Ground Zero Fighting Systems

**Killbot** · Posted On: 1/10/2011 11:58am

1st BJJ school in WV, est. 1996. 2 Black Belts in house. WV State Champions in Grappling 2010. We train BJJ/SubGrappling, Muay Thai, Boxing and MMA. We have Kids BJJ, Womens Self Defense programs and a Kali program.

Aliveness - We drill and train actively every class. We roll for at least an hour after every class. Our kickboxers and Kali classes spar every class. We have an attitude of if you're not practicing how you fight, you're not practicing correctly.

Equipment - We have alot of equipment. Some of it is beat up, some of it is new, but there's lots of it. Boxing gloves, MMA gloves, headgear, pads, shields, helmets and sticks.

Gym Size - its a pretty large space. We have a weight room that has space to work out, or do stand-up technique. We have a full size (not elevated) boxing ring and about 1000 Sq ft of mats (double stacked NCCA wrestling mats)

Instructor/Student Ratio - We have 2 head instructors, and about 5 assistant Instructors. Our black belts run the BJJ/grappling classes and all of our assistant instructors are at least purple belts. We have three kickboxing instructors and one Kali instructor. We're alos lucky to have a deep pool of knowledgable folks willing to help anyone, anytime.

Atmosphere/Attitude - We are very laid back. No one forces you to do anything or ridicules you if you don't. You can go at your own pace and take a break anytime you'd like. We're a bunch of dudes who just love what they're doing. We make enough money to keep our bills paid(usually) and thats our goal, to keep our training space. It is a majority guys school. We welcome women and encourge more girls to try it out. We don't have any creeps and do what we can to retain any members who come in, regardless of age, gender or skill level.

Striking Instruction - We have 4 striking instructors. One has a more traditional approach, but don't hold that against him. He is a phenomenal coach. Our other coaches are Muay Thai and traditional kickboxing oriented. All are ring and cage tested. Our Boxing instructor is one of the best I've seen. Member of USA boxing and coach for our university boxing team, he has an eye for talent and an eye for correcting people's habit and mistakes like no one I've seen.

Grappling Instruction - Our grappling instruction is top notch. If you have a question, we have an answer. Our coaches keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of sport and technical jiujitsu. We incorporate wrestling and pull from anything we can to improve our depth of instruction.

Weapons Instruction - Our weapons instruction is limited to our selfdefense and Kali programs. (I'm biased cause I'm the instructor.) We concentrate on stick fighting, but everyone loves knives so we do get pretty in depth with both armed and unarmed defense against armed and unarmed attacks. Heavy emphasis on grappling and and close range weapons fighting.

We also have Submission Only tournaments about twice a year. General format and rules are here:
http://www.teamgzfs.com/GZ_Tournaments.html
They're very inexpensive and alot of fun. The competition is good and we always have great Superfights between experienced competitors.
We always have lots of kids and have recently begun to find sponsors for our tournaments which means bigger prizes and awards for our participants. (This year we had alot of local business chip in, next year we expect to have some national brands like Dicks Sporting Goods and Gamestop to name two.)

GZFS is a gym and a school. We're not a dojo. Noone expects you to bow or meditate. If you do, you're welcome to it. No one will criticize. We're there to learn and have fun doing what we love to do. Politics and bullshit are kept to a minimum. Everyone is cool enough to talk things out before they become drama. If drama happens, its over quickly and we're all still cool.

It's a great atmosphere, it's great training and it's all at a great price.

Contact info is:
teamgzfs@gmail.com
304-293-4937

**Syphilis** · Posted On: 1/10/2011 3:51pm

Who are you from GZ? I'm from Huntington branch

**Killbot** · Posted On: 1/10/2011 5:27pm

Old Josh. I'm not really old(33), I'm just the oldest josh training. lol
I probably should have put Morgantown in the title....
Sorry I don't know too mnay dudes from Huntington. I never have time to socialize at tourneys and ****.

**Syphilis** · Posted On: 1/12/2011 3:50am

Thats cool; I'm good friends with Manuel & Kyle, but I'm in the Netherlands now.

Whoever reads this, if you need jiujitsu and you're in morgantown this is the only place you want to go to. Ground Zero hosts awesome submission only tournaments and invite everyone. They love grappling and will explore all options. Visit them if you can.

I don't know about their striking, but the skill, enthusiasm and dedication given to the grappling classes and tournaments tells me they'd be just as serious about their striking.

**Killbot** · Posted On: 1/12/2011 12:00pm

Ah, Thomas, right? I met you in passing a few times. I see stuff you put on facebook sometimes... Still playing Baludar's Gate alot? lol. Hope you're doing well man!