One of my best-friend lives there already so I have someone to give me pointers and help me with the official stuff needed to live and work in Spain.
And also my fab girl is also looking to move over later in 2015 after she has finished her University degree so I am lucky to have people in my life that are willing to let me follow out some of my dreams and I am grateful for that!
When it comes to finding friends and keeping fit I have to find my own way and seek out the right gym for me to train at to keep my Bjj flowing and progressing at a good level.
Finding and picking a new gym is no easy feat and as my research so far is giving me a total of 6+ Bjj gyms in the city that I have to scope out and approach before I make a decision on where I will be based.
Where did it start? What team do I choose? Am I a creonte for changing teams abroad?
I started Bjj classes in 2009 in a small church hall in Rutherglen with Royce Gracie Scotland.
During travelling in 2009 I also done some grappling/Bjj with a friend who I was living with in Germany and a then Czech mma team in Prague.
When I came back I was primarily striking (Freestyle Kickboxing) as I always have until I reconnected with my old Kickboxing coaches Allan and Martyn who were taking classes in the Battlefield gym (Glasgow Kickboxing). The gym also done Bjj so it was an easy transition in 2011 when I decided to focus on it full time.
The Battlefield gym then got an affiliation with Gracie Barra and changed its focus to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (The best choice for everyone involved!) and I have stayed there for the last 3+ years keeping true to the team apart from training abroad with other teams/affiliates.
I do like Gracie Barra and what it has given me apart from just Bjj such as friends, lifestyle changes, new outlooks in life and the drive to study sports at higher level.
But I also feel that Bjj in a whole as a martial art is like that to many people and not just the Gracie teams so when I move to Barcelona I am going to be more focused on what team can give me specifically what I need!
Where are the best guys that will run through me, the team spirit and cooperation, the laughs and falls of the group and of course the coaches have to be passionate about Bjj so much that it radiates from them every day and creates a positive influence for the rest of the us.
I'm also looking for a team with striking classes and a conditioning area as I dont want to have 2 memberships to different gyms just to tick all the boxes of modern day training like the CPT model.
As I previously stated I have found at least 6 Bjj gyms that need inspecting before I make any decision so I will be visiting each and writing up each review as it happens!
Lucky for me I have been to Barcelona multiple times before and have already been to 2 gyms so far - Atos and Gracie University.
Gracie University - Headed by Robin Gracie (Helios youngest son).
The gym is near the Sarria train station and to be quite frank was a pain in the arse to find as it was tucked away in a quiet street with one sign and a buzzer entry system so you cant see anyone around the building or a reception area until inside. (30min-1hour finding it)
The gym itself as you can imagine from a chain of Gracie Uni affiliated gyms has a nice interior with a separate office for Robin and shop upstairs leading to the bottom area which is near fully matted (decent size) with shower and changing area (also decent size).
I had a PT session with Robin 60Euros/1 hour. We ran over what Jiu Jitsu was to him and his family and we rolled in basically straight away. This was a great way to teach as i then saw as it allowed for Robin to feel my movement and patterns straight away and fix any bad habits I had while filling in the gaps of my Bjj so it flows better.
I then stayed for a class with the rest of the team which involved another black belt from the club teaching some side-control positions and escapes. This was presented well and broken down in English as there was a large amount of foreign students present at the time for a black belt grading of a friend.
All in all the club had good facilities and good instruction all be it a little bit out of the way. I would give it a 6.5/10.
ATOS - Headed by Gustavo Galvao who is the current world champ Andre Galvaos brother and a few time national champion.
Atos was situated near Hospitel De Llobregat which is a 25min train journey from the city centre to Bellvitge station and then a 5-10 min walk.
The gym was well signed outside and is pretty massive inside as it looks like a renovated warehouse for storing goods.
It boasts a reception, kitchenette for making shakes and food, 2 large training zebra mats, a full crossfit section with bars/battling ropes and also a cage for mma making it far better equipped for the athlete who wants to train multiple martial arts in one gym.
The training started off a little later than expected as Gustavo was around an hour late so I was stuck outside the gym until the crew arrived to open up.
The afternoon class was pretty quiet with around 10 of us in the class although the evening classes are supposedly much busier with a larger variation in belts.
We started with passing drills and movement drills for a warm up then led into a session primarily involved with full guard and the breaking of grips and sweeps similar to a flower sweep.
The class was taught in Catalan and was broken down in parts to English to make sure I was still following the steps as being shown which was fine.
All in all I was happy with my time at the gym and will be going back this week for some further training which I will log on here soon!
I would give my time at the gym a 6/10.
Anaconda Bjj - Chen Moraes
Chen Moraes is a longtime practitioner with at least 40+ years of experience and sports a red/black belt. He grew up in Brazil and was good friends and training partners with Renzo and the rest of the Gracie family.
His academy was around 20 minutes outside of Barcelona with a short walk along a busy road which was easy to navigate around which was great as from experience the other acadmies have been difficult to find.
The academy itself was a small academy with a reception area, 2 matted areas and shower/changing areas. Classes were nogi in the afternoon/gi classes in the evening 5 days per week.
Classes were relatively small with the highest belt being blue belt 2 tabs when I was present although that was not a problem as Martin my now friend is a strong player and dedicated so it was good to roll with him and learn most days.
The training varied each day depending on Chens choice of techniques although what I did like was that I would go in early to drill before class and Chen would take notice and base classes on the positions I was drilling. This made me very happy as I had the chance of a master of the art to look at my game and fix holes in it as he saw fit.
His teaching was calm and collected and his game seemed to be also very direct and straight to the point which actually flowed into my Jiu Jitsu well and out of all the academies in BCN I have visited so far I took the most out of his teaching. Someone of that level has points to make and things to say that you just cant ignore.
Chen also let me teach the warm up drills and take the guys through some partner drills to see where my level was at which was great as I love coaching and taking exercises even if my Spanish wasnt upto scratch.
All in all a very good trip to the academy and the guys training there were very welcoming to me and i can say I made friends that week that I could rely on again in the future for training partners.
I would give my time here a 8.5/10.
NEXT UP -
Gracie Barra - Leonardo Gontijo
Haubert Team - David Blankenheimer
