Marcelo Garcia Jiu-Jitsu NYC — Local services in New York

Here's what I considered when looking at BJJ schools. After visiting Marcelo's, it was an easy choice.

Instruction - Marcelo teaches plenty of classes, which is very exciting. It's good to know that the technique you are learning has worked at the very highest levels and in impressive fashion. His Assistant Instructors are all very high level (Paul in-particular is awesome), top quality guys with excellent communication and kind demeanor's. I don't think I've learned from a single person that doesn't carry a world medal on their resume. Overall exposure to elite level teachers is amazing.

Student Personalities - Everyone is cool. Everyone is willing to help. If you want to roll hard, they will go with it. If you want to flow, they'll go with that too. There's no ego's there. You could spend 10 years training there and you still won't be the best player in the room. Everyone is humbled, happy and willing to help.

Development - Due to the plentiful amount of world level players in the room, the skill level really trickles down. I'm a white belt with prior nogi and wrestling experience. I routinely roll with other white belts but also a lot of blue and purple belts. Those blue and purple belts routinely train with brown and some black belts who are mostly world medalists. So when I'm rolling with those blue/purple belts, I'm like a toy to them... more so then any other school I've been to. I expect to lose to blue and purples but it happens here in far more dominant fashion. It sharpens your game when defending against people, who regularly work with very high caliber players and so on up the ranks. There is a high bar here and it forces you to tighten up your game rapidly. It's a great feeling as long as you accept the challenges and don't mind the butt kicking. Having a room of world medalist at the top, really brings everyone else's game up.

Facilities - Clean. Very clean. Very, very clean! Oh - it's also 3,000 square feet of pristine mat space. So... ya know, it does the job. There's always staff in addition to the instructor to help with membership questions etc.

Schedule - There's so many classes. If you can't fit in AT LEAST a couple classes per week, you might want to loosen up your schedule. Check the site for specifics but it's a very accommodating schedule, starting from 7 AM and running to late evening.

Cost - The same as every other high level school in the city and well worth it. There's no registrations fee's or belt promotion fee's like many other schools charge. Just pay the monthly dues and nothing else. Plain and simple. At some places you begin to feel a commodity to the owner of the school. Not at Marcelo's. That's not the culture. It's all about jiu jitsu here.

You get two free classes, so give it a try. This is a place where jiu jitsu is truly loved. So if you love jiu jitsu, you will...

Shame on me for not writing a review earlier. I've been a member of the school for almost 2 decades. Marcelo has always been extremely warm, kind and patient with me. For a very long time, this was the only gym I've ever known. I've grown a lot in this place and I've had the pleasure of forming long term friendships, friendships that I still have till this day. You are going to have some really tough rolls here. Marcelo is very selective in who he trusts as instructor so you're going to get world class instruction, if not from Marcelo himself then from someone who he personally groomed and selected for the job. Unlike any other place that I've heard or seen, Marcelo succeeded in making champions out of average Joes (I know this first hand as I'm one of them). Cleanliness is a top priority and there is zero tolerance for people coming in sick who could potentially infect others. Lastly Marcelo does his best to ensure that any kind of bulling is not tolerated. You very well may leave forgetting about whatever bad day you had prior to coming to training. This place is a home away from home...

I've been training Jiu-Jitsu for 6 years now and Marcelo's academy is by far the elite of the elite. World class instruction from the basic class all the way up to the advance with Marcelo teaching those programs. Marcelo doesn't just instruct but be participates with the rest of the class in the warm up drills and rolls with the students. The academy is filled with tons of talent, ages, sizes, styles, and level of skill so no matter where you are in your BJJ history you will benefit from training here. The size of the new location is pretty large for NYC, and there tons of classes around the clock so regardless of what your schedule is like there is always opportunity to train. I cannot recommend this place enough, in fact I think anyone living in NY and not training here is just doing themselves a disservice. The staff is amazing, the gym is top notch, and the level of training is just off the charts. What else is there? Oh yeah, there's a 5X World champ and 4X ADCC champ who just happens to be one of the nicest guys on the planet running the show. Nothing left to say except get...