Any good schools in Austin, TX?

[jnp]

John,

I know this thread is a little old, but I'll give it a shot anyway. I am looking to do some bjj here in Austin. I just moved here from out of state and actually am looking to compliment the Krav I do up in Pflugerville. Vandry's school has lunch hour classes, according to his website, and I was wondering if those are still going and if they are bjj or mma?

I was thinking of going twice a week, like Tuesday and Thursday, to offset my Monday and Wednesday training in Krav.

Thanks.

Afternoon classes still start at noon Monday through Friday. Saturday class starts at 1:00p.m. Wednesday and Saturday are the MMA classes.

Feel free to drop by. Schedule, map and other info can be found by clicking here.

[Krav Magolf]

Great, thanks! My 8 year old son says he wants to give the kid's class a try. He did some grappling when we were in Hawaii. Maybe I'll get him to try a class and see if he's really interested.

Thanks again.

[eviechu]

http://www.austinjj.com

Try my place out too.

Classes 7 days a week. 3 classes a day morning, noon, and night 5 days a week. Muay Thai and MMA classes as well. No contracts, first class is free. Great rates.

[selfcritical]

Also close to you, if you dig the no-gi grappling that's a bit more integrated with the standup, is the Paulsen and Balicki trained larry st clair, who teaches a CSW/Vale tudo class every tues and thursday, bout two hours long. Very good atmosphere, very focused on having the striking and ground game integrated, although not quite as choke-tastic as teh awesomness that is william vandry.

[Kazza]

Go look at Sifu Richard Guerras class at Ann Wolfes boxing gym, he is a very good teacher. To find it check out, www.annwolfe.com and look up the MMA class on the schedule.

[Arclight]

IMO Guerra is not a good choice for grappling or for MMA, since as far as I know everything he teaches comes out of a TMA background. He has been around Austin for ages and never taught anything relating to MMA until it seems only just recently - apparently coinciding with MMA's rise in popularity.

Whoever has been sold on his ability to teach MMA, particularly anything relating to Muay Thai, wrestling, submission fighting, or BJJ, has been misled or oversold in my opinion.

There are a variety of choices in Austin now, there is no reason to train with new-bandwagon-riding traditional martial arts guys with no MMA qualifications either starting to teach MMA or re-packaging what they already teach as "MMA".

I'll give some other lowdown, all just my personal opinion of course, so be sure to visit as many places as you can and get a good feel to see what fits.

For BJJ the two deepest schools in town in terms of level of talent would be Vandry's and Cardella's in that order. Though Vandry's typically sports a larger enrollment and as such more depth of training talent at all levels up to brown, the real world tradeoff is that it is a hassle for many people to get to due to the NW location, particularly if you are on the south side and end up fighting crosstown traffic after rush hour to get to class. This affects both attraction and retention at times, i've noticed from the outside looking in. The schedule offers mid day and kids classes, and thai boxing from Adam Ganshirt student Robby Rabadi (also a brown belt). www.austinbjj.com

jnp is an excellent resource to ask regarding Vandry's.

Cardella's also offers strong instruction in its own right, and is located in a very convenient location for those on the south side of town. Though smaller, students still have access to a good pool of competitive talent including brown and black belt level instruction. Schedule is 7 days last I recall, and offers thai boxing from Randy Vera. www.austinjj.com

However there are a lot of other smaller schools that may fit what you want better - so for example you have Austin Submission Fighting, with Vandry purple Bryan Evans (also certified to teach Capoeira), you have Gracie Barra guys in town like Darrin Lillian, also Nelson Blair, and Machado/Vandry black belt Sean Cooper. Try some places out to see what fits your preference and budget.

As far as boxing...With Bruce's KO gone the choices for boxing have dropped so Ann's gym is good but you also might do ok at Bam's (as weird as it is), Montopolis Rec, or Lord's (though Richard notoriously wont pay much attention to you unless you are a pro prospect). Other options are South Austin Gym, and Academy of Martial Arts (Adam Ganshirt)

For Muay Thai theres plenty of guys teaching but the best guys in town currently are Ajarn Jason Webster, Adam Ganshirt, and Rudy Vasquez. Unless I'm mistaken they're the only three guys in town with credentials to teach MT. Ray Parra also is certified under Chai but is down in San Marcos now I believe. I am not sure but Linda Tenberg, also at Academy of Martial Arts, may be certified under Chai as well, and also boxed professionally, and is a blue belt in BJJ under Vandry.

Anyway so a lot of this is academic since nobody can afford to pay three training bills etc, so again, if you are looking for a school shop around and try out EVERYTHING to see where you think your best compromise fit might be.

A long listing of schools is at TXMMA.com if you want to see more choices in the Austin area.

[coc716]

Bringing an old thread back to life.

I'm seeking more information on Ray Parra and his school:

http://www.ctama.net/

I've been able to dig up a little bit of information (including a couple brief mentions in this thread) and the place seems to be well-regarded, especially on the MT side of things. Curious for any more information on the school, how they run things, hearing from any students there, etc.. I spent the past 6 years stuck in a McDojo and am escaping. Mr. Parra's group has potential as a place to land.

It's the weekend so they're closed, but it's my intent to stop by, watch a couple classes, and talk with the folks there as soon as I can.

Thanx.