McMahon BJJ - Ft. Collins, CO

**patmanpv** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 2:20am

I live in Cheyenne, WY and I began commuting down to Ft. Collins shortly after McMahon BJJ opened. I was immediately hooked. Finnie and Tessa McMahon are incredible instructors and incredible people. To be honest, I took the school for granted during my first year training and competing there. Financial/academic reasons forced me to stop going to McMahon and find a closer, cheaper alternative. This is when I truly got to see how great McMahon BJJ truly was/is. As soon as I could, I began commuting back to Ft. Collins. I had no problem paying full tuition, plus gas costs, it was more than worth it to me.

The instructors at McMahon BJJ are of the highest quality. Finnie and Tessa are both high level, legitimate blackbelts under Amal Easton (Easton BJJ, Boulder, CO). The curriculum at MBJJ is great and always has you learning something new. They offer classes 6 days a week, almost exclusively BJJ classes, with one MMA class offered on Thursday nights. The people that attend MBJJ are almost as good as the instructors, they are dedicated and bring out the best in one another. Look up any tournament results for any Colorado grappling tournaments and you will see the podiums riddled with students from McMahon BJJ and Easton BJJ.

This may seem like a very biased review, that's because it is. I am no relation to anyone at MBJJ, nor do I work for or have any vested interest in MBJJ. I am simply an incredibly satisfied student. My only complaint about McMahon BJJ is that it is not in Cheyenne, where I could attend class more frequently.

**Phrost** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 8:25am

Thanks for the thorough review. Good to see more schools opening up in that part of the woods.

***jnp*** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 9:28am

Greetings patmanpv. Might I suggest you read the stickie at the top of this forum?

Ratings and You --- Read This Before Posting Your Review. - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

For instance, take a look at this: Grappling Instruction:

1-3: No grappling. Anti-grappling.
4-5: Limited single sub-range (standing, clinch, ground only).
6-7: Comprehensive grappling with success in local/regional competition or practical application (LEO, military).
8-9: Pressure-tested, full range grappling and proven success in limited restriction, top level competitions or high level self defense situations.
10: Superior excellence including A-level competitors/instructors

So unless your instructors compete at tournaments Mundial or Pan Am levels, a 10 is a bit inaccurate.

**patmanpv** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 5:23pm

Originally Posted by jnp

Greetings patmanpv. Might I suggest you read the stickie at the top of this forum?

Ratings and You --- Read This Before Posting Your Review. - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

For instance, take a look at this: Grappling Instruction:

So unless your instructors compete at tournaments Mundial or Pan Am levels, a 10 is a bit inaccurate.

Finnie McMahon
* 2001 American International Championship 1st place
* 2001 SLAM tournament 1st Place
* 2002 Pancrase 2nd place
* 2003 Maine Skirmish 2nd place
* 2003 Grapplers Quest West (Intermediate) 1st place
* 2004 Grapplers' Quest East (Advanced) 1st place
* 2004 Pancrase Submission Wrestling 3rd place
* 2005 Pancrase Submission Wrestling 2nd place
* 2005 Grapplers Quest East (Advanced) 2nd place
* 2005 Ring of Fire 18 - Winner by referee stoppage 1st round
* 2009 Pan-American Championships Gold Medal Brown Belt
Tessa McMahon
• 2001 1st Place SLAM tournament
• 2001 1st Place American International Championships
• 2002 1st Place Grapplers' Quest
• 2003 Bronze Medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2004 1st Place Grapplers Quest East
• 2004 Gold medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2005 Gold medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2007 Silver medalist World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships

Might I suggest you do some research into a gym before you discount the credentials. Simply going to the mcmahonbjj.com and looking up instructors you would have seen that they are more than deserving of a 10 rating in grappling instruction.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 5:34pm

Originally Posted by patmanpv

Finnie McMahon
* 2001 American International Championship 1st place
* 2001 SLAM tournament 1st Place
* 2002 Pancrase 2nd place
* 2003 Maine Skirmish 2nd place
* 2003 Grapplers Quest West (Intermediate) 1st place
* 2004 Grapplers' Quest East (Advanced) 1st place
* 2004 Pancrase Submission Wrestling 3rd place
* 2005 Pancrase Submission Wrestling 2nd place
* 2005 Grapplers Quest East (Advanced) 2nd place
* 2005 Ring of Fire 18 - Winner by referee stoppage 1st round
* 2009 Pan-American Championships Gold Medal Brown Belt
Tessa McMahon
• 2001 1st Place SLAM tournament
• 2001 1st Place American International Championships
• 2002 1st Place Grapplers' Quest
• 2003 Bronze Medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2004 1st Place Grapplers Quest East
• 2004 Gold medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2005 Gold medalist Pan-American Championships
• 2007 Silver medalist World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships

Might I suggest you do some research into a gym before you discount the credentials. Simply going to the mcmahonbjj.com and looking up instructors you would have seen that they are more than deserving of a 10 rating in grappling instruction.

