machado in australia

**pho** · Posted On: 6/20/2006 7:22am

Hi, i am 1 month new to bjj in australia learning the craft in a graciesydney school. i am thinking about changing to a machado school in concord for travel/distance reasons but heard from people that machado guys do very poorly in comps here.

can anyone in australia shed light on this if it is true?

**gravious** · Posted On: 6/20/2006 8:21am

I train at that school in Concord, and also at the affiliate on the Gold Coast. I haven't competed yet due to work and family commitments, but from all accounts they seem to do okay.

There is apparently some politics between the Machado and Gracie camps in Sydney, unfortunately, so I would recommend that you take anything you hear from either side with a grain of salt.

Why don't you come along to a training session and see for yourself? I think you get one or a few lessons free. The MMA classes rock.

**roly** · Posted On: 6/20/2006 8:30pm

the last comp i went to, (last year sometime) the manly machado club got placed (1st or 2nd or 3rd) in EVERY single weight division except mine (4th and 5th though)

also consider elvis sinosic (one of the instructors) boasts ufc appearances and plenty of other mma experience, anthony perosh also boasts a lot of mma experience personally i dont like the huge classes you get at that gym and the expensive costs, but the quality of training and instruction is very very good

they offer the 1st week of training for free, go check them out. i dont know the politics between machado and gracie schools but i'm sure there is plenty of it around. dont take peoples word go check it out yourself

**gravious** · Posted On: 6/21/2006 4:41am

Anthony will be fighting Monson in UFC 61, so we will have two black belt instructors with UFC experience.

In terms of cost, I'm paying the same now as I was when cross training karate and judo.

**JohnnyS** · Posted On: 6/21/2006 10:02pm

That statement is a load of crap, spouted by Brazilians who use any chance they can get to disparage the Machado schools, including not showing up with their students to their own association competition (NSW BJJ Fed) when it's run by the Machados.

I could provide a few other comments, but your best option is to just show up and train at the school in Concord and see how you like it.

**pho** · Posted On: 6/23/2006 4:51am

Thanks for the information guys, i did abit of reading on the growth of BJJ and it's ashame it is so political like so many traditional martial arts.

I will give the concord gym a go next month since i have already paid an arm and leg for June.

As far as my training goes i just want to achieve the best i can from a club that will teach well.

cheers

**Charles Choi** · Posted On: 6/27/2006 7:14pm

Pho,

Although I train in Melbourne, I've heard the same 'arguments' used to steer people away from training non-affiliated certain clubs. I actually went and looked and met the people at several clubs, before deciding on the club I've been with now for 3 years.

So, best bet as you've put it, is to go and train and find the best learning environment for you. Let us know how you go.

-Charles