Hi, I have been looking for some place to learn BJJ in my city. The yellowpages haven't been much help, pointing me to gym's which seem to do it as an aside (Bujinkan, Dragon MMA, Mike Miles (NKB), and Arashi-Do to name a few). I wanted to know if anyone had info on a quality place (or if one of the aforementioned where any good).

Thanks in advance.

From what I've heard Arashi-Do is good. Not sure if they do gi work, they are an MMA gym. Ask on the Canada forum on MMA.tv, a couple people Arashi-Do post there.

You should try the BJJ/Grappling forum.

(This was originally posted in the JJ/Judo forum!!)

I hail from this area so I may be able to give you some insite.

If you are interested in Mixed Martial Arts and grappling then I would suggest Arashi-do. My own Instructor trains here under Mike Yaculik and his phone number is 780-220-KICK (5425). My Instructor says during the day they do conditioning from noon to 1:00 and then either do ground and pound or stand up kickboxing until 2:00. He says there is not a lot of teaching at this time as it is all hands on. The evenings are more for beginners style teaching as the day is pretty hard core and only the strong seem to survive. They have two locations with the North Side being the one that has the MMA and grappling at. Many of the people that train here are MMA fighters such as Victor "The Matrix" Valemaki, Chris "The Crippler" Ade, Jason "The Athlete" Macdonald and many others including Mike Yaculik. I have competed with people from this gym in grappling tournaments including Mike Yaculik and he is an excellent teacher and competitor. I have also watched each of these guys fight in the MFC or the King of the Cage and have watch a few of them like Chris Ade compete in grappling tournaments and is exceptional. Chris also coaches grapple class which I am looking into. At this location they also have an actual cage which I have competed in for a grappling tournament back in April.

For BJJ in the Edmonton area there was and still may be at the Millenium Centre in Sherwood Park. It is a small club run by a purple belt named Kyle Cardinal. My Instructor has not been there but hears he is a good teacher. I don't have a number for this club or if it is still there but the Millenium Centre's number is 780-416-3300 should you want to call and find out more.

Lastly but not least, I would suggests going to my Instructor's partner's gym in Edmonton. This is Elite Taekwondo and it is run by Steve Bartley and their number is 780-413-4009. Steve was one of my Instructor's Taekwondo Instructor and is a close friend, business partner and training partner. They both are trained in Taekwondo blended with Hapkido plus are black belts in Jujitsu. They also train and are certified to teach BJJ under David Meyer who is a Machado Black Belt from the Las Vegas area. You can join up in the whole thing or Steve offers 2 classes a week solely on Jujitsu/BJJ which I believe are Tuesday night and Saturday morning. My Instructor Sean and Steve have both tested up to BJJ blue belts and will probably grade fairly soon to the next level. I have attended Steve's class and it is well run and is excellent teaching, plus he has a good bunch of guys. The classes are 1.5 to 2 hours with conditioning, instruction and application plus free rolling afterwards.

I hope that this helps.

thanks for all the replies, i am attending the bjj class at arashi do this week.

Let me know how things go and who your Instructor was.

Well, the first class was great.
We worked on some progressive guard defense, which was interesting (especially for a first day try). While it looks like a gi will be required, I think I will still continue (was originally hoping for a no gi, more mma style). The instructor was Professor Mike.

Don't discount Gi work. I am more into the no-gi MMA style grappling myself, but my school does mostly gi work. It is good to familiar with both. Different strategies and techniques will give you more to work with. And nobody says you have to hang on to their gi or do gi chokes. I try not to, and when working out with gi, I try to find "body handles" that work as well. Behind the neck, the tricep, wrist, etc.

Chris "The Crippler" Ade also trains out of this gym and coaches a class. I believe it is no gi but I can't be for sure. I'm trying to find out when he teaches as I'd like to stop by for a class or two. You may wish to inquire about this as well. Chris is also a good grappler but I never had the pleasure of competing with him because of different weight classes but for sure he would own me as well. Just the priviledge of training with these guys is great exposure. Both competed in June in King of the Cage and won their matches.