For the record I took a look at that last night. I would've ranked it 9 even with those credentials but that's debatable.

***jnp*** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 5:47pm

Originally Posted by patmanpv

Might I suggest you do some research into a gym before you discount the credentials. Simply going to the mcmahonbjj.com and looking up instructors you would have seen that they are more than deserving of a 10 rating in grappling instruction.

You might, but in light of my statement,

So unless your instructors compete at tournaments Mundial or Pan Am levels, a 10 is a bit inaccurate.

I fail to see where I discounted your instructor's credentials. Questioned them, yes, disparaged them? No. I hope you can see the difference.

Their tournament records speaks well of them. Thank you for posting it. I certainly would not have questioned your rating if their records had been posted in the first post.

**patmanpv** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 5:56pm

Originally Posted by jnp

You might, but in light of my statement,

I fail to see where I discounted your instructor's credentials. Questioned them, yes, disparaged them? No. I hope you can see the difference.

Their tournament records speaks well of them. Thank you for posting it. I certainly would not have questioned your rating if their records had been posted in the first post.

I agree, I probably should have posted their tournament credentials initially. I didn't really think of it at the time, assumed people would check out the website link I guess. Thanks for taking a look and keeping things straight, one of the things I like best about Bullshido is that people look into these gym reviews.

**patmanpv** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 6:01pm

Originally Posted by Omega the Merciless

For the record I took a look at that last night. I would've ranked it 9 even with those credentials but that's debatable.

I could see why you might give it a 9 over a 10, but both Tessa and Finnie have for the most part been out of competition tending to the school. They have not been able to pad their tournament credentials as much as they would like. We will also be sending quite a few students to Pan-Ams this year which should be a good indication as to whether the grappling instruction is at a 9 or a 10.

Considering that this school and all of its students are relatively new, I have (obviously) been thoroughly impressed. I couldn't help but give it a 10 considering Finnie recently won Pan-Ams and Tessa finished 2nd in Worlds a couple of years ago.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 7:31pm

Originally Posted by patmanpv

I could see why you might give it a 9 over a 10, but both Tessa and Finnie have for the most part been out of competition tending to the school. They have not been able to pad their tournament credentials as much as they would like. We will also be sending quite a few students to Pan-Ams this year which should be a good indication as to whether the grappling instruction is at a 9 or a 10.

Considering that this school and all of its students are relatively new, I have (obviously) been thoroughly impressed. I couldn't help but give it a 10 considering Finnie recently won Pan-Ams and Tessa finished 2nd in Worlds a couple of years ago.

Well since you opened up the debate; the reason why I would rate it a 9 is because a 10 would be producing that level of grapplers. I know gyms with their same respective champions. Now that they have opened up their own gyms I wouldn't say that they are 10 gyms.

***Omega Supreme*** · Posted On: 4/03/2010 9:02pm

From what I could see I had to make my best guessamation on things like size, equipment and such from the website. I then placed it one number below to compensate for the bias pov of the OP.

First is the Aliveness: I saw no proof of some form of combative training so I dropped it down nor did I see a regular I saw no regular MMA class (one which state BJJ for MMA) so the aliveness is not realistic.

I gave the equipment a 3 because I saw no ring, weight room, multiple floors nor various bags and equipment to work on.

I placed the gym size a 6 as I can only see the actual workout area being, maybe, 2000 sqft.

Instructor to Student Ratio: Mid level. If the average class has more than 10 people per instructor I can't see it being much higher than 7.

Atmosphere: I rated this lower because of the policy of not cross training. It leads to brain washing too.

Striking: Well they've got to teach some because of the BJJ for MMA class.

I give the grappling and 8. The school is still new and with grappling instructor with a proving winning record there is a strong chance they will be able to translate that to their students.