Riverside Jiu Jitsu; Rommel Dunbar questions concerns

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 8/03/2006 9:16pm

Originally Posted by Afrin

Omega, do you have suggestions of anyone else I should check out? And to whomever asked, I'll be living near UC Riverside.

hah... I think i would say it's north of San Diego county and east of Orange county

Blah, okay got me on that one.

If you're looking for BJJ in the area I wouldn't know although I had heard there were several Royce Gracie studios in the area.

**Yrkoon9** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 12:24am

Dunbar refereed one of my matches at the OTM tourney this weekend. He was fair. I had no complaints.

**Copy/Paste Kid** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 12:55am

Maybe he sucks as a ref like Omega commented but he could be a good teacher.
I took a glance at the website and he seems to run a normal BJJ school.

Notice that he has many White Belts, Many Blue Belt, few Purples and a couple of Browns.. If he ran a BJJ McDojo you would read that list of students with many people at the higher ranks. His initial presentation at least to an unbiased person like myself looks legit enough to at least go down and check out the free first class.

By the information on his website and BJJ.org... I would say to at least go check it out man.

Good Luck.

CPK.

**Afrin** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 3:37am

Ok, so I did a little more searching... interesting stuff.

I found another person who is listed on BJJ.org; John Kvenbo Munoz with United Submission Academy Unfortunarely it appears a bit farther than Dunbar's from UC Riverside. It nonetheless looks interesting.

Now to something that made me raise an eyebrow... The Allen Academy of Riverside offers Jiu Jitsu, Kemp, Tai Chi, something called Shinsho, and weapons training. A quote from their jiu jitsu page states:

The higher levels of this system [jiu jitsu] reveal an intricate and beautiful system of effortless effort that includes precise striking of nerve centers, balance disruption of adversaries for throws, sweeps and takedown, powerful projections, and dynamic Ki (Chinese chi) development.

I got their site when I did a search on MMA and Riverside. Evidently they have a MMA class as well I don't know... my first impression is that this place is a major McDojo, but I'm not very qualified at making that judgement.

This was a picture from their MMA page, it's LOLable for one reason or another:

Anywho.... I am stoked to check out Munoz and Dunbar. I think I'll skip on the other place.

Here are the rates for Dunbar:

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (Adults)
5-7 times per week $130.00/Month
1 year contract $115.00/Month
4 year contract $75.00/Month
Private Class $75.00/Hour
3 Months (Cash) $300.00
6 Months (Cash) $510.00
12 Months (Cash) $900.00
Black Belt Program $4000.00
Cross-training Black Belt Program $5000.00
Sign up fee $55.00

I'm not sure what the "black belt program" and "cross-training black belt program" are. Also, I'm not sure if I get why a 3 month contract is 300 dollars or 100/month, and a one year contract is 115/month. I might be reading it wrong.

I didn't see rates for Munoz.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 8:15am

Originally Posted by Afrin

Now to something that made me raise an eyebrow... The Allen Academy of Riverside offers Jiu Jitsu, Kemp, Tai Chi, something called Shinsho, and weapons training. A quote from their jiu jitsu page states:

The higher levels of this system [jiu jitsu] reveal an intricate and beautiful system of effortless effort that includes precise striking of nerve centers, balance disruption of adversaries for throws, sweeps and takedown, powerful projections, and dynamic Ki (Chinese chi) development.

Master Yoda has something to say regarding Ki:

Originally Posted by Afrin

I got their site when I did a search on MMA and Riverside. Evidently they have a MMA class as well I don't know... my first impression is that this place is a major McDojo, but I'm not very qualified at making that judgement.

This was a picture from their MMA page, it's LOLable for one reason or another:

Yeah, it popped up in MMA searches because they advertise a MMA class (that's the page from where you got that picture... which kinda reminds me of the Matrix. Their MMA class is, and I quote, based on kicking and striking drills combined with grappling drills. No sparring = bs.

But this is the biggest bullshit flag at the bottom of their their FAQ page:

Do you compete in tournaments?
No, not usually. At this school we focus on internal validation rather than external. In tournaments, students are pitted against each other in competition. Rather, we seek to teach our students how to conquer their inner enemies, vanquish their self-imposed limitations, and cultivate inner peace, which are much more rewarding pursuits.

To be honest, I'd suggest a combination of yoga and a spiritual study group (and perhaps a shrink) as a better means to achieve inner peace and conquering their inner demons, but that's me.

**Olorin** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 9:21am

It almost looks Photoshoped. Think about it, the girl is in the air, but being kicked in the stomach, if she was standing on the ground that kick would have hit her in the face, so how did it end up hitting her stomach, the only way this could happen is if she jumped into the air herself and then took the kick.

Its just weird…

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 10:16am

Plus, assuming the kick is real, why would anyone want to kick one of their own class patners like that? Why would a tall man kick a much smaller woman (or ghay dude with long hair) in the stomach with such force as to put her into orbit?

Maybe she is an avatar of the inner enemies they refer in the FAQ page.

*** EDIT ***

BTW, I saved the image on my comp, and zoomed the **** out of it - the foot landing on the "red shirt" girl/dude looks weird. It certainly looks photoshopped.

**CanucKyokushin** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 10:20am

I'm a guessing she just ran up and jumped forward into his kick.

**Afrin** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 10:23am

so how did it end up hitting her stomach, the only way this could happen is if she jumped into the air herself and then took the kick

I agree. that's what i was thinking when i first saw it.

Plus, assuming the kick is real, why would anyone want to kick one of their own class patners like that? Why would a tall man kick a much smaller woman (or ghay dude with long hair) in the stomach with such force as to put her into orbit?

I bet it was staged for the purpose of the website.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 8/04/2006 12:41pm

Originally Posted by Yrkoon9

Dunbar refereed one of my matches at the OTM tourney this weekend. He was fair. I had no complaints.

Well to be fair, he was cool in his other matches but that anecdote just pissed me off because he didn't wanted to admit he could've been wrong. BTW this has nothing to do with his teaching credentials.