Athens, TN: Moises Contreras at Athens TaeKwonDo Plus

**Jhemsley** · Posted On: 7/15/2007 12:13am

Athens isn't a very big town. I'm not sure what other options than TKD are there. Might be better off getting her to change the attitude than the art.

The only thing else in McMinn County I found when I searched the web was a couple of Ishin-ryu places. Those might be good as far as Ishin-ryu goes. East Tennessee is arguably of the cradle of it in America.

Probably have to make a drive to either Chattanooga or Knoxville / Oak Ridge for something like BJJ.

**blindfury** · Posted On: 7/15/2007 12:37am

There are some good Bjj and MMA schools in East TN. Just may have to drive but worth it. You may want to suggest she supplement her trainng with it aws most encounters for women will go on the ground or deal with stand up grappling

**GSP** · Posted On: 7/16/2007 8:40pm

Originally Posted by blindfury

There are some good Bjj and MMA schools in East TN. Just may have to drive but worth it. You may want to suggest she supplement her trainng with it aws most encounters for women will go on the ground or deal with stand up grappling

Athens is sort of split in the middle of a couple BJJ options if that was the goal. Maryville is about an hour away and has the only (that I know of) BJJ blackbelt in east TN. There is also a BJJ school in Chattanooga that is a touch closer, though I know nothing of the instructor/students at that one - it's a Pedro Sauer affiliate which is typcially a well regulated set of schools.

**Jhemsley** · Posted On: 7/16/2007 10:45pm

There is a BJJ Blackbelt in Oak Ridge too. Its at the school I go to, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

www.pmaknoxville.com

Don't know if there is another one in the area as well or not. The one wehre I go and the one in Maryville are the only ones I tracked down when I started looking for places about 4 months ago.

But either way, its a two hour round trip to the Knoxville / Oak Ridge / Maryville area, or the Chattanooga area per one hour class. So its not like just having good BJJ schools in East Tennesse really helps that much. Saying there good enough to be worth the drive isn't the same as actually having to spend 4 hours a week driving to attend two one hour classes. If you attended more, its even harder to get there that much.

The TKD place might be the best place for this girl to go. From what I gather from what the main problem from what the first poster said is the somewhat delusional attitude that the friend is now immune to danger. Even taking BJJ, practicing RBSD, training Sambo, sparing Muay Thai, learning Kali, and packing a 44 you can be hit in the back of the head with a pipe unknowingly. Its the myth of immunity that's the danger.

A BJJ place might or might not help that.

**dandodge** · Posted On: 7/18/2007 11:07am

She lives in Tennessee, so go buy a gun, get some training, get a carry permit. Now she's well protected until she get's over her TKD fix and/or finds some self defense classes or a style better suited to self-defense. What style? people have been arguing that for years and I'm not qualified to answer it. I mean I've got 3 black belts and and a pretty piece of blue tape on my BJJ white belt and the most important thing I've learned is how easily it is to hurt a human being, including myself. That's why I still carry a gun.