’re actually good at Jiu-Jitsu, but competition success is an easy indicator and you definitely know enough to determine whether they’re a good teacher. It’s also worth noting that even if the gym is opened up under a top competitor’s name, that competitor may not be the one teaching the classes. Don’t compare gyms based on the names on their doors, compare them based on the actual instructors you would be learning from.
What Is The Culture Like?
The culture of the BJJ gym is the single-most important factor in determining whether you’re going to enjoy spending your time there and which one near you is the best fit. If the gym looks like it might promote cult-like behavior or it fosters a toxic environment that allows for excessive aggression then it won’t be a nice place to train. Gyms like that suck a lot of the fun out of Jiu-Jitsu or worse, don’t teach their students to become good training partners. Not just that, but look at the people around you in the class and compare them to yourself. If the gym is full of 20 year-old competitors and you’re a 45 year-old looking for a fun hobby, or vice versa, it might not be a good fit for you.
How Much Does It Actually Cost?
Being cheaper isn’t an indicator that one gym is better than the other, but it will definitely help you decide which one suits you best. Jiu-Jitsu is an expensive hobby in the majority of places and can unfortunately be prohibitively expensive sometimes. It’s possible that some gyms will simply be outside your budget and you can rule them out early, because an unsustainable hobby is one that you’re not likely to stick to. Obviously the best BJJ gym near you will probably be the most expensive, but that’s not always the case and if the most expensive gym isn’t as good as the others then that’s an easy way to rule that one out too.
How Near Is This BJJ Gym To You Really?
Above all else, the best BJJ gym near you is the one that you’ll actually go to. You could find a gym with a great instructor, and a good atmosphere at a reasonable price but if it’s difficult to get there then you probably won’t end up actually going. If the best BJJ gym near you is a 45 minute drive each way then it’s not really that near to you at all, and you’re probably going to get fed up of that drive after a while. The closer the better of course, but it’s worth considering where you’re going to the gym from. If you’re intending to go to the gym after work and before going home, then one along that route would obviously be ideal.
Is The Timetable Good For You?
Coupled with the location, the timetable of the gym that you’re looking at is another indicator of how likely you are to keep training at it. If you leave work at 6 and class starts at 6 then that probably isn’t going to work no matter where it is or how good it is, it’s not sustainable to miss the beginning of every class you go to. Maybe you work alternating shift-patterns and what you really need is both AM and PM classes so that you can still train no matter what your schedule is, or maybe you’re interested in trying wrestling, MMA, or Muay Thai as well. Either way, make sure that the gym you join offers everything you need before you actually sign up.
Conclusion – Now You Know The Best BJJ Gym Near You
Setting yourself up for success early on is key to enjoying Jiu-Jitsu, because switching gyms is both stressful and draining. Rather than guessing and hoping for the best, you should use these steps to identify where is best for you to train and save yourself a lot of stress later down the road. Once you’ve taken all of your free trials at all the available gyms, you should be able to answer the first 3 questions about each one of them and make your list quite a bit smaller. From there you can answer the final 2 questions about the remaining BJJ gyms and find out which one truly is the best gym near you, based on your own personal circumstances.
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